J. Howard Moore

For other people with the same name, see John Moore (disambiguation).

J. Howard Moore
Moore, c. 1914
Born	John Howard Moore (1862-12-04)December 4, 1862 Rockville, Indiana, U.S.
Died	June 17, 1916(1916-06-17) (aged 53) Wooded Island, Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Excelsior Cemetery, Mitchell County, Kansas, U.S. 39.3967018°N 98.3578033°W / 39.3967018; -98.3578033
Education	Oskaloosa College Drake University University of Chicago (A.B. in zoology, 1896)
Occupations	Zoologist philosopher educator social reformer
Years active	1890–1916
Organizations	Chicago Vegetarian Society Humanitarian League
Known for	Animal rights and ethical vegetarianism advocacy
Notable work	The Universal Kinship (1906)
Spouse	Louise Jesse "Jennie" Darrow ​ ​ (m. 1899)​
Relatives	Clarence Darrow (brother-in-law)
Signature

John Howard Moore (December 4, 1862 – June 17, 1916) was an American zoologist, philosopher, educator, and social reformer. He wrote on animal ethics, ethical vegetarianism, humane education, socialism, temperance, and evolutionary biology. In The Universal Kinship (1906), Moore set out a secular ethic that applied the Golden Rule to all sentient beings and used Darwinian ideas of evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals.

Born near Rockville, Indiana, Moore spent much of his youth in Linden, Missouri, and later lived in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. He studied at Oskaloosa College, Drake University, and the University of Chicago, where he earned an A.B. in zoology in 1896. During his studies he rejected Christianity, adopted vegetarianism, became a socialist, helped found the university's Vegetarian Eating Club, and won a national oratorical competition on prohibition. He later taught at Crane Technical High School and other schools in Chicago, while publishing books, articles, essays, and pamphlets.

Moore was associated with the Chicago Vegetarian Society and the British Humanitarian League. His publications included Why I Am a Vegetarian (1895), Better-World Philosophy (1899), The Universal Kinship (1906), The New Ethics (1907), Ethics and Education (1912), The Law of Biogenesis (1914), and Savage Survivals (1916). His work was read by members of the humanitarian, socialist, and animal protection movements, including Henry S. Salt, Clarence Darrow, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Eugene V. Debs. After years of illness, chronic pain, and depression, Moore died by suicide in Jackson Park, Chicago, in 1916.

Biography

Early life and education

John Howard Moore was born on December 4, 1862, near Rockville, Indiana. He was the eldest of the six children of William A. Moore and Mary Moore (née Barger). He had three brothers and two sisters. When Moore was six months old, his family moved to Linden, Missouri. Over the next 30 years, the family moved between Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.

Moore was raised in a Christian household. According to Donna L. Davey, his childhood religious teaching presented humans as having dominion over the Earth and other animals. Moore later wrote that, while growing up on a farm, he hunted and accepted the view that animals existed for human purposes.

Moore studied at High Bank School in Linden until the age of 17, then attended a college in Rock Port, Missouri, for one year. He studied at Oskaloosa College in Iowa from 1880 to 1884, but did not graduate. He later attended Drake University. Davey writes that Moore's study of science introduced him to Darwin's theory of evolution, leading him to reject Christianity and to argue for an ethic that did not treat animals as valuable only for their use to humans. Moore also studied law under C. H. Hawkins in Cawker City, Kansas.

Early career

Lecture billing notice, 1891

In 1884, Moore was appointed as an examiner for the Board of Teachers in Mitchell County, Kansas. In 1886, he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives and finished last out of five candidates. During this period, he adopted vegetarianism for ethical reasons.

In 1889, Moore was employed by the National Lecture Bureau. Newspaper coverage called him the "silver tongue of Kansas", a "youthful Luther", and a speaker known for his oratory and singing voice. In the summer of 1890, he studied voice culture in singing and speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York. From 1890 to 1893, Moore lectured in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. He also lectured for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

I came to the conclusion out there on the Kansas prairies that the animals were not treated right by human beings. I thought we had not even a right to kill them for food and came to the University of Chicago to study the matter. At that time I had never heard of vegetarianism.

— J. Howard Moore

In 1890, Moore published his first pamphlet, A Race of Somnambulists. Davey describes it as a criticism of the treatment of animals for food, sport, and fashion. In the pamphlet, Moore attacked Thanksgiving as a day of gluttony and killing, and argued that the sympathy that had been applied to slavery and women's rights should also be applied to animals.

During this period, Moore lived on a farm south of Cawker City and worked as a reporter for The Beloit Daily Call, submitting rural correspondence about local events.

