Hugo Bilgram: Radical Economist of Philadelphia
A biographical sketch by Robert P. Helms
Born at Memmingen (Bavaria) Germany on 13 January 1847, Hugo
Bilgram was the son of G. David and Rosina Wiedenmann Bilgram.
He graduated from the polytechnic School at Augsburg in 1865,
then worked in Strasbourg and Saxony. He arrived in the United
States in 1869, settling permanently at Philadelphia. There he
worked as a machinist, opening his own gear factory around 1879
and becoming quite successful. A highly respected machine designer,
he published a book on special gears and held at least three patents.
The 5-storey factory building that he once had newly built still
stands on Spring Garden Street, bearing the last traces of his
painted sign on its bricks. In many scientific journals, including
American Machinist and Journal of the Franklin Institute,
as well as radical serials of his time, Bilgram held forth on
law, botany, astrophysics, and social movements. Gaining a reputation
for his pamphlet The Iron Law of Wages, this staunch opponent
of organized labor was a regular lecturer and familiar face at
meetings of the several social reform movements at Philadelphia,
contributing hundreds of articles to Liberty (Boston),
Twentieth Century (New York), The Conservator (Philadelphia),
and Justice (Philadelphia). He strongly advocated the copyright
of inventions, and held that reduction of interest and elimination
of money monopoly would make the abolition of rent (as with single
tax) unnecessary. He stopped short of anarchism only in that he
thought government necessary for general security.
Bilgram retained a blind loyalty to employers and his own theories
when discussing actual labor disputes. In 1892 he defended the
Carnegie Company's importation of strikebreakers and armed "watchmen"
to the Homestead Works. In 1899 he wrote that "equity ceases
when strikers in any way interfere with other men who are engaged
to take their places, and their acts become clearly criminal when
they resort to violence." While his analyses always prompted
heated debate, Bilgramís sincerity and intelligence were
never questioned.
"Most of the worldís evil comes not from money,"
he stated in 1929, "but from the monopoly of it. If there
was not a dearth of money, men could employ other men and abolish
poverty. The monopoly of money is caused by permission given to
banks to earn interest they are not entitled to."
Bilgrim helped establish the Technischer Verein (technical society)
in the city and was an amateur botanist of distinction, and authored
professional articles on slime-molds. He died on 27 August, 1932
at his home in suburban Moylan PA, survived by his wife Mary,
son Oscar, and daughter Bertha. He was buried in the family plot
at Mount Peace Cemetery (North Philadelphia) section R, lot 489,
grave #2. The grave is unmarked.
Selected Bibliography
Bilgram, Hugo Slide Valve Gears (Philadelphia: Claxton,
Remsen, & Haffelfinger, 1878)
_____, The Iron Law of Wages (pamphlet reprinted from Age
of Steel, St. Louis, 1887)
_____, Involuntary Idleness(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott,
1889)
_____, "The Other Side" Twentieth Century (New
York) Aug. 11, 1892
_____, A Study of the Money Question (New York: Humboldt,
1894)
_____, "Labor Unions" The Conservator (Philadelphia)
Dec. 1899
_____, and Levy, Louis Edward The Cause of Business Depressions,
As Disclosed by an Analysis of the Basic Principles of Economics
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1914)
_____, The Remedy for Overproduction and Unemployment (New
York: Vanguard, 1928)
Oliver Blair Funeral Home, Philadelphia: "Record for Hugo
Bilgram," August 27, 1932
(Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
