J. Howard Moore

John Howard Moore was born on December 4, 1862,[2] near Rockville, Indiana.[note 1] Moore was the eldest of the six children of William A. Moore and Mary Moore (née Barger).[3]^: 224 At the age of six months, the Moore family moved to Linden, Missouri.[4] During the first 30 years of his life, Moore and his family moved between Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.[1]

Moore had a Christian upbringing, which instilled in him the anthropocentric belief that humans were created by God to have dominion over the Earth and its inhabitants. Growing up on a farm, Moore was fond of hunting and this fondness was shared by the people around him; he later reflected that he and his community saw animals as existing to be used for whatever purpose was seen fit.[3]^: 224

Moore studied at High Bank school till the age of 17, before studying for one year at a college in Rock Port, Missouri.[4] He then studied at Oskaloosa College (now defunct), in Iowa, from 1880 to 1884,[3]^: 224 but did not graduate.[5]^: 117 Moore went on to study at Drake University.[4] Studying science introduced Moore to Darwin's theory of evolution, which led to him to reject Christianity, in favour of an ethic based on Darwin's theory which recognized the intrinsic value of animals as independent of their value to humans.[3]^: 224

In 1884, he became an examiner for the Board of Teachers for Mitchell County, Kansas.[6] The following year, Moore was struck by lightning, receiving burns to his arm and chest and temporarily losing his sight and capacity for speech; he recovered after six days of bed rest.[6] For the rest of his life, Moore suffered from severe headaches as a result of the injury.[4] In 1886, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, coming last out of five.[1] Around this time, he became a vegetarian for ethical reasons.[3]^: 224

In Cawker City, Kansas, Moore studied law under C. H. Hawkins.[4] In 1889, he was employed by the National Lecture Bureau, delivering lectures in a manner which led him to be known as the "silver tongue of Kansas";[7] he was also described as a "youthful Luther" and was celebrated for both his oratory and singing voice.[8] Moore delivered lectures in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.[2]

In 1890, Moore published his first pamphlet A Race of Somnambulists, in which he criticized the cruelty of humans towards the animal world.[3]^: 224 He spent the summer of the same year in Chautauqua, New York, studying voice culture in singing and speaking at the Chautauqua Institution.[9]

Drawing of Moore from an 1895 article in the Waterbury Evening Democrat

From 1890 to 1893, Moore continued to work as a lecturer.[10] He also gave lectures on behalf of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.[11] Around this time, Moore, who was living on a farm to the south of Cawker City, worked as a reporter for The Beloit Daily Call, sending in rural correspondence about happenings in his local area.[12]

In 1894, Moore started at the University of Chicago with advanced academic standing.[1] While studying there, he became a socialist,[3]^: 224 and helped form the Vegetarian Eating Club at the university,[13] serving as president in 1895 and the following year as purveyor;[note 2] he was also vice president of the university's prohibition club.[3]

Moore was an influential member of the Chicago Vegetarian Society and the Humanitarian League, a British radical advocacy group; under his direction, he modelled the Society as an American version of the League.[15] In 1895, Moore delivered a speech in front of the society, published in the same year as Why I Am a Vegetarian, in which he explained his reasoning for not eating meat. A month after the speech, Moore took first honors in the University of Chicago Prohibition Club's annual oratory contest for his oration "The Scourge of the Republic". That April, he represented the university at the state prohibition contest in Wheaton, Illinois, again winning first honors.[3]^: 225 He went on to win first honors at the national contest in Cleveland.[16] In a newspaper profile, Moore was described as a passionate supporter of women's suffrage, with curly hair and soulful eyes.[3]^: 225

Moore graduated in April 1896,[5]^: 117 earning an A.B. degree in zoology.[15] That summer, he accepted the chair of sociology at Wisconsin State University,[17] lecturing on the topic of social progress, before continuing to teach at the university.[1]

In 1898, Moore was given a full-page column in the Chicago Vegetarian, the Chicago Vegetarian Society's journal, which started in 1896; this increased his influence on the society and its overall message.[5]^: 119 In the same year, Moore started teaching at Crane Technical High School; he retained this position for the remainder of his life, while also teaching at other schools in Chicago,[3] including Calumet High School and Hyde Park High School.[18]

In 1899, he married Jennie Louise Darrow (1866–1955),[19] in Racine, Wisconsin.[1] She was an elementary school teacher, a fellow advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism, and the sister of renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow.[20] The couple soon returned to Chicago.[1]