University of Chicago studies and activities

Moore, 1895

In 1894, Moore entered the University of Chicago with advanced academic standing. He graduated in April 1896 with an A.B. degree in zoology.

While studying there, he became a socialist and served as vice president of the university's Prohibition Club. He also co-founded its Vegetarian Eating Club, serving as president in 1895 and as purveyor the following year.

In 1895, he won first honors in the Prohibition Club's annual oratory contest with his speech "The Scourge of the Republic". That April, he represented the university at the state prohibition contest in Wheaton, Illinois, where he also won first place. He later won first honors at the national contest in Cleveland. A newspaper profile described Moore as a supporter of women's suffrage.

Chicago Vegetarian Society

Moore was a member of the Chicago Vegetarian Society and the British Humanitarian League. Bernard Unti writes that he modeled the Chicago society on the League.

In 1895, Moore addressed the Society with a speech later published as Why I Am a Vegetarian and serialized in the Chicago Vegetarian, the Society's journal, in 1897. He argued for solidarity among sentient beings and explained his refusal to eat meat with the statement, "I never want happiness that gives another pain". The address attacked meat consumption as part of a wider pattern in which the interests of some beings were sacrificed for the convenience of others.

Favorable reviews appeared in The Phrenological Journal of Science and Health in 1899 and 1900. Laurence Gronlund, a Danish-born American lawyer, lecturer, and political activist, wrote a pamphlet in response titled Why I Am Not a Vegetarian: Why He is Wrong. In reply to Gronlund's critique, Moore asserted that for a carnivore, "every meal is a murder" and argued that explaining why one is "not a vegetarian" is an attempt to justify predation.

In 1898, Moore was given a full-page column in the Society's journal, the Chicago Vegetarian.

Teaching career

Faculty of Crane Technical High School, Chicago; Moore is seated at center, 1914

After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1896, Moore accepted the chair of sociology at Wisconsin State University, lecturing on social progress, before continuing to teach at the university.

In 1898, Moore began teaching ethics and zoology at Crane Technical High School, a position he kept for the rest of his life. He also taught at other schools in Chicago, including Calumet High School and Hyde Park High School. In 1908, Moore taught courses on elementary zoology, physiographic ecology, and the evolution of domestic animals at the University of Chicago for three quarters.

In 1909, Illinois passed a law requiring the teaching of morals in public schools for 30 minutes each week. Davey writes that, unlike many of his colleagues, Moore welcomed the law and began preparing educational materials.

In February 1912, a meeting of the Schoolmasters' Club of Chicago, of which Moore was a member, was disrupted because some members objected to his views. Moore responded: "I am a radical and a socialist, but I do not allow my radicalism nor my socialism to enter into my teachings."

Moore opposed the Chicago Board of Education's attempt, between 1913 and 1914, to stop teaching sex hygiene. He wrote to the board in support of the subject. In January 1914, he spoke on the issue at Hull House in Chicago. The board later dropped the proposal.

Writings

Better-World Philosophy

Advertisement for Better-World Philosophy, 1899

In 1899, Moore published his first book, Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis. Davey summarizes the book as an argument that sentience is the basis of ethical consideration and that non-human animals should be included within moral concern. The book also discusses eugenics, procreation, childhood moral education, and the relation between self-love and concern for others.

The book received mixed reviews. Lester Frank Ward praised its independent thought, and David Starr Jordan praised its style and conclusions.

Fermented Beverages

In 1900, Moore published Fermented Beverages: Their Effects on Mankind. The book examined the physiological, psychological, and social effects of alcohol, discussed both harms and possible benefits, and questioned some strict prohibitionist arguments.

The Universal Kinship

Cover of The Universal Kinship, 1906

Moore published The Universal Kinship in 1906. In the book, he discussed Darwinism and the physical, mental, and ethical relationship between humans and other animals. Moore drew on evolutionary writers including Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Romanes, and Lubbock.

Moore argued that Darwinian evolution undermined strict human-animal separation and required humans to extend the Golden Rule to all sentient beings.

The book received several favorable reviews. It was endorsed by Mark Twain, Jack London, Eugene V. Debs, Mona Caird, Richard F. Outcault, and Ella Wheeler Willcox. It also received favorable mentions in British publications, including The Humanitarian, Reynold's Newspaper, and the Manchester News.

The New Ethics

In 1907, Moore published The New Ethics. Davey describes the book as an extension of his argument that Darwinian evolution required a wider ethics and a rejection of anthropocentrism.

