Lucius William Nieman was an American newspaper editor and publisher.
Background
Lucius William Nieman was born on December 13, 1857 in Bear Creek, Wisconsin, United States. He was only son and younger of the two children of Conrad and Sara Elizabeth (Delamater) Nieman, both of whom came of pioneer Wisconsin farmers. Since the father died when the boy was two and the mother lived only a few years longer, Lucius, or "Lute" as he was intimately known throughout life, grew up in the thrifty farmstead home of his maternal grandparents, William Henry Harrison and Susan (Cuppernall) Delamater, near Mukwonago.
Education
Nieman attended grade school in Mukwonago. He studied at Carroll College, Waukesha.
Career
Nieman was sent, at the age of twelve, to nearby Waukesha, where he worked as printer's devil for the weekly Freeman. Having learned to set type, he entered the composing room of the Milwaukee Sentinel two years later (1871). His pride as a workman impressed his superior, who urged him to change to "the writing side. "
He acted as local correspondent for the Sentinel. Returning to Milwaukee, he became first a reporter on that paper, then its enterprising legislative correspondent (1875), next city editor, and, finally, its managing editor--a post held until he went, in 1880, to the St. Paul Dispatch as managing editor and prospective owner. In St. Paul, Nieman turned a losing newspaper into a paying one, but within a year he decided that Milwaukee should be his permanent home. After exploring the possibility of a new paper with James E. Scripps, he purchased, December 11, 1882, half interest in the Milwaukee Daily Journal, then a small, congressional campaign sheet, twenty-two days old, prepared at a single desk and printed on a flatbed press. Thus began a journalistic stewardship which was to last more than a half century.
The early years were lean; Milwaukee was still small and there were several daily newspapers. Nieman, however, combined marked business acumen with essential editorial qualities--curiosity, independence, thoroughness, and devotion to the interests of his readers. Two months after he acquired the Journal, he printed, notwithstanding efforts at suppression, the facts as to negligence underlying a hotel fire in which some seventy persons lost their lives. If the editorial page had Democratic leanings, it was in no sense a party voice; after supporting Cleveland in 1888 (in the face of opposition from those to whom the Journal owed money), it opposed Bryan's silver policy in 1896, and temporarily lost much circulation.
A Journal campaign from 1893 to 1900 forced Wisconsin treasurers to return to the state more than $500, 000 in withheld interest on public funds. One of Nieman's hardest-fought battles was against the Bennett law (1889), which required that English be taught in all Wisconsin schools, and the Journal helped in the defeat in 1890 of Governor William D. Hoard, who signed it.
After the outbreak of the First World War, however, Nieman warned against foreign-language division in the United States, and, employing large type on the front page, announced that the Journal had erred in opposing the Bennett law.
Quick to adopt new ideas and devices, Nieman made a delivery of papers by airplane as early as 1912.
Achievements
Politics
Nieman justified the initiative, referendum, and recall as needed checks on self-serving politicians.
Views
Nieman stood consistently for tariff reform, kept a vigilant eye on schools and courts, and favored home rule, non-partisan local tickets, and popular election of senators and even of the president of the United States.