Fugitive Essays
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Fugitive Essays Frank Chodorov Fugitive Essays Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov Compiled, Edited, and with an Introduction by Charles H. Hamilton Indianapolis Permissionto repnntfromThe Income Tax (Copyright© 1954 by FrankChodorov), The Rise and Fall of Society (Copyright© 1959by FrankChodorov)andOut of Step (Copyright© 1962 by The Devm- Adair Company)grantedby The Devin-AdairCompany,OldGreenwich, C!r. 06870 Perraisslonto repnnt "Clvihzaaon or CavemanEconomy_'" from the May, 1940 and "Thoughtandthe 9¢brldof Action" fromthe january, 1941 issues of The Freeman grantextby The Henry GeorgeSchool of Social Science Permissionto repnnt "My Friend's Education'"from the August, 1954, "'RedsAre Natives" from the August, 1954, "'AWarto CommunizeAmerica" from the November, 1954, "How Commumsm Came to America" from the February,1955. "'WhyTeachFreedom?" from the May, 1955, "'TheDogma of OurTimes'" fromthe June, 1956 and "'FreeWill andthe MarketPlace" fromthe January,1959 issues of The Freeman grantedbyThe Freeman. Permission to reprint "What In£hviduallsmis Not" from the June20, 1956 issue of Nanonal Review grantedby Nauonal Review. Permission to repnnt "Washington"A Psychosis" from the April 11, 1951, "Washington:American Mecca" from the June 16, 1954, and "WarfaeVersusWelfare" from the January 10, 1951 issues of Human Events granted byHuman Events Permission to repnnt a previouslyunpublishedforewordgrantedby GraceA Klein LibertyPress is a publishing imprint of Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation estab- lished to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individ- uals. The cuneiform inscription that serves as the design motif for our endpapers is the earliest known written appearance of the word "freedom" (ama-gi), or liberty. It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.c. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. Copyright © 1980 by Liberty Fund, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Brief quotations may be included m a review, and all inquiries should be addressed to Liberty Fund, Inc., 7440 North Shade|and, Indianapolis, Inthana 46250. This book was manufactured in the United States of America. Library o! Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Chodorov, Frank, 1887- Fugitive essays. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Social sciences--Collected works. I. Hamilton, Charles H., 1946--- II. Title. H33 .C56 300 79-28720 ISBN 0-913966-72-XHC ISBN 0-913966-73-8PB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgements .............................. 10 Introduction by Charles H. Hamilton ................ 11 Foreword ...................................... 33 Part I The Political Mentality ...................... 37 The Dogma of Our Times ....................... 39 Washington: A Psychosis ....................... 46 Washington, the American Mecca ................ 52 Remember Robespierre ......................... 59 Part II Natural Rights and Unnatural Wrongs ......... 67 Source of Rights .............................. 69 Economics Versus Politics ...................... 76 From God or the Sword.9 ....................... 84 Government Contra State ....................... 93 Civilization or Caveman Economy? ............... 99 Free Will and the Marketplace ................... 107 One Worldism ................................ 120 Part III Why We Have Socialism .................. 129 About Socialism and Socialists ................... 131 The "Crime" of the Capitalists ................... 142 A Fifty-Year Project ........................... 151 8 • Contents PartIV Communism andAmerica .................. 163 Let's Teach Communism ........................ 165 Commies Don't Count ......................... 172 How to Curb the Commies ...................... 179 How Communism Came to America .............. 186 PartV Why Don't You Propose Something Constructive? ......................... 191 On Saving the Country ......................... 193 If We Quit Voting.............................. 197 What Individualism Is Not ............. ......... 206 Thought and the Worldof Action ................. 214 Why Teach Freedom? .......................... 217 PartVI Education andFreedom .................... 223 My Friend's Education ......................... 225 Why Free Schools Are Not Free .................. 232 Private Schools: The Solution to America's Educational Problem ........................... 240 PartVII Taxation Is Robbery ...................... 253 The Revolution of 1913 ........................ 255 Socialism via Ihxation ......................... 267 PartVIII An Individualist's Heritage ................ 287 Thomas Jefferson, Rebel! ....................... 