From the Archives

From the Archives

S. B. Brittan, “J. K. Ingalls” (1873)

February 28, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Samuel Byron Brittan included this notice of his friend, Joshua King Ingalls, in Brittan’s Journal, Vol. II, No. 2, (1874) pp. 275-6. Joshua King Ingalls (1816 – 1898) [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] J. K. Ingalls This representative of the Land Reform was born in Swanzey, Mass., July 21st, 1816, and is now in his fifty-seventh year. He was the youngest of six children, and at the age of four years lost his father. His mother, being a woman of decided energy, contrived to keep her little brood together until, one after another, they were […]
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.

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From the Archives

Francis Tandy on strikes, boycotts and invasion

December 4, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
STRIKES, TRUSTS, BOYCOTTS, AND BLACK-LISTS. Francis D. Tandy The Arena (February 1900) IN a state of slavery it is impossible for a man to change his occupation. The very existence of such a state of society depends upon the denial of the right of the workman to leave his master. In proportion as this right is denied, the laborer is still a slave. Even under the present wage-system, this right is hedged about with restrictions, and when exercised is often found to be but stepping out of the frying-pan into the fire. Certain economic conditions make the lot of workmen […]
From the Archives

Ohio Natural Gas Wars

May 3, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here are the chapters from Henry Demarest Lloyd’s Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894) dealing with the struggles of the citizens of Ohio with large oil and gas suppliers. Wealth Against Commonwealth Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847-1903) —– CHAPTER XXII ANOTHER TALE OF TWO CITIES THE South is the most American part of America. Close observers note as its especial characteristic the preservation of the original Anglo-Saxon types, which gave this country its first and deepest impress. The South is not yet so steeped as the North in the commercialism to which it is all of life to buy and sell, and its […]
From the Archives

Edward Kellogg, “Remarks Upon Usury” (1841)

April 6, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here is the text of Edward Kellogg’s Remarks Upon Usury and its Effects: A National Bank a Remedy (1841), originally published as by “Whitehook,” which is the earliest statement of his banking and currency ideas. The Knickerbocker for September 1841 briefly noted the publication as follows: The author writes in a style of great terseness and perspicuity, and is evidently a person of sound practical views; and if one half of what he states be true, Wall-street should be closed, with an investigating committee at once convened ‘in bank,’ to examine his charges, ‘with power to send for persons and […]
From the Archives

Oscar C. McColloch, The Tribe of Ishmael (1888)

March 30, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Fans of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie or Ron Sakolsky and James Koehnline’s Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture will be familiar with the story of the Tribe of Ben Ishmael, a nomadic, mixed-race group that may have had Muslim origins and were eventually the target of a 1907 “eugenic” program of forced sterilization in Indiana. In 1923, Arthur H. Estabrook published an account of the family. The Eugenics Archive also has online a number of pictures of Ishmaelite homes and such. None of this material is uncontroversial. On the genealogy sites, members of the Ishmael family […]
From the Archives

“Fact and Rumor,” 1886

August 31, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur
From the Christian Union, June 3, 1886: Concerning the Unitarian the Rev. William B. Greene, of West Brookfield, this story is told. A man died in the neighborhood, and the reverend Colonel was called upon to officiate at the funeral. Some time afterward, on inquiring why he was summoned to the funeral of a man not of his flock, he was told: “Mr. — did not believe in much of anything, and we thought your belief came the nearest to nothing of anybody’s, so we sent for you!” — [[Worcester Spy I guess that’s one way of looking at Greene, […]
From the Archives

Readings at Random: How the Doctors At Last Agreed

August 1, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur
[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 […]
From the Archives

“a toast to dear old Bolton Hall”

July 2, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] Bolton Hall, single tax anarchist – the song! The great things you find online! Kevin Carson’s recent post on Georgism led me back to the work of Bolton Hall. I read through his collection of children’s stories, “Monkey Shines,” over coffee yesterday and read parts of “The Game of Life” last night. It’s hard to overstate what a fine writer and sane thinker Hall was. But here’s a taste: The Social Poultice Society The subject for the evening was, “How to Abolish War.” The President suggested, that, as a matter of course, we should prohibit the use of dum-dum […]