Here’s a very useful resource, available from Google Books : Enclaves of Single Tax Or Economic Rent, Being a compendium of the legal documents involved, together with a historical description, by Charles White Huntington. Covering the “single tax colonies” of Fairhope, Arden, Tahanto, Halidon, Free Acres, and Saint Jordi, this is a collection of the communities charters and reports of the status of each. There appear to have been 10 volumes released annually between 1921 and 1930. Some of you may remember these volumes being mentioned on Kevin Carson’s Mutualist Blog back in June, 2005.
Contr'un
Bolton Hall, “Separate From Sinners” (1899)
I said: “I will separate myself from the world, O Lord. My soul is white, and I am weary of the sins of men.” God said: “Your hands are red. How came your soul so white?” I answered: “Lord, it is a bloody world; and generations of men have suffered from their sins. I have profited by their errors. Have I not seen how evil spots the soul? I have kept mine white.” “Are all your brethren’s souls now white? ” said God. I hung my head. “Go back to your work”; said God. “you have learned in their pains, […]
From the Archives
Readings at Random: How the Doctors At Last Agreed
[ezcol_2third] How the Doctors At Last Agreed A patient with a rope twisted tight around his fee was brought to the Sociologic Hospital. His skin was chafed and bruised by the cord, and fever burned him so that he was like to perish outright. Said Dr. Divine: “We must first make you and your fellows religious, so that you won’t come to such dreadful straights.” “No,” said Dr. Socialis; “first do away with competition, which makes men enemies, then if the patient needs religion, it may be administered.” Dr. Charitas said: “Good homes would prevent all this. Now here is […]
Contr'un
Radical Parables
[ezcol_2third] As I’ve been immersing myself in Bolton Hall’s work lately, I’ve been finding that nearly half of the book-length works consist of parables of one sort or another. The parable form is fairly common among radical writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before he wandered off into anti-semitism and eugenic speculation, Morrison Isaac Swift, the anti-imperialist, wrote a collection of entertaining short fictions, nearly all of which amount to radical parables. A number of Mary Marcy’s books published by Charles H. Kerr took the form of socialist parables. Of course, these latter works were a bit […]
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Yes,
I’ve been on the lookout for the Huntington set for a good number of years, but have only been able to find a couple through booksellers. I do hope that Google Books actually makes the entire ten volumes available as this is an invaluable sourcebook on the single tax enclaves. These intentional communities were an important adjunct to the single tax strategies Many of the nonpolitical single taxers (such as Spencer Heath) and anarchists were actively involved in them.
They were built on the best strengths of the single taxers and were largely an expression of the libertarian strands in the movement.
Just a thought.
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
http://spencerheath.blogspot.com/