John Swinton
John Swinton was a Scottish-born journalist and labor advocate known for his strong commitment to social reform and the labor movement during the late 19th century. Born in 1829 in Salton, Scotland, he emigrated to Canada with his family and eventually settled in New York City. Swinton's early career included a brief stint in seminary, but he became increasingly passionate about social justice, particularly in his opposition to slavery and support for the labor force. He became the managing editor of The New York Times and later worked for The New York Sun, using his platforms to advocate for workers' rights.
In 1874, Swinton made his first public speech supporting labor at a demonstration that faced police intervention. He ran for public office twice but did not succeed. His major contribution to the labor cause was the publication of *John Swinton's Paper*, a weekly journal that reported on labor strikes and supported union efforts. Unfortunately, the journal struggled financially and ultimately led to his financial hardship. Despite his challenges, Swinton remained an independent thinker who admired figures like John Brown and respected Karl Marx, yet he did not identify strictly as a socialist. He held an optimistic belief in a cooperative economic future, grounded in his religious faith. Swinton passed away in Brooklyn at the age of seventy-two, leaving behind a legacy of advocacy for the disenfranchised.
Subject Terms
John Swinton
- John Swinton
- Born: December 12, 1829
- Died: December 15, 1901
Journalist and labor advocate, was born in Salton, Scotland. In 1843 his parents, William Swinton and Jane (Currie) Swinton, emigrated to Canada, from which they moved to Illinois and thence to New York City. Briefly apprenticed to a printer in his teens, Swinton had difficlty deciding what career to follow. During 1853 he studied theology for a year at a seminary in Massachusetts, but he soon lost interest in the ministry.
Already firmly opposed to slavery, Swinton was stirred by reports of John Brown’s militant antislavery activities in the Kansas Territory. In 1856 he went to Kansas to aid the antislavery forces there and became the editor of the Lawrence Republican. He returned to New York City the next year and studied medicine and then law, but abandoned both of these as possible careers. Eventually The New York Times hired him on the strength of some articles that he had contributed. He was managing editor of the Times from 1860 to 1870 and worked on the editorial staff of the New York Sun from 1875 through 1883.
Once he had chosen a career in journalism, Swinton committed himself to advancing the cause of reform. In the post-Civil War years he became a devoted supporter of the labor movement. He strongly disliked the competitive economic system that encouraged employers to cut workers’ wages so that their products would be less expensive to manufacture. In Swinton’s opinion, the wage earner was gradually being reduced to the level of a slave. In 1874 he made his first public speech as a friend of labor at the famos Tompkins Square prolabor demonstration, which was broken up by the police. He went on to play a prominent role as a speaker and writer in the labor movement. He ran twice for public office—for mayor of New York City in 1874 (on the Industrial Political party ticket) and for state senator in 1887. He lost both times but attracted a good deal of support in the second race.
Swinton’s most ambitious effort in behalf of labor was the weekly journal John Swinton’s Paper, which he published from 1884 to 1887. It differed greatly from other contemporary newspapers in reporting sympathetically on the many strikes taking place in the nation and supporting the formation of unions. Few workers subscribed to it, and Swinton had to abandon it after he had expended his life savings of $40,000. Swinton had a difficult time finding work after its collapse. He returned to the Sun and worked there until the death in 1897 of its owner, Charles A. Dana, a supporter of laissez-faire capitalism who admired Swinton despite his radicalism. Afterward he managed to support himself mainly by writing for European journals.
To some extent, Swinton brought failure on himself because he refused to become affiliated with any union. A fiercely independent man, he modeled his life after that of John Brown, whom he considered a hero and martyr who had taken individual action to eliminate evil while all others stood passive. Swinton did not claim to have a fully developed position, and by no means did he consider himself a socialist, though he respected Karl Marx and corresponded with him. He was optimistic, however, about the emergence of a cooperative economic order in which the state would control at least some of the means of production, and was confident that the formation of unions and political participation by workers and farmers would bring about this end. Above all, he believed that the suffering and deprivation of the masses in the late 19th century would give way to a better life under humane conditions. This confidence grew out of his religious faith, in which there was no concept of hell and in which Jesus held out limitless compassion for humanity.
Swinton died at his home in Brooklyn at the age of seventy-two, survived by his wife, Orsena (Fowler) Smith Swinton (daughter of the phrenologist Orson Squire Fowler), whom he had married in 1877. They had no children.
Among Swinton’s publications, the most interesting are Old Ossawatomie Brown (1881), Striking For Life (1894), A Model Factory in a Model City (n.d.), and On the Way to Nazareth (n.d.). The fullest account of his life is R. Waters, Career and Conversation of John Swinton (1902). See also The Dictionuary of American Biography (1936) and Who Was Who in America, vol. 1 (1943).