A review of the career of Milwaukee mayor Daniel Hoan.

Bender speech at banquet tribute to Hoan idealism

Daniel Webster Hoan (1881-1961) left school early but took evening classes and in 1908 qualified as a lawyer. He became Milwaukee's city attorney in 1911 and in 1916 was elected mayor of Milwaukee, an office to which he was successively re-elected until 1940. A political radical who appealed to heavily unionized urban voters, Hoan's remains the longest continuous Socialist administration in U.S. history. During his three decades at the helm of city government, he enacted many progressive changes, including the building of low-cost housing called Garden Homes. In 1940 he was defeated for re-election by Carl F Zeidler. Hoan ran unsuccessfully ran for Governor in 1944 and 1946, then largely retired from politics as the nation and state became more conservative after World War Two. He died in 1961.

This article reprints a speech given in 1935 at a dinner to celebrate two decades of Milwaukee "Sewer Socialism" under Hoan's guidance. Its author, Walter H. Bender, was a friend of Hoan, and in it he reviews the major achievements of his socialist administrations.

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