Two private mailing subscription postcards issued by the Socialist publication Appeal to Reason with “coupon” for admittance to a Fred Warren lecture. Appeal to Reason was published in Girard, Kansas the early 20 th century. Card dates unknown (c. 1908-1916).

Text on cards:

This card is good for forty weeks’ subscription to Appeal to Reason. Sign name and address of party to whom you want the paper sent on blank below and hand to doorkeeper or mail to Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kansas.

Black ink on white card (now browned). Both cards have ink fading and signs of wear, but no tears. One card has name of owner in pencil on side.

Appeal to Reason was founded by Julius Wayland in 1897. The socialist journal was a mixture of articles and extracts from radical books by people such as Tom Paine, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, John Ruskin, William Morris, Laurence Gronlund and Edward Bellamy. Julius Wayland moved to Girard, Kansas, and in 1900 employed Fred Warren as his co-editor. Warren was a well-known figure on the left and managed to persuade some of America's leading progressives to contribute to the journal. This included Jack London, Mary 'Mother' Jones, Upton Sinclair, Kate Richards O'Hare, Scott Nearing, Joe Haaglund Hill, Ralph Chaplin, Stephen Crane, Helen Keller and Eugene Debs. By 1902 its circulation reached 150,000, making it the fourth highest of any weekly in the United States.