View source for Benjamin Tucker

{{Infobox writer <!-- see Template:Infobox writer -->
| name         = Benjamin Tucker
| image        = BenjaminTucker.jpg
| imagesize    =
| caption      =
| pseudonym    =
| birth_name   =
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1854|4|17|mf=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[South Dartmouth, Massachusetts]], [[United States]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1939|6|22|1854|4|17|mf=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Monaco]]
| occupation   = Editor, publisher, writer
| nationality  = [[United States|American]]
| period       =
| genre        = [[Nonfiction]]
| subject      = [[Political philosophy]]
| influences   = [[Max Stirner]], [[Josiah Warren]], [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], [[Lysander Spooner]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Gustave de Molinari]],<ref>David Hart. "Gustave De Molinari And The Anti-Statist Liberal Tradition". ''The Journal of Libertarian Studies'', Vol. VI, No. 1 (Winter 1982), p. 87 ([http://www.davidmhart.com/FrenchClassicalLiberals/Molinari/Thesis/Thesis.html#fn303 online]; [https://mises.org/journals/jls/6_1/6_1_5.pdf PDF p. 5]): "Tucker was definitely aware of Molinari's work and at least one of Molinari's books was reviewed in Tucker's magazine. He shared Molinari's view that the production of security was an economic commodity which could be better supplied by the free and unhampered market, thus going beyond the criticism of Herbert and Spencer and, arguing with Molinari, that the market could offer a positive and practical alternative to state monopoly defense."</ref> [[Mikhail Bakunin]]<ref>Tucker translated [[Mikhail Bakunin]]'s book ''[[God and the State]]'' [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/godstate/index.htm Mikhail Bakunin at marxists.org]</ref>
| influenced   = [[Murray Rothbard]], [[Kevin Carson]], [[Robert Anton Wilson]], [[Émile Armand]], [[Voltairine de Cleyre]], [[John Henry Mackay]], [[Lev Chernyi]], [[Ricardo Mella]]<ref>“within the strictly anarchist world we find some theorists like Ricardo Mella, who, due to his knowledge of the English language, knows deeply the work of (Benjamin) Tucker and that of the north American individualists, especially by reading regularly the British magazine Freedom and the north American ones The Alarm (Chicago) and the tuckerian Liberty (Boston)…Uncomfortable within the polemics between collectivists and libertarian communists, the Galician anarchist tries to integrate the different ideological currents under the proposal of Tarrida del Mármol of an anarchism without adjectives.” Diez, X. (2007). El anarquismo individualista en España (1923–1938). Virus. p. 92</ref>
| signature    =
}}

'''Benjamin Ricketson Tucker''' (April 17, 1854&nbsp;– June 22, 1939) was a proponent, in the 19th century, of [[Individualist anarchism in the United States|American individualist anarchism]], which he called "unterrified [[Jeffersonian democracy|Jeffersonianism]],"<ref>McCarthy, Daniel (2010-01-01) [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jan/01/00044/ A Fistful of Dynamite], ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref> and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical ''[[Liberty (1881–1908)|Liberty]]''.

==Early life and influences==
[[File:BenjaminTuckerYoung.jpg|thumbnail|left|180px|Benjamin Tucker at a young age]]

Tucker was born on April 17, 1854, in [[South Dartmouth, Massachusetts]]. In 1872, while a student at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], Tucker attended a convention of the New England Labor Reform League in Boston, chaired by [[William B. Greene]], author of ''[[Mutual Banking]]'' (1850). At the convention, Tucker purchased ''Mutual Banking'', ''True Civilization'', and a set of Ezra Heywood's pamphlets. Furthermore, ([[Free-love]] anarchist) [[Ezra Heywood]] introduced Tucker to William B. Greene and [[Josiah Warren]], author of ''True Civilization'' (1869). He also started a relationship with [[Victoria Woodhull]], which lasted for 3 years.

Tucker made his debut in liberty-minded circles 1876, when Heywood published Tucker's first ever English translation of [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]]'s classic work ''What is Property?''. In 1877–1878, Tucker published his original journal, ''Radical Review'', which ran for only four issues. From August 1881 to April 1908, he published the periodical, ''Liberty'', "widely considered to be the finest individualist-anarchist periodical ever issued in the English language".<ref>{{cite journal |last=McElroy |first=Wendy |title=Benjamin Tucker, ''Liberty'', and Individualist Anarchism |journal=The Independent Review |date=Winter 1998 |volume=II |issue=3 |page=421 |url=http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_02_3_mcelroy.pdf}}</ref>  In 1892, he moved the ''Liberty'' from Boston to New York.

