Gilbert Monell Hitchcock (1859-1934), American newspaper publisher and U.S. senator from Nebraska, led the unsuccessful struggle in the Senate for United States membership in the League of Nations.

Gilbert M. Hitchcock was born in Omaha, Nebr., on Sept. 18, 1859. He was educated in the city's public schools and for 2 years attended the gymnasium (high school) in Baden-Baden, Germany. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1881 and was admitted to the Nebraska bar. In 1885 Hitchcock and three associates founded the Omaha Evening World. In 1889 he purchased the Morning Herald, one of the most important Democratic newspapers in Nebraska, and consolidated it with the Evening World as the Omaha World Herald. From this solid financial and political base he launched his public career.

The Hitchcock family was traditionally Republican. But viewing the plight of western agriculture in the 1880s, Hitchcock aligned himself with the Democratic-Populist camp...