This last was slightly tinged with modern socialism; it was described as "the social Magna Carta of Catholicism," and it won for Leo the name of "the workingman's pope."
He was one of the founders, in New York, of the short-lived Workingman's party in 1828, and established the Boston Quarterly Review, mainly written by himself, in 1838.
To meet any increased cost of living, he proposed to reduce the duties on tea, sugar and other articles of general consumption, and he estimated that his scheme would in no case increase a workingman's expenditure, and in most cases would reduce it.
His parents, Albert and Violet Wilde, were caretakers of the Midgehole workingman 's club in the late 60s and early 70s.