==Anarchism==
{{Anarchism sidebar}}
Tucker said that he became an anarchist at the age of 18.<ref>Symes, Lillian and Clement, Travers. Rebel America: The Story of Social Revolt in the United States. Harper & Brothers Publishers. 1934. p. 156</ref> Tucker's contribution to American individualist anarchism was as much through his [[publishing]] as his own writing. Tucker was also the first to translate into English [[Max Stirner]]'s ''[[The Ego and Its Own]]''&nbsp;– which Tucker claimed was his proudest accomplishment. Tucker also translated [[Mikhail Bakunin]]'s book ''[[God and the State]]''.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/godstate/index.htm at marxists.org]</ref> In the anarchist periodical ''[[Liberty (19th century magazine)|Liberty]]'', he published the original work of [[Stephen Pearl Andrews]], [[Joshua K. Ingalls]], [[Lysander Spooner]], [[Auberon Herbert]], [[Victor Yarros]], and [[Lillian Harman]], daughter of the free love anarchist [[Moses Harman]], as well as his own writing.

He also published [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s first original article to appear in the United States, and the first American translated excerpts of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]. In ''Liberty'', Tucker both filtered and integrated the theories of such European thinkers as [[Herbert Spencer]] and [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], the economic and legal theories of the American individualists [[Lysander Spooner]], [[William B. Greene]] and [[Josiah Warren]], and the writings of the [[Freethought|free thought]] and [[free love]] movements in opposition to religiously based [[legislation]] and prohibitions on non-invasive{{clarify|date=May 2012}} behavior. Through these influences Tucker produced a rigorous system of philosophical or [[individualist anarchism]] that he called ''Anarchistic-Socialism'',<ref>"The economic principles of Modern Socialism are a logical deduction from the principle laid down by Adam Smith in the early chapters of his “Wealth of Nations,” – namely, that labor is the true measure of price...Half a century or more after Smith enunciated the principle above stated, Socialism picked it up where he had dropped it, and in following it to its logical conclusions, made it the basis of a new economic philosophy...This seems to have been done independently by three different men, of three different nationalities, in three different languages: Josiah Warren, an American; Pierre J. Proudhon, a Frenchman; Karl Marx, a German Jew...That the work of this interesting trio should have been done so nearly simultaneously would seem to indicate that Socialism was in the air, and that the time was ripe and the conditions favorable for the appearance of this new school of thought...So far as priority of time is concerned, the credit seems to belong to Warren, the American, – a fact which should be noted by the stump orators who are so fond of declaiming against Socialism as an imported article." Benjamin Tucker. [http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/benjamin-tucker-individual-liberty Individual Liberty]</ref> arguing that "[the] most perfect Socialism is possible only on the condition of the most perfect individualism."<ref>cited by Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible, p. 390</ref>

According to Frank Brooks, an historian of American individualist anarchism, it is easy to misunderstand Tucker's claim to "socialism". Before Marxists established a hegemony over definitions of socialism, "the term socialism was a broad concept." Tucker, as well as most of the writers and readers of Liberty, understood "socialism" to refer to one or more of various theories aimed at solving "[[the labor problem]]" through radical changes in the capitalist economy. Descriptions of 'the problem', explanations of it causes, and proposed solutions (for example, abolition of private property, cooperatives, state-ownership, and so on) varied among "socialist" philosophies.<ref>Brooks, Frank H. 1994. The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908). Transaction Publishers. p. 75.</ref>

Tucker said socialism was the claim that "labor should be put in possession of its own,"<ref>Tucker, Benjamin. [http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/state-socialism-and-anarchism#art1p1 "State Socialism and Anarchism," ¶ 1].</ref> holding that what "state socialism" and "anarchistic socialism" had in common was the [[labor theory of value]].<ref>Brown, Susan Love. 1997. "The Free Market as Salvation from Government". In ''Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture''. Berg Publishers. p. 107.</ref> However, "Instead of asserting, as did socialist anarchists, that common ownership was the key to eroding differences of economic power," and appealing to social solidarity, Tucker's individualist anarchism advocated distribution of property in an undistorted natural market, as a mediator of egoistic impulses and a source of social stability.<ref>Freeden, Michael. 1996. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford University Press. p. 276.</ref>