Photograph of Moore, from an advertisement for Better-World Philosophy, c. 1899

In 1899, Moore published his first book, Better-World Philosophy, to mixed reviews. In the book, he expressed a longing to change how humans perceive the world and his view that all beings are interconnected. Moore argued that sentience is a requirement for ethics and that because non-human animals have this capacity, ethical consideration should be extended to them.[3]^: 225 The book was endorsed by Lester F. Ward and David S. Jordan.[21] It also brought Moore to the attention of Henry S. Salt, the founder of the Humanitarian League, and author of Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress, who wrote a favorable review of the book. Sustained efforts were made by the League and its allies, including the publisher G. Bell & Sons and The Animals' Friend, to promote and distribute Moore's works in Britain.[22] Following the review, Salt began a correspondence with Moore that developed into a strong friendship.[3]^: 225

Moore was a fierce critic of American imperialism and America's actions in the Philippine–American War, publishing an article entitled "America's Apostasy", in 1899.[5]^: 321

Moore published The Universal Kinship in 1906. In the book, he explored the physical, psychical and ethical relationship between humans and other animals, arguing that all beings possess rights, and that the Golden Rule should be apply to all beings. The book received several favourable reviews.[3]^: 226 It was endorsed by Mark Twain, Jack London,[23] Eugene V. Debs,[24] and Mona Caird.[22] Henry S. Salt, later described the book as the "best ever written in the humanitarian cause."[25] Salt and Moore worked together to popularize Moore's doctrine within the humane movement; this was largely unsuccessful.[26]

Moore was a close friend of May Walden Kerr, the wife of Charles H. Kerr—the publisher of many of Moore's books. Following the Kerr's divorce in 1904, Moore and Walden continued their correspondence and from time to time Moore and his wife vacationed with Walden and her daughter.[3]^: 226

In November 1906, Moore's speech "The Cost of a Skin" sparked controversy at the American Humane Association's convention.[3]^: 226 In the speech, Moore denounced wearing fur and feathers for fashion as "conscienceless and inhumane".[3]^: 227 The audience reaction was mixed, with some applauding enthusiastically and others remaining silent; two women left the room before the speech was finished. The speech was later published as a chapter in The New Ethics (1907) and as a pamphlet by the Animals' Friend Society of London.[3]^: 227

In 1907, Moore published, to acclaim, The New Ethics, in which he explored the expansion of ethics based on the biological implications of Darwin's theory of evolution. Moore accepted the challenge of changing anthropocentric perceptions, arguing that while such views have developed over the course of generations, both individuals and societies are in a state of constant growth and evolution. He expressed confidence that humans would evolve past their current stage of selfishness.[3]^: 227

As well as his work as a high school teacher and author, Moore gave frequent lectures on vegetarianism, the humane treatment of animals, anti-vivisectionism, evolution and ethics. He also authored articles and pamphlets for humane organizations and journals,[26] including the Chicago Vegetarian Society, Humanitarian League, Millennium Guild, Massachusetts SPCA, American Anti-Vivisection Society, and American Humane Association.[15] Moore additionally wrote in support of the temperance movement,[28] and humane education.[3]^: 223

In 1908, Moore taught courses on elementary zoology, physiographic ecology and the evolution of domestic animals at the University of Chicago for three quarters.[1] In October of that year, Moore endorsed Eugene V. Debs' presidential run, giving a speech in front of the Young People's Socialist League.[3]^: 227 In the following year, he denounced Theodore Roosevelt and his hunting expedition to Africa,[3]^: 228 describing Roosevelt as having "done more in the last six months to dehumanise mankind than all the humane societies can do to counteract it in years."[29]

Moore, c. 1900–1908

In 1909, a law was passed in Illinois prescribing teaching of morals in public schools for 30 minutes each week. Contrary to his fellow teachers, Moore was pleased by the law and began preparing supporting educational materials. He published Ethics and Education, in 1912, as an aid for teachers who were having trouble implementing the new educational requirements. Before the book's publication, Moore sparked controversy when he made available extracts of the book which were critical of the courts and marriage. In an interview, Moore defended the content of the book, inviting the board of education to investigate him if necessary. In the same year, he published High-School Ethics: Book One, which was intended to form the first part of a four-year high school course covering theoretical and practical ethics and covered a variety of topics including the ethics of school life; properly caring for pets; women's rights; birds; where sealskin, ivory and other animal products are sourced from; and good habits.[3]^{: 228–229} Moore also published a pamphlet titled The Ethics of School Life, which was based on a lesson that Moore gave to high-school students.[3]^: 223

Moore wrote to Salt on 25 March 1911 about his experience of depression and a breakdown from overwork. He told Salt that the books he had written might not result in much, but that he felt he put a lot of effort into producing them.[3]^: 228

