Herbert S. Bigelow

BULLETINof the

Historical and Philosophical Society of OhioCINCINNATI

Herbert Seely Bigelow:Reformer and Politician 1870-1951

by DANIEL R. BEAVER

Herbert Seely Bigelow was a provocative public figure whoseactivity disturbed Cincinnati political life for half a century. Fromthe day in 1895 when he became pastor of the Vine Street Congre-gational Church of Cincinnati until his death in 1951, the eloquentminister was a crusader in politics who fought courageously forsocial and economic reform. He was among the original supportersof the Initiative and Referendum movement in Ohio. He cham-pioned the cause of old age pensions and supported the fight formunicipal ownership of public utilities and transportation. Hehelped to defeat the Cox machine in Cincinnati and aided in form-ing in that city the Charter Party that stood for honest and effi-cient government. An advocate of the single tax on land values, helabored to place that legislation on the statute books of Ohio. Hewas an anti-militarist and opposed American participation inboth the First and Second World Wars. Though his methods dis-turbed many people during his lifetime, a significant number ofCincinnatians never questioned his devotion to improving thecondition of the underprivileged.

Bigelow was born January 4, 1870, on a small farm near Elk-hart, Indiana. Befriended as a youth by Alpheus and Emma

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Bigelow of Cleveland, Ohio, Herbert consented while in college totake their last name as his own. The Bigelows financed his educa-tion at Oberlin Preparatory School and at Western Reserve Uni-versity where he was graduated in 1894. In that year he leftCleveland to attend Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, thecity that remained his home for the rest of his life. The ministerwas a big man, of medium height but powerful build. His faircomplexion, blue eyes and unruly blond hair made more effective aspeaking ability that many claimed surpassed that of WilliamJennings Bryan in persuasive power. His compassion for theunderprivileged led him, on occasion, to empty his pockets onthe street to buy a suit of clothes for an unemployed worker or tobuy food for an indigent mother and child. In the privacy of hishome or among men he trusted, his personality was warm andoutgoing. At other times, however he could be harsh and brutaltoward men, even his own followers, who opposed his plans.

The minister was reared in mid-nineteenth century ruralAmerica, and one of the abiding elements in his thought was theideal of agrarian virtue. He believed a society of small holderswas the only stable foundation for a democratic nation. Like thefollowers of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, he upheld thevirtue of "productive" labor and championed equality of oppor-tunity. His support of the "producing" classes during his politicalcampaigns led him to make strong and sometimes unwarrantedattacks upon bankers and investors, while his consistent oppositionto "Wall Street" led many conservatives to label him a socialist.In this, his opponents did him an injustice, for they seldom noticedthat he consistently supported the interests of small entrepreneursas well as those of the laboring classes. As Bigelow saw factoriescasting their smoky shrouds over Chicago, Cleveland, or. Cin-cinnati, he felt that he was witnessing the devastation of a oncegolden Arcadia. His opposition to "Big Business" was but thelogical consequence of a belief that the industrialization of theUnited States threatened the existence of traditional Americanrural values.

The Social Gospel was another important factor in shapingBigelow's thought. This important religious innovation con-tributed in no small measure to the humanitarian spirit charac-teristic of the Progressive movement in America. The marrow oftraditional nineteenth century American Protestantism revealed

Herbert Seely Bigelow: Reformer and Politician 5

itself in the relationship of the individual to God. It was concernedwith personal salvation rather than social reform and offered littlecomfort to those interested in ameliorating the condition of theoppressed. Supporters of the Social Gospel believed there was amessage in Christianity for this world as well as the next anddemanded that the churches of the country speak out condemningsocial and economic practices in conflict with Christian ethicalprinciples. They denied the doctrine of original sin, insisted thatman was essentially good, and claimed that evil in this world re-sulted from faulty institutions rather than from the intransigenceof human beings. Carrying their attack further, they denouncedwar as an anachronism brought about by unsound economicmethods and were among the most vigorous opponents of im-perialism and militarism. More radical disciples claimed thatthe voice of the church should be more than merely a whisperof conscience and demanded that religious institutions in Americatake an active part in political life in order to improve the lot of theunderprivileged.