Tucker said,
{{quote|the fact that one class of men are dependent for their living upon the sale of their labour, while another class of men are relieved of the necessity of labour by being legally privileged to sell something that is not labour. . . . And to such a state of things I am as much opposed as any one. But the minute you remove privilege. . . every man will be a labourer exchanging with fellow-labourers . . . What Anarchistic-Socialism aims to abolish is usury . . . it wants to deprive capital of its reward.<ref>[Instead of a Book, p. 404]</ref>}}

Tucker first favored a natural rights philosophy, in which an individual had a right to own the fruits of his labor; then he abandoned it in favor of "egoism" (influenced by [[Max Stirner]]), in which he believed that only the "right of might" exists, until overridden by contract.

He objected to all forms of [[communism]], believing that even a stateless communist society must encroach upon the liberty of individuals.<ref>Madison, Charles A. Anarchism in the United States. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol 6, No 1, January 1945, p. 53.</ref>
{{quote|He denounced [[Karl Marx|Marx]] as the representative of 'the principle of authority which we live to combat.' He thought [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]] the superior theorist and the real champion of freedom. 'Marx would nationalize the productive and distributive forces; Proudhon would individualize and associate them.'<ref>[[Sheldon Richman|Richman, Sheldon]], [http://www.amconmag.com/blog/libertarian-left/ Libertarian Left], ''[[The American Conservative]]'' (March 2011)</ref>}}

Tucker connected his economic views in the following form with those of [[Pierre Joseph Proudhon]], [[Josiah Warren]] and [[Karl Marx]] in the following form:

{{quote|The economic principles of Modern Socialism are a logical deduction from the principle laid down by Adam Smith in the early chapters of his “Wealth of Nations,” – namely, that labor is the true measure of price...Half a century or more after Smith enunciated the principle above stated, Socialism picked it up where he had dropped it, and in following it to its logical conclusions, made it the basis of a new economic philosophy...This seems to have been done independently by three different men, of three different nationalities, in three different languages: [[Josiah Warren]], an American; [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Pierre J. Proudhon]], a Frenchman; [[Karl Marx]], a German Jew...That the work of this interesting trio should have been done so nearly simultaneously would seem to indicate that Socialism was in the air, and that the time was ripe and the conditions favorable for the appearance of this new school of thought. So far as priority of time is concerned, the credit seems to belong to Warren, the American, – a fact which should be noted by the stump orators who are so fond of declaiming against Socialism as an imported article. Benjamin Tucker. ''Individual Liberty''<ref>[http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/benjamin-tucker-individual-liberty ''Individual Liberty'' by Benjamin Tucker]</ref>}}

=== ''Liberty'' (1881–1908) ===
{{Main|Liberty (1881–1908)}}
[[File:Liberty OldPeriodical.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|''[[Liberty (1881–1908)]]'']]''Liberty'' was a nineteenth-century [[anarchism|anarchist]] periodical published in the United States by Benjamin Tucker, from August 1881 to April 1908. The periodical was instrumental in developing and formalizing the [[individualist anarchism|individualist anarchist]] philosophy through publishing essays and serving as a format for debate. Contributors included Benjamin Tucker, [[Lysander Spooner]], [[Auberon Herbert]], [[Dyer Lum]], [[Joshua K. Ingalls]], [[John Henry Mackay]], [[Victor Yarros]], [[Wordsworth Donisthorpe]], [[James L. Walker]], [[J. William Lloyd]], [[Florence Finch Kelly]], [[Voltairine de Cleyre]], [[Steven T. Byington]], [[John Beverley Robinson (anarchist)|John Beverley Robinson]], [[Jo Labadie]], [[Lillian Harman]], and [[Henry Appleton]]. Included in its masthead is a quote from [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Pierre Proudhon]] saying that liberty is "Not the Daughter But the Mother of Order."

