[work in progress]
Gaylord Wilshire (1854-1927)
ran for Congress in 1900 for Southern California on Socialist party ticket
polled the most votes of any Socialist candidate. (says The Socialist, Nov. 9, 1902)
============
The Socialist, Nov. 9, 1902
118-SS-1902-11-09.pdf
says first Socialist elected in Japan in district of Miyagi - Mr. Sawa
Wrigley attended Socialist labour meeting (at Seattle?)
The Socialist, Nov. 9, 1902) page 2 has biography of Gaylord Wilshire
says 1891 left L.A. for London. stopped in N.Y where he ran for Attorney-General
1891-1895 resided in London
1890 ran for Congress
1893 nominated as candidate to run for British HofC under Soc. Dem. Federation label but before the election had to return to U.S. due to business reasons
settled in L.A.
1900 ran for Congress for Southern California
that same year he started the magazine The Challenge. it was success and he moved to N.Y. in 1901.
post office denied his magazine publisher's mailing rates, saying it was only his own writing
so he started Wilshire's but that too was denied publisher's mailing rates.
so he moved its printing and mailing office to Toronto. (Canada had say to whom it gave the publisher's mailing discount, even if magazine going into the U.S., and it said (at the time) any magazine printed in the Canada was eligible.
A printer in N.Y. offered to print it and Wilshire said he could if he could get the mailing discount cleared up.
A Congressman took it on and got clearance to print the magazine in the U.S and still get publishers' mailing discount.
================================
formed his own book company (see his books below)
Wilshire book Company published Jack London's Iron Heel
======
He ran for public office:
-the Nationalist Party Congressional candidate for the 6th California District in 1890, (this was the first time a candidate ran for a party that later took Socialist label)
-candidate of the Socialist Labor Party for Attorney General of New York in 1891,
-for the British Parliament in 1894, Manchester Social Democratic Federation (had to leave to the U.S. so never actually ran , I think)
-for Congress in the California 6th District again in 1900, on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party of America,
-for the Canadian Parliament in 1902, [Toronto? cant find this at all]
-for Congress from New York in 1904.
(1901 active in L.A. cleanup city campaign see GGG notes below)
-candidate for city council in Los Angeles in 1909 as a part of the Socialist Party slate, which was backed at that time by the Los Angeles unions.
his life and business
L.A.
In 1890, he became the first socialist candidate for a seat in Congress when he ran for California’s sixth district under the Nationalist Party banner, though he garnered just a couple hundred votes (he ran unsuccessfully for the same seat a decade later.)
He then left Los Angeles for stints in New York City, where he operated The Nationalist magazine and ran for state attorney general, losing in that campaign as well; and London [1891-1895], where he obtained dual citizenship and mounted a failed attempt at winning a seat in Parliament.
back to the U.S.
By the mid-1890s, he was back in Los Angeles and development westward from downtown made his property near Westlake Park more valuable. At the end of 1895, he launched the “Wilshire Boulevard Tract” with ... built fine homes along Wilshire Boulevard, that area quickly became a prime neighborhood on the expanding west side of the city. (see “Sheep’s Brains or Human?”: A Prospectus for Gaylord Wilshire’s Gold Mine, Los Angeles, October 1915 -The Homestead Blog)
1900 ran for Congress for Southern California
In 1900, Wilshire was arrested for speaking in a public park in Los Angeles.
A judge dismissed the charges,
but the incident caused Wilshire to leave Los Angeles for New York.
1900 he started the magazine The Challenge. it was success and he moved to N.Y. in 1901.
then to Canada
1901/1902, he moved his place of residence and magazine publishing business to Toronto, where he published the Wilshire Magazine (Hathi trust).
then back to New York
moved back to L.A.
1901 clean-up L.A. campaign
ran for Congress from New York in 1904.
1909 Wilshire's magazine had subtitle "Let the nation own the trusts"
candidate for city council in Los Angeles in 1909 as a part of the Socialist Party slate, which was backed at that time by the Los Angeles unions.
1915 he purchased a gold mine near the town of Bishop in Inyo County, California
in 1915 he made this claim “I am also the founder of the town of Fullerton, another of my barley field purchases.”
died in New York in 1927
==============
more details on his life
Henry Gaylord Wilshire (June 7 1861 - September 7, 1927) was a land developer, publisher and outspoken socialist who gave Wilshire Boulevard its name.
Born 1861 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wilshire came to Los Angeles in 1884.
In 1895 he began developing 35 acres stretching westward from Westlake Park for an elite residential subdivision. He donated a strip of land to the city of Los Angeles for a boulevard through what was then a barley field, on the conditions that it would be named for him and that railroad lines and commercial or industrial trucking would be banned.
In 1900, Wilshire was arrested for speaking in a public park in Los Angeles. A judge dismissed the charges, but the incident caused Wilshire to leave Los Angeles for New York.
