He is best known for his campaigns against civic corruption, capital punishment, prison reform, and efforts on behalf of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, wrongly convicted of the Preparedness Day bombing of 1916.

Born in a log house in Appleton, Wisconsin,[1] Older began working at age 12 circa 1868 as an apprentice printer.

He gained notoriety when he took on the Boss Abe Ruef machine in San Francisco, during the mayoralty of Eugene Schmitz.

In his later years at the Bulletin, Older was offended by the owner's rewriting of his editorials and refusal to commit to a lifelong appointment.

Older was also an early defender of prostitutes, having published a story at the Bulletin in 1917 entitled "A Voice from the Underworld, by Alice Smith."