==The Four Monopolies==
{{Libertarian socialism|People }}
{{American socialism |expanded=People}}
Tucker argued that the poor condition of American workers resulted from four [[legal monopoly|legal monopolies]] based in authority:
# the money monopoly
# the land monopoly
# [[tariff]]s
# [[patent]]s

His focus, for several decades, became the state's economic control of how trade could take place, and what [[currency]] counted as legitimate. He saw interest and profit as a form of exploitation, made possible by the [[banking]] monopoly, which was in turn maintained through coercion and invasion. Tucker called any such interest and profit "[[usury]]" and he saw it as the basis of the oppression of the workers. In his words,
{{quote|interest is theft, Rent Robbery, and Profit Only Another Name for Plunder.<ref>Martin Blatt, ''Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty''. Coughlin, Hamilton and Sullivan (eds.), p. 29</ref>}}

Tucker believed that usury was immoral; however, he upheld the right of all people to engage in immoral contracts.
{{quote|Liberty, therefore, must defend the right of individuals to make contracts involving usury, rum, marriage, prostitution, and many other things which are believed to be wrong in principle and opposed to human well-being. The right to do wrong involves the essence of all rights.<ref>Benjamin R. Tucker, "Right and Individual Rights," Liberty I (January 7, 1882): 3.</ref>}}

He asserted that anarchism is meaningless
{{quote|unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market – that is, private property.}}

===Land monopoly===
He acknowledged that "anything is a product upon which human labor has been expended," but would not recognize full property rights to labored-upon land:
{{quote|It should be noted, however, that in the case of land, or of any other material the supply of which is so limited that all cannot hold it in unlimited quantities, Anarchism undertakes to protect no titles except such as are based upon actual occupancy and use.<ref>Tucker, Benjamin, [http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/more-questions#art14n1 "Instead of a Book", p. 61, footnote.]</ref>}}

Tucker opposed granting title to land that was not in use; he argued that an individual should use land continually, in order to retain exclusive right to it. He believed that if this practice were not followed, there was a 'land monopoly'.

===Money and banking monopoly===
Tucker also opposed state protection of the 'banking monopoly' – the requirement that one must obtain a charter to engage in the business of banking. He hoped to raise wages by deregulating the banking industry, reasoning that competition in banking would drive down interest rates and stimulate enterprise. Tucker believed this would decrease the proportion of individuals seeking employment, and wages would be driven up by competing employers. "Thus, the same blow that strikes interest down will send wages up."<ref>[http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm] Libertarian Heritage No. 23. {{ISSN|0959-566X}} ISBN 1-85637-549-8, Libertarian Alliance, 2002.</ref>

He did not oppose individuals being employed by others, but due to his interpretation of the [[labor theory of value]], he believed that in the present economy individuals do not receive a wage that fully compensates them for their labor. He wrote that, if the four "monopolies" were ended,
{{quote|it will make no difference whether men work for themselves, or are employed, or employ others. In any case they can get nothing but that wages for their labor which free competition determines.<ref>Tucker, Benjamin. [http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/solutions-of-the-labor-problem#e164p24 "Solutions of the Labor Problem," in ''Instead of a Book'', p. 475].</ref>}}

===Tariffs and patents===
Tucker opposed [[protectionism]], believing that tariffs caused high prices, by preventing national producers from having to compete with foreign competitors. He believed that [[free trade]] would help keep prices low and therefore would assist laborers in receiving their "natural wage". Tucker did not believe in intellectual property rights in the form of patents, on the grounds that patents and copyrights protect something which cannot rightfully be held as property. He wrote that the basis for property is "the fact that it is impossible in the nature of things for concrete objects to be used in different places at the same time."<ref>[http://praxeology.net/BT-AIC.htm "The Attitude of Anarchism toward Industrial Combinations"]</ref> Property in concrete things is "socially necessary":
{{quote|since successful society rests on individual initiative, [it is necessary] to protect the individual creator in the use of his concrete creations by forbidding others to use them without his consent.}}

Because ideas are not concrete things, they should not be held and protected as property. Ideas ''can'' be used in different places at the same time, and so their use should not be restricted by patents.<ref>Tucker, Benjamin: [http://praxeology.net/BT-AIC.htm The Attitude of Anarchism toward Industrial Combinations]</ref> This was a source of conflict with the philosophy of fellow individualist [[Lysander Spooner]], who saw ideas as the product of "intellectual labor" and therefore private property.<ref>Spooner, Lysander. [http://lysanderspooner.org/intellect/contents.htm The Law of Intellectual Property: or an essay on the right of authors and inventors to a perpetual property in their ideas.], Chapter 1, Section VI.</ref>

===Yarros===
According to [[Victor Yarros]]: {{quote|He [Tucker] opposed savagely any and all reform movements that had paternalistic aims, and looked to the state for aid and fulfillment...For the same reason, consistent, unrelenting opposition to compulsion, he combated "populism," "greenbackism," the single-tax movement, and all forms of socialism and communism. He denounced and exposed [[Johann Most]], the editor of ''Freiheit'', the anarchist-communist organ. The end, he declared, could never justify the means, if the means were intrinsically immoral&nbsp;– and force, by whomsoever used, was immoral except as a means of preventing or punishing aggression.<ref name="Yarros" />}}

