| Info | Author and political leader, was born in Plainfield, Mich., Nov. 6, 1871, son of Albert L. and Rose (Morris) Benson, and a descendant of John Benson, who cam,e to America from Southampton, England, with his wife, Mary -----, in 1638, and first settled in Hingham, MA. From them the descent was through Isaac and Mary Bumpus, Jacob and ------ ------, Jacob and Lydia Thompson, Jacob and Martha Smith, Rufus and Martha Derthick and Henry and Lydia A. Draper, the grandparents of Allan L. Benson. After a public school education in Otsego, Mich., Benson became a newspaper reporter, working on various papers in Chicago, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. In 1897 he became managing editor of the Detroit Journal and from 1901 to 1906 held a similar position on the Detroit Times. After a year as managing editor of the Washington (D.C>) Times, he retired from active newspaper work to write on political and economic subjects fro Pearson?s magazine. He also contributed signed editorials to the Appearl to Reason, a Socialist publication. A member of the Socialist party, Benson voiced that party? theories in books and booklets which had a wide popular appeal. His first book was ?Socialism Made Plain,? published in 1904, and this was followed in 1911 by ? The Usurped Power of the Courts,? a booklet, which sold 1,000,000 copies; ?The Truth About Socialism? (1913), a book, which went throught nine edition; ?The Growing Grocery Bill? (1912), a booklet, which sold 1,700,000 copies in six months; ?Our Dishonest Consitution? (1914) and ?A Way to Prevent War? (1915). When Eugene V. Debs declined to have his name presented for nomination as the Socialist candidate for President in 1916, Benson was nominated by a direct mail vote of party members. In the election he received 750,000 votes. In his campaign he urged that a declaration of offensive war should be made only by the voters of the entire country by referendum, criticized President Wilson for his stand on preparedness, and accused American munitions makers of promoting participation in the European war for their private profit. However, in 1918, with the United States participating in the First World War, he resigned form the Socialist party after it had issued a manifesto placing equal blame on Germany and the allies and opposed the selective service law. In 1918 he founded with William F. Cochran of Baltimore the Reconstruction magazine, which was published for two years. Besides those already mentioned, Benson was the author of the following books: ?Inviting War to America? (1916), ?The New Henry Ford,? biography (1923), ?The Story of Geology? (1927) and ?Daniel Webster,? biography (1929), as well as many magazine articles. He continued to write extensively until ten years before his death. He was a member of the National Arts Club of Washington. Benson was an agnostic. He was married in Windsor, Canada, Nov. 19, 1899, to Mary, daughter of Henry Hugh, a police officer of Toledo, Ohio, and they had four children: Mary, who married Charles Lloyd Jackson; Welton Harris; Allan Louis, and James Adelbert Benson. He died in Yonkers, N.Y., Aug. 19,1940.
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