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XI NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1908 No. 8
A Symposium on Humanitarians.
Introduction.
In his younger days, the editor of the Critic & Guide was a passionate lover of symposia. It always afforded him pleasure to note the widely different and diametrically opposed opinions which members of the same species and the same genus could entertain about the same subject. The editor's son apparently inherited this love for symposia. Some time ago, he decided to conduct a Symposium on Humanitarians. He addressed a number of letters to thinking people of more or less public character, asking them to name their ten favorite humanitarians of the 19th century; in other words, the ten men of the 19th century who did most for humanity. His endeavor was to collect the opinions of people of different professions, different beliefs, different social status, etc. The replies came in in a most satisfactory manner. It is, however, to be noted that the replies were furnished more readily and more cheerfully by big people than by small potatoes. The latter were "too busy."
Most of the lists were accompanied by explanatory letters which make interesting reading, but, as space forbids, we must be satisfied with printing only a few of them. A perusal of the list is certainly interesting and furnishes abundant food for thought. It shows how differently we think and how differently we feel. Thus, for instance, we consider Nicholas II, Czar of Russia, one of the crudest and foulest of bloodthirsty tyrants that have ever disgraced the earth. The blood shed by his order would fill an ocean; the prisons, dungeons and mines are filled to overflowing by the noblest men and women of Russia, the agonies and tortures that he causes to millions of people are absolutely beyond description, and one would think that no two opinions could exist concerning the status of such a man—or rather beast; and yet, one of the contributors to the Symposium gives his name in his list of humanitarians. This is certainly a funny world.
Tho the Symposium is not a medical one, still I believe our readers will not object to its appearance in the pages of the Critic & Guide. July and August, I have always maintained, should be devoted to light literature, and I believe the Symposium will prove at least as interesting and as useful, as, say, an article on the treatment of typhoid fever, without the least vestige of an original idea or suggestion, and which has been rehashed for the five thousandth time from some text-book or periodical.
With the exception of the physicians, which are first in order, the list of contributors is arranged alphabetically.
w. j. R.
Preface.
"Name your ten favorite humanitarians of the 19th Century.". To this request I have received answers from one hundred contributors. At first I asked more or less obscure people, but when I found that editors of 4-page journals with three and a half subscribers, and lecturers who vented their eloquence on empty benches, were "altogether too busy," I directed my question to more important individuals and with better results.
Of course, I took absolutely no liberty with any of the lists, and I now print whatever was sent. Where more than ten names are submitted, I used the first ten. However, I asked for humanitarians of the 19th century, and consequently cornel rot use lists which named Diogenes, Socrates, Columbus, jesus Christ, Saint Paul, Martin Luther, Washington, etc.
Since Thomas Paine died in 1809, he belongs practically to the 18th century, and I tried hard to keep him out, but he crept in, in a few instances.
Neither, for obvious reasons, have I included the following interesting selection which was humbly submitted to me by our struggling dramatic critic named Alan Dale:
1. Lydia Pinkham.
2. Mary Baker Eddy.
3. Dr. Munyon. -'' - \
4. Beecham of the Pills. ""'
5. P. T. Barnum. ] A 6. Charles Frohman.
7. Laura Jean Libbey.
8. Beefsteak John.
9. Painless Parker. 10. Tony Pastor.
From many of the contributors I have received very splendid comments which I hope to publish later.
To the contributors who were kind enough to answer a difficult question, I herewith give my best thanks.
Victor Robinson.
Abraham Jacobi, a revolutionist of 1848, who came to America with Carl Schurz, is the foremost and best known physician in this country; a voluminous writer and a public spirited citizen. His list is as follows: 1 Napoleon. 2 Wilberforce. 3 Peabody. 4 Semmelweis. 5 Virchow. 6 Darwin. 7 Haeckel. 8 Pasteur. 9 Stephenson. 10 Morse. See also his explanatory letter in this issue.
Solomon Solis Cohen is one of our leading physicians. He is also a writer of beautiful poetry—a rare thing for a medicus. He is Professor of Clinical Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, and has edited A System of Physiologic Therapeutics in eleven volumes:
1 Lincoln. 2 Henry George. 3 Montefiore. 4 Father Damien.
5 Garrison. 6 Hugo. 7 Ruskin. 8 Heine. 9 Kossuth. 10 Tolstoy.
Woods Hutchinson, author of "The Gospel According to Darwin," is well-known as one of our brainiest physicians. His articles in our popular magazines have attracted much attention:
1 Darwin. 2 Carlyle. 3 Browning. 4 Huxley. 5 Whitman.
6 Pasteur. 7 Cobden. 8 Kipling. 9 Lincoln. 10 Virchow.
Burt G. Wilder, who is Professor of Neurology and Vertebrate Zoology in Cornell University, is one of the most eminent anatomists in the world. He has a better collection of brains than any man in this country: 1 Beecher. 2 Carnegie. 3 Cornell. 4 Darwin. 5 Edison. 6 Garrison. 7 Lincoln. 8 Pasteur. 9 Wagner. 10 Booker Washington.
William James Morton is the son of the Dr. Morton, who first used ether as an anesthetic, and who has deservedly received votes in this symposium. The son is a well-known New York physician:
1 Berthelot. 2 Langley. 3 Kelvin. 4 Metchnikoff. 5 Becquerel.
6 Roentgen. 7 Pasteur. 8 Faraday. 9 Lister. 10 W. T. G. Morton
George F. Butler, a prominent Chicago physician, professor of therapeutics, author of well-known text-books; has also written some pretty good poetry:
1 John Conolly. 2 Dorothy Dix. 3 C. W. Long. 4 Dr. W. T. G.
Morton. 5 Horace Wells. 6 Sir James Simpson. 7 Lord Lister.
8 George Peabody. 9 Sir Robert Peel. 10 Lord Shaftesbury.
Edward Bliss Foote, a veteran liberal, whose death at the age of yy—a few days after sending me his list—was much mourned by the reformers. In i860, he received his M. D., and for 20 years published The Health Monthly. His medical works, which were all written for the laity, sold in great quantities. For an account of his life and work, see the pamphlet published for free distribution by his son, Dr. Edward B. Foote, 120 Lexington ave., New York City:
1 Darwin. 2 Spencer. 3 Paine. 4 Whitman. 5 Lincoln. 6 Inger
soll. 7 Bradlaugh. 8 Garrison. 9 Theodore Parker. 10 Henry
Bergh.
Denslow Lewis, a well-known Chicago physician who deserves credit for his vigorous fight on our stupid Anglo-Saxon prudery in sexual matters:
1 Lincoln. 2 Willard. 3 Tolstoy. 4 General Booth. 5 Pasteur.
6 Mrs. Stowe. 7 Ruskin. 8 Queen Victoria. 9 Dwight L. Moody.
10 Nightingale.
William F. Waugh, associate editor of the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, a naval surgeon in the Civil War, Emeritus Professor of Practice, and strong advocate of active principle therapy: 1 Darwin. 2 Lecky. 3 Spencer. 4 Emerson. 5 Huxley. 6 Lincoln. 7 Roosevelt. 8 Bismarck. 9 Thomas Nasi. 10 Edison.