Wilshire stood as the Nationalist Party congressional candidate for the 6th California district in 1890,
for the British Parliament in 1894,
for the 6th district again in 1900,
for the Canadian Parliament in 1902 [can't find this - perhaps confusion with HofC election in U.K.],
and for Congress from New York in 1904.
He eventually returned to Los Angeles and made much of his connection with the now famous Boulevard that bore his name, although he had no involvement with its gradual expansion in the years while he was absent from the region.
He made and lost several fortunes during his lifetime and died destitute.
...
==============
Peel's PP search for Wilshire nothing relevant
Peel's PP search for Wilshire 1890-1914 only one mention of Gaylord:
"Democracy in Action" by Francis Marshall Elliot
1910 Grain Growers Guide (GGG) June 22, 1910 talks of how D.L. has cleaned up L.A.
cleanup led by Charter Commission of Freeholders
only two of which were radicals -- Wilshire and Dr. John R. Haynes.
These men deserve the credit of showing the others the way out of corruption -- D.L.
but new city charter was formed without D.L. or any other clause that would have given power to the people.
Wilshire and Haynes roused Socialists and progressives, and the new charter was voted down.
New charter commission adopted a new city charter.
This did have democratic elements such as D.L.
Vote on it was held in 1902 clause by clause.
All passed, with the democratic elements getting the largest support.
D.L then used to clean up L.A.
=====================================
Wilshire's Books
Why workingmen should be social democrats / by H. Gaylord Wilshire. Published 1890
Liquid air : perpetual motion at last : Tripler's surplusage explained / by H. Gaylord Wilshire. 1899] [way to use heat of sunlight to pressurize water and create heat and horsepower]
The problem of the trust / by H. Gaylord Wilshire. Published 1900
Autocracy vs. democracy: Both failures by Wilshire
Wilshire Editorials (1906)
[no mention of proportional]
(foresaw the 1906 economic crash saying the trend is toward over-production)
p. 221 saying he has got clearance to mail his magazine again in the U.S. for previous years [dates not given] he has been writing his magazine in New York and printing and mailing it in Toronto. But he was soon to return to the U.S.
Socialism Inevitable, published 1907 by the Wilshire Book Company.
edited the American edition of G. Bernard Shaw’s Fabian Essays in Socialism.
1909 Wilshire's magazine had subtitle "Let the nation own the trusts"
Hathi trust has copies of Wilshire's
=====
Mary Wilshire Realization of Living and Life (1945)
perhaps Gaylord's wife or daughter?
============================================
sources:
A thumbnail sketch of his life is in the Encyclopedia of Social Reform, where it says he ran for Canada Parliament. (haven't found the date of this election)
Wikipedia [nothing on his candidacy in Canada]
A book about Wilshire’s life was published in 2012 entitled Henry Gaylord Wilshire: the Millionaire Socialist by Lou Rosen
===============================================================
Toronto Socialists
Toronto city election 1902
9 candidates for the Canadian Socialist League (Socialist-Labour also listed here)
Margaret Haile Canadian Socialist League Toronto North 1902
Mr. Corner Canadian Socialist League Toronto South 1902
Mr. James Socialist-Labour Toronto South 1902
James Simpson Canadian Socialist League Toronto East 1902
C.A. Kemp Socialist-Labour Toronto East 1902
J. Kelly Canadian Socialist League Toronto West 1902
Mr. Wellwood Socialist-Labour Toronto West 1902
1905 city election Toronto North James Simpson
1906 by-election Toronto North
===============================
Among the early founders of Socialism in Canada was G. Weston Wrigley who helped to establish in Toronto in 1897 the Citizen and Country, a social reform weekly “which gradu ally developed into an avowed Socialist paper” (Western Clarion, July 3, 1903)
As organizing secretary Wrigley helped to expand the Socialist League. He then moved west and became active in Vancouver and Victoria in the newly founded Socialist Party of British Columbia. Returning later to Toronto his activities continued as a member of the Socialist Party of Canada. In 1902 R.P. Pettipiece, who had been publishing a miners’ journal in the BC interior, the Lardeau Eagle, expressing the views of the Socialist League, disposed of the Eagle and bought an interest in the Citizen and Country.
He moved this journal to Vancouver and published it, starting July 1902, ...
from "History of SPC" by Milne
James Pritchard in Nanaimo 1903 was the first Socialist candidate in a federal campaign. [I dont see him anywhee] He was the father of W. A. Pritchard who became widely known in later years.
In Ontario the Party ran candidates in civic elections and had one member (J. Simpson) elected several times to the Toronto Board of Education.
==============
Revolutionary Socialist Party
...Early in 1902, or perhaps late in 1901, the Nanaimo members of the Socialist Party of British Columbia resigned, and shortly after formed the Revolutionary Socialist Party (of Canada), with branches in Northfield, Ladysmith and Vancouver, as well as in Nanaimo. They obtained The Clarion as the party’s journal. Just how many members the Revolutionary Socialist Party had is not known, at least to this author.
A few years later, the Nanaimo Local of the Socialist Party of Canada, of which the RSP was then a part, had 30 members. The Revolutionary Socialist Party, at its formation, probably had between 60 and 100 members.
