This same year White's father died at the relatively young age of 52. His death did not seem to affect his son's artistry or his interests; White continued exhibiting while traveling around the Midwest and East Coast to take portraits of friends and clients. On one of these trips he journeyed to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was introduced to rising socialist leader Eugene Debs. White became close friends with Debs and other socialist leaders, including Clarence Darrow, Stephen Marion Reynolds and Horace Traubel, and for many years they exchanged correspondence and held long, philosophical discussions whenever they were in the same city together. White's belief in socialist values was one of the few pursuits other than photography for which he expressed any enthusiasm. After a prolonged visit with Reynolds, White wrote "I've never spent a week so full of inspiration since I've used a camera." His family, "brass-bound Republicans", hoped this interest was a temporary aberration, but White continued to express his affinity for these beliefs throughout his life.