Robert P. Porter

Robert Percival Porter (1852-1917) was born in Marham Hall of Northfolk, England on June 30, 1852. His parents were the well-educated Jane Harvey and the English gentlemen James Winearls Porter. It is said that he inherited his literary ability from his mother and a splendid physique from his father. Porter received an early education at the prestigious grammar school of King Edward in Norwich. There, Porter developed a keen interest in American history and followed closely the events of the American Civil War. Upon the death of his father in the mid-1860s, which coincided with the close of the Civil War, Porter would seek out a new life in the United States. Upon his arrival, Porter established himself in northern Illinois where he worked in a branch of a business which was owned by relatives on his father’s side. After a few years of study, he found his calling as a journalist. Porter would start his journalism career off by writing for a local county newspaper, but would eventually become a contributor to the Chicago Tribune, Times, and Inter-Ocean. The Inter-Ocean, in particular, was staunchly protectionist, and by 1877, Porter would join the editorial team.

In 1879, Porter would then work with the Census Bureau, where he would contribute to various reports. This was followed up with another government appointment in 1882, when Porter was selected to work for the Tariff Commission. Porter would then travel across Europe on a fact finding mission to aid his investigation into the effects of free trade and protection on European nations. This would form the substance of his 1885 treatise Bread-Winners Abroad.

Upon his return from Europe, Porter, in conjunction with E. H. Ammidown, founded the American Protective Tariff League in 1885, as a rival to the British Anti-Corn Law League, a free trade lobby group, which was founded by the Manchester economists Richard Cobden and John Bright. Later in 1887, Porter would then work for a Republican newspaper in New York, through which he would aid Benjamin Harrison’s 1888 Presidential Campaign. With Harrison proving triumphant, Harrison would then appoint Porter as Director of the Eleventh US Census. Porter would also later serve under President McKinley as Special Commissioner to Cuba. In addition to his Bread-Winner’s Abroad, Porter would produce numerous other pamphlets, books, and reports, including Free Trade Folly, Free Trade and Protection To-Day, The West, and a Report on the Manufacturing Industries in the United States, among others. In addition to his works on political economy, in 1896, Porter would also publish a 500 page biography on The Life of William McKinley. While visiting England later in life, Porter would be struck by an automobile. He would die on February 28, 1917.