Finley Peter Dunne - Legacy

Legacy

His historical significance was apparent at the time of his death. Elmer Ellis, historian at (and later president of) the University of Missouri, wrote a biography of Dunne published in 1941.

He coined numerous political quips over the years; in particular, he is perhaps best known today as the originator of the aphorism "politics ain't beanbag".

He is sometimes erroneously credited with coining the word "southpaw" for a left-handed baseball pitcher while covering sports in Chicago in the 1880s. (for example, QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson ). In fact, the term was in use before Dunne's birth.

As a journalist in the age of "muckraking journalism", Dunne was aware of the power of institutions, including his own. Writing as Dooley, Dunne once wrote the following passage cautioning against the power of the newspapers themselves:

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward".

The expression has been borrowed and altered in many ways over the years:

• Clare Booth Luce employed a variation of it in a tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, "Mrs. Roosevelt has done more good deeds on a bigger scale for a longer time than any woman who ever appeared on the public scene. No woman has ever so comforted the distressed — or so distressed the comfortable."

• Several religious leaders (including one Archbishop of Canterbury) have called it the goal of religion.

• Social activist "Mother" Mary Jones was once quoted as saying "My business is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

• A version showed up in a line delivered by Gene Kelly in a newspaper movie, Stanley Kramer's 1960 film, Inherit the Wind. Kelly (E.K. Hornbeck) says, "Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable".

According to an article in the November 5, 2006 edition of the New York Times, he coined the truism, often wrongly attributed to Tip O'Neill, that "all politics is local."