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This is not to be confused with the independent, research-based organization of Toronto, Canada, also called " Federated Press" that targets executives, lawyers, professionals.
The Federated Press was a left wing news agency, established in 1920, that provided daily content to the radical and labor press in United States, characterized widely from a mere "labor wire service" or "a kind of left-wing Associated Press"
to widely known for having "employed many Communist editors and correspondents,"
"so closely allied to the Communist party of America as to be regarded by the Communists as their official press association,"
or just "the Red's Federated Press."
One day... a big, sturdy chap just past middle age came into our New York People's Council office and showed credentials from the Western Metal Miners. He had been reading our Bulletin and liked the material, especially that dealing with international affairs. 'If you will put this material into a regular news service,' he told us, 'our organization will help pay for it and circulate it. Here is our first contribution' and he put a $20 bill on the desk.Nearing erroneously recalls this event as having happened in 1921, that is, a date after the merger of the International Labor News Service with the Federated Press. Nearing, The Making of a Radical," pg. 173.In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a similar concept was being tested by Edward J. Costello, Managing Editor of Victor Berger's socialist daily, the Milwaukee Leader.'' This news service, called the Federated Press, was founded on January 3, 1920, and was intended to supply copy to labor and radical newspapers around the country. The two news agencies decided to join forces under the Federated Press banner, with Costello holding down the post of Managing Editor of the Service and Lochner acting as Business Manager. Nearing provided the service with regular installments of his writing. The service grew steadily and was ultimately mailing news releases and picture mats five days a week to some 150 labor and radical publications.
William F. Dunne was another co-founder.
In August 1920, conscientious objector and university instructor Carl Haessler was released from federal penitentiary after serving a two-year sentence. He took over the job of managing editor from Costello, who left the employment of the service. Haessler remained at this position until the service was terminated in the 1940s.
In 1923 during the trial of communist leader C. E. Ruthenberg in St. Joseph, Michigan, the government prosecutor spent considerable effort while cross-examining Jay Lovestone in establishing links between the Communist Party and the Federated Press. The prosecutor attempted to prove that all funding for the Federated Press came only from "Communist sources." Lovestone held the position that the Communist Party had tried to influence the Federated Press but had never controlled it.
(In his 1952 memoir, Whittaker Chambers directly contradicts Lovestone by calling it the "communist-controlled news service of my ''Daily Worker'' days."
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Nearing continued to produce content for the Federated Press until 1943, when he was fired for his anti-war politics, which managing editor Haessler deemed to be "childish".
The service was finally discontinued in 1956.
The Federated Press had foreign bureaus in Berlin and Moscow.
The extent of the Communist influence on Federated Press became an issue during Leland Olds failed renomination to the Chairmanship of the Federal Power Commission in 1949.
Clients
In 1922, newspapers that used Federated Press service included 23 in Illinois, 17 in New York, 7 in California, 5 in Minnesota, 4 in Washington, and some 2 dozen in the Midwest and New England.
Communist Influence
A major client of the Federated Press was the Communist Party USA, which subscribed to feed its newspaper the Daily Worker,
and the Federated Press was seen as having "many Communist editors and correspondents".
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People
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The Federated Press has also been ignored in the historiography. A news-gathering cooperative, the Federated Press, which began in 1920, was the first news service that provided affiliated papers with international reports of interest to the working class. Jon Bekken states that the Federated Press survived into the early 1950s as the only independent news service that supplied information to 150 papers including newspapers in Germany, Russia and Australia. Labor, socialist, and other newspapers utilized the Federated Press. To date, only one unpublished master's thesis discusses Carl Haessler, one of the founders of the Federated Press wire service, and the Federated Press.
Bérmunkás ( The Wage Worker), Hungarian language newspaper, was affiliated with the Federated Press.Solon DeLeon and Nathan Fine (eds.), American Labor Press Directory. New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1925; pg. 11.
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