Sunday, May 2, 2010

“Wendy McElroy: R.C. Hoiles' legacy - OCRegister” plus 3 more

“Wendy McElroy: R.C. Hoiles' legacy - OCRegister” plus 3 more

Wendy McElroy: R.C. Hoiles' legacy - OCRegister

Posted: 02 May 2010 11:48 AM PDT

Raymond Cyrus (R.C.) Hoiles (1878-1970) was an American archetype who embodied the American dream: he was a rugged individualist who rose through hard work from unassuming circumstances to achieve immense success. Professionally, R.C. left behind Freedom Newspapers Inc., a family-owned corporation that consisted of 16 daily newspapers, headed by the influential Orange County Register. Personally, as a devoted family man, he inspired three generations of Hoiles to embrace and expand a media dynasty that remained remarkably true to R.C.'s vision. He believed passionately in individual freedom and dignity.

But the foregoing does not adequately capture his legacy. Doing so requires a glimpse behind the public face of this extraordinarily modest man. D. Robert Segal, a president of Freedom Newspapers once observed, "While the Hearsts, Scripps, Knights, Gannetts, and others named their newspaper groups after themselves, R.C. Hoiles named his business Freedom Newspapers." A similar modesty prevented R.C. from issuing his voluminous writing in book form, leaving them buried, instead, within newsprint.

 

 

 

The private R.C. was a quietly generous man who became the first sponsor of Services for the Blind Inc. in Orange County. Register columnist Paul W. Travis recounted how he used to hand-deliver cash to a pastor and others in need because R.C. wanted no publicity. Those who worked with him developed a loyalty that bordered on devotion. A comment by the writer Thaddeus Ashby might explain why. "He's the kindest man I ever met ... because he respects men as individuals. You feel he wants to find the best that's in you and drag it out of you, where you both can stand and admire it. He looks for the truth in a man."

THE MAKING OF A DYNAMO

Born into a happy middle-class family in Alliance, Ohio, no one could have predicted the dynamo R.C. would become; there was no indication he would create and steer one of the 20th century's most powerful vehicles for freedom.

Educated in a little red schoolhouse across from his family's farm, R.C. went on to receive a college degree in engineering. But another vocation tugged. He had been working as a printer's devil for his brother Frank's newspaper. Soon the brothers co-owned several Ohio newspapers, and the personality traits that would define the later R.C. began to emerge.

His lifelong opposition to government intervention started by watching events unfold in his own community. R.C. applied a single standard: If an act was improper for one individual to commit, then it was improper for a collection of individuals or anyone else; theft was theft, force was force, and it could not be redefined by the application ofmath or an allegation of privilege. Applying this single standard led R.C. to oppose both labor unions and businessmen who aligned with government. He did so with characteristic vigor and, often, at the same time.

In an editorial entitled "Whom Will A Worker Obey?" R.C. explained the harm that legally backed unions would inflict upon working people. He wrote, "Collective-bargaining advocates delude the poor, honest working man ... with the idea that giving them the right to regulate his life – tell him at what he must work, for what price and how long – they will greatly add to his comfort of life." No one had the right to dictate the terms of labor for another person.

On the other hand, no businessman had a right to command privilege. One of the Hoiles' Ohio newspapers exposed the fraudulent awarding of a paving contract to a Cleveland company despite a lower competing bid. Public pressure resulted in the lower bid being accepted.

The thwarted businessman launched a campaign to ruin R.C.

In the period that followed, another of R.C.'s signature characteristics emerged: utter stubbornness when he was acting from conviction. R.C. amicably severed business connections with Frank over the latter's objection to running anti-union columns. Then, whether from organized labor or the crusading businessman, he was confronted by physical violence.

In November 1928, the front porch of his family home was destroyed by an explosion; his car was wired with dynamite that failed to explode. In response, R.C. purchased a bullet-proof automobile and hired an armed guard to accompany him.

In 1932, Hoiles sold the Ohio papers. In a June 4, 1986 letter, R.C.'s son Harry suggested the sale took place because the papers had ceased to be sufficiently profitable.

FREEDOM PHILOSOPHY BORN

R.C. spent the next three years poring through the books that created a libertarian fire within him. His philosophy became an explicit, integrated whole.

In 1935, when R.C. bought a California newspaper, The Santa Ana Register, (which became The Orange County Register in the 1970s), he imported the freedom philosophy that he held without waiver until his death in 1970. The philosophy was deceptively simple. It was based on three principles that R.C. called the "Three Guides to Morality": the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence. These guides mandated that liberty and dignity that were the birthright of every human being.

