Middle West Review

The small-town newspapers that proliferated across the Midwest in the early twentieth century are often easy targets for ridicule, earnestly reporting on inconsequential local events or engaging in the shameless boosterism that Sinclair Lewis satirized in Main Street and Babbitt. Even though these newspapers did bring national and even global news to local residents, thereby connecting them to the larger world, the flow of information seldom went the other way. Few newspapers had any impact beyond their local readership, and the idea of national leaders seeking out the opinions of small-town editors seems absurd. An important exception to this is the Capital Times, founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1917, when the city's population stood at about 35,000. As described in their new history of the paper, The Capital Times: A Proudly Radical Newspaper's Century-Long Fight for Justice and for Peace, former editor Dave Zweifel and long-time contributor John Nichols describe how the publication expanded beyond purely local or state issues to become one of the most influential sources of midwestern liberal thought.

The Capital Times's liberal politics began with its founder, William T. Evjue, who left his job as managing editor for the Wisconsin State Journal in protest of its publisher's support for American involvement in World War I. Evjue was a close associate of Senator Robert M. La Follette—one of only six senators to vote against a declaration of war—and enthusiastically defended the senator against charges of disloyalty. Until his death in 1970, Evjue remained the driving force behind the paper, even as old age forced [End Page 182] him to hand off editorial responsibilities to his hand-picked successor Miles McMillin. Under Evjue and McMillin, the Capital Times was often ahead of its time, denouncing the Ku Klux Klan and racial intolerance in the 1920s, urging action against Nazi Germany in the 1930s (ironically breaking with the La Follette family for their isolationism), and denouncing the red-baiting tactics of Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Subsequent editors—Elliott Maraniss, Dave Zweifel, and Paul Fanlund—continued this tradition of arguing persuasively for liberal causes: housing desegregation, labor rights, environmental protection, feminism, gay rights, and many others. "Radical" is probably an overstatement, especially since the 1960s spawned far more radical publications, and the editors were careful to distance themselves from the more controversial activist groups. Nonetheless, the "Cap Times" remained faithful to its progressive roots.

Although the Capital Times did devote much of its content to local reporting, two factors made it far more significant than most other Wisconsin newspapers. First, Evjue invested significant resources to make his views known beyond Madison. He published a special, expanded edition of the paper on Mondays that was mailed out to subscribers all over the state. In 1925 he launched WIBA, which broadcast his daily "Hello, Wisconsin!" program to farmers and laborers statewide. This combination of mail subscriptions (the 1960s saw a peak circulation of 50,000 copies a day) and a radio network made the Capital Times a familiar presence even beyond the state's borders. Secondly, national figures paid attention to the paper. Harry Truman cited a 1951 story by reporter John Patrick Hunter about how Madison residents were afraid to sign a copy of the Bill of Rights at an Independence Day picnic as an example of how the Red Scare threatened fundamental American values. Both John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey eagerly sought the newspaper's endorsement in the 1960 presidential primary, as did Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Indeed, national figures from George Norris to Bernie Sanders have regarded the paper as a vital link to midwestern liberals, giving the paper national influence.

It is this national significance that Zweifel and Nichols ably demonstrate. Organized topically, the book includes chapters on foreign policy, environmental issues, civil rights, the 1960s, and...