Lincoln Staffens and the McNamara Case: A Progressive Response to Class Conflict

A bstract . Lincoln Stevens' involvement with the McNamara case was one of the major concerns of his life. His Autobiography is not fully dependable regarding this incident; churches were not uniformly hostile to the settlement that ended the case and the Los Angeles Times , ignoring commitments to meet labor grievances, maintained its antiunion position. Steffens' experimentation with "Golden Rule" Christian love as an alternative to class conflict reflected his divergent allegiances to Progressives who sought reform and to radicals , basically opposed to corporate capitalism. It also reflected his own rejection of class partisanship. Although the pledges made in the settlement were broken, Steffens remained loyal to the McNamaras and continued to argue it is futile to punish individuals for acts rooted in social conflict.