Individual Liberty

Individ ualLiberty Selections From the Writings

0/

BENJAMIN R. TUCKER E;.DI TED· B y e .

L. S.

NEW YORK

VANGUARD PRESS MCMXXVI

PRllNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

~4r89

(

PUB L""I 8HER'8 NOTE C. L. S., the editor and compiler of this book, has known :Benjamin R. Tucker personally since 1891" having entered his' employ at. that time in the mechanical department of Liberty, Mr. Tucker's, journal.for the exposition of Individualist Anarchism. •After that time and until the final suspen-' sion of publication 'of Liberty, C. ,L. S. contributed many articles to the columns. of that periodical, both signed and unsigned, usually in the editorial department. For a considerable period he had complete editorial charg~, during Mr. Tucker's absence. Thus the present work has been performed by one who has entire "familiarity with Liberty's philosophy and who perhaps at present has a closer sympathy with Mr. Tucker's ideas than any other person in America. Mr. Tucker has written that ((the editor is well chosen~ and his qualificatio~s for-the job undeniable." He does~ however, request that the volume shall be prefaced by a statement that he, ((while gratefully acknowledging the good will that has inspired .the. publication," has •had' no hand in the work of abridgment, and that the project has been executed without his e~press sanction or approval, although the pub.. lisher's action is ((above, reproach." In justice to Mr. Tucker, however, it should be stated that he emphatically protested against the elimination of the words of • ' his opponents .in the controversies, since he had always been scrupulously exact in presenting their ideas in full;' but the limited scope of this volume made such omission imperative. A word as to the title of this boak. Tucker's lifework is devoted to the exposition of the fights of the iii

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Individual. As a title for the journal which he used as a medium of expression for thirty years, he chose Liberty. It seems fitting that these two words, standing as they do for the highest aspirations of mankind, should be joined togethe'r in a title for'this compilation' of Tucker's libertarian and/ anarchistic te·achings.

EDITOR'S

FOREWo1{n

For a number of years practically all of the. literature of Individualist Anarchism has been. Qut of· print. The great bulk of whatever matter there was had, of course, been in .the handsof Benjamin R. Tucker, and up to 1908 it was being constantly augmen/ted by him. But when, in January of that year, his entire wholesale stock of publications, manuscripts, etc., and nearly. all of his plates were wiped out by fire, the lo~s was irreparable, and little attempt has been made. to •replace any of the material destroyed. The demand for something representative ,of Individualist Anarchism has become so insistent that it has been. determined to·· produce at least .one volume of the best matter available, \ and in that volume to'attempt to cover the whole subject. The ·.·nearest .that .an.y .hqokevc·r came .to answering that description is Tucker's UInstead of a Book,"first .published. in 1893, . culled from his writings in his pe,riodical, Liberty, and out of print since 1908. This closely printed volume of nea'rly 500 pages was. composed of questions-and criticisms by his correspondents and by writers in other periodicals, all answered by the editor of Liberty in that keen, clear~cut style that was the delight of his. adherents and the despair of his opponents. , In •casting about for material· for the proposed. v()lume~ therefore, no other writings thanthose of Benjamin R. Tucker could for"a moment be considered, and it is no exaggeration to say that ·~hey .stand. high above everything else .that has been written on. the subject,. not eVen excepting the works of Jos~ahWarren,Proudhon,and Lysander Spooner, or· of any other person who has ever a.:tt~mpted to expound the principles of Individualist· Anarchism. Mr. Tucke:r is an educated and cultured man. His v

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EDITOR'S FOREWORD

literary style is both fluent and elegant, his statements concise and accurate, his arguments logical and convincing, and his replies terse yet courteous. The reade'r is never at a loss to know what he means. There is not a word too much or too little. Every sentence is rounded and complete-not a redundant syllable or a missing punctuation mark. What he writes is a joy to read, even when the reader himself is the victim of his withering sarcasm or caustic satire. A brief resume of Mr. Tucker's life will serve to indicate the background of his remarkable personality. He was born in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, April 17, 1854, the son of Abner R. Tucker, owner and outfitter of whale ships and later a grocer in New Bedford. His mother was Caroline A. Cummings, his father's second wife, and Benjamin was their only child. The father was of Quaker parents and the mother was a Unitarian, and an able, progressive and radical woman, her father having been a pronounced admirer of Thomas Paine. At two years Tucker was reading English fluently and at four gleefully discovered that the Episcopal Prayer Book had misquoted the' Bible. At sixteen he had finished the course at the Friends' Academy, and, while at :first refusing to go to any college, he finally spent two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston). After' hearing Josiah Warren speak and CoL William B. Greene quote Proudhon at a convention of the New England Labor Reform League in Boston in 1872, he soon became an Anarchist and translated Proudhon's (What Is Property?" from the French. In 1877 he edited The Word in Princeton, Massachusetts, while its editor, Ezra H. Heywood, was in prison. In 1878 he established and conducted for a year The Radical Revi{!w in New Bedford. In the same year he joined the editorial· staff of the Boston Daily Globe, remaining for eleven years. In 188 I he founded Liberty, which he continued to publish, with some irregularity and several suspensions, until 1908 , the last issue appearing in April of that year, a few months after the disastrous :fire. In I 892, when he assumed editorial

EDITOR'S· FOREWORD

vii

duties. on The Engineering Magazine, he removed Liberty to NewXork, •where it was, published. until its final suspension. Since that time Lucker has been living il1France. ((Instead ofa Book" was.• deemed uns:uitable. for reproduction. in its present form because it contains • so many articles d~alin.g with local and current events.. It was.• decided that Ingividualist Anarchism could bet~er be expounded by present-

ingthe words of Mr. Tucker alone~eliminating the volwninous letters of his correspondents and many more or less personal matters that crep.t into the discussions,. with just enough"explanatory matter written by the editor to indicate what drew forth the. arguments advanced by.LiberlJl's editor and to connect up the loose ends. In many cases Mr. Tucker has so carefully restated the position of his adversary that it has been unnecessary for the editor to repeat it. The compiler has therefore merely attempted to weld together· the·. different .sections and' weave the various articles into a more or less continuous whole. The task. has proved to be difficult beyond all preconception, and that it has been performed with complete success it would be presumptuous to assert. In :M:r. Tucker's· controversies with his correspondents and others, occasional allusions to· persons and matters not involved .in the discussion have entered. These, while perfectly pertinent when his opponents' remarks were given, add ·little 1:0 the force of the arguments for the Anarchistic position which it is the purpose of this volum