Titus Munson Coan was born in Hawaii, where his father was a famous missionary. He studied medicine and became a naval surgeon under Admiral Farragut. After the War, he devoted himself to literature, and has written both prose and poetry. He has a place in Steadman's American Anthology:
1 Nicholas II of Russia. 2 /. H. Noyes. 3 Pasteur. 4 Darwin.
5 Auguste Comte. 6 Spencer. 7 Ingersoll. 8 Lister. 9 Huxley.
10 Tyndall.
Montague R. Leverson was the family physician of Henry George. Henry George, Jr., in his Life of Henry George, speaks very highly of him:
1 Henry George. 2 Hahnemann. 3 A. Bechamp. 4 Florence
Nightingale. 5 Mazzini. 6 Garibaldi. 7 Pianciani. 8 Garrison.
9 Wm. White. 10 Tolstoy.
Wallace C. Abbott, whose name is synonymous with alkaloids, is editor of The American Journal of Clinical Medicine; in conjunction with Prof. Waugh he has written and published several text-books on therapeutics, practice of medicine, etc.: 1 Pasteur. 2 Lister. 3 Dr. Morton. 4 Darwin. 5 Lincoln. 6 Garrison. 7 Mrs. Stowe. 8 Emerson. 9 Carlyle. 10 Wagner.
William Colby Cooper, formerly editor of The Medical Gleaner, not content with worshipping Aesculapius, has dipped into philosophy and poesy, producing at least one supremely exquisite lyric, Irene:
1 Lincoln. 2 Emerson. 3 Carlyle. 4 George Eliot. 5 Goethe.
6 Dickens. 7 Darwin. 8 Spencer. 9 Haeckel. 10 Huxley.
R. W.- Shufeldt, a physician, has done much research work in ornithology and sexual psychology. He is one of the finest photographers we have. He has written considerably over 1,000 monographs and articles:
1 Darwin. 2 Huxley. 3 E. D. Cope. 4 Ingersoll, 5 Virchow.
6 Pasteur. 7 Thomas Paine. 8 6". F. Baird. 9 John Fiske. 10 John
Stuart Mill.
William J. Robinson, editor 0/ Critic and Guide, Therapeutic Medicine, The American Journal of Urology and Altruria: 1 Lincoln. 2 Walt Whitman. 3 Spencer. 4 Darwin. 5 Huxley. 6 Heine. 7 Karl Marx. 8 Victor Hugo. 9 Augustc Comte. 10 Garibaldi.
Alexis Aladin was expelled from the University of Kazan for taking part in the labor movement. Later he was arrested and sentenced to four years' solitary confinement, to be followed by eight years' exile in Archangel. He escaped, but later took advantage of the czar's amnesty manifesto, and returned to Russia. He was elected to the first Duma, and became the great leader of its Group of Toil. He showed himself an orator of such force, that altho elected to the second Duma, the Government would not permit him to take his seat. He arrived in America, February, 1907, and traveled here with Nicholas Tchaykovsky, lecturing on conditions in Russia:
1 Pasteur. 2 Anatole France. 3 Lincoln. 4 Darwin. 5 Gladstone.
6 Hemholtz. 7 Canova. 8 Meunier. 9 Mendeleyeff. 10 Ibsen.
Charles Alexander is the Negro editor of a journal bearing his own name, published in the interests of the colored race. He looks at the race problem from an optimistic standpoint:
1 Spencer. 2 Carnegie. 3 Edison. 4 Huxley. 5 Darwin. 6
Draper. 7 Ingersoll. 8 Horace Seaver. 9 Josiah Mendum.
10 Hugh 0. Pentecost.
Champe S. Andrews, for many years lawyer for the N. Y. County Medical Society, is a lawyer who has done much excellent work in exposing medical frauds and quacks. He has written on the subject to good effect:
I Samuel Smiles. 2 Darwin. 3 Lincoln. 4 Ibsen. 5 Dickens.
6 Mark Twain. 7 Florence Nightingale. 8 Zola. 9 The Mikado.
10 Luther Burbank.
Hubert Howe Bancroft after a labor of 30 years completed his monumental History of the Pacific States of North America in 39 volumes. To write this book he collected a library of 40,000 books. He has written several other works and ranks with our greatest historians:
1 Lincoln. 2 Benito Jaurez. 3 Morse. 4 Darwin. 5 Eliot (of
Harvard). 6 Bismarck. 7 Wendell Phillips. 8 Spencer. 9 Jules
Favre. 10 Garibaldi.
Charles Austin Beard is a Socialist Professor of History in Columbia University. He is a splendid lecturer, and has written The Office of Justice of the Peace in England, and other books:
1 Ruskin. 2 William Morris. 3 Mazzini. 4 Darwin. 5 Lincoln.
6 Marx. 7 Robert Owen. 8 Wendell Phillips. 9 John Stuart
Mill. 10 Edison.
Walter R. Benjamin is the son of the poet, Park Benjamin. He is the editor of The Collector, and is known to all autograph hunters:
1 Lincoln. 2 Garrison. 3 John Brown. 4 Booker T. Washington.
5 George Peabody. 6 Baron de Hirsch. 7 Carnegie. 8 Spencer.
9 Whitman. 10 Florence Nightingale.
Alexander Berkman, who shot at millionaire Frick, tried to commit suicide by chewing a cartridge, but was prevented by the police, and spent 14 years in prison. He now lectures on prison-life, and is connected with Emma Goldman in the publication of Mother Earth, the organ of the American Anarchists:
1 Karl Marx. 2 Reclus. 3 Robert Owen. 4 Ibsen. 5 Louise
Michel. 6 Malatesta. 7 Kropotkin. 8 Perovskaya. 9 Garrison.
10 Emma Goldman.
Austin Bierbower is a lawyer who has written books dealing with ethics and theology, among them From Monkey to Man, The Virtues and Their Reasons, etc.:
1 Goethe. 2 Lincoln. 3 Edison. 4 John Burns. 5 Emerson.
6 Montefiore. 7 Elias Howe. 8 Carnegie. 9 John Stuart Mill.
10 Frances Willard.
Harriot Stanton Blatch is the daughter of America's greatest woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and like her mother she devotes her life to the cause of Woman Suffrage. She is a superb orator—one of the best I ever heard. She has enough brains to supply a dozen average men: 1 Lord Shaftesbury. 2 Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 3 Garrison. 4 Morris. 5 Goethe. 6 Shelley. 7 Froebel. 8 Gladstone. 9 Darwin. 10 Morse.
Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner is the talented daughter of the great English Freethinker, Charles Bradlaugh. She has written much worth reading:
1 Bright. 2 Buckle. 3 Canning. 4 Cobden. 5 Colenso. 6 Darwin.
7 Mill. 8 Owen. 9 Romilly. 10 Shelley.
Platon Brounoff, musician, pupil of Rubinstein. He is the founder of the Liberal Art Society, and has appeared before the public as a pianist, singer and lecturer: 1 Darwin. 2 Spencer. 3 Marx. 4 Lassalle. 5 Engels. 6 Nekrasoff. 7 Ibsen. 8 Lincoln. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Kropotkin.
Luther Burbank is the magician of horticulture, the wizard of botany. His new creations in fruits, trees and flowers are miraculous. He is one of the few geniuses America has produced, and I am glad to say that he himself has received several votes in this Symposium:
1 Lincoln. 2 Emerson. 3 Froebel. 4 Ingersoll. 5 Peter Cooper.
6 Diaz of Mexico. 7 Darwin. 8 Ruskin. 9 Edison. 10 Barnardo.
Paul Carus, editor of The Open Court and The Monist, is the best philosophic writer in this country. He has written a whole library of books, embracing hundreds of subjects, all bearing the stamp of his great intelligence and vast knowledge. There is no riper savant in the New World than he: 1 Goethe. 2 Schiller. 3 Beethoven. 4 Lincoln. 5 Darwin. 6 Liebig. 7 Pasteur. 8 Nobel. 9 Edison. 10 Ernst Mach.
Herbert N. Casson is a well-known magazine writer and lecturer. His Crime of Credulity is excellent: 1 Susan B. Anthony. 2 Elizabeth Cody Stanton. 3 Harriet Beecher Stozve. 4 Frances Willard. 5 Golden Rule Jones. 6 Wendell Phillips. 7 Lowell. 8 Beecher. 9 Ingersoll. 10 Walt Whitman.
Voltairine De Cleyre is a brainy woman who would probably be better known if her writings were not almost exclusively Anarchistic. She has an excellent style and everything she puts into print burns with the fire of revolt. Her poems are
full of passion: I Shelley. 2 Josiah Warren. 3 Sojourner Truth. 4 John Brown. 5 Sada B. Fowler. 6 Dyer D. Lum. 7 Louise Michel. 8 Gerald Massey. 9 Victor Hugo. 10 Kristofer Hansteen.
Ina Donna Coolbrith is known as the leading poetess of California. She is one of "The Golden Trinity,"—Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard being the other two members. Her Songs from the Golden Gate have been much praised, here and abroad. During the earthquake at San Francisco, she lost everything, including her recent poems and a History of California, upon which she had worked over thirty years: 1 Lincoln. 2 Browning. 3 Emerson. 4 Edison. 5 Marconi. 6 Gladsone. 7 John Hay. 8 Spencer. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Burbank.
Ernest Crosby, who died shortly after sending me his list, was known as the Tolstoy of America. He was an ideal type of man. His early death is a calamity. He spoke splendidly, he wrote beautifully, he loved much and well. I could write a volume about him, and for this reason must say nothing now:
1 Tolstoy. 2 Whitman. 3 Ed. Carpenter. 4 William Morris.
5 Garrison. 6 Lamennais. J Victor Hugo. 8 Shelley. 9 Thoreau.
10 Henry George..
John Sherwin Crosby, one of the best-known Single-Taxers, is an orator of great power. When he spoke at Henry George's funeral, the heavy-hearted mourners could not refrain from cheering loudly. He has written a book on Government:
1 Jefferson. 2 Lincoln. 3 Garrison. 4 Henry George. 5 Mc
Glynn. 6 Ingersoll. 7 Susan B. Anthony. 8 Dickens. 9 Froebel.
10. Mazzini.
Singleton Waters Davis, the editor of The Humanitarian Review, has at an advanced age written his longest work, A Future Life? Of course he views the question from a rational and scientific standpoint:
I Holyoake. 2 Garrison. 3 Ingersoll. 4 Florence Dixie. 5 H. L.
Green. 6 C. W. G. Withee. 7 Eliza M. Bliven. 8 /. Howard
Moore. 9 H. S. Salt. 10 T. B. Wakeman.
Eugene V. Debs, the political leader of the American Socialists, who has been in the past and most probably will be in the the future their candidate for the Presidency, is one of the best-known public men in the nation. He was the leader of the great Pullman Car Strike, and was sentenced—without a jury trial or right of appeal—to six months in jail. He is a highly lovable character, and embodies in his own personality
a section of the Better Day: 1 Ingersoll. 2 Whitman. 3 Marx. 4 Hugo. 5 John Brown. 6 Lincoln. 7 Wendell Phillips. 8 Frances Willard. 9 Darwin. 10 James Watt.
Havelock Ellis, the learned author of Studies in the Psychology of Se.r, is the world's foremost sexual psychologist. He is well-versed in other sciences, and has a thoro knowledge of literature. Among his works the The New Spirit, The Criminal, Man and Woman. He is not much known to the public, but it cannot be denied that he is one of the few great living Englishmen: 1 Goethe. 2 Shelley. 3 Darwin. 4 Emerson. 5 Thoreau. 6 Whitman, 7 Carpenter. 8 Nietzsche. 9 Ellen Key. 10 James Hinton.
Clinton P. Farrell, the brother-in-law and publisher of Ingersoll, has published exquisite editions of the wonderful Freethinker:
1 Ingersoll. 2 Lincoln. 3 Girard. 4 Darwin. 5 Dr. C. T. Jackson.
6 Jenner. 7 Froebel. 8 Garrison. 9 Miss Anthony. 10 Mrs. Stowe.
Harrison Grey Fiske is the editor of "The Dramatic Mirror," for which Ingersoll wrote his famous prose-poem on Life. He is the husband and manager of Minnie Maddern Fiske, who is usually referred to as the greatest American actress:
1 Lincoln. 2 Morse. 3 Peter Cooper. 4 Montefiore. 5 Ingersoll.
6 Whitman. 7 Humphry Davy. 8 George Peabody. 9 Dr. Marion
Sims. 10 Florence Nightingale.
B. O. Flower is the editor of the well-known magazine, The Arena. Among his works are The Century of Sir Thomas Moore, Whittier, Gerald Massey, The New Time, Civilization's Inferno, Lessons Learned from Other Lives:
1 Jefferson. 2 Hugo. 3 Mazzini. 4 Garrison. 5 Lincoln. 6 Rus
kin. 7 Tolstoy. 8 Peter Cooper. 9 Dorothy Dix. 10 Samuel
Howe.
