Hermon Franklin Titus (1852–1931) was an American socialist activist and newspaper publisher. Originally a Baptist minister before becoming a medical doctor, Titus is best remembered as a factional leader of the Washington state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) during the first decade of the 20th century and as editor of The Socialist, one of the most-widely circulated radical newspapers of that period. Titus led a party split from the Socialist Party of Washington in 1909 and helped found a short-lived organization called the Wage Workers Party. 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.
Biography
Early years
Hermon F. Titus was born in January 1852 in Pepperell, Massachusetts, the son of Moses Titus and Saphronia Patch Titus. As a boy Hermon worked on a farm, in a butcher shop, and in a paper mill, all the while attending school."For Congressman: Hermon F. Titus, Physician, Seattle," The Socialist [Seattle], vol. 1, no. 1 (August 12, 1900), pg. 3.
In 1864, in the midst of the American Civil War, the 12-year-old Hermon attempted to run away and enlist, but his father successfully tracked him down and returned him home.
Titus studied at Eastman's Business College in 1867, thereafter taking a job as a bookkeeper and clerk in a dry goods store in New York City, studying at night so that he could attend college.
Titus was an 1873 graduate of Madison University and of its theological seminary in 1876. 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.
Thereafter, Titus decided to become a medical doctor, enrolling in Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1890."Personal Attack on Editor of The Socialist: Editor Wayland Answers Facts and Arguments with Slander — Must Make Good or Retract," The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 128 (January 18, 1903), pg. 2. Upon graduation, Titus practiced medicine for two years in Newton before taking a job as a company doctor for the Great Northern Railway which brought him to Seattle in 1893,Carlos A. Schwantes, Radical Heritage: Labor, Socialism, and Reform in Washington and British Columbia, 1885-1917. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979; pg. 95. 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.Harvey O'Connor, Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964; pg. 13. 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.Harvey O'Connor notes that Seattle trade unionists later gave Hattie Titus a house of her own "in grateful remembrance of her unwavering loyalty to the labor movement." See: O'Connor, Revolution in Seattle, pg. 17.
Political career
Toward the end of the 1890s, Titus was exposed to the ideas of Laurence Gronlund through the Fabian Society of Seattle and began to take an active interest in the ideas of municipal reform. Titus helped to draft a new city charter for Seattle and formed a Citizens' Non-Partisan League in 1900 to attempt to end the monopoly power wielded by the Seattle Electric Company.Schwantes, Radical Heritage, pg. 96. It was around this time that Titus was exposed to Marxist ideas for the first time. He became involved in a strike of Seattle telephone operators, attempting to win support for a proposed general strike from the Western Central Labor Union, but without success.
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. After becoming the State Organizer of the Social Democratic Party of Washington in the summer of 1900, Titus launched Seattle's first explicitly socialist weekly newspaper on August 12 under the simple and direct title The Socialist."Washington State Directory, SDP," The Socialist [Seattle], vol. 1, no. 1 (August 12, 1900), pg. 2. A total of 500 tabloid-sized copies were printed at a cost of $13.Hermon F. Titus, "Five Years of The Socialist," The Socialist [Toledo, OH], whole no. 260 (September 16, 1905), pg. 1. The first editorial office of the publication was the basement of Social Democratic Party headquarters, located at 220 Union Street in Seattle."Social Democratic Headquarters," The Socialist [Seattle], vol. 1, no. 10 (October 14, 1900), pg. 1.
Titus also stood for office himself in the fall of 1900, running on the Social Democratic Party's ticket for U.S. Congressman.
Although initially conceived as a temporary publication associated with the needs of the Debs campaign, Titus soon came to see his new newspaper as a more permanent vehicle. Titus emerged as an aggressive opponent of the neo-Populist agrarian-oriented socialism touted by J.A. Wayland and his newspaper, The Appeal to Reason and thereby emerged as a leading national voice for a more assertive "proletarian" orientation. Young enthusiasts gathered around Titus and his newspaper, with Titus continuing to play the role of leader of the SPW's "Red faction" until about 1909.Jeffrey A. Johnson, "They're All Red Out Here": Socialist Politics in the Pacific Northwest, 1895-1925. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008; pg. 50.
