Year: 2007

Anarchism

Practical application of the cost principle in Massachusetts, 1863

February 5, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Lots of material on Josiah Warren and equitable commerce has surfaced in the Boston Investigator, while I’ve been looking for material by Lewis Masquerier. This is a particularly interesting account of an equity store being opened in Massachusetts in 1863. The note at the end might go some distance in clarifying the terms under which at least some of the Warren-inspired businesses actually traded with suppliers. Some critics have fixated on the labor note and “corn standard” as the central points of Warren’s scheme, which, I think, confuses two projects: the implementation of the “cost principle” and “labor for labor […]
From the Archives

The Anarchist View of Money, Benjamin R. Tucker, 1896

February 5, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
I am asked by THE. INDEPENDENT to give my views on the financial question. At the outset, therefore, I must give my definition of the term “money.”

Col. William B. Greene, the author of “Mutual Banking” (which represents my views on finance perhaps more thoroughly than any other work), was accustomed to say that “that is money which does the work of the tool, money”; and the work of the tool, money, is that of mediating exchange. Anything, therefore, that is used as a medium of exchange is money to the extent that it is so used.

[…]

Anarchism

Socialism in Massachusetts, the Palladium version

February 3, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
You can look at this wiki page for a comparison of the Worcester Palladium and Equality versions of William B. Greene’s essay, “Socialism in Massachusetts,” both from late 1849. MediaWiki’s ability to collate versions should be a very useful tool for demonstrating the development or aguments in archived texts. For those unfamiliar with the publishing history involved, you can start with my comments on the 1870 Mutual Banking.
Contr'un

An embarrassment of riches, redux

February 2, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
This the sort of problem we should have—so much new, interesting anarchist material coming out of the archives that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of it all. I’ve been trying to work through roughly a roll of microfilmed periodicals each day this past couple of weeks, and I can’t think when I have been so pleasantly overwhelmed. Specifically, with regard to the J. K. Ingalls volume, I’m running a little behind, largely because of some difficulties with interlibrary loan, but I will be able to add a series on “Women’s Industrial Subjection,” from the Woman’s Tribune and a debate […]
Anarchism

At last, “Omega”!

February 2, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
There are quite a number of things I didn’t find in my searches through the Boston Investigator this week, but one of the things I did find was “Capital and Labor: Socialism in Massachusetts,” by OMEGA—one of the essays by William Batchelder Greene that was incorporated into his Equality (1849), reprinted from the Worcester Palladium. For some time, I have been wrestling with the question whether or not I could justify research travel to track down these articles, since they, and the book they were turned into, all appear to have been written in a matter of months, late in […]
individualist anarchism

1881 – the first three

January 29, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Ah, for the settled life of a scholar, where I could tackle my 1.104 issues of Liberty each day, and keep a regular schedule, rather than the constant fire-fighting and scrambling that goes with part-timing. But the show must go on, however fitfully.] So what actually appears in the pages of Liberty? The staple, stable source for Tucker’s opinions remained, from first to last, the “On Picket Duty” column. From the first issue, of August 6, through the remainder of 1881, this occupied the first two columns on the front page of nearly every issue, while a collection of clippings […]
Anarchism

Eliphalet Kimball on Anarchy, part 2

January 29, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s the second half of Eliphalet Kimball’s essay “Civilization–Anarchy,” from the August 26, 1863 Boston Investigator. There is a great deal here that may seem naive, and out of step with the anarchist movement generally. This shouldn’t surprise us. In 1863, it would be hard to say that there was an anarchist movement, particularly in America, where most of the strong proponents of libertarian thought still avoided the term anarchy. Ten years later, things would be different, but Kimball, writing in the period of the Civil War, is really pretty well out on his own in celebrating anarchy. Primitivists and […]
Anarchism

Eliphalet Kimball on Anarchy, 1863

January 27, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s another mid-19th-century anarchist, writing in the pages of the Boston Investigator (XXXIII, 15, Aug. 18, 1863, p. 114). I’ll post the second half soon, along with some additional material from Eliphalet Kimball. For the Boston Investigator Civilization—Anarchy. The word civilization from the Latin word civitas, “a city,”—or civis, a “citizen,” and signifies Government, and its effect on society. The effect of government is ignorance, falsehood, luxury, inequality, aristocracy, crime, and unhappiness. Such, then, is civilization. It is evil and progress in evil. Culture of science, enlightenment, and progress in agriculture and art, are not effects of made-Governments. They are […]
Anarchism

Anarchist Church, Anarchist State. . . Anarchist Inquisition?

January 25, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: The Pantarchy [main page] Constitutions and Organic Bases of the Pantarchy and New Catholic Church (1860) Stephen Pearl Andrews, “Andrusius,” The Pantarch — The history of radical reform in the United States is full of colorful characters and extravagant projects, but Andrews and his Pantarchy (complete with the philosophy of Universology, universal languages Alwato and Tīkīwā, and New Catholic Church) stands out, even in a crowd which includes Lewis Masquerier and his “compulsory homestead” scheme or Edgar Chambless’ Roadtown. In anarchist circles, Andrews is probably most respected and best remembered for his advocacy of Josiah Warren’s cost principle […]