Hamlin Garland is a popular novelist, poet and critic. An account of his life and work can be found in almost any textbook on American Literature:
1 Darwin. 2 Spencer. 3 Hugo. 4 George Eliot. 5 Lincoln.
6 Grant. 7 Longfellow. 8 Whitman. 9 Henry George. 10 ilstoy.
William Lloyd Garrison is the well-known son of the glorious abolitionist. He is greatly interested in all reform n*ovements, and is a publicist of the finest kind. Few men ur der
stand and love freedom as he does, for he is a true libertarian: i Hugo. 2 Mazzini. 3 Tolstoy. 4 Garrison. 5 Emerson. 6 Lincoln. 7 Wordsworth. 8 Henry George. 9 Susan B. Anthony. 10 Ruskin.
Emma Goldman is by all odds the most famous anarchist in America. She has been arrested many times. The newspapers call her "the High-Priestess of Anarchy," "the Queen of the Anarchists," etc. She is a very brainy woman. Also a powerful orator. For the last couple of years she has been publishing Mother Earth, a readable anarchistic magazine: 1 Louise Michel. 2 Rectus. 3 Kropotkin. 4 Breshkovskaya. 5 Albert Parsons. 6 Alexander Berkman. 7 John Brown. 8 Garrison. 9 Thoreau. 10 Vera Figner.
Jacob Gordin, the foremost Yiddish dramatist. Many of his
dramas have been played with great success: 1 Shelley. 2 Darwin. 3 Spencer. 4 Taine. 5 Renau. 6 Zola. 7 Emerson. 8 Hegel. 9 Marx. 10 Spielhagen.
Bolton Hall, the kindly Single Tax Fabulist, has written Even as You and I, Things as They Are, etc. His latest book, Three Acres and Liberty, reached its third edition within a short space of time, and for several weeks was one of the most popular works in the library. His very orthodox father, the Rev. John Hall, who preached to more millionaires than any other minister in the country, would not approve of the following list:
1 Henry George. 2 Garrison. 3 Whitman. 4 Cobden. 5 Spencer.
6 William Morris. 7 Ed. Carpenter. 8 Tolstoy. 9 Kropotkin.
10 Hugo.
Moses Harman, for 25 years editor of Lucifer (recently changed to Eugenics), the most persecuted of all editors. He is a pure-hearted, old reformer who has long tried to educate the people along sexual lines. Especially has he proclaimed woman's right to her own body. For these crimes he has several times been imprisoned and condemned to hard labor. His last arrest occurred when he was over 75 years of age. When my request reached him, he was in a striped suit behind the bars. He was permitted to answer, and this is his list: 1 Paine. 2 Hugo. 3 Emerson. 4 Darwin. 5 Bradlaugh. 6 Spencer. 7 Ingersoll. 8 A. J. Davis. 9 Whitman. 10 Tolstoy.
Sadakichi Hartmann, a Japanese-German, is a unique character with certainly a touch of genius. Some of his writings are exquisitely beautiful. Readers of Altruria are acquainted with some of his short stories. Among his works are, The Japanese Conception of Poetry, Buddha, A History of American Art, Conversations with Walt Whitman, Schopenhauer in the Air, Shakespeare in Art: 1 Whitman. 2 Hugo. 3 Tolstoy. 4 Proudhon. 5 Bakunin. 6 Ricardo. 7 Comte. 8 Robert Owen. 9 Lord Kelvin. 10 Froebel.
Almon Hensley has written in verse, A Woman's Love Letters, and a larger volume called The Heart of a Woman. Perhaps this superb stanza is her best, tho many are excellent: I am no saint niched in a hallowed wall For men to worship, but I would compel A level gaze. You teachers who would tell A woman's place I do defy you all! While justice lives and love with joy is crowned, Woman and man must meet on equal ground. 1 Lincoln. 2 Browning. 3 Emerson. 4 Mill. 5 Spencer. 6 Tolstoy. 7 Queen Victoria. 8 Livingstone. 9 Pasteur. 10 Sir James Simpson.
Henry Holt is one of the leading publishers of America. He is also a highly intelligent author, and the works which he has himself written deserve careful study:
1 Spencer. 2 Darwin. 3 Pasteur. 4 Edison. 5 Bell. 6 Lincoln.
7 Emerson. 8 Tennyson. 9 Thackeray. 10 Beethoven.
Arthur Hornblow is the author of the "Theatre Magazine," the best of the dramatic journals. He has translated and written a number of books: 1 Lincoln. 2 Gladstone. 3 Tolstoy. 4 Jenner. 5 Ingersoll. 6 Montefiore. 7 Hugo. 8 Roentgen. 9 Stevenson. 10 Dickens.
James E. Hughes is the editor of an infidel paper, The Blue Grass Blade, whose former editor, C. C. Moore, was imprisoned for blasphemy:
1 Girard. 2 Ingersoll. 3 Bradlaugh. 4 E. B. Foote. 5 Lincoln.
6 Abner Kneeland. 7 D. M. Bennett. 8 T. B. Wakeman.
9 Moncure D. Conway. 10 W. C. Brann.
C. L. James is the author of a volume on The French Revolution, which is greatly admired and much advertised by the Anarchists:
1 Byron. 2 Darwin. 3 Ewald. 4 Stephenson. 5 Bakunin.
6 Tolstoy. 7 Lombroso. 8 Wilberforce. 9 Woodhull. 10 Lister.
George Wharton James is one of our leading authorities on Indians and Deserts, and he writes sympathetically about both. Among his works are The Wonders of the Colorado Desert, In and Out of the Old Missions of California, In and Around the Grand Canyon, Indians of the Painted Desert Region. His books are standards on the subjects:
I Lincoln. 2 Whitman. 3 Burbank. 4 Henry Bergh. 5 Booker T.
Washington. 6 William Morris. 7 Ruskin. 8 Tolstoy. 9 Mrs.
Eddy. 10 Emerson.
Joseph Jastrow, who is Professor of Psychology in the University of Wisconsin, has written two great works, Fact and Fable in Psychology, and The Subconscious. He is one of our profoundest psychologists:
1 Darwin. 2 George Eliot. 3 Emerson. 4 Heine. 5 Huxley.
6 Lecky. 7 Lowell. 8 John Morley. 9 Tennyson. 10 Thackeray.
Kiichi Kaneko is a Japanese rationalist, connected with The
Chicago Daily Socialist. Here is an extract from his poem,
My Country, showing his style and sentiments:
My country is not where beautiful Fuji stands;
It it not where you find the Geisha girl pretty;
My country is not where I was born;
It is not where my old memories remain.
My country is where humanity is uplifted;
It is where men and women enjoy their rights.
My country is where Mazzinis might live;
It is where Backunins could preach.
1 Ibsen. 2 Hugo. 3 Kropotkin. 4 Zola. 5 Marx. 6 Tolstoy.
7 Darwin. 8 Mazzini. 9 Bakunin. 10 Humboldt.
[Did not the Japanese have a single humanitarian in the 19th Cen-
tury? W. J. R.]
