More Fiends

Blog to be retired--Lawsons' future

    I'll be semi-retiring this blog in mid-February in order to concentrate on current writing research projects. Future posts will be very occaisional.

    I very much doubt that I'll have an opportunity to see a revised edition of Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines that could incorporate some of the posts made in the past 14 months. The only post-publication finding that I really regret not having found in time is the strong evidence that Alfred W. Lawson was sent to the State Reform School as a teen.

    What information might come forward that would dramatically effect the Lawson Brothers narrative? Here's my list:

• An interview or memoir written by one of A. W. Lawson's two children. I'm not sure they could throw more light on his character, but they could offer a fascinating inside look at the community of Lawson's followers.
• Any soldier's diaries or military records that would shed light on G.H. Lawson's activities during WWI. I can not believe that the old rogue led a quiet military life. There must be some hilarious material there.
• Some very specific mention of the original cause(s) of conflict between Al and George
• A list of books that A.W. Lawson read or kept
• Additional evidence of sexual misconduct by their father, R. H. Lawson
• Additional information on where the money came from for A.W. Lawson to start the Humanity Publishing Company and DCS movement.
• Additional information on the amounts donated by DCS members and Lawson's later followers to fund the DCS, the University of Lawsonomy, and Lawson's publishing efforts.

Fifty Speeces and 100 Great Speeches

    Anyone who glances at a bibliography of Alfred W. Lawson's books will note that he penned both Fifty Speeches and 100 Great Speeches, published about a decade apart. One might assume that the latter title is just an expanded version of the earlier; and in one sense, that is true. The bulk of the text of both works are reprints of the editorials from Lawson's newsheet, the Benefactor. Fifty Speeches includes vol. 1 and vol. 2 (to number 23) of the Benefactor, arranged in consecutive order. 100 Great Speeches includes numbers from vols. 1-3, but are not in consecutive order.

    Both books are folio size (in the loose sense of that term), with the binding measuring 17" x 11". The earlier work has 175 pages; the latter has 232. Lawson obviously devoted great attention to the details of both publications, but the similarities end there. Fifty Speeches is the rarer, more interesting work, brimming with content found in no 
other Lawson titles. It is the most complete document archive of Lawson's 1930's social movement, the Direct Credits Society.

    Unlike most of Lawson's works, Fifty Speeches does not contain a lengthy autobiographical section on Lawson's life accomplishments. Instead, the first 63 pages are photos of Direct Credits Society parades, group photos, and individual "officer" portraits. If there was ever a doubt that the DCS was a genuine popular movement, these photos dispell that notion. Most of the group photos and individual photos list members by name--something rarely seen except in the very earliest DCS newspapers.

    On page 63, you can even see the young mother of A. W. Lawson's two children, E. Hosta.

    In the years between the publication of the two books, the DCS movement lost its impetus and fell victim to internal dissention and scandal. Several of the officers depicted in Fifty Speeches were later accused of adulterous relationships; a few of the photos show people who later disagreed with certain actions that Lawson took (especially in regard to support of War Bonds). Lawson himself wanted to deflect the attention drawn his relationship with Hosta (and other young women in the DCS office staff?).

    For these reasons, Lawson did not keep Fifty Speeches in print. He did not suppress its dessimination (in fact, Fifty Speeches is one of the titles sold in an ad found in 100 Great Speeches on page 224), but unlike his other works, massive printings did not keep it in stock beyond the 1940s.

    Collecting Lawsoniana or studying the DCS? Fifty Speeches is essential!

Collectible Lawson Publication: Direct Credits for Humanity (magazine)

One of the rarer and more collectible Alfred W. Lawson publications is the magazine Direct Credits for Humanity, published by Lawson's Humanity Publishing Company between June, 1932 and mid-1935. As far as I know, 5 issues were published, each about 32 pages. By my reckoning, it predates the earliest issues of Lawson's Direct Credits Society newspaper, the Benefactor, by almost two years.

Although the content is still most editorials/speeches by Lawson, Direct Credits for Humanity also has news about, articles by, lists of, and profiles of dedicated DCS officers. Very little of this is found in later Lawson DCS publications, other than in the photographic sections of his books.

 

The content of the magazine also demonstrates that Lawson, from the very beginning of the DCS, harbored no ambitions for an independent political movement. The DCS was all about pressuring elected officials--whatever their party affiliation--to adopt the Direct Credits platform for economic reform.

In Late September, 1931, Lawson had incorporated the Passenger Compartment Company in Wilmington, Delaware (where many companies filed their incorporations.) Sometime between late 1931 and June of 1932, Lawson had moved to Detroit, founded the Humanity Publishing Company, published Creation and Direct Credits for Everybody, and came out with the first issue of Direct Credits for Humanity magazine in June, 1932.

Detroit was already fertile ground for the vilification of "financiers." During the 1920s, Henry Ford's newspaper The Dearborn Independent made overt references to "financiers" being an international Jewish cabal. Lawson never made any obvious anti-Semitic statements, but his Detroit readers would have recalled Ford's attitudes.

The Most Elusive Lawson Relics

Before describing any more Lawson artifacts that are known to exist, allow me to present a short list of what I would consider to be the most sought-after objects related to the Lawson family:

1. Audio recordings of Alfred W. Lawson speaking. AWL did make at least one recording: a short 4-minute pre-vinyl record of the editorial "Finance-Capital-Labor" that first appeared in Direct Credits for Humanity (Lawson's first news sheet). Copies of the recording were advertised for sale at $2.00 each.
2. George H. Lawson's flyer entitled "Whitewashing Crooked Organized Baseball," which he advertised in March, 1921 editions of the Chicago Defender. Not only would this be the sole surviving ephemera of GHL's Continental League venture, it would also be significant to the story of the Black Sox scandal. Moreover, it would apparently be the only piece of material that GHL wrote for publication.
3. Robert H. Lawson's system of stenography. It must have been written down; AWL must have made copies of it when he was teaching it in Buffalo.
4. Knowledgian Degrees. It is not known how many exist, but earning one required 30 years study of Lawsonomy. I would have to assume that none were given out in AWL's lifetime. I know of one person that purchased one that was being sold.
5. A baseball uniform from one of Lawson's teams.
6. Any components of Alfred Lawson's airliners.

Alfred W. Lawson Artifacts

With the publication of Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines I did my best to help drive up the value of AWL collectibles, but it looks like I made no dent at all. In fact, the prices I see on eBay tend to be going down. I suspect that as old DCS members die off and their effects are sold, more items have come on the market. Additionally, the sale of the University of Lawsonomy Farm property in Wisconsin seems to have moved some ephemera onto the market. ...and there aren't many of us out there collecting this stuff...

I've had two artifact collections: the first, gathered between 1979-1985, had Lawson books, Benefactor issues, pamphlets, and a commemorative poster. None of it was rare (though copies of Fifty Great Speeches are expensive). That collection resided in a cardboard box that had followed me through three relocations, and I started to worry that they would deteriorate in my basement or attic. So in 2002 I donated them to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

When my interest in Lawson was revived by newly digitized historical newspapers, I started collecting anew. Thanks to eBay, some of the stuff is rare. Over the next few posts, I'll exhibit photos of these items. Most recently, I scored a DCS cap and sash which, worn with a white shirt and pants or dress, comprised the Direct Credits Society uniform. [I know Allan Janus has one of the caps, too.] I'm embarrassed at how little I paid for these wonderful pieces of arcane Americana.

If I wore these duds to a Tea Party gathering, would anybody notice?