As a youth, Bigelow had received orthodox Presbyterian train-ing, and as a college student he had apparently taken little interestin problems of the day. However, shortly after his arrival in Cin-cinnati to attend Lane Theological Seminary, he began to work inone of the settlement houses of the basin area of Cincinnati. Here,he became convinced that the poverty and disease he saw everyday did not reflect divine punishment for sin or sloth, but mirroredsome basic dislocation in society that must be found and rooted out.Unable to reconcile theology as taught at Lane with the realities of"rat row," the young student began to look for a less traditionalanswer to his dilemma. Through further experience at the settle-ment house and through reading contemporary criticisms ofsociety, he was converted to the Social Gospel and found a newcreed. He would labor "less for the gospel of heaven above andmore for justice here on earth."

His awakening social conscience brought Bigelow to seek a wayby which a better society might be created. In this quest he wasled to the writings of the California reformer, Henry George.Progress and Poverty, George's most influential work, was aneconomic analysis of late nineteenth-century American industrialsociety. In it the author advanced the theory that profit madethrough holding land merely to gain the increased value given it by

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society was unjust, destroyed competition, and led to monopoly orundue concentration of wealth. If these profits were taxed awayand returned to society, he wrote, monopoly would be made un-profitable, equality of opportunity would be restored, and smallbusinessmen rescued from approaching oblivion. Though the workwas of little value as an economic tract, the paradox implied in itstitle and the tone of moral outrage that permeated the book madethe "Single Tax" an attractive answer to the problem posed bythe accumulation of money in the hands of the few. In 1897, twoyears after he had become associated with the Vine Street Congre-gational Church, Bigelow began to investigate the possibilities ofthis intriguing panacea. A meeting with Tom Johnson, Mayor ofCleveland and one of the leading advocates of the "Single Tax"in America, confirmed the pastor's belief in the measure.

Bigelow's sermons quickly took on a social significance thatoffended his more conservative parishioners. After several attemptsto remove him from the pulpit, most of them left the church tobecome members of more traditional flocks. By 1900, Bigelow wasleft with a small but devoted band of followers who had made cleartheir belief in him and their determination to support him in anyendeavor he believed morally justified. Aided by his originaldisciples and those later attracted to his banner, he organized the"People's Church" which, after some time, adopted the followingcreed:

The sole article of faith which the People's Church of Cin-cinnati requires is the belief that the great work of all humanbeings and of all organized religion as their representative isto aid in the establishment of the brotherhood of man in aworld of social justice. Matters of theology and philosophyit leaves to the individual, inviting him to write his own creedand rewrite it as often as new experience brings him new light.

Between 1900 and 1920, the church under the leadership of itsdynamic pastor championed popular reform measures and pro-vided a public platform for well known reformers includingWilliam Jennings Bryan, Jane Addams, Brand Whitlock, andBigelow's old friend, "Golden Rule" Jones. It sponsored discus-sions of contemporary problems, worked for the adoption of theInitiative and Referendum, and formed the core of the MunicipalOwnership League, an organization that supported Reverend Bige-

Herbert Seely Bigelow: Reformer and Politician

People's ChurchThe old Congregational Church on Vine Street where The Reverend Herbert

Bigelow preached.

low's early campaigns for public control of utility companies andstreetcar lines.

Bigelow himself was quickly caught up in Ohio Democraticpolitics and joined Tom Johnson in the latter's attempt to wrestcontrol of the state from the Republican party. Although theminister was defeated in 1902 in a race for Secretary of State, hisname became associated with the reform impulse throughout thestate. During the next decade, Bigelow campaigned to bring aboutthe adoption of the Initiative and Referendum, a measure designedto give more power to the people in controlling legislation, and hewas influential in creating the progressive climate of opinion that

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culminated in the Constitutional Convention of 1912. Chosenas president of that body, he succeeded with the help of associatesfrom all parts of the state in having the coveted "I and R" in-cluded among the amendments to the State Constitution to besubmitted to the people. Indeed, his intervention at a crucialmoment in the debates at the convention swung wavering delegatesto the support of the measure and made its passage possible.Bigelow drove himself to the limit of endurance in the months thatfollowed in a successful campaign to insure that the amendmentshe had sponsored would be adopted.

Success at the Constitutional Convention seemed to markBigelow for future political honors. He was easily elected as aDemocrat to the Ohio Legislature in November, 1912, and therewas talk among political leaders of supporting him for Governoror for United States Senator. However, a series of events servedto destroy the pastor's chances for higher office and to render evenhis loyalty to the United States suspect.