Denjiro Kotoku is a brilliant Japanese essayist who gave up his position in an influential paper at the time of the RussoJapanese war, because of his anti-militaristic views, and founded the socialistic Heimin Shimbun. He sent me the list from Tokio, and it is as follows:
1 Auguste Comte. 2 Darwin. 3 Spencer. 5 Mazzini. 6 Bakunin.
7 Carlyle. 8 Kropotkin. 9 Zola. 10 Ruskin.
Charles Klein is one of our most successful dramatists. No other play achieved such a phenomenal popularity as his Music Master. Among his other plays are the Daughters of Men, and The Lion and the Mouse:
1 Mrs. Eddy. 2 Gladstone. 3 Spencer. 4 Dickens. 5 Lincoln.
6 Beecher. 7 Hugo. 8 Emerson. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Carl Schurz.
Parish B. Ladd is a Judge who is probably better known among Freethinkers than among legal lights. I believe his most important work is Commentaries on Hebrew and Christian
Mythology: 1 Haeckel. 2 Spencer. 3 Ernest Renan. 4 Max Muller. 5 Lubbock. 6 Huxley. 7 Ingersoll. 8 John W. Draper. 9 Charles Bradlaugh. 10 5. Baring Gould.
George Elmer Littlefield, the founder of Fellowship Farm, and editor of Ariel, is one of the few men who has escaped the clutches of commercialism:
1 Karl Marx. 2 Kropotkin. 3 Robert Owen. 4 William Morris.
5 Theodore Parker. 6 Wendell Phillips. 7 E. E. Hale. 8 Mazzini.
9 Tolstoy. 10 Hugo.
J. William Lloyd, who was one of Ernest Crosby's closest comrades, is a man of head and heart who has written well, both in prose and poetry:
1 Whitman. 2 Emerson. 3 Fourier. 4 Marx. 5 Josiah Warren.
6 Wilberforce. 7 Kropotkin. 8 /. H. Noyes. 9 Tolstoy. 10
Spencer.
Jacques Loeb is the profoundest biologist in America. His experiments in fertilization have attracted the attention, not only of the scientific world, but even of our Sunday newspapers. He is the author of The Dynamics of Living Matter:
1 Pasteur. 2 Robert Koch. 3 Behring. 4 Lister. 5 Faraday.
6 Robert Mayer. 7 Liebig. 8 Heinrich Hertz. 9 Lassalle. 10 Marx.
M. M. Mangasarian wrote a "New Catechism" which was much praised by Holyoake, Waite, Altgeld, etc., and has been translated into many languages. Every Sunday he lectures to a cultured audience of 2,000. He is known and admired by all our liberal thinkers: 1 Robert Owen. 2 Holyoake. 3 John Howard. 4 Florence Nightingale. 5 Ruskin. 6 /. 6". Mill. 7 Hugo. 8 Paul Bert. 9 Louis Blanc. 10 Theodore Parker.
Edwin Markham wrote The Man With the Hoe—one of the best-known poems in American literature. This single production made him the best-known of our living poets:
1 Ruskin. 2 Carlyle. 3 Shelley. 4 Mazzini. 5 Lincoln. 6 Fourier.
7 Hugo. 8 Willard. 9 William Morris. 10 Thomas Lake Harris.
Mila Tupper Maynard of the Rocky Mountain News, is known
to radicals by her Life of Walt Whitman: 1 Marx. 2 Liebknech't. 3 Whitman. 4 Darwin. 5 Hugo. 6 George Eliot. 7 Dickens. 8 Eugene Debs. 9 Wendell Phillips. 10 Mrs. Stowe.
James S. Metcalfe is the stinging dramatic critic of the lively periodical, Life. His criticisms were so severe that the managers refused him admission to the theatres, and he had to
resort to disguises. Incidentally he sued seventeen managers,
but lost:
i Lincoln. 2 Spencer. 3 George Peabody. 4 Emerson. 5 Charles
Reade. 6 Garrison. 7 Ingersoll. 8 Florence Nightingale. 9 Henry
Bergh. 10 Lister.
Benjamin Fay Mills, editor of Fellowship, was formerly an evangelist. His heresies excited much comment among the orthodox. He has written a pamphlet called, Why I Changed My Religious Opinions. Ingersoll said of him, that he had too much philosophy to be a churchman, and too much superstition to be a scientist: 1 S. C. Armstrong. 2 Edward Everet Hale. 3 Jane Addams. 4 Henry D. Lloyd. 5 Golden-Rule Jones. 6 N. 0. Nelson. 7 Emerson. 8 Frances Willard. 9 Theodore Parker. 10 W. E. Channing.
Kokichi Morimoto is a Japanese Professor in the Imperial University of Sapporo, Japan. He speaks English fluently, and sometimes comes to this country to lecture:
1 Livingstone. 2 Gordon. 3 Lincoln. 4 Tolstoy. 5 Carlyle. 6
Goethe. 7 Tennyson. 8 Florence Nightingale. 9 Gladstone. 10
Lord Nelson.
G. W. Morehouse wrote the Wilderness of Worlds, viewing the
universe from the standpoint of a rationalist: 1 Humboldt. 2 Darwin. 3 Spencer. 4 Huxley. 5 Tyndall. 6 Haeckel. 7 Ingersoll. 8 Lincoln. 9 Draper. 10 Lyell.
James F. Morton, Jr., is the broad-minded author of that fine essay, The Curse of Race Prejudice, which everyone should read: i Tolstoy. 2 Froebel. 3 Edison. 4 Burbank. 5 Whitman. 6 Henry George. 7 Darwin. 8 Spencer. 9 Kropotkin. 10 Lombroso.
Maud Nathan, one of the founders of Barnard College, often
lectures in Cooper Union—charmingly: 1 Maeterlinck. 2 Emerson. 3 Froebel. 4 Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 5 Lincoln. 6 Montefiore. 7 Baronde Hirsch. 8 Madame Curie. 9. Pasteur. 10 Roentgen.
N. O. Nelson, who founded the village of Le Claire, is known thruout the country as the "Millionaire Socialist" and philanthropist. Articles concerning him and his work have appeared in our leading magazines:
1 Robert Owen. 2 A. J. Holyoake. 3 Darwin. 4 Lincoln. 5 Ruskin.
6 Henry George. 7 Froebel. 8 Mazzini. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Jane
Addams.
Simon Newcomb is the greatest American astronomer. He has been honored here and abroad. His. books and discoveries have made him world-famous. He is one of the glories of America:
i Pasteur. 2 Lister. 3 Virchow. 4 Metchnikoff. 5 Darwin.
6 Huxley. 7 Ohm. 8 Maxwell. 9 /. Henry. 10 Carl Schurz.
George Panebaker, a distant kinsman and for many years an enthusiastic admirer of Schopenhauer, whose excellent essay on the Philosopher of Pessimism was used by Elbert Hubbard in preparing his Little Journey to the Home of Arthur Schopenhauer: 1 Darivin. 2 Spencer. 3 Haeckel. 4 Elbert Hubbard. 5 Henry George. 6 Burbank. 7 Felix Adler. 8 Gov. Altgeld. 9 Whitman. 10 Tolstoy.
