The Word Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

The Word (1872-1893)

March 23, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Word (1872-1893) Volume 1 1 no. 1 (May 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 2 (June 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 4 (July 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 4 (August 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 5 (September 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 6 (October 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 7 (November 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 8 (December 1872) — [pdf] 1 no. 9 (January 1873) — [pdf] 1 no. 10 (February 1873) — [pdf] 1 no. 11 (March 1873) — [pdf] 1 no. 12 (April 1873) — [pdf] Volume 2 2 no. 1 (May 1873) — [pdf] 2 no. […]

William Batchelder Greene in “The Word”

May 24, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related Links: William B. Greene (1819-1878) [main page] Woman’s Suffrage. The subjection of women has been a prominent topic in the debates of the Labor Reform League from the outset, opinion among its members seeming to be pretty nearly unanimous that it is bot unjust and impolitic to deny them a voice in framing laws they are compelled to obey. One of our most efficient co-adjutors, however, Col. Wm. B. Greene, objects strongly to the way in which the woman suffrage agitation is conducted, and we take the liberty to extract from a private letter the following explanation of his […]

Angela T. Heywood in “The Word”

May 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Men’s wars are grotesque and bloody; but wars between men’s and women’s eyes and ideas will become unique and renovating, and the unsheathed, two-edged sword will be the human tongue. Religion will repent of the subjection it has imposed on women; learning will confess its ignorance to us; books (simply become they are he books) will move forward from their alcove-shelves and come down ashamed longer to be books; and male science will dissolve itself to escape from the infamy of its rude and savage treatment of us. The impression that man can do as he likes without being responsible therefor is base folly, and arises largely from the great selfishness which grows out of his unnatural ascendency over woman through property usurpations and the subtle relations of physical force to her as his mate in primitive stages of growth, as from the animal to the human animal. Having arrived at a human identity, we wish to be recognized as a part of the collective identity

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“I hope to do some work for the Labor Cause…”

July 10, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] One of the bits of Liberty‘s prehistory that undoubtedly needs to be better documented is Tucker’s entry into the anarchist movement. I recently purchased microfilm of The Word, Ezra Heywood’s paper, and just ran across this in the Nov. 1872 issue: B. R. Tucker, New Bedford, Mass. ‘I hope to do some work for the Labor Cause but first wish to study the question that I may thoroughly understand it. For this reason I send for your publications. I wish you would hold a Convention in New Bedford. The conservatives here […]

“The current unintelligent tampering…with the moral order of business”

September 21, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

In 1873, William Batchelder Greene was asked by Ezra Heywood to explain Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s ideas on property. Greene sent along translations of the first three, and last three pages of What is Property? and a short, fascinating account of Proudhon and his ideas, based on Greene’s acquaintance with Proudhon during his years in Paris, roughly 1853-1861. It is clear from the account that Greene was most familiar with Proudhon’s earlier works. Some of Greene’s explanation is not consistent with the works from the 1860s, and some of it is consistent, as when Greene likens property to Satan, but in ways […]

William B. Greene, Communism vs. Mutualism

April 28, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[This is a repost, probably the first of several, highlighting some of the more important statements about the philosophy of mutualism. Long-time readers and students of mutualism should note, particularly as I did not note it myself before, Greene’s apparent adoption of the “cost principle,” and the linked principle of deferred and social profit: “so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member.” That does not mean, however, that Greene had jumped […]

from the “Fragments:” Communism vs. Mutualism

April 18, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

This chapter from the Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments (1875), originally appeared in The Word. Greene’s correspondent is apparently Jesse Henry Jones (1836-1904), a frequent contributor to The Word and a number of other reform-oriented or religious magazines, and author of several books. He prompted debates in a couple of the Oneida-related periodicals, and composed a song in support of the 8-hour movement. (I’ll try to find some time to treat Jones separately, and dig up the immediate context for this exchange.) Greene is in his combatative mode here, happy to damn “communism,” specifically in the sense of community […]