The Capital Times owes its very existence to righteous indignation.
In 1917, the Wisconsin State Journal blasted Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette over his opposition to the country’s entry into World War I. The paper called him “half-baked and insincere” with “pro-German tendencies” and an “un-American” voting record, which it said rendered him unfit for office.
These “unfair attacks” prompted William T. Evjue, then the State Journal’s business manager, to quit and launch his own paper, The Capital Times. Its first issue, published on Dec. 13 of that year, pledged it would be “a people’s paper.”
“That was not sloganing,” write Dave Zweifel and John Nichols in their new book, The Capital Times: A Proudly Radical Newspaper’s Century-Long Fight for Justice and for Peace, from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. “Evjue intended for The Capital Times to take sides, to crusade against corporate monopolies and the consolidation of power in the hands of wealthy and connected elites, to battle for public utilities and cooperative ownership of major enterprises, to champion labor unions and farm movements, and to argue, always, for taxing the rich and standing up for the little guy.”
Zweifel, the paper’s longtime editor and now editor emeritus, and Nichols, its high-profile associate editor, have produced a loving reminiscence of The Capital Times’ 100-year history, marked by passionate commitments and epic struggles. It celebrates the paper’s achievements and staff, including such standouts as Cedric Parker, Miles McMillan, Whitney Gould, Frank Custer, Elliott Maraniss and, appropriately, Dave Zweifel and John Nichols.
The book, it should be said, is relentlessly self-congratulatory, but understanding is in order: Most newspapers are worthy of celebration, and The Cap Times has a genuinely rich and vibrant history.
The Capital Times — the book, that is, not the paper — is arranged thematically around core issues of concern to the paper throughout its history. These include opposition to militarism, protection of the environment, advocacy for civil rights, and the championing of progressive politicians. The paper’s motto, bequeathed by Evjue: “Let the people have the truth and the freedom to discuss it and all will go well.”
We hear of the paper’s battles with foes from Joe McCarthy to Scott Walker. We are reminded of the famous story by reporter John Patrick Hunter, who found that 111 of 112 people he approached at Vilas Park on July 4, 1951, during the heyday of McCarthyism, refused to sign a petition that consisted mostly of direct quotes from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The story drew national attention and became fodder for a speech by Harry Truman, who chastised, “Now that’s what comes of all these lies, and smears and fear campaigns.”
Interestingly, the book suggests that The Capital Times, presumably inadvertently, helped turn McCarthy into an anti-communist crusader, by exposing exaggerations of his war record and abuses in office. McCarthy responded by pegging the paper as “the red mouthpiece for the Communist party in Wisconsin,” eventually realizing the power of such accusations to buoy his otherwise undistinguished political career. The paper and The Progressive worked to expose McCarthy’s duplicity and laid the foundation for his eventual undoing. As Hunter once put it, “I’m proud we earned his enmity.”
In similar fashion, the book touts the paper’s role in helping ban the pesticide DDT, prevent the view of the state Capitol from being blocked by tall buildings, bring electricity to rural America, make Wisconsin the first state to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, and realize Frank Lloyd Wright’s half-century-old dream in the construction of Monona Terrace. (Fun fact: one prominent advocate of Monona Terrace in 1988 reached out to see if a rich guy named Donald Trump might help pay for it. He didn’t.)
Zweifel and Nichols are conspicuously harsh in their assessment of the State Journal, which they deride as a supporter of McCarthy, the Vietnam War and “the establishment in general.” The paper, we are told, was “dull as dishwater” prior to Evjue being brought on board, initially as managing editor. And, after World War I, it “collapsed financially” and ended up being sold “to an out-of-state chain” — Lee Enterprises.
And yet today the print version of The Capital Times is published as a weekly insert in the State Journal, with whom it shares a website and other resources. The book notes that in 1948 the two papers created a third entity, Madison Newspapers Inc., so they could jointly buy a new press that neither could independently afford.
But this nationally unique agreement bound the fortunes of the two papers in much deeper ways. Madison Newspapers Inc. actually became the owner and publisher of both papers. The power of these ties became clear in 1977, when the general manager of MNI insisted on slashing the pay of its unionized printers, prompting a company-wide strike. All five of the company’s unions were crushed.
Zweifel and Nichols look back on this episode with regret, citing this as an example of when The Capital Times has “not always been as visionary as it should have been,” saying the strike “for a time put the newspaper that championed the great struggles of workers on the wrong side of its own workers.”
The 1948 agreement has allowed The Cap Times to continue to publish — albeit with a significantly diminished staff, now south of two dozen people — regardless of other market forces. That’s because it shares in the profits of the State Journal and other papers owned by MNI, also known as Capital Newspapers. But the arrangement perhaps affords Evjue’s paper less true independence than he would have liked.
The Capital Times, the book, does not dwell on such matters, or on the grave challenges that face The Capital Times, the paper, as it heads into the future. Rather, it is a birthday celebration for a venerable member of the community. One oddly apt sequence describes the 1952 film Deadline USA, starring Humphrey Bogart. A thuggish local powerbroker is on the phone, warning Bogart’s character, a newspaper editor, not to publish a story exposing his wrongdoing. As the two men argue, Bogart orders the presses to roll.
“What’s that racket?” the expose’s subject asks.
“That’s the press, baby, the press,” Bogart replies. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing.”
In its best moments, The Capital Times has been that sort of paper.
The Capital Times is hosting a centennial celebration Dec. 12 at Monona Terrace, 6-9 p.m.