By 1912, reform-minded elements in Cincinnati had swept theCox machine temporarily from office and brought about the elec-tion of a coalition party composed of Democrats, middle-classreformers, and representatives of organized labor, led by HenryHunt. Mayor Hunt showed little interest in root and branchmunicipal housecleaning but desired to effect fiscal and civilservice reform and make the city administration as efficient aspossible. He believed that the alliance of partisan Democrats,reformers, trade unionists and intellectuals that had securedhis election would, if subjected to strain, fall apart through its owninner conflicts of interest. Bigelow had been interested in the causeof municipal reform for some time, but had been too involvedwith state reform to take an active part in the movement. How-ever, aware of his own role in bringing about the reform atmos-phere, he expected the new city government to be sympathetic to aplan he had devised to bring about municipal ownership of publicutilities and streetcar lines. He made little effort to take into ac-count Hunt's position. When the administration showed no in-terest in his idea, Bigelow strove to drive a measure through thestate legislature without the Mayor's support and brought about acontroversy that split the progressive coalition. Civil war amongthe Progressives without doubt paved the way for the Republicanparty's return to power in 1914. A campaign begun by the minister

Herbert Seely Bigelow: Reformer and Politician 9

in 1915 to prevent the Green Line Transit Company from renewingits franchise, though successful at the time, further alienatedmoderate opinion in Cincinnati from his cause.

The next blow came as the result of the entry of the UnitedStates into the First World War. Bigelow was a vigorous anti-militarist and, in accord with his convictions, opposed to the lastmoment America's entry into that conflict. After the declarationof war on April 6, 1917, his position remained so equivocal that itwas difficult even for friends to decide if he opposed or supportedhis government in the struggle against Imperial Germany. Inreality, Bigelow supported the conflict, but opposed the decisionof the Wilson administration to adopt selective service and to sendconscripted forces abroad. He temporarily joined with midwesternSocialists to fight for a volunteer army and to demand that thenational government give adequate protection to the civil rightsof its citizens during the war. The minister's outspoken attitudearoused the opposition of many patriotic organizations aroundCincinnati and finally brought about a physical attack on himOctober 28, 1917. Bigelow was kidnapped as he was about toaddress a meeting of the Socialist Party in Newport, Kentucky,taken to a deserted field and horsewhipped, "In the name of thewomen and children of Belgium." By the end of the war, he wasmistrusted by both major parties, his name was associated in thepublic mind with radicalism or treason, and his influence in Cin-cinnati politics for the time being was destroyed.

Bigelow's personality was badly scarred by the degradationand humiliation he suffered during the war. Convinced that thepublic utility and transit companies of Cincinnati were responsiblefor his horsewhipping, he became even more intolerant towardthem than he had been prior to 1917. He vowed eternal hostilitytoward the "interests" and viewed suspiciously any endeavor,regardless of its merits, which had the support of the businessmenof the city. His attitude was clearly shown in 1924 when a battlewas begun by moderate Cincinnatians led by Murray Seasongoodto introduce the city charter form of government into the politicallife of Cincinnati. He distrusted the motives of the reformersbecause of their business connections and remained aloof until itbecame obvious that he and his followers were needed to circulatepetitions for a charter election. Though subsequent events aredisputed, it seems that he and his associates exacted from the

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Charterites a promise to include a plan for proportional representa-tion in their bill in return for the support of Bigelow's organiza-tion. The ensuing campaign for a new city charter receivedsignificant support from the minister, but it did not indicate thathe had changed his attitude or had become less suspicious of themotives of the business and professional classes of the Queen City.

The struggle for the new charter renewed Bigelow's interest inpolitics. In 1928 he launched an effort to establish an old agepension law in Ohio, and in 1933 aided the American Federationof Labor and the Fraternal Order of Eagles in bringing about asuccessful referendum election on the measure. It was the GreatDepression, however, that opened the way for his re-emergence asa power in Cincinnati politics. For the first time in over a decade,he had an opportunity to direct personally a significant segment ofpublic opinion. His first move was to begin a series of weeklyradio broadcasts calculated to reach the largest possible number ofpeople. In 1934 he joined forces with the National Union for SocialJustice led by Father Charles Coughlin. At this point, many ofhis oldest friends warned him that they distrusted the motives ofthe Coughlinites and feared he was being used as a tool to gainends antipathetical to his own ideals. Despite their warnings,he continued to accept Coughlin's assistance and with his activesupport was first elected to the City Council of Cincinnati and latersent to the United States House of Representatives. He persistedin supporting Father Coughlin until the latter's open attack on theJews in 1937. The following year, deprived of the support of theNational Union for Social Justice, he was defeated in his secondrace for Congress and returned home, according to local com-mentators, a broken and defeated man.

