The Lexington Civic League: Agent of Reform, 1900 - The Filson ...

1988] Lexington Civic League 339
the first two decades of the twentieth century this newspaper
became a major force in promoting the progressive reform movement.
Both its news reporting, which gave the Civic League and
other reform groups front-page coverage, and its editorial
stance wei e greatly influenced by Mrs. Breckinridge. The greatgranddaughter
of Henry Clay and the great-niece of Dr. Ephraim
McDowell, she became known throughout the state as a leader
fo1: progressive reforms and for woman suffrage. Indeed, evidence
in her papers indicates that she was the one who formulated
the idea of establishing a civic league in Lexington)
• Immediately after its creation the Civic League began to promote
reforms similar to those being advocated by Progressives
around the country.7 Very often these reformers focused on the
child as the key to solving existing social problems; this was
trueof the Lexington Civic League. While it might be too late to
liber .te adults from the cycle of poverty, disease, and exploitation,
they hoped to prevent the child from following the same
path. As a 1902 Lexington Herald editorial expressed it: "Fellow
6 Ida (Mrs. Albert M.) Harrison had been one of the founders of the
Kentucky Federation of Women!s Clubs. See Mrs. W. T. Lafferty, comp.,
Fifty Years of Service Outline History, Kentucky Federation of Women's
Clubs (n.p.: Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs, 1944), 14. For
Samuel M. Wilson, see Charles Kerr, ed., History of Kentucky (5 vols.;
Chicago: American Historical Association, 1922), 3:365. Detailed accounts
of the role of Desha and Maleline Breckinridge in the Progressive reform
movement in Lexington are found in James C. Klotter's, "The Breckinridges
of Kentucky, Two Centuries of Leadership" (Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Kentucky, 1975), 226-35 and his book, The Brecklnridges of Kentucky,
1760-1981 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986), 208-
243; also Melba Porter Hay, "Madeline McDowell Breckinridge: Kentucky
Suffragist and Progressive Reformer" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Kentucky, 1980). The resolutions adopted at the mass meeting of 21 February
1899 (see note 4 above) were handwritten by Mrs. Breckinridge.
7 For various interpretations of Progressivism and its goals, see John D.
Buenke ': Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1973) ; Allen F. Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social
Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-191d, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1967) ; Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous With Destiny (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf,Inc., 1952) ; Richard Hofstadtor, The .4ge of Reform
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1955); Jack Tager, "Progressives,
Conservatives and the Theory of the Status Revolution, ''• M/d-
America 48 (1966): 162-75 Robert H.'.Wiebol The Search for Order, 1877-
19 0 (New York: Hilt and Wang, 1967).