Instead Of A Book, By A Man Too Busy To Write One

Part 07, Chapter 17 : On Picket Duty
On Picket Duty. Every man’s labor, says the New York Nation, is worth what some other man will do it equally well for, and no more. That is to say, if one man demands for his labor the whole product thereof, he cannot have it because some other man is satisfied to perform the same labor for half of the product. But in that case what becomes of the other half of the product? Who is entitled to it, and what has he done to entitle him to it? Every man’s labor is worth what it produces, and would command that, if all men were free. There is no natural rate for telegraphers any more than for bookkeepers or teamsters, continues the Nation. No more, truly; but just as much. The natural rate of wages for ten hours of telegraphing or bookkeeping or teaming is as much money as will buy goods in the market for the producti... (From : fair-use.org.)

Part 07, Chapter 16 : Spooner Memorial Resolutions
Spooner Memorial Resolutions.[21] [Liberty, May 27, 1887.] Resolved: That Lysander Spooner, to celebrate whose life and to lament whose death we meet to-day, built for himself, by his half century’s study and promulgation of the science of justice, a monument which no words of ours, however eloquent, can make more lasting or more lofty; that each of his fifty years and more of manhood work and warfare added so massive a stone to the column of his high endeavor that now it towers beyond our reach; but that nevertheless it is meet, for our own satisfaction and the world’s welfare, that we who knew him best should place on record and proclaim as publicly as we may our admiration, honor, and reverence for his exceptional character and career, our grati... (From : fair-use.org.)

Part 07, Chapter 15 : Cases of Lamentable Longevity
Cases of Lamentable Longevity. [Liberty, March 31, 1888.] The Emperor William is dead at the age of ninety-one. His was a long life, and that is the worst of it. Much may be forgiven to a tyrant who has the decency to die young. But the memory of one who thus prolongs and piles up the agony no mercy can be shown. As Brick Pomeroy says, there is no such a thing as enough. In ninety-one years of such a man as William, Germany and the world had altogether too much. However, it is not kings alone that live too long. That awful fate sometimes befalls poets. Among others it has overtaken Walt Whitman. That he should live long enough to so far civilize his barbaric yawp as to sound it over the roofs of the world to bewail Germany’s loss of her faithful shepherd, and should do it t... (From : fair-use.org.)

Part 07, Chapter 14 : A Gratifying Discovery
A Gratifying Discovery. [Liberty, May 31, 1884.] Liberty made its first appearance in August, 1881. Of that issue a great many sample copies were mailed to selected addresses all over the world. Not one of these, however, was sent from this office directly to Nantucket, for I had never heard of a radical on that island. But, through some channel or other, a copy found its way thither; for, before the second number had been issued, an envelope bearing the Nantucket postmark came to me containing a greeting for Liberty, than which the paper has had none since more warm, more hearty, more sympathetic, more intelligent, more appreciative.(169 ¶ 1) But the letter was anonymous. Its style and language, however,... (From : fair-use.org.)

Part 07, Chapter 13 : Beware of Batterson!
Beware of Batterson! [Liberty, March 6, 1886.] Gertrude B. Kelly, who, by her articles in Liberty, has placed herself at a single bound among the foremost radical writers of this or any other country, exposes elsewhere in a masterful manner the unique scheme of one Batterson, an employer of labor in Westerly, R. I., which he calls cooperation. But there is one feature of this scheme, the most iniquitous of all, which needs still further emphasis. It is to be found in the provision which stipulates that no workman discharged for good cause or leaving the employ of the company without the written consent of the superintendent shall be allowed even that part of the annual dividend to labor to which he is entitled by such labor as he has already performed that year. In this lies cunni... (From : fair-use.org.)

"Simplifying Government"
Simplifying Government. [Liberty, September 10, 1887.] Henry George’s correspondents continue to press him regarding the fate of the man whose home should so rise in value through increase of population that he would be taxed out of it. At first, it will be remembered, Mr. George coolly sneered at the objectors to this species of eviction as near relatives of those who objected to the abolition of slavery on the ground that it would deprive the widow Smith of her only nigger. Liberty made some comments upon this, which Mr. George never noticed. Since their appearance, however, his analogy between property in niggers and a man’s property in his house has lapsed, as President Cleveland would say, into a condition of inn... (From : fair-use.org.)

The Irish Situation in 1881
The Irish Situation in 1881. [Liberty, October 29, 1881.] Ireland’s chief danger: the liability of her people—besotted with superstition; trampled on by tyranny; ground into the dust beneath the weight of two despotisms, one religious, the other political; victims, on the one hand, of as cruel a Church and, on the other, of as heartless a State as have ever blackened with ignorance or reddened with blood the records of civilized nations—to forget the wise advice of their cooler leaders, give full vent to the passions which their oppressors are aiming to foment, and rush headlong and blindly into riotous and ruinous revolution.(136 ¶ 1) Ireland’s true order: the wonderful Land League, the nearest approach, o... (From : fair-use.org.)

The Advisability of Violence
The Advisability of Violence. [Liberty, January 16, 1892.] To the Editor of Liberty:(21 ¶ 1) When you preach passive resistance, is it not precisely the same thing as what is commonly called nonresistance?(21 ¶ 2) When William Penn (or was it Fox?) refused to take off his hat for the king it was certainly passive resistance; but, as he made no attempt to punch the king’s head, it is accounted as quite compatible with the Friends’ nonresistance tenets. (21 ¶ 3) I do not think that any practical difference exists between passive resistanc... (From : Gutenberg.org.)

Relations Between Parents and Children
Relations Between Parents and Children. [Liberty, September 3, 1892.] The wisdom of acts is measured by their consequences.(41 ¶ 1) The individual’s measure of consequences is proportionate to the circle of his outlook. His horizons may lie so near that he can only measure at short range. But, whether they be near or far, he can only judge of consequences as approximately or remotely touching himself. His judgment may err; his motive remains always the same, whether he be conscious of it or not.(41 ¶ 2) That motive is necessarily egoistic, since no one deliberately chooses misery when happiness is open to him. Acts always resulting either in... (From : fair-use.org.)

On Picket Duty
On Picket Duty. The outcry against middlemen is senseless. As E. H. Heywood puts it, Middlemen are as important as end men. And they are as truly producers. Distribution is a part of production. Nothing is wholly produced until it is ready for use, and nothing is ready for use until it has reached the place where it is to be used. Whoever brings it to that place is a producer, and as such entitled to charge for his work. The trouble with middlemen is that they charge consumers not only for their work, but for the use of their invested capital. As it is, they are useful members of society. Eliminate usury from their methods, and they will become respectable members also.—Liberty, October 1, 1881.(98 ¶ 1) Those who would have the u... (From : fair-use.org.)