Contrary to expectations, the minister was soon at work onanother idea to increase old age pensions. He embarked upon acampaign, similar to the successful one in 1933, for a referendumto put the plan into effect. Unfortunately, Bigelow had inserted aprovision into the act that raised fears among many Ohioans thathe was using the pension plan to institute the "Single Tax."A campaign spearheaded by the Ohio Chamber of Commerceblanketed the state with propaganda and brought the propositionto overwhelming defeat in November 1939.

Defeat of the old age pension plan occurred shortly after theoutbreak of another European war and the minister was soon de-

Herbert Seely Bigelow: Reformer and Politician 11

voting much time to speaking against American participation. Hefeared that war would mean the end of reform at home and morethan once expressed the opinion that intervention abroad wouldmean the end of American democratic government. Like otherantimilitarists, he became aware of the menace of German andJapanese aggression quite late in the course of events. Not untilthe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor did Bigelow awaken to thetotalitarian threat, but thereafter he supported the American wareffort to the limit of his ability.

In 1946, Bigelow faced a world far more frightening than theoptimistic one of his earlier life. Despite the changed environment,however, he adhered to his former principles. Disillusionedby the results of the Second World War, he was convinced that ithad been brought about through a conspiracy of munition makersand its fruits sacrificed for the sake of profits. Wholesale evidenceof man's inhumanity to man made public during and after the warmade little impression on him, and his religious beliefs remainedthe same as they had been during the years before the First WorldWar. Unable to realize that the old America was gone forever, hestill labored for a country where the agrarian dreams of his youthmight be fulfilled. When he fought his last municipal campaign in1949, younger Cincinnatians thought his voice seemed an echofrom a distant and less sophisticated epoch. The minister died in1951, as secure in the justice and righteousness of his own cause ashe had been as a young man embarking on his first crusade in 1902.

It is obvious that the career of such a man as Bigelow is difficultto assess. Though he was able to create an atmosphere favorableto the cause of reform, he lacked, in most instances, the supportnecessary to lead a sustained political effort to put particularreforms into effect. His inability to share leadership compoundedthe problem and led to unfortunate situations such as the one in1913 when his fruitless campaign for municipal ownership of publicutilities helped to destroy the progressive coalition that had de-feated the Cox machine. The pastor's doctrinaire opposition toall "Big Business" cost him much support among thoughtfulCincinnatians. In the heat of election campaigns, he found itnecessary to make promises that led some of his supporters toexpect results that he was incapable of achieving. Especiallyduring his later life, he was not as meticulous in choosing meansas one who espoused the cause of moral reform might have been.

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He lacked, in many cases, the ability to discriminate between whatought to be and what was possible at the moment. As one warmfriend put it, he could paint the picture of the promised land, buthe could not build the road to get there.

In other ways the life of the minister was quite fruitful. He wasthe most effective proponent of the Initiative and Referendummovement in Ohio. His tenacity, courage and devotion helpedbring about the triumph of humanitarian reform in his home stateand indirectly aided in creating a climate of opinion favorable toassisting, on a national scale, aged people no longer able to copewith the problems of machine civilization. Though his ideal of anagrarian arcadia was unattainable, he strove to make industrialsociety more secure and more equitable for the factory worker andhis family. In this respect, he lived to see other men take up mostof the measures that he had championed and put them into effectthroughout the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

For a more complete sketch of Bigelow see Daniel R. Beaver,A Buckeye Crusader. See also Herbert Bigelow, The Religion ofRevolution. The Proceedings and Debates of the Ohio ConstitutionalConvention of 1912 is indispensable in understanding the minister'srole at the constitutional convention of that year. For differingviews concerning the formation of the Charter Party, seeCharles P. Taft, The Cincinnati Experiment and EdwardAlexander, "An Epic in City Government." An older work byArthur T. Young, A History of the Single Tax Movement in theUnited States, is still the best study of the "Single Tax." For localaffairs, see the Cincinnati Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and theCincinnati Commercial Tribune.

Footnotes extensively documenting this article are availableon request from the author.