Lloyd, Henry Demarest (1847–1903)

US journalist and author. Disappointed with reform politics in New York City, he joined the Chicago Tribune in 1872, where, as financial editor and editorial writer he concentrated on the emerging trusts and growing labour movement. He exposed misuses of power by the Standard Oil Company monopoly in 1881, becoming the first of the new ‘muckrakers’. His extensively documented work, Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894), forcefully condemned business monopolies.

Lloyd was born in New York City. Deciding to devote his life to reform, he left the Chicago Tribune in 1885 and travelled to Europe, where he met with political and industrial leaders. On his return he successfully sought commutation of the death sentences of two of the convicted Haymarket rioters in 1886. He was nominated by the People's Party for a congressional seat representing Chicago, but was heavily defeated. He backed the miners in a 1902 coal strike and officially joined the Socialist Party shortly before his death.