289 George Mason of Vh'ginia ....................... 297 Henry David Thoreau .......................... 309 The ArticulateIndividualist ...................... 317 PartIX The InternationalScene .................... 323 Reds Are Natives .............................. 325 Isolationism .................................. 327 A Byzantine Empire of the West, ? ................. 337 Free _ade for Preparedness ..................... 350 Contents ° 9 Part X When War Comes ......................... 359 A Jeremiad .................................. 361 Warfare Versus Welfare ......................... 365 A War to Communize America ................... 371 Part XI It's Fun to Fight .......................... 381 On Doing Something About It ................... 383 Freedom Is Better ............................. 392 Let's Try Capitalism ........................... 399 About Revolutions ............................. 405 A Legacy of Value ............................. 414 Selected Bibliography of Chodorov's Works .......... 417 Index ......................................... 421 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS _orthistheirvolume,help Iandwouldencouragementespecially likeas toI didthankthe OscarresearchJohan-for nsen, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation; Robert Kephart, Ke- phart Communications; Edmund Opitz, Foundation for Economic Education; and Joseph Peden, Institute for Humane Studies. Paul Avrich, Bettina Bien, Leonard Liggio, Murray Rothbard, and Jack Schwartzman all helped me when I had questions. Grace Klein, Frank Chodorov's daughter, helped me to get a better sense of Frank Chodorov as a person. Susan Trowbridge listened and made sure every word was in the fight place. Charles H. Hamilton INTRODUCTION By Charles H. Hamilton ticalrank ofChodorovthe intentionswas byoftemperamentpoliticians andandintellectuals.experience skepThey- wanted to change the world. And Chodorov never fired of point- ing out the dangers of such obsessions: "When proponents say 'let's do something about it,' they mean 'let's get hold of the political machinery so that we can do something to somebody else. 'And that somebody else is invariably you. ,,1 Chodorov knew that change depended on individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, not on choreographing the actions of others. For almost thirty years he sought to find and counsel those people devoted to individual freedom and a humane life. He took on "Isaiah's job." This biblical parable is retold by Albert Jay Nock in one of his best essays. 2 The prophet Isaiah is sent by the Lord to tell the people of a decaying civilization "what is wrong, and why, and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart t Frank Chodorov, "Freedom Is Better," p. 396. Page citations for material re- produced here are to pages in this volume. The footnotes and the bibliography may supply additional information. 2 Albert Jay Nock, "Isaiah's Job," in Free Speech and Plain Language (New York: William Morrow, 1937), pp. 248-65. 12 . Introduction and straighten up." He didn't expect to rouse the masses to action or to convert the political powers that be; rather, in what was ultimately more important, Isaiah desired to serve the Remnant. The members of this Remnant, as the Lord explains, are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up, because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society, and meanwhile your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant. When Nock wrote this essay in 1936, he saw the job going begging. A few years later, Chodorov took that job and uniquely served to maintain the tradition of what Murray N. Rothbard has called the "old American Right": that passionate belief in individual liberty which strongly opposed both the rising statist interventionism at home, and war and imperialism abroad) For over twenty years, he wrote hundreds of articles, edited three magazines, and helped to edit a handful of others. With his brand of political journalism, "he deeply influenced the post- war conservative movement," as William E Buckley once ac- knowledged: And his important contributions still survive on the Right and in the now burgeoning libertarian movement. A MAN MUST HAVE A CAUSE On February 15, 1887, two poor, Russian immigrants had their eleventh child, the only one to be born in the United 3 Murray N. Rothbard, "The Transformation of the American Right," Continuum 2 (Summer 1964): 220-31. 4 William E Buckley, review of Out of Step by Chodorov, National Review, De- cember 4, 1962, pp. 446--47. Introduction • 13 States. His name was Fishel Chodorowsky, although he was always known as Frank Chodorov. He grew up on the Lower West Side of New York City, where he helped his family with their small restaurant. He graduated from Columbia