Ethics textbooks

Title page of Ethics and Education, 1912

In 1912, Moore published Ethics and Education, a book for teachers responding to the new Illinois requirement to teach morals in public schools. It discussed physical, vocational, intellectual, and ethical aspects of education and argued that moral instruction should include concern for all sentient beings.

Before publication, Moore drew controversy after circulating extracts that criticized the courts and marriage. In an interview, he defended the book and invited the Board of Education to investigate him.

In the same year, he published High-School Ethics: Book One, intended as the first part of a four-year high school ethics course. It covered school conduct, care for pets, women's rights, birds, animal products such as sealskin and ivory, and habits.

Moore also published The Ethics of School Life, a pamphlet based on a lesson he gave to students at Crane Technical High School.

The Law of Biogenesis

In 1914, Moore published The Law of Biogenesis: Being Two Lessons on the Origin of Human Nature, a collection of 32 discourses first developed as lectures for Crane Technical High School. The book includes an introduction by Mary Marcy, a radical socialist writer and editor of the International Socialist Review. Moore used the term "biogenesis" for physical and mental recapitulation, defining it as the process by which beings repeat the evolutionary development of their ancestors.

A reviewer for Life, in 1915, described the book as authoritative and straightforward.

Savage Survivals

Moore published Savage Survivals in 1916. The book compiled 63 lectures delivered at Crane Technical High School and was divided into five sections on domesticated animals, human ancestry, and the survival of traits that Moore regarded as primitive within modern society. It contained 27 illustrations by Roy Olson and L. F. Simmons.

F. Stuart Chapin's 1917 review in the American Journal of Sociology praised the book as a presentation of organic and social evolution for children and as a treatise on prehistoric human evolution, but stated that some of its anthropology was outdated.

Other works

"Tending Toward 'A Celestial Civilization'", 1910

Moore wrote articles and pamphlets for humane organizations and journals, including the Humanitarian League, Millennium Guild, Massachusetts SPCA, American Anti-Vivisection Society, American Humane Association, and the Order of the Golden Age. His subjects included vegetarianism, animal rights, human-animal relations, temperance, and humane education.

Moore criticized American imperialism and the Philippine–American War in his 1899 article "America's Apostasy". He argued that the United States had abandoned its principles of liberty and justice and compared American soldiers in the Philippines to British redcoats during the American Revolution.

In 1908, he criticized Theodore Roosevelt and his hunting expedition to Africa in an article. In another article, published in 1910, he described Roosevelt as a forceful personality with an intense interest in killing animals.

In June 1916, Moore published "The Source of Religion" in the International Socialist Review. The article argued that religion was a human creation that arose early in mental development and persisted through tradition after science had given natural explanations for the world. The article provoked discussion.

An obituary in the Los Angeles Times stated that Moore had completed a book titled The Life of Napoleon, but it was not published.

Advocacy and public speaking

Lecture billing notice, 1914

Moore gave public speeches throughout his career as a teacher and lecturer. His speeches were often printed and distributed as pamphlets or handed out for free. Davey writes that he spoke on vegetarianism, fur, socialist candidates, animal rights, ethics, women's suffrage, hunting, war, and alcohol.

In November 1906, Moore's speech "The Cost of a Skin" caused controversy at the American Humane Association's convention. In the speech, Moore denounced the use of fur and feathers in fashion as "conscienceless and inhumane". Audience reaction was mixed; some applauded, others remained silent, and two women left before the speech ended. The speech was later published as a chapter in The New Ethics (1907), as a pamphlet by the Animals' Friend Society of London, and in The Herald of the Golden Age.

On October 25, 1908, Moore addressed the Young People's Socialist League in support of Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that Moore argued that Debs would imprison wealthy people rather than the usual prisoners, and that young people and university students were receptive to socialist teaching.

The Millennium Guild, founded in 1912 by Emarel Freshel, was the first animal rights society established in the United States. In 1913, Moore was listed as a member of the Boston branch.

In 1913, Moore spoke at the International Anti-vivisection and Animal Protection Congress in Washington, D.C. He argued that vivisection and meat consumption arose from anthropocentrism and that Darwin's On the Origin of Species had weakened claims of human superiority or uniqueness.

Death

Wooded Island in Jackson Park, Chicago, 1916

Clarence Darrow's eulogy

In the early morning of June 17, 1916, at the age of 53, Moore died after shooting himself in the head with a revolver on Wooded Island in Jackson Park, Chicago. He had often visited the island to observe and study birds.

