Lydia Kingsmill Commander

Lydia Kingsmill Commander (October 18, 1869 – October 17, 1940) was a Canadian-born journalist, minister, and activist who worked mainly in the United States. Trained as a minister, she led a church in Wisconsin before moving to the Ruskin Colony. She then came to New York City, where she edited several magazines and was involved in the suffrage movement. Her book The American Idea argued that American families should have many more children in order to combat malign influences on the population.

Early life and education Lydia Kingsmill Commander was born on October 18, 1869, in Clinton, Ontario, to Lydia (Kingsmill) and Charles Richard Commander. She attended a collegiate institute in Stratford, Ontario, the University of Western Ontario, and Meadville Theological School (now Meadville Lombard Theological School) in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Career As of 1897, Commander was pastor of a Congregational church in Baraboo, Wisconsin. She left that position to become a member of the Ruskin Colony.

At the colony, she met Herbert Newton Casson, who became her husband.

Elaine Tyler May describes Commander as a "feminist, trade unionist, and peace activist".

Commander died near London, England, in late 1940.

Publications In 1903, Peter Eckler of New York published Commander's short story titled "Marred in the Making".

Commander's book The American Idea: Does the National Tendency Toward a Small Family Point to Race Suicide or Race Degeneration?, published by Alfred Smith Barnes's company in 1907, argued that American families should have six children so that the population would not be composed of "soldiers, imbeciles, and cripples, three classes with which we might well dispense". The book was part of a trend in American writing around the turn of the 20th century in which advocates argued that the "American race" should be preserved against malign influences and that the United States was risking "race suicide" through increased immigration. In addition to its arguments about population, The American Idea argued that the divorce rate would be reduced if Americans adopted what Commander called a "marriage of equality", which she distinguished from a "tribal marriage".