Frederick W. Peabody, a member of the Boston Bar, has written Complete Exposure of Christian Science, or The Plain Truth in Plain Words Concerning Mrs. Eddy:
1 Lincoln. 2 Henry George. 3 Hugo. 4 Tolstoy. 5 Whitman.
6 Beecher. 7 Father Damien. 8 Carlyle. 9 Huxley. 10 Ingersoll.
Isaac Hull Platt is known to all Whitmanites. He has written a Beacon Biography on Walt. Also he is the author of Bacon Cryptograms in Shakespeare, and other interesting works:
1 Shelley. 2 Lincoln. 3 Whitman. 4 Hugo. 5 John Brown.
6 Garrison. 7 Beecher. 8 Henry George. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Garibaldi.
Louis F. Post is the editor of The Public, one of the best periodicals in this country. Henry George became acquainted with him when Mr. Post was chief editorial writer on Truth; and when George started his paper, The Standard, he engaged Mr. Post as one of its special writers. He has written important books, and in every way is one of most capable of the Single Tax leaders:'
1 Henry George. 2 Tolstoy. 3 Garrison. 4 Phillips. 5 Tom L.
Johnson. 6 Lowell. 7 Lincoln. 8 Jefferson. 9 Cobden. 10 Mazzini.
Grace Potter, writer of short stories:
1 Lincoln. 2 Susan B. Anthony. 3 Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 4 Dickens. 5 Jefferson. 6 Ingersoll. 7 Garibaldi. 8 Whitman. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Henry George.
William Marion Reedy, the talented editor of the St. Louis Mirror, and author of The Law of Love, is one of our most brilliant literary stylists:
1 Lincoln. 2 Dickens. 3 Father Damien. 4 Edison. 5 Pasteur.
6 Froebel. 7 Spencer, 8 Sir James Simpson. 9 Tennyson. 10
Gladstone.
John Emerson Roberts, editor of Here and Now, is the beloved pastor of the Church of This World. He has delivered an excellent eulogy on Ingersoll:
I Lincoln. 2 Beecher. 3 Ingersoll. 4 Stephenson. 5 Edison.
6 Morse. 7 Darwin. 8 Froebel. 9 General Booth. 10 Huxley.
Morris Rosenfeld is the Jewish poet whose Songs from the Ghetto have been so highly praised by William Dean Howells, Zangwill, etc. His life has been a very hard one, and when my request reached him, he was in the hospital. He could not write, but dictated his list:
1 Zola. 2 Joseph Israel. 3 Lincoln. 4 Marx. 5 Herzl. 6 Tolstoy.
7 Verdi. 8 Morris. 9 Spencer. 10 Baron de Hirsch.
Parker H. Sercombe is the editor of To-Morrow Magazine: 1 Spencer. 2 Darwin. 3 Hugo. 4 Whitman. 5 Haeckel. 6 Ingersoll. 7 George Eliot. B Lincoln. 9 Roosevelt. 10 Edwin Markham.
J. D. Shaw, editor of The Searchlight:
1 Gerard. 2 John Howard. 3 Peabody. 4 Darwin. 5 Spencer.
6 Humboldt. 7 Lick. 8 Ingersoll. 9 Bradlaugh: 10 Peter Cooper.
Juliet H. Severance, a physician, is now an old woman, but is as much interested in freedom as she was in her young days when her arguments for the abolition of negro slavery were answered by brickbats: 1 Lucretia Mott. 2 Garrison. 3 Mrs. Stanton. 4 Parker Pillsbury. 5 Phillips. 6 Kelly Foster. 7 A. J. Davis. 8 Russell Teall. 9 Whitman. 10 Matilda J. Gage.
Theodore Schroeder, formerly president of the Brooklyn Philosophical Association, has written several excellent pamphlets on sexual topics from the rationalistic viewpoint: 1 Ingersoll. 2 Haeckel. 3 Spencer. 4 Darwin. 5 Huxley. 6 Havelock Ellis. 7 Joseph Jastrow. 8 Edw. Westermark. 9 Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 10 Susan B. Anthony.
John Spargo, the well-known Socialist, who wrote The Bitter Cry of the Children; an effective orator and social investigator:
1 Owen. 2 Marx. 3 Shelley. 4 Darwin. 5 Spencer. 6 Carlyle.
7 Ruskin. 8 Whitman. 9 Lassalle. 10 Lincoln.
Rose Pastor Stokes is the factory-girl whose marriage to a millionaire did not decrease her interest in social work among the poor nor tame her radicalism. She and her husband— J. G. Phelps Stokes—often lecture from the same platform:
1 Marx. 2 Engels. 3 Darwin. 4 Mazzini. 5 Pasteur. 6 Tolstoy.
7 Ruskin. 8 Whitman. 9 Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 10
Mark Twain.
Charles Warren Stoddard, one of "The Golden Trinity," is the well-known poet of the South Seas. See Stedman's American Anthology:
1 Whitman. 2 Dickens. 3 Longfellow. 4 Ruskin. 5 Morse.
6 Edison. 7 Pasteur. 8 Pope Leo XIII. 9 Mrs. Eddy. 10 General
Booth.
Morrison I. Swift, who once led 10,000 hungry men to the. State House at Boston, and who recently repeated the feat with a smaller number, is as sincere and high-minded a radical as ever lived. Among his books are, The Monarch Billionaire, Our Right to Rob Robbers, Human Submission, The Advent of Empire, Imperialism and Liberty: 1 Shelley. 2 John Brown. 3 Thoreau. 4 Tchernyshevsky. 5 Ruskin. 6 Kropotkin. 7 August Spies. 8 Zola. 9 Gorky. 10 Perovskaya.
Daniel K. Tenney has written The Eternity of the Earth, Holy Smoke from Holy Land, and many articles for various papers: 1 Lincoln. 2 Ingersoll. 3 Carnegie. 4 Haeckel. 5 Edison. 6 Darwin. 7 Spencer. 8 D. K. Pearsons. 9 Blaine. 10 Lick.
Rose Hartwick Thorpe is the author of Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night, which is probably the most famous ballad written in this country, as it has been sung, recited, acted dramatised, parodied, copied, illustrated, etc., thousands of times:
1 Edison. 2 Koch. 3 Nobel 4 Frances Willard. 5 General Booth.
6 Harriet Beecher Stowe. 7 Lincoln. 8 Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
9 Sienkiewics. 10 Florence Nightingale.
Benjamin R. Tucker, who has edited Liberty for several years, is the translator and publisher of a number of good works. He is the leader of our Individualist-Anarchists, and his teachings are known abroad:
1 Max Stirner. 2 Darwin. 3 Stephenson. 4 Proudhon. 5 Zola.
6 Goethe. 7 Ibsen. 8 Wagner. 9 Ruskin. 10 Hugo.
B. F. Underwood was once hailed as one of the brightest of
liberals, and one of the best expounders of the Spencerian
philosophy:
1 Stephenson. 2 Morse. 3 Field. 4 Humboldt. 5 Darwin. 6
Spencer. 7 Gladstone. 8 Garibaldi. 9 Bismarck. 10 Garrison.
