The Progressive, Inc., is a non-stock corporation based in Madison, Wisconsin, which publishes The Progressive, an independent monthly magazine of fact and opinion. The Progressive traces its origins to La Follette's Weekly Magazine, which was first published on January 9, 1909, by Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Taking its editorial inspiration from the national progressive movement and the muckraking journalistic tradition, the publication declared that it was a magazine of progress “social, intellectual, and institutional” and pledged itself to be guided by the necessity for enlarging economic democracy and making government more responsive to the will of the people. Through its long history, the magazine has remained faithful to that pledge.
Although Senator La Follette's name appeared on the masthead as editor, the actual work was done by Herbert Quick, associate editor; Frederick MacKenzie, managing editor; Caroline Louise Hunt; and the senator's wife Belle Case La Follette. Early issues carried articles on the progressives' political achievements and philosophy, and the magazine soon attracted a national circulation and a list of contributors that included many prominent individuals. In this respect The Progressive has also remained true to its early history. Over the years, its pages have carried articles by Jane Addams, Louis Brandeis, William Jennings Bryan, Ralph Bunche, Clarence Darrow, William O. Douglas, John Kenneth Galbraith, Helen Kellar, Jack London, Reinhold Niebuhr, Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Sandburg, Lincoln Steffens, Adlai Stevenson, and Norman Thomas.
Despite its advocacy of national progressivism, advancement of La Follette's political career was an underlying factor in the magazine's establishment. During the presidential campaign of 1912, when personal and partisan rivalries split the progressives, the magazine became more openly the senator's personal organ. Later La Follette's Magazine echoed the senator's isolationist position during World War I and as a result shrank both in size and influence. Some of its former reputation was regained in the post-war period, but after La Follette's death in 1925, it declined again. The magazine's content, which was by then edited by Mrs. La Follette, was largely dominated by Wisconsin politics.
In 1929 the La Follette family merged its declining editorial interests with those of William T. Evjue, editor of the Madison Capital Times, to form the Progressive Publishing Company. On December 7, 1929, a new publication - a weekly newspaper entitled The Progressive - first appeared on the newstands. During the first decade of its existence The Progressive, which was edited by Evjue, was virtually a weekly version of the Capital Times. The paper was generally favorable to the New Deal, but as differences over national foreign policy split Evjue and the La Follettes during the latter part of the 1930s, the editorial columns displayed a noticeable schizophrenia. This ended in 1940 when the isolationist La Follettes purchased full control of the paper. They hired Morris H. Rubin, a journalist active in Wisconsin progressive circles, as the new editor.
Under Rubin's direction The Progressive broadened its scope, added new departments, and attracted distinguished contributors. But Rubin's efforts could not stay the combined impact of post-war inflation, rising publication costs, and the dissolution of the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1946. In October, 1947, the Progressive Publishing Company suspended publication.
Fortunately the subscribers responded to Rubin's plea for support with sufficient pledges to capitalize a new, independent, publishing corporation, The Progressive, Inc. The board of directors, which consisted of Gordon Sinykin (president), Morris Rubin (vice-president), and Mary Sheridan Rubin (secretary), held full editorial control and ownership; the membership of the corporation consisted of the subscribers, although they had no voting rights. In January, 1948, the corporation began publishing a new Progressive, a monthly magazine. The revitalized publication was a strong supporter of internationalism and generally left-of-center on domestic issues. Over the years it won a loyal national following among both its subscribers and contributors, and its influence in intellectual and political circles was far greater than its moderate circulation might indicate. During the 1950s The Progressive was one of a network of liberal publications which led the opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1954 it devoted an entire issue, McCarthy: A Documented Record, to an examination of McCarthy and McCarthyism. The issue, which gained wide circulation, won the 1954 Sidney Hillman award for distinguished journalism and public service.
Later the magazine was a strong supporter of the civil rights movement, capping its advocacy with a special issue in 1962 in commemoration of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation to which President John F. Kennedy contributed. Other politically oriented special issues included the environment (published as The Crisis of Survival in 1970), an examination of the influence of the Pentagon, the U.S.S.R., and Latin America. Written entirely by Rubin, this issue won the George Polk Memorial Award for outstanding foreign correspondence in 1961. The Progressive was also active in presidential politics, giving strong support to Norman Thomas in 1948 and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956. In 1968 The Progressive, whose opposition to the war in Vietnam was evident as early in 1962, was the first national publication to endorse the candidacy of Eugene McCarthy.
Morris Rubin retired as editor in September, 1973, and was succeeded by Erwin Knoll, who had formerly been The Progressive's Washington editor.
Biography
Morris H. Rubin, whose editorial abilities and concerns had a profound influence on The Progressive for over 33 years, was born in New York City on August 14, 1911. He began his career as a journalist while still a high school student in Portland, Maine. In 1934 he graduated from the University of Wisconsin and while earning his degree in political science expanded his journalistic experience with work for The Daily Cardinal, the United Press, the New York Times, and Time magazine. For six years after his graduation he was a political reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal and a correspondent for the Milwaukee Journal and the Portland Evening Express. At the same time Rubin was active in progressive politics, serving as aide to both Governor Philip La Follette and Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr. In June, 1940, they selected him as editor of The Progressive.
In 1952 Rubin organized the independent Wisconsin Citizens Committee on McCarthy's record, and he edited The McCarthy Record, a lengthy campaign document prepared to oppose the senator's reelection. An expanded version of that report published in The Progressive in 1954 won the Sidney Hillman Award for journalistic excellence. As editor Rubin traveled extensively in Europe, Russia, and Latin America, and described his reactions in various special issues. The issue which dealt with Latin America won the George Polk Memorial Award in 1961.
Rubin was a member of the national committee of the ACLU and founder and first chairman of its Wisconsin chapter. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Americans for Democratic Action and the Governor's Commission on Human Rights and a frequent lecturer for the American Friends Service Committee. Rubin retired as editor of The Progressive in 1973, though his name remained on the masthead as publisher and president of The Progressive, Inc. His retirement is occupied with work on several books.
