Hermon F. Titus
His paper failed with that organization and he died in self-chosen obscurity in New York City, a medical doctor working in a low paying service job.
[1] After graduating the seminary, Titus had spent over a decade as a Baptist preacher in Ithaca, New York and Newton, Massachusetts before leaving the church owing to feelings that it did not adequately represent the teachings of Jesus.
[2] Upon graduation, Titus practiced medicine for two years in Newton [2] before taking a job as a company doctor for the Great Northern Railway which brought him to Seattle in 1893,[3] where he continued to work as a medical practitioner for the rest of the decade.
Titus was married and his wife, Hattie, worked as the manager of a small Seattle hotel that was widely used by radical speakers during their stops while making speaking tours of the Pacific Northwest.
[4] The pair would eventually separate with "Mother" Titus remaining in town after her former husband's departure as a venerated member of Seattle's radical community.
[6] The candidacy of radical trade union organizer Eugene V. Debs for President of the United States in 1900 on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party of America inspired Titus and brought him to the next chapter of his diverse life story.
[10] Hermon Titus's second plunge into electoral politics came in the fall of 1901, when he and his party comrade John T. Oldman, ran for three year terms as directors on the King County Board of Education in Seattle.
[13] As a leader in the Socialist Party of Washington, Titus was regarded by some as a "dogmatic, dictatorial" personality, albeit with considerable intelligence and speaking skill.
The Branch dedicated itself to attempts at winning over the working class to the socialist cause through soapbox speaking and public meetings — activities which frequently brought it into conflict with civic authorities.
Despite a healthy national circulation of about 7,000, The Socialist consistently ran at a deficit — money made good by Titus and a handful of his closest supporters.
Titus further expanded the paper's cachet by adding former National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party William Mailly to the editorial staff.
When the Seattle City Central Committee refused to provide adequate ballots for this purpose to the Pike Street Branch, Titus had small forms printed declaring the intention of the signatory to vote against the proposal.
The National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America intervened however, declaring the actions of the dissident radicals unconstitutional and recognizing the moderate-dominated regular convention.
That is, the WWP sought to solve the question of proletarian versus petty bourgeois control of the party by restricting its membership solely to wage workers.
It called itself 'a political union,' and its membership provisions specifically excluded 'capitalists, lawyers, preachers, doctors, dentists, detectives, soldiers, factory owners, policemen, superintendents, foremen, professors, and store-keepers.'
In his later years the former Baptist preacher and medical doctor moved to New York City, where he worked in the wintertime as the uniformed doorman of a posh hotel.
