Samuel Milton "Golden Rule" Jones (1846–1904) was a Progressive-Era Mayor of

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

from 1897 until his death in 1904. Jones was famous for his outspoken advocacy of the proverbial

ethic of reciprocity Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

or "Golden Rule," hence his nickname. Jones was a well-known eccentric advocate of municipal reform. He oversaw implementation of a series of humane modifications of the city of Toledo's administration during his tenure as mayor.

Early years

Samuel Milton Jones was born on August 3, 1846, at Tŷ-mawr near

Beddgelert Beddgelert () is a village and community in the Snowdonia area of Gwynedd, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 455, and includes Nantmor and Nant Gwynant. It is reputed to be named after the legendary hound ...

in Caernarvonshire,

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. Jones' family was impoverished when Samuel was 3 years old, they immigrated to the United States in search of economic opportunity, winding up in central

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

.Eltweed Pomeroy, "Samuel M. Jones: An Appreciation," ''The American Fabian,'' vol. 4, no. 7 (July 1898), pg. 1. Owing to the family's poverty, Jones was forced to work from a very young age and he received little formal education. After working for a time on his family's small farm, he left at age 14 to take work in a sawmill.George Tanber
"City Flourished Under Golden Rule of Jones,"
''Toledo Blade,'' Dec. 15, 1999. Online availability through Teaching Cleveland Digital, www.teachingcleveland.org/ From age 16 he began working summers aboard a steamship. When he was 18, Jones made his way to

Titusville, Pennsylvania Titusville is a city in the far eastern corner of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,601 at the 2010 census and an estimated 5,158 in 2019. Titusville is known as the birthplace of the American oil industry and fo ...

to try to find work in the booming oil industry of

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

. He was initially unsuccessful there and he returned to New York the next year, where he found employment and managed to save up a modest sum of money over the next three years.

Business career

Jones returned to Pennsylvania at the age of 22, where he began to speculatively invest his small nest egg in oil leases, from which he began to accumulate wealth. Jones then married, had three children,and spent the next 15 years in the Pennsylvania oil industry. Following the death of his wife and a child, Jones and his two surviving children left Pennsylvania for the oil fields of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in 1886. It was there that he helped established the Ohio Oil Company, a firm which was later bought by Standard Oil Company, making Jones a wealthy man. In 1892, Jones moved to

, the first time that he had lived in a large city. The next year, the Panic of 1893 erupted, with the United States into a depression and millions of individuals thrown into the grips of poverty. As a man of considerable wealth Jones was not himself personally affected by the misery around him — with an estimated 7,000 people in

Lucas County, Ohio Lucas County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is bordered to the east by Lake Erie, and to the southeast by the Maumee River, which runs to the lake. As of the 2020 census, the population was 431,279 ...

rendered indigent and the city of Toledo forced millions of dollars in debt — but he nevertheless seems to have been emotionally affected by the economic collapse. Jones turned his talents to mechanical invention, obtaining a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

in 1894 for a new variety of iron pumping rod for deep well drilling. He opened a manufacturing plant in Toledo that same year for the manufacture of these so-called "sucker rods" for the oil industry — the Acme Sucker Rod Company. This marked a new career turn for Jones, from that of a mineral rights speculator and oil drilling operator to that of an employer of wage labor in a factory setting. Jones made the decision to operate his new enterprise in accord with some of the emerging ideas about workplace reform. Whereas the prevailing wage in the depressed local economy stood at $1.00–$1.50 a day ($35–$53 in 2022), Jones paid his employees a living wage of $1.50 to $2.00 a day ($53–$70 in 2022). Jones implemented the 8-hour day for his workers and offered them paid vacation, revenue-sharing, and subsidized meals in a company cafeteria. Jones also contributed to workplace culture by paying for instruments for employees so that they could form a company band.Melvin G. Holli, ''The American Mayor.'' University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999; pp. 44–52. Instead of a lengthy list of company regulations governing employee behavior, Acme Sucker Rod posted only one rule on the company notice board: "The golden rule: Do unto others as you would do unto yourself." Jones's largesse in the face of general misery grew to legendary proportions among residents of Toledo and he earned the popular moniker "Golden Rule" Jones.

Mayor of Toledo

In 1897 Jones received the Republican nomination for mayor of Toledo. Workers liked his golden rule policy and united behind him, and he won the mayoral election. He strove to improve conditions for the working class of his community. Again based on his belief in the Golden Rule, Jones: * opened free

kindergartens Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

* developed a park system * established playgrounds for children * established free public baths * instituted an

eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the ...

for city workers * took away truncheons from the police * refused to enforce

blue laws Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons, ...

* reformed the city government These policies made Jones unpopular with the Toledo's business community and his tolerance of saloons caused him to lose the support of many moral reformers. When his term was over in 1899, Jones was not re-nominated by the Republicans. He ran as an independent instead under the slogan "Principle Before Party" winning a second term with 70 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 1901 with 57% of the vote and again in 1903 with 48% of the vote in a three-way race. Progressive journalist and lawyer Brand Whitlock, who succeeded Jones as mayor, portrayed Jones as almost lighthearted in his approach to reform, especially when upsetting norms observed by the police:

was most in his element when the police judge was absent, as he was now and then. In that exigency the law gave Jones, as mayor, the power to appoint the acting police judge; and when Jones did not go down and sit as magistrate himself, he appointed me; and we always found some reason or other for letting all the culprits go.Whitlock, Brand, ''Forty Years of It'', p.121 (D. Appleton & Co., New York and London, 1914).
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Police frustration with Jones led the Ohio General Assembly, which Republicans dominated, to enact a statute taking control of the Toledo police department away from the mayor and giving it instead to a commission appointed by the governor. In 1902, however, the

Ohio Supreme Court The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...

struck the statute down as violative of the

Ohio Constitution The Constitution of the State of Ohio is the basic governing document of the State of Ohio, which in 1803 became the 17th state to join the United States of America. Ohio has had three constitutions since U.S. state, statehood was granted. Ohio ...

after Jones mounted a legal challenge. "Golden Rule" Jones died suddenly during his third term as mayor on July 12, 1904. Citizens of Toledo lined the streets to view his funeral procession. His successor, Brand Whitlock, continued Jones' reform efforts. Whitlock's 1914 autobiography, ''Forty Years of It'', contains an extended, admiring discussion of Jones. A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

saw Jones ranked as the fifth-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.

Legacy

Samuel Milton Jones speaking poses - DPLA - 9910c7b9255731fbc80d847716177c6a

Jones was a

Christian Socialist Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...

. He was influenced by

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

, but argued in his 1899 book: But, because of Jones's iconoclasm, the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

of his day "disowned him, and were at one with the capitalists in their hatred and abuse of him." According to historian Robert M. Crunden, Jones was In his will, Jones left a "Golden Rule Trust" to the workers in his factory for $10,000 (over $328,400 in 2022).

Footnotes

External links

"Samuel M. Jones,"
Ohio History Central online encyclopedia, www.ohiohistorycentral.org/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Samuel M. 1846 births 1904 deaths Mayors of Toledo, Ohio American Christian socialists Ohio socialists Businesspeople from Toledo, Ohio 19th-century American politicians 20th-century American politicians