Moore had experienced illness and chronic pain for several years after an abdominal operation for gallstones in 1911. He had also expressed despondency about human indifference to animal suffering. In a note found on his body by a police officer, he wrote to his wife:

The long struggle is ended. I must pass away. Good-by. Oh, men are so cold and hard and half conscious toward their suffering fellows. Nobody understands. O my mother, and O my little girl! What will become of you? And the poor four-footed! May the long years be merciful! Take me to my river. There, where the wild birds sing and the waters go on and on, alone in my groves, forever. O, Tess, forgive me. O, forgive me, please!

Moore's death was ruled a suicide caused by a "temporary fit of insanity". His wife requested that his body be cremated and that his ashes be sent to Mobile County, Alabama, for burial on land he owned. His brother-in-law, Clarence Darrow, was affected by his death.

A funeral service was held at Oakwood Chapel in Chicago on June 19. Darrow delivered a eulogy, calling Moore a "dead dreamer" who had died while "suffering under a temporary fit of sanity". The eulogy was later published in The Athena. Moore's body was returned to his former home near Cawker City, where a funeral service was held at Plainview Church. He was buried alongside his father in Excelsior Cemetery, Mitchell County, Kansas.

Personal life

Marriage

Moore married Louise Jesse "Jennie" Darrow on February 21, 1899, in Racine, Wisconsin. She was the sister of attorney Clarence Darrow and worked as a schoolteacher. She also supported animal rights and vegetarianism. Both Moore and his wife admired the character Tess from Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Moore used "Tess" as a pet name for his wife. He was also an enthusiast of the works of Alexandre Dumas, which he first encountered at the Cawker City library.

Correspondence and friendships

Henry S. Salt

Howard Moore was one of the truest and tenderest of our friends, himself prone to despondency and, as his books show, with a touch of pessimism, yet never failing in his support and encouragement of others and of all humanitarian effort. "What on earth would we Unusuals do, in this lonely dream of life," so he wrote in one of his letters, "if it were not for the sympathy and friendship of the Few?"

— Henry S. Salt

Moore first came to the attention of Henry S. Salt, co-founder of the Humanitarian League and author of Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress, when he published Better-World Philosophy in 1899. Salt reviewed the book and began a correspondence with Moore that became a close friendship.

In a letter to Salt, Moore described writing as a demanding process and said that he was often immobilized by feelings of horror. He wrote that he disliked writing and believed he could be relatively content without the pressure to produce literary work.

On March 25, 1911, Moore wrote to Salt about depression and a breakdown caused by overwork. He said that although his books might not accomplish much, he had put a great deal of effort into them.

In his 1921 memoir, Salt wrote that Moore had reasons for suicide and criticized the cautious coverage of his death in many English animal advocacy journals. Salt dedicated his 1923 book The Story of My Cousins to Moore and, in his 1930 autobiography Company I Have Kept, wrote about their friendship despite the fact that they never met in person.

Salt later described Moore's The Universal Kinship as the "best ever written in the humanitarian cause." A selection of Moore's letters to Salt was included in the appendix of the 1992 edition, edited by Charles R. Magel.

May Walden Kerr

Moore was a close friend of May Walden Kerr, the wife of Charles H. Kerr, who published many of Moore's books. After the Kerrs divorced in 1904, Moore and Walden continued corresponding, and Moore and his wife sometimes vacationed with Walden and her daughter.

Lightning strike

In 1885, Moore was struck by lightning, receiving burns to his arm and chest and temporarily losing his sight and speech. He recovered after six days of bed rest. For the rest of his life, Moore suffered from severe headaches that were attributed to the injury. In 1908, he published an account of the incident in the Cawker City Public Record.

Wilderness preservation

Moore advocated wilderness preservation. In 1914, he purchased 116.5 acres (47.1 ha) of land in Alabama, near Mobile Bay. In a letter written on his birthday that year, he described the land as containing many kinds of trees. Moore wanted the property to serve as a wildlife sanctuary and a place for public enjoyment, and stated in his will that the land should be preserved as it was. He described it as remote, inhabited by many animals, and containing about a mile of water from a river and brook.

Philosophy

Universal Kinship

Yes, do as you would be done by—and not to the dark man and the white woman alone, but to the sorrel horse and the gray squirrel as well; not to creatures of your own anatomy only, but to all creatures. You cannot go high enough nor low enough nor far enough to find those whose bowed and broken beings will not rise up at the coming of the kindly heart, or whose souls will not shrink and darken at the touch of inhumanity. Live and let live. Do more. Live and help live. Do to beings below you as you would be done by beings above you.