===Attitude to unions===
Tucker rejected the legislative programs of labor unions, laws imposing a short day, minimum wage laws, forcing businesses to provide insurance to employees, and compulsory pension systems.<ref name="Yarros"/> He believed instead that strikes should be organized by free workers rather than by bureaucratic union officials and organizations. He argued,
{{quote|strikes, whenever and wherever inaugurated, deserve encouragement from all the friends of labour. . . They show that people are beginning to know their rights, and knowing, dare to maintain them.<ref>Benjamin Tucker, Liberty, 15/4/1881</ref>}}

and furthermore,
{{quote|as an awakening agent, as an agitating force, the beneficent influence of a strike is immeasurable. . . with our present economic system almost every strike is just. For what is justice in production and distribution? That labour, which creates all, shall have all.<ref>Benjamin Tucker, Liberty, #19, 1882</ref>}}

===Anarchist society===
Tucker envisioned an individualist anarchist society as
{{quote|each man reaping the fruits of his labour and no man able to live in idleness on an income from capital....become[ing] a great hive of Anarchistic workers, prosperous and free individuals [combining] to carry on their production and distribution on the cost principle.<ref>The Individualist Anarchists, p. 276</ref>}}

rather than a bureaucratic organization of workers organized into rank and file unions. However, he did hold a genuine appreciation for labor unions (which he called "trades-union socialism"), and saw it as "an intelligent and self-governing socialism" saying, "[they] promise the coming substitution of industrial socialism for usurping legislative mobism."<ref>The Individualist Anarchists, pp. 283–284</ref>

===Carson's critique===
Tucker's concept of the four monopolies has been discussed by [[Kevin Carson]] in his book ''Studies in Mutualist Political Economy''. Carson incorporates the idea into his thesis that the exploitation of labor is only possible due to state intervention. However, he argues that Tucker failed to notice a fifth form of privilege: transportation subsidies.
{{quote|One form of contemporary government intervention that Tucker almost entirely ignored was transportation subsidies. This seems odd at first glance, since "[[internal improvements]]" had been a controversial issue throughout the 19th century, and were a central part of the mercantilist agenda of the Whigs and the Gilded Age GOP. Indeed, Lincoln has announced the beginning of his career with a "short but sweet" embrace of Henry Clay's program: a national bank, a high tariff, and internal improvements. This neglect, however, was in keeping with Tucker's inclination. He was concerned with privilege primarily as it promoted monopoly profits through unfair exchange at the individual level, and not as it affected the overall structure of production. The kind of government intervention that James O'Connor was later to write about, that promoted accumulation and concentration by directly subsidizing the operating costs of big business, largely escaped his notice.}}

Carson believes that Tucker's four monopolies, and transportation subsidies, created the foundation for the [[state monopoly capitalism|monopoly capitalism]] and [[military-industrial complex]] of the 20th century.<ref>[http://www.mutualist.org/id72.html Kevin Carson. ''Studies in Mutualist Political Economy'', Ch. 5]</ref>  Ironically, Carson has also noted that the heavy use of this new monopoly by the state may be grounds for optimism that Tucker was unaware of.  As, in order to maintain the corporate system, the state has been forced to continually ratchet up the level of subsidies that it provides until it is very close to bankruptcy.

==Private defense forces==
Tucker did not have a utopian vision of anarchy, where individuals would not coerce others.<ref name="Yarros">{{cite journal| author = [[Victor Yarros]]| title = Philosophical Anarchism: Its Rise, Decline, and Eclipse| year=1936 | journal = [[The American Journal of Sociology]]|volume=41|issue=4|pages = 470–483| doi = 10.1086/217188}}</ref> He advocated that liberty and property be defended by private institutions. Opposing the monopoly of the state in providing security, he advocated a free market of competing defense providers, saying "defense is a service like any other service; ... it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity, subject to the law of supply and demand."<ref>"On Picket Duty." Liberty. July 30, 1887; 4, 26. p4.</ref>

