Carl Haessler

Carl Haessler managed the Federated Press, which provided weekly content to editors of American labor press (including the Daily Worker) and published a 12-page weekly newspaper (pictured)Carl Haessler (1888–1972) was an American political activist, conscription resister, newspaper editor, and trade union organizer. He is best remembered as an imprisoned conscientious objector during World War I and as the longtime head of the Federated Press, a left wing news service which supplied content to radical and labor newspapers around the country.

Background

Carl Haessler was born August 5, 1888, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of ethnic German parents. His father was a building contractor and his mother was a teacher in the Milwaukee public school system. Carl attended public school in Milwaukee and went on to college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, from which he graduated in 1911 with a bachelor's degree in Latin. The linguist Luise Haessler was his aunt.

During his early years, Haessler raised money for his education by working summers as a farm hand. From 1911 to 1914, Haessler attended Balliol College of Oxford University in England. There he became interested in the socialist movement and joined the Fabian socialists. The Haesslers raised their children in the Ravinia neighborhood of Highland Park, Illinois where they were deeply engaged in the arts and the Ravinia Woman's Club, until their divorce in 1940.

During his time in prison, Haessler was removed for a brief period when he was called as a witness for the prosecution in the federal trial of Congressman Victor Berger. The prosecution attempted to demonstrate that Haessler's position as an imprisoned conscientious objector was a product of Berger's direct influence, thereby providing proof of Berger's criminality with respect to the current conscription law. Haessler would have none of it however, replying when asked if he and Berger had had any talks about the war: Oh yes, I had lots of talks with Berger about the war. You see, I might say that I knew Victor Berger before I was born, since he knew my mother and father. But I don't remember what he said on those talks; I remember distinctly what I said, but his views did not impress me at all. I was far more interested in my views anyhow than I was in his.

In his capacities with the Federated Press, Haessler was a member of the International Typographical Union.

Carl Haessler died age 84 on December 8, 1972.

Legacy

Haessler's papers are housed at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Footnotes