Barnhill, John Basil

Writer, lecturer, debater, ed. of various journals including the Eagle and serpent (under pseud. John Erwin McCall), Nationalist, American anti-socialist, and Humanity first.

John Basil Barnhill, born in Xenia, Ill., in 1864, was a noted anti-socialist writer, editor, politician, and debater during the first quarter of the 20th century. He was primarily active in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., where he pursued his manifold activities. He published numerous articles, pamphlets and edited such periodicals as The American anti-socialist and Humanity first. Barnhill actively campaigned against socialism and debated Eugene V. Debs, Walter Thomas Mills, and other prominent socialists of the period. During the Presidential campaign of 1924 Barnhill aligned himself with Robert M. LaFollette and the Progressives.

Epithet: Minister of the Earl St Unitarian Chapel, Maidstone