— J. Howard Moore

Moore's doctrine of Universal Kinship was a secular Darwinian philosophy based on the evolutionary relationship of sentient beings. He argued that human ethical development had not kept pace with physical, material, and technological development, especially in the treatment of animals.

Moore regarded moral anthropocentrism as an expression of human arrogance. David Lamb writes that Moore used Darwin's theory to oppose the idea that humans occupy a special place in nature, quoting Moore's statement that "Man is not the end; he is but an incident, of the infinite elaboration of Time and Space".

Moore argued that "moral provincialism" prevented humans from extending moral consideration to animals. Kerry S. Walters and Lisa Portmess write that Moore compared prejudice against animals with prejudice based on race and gender, and argued that animals, as sentient and conscious beings, had claims to fair treatment and to reduced suffering. Moore maintained that animals should be treated as ends-in-themselves, not merely as means for food or clothing. Davey connects Moore's despair over this issue with his suicide.

Moore applied the Golden Rule to all sentient beings. He argued that human moral development required people to treat animals with kindness and not as commodities.

Zoöcentricism

The ideal relation of the inhabitants of the universe to each other, then, is that relation which will most actively conduce to the welfare of the universe; and the welfare of the universe means, not the welfare of any one individual or guild, but the welfare of all the beings who now inhabit it, and of those who shall come after—the welfare of that mighty and immortal personality who comprehends all species and continues from generation to generation—the Sentient Cosmos.

— J. Howard Moore

Moore used the term zoöcentricism for an ethical view centered on sentient beings. He argued that every sentient being has a moral relation to other sentient beings, and that actions may be judged right or wrong according to their effects on happiness, welfare, misery, ill-being, or maladaptation. He held that this framework did not apply to the non-sentient universe, which lacked the capacity for moral relations. On this basis, he contended that without sentience there would be no ethics.

Ethical vegetarianism

Moore argued that vegetarianism followed from ethical concern for sentient beings. In Why I Am a Vegetarian, he connected vegetarianism with compassion, animal suffering, and Darwinian claims about the kinship of humans and other animals. He argued that Darwin's work widened the scope of ethics by weakening the assumption that humans were separate from other animals.

Socialism

Moore presented socialism as a product of human evolution toward cooperation. In Better-World Philosophy, he compared human society with early unicellular organisms forming colonies and argued that society was moving from individualism toward a more organized social organism. He described socialism as a way to reduce hereditary disadvantages and to make the strong support the weak.

Reception

Historical reception

Reactions to Moore's death

Chicago Tribune obituary, 1916

When reporting Moore's suicide, the Chicago Tribune called him a misanthrope. Relatives and friends, including his brothers-in-law Clarence and Everett Darrow, described him as kind, committed to universal justice, and devoted to education. An obituary in the Humanitarian League's journal The Humanitarian called Moore "one of the most devoted and distinguished humanitarians with whom the League has had the honor of being connected."

Felix Ortt wrote about Moore's death in the Dutch animal protection magazine Androcles, describing Moore's work for humanitarian and vegetarian causes, Ortt's translation of Moore's writings, and their correspondence. Louis S. Vineburg, who heard Moore speak at a Young People's Socialist League lecture in early 1910, later published a personal recollection in the International Socialist Review.

Jack London had endorsed The Universal Kinship and marked a passage in his personal copy: "All beings are ends; no creatures are means. All beings have not equal rights, neither have all men; but all have rights". After Moore's death, London wrote at the head of a printed copy of Darrow's eulogy: "Disappointment like what made Wayland (Appeal to Reason) kill himself and many like me resign."

Reception of Moore's work

Chien-hui Li writes that Moore's views were more readily received in Britain than in the United States because of support from the Humanitarian League, George Bell & Sons, and The Animals' Friend. Jarvis argues that the American humanitarian movement did not become established in the same way, and that, after Ernest Crosby's death in 1907, Moore represented much of what remained of it in the United States. Jarvis also writes that World War I ended the wider humanitarian movement.

Unti writes that Moore's Darwinian arguments were respected by contemporaries but did not become central to animal protection after his death, and that no major figure or organization continued his specific approach.

Posthumous publications and translations

Title page of the Japanese translation of The Universal Kinship, 1908

In 1915, the International Socialist Review began excerpting Moore's works and continued to do so for three years. After his death, radical publications, including those of the Industrial Workers of the World, also printed excerpts, especially from Savage Survivals.

Several of Moore's works were translated into other languages. Savage Survivals and The Law of Biogenesis were translated into Croatian; Savage Survivals was translated into Chinese; three books were translated into Dutch by Felix Ortt;