In February 1912, a meeting of the Schoolmasters' Club of Chicago, of which Moore was a member, was disrupted because they did not agree with 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."[6]

Moore delivered a speech at the International Anti-vivisection and Animal protection Congress, held in Washington D.C, in 1913; in the speech, he claimed that vivisection and the consumption of meat are both a product of anthropocentrism and that Darwin's On the Origin of Species had made any notion of human superiority or uniqueness untenable and ethically indefensible.[3]^: 229

Moore opposed the Chicago Board of Education's move to stop teaching sex hygiene, between 1913 and 1914. He wrote a letter to the board in favor of teaching the topic.[3]^: 229 In January 1914, Moore gave a speech on the topic in Chicago, at Hull House.[30] The Board later dropped the change.[3]^: 229

In 1914, Moore published The Law of Biogenesis: Being Two Lessons on the Origin of Human Nature, which consisted of lectures developed for lessons at Crane Technical High School, describing the mental and physical features of biogenesis—the process of how beings repeat the evolutionary development of their ancestors.[3]^: 229

Moore published Savage Survivals in 1916, a compilation of his lectures delivered at Crane Technical High School. Made-up of five sections covering the evolution and survival of domesticated animals, the savage ancestry of humans and an analysis from an ethical perspective of those surviving traits in humans considered to be civilized.[3]^: 229

In June 1916, Moore published an article critical of religion, entitled "The Source of Religion", describing it as "an anachronism today, with our science and understanding".[31] Moore's last book The Life of Napoleon was finished, but not published.[32]

A postcard of Wooded Island, Jackson Park, Chicago, from 1916; the location of Moore's death that year

On 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.[6] He had visited the island regularly to observe and study birds.[18] Moore had struggled for many years with a long illness and chronic pain from an abdominal operation, in 1911, for gallstones.[6][18] He had also expressed continuing despondency at human indifference towards the suffering of their fellow animals.[26][33] In a suicide note found on his body by a police officer,[6] he had written:[3]^: 230

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.[note 3] O, Tess,[note 4] forgive me. O, forgive me, please!

Moore's death was ruled a suicide, due to a "temporary fit of insanity".[3]^: 230 His grief-stricken wife requested that Moore's body be cremated and his ashes sent to Mobile County, Alabama, to be buried in the land near Moore's river.[32] His brother-in-law, Clarence Darrow, who was devastated by Moore's death,[19] delivered a eulogy at his funeral, describing him as a "dead dreamer" who had died while "suffering under a temporary fit of sanity";[34] the eulogy was later published.[35] Contrary to his wife's request, Moore's remains were returned to his old home near Cawker City, and he was buried in Excelsior Cemetery, Mitchell County, Kansas.[6]

Moore has been recognized as an early, but neglected, advocate for ethical vegetarianism;[41][42] Rod Preece described Moore's ethical vegetarian advocacy as "ahead of his time", as it appears to not have had "any direct influence on the American intelligentsia."[43] Preece also highlighted Moore, along with Thomas Hardy and Henry S. Salt, as writers before World War I, who connected Darwinian evolution with animal ethics.[44]

Moore's ethical approach has been compared to Albert Schweitzer and Peter Singer, with Moore's views identified as anticipating Singer's analysis of speciesism.[42] Donna L. Davey asserts that: "The recurring themes of Moore's works are today the foundation of the modern animal-rights movement."[3]^: 230 James J. Copp describes Moore as "one of the leading activists in the ethical treatment of animals in the early twentieth century."[45] Bernard Unti argues that Moore's The Universal Kinship sets him apart as the "first American intellectual in the realm of animal rights."[46] Animal rights activist Henry Spira cited Moore as an example of a leftist who wasn't uncomfortable about advocating for animal rights.[47]

Simon Brooman and Debbie Legge argue that Moore "correctly predicted that the way in which animals were treated in his time would come to be regarded as purely anthropocentric exercises of human dominion to be replaced, in large part, by a new philosophy which recognises the 'unity and consanguinity' of all organic life."[48] The environmental historian Roderick Nash argues that both Moore and Edward Payson Evans, "deserve more recognition than they have received as the first professional philosophers in the United States to look beyond anthropocentrism."[49]^: 122

Gary K. Jarvis argues that unlike the British humanitarian movement, the American movement had never successfully taken hold and that following Ernest Crosby's death, in 1907, Moore had represented the remainder of the movement, which meant that his death effectively ended it; Jarvis also contends that World War I was what ultimately brought the end to the wider humanitarian movement.[5]^{: 341–342} Jarvis also challenges the labelling of Moore as a misanthrope, arguing that Moore's criticism of anthropocentrism and Western civilization for promoting it was incorrectly perceived as misanthropic.[5]^: 121

