W. J. Ghent

William James Ghent (April 29, 1866 – July 10, 1942) was an American socialist journalist and writer. His main focus was on socialism and on the history of the Westward Expansion of the early United States.

Biography

Early years

William James Ghent was born on April 29, 1866, in Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana, the son of Ira Keith Ghent and Mary Elizabeth Palmer. Ghent's ancestors had already been residents of America for a century, having settled in the state of North Carolina prior to the American Revolution.

He attended public school and learned the printing trade as a young man, working as a compositor for a number of newspapers and magazines before moving into the field of journalism.

Socialist activities

Ghent became interested in socialism in 1892, becoming active in a Bellamy Club, Ghent's initial foray into politics came in the late 1890s, when he served as an aid to Samuel Jones during his campaigns to become Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, and Governor of Ohio.

On March 6, 1903, the Collectivist Society of New York was organized. Ghent was a member of its executive committee.

Ghent remained aloof from the organized socialist movement for more than a decade, finally joining the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1904.

Ghent was recognized as an excellent writer but was shy and a poor public speaker. Although he feared that this job would take away time necessary for writing, Ghent finally relented and took the position as Secretary.

As an intellectual, the activities of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) in bringing socialist ideas to college campuses held great appeal for Ghent and he became Secretary of that organization. In the summer of 1907 Ghent made the facility of the recently Rand School the headquarters of the ISS as well. Ghent was effectively pushed upstairs, elected as President of the Board of Directors of the American Socialist Society, the legal entity behind the Rand School, and Algernon Lee was elected as the school's new Secretary.

In 1911 Ghent left for Washington, D.C., to work as a secretary to Socialist Congressman Victor L. Berger. Ghent argued in this book that the ongoing wave of conservatism and anti-union legislation which swept America in the years after World War I was in large measure a response to the "theatricism and charlantry" of the revolutionary left.

Ghent wrote:

"The revolutionary Communist, for all his stage-play, is a fanatic and a firebrand. So long as society insists upon keeping on hand such stores of inflammable material in the form of large sections of the working class steeped in privation and misery, it must expect, from time to time, what follows from the touch of flame to tinder. But the chief danger lies in the fact that the tumult and shouting of the Left inevitably strengthens the Reaction of the Right.

Ghent gradually became estranged from the radical political movement, turning his attention to the history of the American West. He would be the author of three monographs on the topic. Although he never rejoined the Socialist Party of America, he did in 1936 join the Social Democratic Federation, which was established in a split by party moderates from the SPA.

Death and legacy

William James Ghent died on July 10, 1942, at his home, 1809 Belmont Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C. and was survived by his wife, Amy M. Ghent. Burial was at Fort Lincoln Cemetery, Brentwood, Prince George's County, Maryland. Ghent's papers reside with the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington.

Footnotes

Works Our Benevolent Feudalism. New York: Macmillan, 1902. Mass and Class: A Survey of Social Divisions. New York: Macmillan, 1904. Why Aren't You a Socialist? New York : Socialist Party, n.d. [190-?]. Socialism and Success: Some Uninvited Messages. New York: John Lane Co., 1910. To Skeptics and Doubters. New York: Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1911. Old Age Pension. Chicago : National Office of the Socialist Party, 1911. The National Socialist Handbook No. 2. Washington, DC: National Socialist, 1913. The Appeal Almanac and Arsenal of Facts for 1915. (Editor.) Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1915. Appeal Socialist Classics. (Editor.) Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1916. Democratic Defense: A Practical Program for Socialism. (Chief author.) Socialist Party Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 2 (March 1917), pg. 14. The Appeal Almanac and Arsenal of Facts for 1917. (Editor.) Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1917. The New Appeal Almanac for 1918. (Editor.) Girard, KS: New Appeal, 1918. The Reds Bring Reaction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1923. "Daniel DeLeon," from Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928. The Road to Oregon: A Chronicle of the Great Emigrant Trail. New York, Longmans, Green and Co., 1929. Broken Hand: The Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief of the Mountain Men. With LeRoy R. Hafen. Denver: Old West Publishing Company, 1931. The Early Far West: A Narrative Outline, 1540-1850. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931.