He said that anarchism "does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders."<ref>Tucker, Benjamin. ''Liberty'' October 19, 1891.</ref> Tucker expressed that the market-based providers of security would offer protection of land that was being used, and would not offer assistance to those attempting to collect rent:
{{quote|'The land for the people' . . . means the protection by . . . voluntary associations for the maintenance of justice . . . of all people who desire to cultivate land in possession of whatever land they personally cultivate . . . and the positive refusal of the protecting power to lend its aid to the collection of any rent, whatsoever.<ref>quoted by Martin Blatt, Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty, Coughlin, Hamilton and Sullivan (eds.), p. 299</ref>}}

==Embrace of "egoism"==
{{Individualism sidebar}}
Tucker abandoned natural rights positions and converted to [[Max Stirner]]'s [[Egoist anarchism]]. Rejecting the idea of moral rights, Tucker said that there were only two rights, "the right of might" and "the right of contract." He also said, after converting to Egoist individualism, "In times past...it was my habit to talk glibly of the right of man to land. It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed it off....Man's only right to land is his might over it."<ref>Tucker, Instead of a Book, p. 350</ref> In adopting Stirnerite egoism (1886), Tucker rejected natural rights which had long been considered the foundation of libertarianism. This rejection galvanized the movement into fierce debates, with the natural rights proponents accusing the egoists of destroying libertarianism itself. So bitter was the conflict that a number of natural rights proponents withdrew from the pages of ''Liberty'' in protest even though they had hitherto been among its frequent contributors. Thereafter, Liberty championed egoism although its general content did not change significantly."<ref>[http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1300&layout=html#chapter_100896 Wendy Mcelroy. "Benjamin Tucker, Individualism, & Liberty: Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order"]</ref> This led to a split in American Individualism between the growing number of Egoists and the contemporary Spoonerian "[[Natural Law]]yers". Tucker came to hold the position that no rights exist until they are created by contract. This led him to controversial positions such as claiming that infants had no rights and were the property of their parents, because they did not have the ability to contract. He said that a person, who physically tries to stop a mother from throwing her "baby into the fire", should be punished for violating her property rights. He said that children would shed their status as property, when they became old enough to contract "to buy or sell a house" for example, noting that the precocity varies by age and would be determined by a jury in the case of a complaint.<ref>McElroy, Wendy. 2003. The Debates of Liberty. Lexington Books. pp. 77–79</ref>

He also came to believe that aggression towards others was justifiable if doing so led to a greater decrease in "aggregate pain" than refraining from doing so. He said:

{{quote|the ultimate end of human endeavor is the minimum of pain. We aim to decrease invasion only because, as a rule, invasion increases the total of pain (meaning, of course, pain suffered by the ego, whether directly or through sympathy with others). But it is precisely my contention that this rule, despite the immense importance which I place upon it, is not absolute; that, on the contrary, there are exceptional cases where invasion – that is, coercion of the non-invasive – lessens the aggregate pain. Therefore coercion of the non-invasive, when justifiable at all, is to be justified on the ground that it secures, not a minimum of invasion, but a minimum of pain. . . . [T]o me [it is] axiomatic – that the ultimate end is the minimum of pain<ref>"Land Tenure Again." Liberty. October 19, 1895; 11, 12; p. 3.</ref>}}

Tucker now said that there were only two rights, "the right of might" and "the right of contract." He also said, after converting to Egoist individualism, that ownership in land is legitimately transferred through force unless contracted otherwise. In 1892, he said "In times past...it was my habit to talk glibly of the right of man to land. It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed it off. Man's only right to land is his might over it. If his neighbor is mightier than he and takes the land from him, then the land is his neighbor's, until the latter is dispossessed by one mightier still."<ref>Benjamin R. Tucker, "Response to 'Rights,' by William Hansen," ''Liberty'', December 31, 1892; 9, 18;
p. 1</ref>

However, he said he believed that individuals would come to the realization that "[[law of equal liberty|equal liberty]]" and "occupancy and use" doctrines were "generally trustworthy guiding principle of action," and, as a result, they would likely find it in their interests to contract with each other to refrain from infringing upon equal liberty and from protecting land that was not in use.<ref>Benjamin R. Tucker, "The Two Conceptions of Equal Freedom," ''Liberty'', April 6, 1895; 10, 24; p. 4</ref> Though he believed that non-invasion, and "occupancy and use as the title to land" were general rules that people would find in their own interests to create through contract, he said that these rules "must be sometimes trodden underfoot."<ref>Tucker, "Land Tenure Again"</ref>

