Samuel Milton “Golden Rule” Jones (1846–1904), “the talk of the fin de siècle national reform community,”2 was an unconventional, rags-to-riches industrialist and mayor of Toledo, Ohio, who believed that music “had much to do with bringing about nearly every measure of reform that has thus far blessed this world.”3 Like those whom Derek Valliant describes as musical progressives,4 Jones used music as both a metaphor and means for his social, industrial, and civic reforms—in particular, the alleviation of the working man's feelings of social inferiority, which he believed was one of the systemic barriers to equality.
For Jones and other musical progressives, all types of music, high and low, “symbolized . . . the harmony of the world.”5 He demonstrated that a wide range of musical styles and genres could serve as a means toward social empowerment: community singing in his factory park; art music performances...
