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{{Infobox person| name = William Allen White| image = William Allen White.jpg| birth_date = February 10, 1868| birth_place = Emporia, Kansas| death_date = January 29, 1944| death_place = Emporia, Kansas| nationality = American| spouse = Sallie Lindsay| religion = }}'''William Allen White''' (February 10, 1868-1941– January 29, 1944) was the editor of the ''Emporia Gazette'' in Emporia, [[Kansas]] from 1895 until his death, as well as a best-selling author. He gained fame in 1896 for his attacks on the far-left Populists. After 1901 he was a leading supporter of [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. White remained devoted to the conservative virtues he lovingly described in small town America. He was America's most famous small-town editor and a nationally respected spokesman for the [[Progressive movement]]. [[File:Wa ==Early life==White was born and lived nearly his entire life in Emporia, Kansas. While attending the University of Kansas (1886-white1890) he worked for the Lawrence ''Journal.jpg|thumb|240px]]'' 

White was born and lived nearly his entire life in Emporia, Kansas. While attending the University of Kansas (1886-1890) he worked for the Lawrence ''Journal.'' In 1890 he joined the El Dorado ''Republican,'' in 1891 went to the Kansas City ''Journal,'' and between 1892 and 1895 worked for the Kansas City ''Star.'' In 1895 White became owner and editor of the Emporia ''Gazette.'' With his warm sense of humor, a facile editorial pen, and a commonsense approach to life, he soon became known throughout the country.<ref> See [http://www.emporia.com/waw/index.htmlSee]</ref> His ''Gazette'' editorials were widely reprinted; he wrote syndicated stories on politics; and he published many books, including biographies of [[Woodrow Wilson]] and [[Calvin Coolidge]]. In 1896, White married Sallie Lindsay.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qf7BqH0zaQwC&pg=PT187 Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park Then & Now]</ref>

scathing attack on [[William Jennings Bryan]], the Democrats, and the Populists entitled "What's the Matter With Kansas?"<ref> See [http://www.emporia.com/waw/kansas.html online edition]</ref> It was a satirical attack that blamed the crackpot Populist leadership for the state's declining population and prestige, .<ref>http://www.h-net.org/~shgape/internet/kansas.html</ref>.

The [[Republican Party]] distributed millions of copies of White's editorial. In 2004, liberal author [[Thomas Frank]] wrote a bestselling book with the same title that bitterly attacked conservatives and Republicans for their contributions to Kansas politics. <ref>http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2004/apr/25/whats_the_matter/</ref> (Frank maintains that by supporting a party which he claims is beholden to the richest classes, the working class of Kansas is voting against its own economic interests when it supports the Republican party.)

White was a reporter at the [[Versailles Conference]] in 1919 and a strong supporter of [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s proposal for the [[League of Nations]]. The League went into operation but the U.S. never joined. During In the 1920s, he was critical early months of both 1919, [[Woodrow Wilson]], at the isolationism suggestion of [[Colonel House]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ukfWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 Russia, Bolshevism, and the conservatism of Versailles Peace]</ref> proposed a meeting with the Republican Party[[Bolsheviks]] at Prinkipo Island off the coast of Turkey.  In 1924<ref>[https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/bullitt-mission The Bullitt Mission to Soviet Russia, White ran for governor 1919]</ref> As emissaries of Kansas as an independent on an anti-the United States, Wilson chose the radical [[Ku Klux KlanGeorge D. Herron]] platform<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PD7xwXiTm-EC&pg=PA297 New Outlook, Volume 121], 1919</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qmgIzBotLagC&pg=PA204 A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and came in thirdModern American Culture]</ref> and William Allen White. <ref>[http://wwwquery.kancollnytimes.orgcom/khqgst/1976/76_2_traylorabstract.htmhtml?res=9400EFDF1139E13ABC4153DFB4668382609EDE&legacy=true W.A. WHITE FAVORS GIVING REDS ROPE; Believes Bolsheviki Should Be Allowed to Develop Their Regime in Russia. 7 PRINKIPO DELEGATES NOW British Name Canadian Premier --Italy and France Are Sending Diplomats to Parleys. W.A. WHITE FAVORS GIVING REDS ROPE], [[The New York Times]]</ref> The Prinkipo meeting was ultimately a failure, as was the follow-up to it, the Bullitt Mission.

the [[File:Wa-white.jpg|right|180px|thumb]]The 1896 editorial and "Mary White"--a —a beautiful tribute to his 17-year-old daughter on her death in 1921, portayed portrayed her as an anti-flapper--were flapper—were his best-known writings. Locally he was known as the greatest booster for Emporia.

In his novels and short stories, White developed his idea of the small town as a metaphor for understanding social change and for preaching the necessity of community. While he expressed his views in terms of the small town, he tailored his rhetoric to the needs and values of emerging urban America. The cynicism of the post-World War I world stilled his imaginary literature, but for the remainder of his life he continued to propagate his vision of small-town community. He opposed chain stores and mail order firms as a threat to the business owner on Main Street. The [[Great Depression]] shook his faith in a cooperative, selfless, middle-class America. Like most old Progressives his attitude toward the New Deal was ambivalent: President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] cared for the country and was personally attractive, but White considered his solutions haphazard. White seemed to see the country uniting behind old ideals by 1940 in the face of foreign threats.<ref> Agran (1998)</ref>

White sought to encoyrage encourage a viable moral order that would provide the nation with a sense of community. White recognized the powerful forces of corruption but called for slow, remedial change having its origin in the middle class. In the 'Heart of a Fool' (1918), White fully developed the idea that reform remained the soundest ally of property rights. He felt that the Spanish American War fostered political unity, and believed that a moral victory and an advance in civilization would be compensation for the devastation of World War I. White concluded that democracy in the New Era inevitably lacked direction, and the New Deal found him a baffled spectator. Nevertheless, he clung to his vision of a cooperative society until his death in 1944.<ref> Richard W. Resh, "A Vision in Emporia: William Allen White's Search for Community," ''Midcontinent Mid-continent American Studies Journal'' 1969 10(2): 19-35.</ref>

[[category:Progressive Era]]==External links==* [[categoryhttp:New Deal]][[category:journalists]//www.kansasmemory.org/item/226040 William Allen White in Leningrad, Russia], 1934 (Photograph)