Several periodicals "were undoubtedly influenced by ''Liberty'''s presentation of egoism. They included: ''I'' published by C.L. Swartz, edited by W.E. Gordak and J.W. Lloyd (all associates of ''Liberty''); ''The Ego'' and ''The Egoist'', both of which were edited by Edward H. Fulton. Among the egoist papers that Tucker followed were the German ''Der Eigene'', edited by [[Adolf Brand]], and ''The Eagle'' and ''The Serpent'', issued from London. The latter, the most prominent English-language egoist journal, was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle 'A Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology{{'"}}.<ref name="mcelroy">McElroy, Wendy. [http://libertariannation.org/a/f62m1.html A Reconsideration of Trial by Jury], ''Forumulations'', Winter 1998–1999, Free Nation Foundation</ref>

==Late life==
In 1906, he opened Tucker's Unique Book Shop in New York City – promoting "Egoism in Philosophy, Anarchism in Politics, Iconoclasm in Art". In 1908, a fire destroyed Tucker's uninsured printing equipment and his 30-year stock of books and pamphlets. Tucker's lover, Pearl Johnson – 25 years his junior – was pregnant with their daughter, Oriole Tucker. Six weeks after Oriole's birth, Tucker closed both ''Liberty'' and the book shop and retired with his family to France. In 1913, he came out of retirement for two years to contribute articles and letters to ''[[The New Freewoman]]'' which he called "the most important publication in existence."

Later Tucker became much more pessimistic about the prospects for anarchism. In 1926, [[Vanguard Press]] published a selection of his writings entitled ''Individual Liberty'', in which Tucker added a postscript<ref>[http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm#SSA.37 a postscript]</ref> to "State Socialism and Anarchism",<ref>[http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm "State Socialism and Anarchism"]</ref> which stated
{{quote|Forty years ago, when the foregoing essay was written, the denial of competition had not yet effected the enormous concentration of wealth that now so gravely threatens social order. It was not yet too late to stem the current of accumulation by a reversal of the policy of monopoly. The Anarchistic remedy was still applicable.}}

But, Tucker argued,
{{quote|Today the way is not so clear. The four monopolies, unhindered, have made possible the modern development of the trust, and the trust is now a monster which I fear, even the freest banking, could it be instituted, would be unable to destroy. ... If this be true, then monopoly, which can be controlled permanently only for economic forces, has passed for the moment beyond their reach, and must be grappled with for a time solely by forces political or revolutionary. Until measures of forcible confiscation, through the State or in defiance of it, shall have abolished the concentrations that monopoly has created, the economic solution proposed by Anarchism and outlined in the forgoing pages – and there is no other solution...  [It] will remain a thing to be taught to the rising generation, that conditions may be favorable to its application after the great leveling. But education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly. Anarchists who endeavor to hasten it by joining in the propaganda of State Socialism or revolution make a sad mistake indeed. They help to so force the march of events that the people will not have time to find out, by the study of their experience, that their troubles have been due to the rejection of competition.}}

By 1930, Tucker had concluded that centralization and advancing technology had doomed both anarchy and civilization.
{{quote|The matter of my famous 'Postscript' now sinks into insignificance; the insurmountable obstacle to the realization of Anarchy is no longer the power of the trusts, but the indisputable fact that our civilization is in its death throes. We may last a couple of centuries yet; on the other hand, a decade may precipitate our finish. ... The ''dark'' ages sure enough. The Monster, Mechanism, is devouring mankind.<ref>Letter to Clarence Lee Swartz, July 22, 1930. In Joseph Ishill (ed.), ''Free Vistas: A Libertarian Outlook on Life and Letters'', II, 300–301. Quoted in James J. Martin, ''Men Against the State'', 1953:260.</ref>}}

According to James Martin, when referring to the world scene of the mid-1930s in private correspondence, Tucker wrote: "[[Capitalism]] is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of [[Socialism]] or [[Communism]]" and went on to observe that, "under any of these regimes a sufficiently shrewd man can feather his nest.".<ref>James J. Martin, Men Against the State, 1970:275, quoting from the Baskette Collection (1933–1935)</ref>

[[L. Susan Brown|Susan Love Brown]] claims that this unpublished, private letter, which does not distinguish between the anarchist socialism Tucker advocated and the state socialism he criticized, served in "providing the shift further illuminated in the 1970s by [[anarcho-capitalists]]."<ref>Brown, Susan L., The Free Market as Salvation from Government, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, p. 108</ref>