Charles B. Waite, a venerable rationalist, has long passed his 80th year. Among his works is a profound History of the Christian Religion. At one time he was a Judge:
1 Shelley. 2 Paine. 3 Ingersoll. 4 Bjornson. 5 Ibsen. 6 Hugo.
7 Dickens. 8 Goethe. 9 Jefferson. 10 Lincoln.
Thaddeus Burr Wakeman is one of our best-known Freethinkers. His lectures and pamphlets run into the thousands. No liberal affair seems complete without his venerable presence. When Courtlandt Palmer was dying, he wished two men to speak at his burial—Ingersoll and Wakeman:
i Paine. 2 Count Rumford. 3 Goethe. 4 Bolivar. 5 Contte.
6 Spencer. 7 Darwin. 8 Haeckel. 9 Lincoln. 10 Roosevelt.
Alfred Russel Wallace, the Co-Discoverer with Darwin of the Theory of Evolution, is one of the world's greatest scientists:
1 Owen. 2 Tolstoy. 3 Bellamy. 4 Blatchford. 5 Elizabeth Fry.
6 Ruskin. 7 Shelley. 8 Whitman. 9 Wm. Watson. 10 Edwin
Markham.
John De Witt Warner, an ex-member of Congress, is the able president of our Free Trade League. He is a powerful orator, and is prominent in public affairs.
1 Bright. 2 Edison. 3 Garrison. 4 Henry George. 5 Hirsch.
6 Lincoln. 7 Livingstone. 8 Peabody. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Zola.
J. A. Wayland edited our first Socialistic paper, The Coming Nation, and is now editor of the Appeal to Reason. It was this paper which sent Upton Sinclair upon the trip which resulted in the epoch-making novel, The Jungle:
1 Karl Marx. 2 Engels. 3 Henry George. 4 Ruskin. 5 Robert
Owen. 6 R. D. Owen. 7 Holyoake. 8 Bellamy. 9 Mazzini. 10
Lincoln.
Andrew D. White, in certain respects the greatest man in America. I say this, not because he was President of Cornell University for 20 years, not because he was President of the American Delegation at the First Hague Conference, not because he was the United States Ambassador to Germany and to Russia, but because he wrote that great book, The Warfare of Science with Theology. He has recently published his Autobiography: 1 Stein. 2 Cavour. 3 Lincoln. 4 Alexander II. 5 Schiller. 6 Wadsworth. 7 Dr. Morton. 8 Justin S. Morrill. 9 Carnegie. 10 Booker T. Washington.
Gaylord Wilshire is one of the most prominent Socialists in
America, editor of Wilshire's Magazine: 1 Mazzini. 2 Hyndman. 3 Karl Marx. 4 Kropotkin. 5 Alfred Russell Wallace. 6 Darwin. 7 Whitman. 8 Zola. 9 Tolstoy. 10 Luther Burbank.
C. W. G. Withee is a liberal lawyer from the West who accepts much of the Buddhistic doctrines. He has lectured and written on the philosophy of this oriental religion:
1 Ingersoll. 2 Emerson. 3 Miss Anthony. 4 Girard. 5 Tolstoy.
6 Spencer. 7 David Swing. 8 Lincoln. 9 Peter Cooper. 10
General Booth.
Victor Robinson is the Conductor of this Symposium on Humanitarians: 1 Haeckel. 2 Darwin. 3 Spencer. 4 Perovskaya. 5 Tchernyshevsky. 6 Ippolit Mishkin. 7 Ingersoll. 8 Elisabeth Cady Stanton. 9 Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 10 Walt Whitman.
The ten men who received the largest number of votes are as follows, in order:
Abraham Lincoln 55
Charles Darwin 50
Herbert Spencer 37
Leo Tolstoy 33
Walt Whitman 29
Robert Ingersoll 27
Victor Hugo 25
William Lloyd Garrison 24
Louis Pasteur 17
Henry George 16
Karl Marx 16
From Abraham Jacobi:
"By a humanitarian I mean one who has benefited humanity or has attempted to do so." I quote that from your letter of Sept. 4th. It appears that you consider "humanity" and "mankind" to be synonymous, and that you mean mankind. Even so I hardly think that humanitarian means exactly what you express. But the following list of 10 men have benefited mankind in the 19th century more than any other, or have attempted to do so.
Napoleon Bonaparte universalized all over the European Conti-
nent the spirit and teachings and results of the Great French
Revolution.
William Wilberforce—Anti-slavery.
George Peabody—Decent dwellings—Southern education.
Ignaz Philip Semmelweis—Savior of millions of women, martyr,
precursor of Lister. Rudolf Virchow—Pathology, defender of therapy against nihilism, archaeologist and anthropologist, sanitarian and practical statesman. Charles Darwin—Natural selection—Descent of man. Louis Pasteur—Demolished generatio aequivoca, applied his own (and Koch's) discoveries to infectious disease, and opened the way to Roux and Behring.
George Stephenson—Railroad, locomotive, safety lamp.
Samuel F. B. Morse—Patent of 1837.
All of whom are respectfully ond doubtfully submitted by
Yours very truly,
A. Jacobi. From Dr. W. C. Cooper:
My memory of historical characters is so exceedingly bad, that I fear I cannot particularize successfully. Generally, I think he is the greatest humanitarian who best helps others to help themselves. In this connection, it is pertinent to say that my personal experiences have almost driven me to the conclusion that the best egoism, is the best altruism. He who is truest to himself (sanely "truest") is truest to his fellow man. I have no great reverence for the professional philanthropist—his benefactions are apt to be too strongly tinctured with autolatry—selfadvertisement. As a class, it is manifest that the most aggressive freethinkers are the greatest humanitarians. This class breaks shackles, and thus helps people to help themselves. I will name at random a few who have impressed me as the greater humanitarians of the 19th century. In my judgment, the greatest practical humanitarian of the 19th century was Abraham Lincoln. He realized my ideal humantarian. I should rank Emerson next to him. Then, Carlyle; then, George Eliot; then, Goethe; then, Dickens; then, Darwin; then, Herbert Spencer; then, Haeckel; then, Huxley; then. Ibsen; then, Maeterlinck; then, Tennyson. The imperfection of the list depends on the imperfection of my memory.
Even in my best days, I was utterly lacking in historic memory. Now, as I grope through the haze of senectitude, all is unmemoried chaos. In mere years, I am only 72—in practical fact, I am 112, for by all the canons of pathology, I am overdue in heaven for 40 years.
