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Mises Economics Blog

The Mises-Hoiles Correspondence

June 5, 2009 1:03 PM by Stephan Kinsella (Archive)

Parts I, II, and III, on Wendy McElroy's blog. Writes McElroy:

I recently acquired copies of a correspondence that occurred between the newspaper-mogul anarchist R.C. Hoiles and Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. It is a fascinating exchange albeit not a long one due to a rather bristly conflict over ideas. Over the next several days, I intend to transcribe the letters and, so, make them publicly available.

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Comments (13)

  • Bruce N. Stein

    Can you keep us informed when new ones come out? Also, your link 2 and 3 are reversed (they point to the other).

    Thanks for sharing, these are great!

    Published: June 5, 2009 2:44 PM

  • Fallon

    Is it possible to engage in educational activity, no matter how basic, without conflict? (How about any activity whatsoever?)

    How much arithmetic vs. reading vs. writing? Of who? By who? For who? When? Where? At what price?

    Countries with more cultural/linguistic harmony would indeed have less trouble with public education in the 3R's than more diverse ones. But this difference is relative. It would not mean a better system than private.

    Wouldn't it be more likely that this homogeneity evidences protectionism, and/or other statist artificiality, more than natural affinity because it is of a public kind?

    Is it safe to say that 'public school' inherently means the structural suppression of dissent?

    Published: June 5, 2009 5:11 PM

  • Patrick

    Nice! Hoiles is really giving it to Mises!

    ps. anyone else first hear about Hoiles from from Brian Doherty's book Radicals for Capitalism? That's where I did.

    Published: June 5, 2009 9:05 PM

  • Patrick

    Stephan: you've got links II and III backwards.

    Published: June 5, 2009 9:16 PM

  • newson

    k.o. to hoiles.

    Published: June 5, 2009 9:28 PM

  • jeffrey

    Ideological sympathies to Hoiles; personal sympathies to Mises. Hoiles was being something of a pest, it seems to me.

    Published: June 5, 2009 9:51 PM

  • Patrick

    Jeffrey: if you think he was being a pest, he was even more pest-like to Mises in other instances! For example, here's an awesome excerpt from Doherty's book :


    "He harangued Mises for years over the old Austrian economist’s rejection of voluntarily funded competing defense agencies as a substitute for course of government police powers, sad that the great libertarian would “continue to advocate any form of socialism, or any form of tyranny. And when you are advocating that the free market is not the better way of protecting men's lives and property, I think you are seriously in error.” Page 175

    Just wicked...man was this guy was a champion of liberty!

    Published: June 5, 2009 10:01 PM

  • Fallon

    Hoiles rightly exposes Mises's inconsistency and contradictions. Yet Mises easily makes The Greatest Economists of All Time List. Hoiles would not even be considered. The opening chapters of Human Action alone make Mises worthy.

    Published: June 5, 2009 10:37 PM

  • Morty

    Hoiles makes a mistake in the first letter, saying:
    "P.S. You quote "Thou shalt not kill". The original of this was "Thou salt not murder"."

    Laurence Vance has destroyed this false idea in several articles, including:
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance111.html
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance63.html
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance74.html

    Published: June 6, 2009 9:25 AM

  • Alexander S. Peak

    I agree with everything Mr. Fallon has said in this thread, except perhaps for his first paragraph which I do not understand.

    Mr. Patrick,

    I, too, first learned of Hoiles from Doherty's great book.

    Mr. Kinsella,

    Thanks for sharing this. As others have said, if Ms. McElroy should post more letters between Hoiles and Mises on this subject, please do be sure to add links to them here. Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Alex Peak

    Published: June 6, 2009 1:25 PM

  • Junker

    R.C. Hoiles (Wikipedia)

    Raymond Cyrus "R.C." Hoiles (November 24, 1878 - 31 October 1970) was an American newspaper publisher. He served as president of Freedom Newspapers from 1950 till his death in 1970.
    ...
    In a 1964 interview with The New York Times, Hoiles described himself as a Voluntaryist, stating that:

    "government should exist only to try to protect the rights of every individual, not to redistribute the property, manipulate
    the economy, or establish a pattern of society."

    Published: June 6, 2009 2:39 PM

  • Fallon

    Alexander,

    My first paragraph was unclear because I am merely the humble receiver of special intuitive insights meant to be gifted to humanity. I do not always perceive and communicate this cosmic wisdom clearly in the immediate. I share this with Hegel, Marx, and...

    Really, all I meant is that conflict is part of human cooperation and public school is a negative "solution"- both in terms of productivity and respect for each individual.

    Cheers.

    Published: June 6, 2009 9:33 PM

  • Magnetic Material

    Hoiles is really giving it to Mises!

    Published: June 9, 2009 1:36 AM

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