Selections of Moore's works were included in Jon Wynne-Tyson's 1985 book, The Extended Circle: A Dictionary of Humane Thought.[50] Mark Gold cited Moore and Henry S. Salt as the two main inspirations for his 1995 book, Animal Rights: Extending the Circle of Compassion.[51]

Moore's last published book, Savage Survivals, has been criticized as an example of scientific racism by the prehistoric archaeologist Robin Dennell.[52] Mark Pittenger argues that Moore's racism was influenced by Herbert Spencer's The Principles of Sociology and that similar views were held by contemporary American socialists.[53] Gary K. Jarvis describes Moore as a critic of social Darwinism, asserting: "Moore argued that social Darwinists derived their beliefs from the worst examples that evolution offered, not the best."[5]^: 208

• "Meat Not Needed as Food". Chicago Tribune. April 29, 1895. p. 4.
• "The Vegetarian Eating Club, of Chicago University". The Vegetarian. 1 (3): 42–44. September 15, 1895.
• "The Cost of Rum". The Union Signal. 11 (24). June 11, 1896.
• "The Unconscious Holocaust". Good Health: A Journal of Hygiene. 32 (2): 74–76. February 1, 1897.
• "Why I Am a Vegetarian". Chicago Vegetarian. 2 (1). September 1897.
• "The Logic of Vegetarianism". Food, Home and Garden. Vegetarian Society of America. 2 (13): 22–23. January 1898.
• "Clerical Sportsmen". Chicago Vegetarian. 3: 5–6. November 1898.
• "The Psychical Kinship of Man and the Other Animals". The Humane Review: 121. July 1900.
• "How Vegetarians Observe the Golden Rule". The Vegetarian and Our Fellow Creatures (11): 295–297. August 15, 1901. hdl:2027/mdp.39015074773923.
• "Our Debt to the Quadruped". The Humane Review: 32. April 1902.
• "Realization". Herald of the Golden Age. 8: 119. 1903.
• "The Foundation of Good Health". Good Health. 39 (1): 6–7. January 1, 1904.
• "Universal Kinship". Herald of the Golden Age. 8: 38–42. April 1906.
• "Does Man Overestimate Himself?". Herald of the Golden Age. 11 (6): 121. April 1907.
• "The Cost of a Skin". Herald of the Golden Age. 11 (6): 140–141. July 1907.
• "Being Struck by Lightning". Cawker City Public Record. November 5, 1908. p. 5.
• "Superiority of a Vegetable Diet". The Present Truth. 25 (43): 682. October 28, 1909.
• "Decries Roosevelt Butchery" (PDF). Worlds Advance Thought and Universal Republic. 23 (1): 110. May–June 1909.
• "The Martyrs of Civilization". Herald of the Golden Age. 12 (8): 150–151. October 1909.
• "Treatment, Real and Ideal, of Animals". Lompoc Journal. November 6, 1909. p. 2.
• "Humanitarian in the Schools". The Humane Review: 198. 1909–1910.
• Allen, Henry E., ed. (1910). "Tending Toward 'a Celestial Civilization'". To-Day's Problems and Their Solution (PDF). Chicago: Trade Union Book Concern. p. 11.
• "Stop Eating Meat and Help Stop the Killing". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Vol. 56, no. 95. April 21, 1910.
• "Why Eat Meat?". Signs of the Times. 37 (25): 14. June 28, 1910.
• "Discovering Darwin". Proceedings of the International Anti-Vivisection and Animal Protection congress, held at Washington, D.C. December 8th to 11th, 1913. New York: The Tudor Press. 1913. pp. 152–158.
• "Evolution and Humanitarianism". The National Humane Review. 1 (1): 4. January 1913.
• "Ethical Education". Herald of the Golden Age. 16 (7): 180–182. July 1913.
• "Evidences of Relationship: 1. Man-like Apes". Our Dumb Animals. 47 (3). August 1914.
• "Evidences of Relationship". The Idaho Republican. November 13, 1914. p. 5.
• "Man's Inhumanity to Beast". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 42, no. 98. February 23, 1916.
• "The Source of Religion". International Socialist Review. 16 (12): 726–727. June 1916.
• "Our Neglect of Ethical Culture". The Open Door. December 1916.

• Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis. Chicago: The Ward Waugh Company. 1899. OCLC 5340920.
• Fermented Beverages: Their Effects on Mankind. London: Harrison and Sons. 1900. OCLC 1117891376.
• Bell, Ernest, ed. (1906). The Whole World Kin: A Study in Threefold Evolution. London: G. Bell & Sons. OCLC 752821941.
• The Universal Kinship. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1906. OCLC 3704446.
• The New Ethics. London: Ernest Bell. 1907. OCLC 562001556.
• High School Ethics: Book One. London: G. Bell & Sons. 1912. hdl:2027/uc1.$b297002. OCLC 820734455.
• Ethics and Education. London: G. Bell & Sons. 1912. OCLC 919898381.
• The Law of Biogenesis: Being Two Lessons on the Origin of Human Nature. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1914. OCLC 1019536598.
• Savage Survivals. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1916. OCLC 7391868045.

• A Race of Somnambulists (Mount Lebanon, N.Y.: Lebanon Press, 1890)
• Why I Am a Vegetarian: An Address Delivered before the Chicago Vegetarian Society (Chicago: Frances L. Dusenberry, 1895)
• America's Apostasy (Chicago: The Ward Waugh Company, 1899)
• Clerical Sportsmen: A Protest Against the Vacation Pastime of Ministers of the Gospel (Chicago: Chicago Vegetarian)[54]
• The Cost of a Skin (London: Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society)
• The Logic of Humanitarianism[55]
• Humane Teaching in Schools (London: Animals' Friend Society, 1911)
• The Care of Illegitimate Children in Chicago (Chicago: Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, 1912)
• The Ethics of School Life: A Lesson Given at the Crane Technical High School, Chicago, in Accordance with the Law Requiring the Teaching of Morals in the Public Schools of Illinois (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1912)

• De universeele verwantschap: een uiteenzetting van de evolutieleer van dier en mensch [The Universal Kinship: An Exposition of the Evolution of Animal and Man] (in Dutch). Translated by Ortt, Felix. 's-Gravenhage: Vereeniging Vrede. 1906. OCLC 65656538.
• Onze voeding in het licht der Nieuwe Ethiek [Our diet in the light of the New Ethics] (in Dutch). Translated by Ortt, Felix. Rotterdam: Nederlandsche Vegetariërsbond. 1909. OCLC 67630560.
• De biogenetische wet: twee lessen over den oorsprong der menschheid [The Law of Biogenesis: Two Lessons on the Origin of Humanity] (in Dutch). Translated by Ortt, Felix. Groningen: H. N. Werkman. 1916. OCLC 1164766368.
• Divlji preostaci [Savage Survivals] (in Croatian). Translated by Cvetkov, T. Chicago: Novi Svije. 1916. OCLC 40139047.
• Zakon biogeneze: prirodoslovna s̆tudija o postanku i razvoju c̆ovjeka [The Law of Biogenesis: A Natural Science Study of the Origin and Development of Man]. Law of biogenesis.Serbo-Croatian (in Croatian). Translated by Cvetkov, T. Chicago: Radnic̆ke Straz̆e. 1917. hdl:2027/mdp.39015064570636. OCLC 16617715.

• Zakon biogenezije [The Law of Biogenesis]. Leposlovno-znanstvena knjižnica (in Slovak). Translated by M., J. Chicago: Slovenska narodna podporna jednota. 1920. hdl:2027/nyp.33433001554884. OCLC 438623574.

• Banbutsu no dōkon ichizoku [The Universal Kinship]. Heimin kagaku (in Japanese). Vol. 6. Translated by Ōsugi, Sakae; Sakai, Toshihiko. Tokyo: Yūrakusha. 1908. OCLC 70795108.
• Ningen no shōtai [Human Identity]. Minshū Kagaku Sōsho (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Translated by Sakae, Ōsugi. Tokyo: Santokusha Shoten, Taishō 10. 1921. OCLC 673910220.
• Bunmeijin no yabansei [The Barbarism of Civilized People]. Minshū Kagaku Sōsho (in Japanese). Vol. 4. Translated by Yamakawa, Hitoshi. Tokyo: Santokusha Shoten, Taishō 10. 1921. OCLC 794666044.
• Nikutai to seishin no keisei [Formation of Body and Mind] (in Japanese). Vol. 9. Translated by Kikue, Yamakawa. Tokyo: Santokusha Shoten, Taishō 10. 1923. OCLC 673910353.

• Man xing de yi liu: the story of the race told in simple language [Savage Survivals: The Story of the Race Told in Simple Language] (in Chinese). Translated by Xiaofeng, Li. Shanghai: Bei xin shu ju. 1925. OCLC 956418957.