Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-06-18
Americas Earliest Anarchist
Man Who Invented the Cylinder Printing Press Father of the
Cult Of Peaceful and Philosophical Anarchisn

Boston, June 14,-Who the anar-
chists are has become pretty well
known IN he past few weeks. Uncle
sam has been busy discovering some
o. those whose disposition is most vic.
lent. Most Americans have undoubt-
ed4y approved his activity against the
Reds.
Just what anarchism is, though, is
still unappreciated by n1nety-nine peo-
pie out OF a hundred.
That is to say, philosophical anarch-
ism, although it has existed as a phil
osophy Of life for countless centuries
and under its present specific name
for a good many years, is not popu-
larry understood. Most people think
Of it as having some connection with
lnfammatory oratory and bomb throw
ing. They don't associate it with such
men as Tolstoy, Ibsen, Walt Whitman,
William Lloyd Garrison and many
others who have not been wild-eyed
fanatics, but who have believed so
thoroughly in the freedom of the in
dividual that they have stood opposed
to what IS called "coercive authority
S oh men believe that in power there
is quality which leads to its abuse
and that the ideal condition is one in
which enlightened selfishness and in
te.hgence make each individual a law
| to himself.
1t is the fashion to speak of anarch-
| ism as foreign and un-American
product. Very few people seem to be
aware that the founder of the cult of
philosophical anarchism was an Amer
| lean, a member of one of the most ia
nous families of Massachusetts, a
man of strictly moral and helpful lie,
and a mechanical genius to whom We
owe, among other inventions, that of
| the cylinder press which throws hun
dreds of newspapers in less time than
! it took the old fiat press to print ten.
4 This very able American Josiah War
| rem, born in Boston in 1898, and resi-
! dent during a considerable part Of his
| career in and near Cincinnati, has had
very little attention in the books OH
! American history, and it is only very
recently that a little biography, writ
! ten by William Baillie, a Boston man
ufacturer, who IS especially interested
| in the doctrines of philosophical an
archism, has thrown new light on Il
most remarkable character of the
nineteenth century, one whose theor-
les and observations had large in
fuence upon such English leaders as
| Robert Dale Owen, John Stuart Mill
| and Herbert Spencer.
| Personally, Josiah Warren was of
| course a, very different kind of anarch-
| list from the fierce reds Of France, the
story of whose strained relations with
the police has lately been described
graphically by Alvin F. Sanborn, in
his Paris and the Social Revolution, the
0est book written on the subject of
the foreign brands of anarchism
against which President ROosevelts
activities have been directed. War
rem, who was versatile Yankee in
dividualist of the same stock as the
! hero of Bunker hill battle, was a man
whom no one would have wanted to
deport, even if there had been an anti
anarchist agitation in his day. He
| simply carried to its logical conclusion
! the belief of Thomas Jefferson and
| the anti-federalist leaders of our early
history to the effect that that govern
ment is best which governs least.
J His favorite doctrine was thoC every
one should be free to dispose OF his
person, his time, his property and his
reputation as he pleases, but always
at his own cost" He claimed that
man seeks freedom as the magnet
seeks the pole or water it's level, and
society can have no peace until every
member is really free" Mr.. Baillie's
investigations, recalling very interest
ing incidents in the history of what
was then the far West, show that al
though Joshiah Warren was not by
nature a great organizer, his under
takings were much more successful
than the socialistic and cCmmunistic
ventures which were popular back in
the nineteenth centuary and which
without exception failed because they
did not take into account the differ
arces which Nature has established
among individuals.
In Cincinnati, where Mr.. Warren
got his start in life as a manufacturer
of lamps, he opened on May Is, 1927,
the first equity store, designed to illus
trate what he called the "cost prin-
ciple. This was known as the time
store" because of a peculiar and orig
inal method adopted to fix and regu-
late the amount of the merchants
compensation All goods had a GER
tain price which was fixed by their
cost in money together with a fair
loading charge to cover the running
expenses of the store and then a
charge was also made for as much OF
the merchants time as was consumed
in making the purchase. Incidents
We're not unknown of economical per
sons grabbing for goods from the
counter and getting off with only one
cents worth of the merchants time.
II payment for the time service the
customer ordinarily gave his labor
note, something after this form:
Due to Josiah Warren on demand
thirty minutes in carpenter work
John Smith"
After Mr.. Smith had accumulated
notes representing, say, half a days
work he would be engaged by Mr..
Warren to make needed repairs at the