If you lived in Hull,
Massachusetts, during the first four decades of the 20th century, you knew both the political machinations of Boss John Smith and the vitriolic editorial columns of Hull Beacon publisher Floretta Vining. Smith ran the town with an iron fist through fixed elections, padlocked town meetings, kickbacks, graft and bribes. Vining reported on it all and fought it like no other
Progressive Era woman could, using newsprint space to lash out at girls who chewed gum in public and small boys who made too much noise at night, and calling for old men over sixty years of age to simply be put to sleep. In this volume, the reader gets a ringside seat to some of the most heated political battles in the history of the South Shore.
Background Information
Massachusetts had some of the earliest English colonies in America and was central to the American Revolution. The Progressive Movement grew out of belief, following the Gilded Age, the government could and should do more to promote the common welfare.