A Victorian's "Crusade" in Chicago, 1893-1894

Abstract

IN 1893-1894 when Anglophobia was still a quasi-patriotic state of mind in the teeming cities of the United States, William Thomas Stead, editor and publisher of the Review of Reviews, came as a visitor to Chicago and, almost by accident, became involved in a movement which stirred the city's apathetic masses into a spurt of civic consciousness and reform. As the son of a north country Congregationalist parson Stead had brought to journalism the fervor and zeal of the nonconformist conscience. As editor of the Darlington Northern Echo (1871-1880) he used his journalistic talent to spark the Bulgarian Horrors agitation and helped Gladstone make it a potent political factor in 1876. While editor of London's Pall Mall Gazette (1883-1890) Stead blended journalistic skill and daring in his so-called "New Journalism" to generate a sensationalism which captured public attention and enabled him to use public opinion to influence both Liberal and Conservative policies. Outside of Britain he was most renowned for the "Maiden Tribute" crusade in 1885 which prompted Parliament to raise the age of consent for young women and, because of Stead's infraction of a legal technicality, resulted in a short term of imprisonment for him.' Until his tragic death on the Titanic in 1912 Stead's work was marked by a moral fervor which was based upon the firm conviction that he was doing the work of his "Senior Partner" in heaven. By his own admission he was more a revivalist preacher than a journalist.2 Yet, although stubborn,