In all of his publications, Hacker was an outspoken journalist who promoted anarchist and radical causes.
The Pleasure Boat railed against organized religion, government, prisons,
slavery, land monopoly, and warfare. It supported
abolition,
women’s rights,
temperance, and
vegetarianism. The newspaper was an early proponent of
anarchism,
free thought, and prison reformer. Unhappy with how juvenile offenders were treated in the adult prisons, Hacker was influential in building public support for a Maine
reform school which became the third in the country, after
Philadelphia and
Boston.
The Pleasure Boat was the earliest known vegetarian publication in Maine. ==References==