by Mildred J. Loomis and  Mark A. Sullivan

Like (Liberty’s) editor (Tucker), Labadie developed a style of critical commentary which is revealed in both his private correspondence and in his public correspondence of the late ’30s: Discussion – A Journal for Free Spirits, which he published and circulated among friends and other interested persons. Therein, he engaged his readers in active dialogue and debate in which, as Tucker had often said, the victor was the one who gained the most light.

Discussion was a modest mimeographed-production, yet it included letters and articles by some of Tucker’s original associates such as Stephen T. Byington, Henry Cohen, James Mill, and Hugo Bilgram, the monetary theorist most highly regarded by Labadie. And it was the economic theories of Bilgram, Tucker, and the other “Mutualists” that occupied many a discussion in Discussion. One of Labadie’s most frequently reprinted essays, “The Money Problem in the Light of Liberty,” first appeared in Discussion.

The TL/DR version of the text that follows: Laurence Labadie is an anarchist, Benjamin DeCasseres believes that “Anarchism” is a spook. The writing from DeCasseres is actually excerpted from his “Prelude to DeCasseres’ Magazine.”

This is the first item posted from John Zube’s now moribund Libertarian Microfiche Project (more on this another time). I have purchased about 80 microfiche and there is some incredible stuff there. I appreciate the many decades of his work and I appreciate Johns Hopkins University for the use of their reading/scanning equipment.

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