I speak for a copy of your symposium when printed. Your work is a laudable one, and, across the miles, I extend my hand for a shake!
Kismet coddle you.
W. C. Cooper.
From Henry Holt:
I suppose that by wanting names of "favorite" benefactors of the race, you wish to get at your correspondents' personal sympathies, irrespective of their purely intellectual judgments. Accordingly, I name Spencer, Darwin, Pasteur, Edison, Bell, Lincoln, Emerson, Tennyson, Thackeray, Beethoven. It seems absurd, however, to give those names and omit Helmholtz, Carlyle, Morse, Stephenson, Peabody, Wagner, Goethe, Liszt, Wellington; and I am not sure but that Francis A. Walker, altho less known than perhaps any of the others, did more for humanity in elucidating the functions and deserts of the organizer of industry, than some of those named have done.
From John Spargo:
In this list, then, are included only ten from a much larger list of the greatest prophets of humanitarianism; I absolutely decline to say that the men—and women—whose names are left out were less great than any of these. I have dipped into a heap of jewels and withdrawn a handful: my list amounts to no more than that.
Robert Owen, who so well personified all that the word "humanitarian" comprehends; Karl Marx, who pointed the way to the realization of Owen's ideal with such magnificent courage and transcendant ability; Shelley, for his inspiring influence; Darwin and Spencer, for the illumination of human development and history; Carlyle and Ruskin, for keeping alive the altarfires of Truth in an age of peril; Whitman, for his heroic affirmation of the oneness of true democracy and individual freedom; Lassalle, for launching the greatest political movement of the common people the world has ever known—the movement which alone gives battle to militarism and despotism in all lands—and, finally, Lincoln, for his peerless leadership of a great nation in its greatest crisis, his courage and his love for mankind.
From Bolton Hall:
The ten men of the Nineteenth Century whose work for humanity seems to me to have been the most beneficial, in direct effect and in inspiration, are: Henry George—Who refuted the theory that material progress
must crush labor by an iron law, and preached a naw gospel
of hope based upon equal freedom. William Lloyd Garrison—Who freed a subject race and struck
a blow at exploitation. Walt Whitman—Whose song is a call to each individual to walk
upright and self-reliant, and a chant of Man's faith in Man. Richard Cobden—Who broke down a thievish system of taxation
and crippled the political power of English landlordism. Herbert Spencer—Whose principle of equal freedom underlies
all forward movements and whose philosophy of evolution
has changed modern thought. William Morris—Who rescued production from ugliness and
taught the joy of labor—when it is not degraded into toil. Edward Carpenter—Who lives, as well as teaches, the free individual life. Leo Tolstoi—Whose life has gained him a larger audience than
listens to any other man. Peter Kropotkin—Who has emphasized the economic value of
free co-operation and the social value of mutual aid. Victor Hugo—Who was the pioneer novelist of social reform
and who, in peril of life and freedom, struck French imperialism its deathblow.
From Alexander Berkman:
I think the vilest fact of our social life is the one which has inspired the unfortunately true epigram, "Nothing succeeds like success." But I sing the song of the unsuccessful—the underdog.
Huss, for instance, was—in my estimation—greater than Luther. His misfortunes—and his greatness—consisted in being just one hundred years ahead of his time. But though burned at the stake, Huss was the real father of the Reformation.
Mere success—visible and immediate—is but accidental, incidental, and in reality of little importance: in the long run the great and their ideas always triumph.
I shall, therefore, name in my List of Ten Precious ones those whose lives were inspired by the highest and broadest humanitarianism, regardless of so-called success.
It is rather difficult to limit myself to 10 names, since they are to embrace a whole world and a whole century. I must, therefore, limit my list to one name for each country, except Russia and United States:
Germany—Karl Marx.
Belgium—Elisee Reclus.
England—Robert Owen.
Norway—Henrik Ibsen.
France—Louise Michel.
Italy—Enrico Malatesta.
Russia—Kropotkin and Sophia Perovskaya.
United States—Wm. L. Garrison and Emma Goldman.
The number of humanity's great is legion. I regret that the limit of ip prevents my naming:
Bakunin and Vera Figner, Russia.
Chas. Bradbaugh, England.
Zola and Vaillant, France.
August Reinsdorf, Germany.
Angiolino, an Italian, whom spain should be proud to claim as her own (the man who rid Spain of her Butcher Canovas.)
Cuba—Garcia and Gomez.
United States—John Brown and Moses Harman.
From Havelock Ellis:
I hesitated to answer the question contained in your kind letter on account of its difficulty, but have finally decided to make the attempt. According to what I gather to be your wish, I take "humanitarian" (not a word I much care for) in the widest sense, and have set down, not those who are necessarily the greatest, but those who happen to have appealed to me. They are all authors, and include only those who have been occupied with the widest human questions, inventors and philanthropists, in the narrow sense, might be named by the score, but there are ncne, so far as my preferences are concerned, who stand out with special distinction.
From Simon Newcomb:
If I should answer your letter literally I should say that I have no "favorite" humanitarians and that I consider the quality of favorite too unimportant to merit consideration; but, perhaps, you mean differently. If you mean who, in my opinion, have done most for the good of humanity I should name first those who have investigated disease and shown how to lessen pain in the world—the foremost of whom so far as I know are Pasteur, Lister and Metchnikoff. Then I should take men who have taught us how to think about ourselves—Darwin and Huxley. Then come those who have brought out the facts of nature— Ohm, Maxwell and Henry. In my list should be included those who have improved our political methods; among them Carl Schurz was a leader.
From Edwin Markham:
Excluding living men and women, I name the following as my ten favorite humanitarians—persons who benefited humanity or tried to benefit humanity:
(See list.)
There are five other names that press into my mind as strong contestants for a place in this precious list. I refer to Horace Greeley, Richard Wagner, Francois Millet, Robert Owen and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
I may say that Thomas Lake Harris is a name that should be more widely and truly known. Mr. Harris left a large mass of remarkable writings, which have come into my hands, and from which I am making copious selections to appear at the end of the year in two large volumes.
From Harriot Stanton Blatch:
I first think of the great demands for personal freedom, and so place first, Lord Shaftesbury's work to free the child from factory slavery; Elizabeth Cady Stanton's work to free women from civil and political slavery, and William Lloyd Garrison's to free the negro. To me the most ringing note for freeing the workers from their wage slavery was given by William Morris. Goethe was the philosopher of all these movements, and Shelley the poet. When men are free they most need education, and so one of my favorite humanitarians is Froebel. When educated they must learn their baby steps in political democracy. No man taught us more of orderly political machinery and how the democracy could use it, more of right fiscal methods than Gladstone. In a patient search for truth Darwin is our great exampler, and one of the first to take the steps towards the wonderful practical developments of science. Morse must be named.
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