Tucker died in [[Monaco]] in 1939, in the company of his family. His daughter, Oriole, reported, "Father's attitude towards communism never changed one whit, nor about religion.... In his last months he called in the French housekeeper. 'I want her,' he said, 'to be a witness that on my death bed I'm not recanting. I do not believe in God!"<ref name=oriole>{{cite book|author=Paul Avrich|title=Anarchist Voices|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1996|isbn=0-691-04494-5|chapter=Oriole Tucker Riché|page=11}}</ref>

==In Popular Culture==
In the [[alternate history]] novel [[The Probability Broach]] by [[L. Neil Smith]] as part of the [[North American Confederacy|North American Confederacy Series]], in which the [[United States]] becomes a [[Libertarianism|Libertarian state]] after a successful [[Whiskey Rebellion]] and the overthrowing and execution of [[George Washington]] by firing squad for treason in 1794, '''Benjamin Tucker''' served as the 17th President of the [[North American Confederacy]] from 1892 to 1912.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Steelman |first= Aaron |authorlink= |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |title= Tucker, Benjamin R. (1854–1939)  |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC  |accessdate= |edition= |year=2008 |publisher= [[SAGE Publications|SAGE]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |id= |isbn= 978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages= 513–514 |quote= |ref= }}

==External links==
{{commons|Benjamin Tucker|Benjamin Tucker}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author|Benjamin R. Tucker}}
* [http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/ ''Instead of a Book, by a Man Too Busy to Write One''] (1893, 1897)
* [http://travellinginliberty.blogspot.com/2007/08/index-of-liberty-site.html ''Travelling in Liberty'']: a complete online archive of Tucker's journal ''Liberty'' (1881–1908)
* [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/tucker/ Several works by Tucker at  Anarchy Archives]
* [http://www.panarchy.org/tucker/state.socialism.html State Socialism and Anarchism. How far they agree and wherein they differ] (1886)
* [http://www.panarchy.org/tucker/taxation.html Liberty and Taxation] From the magazine Liberty 1881–1908
* [https://mises.org/books/individual_liberty_tucker.pdf ''Individual Liberty''] (1926); collection of articles
* [http://www.infoshop.org/faq/append11.html#app4 Tucker on Property, Communism and Socialism]
* [http://www.BlackCrayon.com/people/tucker/ BlackCrayon.com: People: Benjamin Tucker]
* [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/tucker/ Benjamin Tucker] Anarchy Archives
* [http://www.zetetics.com/mac/tir1.htm ''Benjamin Tucker, Liberty, and Individualist Anarchism'' by Wendy McElroy]
* [http://classicalliberalism.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_classicalliberalism_archive.html ''Benjamin Ricketson Tucker''] from "CLASSicalLiberalism" archive
* [https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/1_4/1_4_4.pdf ''Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty''] by [[Carl Watner]]
* [https://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?control=697 ''Memories of Benjamin Tucker''] by [[J. William Lloyd]] (1935)
* [http://uncletaz.com/liberty/oriole.html ''An Interview With Oriole Tucker''] Tucker's daughter reveals biographical information, by Paul Avrich
* [http://uncletaz.com/liberty/ ''Benjamin R Tucker & the Champions of Liberty – A Centenary Anthology''] Edited by Michael E. Coughlin, Charles H. Hamilton and Mark A. Sullivan
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Tucker,+Benjamin+Ricketson }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin Ricketson Tucker |sopt=tight}}
* {{Librivox author |id=6500}}
* {{FAG|86816913}}

{{Authority control}}

<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME              = Tucker, Benjamin
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Tucker, Benjamin Ricketson
|SHORT DESCRIPTION = American anarchist
|DATE OF BIRTH     = 17 April 1854
|PLACE OF BIRTH    = Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States
|DATE OF DEATH     = 22 June 1939
|PLACE OF DEATH    = Monaco
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Benjamin}}
[[Category:1854 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:American anarchists]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:Anarchist theorists]]
[[Category:American magazine editors]]
[[Category:American socialists]]
[[Category:American magazine publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American political philosophers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American male writers]]
[[Category:American tax resisters]]
[[Category:Libertarian socialists]]
[[Category:American atheists]]
[[Category:Atheism activists]]
[[Category:Egoist anarchists]]
[[Category:Individualist anarchists]]
[[Category:Free-market anarchists]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Mutualists]]
[[Category:Free love advocates]]
[[Category:Left-libertarians]]