John Swinton (journalist)
[3] In 1856 he moved to Kansas to participate in the Free Soil movement there, taking a position as manager of the Lawrence Republican, an anti-slavery newspaper.
[4] He would remain at the Times for a decade, becoming the chief editorial writer for the paper, including the entire duration of the American Civil War.
[2] From 1870 to 1875, Swinton worked as a free lance journalist, writing extensively for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune.
[4] Swinton became involved in radical labor politics in the spring of 1874, when he addressed a mass meeting at Tompkins Square in New York City — a gathering which was violently dispersed by the police.
[2] Swinton's qualities as an effective orator gained notice, however, and in the fall of 1874 he was persuaded to run for Mayor of New York at the top of the ticket of the fledgling Industrial Political Party.
The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same — his salary.
[5] Chief among Swinton's targets were the so-called "Robber Barons" of the day, including Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt, who were subjected to an unending stream of satirical cartoons, poems, and aggressive editorials.
Under this system, imported workers were brought into the country by employers, often to break strikes, and were provided for at a minimum standard of living for a time, saving their money for families at home.
[10] Swinton's use of an undercover investigative reporter to reveal the abusive nature of the system in January 1884 resulted in Congressional action on the matter, ending in passage of watered-down amended legislation in 1885.
[11] Following passage Swinton continued his crusade against the system, charging the administration of Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland with failure to enforce the provisions of the law.
[12] Despite gaining a significant and influential readership in the labor movement, John Swinton's Paper was never a self-supporting business venture.
I have been wrecked by this paper and the labors associated therewith, in which during the past four years, I have sunk tens of thousands of dollars — all of it out of my own pocket.
[15]Swinton returned to paid journalism working for others, continuing to maintain a high public profile as an orator on the labor question.
[2] Swinton made a serious effort to win election in this campaign and received a substantial vote, but was ultimately defeated.
He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, beneath a monument erected by local trade unionists.
