Gilbert Poor

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Gilbert H. Poor (October 18, 1866 - ?) was a homesteader, newspaper publisher and machinist who served as a Socialist member of the Common Council and of the Wisconsin State Assembly. [1]

Homestead principle legal principle that you own unclaimed natural resources by first using them

The homestead principle is the principle by which one gains ownership of an unowned natural resource by performing an act of original appropriation. Appropriation could be enacted by putting an unowned resource to active use, joining it with previously acquired property or by marking it as owned. Proponents of intellectual property hold that ideas can also be homesteaded by originally creating a virtual or tangible representation of them. Others however argue that since tangible manifestations of a single idea will be present in many places, including within the minds of people, this precludes their being owned in most or all cases. Homesteading is one of the foundations of Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism.

Newspaper scheduled publication containing news of events, articles, features, editorials, and advertising

A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.

Machinist profession

A machinist is a person who machines using hand tools and machine tools to create or modify a part that is made of metal, plastics, or wood.

Contents

Background

Poor was born in Murphysboro, Illinois on October 18, 1866. When he was eleven, his family emigrated with his parents to Kansas and farmed there. He received his education in public schools, but quit while in the eighth grade. In 1888 he moved to southern Louisiana and took a Government homestead, which he later gave up. (He was later to publish a 90-page booklet, Blazing a trail: The story of a pioneer socialist agitator [Milwaukee: The Cooperative Printing Co., 1911], which he described as "Interesting sketches written by Gilbert H. Poor... first socialist agitator and first state organizer of Louisiana." [2] ) One historian describes him as a clergyman from Louisiana. [3]

Murphysboro, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Murphysboro is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,970 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the Metro Lakeland area. The mayor of Murphysboro is Will Stephens. The government consists of the mayor and 10 city aldermen.

Kansas State of the United States of America

Kansas is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, with its most populated county being Johnson County. Kansas is bordered by Nebraska on the north; Missouri on the east; Oklahoma on the south; and Colorado on the west. Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the (south) wind" although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison.

State schools are generally primary or secondary schools mandated for or offered to all children without charge, funded in whole or in part by taxation.

In 1896 he established a reform newspaper which eventually took up the cause of socialism. After running the paper about four years, the plant was destroyed by fire. In 1904 he came to Milwaukee, worked one year as an assistant engineer and then became a machinist.

Reform means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill’s Association movement which identified “Parliamentary Reform” as its primary aim.

Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production and workers' self-management, as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Social ownership can be public, collective or cooperative ownership, or citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, with social ownership being the common element shared by its various forms.

Engineer professional practitioner of engineering and its sub classes

Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build, and test machines, systems, structures and materials to fulfill objectives and requirements while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, regulation, safety, and cost. The word engineer is derived from the Latin words ingeniare and ingenium ("cleverness"). The foundational qualifications of an engineer typically include a four-year bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline, or in some jurisdictions, a master's degree in an engineering discipline plus four to six years of peer-reviewed professional practice and passage of engineering board examinations.

Elective office

In 1908 Poor lost to Republican Fred R. Zimmerman in a three-way race for the 8th Milwaukee County district (8th and 23d Wards of the City of Milwaukee) State Assembly seat, with 1159 votes to 1703 votes for Zimmerman and 1697 for Democrat Harry R. McLogan. [4]

Fred R. Zimmerman Governor of Wisconsin

Fred R. Zimmerman was a Republican politician from Milwaukee, who served as a state Assemblyman, 25th Governor of Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Secretary of State. His son Robert C. Zimmerman was also Wisconsin Secretary of State from 1957 until 1975.

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin County in the United States

Milwaukee County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 947,735 and was estimated to be 951,448 in 2016. It is the most populous county in Wisconsin and the 45th most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Milwaukee, which is also the most populous city in the state. The county was created in 1834 as part of Michigan Territory and organized the following year.

Democratic Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Poor was elected to represent the Eighth Ward in the Milwaukee Common Council in the 1910 Socialist sweep which gave them an absolute majority in that body; but served only one two-year term.

Poor was elected to the Assembly in 1916 to represent the Fifth Milwaukee County (the Fifth Ward of the City) to succeed Democrat Charles J. Stemper (who did not run for re-election). Poor received 818 votes against 807 for Democrat Otto Battger (or Batger; both spellings are found) and 778 for Republican William Leben. He was assigned to the standing committee on insurance and banking. [5]

Republican Party (United States) Major political party in the United States

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

Insurance equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another in exchange for payment

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.

Poor did not run for reelection in 1918, and was succeeded by Republican John Kaney. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ Cannon, A. Peter, ed. Members of the Wisconsin Legislature: 1848 – 1999. State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Informational Bulletin 99-1, September 1999; p. 95 Archived December 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine .
  2. ↑ Library of Congress. Copyright Office Catalogue of copyright entries: Books, Volume 8, Issue 2; p. 1047, entry 6471
  3. ↑ Nesbit, Robert C. and William F. Thompson. Wisconsin: A History Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004; p. 424
  4. ↑ Beck, J. D., ed. The blue book of the state of Wisconsin Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printer, 1909; pp. 529, 1130.
  5. ↑ The Wisconsin blue book, 1917 Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printer, 1917; pp. 296, 431, 538
  6. ↑ Hunter, Paul F., ed. The Wisconsin blue book, 1919 Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printer, 1919; p. 492
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