I call R.C.'s philosophy "deceptively simple" because, in consistently applying principles to complex issues, he often went against the common political wisdom of his day. A case in point is the internment of Japanese-Americans (including Nisei, the second-generation American-born) into camps during World War II. Hoiles called the imprisonment unconstitutional. He was virtually alone among newspaper publishers in arguing that "convicting people of disloyalty to our country without having specific evidence against them is too foreign to our way of life and too close akin to the kind of government we are fighting." He also fought for restoration of the internees' property upon their release. To this day, members of the Japanese-American community place flowers on his grave.

R.C. once said, "Nobody cares about Hoiles; everybody cares about freedom." He was only half-correct. R.C. Hoiles' true legacy must prominently include the love and loyalty he inspired in family, friends and in the "friendless," whom he fearlessly championed. To care about freedom is to care about Hoiles.

McElroy is author of five books on libertarianism and the editor of ifeminists.com, wendymcelroy.com.

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OCR Editorial writers: What R.C. Hoiles means to me - OCRegister

Posted: 02 May 2010 11:40 AM PDT

Register editorial writers reflect on the philosophy of R.C. Hoiles, which guides the Register's Editorial Pages:

 

 

 

 

Alan W. Bock: There are reasons to be concerned, but on balance, I feel reasonably sure that the cause of liberty to which R.C. Hoiles devoted his life and his considerable business skills, while it might have some tough sledding ahead, will not fall into the dustbin of history.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, when R.C. was reading everything he could get his hands on and working out a political philosophy, which evolved from a fairly standard-issue devotion to the U.S. Constitution to a full-fledged fealty to what he called "voluntarism" (which most people today would call libertarianism, though he was never quite comfortable with that label) he was going much more against the tide than we are today. President Franklin Roosevelt had installed the New Deal, to the applause of almost all the cultured classes, and John Maynard Keynes had provided the theoretical economic underpinning, which quickly came to dominate academe, for widespread government intervention into the economy.

Ludwig von Mises, a giant in economic theory in Europe, couldn't get a job at any American university when he escaped Austria just before the Nazi takeover. Most of the chattering classes took it as a given that some form of socialism was the wave of the future, that backward-looking capitalism was already dead. Holding out against this tide earned R.C. the moniker from Time magazine of "the weird Uncle Harold of the newspaper business."

But R.C. had read his Adam Smith, Bastiat, Mises, Hayek and others, and he was convinced that socialism (let alone communism) was inherently unstable as well as cruel. He helped to promote the few liberty-minded writers, like Ayn Rand, Isabel Paterson and Rose Wilder Lane, who arose during the 1940s, and reprinted the work of more established commentators like Albert Jay Nock. He provided Leonard Read with some of the seed money to establish the Foundation for Economic Education. He distributed pamphlets to everybody he met. He never gave up hope. And eventually a freedom movement grew and increased in influence.

– Reprinted from a column published Oct. 1, 2009

Mark Landsbaum: R.C. Hoiles and I never met. Yet, I feel well-acquainted. His legacy shaped this newspaper's editorial stance -- something carried on through generations of Hoiles family members.

It's important to stand for something. In an era of blowing-with-the-wind philosophical wavering, readers of the Register have been blessed. For decades they could count on an editorial point of view that was steady to thank.

If it's good to be consistent (and it is), it's even better to be consistently correct (and Mr. Hoiles was). One of the perhaps inevitable negatives of political life is that its participants find absolute refuge by fleeing to compromise. Integrity is the first casualty of politics, giving up in order to gain.

What I found most admirable about Mr. Hoiles is that from his lofty perch as publisher and policy-setter, his refuge, instead, was in absolute standards, to the exclusion of compromise.

"I have faith in principles, in truth ... in the Commandments, in the Golden Rule, in Nature or God," Mr. Hoiles wrote on his 75th birthday in 1953. He valued "all men who will answer questions without evasion about what they are advocating." There are more than a few weasel-word appeasers in contemporary political life Mr. Hoiles no doubt wouldn't highly value.

He championed work, rather than gifts, as the underpinnings of the "abundant life" and insisted "men would more nearly reap all they produce and more nearly approach justice under the competitive, free, private enterprise system than under any other system."

Mr. Hoiles' strength was that he believed what he said, and said what he believed. He thought, as do I, that all people should do the same.

He understood, as this nation's founders understood, the origin of our rights. He knew those moral principles to be the best defense against man's natural inclination to succumb to flattering words and to be led astray by those who would turn them from the truth and toward fables.

 

Brian Calle: There is no denying the impact R.C. Hoiles had on the newspaper business, but even more impactful was the bold yet simple political philosophy he advocated through his newspaper's pages. R.C. believed that government should exist solely to protect the rights of citizens; namely, life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. He rejected government intervention in the economy and balked at government redistribution of wealth. While many of his own intellectual compatriots at the time were confined to academia, R.C. fought on the front lines delivering a sometimes-edgy freedom message to doorsteps daily.

