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The Enigma of Meyer Lissner: Los Angeles's Progressive Boss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

Mark H. Stevens
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Abstract

Meyer Lissner was Los Angeles's preeminent municipal political reformer between 1906 and 1913. Yet he was perhaps an enigmatic progressive. His life defied conformity and categorization to specific progressive norms regarding ethnicity, religion, upbringing, and social position. His gift for organization, combined with a keen political intelligence, enabled him to organize a formidable opposition to the Southern Pacific—dominated local political environment. Los Angeles's municipal politics thereafter remained nonpartisan. His political skill won him the praise of his progressive supporters and the scorn of his critics as a “reform boss,” a charge with which they mercilessly pursued him throughout the remainder of his municipal career. Was Lissner a “reformer,” a “boss,” a combination of both, or neither? Do such categories matter, given the reality of Progressive Era urban politics and current trends in writing on the stereotyped struggle between the boss and the reformer?

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 111 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2009

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52 Open Letter on Patronage by Meyer Lissner, n.d., Box 3; Lissner to John Mac Vicar, Feb. 16,1911, Box 2, Lissner Papers.

53 Meyer Lissner to I. Block, May 23, 1913, Box 6; Lissner to H. E. Whitaker, Nov. 4, 1911, Box 3, Lissner Papers.

54 Meyer Lissner to Hiram W Johnson, Apr. 4, 1911, Box 2; Lissner to Johnson, June 14, 1911, Box 3; Lissner to J. M. Eshleman, Nov. 20, 1911, Box 3; Lissner to E. T. Earl and H. W. Brundige, July 27, 1912, Box 4; Russ Avery to Lissner, Jan. 20, 1913, Box 12, Lissner Papers.

55 Meyer Lissner to L. A. Watson, Nov. 23, 1912, Box 5, Lissner Papers.

56 Meyer Lissner to Thomas S. Hutton, Apr. 3, 1908, Box 1; Lissner to Robert M. La Follette, Dec. 20,1909; Lissner to H. Schocken, Nov. 29,1910; Lissner to Hiram W. Johnson, Jan. 24, 1911, Box 2; Lissner to Johnson, Jan. 4, 1912, Box 3; Lissner to Johnson, Nov. 26, 1913, Box 6; and Lissner to William Kent, Mar. 8, 1913, Box 5, Lissner Papers.

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58 Quote in Lissner to Ed.,Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 7, 1911Google Scholar, Box 3, Iissner Papers. Also, Iissner to J. S. Conwell, June 11,1913, Box 6, Iissner Papers.

59 Meyer Lissner to A. I. Warren, Feb. 6, 1911, Box 2; Lissner to the City Club of Long Beach, California, July 14, 1911, Box 40, Lissner Papers.

60 Meyer Lissner to J. A. Merrill, Feb. 15, 1911, Box 2, Lissner Papers.

61 , Lissner, “Good Government Victory Address,” Dec. 1909Google Scholar, Box 40; Iissner to Ed.,Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 7, 1911Google Scholar, Box 3; and Lissner to Dwight B. Heard, Dec. 29, 1913, Box 6, Lissner Papers.

62 Meyer Lissner to Hiram W. Johnson, Feb. 14, 1911, Box 2; Lissner to Johnson, June 11, 1913, 2, Box 6, Lissner Papers.

63 Meyer Lissner to R. W Burnham, Sept. 8, 1908, Box 1, Lissner Papers.

64 Meyer Lissner to Evelyn D. Armer, Feb. 18, 1911, Box 2; Lissner to Hiram W. Johnson, June 11, 1913; Lissner to Reynold E. Blight, June 5, 1913, Box 6, Lissner Papers.

65 Meyer Lissner to Messrs. Newmire and Morris, June 30, 1912, Box 4, Lissner Papers.

66 Meyer Lissner to R. W. Burnham, Sept. 8, 1908, Box 1; Lissner to W. J. Washbum, Feb. 1, 1911; Lissner to A.I. Warren, Mar. 7, 1911, Box 2; and Meyer Lissner to William L. Keith, Aug.l, 1911, Box 3, Lissner Papers.

67 Quote in Meyer Lissner to Rev. J. Leonard Levy, Nov. 30, 1910; Lissner to H. H. Mayberry, Dec. 23, 1910, Box 2, Lissner Papers.

68 Meyer Lissner to Nathan W. Blanchard, Feb. 7, 1911, Box 2; Address by Meyer Lissner, n.d., Box 40, Lissner Papers;Lissner, Meyer, “The City and Its Wards,” California Outlook, Feb. 27, 1915Google Scholar; and Los Angeles Express, Jan. 2, 1909Google Scholar.

69 Quotes in Meyer Lissner to Ralph Clarkson, Aug. 6, 1906, Box 1, Lissner Papers. Also, Lissner to Clarence L. Harper, Dec. 3,1913, Box 6; Iissner to J. M. Eshleman, July 12,1912, Box 4, Iissner Papers.

70 Meyer Lissner to F. G. Tyrell, June 4, 1910, Box 2; Iissner to George W. Perkins, Oct. 22,1912, Box 5; Iissner to William H. Fuller, June 29,1912, Box 4; and Iissner to Henry C. Keller, Jan. 18, 1911, Box 2, Iissner Papers. Also, Iissner, “Reform in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Herald, Apr. 11,1909.

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