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. Together the pair received about 25 percent of the vote in a losing effort.Johnson, "They're All Red Out Here," pg. 45.
Titus ran in the December 1901 party election to be the SPW's National Committeeman, delegate to an annual governing convention. He was defeated in a seven-person race by just 3 votes by George Boomer — with an additional 8 votes for Titus from Local Tacoma arriving in the mail just after the deadline for counting."Vote on National Committeeman — Geo. E. Boomer Elected," The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 73 (December 29, 1901), pg. 4.
In the fall election of 1902, Titus stood as the Socialist Party's candidate for Washington State Senate in the state's 36th Electoral District."Socialist County Candidates," The Socialist (Seattle), whole no. 116 (October 26, 1902), pg. 2.
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 phrase is that of Hulet M. Wells, quoted in Schwantes, Radical Heritage, pg. 97. Titus regularly attacked those whom he deemed insufficiently stalwart in their commitment to revolutionary socialism, running on his front page the fire-breathing 1903 platform of Local Seattle next to the civic reform-oriented platform of Local Spokane under the headings "As Much Socialism as Possible" and "As Little Socialism as Possible," respectively and leading the charge to suspend and reorganize the local."Two Platforms," The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 131 (February 8, 1903), pg. 1. Public ridicule of this sort at the expense of erstwhile comrades did little to advance the goal of a united Socialist Party of Washington. To his supporters, on the other hand, Titus's unflinching salvos at the temporizing half-measures of others were red meat for the faithful.
Local Seattle was deeply divided between radical and moderate faction, with some branches, such as Titus's Pike Street Branch, dominated by the left wing, while others, such as the Finnish branch and (after 1903) Central Branch, were firmly on the side of the centrist forces which had steadily come to dominate the national Socialist Party.
Pike Street Branch included radical true-believers such as Alfred Wagenknecht (future head of the Communist Labor Party), Elmer Allison (future editor of the Communist Party weekly, The Toiler), and Emil Herman (a political prisoner during World War I and Socialist Party organizer after his release). 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. The moderate wing of the party, on the other hand, sought to build an electoral organization of broad popular appeal, in the hopes of winning political power through the ballot box and initiating a series of fundamental political reforms. These differing orientations, combined with Titus's pugnacious use of his newspaper as a tool for factional warfare, kept the Washington Socialist Party in a state of nearly perpetual internecine warfare.
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. Effective with its June 26, 1904 issue, The Socialist abruptly shifted from a heavily illustrated 4-page formate to a sparse 2-page sheet, running a headline on the front entitled "Shall The Socialist Live or Die?" This article noted that while the publication had been basically covering its expenses over a period of several months, for the past two months the publication had suddenly begun running at a deficit of $100 per month, an amount deemed unsustainable by the 35 members of the "Socialist Educational Union" headed by Hermon Titus back of the publication."Shall The Socialist Live or Die?" The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 203 (June 26, 1904), pg. 1.
After a year of financial struggle, marked by an experimental change of the publication's name to Next and an attempt at making it a newspaper targeted to the broad public rather than limited to active Socialist Party members, the decision was made to revive the old name and to move The Socialist to Toledo, Ohio, effective in September 1904. This more central geographic location would give the newspaper a better chance for a wide national readership, it was hoped. Titus further expanded the paper's cachet by adding former National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party William Mailly to the editorial staff. The paper continued to cover the activities of the Socialist Party of Washington in its pages each week, coverage written by correspondents.
In 1905 the moderate faction which dominated Central Branch of Local Seattle launched a referendum vote on new bylaws for the city which would have the effect of eliminating the existing branches in favor of a single organization broken down by electoral districts, with Local Seattle immediately taking possession of all assets belonging to its various branches."Washington," The Socialist [Toledo], whole no. 239 (April 22, 1905), pg. 3. This proposal was regarded as a direct assault on the left-wing Pike Street Branch and was bitterly fought by Titus and his associates, which actively campaigned for defeat of the proposal. Part of this effort by Titus included an attempt to get members who had already hastily voted in favor of the measure to retract their votes. 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. This provoked Titus's enemies in Central Branch of Local Seattle to prefer charges against Titus and the Pike Street Branch for election fraud for this and other smaller technical matters.