 

Freedom Communications' patriarch will be remembered for his unabashed political philosophy and his contribution to liberty-minded political thought. Today's political climate in many ways mirrors that of R.C.'s own heyday; we should be so lucky to have a few loud, brazen voices like him now.

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NBA 2010 Playoff Predictions: Suns Vs. Spurs Game 1 - Associated Content

Posted: 02 May 2010 01:35 PM PDT

NBA Playoff Prediction for Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs

The NBA playoffs feature several heated rivalries, but few are as hotly contested, and contain as much drama as Monday's match-up between the San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns. These two teams seem to be destined to duke it out on an annual basis. The Suns won the regular season series, 3-1, but the Spurs have been playing a different brand of basketball since the beginning of these 2010 NBA playoffs.

Coming off of a four games to two first-round stunner of the second-seeded Dallas Mavericks, the veteran Spurs looked as if they had somehow tapped into the fountain of youth. Playing inspired team ball, the Spurs knocked down their open shots, played solid defense, and showed a great deal of poise throughout the series. Most impressive were Guard Manu Ginobili, who played fearlessly despite having a fractured nose (scoring 19 ppg), and young guard George Hill who stole the headlines from his better-known teammates with a strong series performance, averaging 34 minutes and 14 ppg. The reliable, but aging Tim Duncan chipped in with a series average of 18 points, 1 block, and 9 rebounds and Tony Parker also contributed a rather quiet 15 points and 5 assists for the series, coming off the bench.

In their round one series, the Suns defeated a Portland team that was hampered by injuries throughout the season. Led by Jason Richardson's 23 ppg series average, Phoenix prevailed in six games. The Suns were directed by all-star floor general Steve Nash who scored 15 points per game and dished out almost 10 assists. Forward Amare Stoudemire has had quite a year, and his dominance was evidenced in the first round of the playoffs as he manhandled the Trailblazers inside the paint, averaging 20 points and 5 rebounds. Phoenix also received solid contributions from veterans Grant Hill (8 points in 27 minute per game), and Leonardo Barbosa (8 points in 15 minutes per game).

Looking ahead to Monday night's game 1 between the Spurs and Suns in the second round of the Western Conference NBA playoffs, there are three keys that will ultimately determine the outcome.

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Alternative Fringes- Left & Right - DAILY KOS

Posted: 02 May 2010 01:28 PM PDT

"To understand what I mean, conceive, if you will, of a hypothetical situation (though, luckily, one that's starting to seem more and more plausible each day):

The U.S. federal government collapses under financial strain, and its armed forces lack the will and resources to preserve the Union. From this starting point, one can imagine a whole host of new -- or rather old -- social formations arising in the stead of the defunct federal order.

All but a handful of liberal dead-enders would stop paying their taxes and obeying regulations; and after the initial shocks subsided, most everyone would partake in all sorts of "free trade" of goods and services. Stretches of the country might very well evolve into anarcho-capitalist, individualists orders, with only marriage (or consensual devotion contracts) and familial bonds as non-economic governing authorities. Perhaps.

It's equally, probably more, likely that communities would congeal around rather illiberal, authoritarian precepts, traditions, and kinships. Parts of Brooklyn, for instance, might divide between Latino and Black nationalist blocs in which all other races would be excluded and tribal hierarchies rigidly enforced. The great economist Gary North might get his wish and be able to establish a Protestant independent city state that would make Calvin's Geneva seem like Cancun in comparison. Adulters and homosexuals would be publicly stoned. Some less severe, though no less exclusionary, communities might develop in places like Montana, where it would be tacitly understood that if one couldn't ride a horse and hunt, one just didn't belong. Non-whites and open homosexuals would be looked at funny. Throughout the North American continent, great swaths of land would be fenced off with barbed-wire, and feature socially intolerant signs declaring "No [Blacks/Latinos/Whites/Catholics/Jews/Asians etc.] Allowed!" Bands of thieves, vagrants, and thugs would roam the countryside and godforsaken inner cities, giving rise to a new Samurai class that, though guided by a code of honor, would apprehend and execute criminals without a pretense of a trial. Communities would gratefully compensate these hard and ruthless private contractors for their services.  

In this fantastic, though seemingly likely, scenario, there might even arise an all-male city -- we'll call it "Boaz" -- that would become so liberated that the creative use of narcotics and sharing of paramours wouldn't just be permitted but required. Then again, this state-less pleasure dome might soon prove susceptible to said roving criminal bands and thus need to call upon the Samurais -- or even Gary North's sense of chivalry."

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