One of its foundation members was James Pritchard, father of William Pritchard, who later was a well-known member of the Socialist Party of Canada and the Workers (World) Socialist Party of the United States (WSPUS).
James Pritchard was born in Wales, but moved to Salford, near Manchester, to find employment. For a time, he worked in the Ermen and Engels textile mill. Before emigrating to Canada, he became a Steelworkers and Women’s Chain-makers’ Union organiser. He may have been a member of the Social-Democratic Federation in Salford. After moving to Canada, Pritchard led the drive to organise coalminers on Vancouver Island into the Western Federation of Miners, where he worked as a miner.
In 1903, he was blacklisted and moved to Vancouver.
He died on 15 April 1952, aged 90, still a member of the Socialist Party of Canada.
In the autumn of 1902, James H. Hawthornthwaite, the independent M.P. for Naniamo, joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party. Previously, Hawthornthwaite had been the leader of the Nanaimo Labour Party. A clerk employed by the Nanaimo Coal Company, he had been a real estate and mining promoter.
He was first elected in Nanaimo in 1901, by acclamation
On 1 December 1902, a writ for a by-election was issued for North Nanaimo. The government (Conservative) candidate was William McInnes; his opponent was Parker Williams, a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The RSP platform was the abolition of capitalism and the wages system – and no immediate demands or reforms.
The outcome was: McInnes 263 votes (62.92%) and Williams, on behalf of the RSP, 155 votes (37.08%). (According to the Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1903 and The Year Book of British Columbia, 1903 by R.E. Gosnell, Parker was the Socialist Party of British Columbia candidate. They do not list the RSP separately from the SPBC as does Milne in his History of the Socialist Party of Canada. William Wallace Burns McInnes is listed as the “Government candidate”).
One or two old-time Canadian socialists have claimed Parker Williams was the world’s first revolutionary socialist parliamentary candidate, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party the world’s first genuine anti-reformist political party....
=
By-election primer: a stroll through 150 years of Nanaimo politics | Rosedeer
...The first Labour MLAs elected to the BC Legislature were elected from Nanaimo in 1890. Thomas Forster won Nanaimo in a tight three-way race 160-157-154. Thomas Keith was acclaimed in the adjacent Nanaimo City riding
The Electoral History of British Columbia (1871-1986) states:
Forster and Keith were both nominated by the Miners’ and Mine Labourers’ Protective Association (MMLPA) and campaigned on the “Workingmen’s Platform” of the Workingmen’s Campaign Committee (Nanaimo Free Press, 19, 28, and 31 May 1890)
...
Ralph Smith’s story is an interesting one. He was a coal miner from Newcastle who
emigrated to Nanaimo in 1891. His victory in 1898 in Nanaimo was followed by a massive win in 1900. Shortly after that election, he decided to seek federal office in 1901
and would ultimately serve as a Liberal MP. He returned to provincial politics in 1916, from a Vancouver riding...
His wife, Mary Ellen Smith, ran in his vacant seat and became BC’s first MLA and first female cabinet minister in the British Commonwealth...
back in Nanaimo in 1901, Smith’s departure opened the door for one of the most significant politicians in British Columbia – James J. Hawthornthwaite. Elected as one of the first Labour-backed MLAs in BC history, he would co-found the Socialist Party of British Columbia.
He came to BC in the late 1880s and found his way to Nanaimo to work as a real estate agent for the New Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Co. Ltd. Its owner, Samuel Robins, was a bitter rival of the Dunsmuirs. Hawthornthwaite was influenced by Ralph Smith, who was then secretary of the Miners’ and Mine Laborers Protective Association, and would marry the daughter of Mark Bate, Nanaimo’s first mayor who served 16 terms between 1875 and 1900. Bate is the focus of one Jan Peterson’s local histories.
Hawthornthwaite was elected as a Socialist, along with neighbouring MLA Parker Williams. The two of them enjoyed electoral success between 1903 and 1912.
...
Then in 1912, McBride did it again [won power] He won 39 of 42 seats. The Socialists held two seats in Nanaimo, Parker Williams, but this time, it was John Place not Hawthornthwaite that was Williams’ seatmate.
As a sidenote, the Nanaimo MLAs split from the Socialist Party of Canada at this time, and moved to a different banner – the Social Democratic Party. Hawthornthwaite moved on to other business interests, which drew criticism from some Socialists, and he also had a close friendship with McBride.
...
Parker Williams
One of his finest moments came in January 1914, when he shamed the government over the death of a young man who had been sentenced to a year in prison over a protest during the coal strike. Badly treated in prison, the boy fell ill, but his parents weren’t notified until after he died. “I ask for the stunned mother and father no sympathy from this House,” said Williams, his voice choking with emotion. “They will carry their agony to their grave. But this I shall say: that the root of all this sorrow and this suffering will be found in the incompetency, inadequacy, callous and domineering methods of the government in handling this situation from the beginning.”
=================================
コメント