1903 Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Samuel M. Jones, “A Plea for Simpler Living” (1903)

October 27, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Arena 29 no. 4 (April 1903): 345. A PLEA FOR SIMPLER LIVING. Samuel Milton “Golden Rule” Jones The following words from a flaming advertisement recently I caught my eye: “Why don’t you marry the girl? We’ll help you.” They were from the advertisement of an instalment house—that is, a business house that sells furniture on the instalment plan, generally asking a very large price in the first place, only to take it back in many instances after those who have purchased have partly paid for it, and after months and perhaps years of agony in trying to extricate themselves […]

Steven T. Byington, “Anarchist Labels” (1903)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

ANARCHIST LABELS I think Comrade Morton speaks inaccurately when he says Tucker and his disciples have popularized the notion that commercialists are the only “philosophical Anarchists.” I tried a while ago to find out the origin of the sect name “philosophical Anarchist,” which I didn’t like. I wrote an open letter to Liberty, asking who could help me to the information. Tucker, in comment on my letter, said he didn’t like the name and had never used it; when it was proved that he had used it once at least, he said it was a case of “seen too oft, […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Making of an Anarchist” (1903)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Miss de Cleyre is one of the most active propagandists of anarchy in the United States and Europe, and the intimate friend of leading anarchists here and abroad. To those intimately acquainted with the spread of the socialist, communist and anarchist idea, it will appeal as a remarkably candid sketch of one representative career, and an exposition, equally frank, of the principle of one great branch of the anarchist order. To those uninformed on the general subject, it will present many surprises—not the least of them being the revelation of character on the part of the writer herself.—Editor.] Here was […]

“Buddhism,” translated by Voltairine de Cleyre (1903)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Buddhism. A few weeks before Voltairine de Cleyre was struck down in the street by the bullets from Herman Helscher’s revolver, she read in one of her French journals the story of a Chinaman who was shot by a Russian soldier in the streets of a Manchurian village. This story made a profound impression on the young woman’s mind. “That Chinaman was an anarchist and did not know it,” she said to her friends. “His sentiments, his ideas, are mine. I will translate the story for the benefit of my friends.” And she translated, but scarcely had her work been […]

Ricardo Mella, “The Bankruptcy of Beliefs” and “The Rising Anarchism” (1902-03)

January 12, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[These articles present a very challenging vision of the development of a revolutionary anarchism. They continue Mella’s arguments for an anarchism “without adjectives,” but also connect that notion to the idea of an “anarchist synthesis,” long before Voline presented his account of anarchist development and the need for synthesis that emerges from the very nature of anarchism itself. The translation is perhaps a little rough around the edges, but I think the ideas are clear enough.] THE BANKRUPTCY OF BELIEFS To my brother J. Prat: Faith has had its moment; it has also had its noisy bankruptcy. There is nothing […]

Ricardo Mella, “La bancarrota de las creencias” and “El Anarquismo naciente”

January 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

LA BANCARROTA DE LAS CREENCIAS A mi hermano J. Prat: La fe tuvo su tiempo; tuvo también su quiebra ruidosa. No queda en pie a estas horas sino solitarias ruinas de sus altares. Si preguntas lo mismo a las gentes cultas que a las que llevan todavía taparrabo intelectual, y quieren contestarte en conciencia, te dirán que ha muerto para siempre la fe; la fe política, la fe religiosa, hasta la fe científica que ha defraudado tantas esperanzas. Muerto todo el pasado, las miradas giraron anhelantes hacia el sol naciente. Las ciencias tuvieron sus himnos triunfales. Y sucedió que la […]

Ross Winn, “The Archic (A Fairy Tale)” (1903)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Once upon a time, in a kingdom situated between two seas, the people kept a certain great monster, called an archic. This archic was a most ferocious beast with great iron claws and a mouth large enough to swallow a dozen men at a gulp. The people held this frightful monster in great esteem, altho it was a great burden to them, for it had to be fed constantly upon the fat of the land, and demanded human flesh and blood, as well as the choice fruits of the soil, and was always hungry. This savage beast had to be […]