TURNER, JAMES K. (6 May 1864-27 Sept. 1916), expert on industrial mediation and the labor questions of his time, was born in Chicago, son of James K. and Ellen (Brady) Turner. He received his early education in Athens, New York. In 1899 he came to Cleveland to continue his writing on the need for mediation and education to promote cooperation between capital and labor on a basis of equaliy and justice. Turner was a frequent contributor to The Mediator, a magazine founded in 1909 by C.B. Bartlett and H. G. Evans owners of the Mediator Printery, and by 1911, Turner was both its editor and publisher. Topics discussed in the magazine included the divergent interests of financial and production people in industry, the need for old age pensions, and women's economic freedom. A forum section contained letters from its readers, presenting a variety of issues related to labor and capital. In addition, Turner published Turner's Digest—a summary of industrial progress throughout the world—aimed at the businessmen and translated The Mediator into Polish, Hungarian, and Italian to reach laboring men in the growing ethnic communities. He also established the Mediator Lecture Lyceum. Although he resided in Cleveland, Turner maintained a country house and farm near Chardon, arranging outings where those interested in his ideas could discuss important industrial problems in a setting close to nature.
Turner married May Grace Schiffman of Milwaukee 22 Jan. 1896, and they had two daughters, Norine Ellen and Nona May. He died at his home in Cleveland.