William Allen White

Once upon a time, William Allen White of Emporia, Kansas,
was a household name in America. An acquaintance of
every twentieth century president from Theodore Roosevelt
to Franklin Roosevelt, he held a close friendship with the
former and generally was an admirer of the latter. White
allied himself with the Progressive movement early in the
twentieth century, originally from the influence of T. R., but
also from others such as Woodrow Wilson. The author
of numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, and an
important political advisor within the Republican party,
although he traveled and spoke often both in the United
States and sometimes abroad, White nevertheless was most
proud of the fact that he was a small-town newspaper editor
in Emporia until his death there in 1944. He was an important
supporter of middle class and middle western values, but
a close examination of his writings from the end of World
War I until 1944 shows that he was most concerned about
support for democracy, which he defined as Christianity
institutionalized. This came at a time when democratic
principles were coming under scrutiny or outright attack,
both at home and abroad. Politically he always sought to
promote the moderate course, attempting to bring both
major parties together in a common ground. Even though
he is not widely known today, perhaps his message has a
significant value to twenty-first-century America.