Street Roots • January 2-8, 2015
Commentary
HOME, from page 12
When he was only 16, in 1886, Fox had
become involved in the anarchist movement
during the Chicago protests surrounding the
arrest and execution of the four Haymarket
martyrs. Twenty-four-years later, The
Agitator was a national publication focused
on news and opinion about the labor and
anarchist movements.
It was, however, Fox’s article about
Home, “The Nude and the Prudes,” that led
to his arrest in 1911. Fax became incensed
when some residents of Home were
reported by other Home residents to the
authorities for the crime" of “indecent
exposure.” It was a hot summer, and some
residents of Home liked to skinny dip -
which was illegal. Three women and two
men came to trial for the offense. “The
vulgar mind sees its own reflection in
everything it views,” Fox wrote in protest.
The^ prosecutor won four convictions for
skinny-dipping, but all charges were dropped
upon appeal.
w The internal conflict betweeh the Nudes
and the Prudes continued, however. It was a
reflection of a deeper change at Home. A
couple of years earlier, the Home
community eliminated its communal land-
holding scheme. “After this change,
everyone owned their property outright....
Individuals could sell their land to another
person and [Home] was a relatively cheap
place to live. Some of the land was sold to
people who didn’t share the Community’s
values,” Wadland said.
During his research, Wadland was unable
to discover why the Home community made
this dramatic shift. “That’s one of those
unanswered questions,” he said.
Fox the publisher had an answer to the
Prudes’ betrayal of their neighbors: boycott
One of the Prudes owned a store and the
Nudés, and their supporters, who were, the
majority of the community, refused to shop
there. The Nudes also refused to speak to
the Prudes, making the boycott very
personal. “The Prudes retaliated with
atoerta
a r o <
good.local.food
to all 9am -10 pm daily
for free love. He was arrested for his writings
critiquing monogamy and adocating sexual
freedom.
violence: They physically assaulted Nudes in
the street, cut down their orchards, tore
down a fence and blew a shack off its
foundation,” Wadland writes.
The government retaliated against Fox
with a misdemeanor indictment for
publishing “The Nude and the Prudes.” The
prosecutor ^claimed that Fox’s article
encouraged skinny-dipping and therefore
violated the aforementioned 1903 law
passed by the state legislature in response
to the McKinley assassination. That statute
made it illegal to publish anything that “shall
tend to encourage or advocate disrespect of
the law.”
Fox was unafraid and unabashed. “Every
radical editor is subject to such prosecution,
for the powers that be are sensitive to
Paae 13
criticism, and will endeavor on every
strife calmed. Home, however, faced a more
opportunity to throttle the voice of truth,”
serious problem. Home’s next generation,
he wrote.
the children of the anarchists, did not wish
In January 1912, Fox was tried and spoke
to continue their parent’s community. “The
on his own behalf during closing arguments.
children of the anarchists didn’t adopt their
“It is only by agitation that reforms have
parents’ philosophy,” Wadland said. As
been brought about inthe world,” he said.
adults, many of Home’s children spoke and
“Show me the country where there is the
wrote of their upbringing fondly but they
most tyranny and I will show you the
country where there is no free speech.” The were not committed to continuing the
anarchist colony.
jury deliberated for two days, then
pronounced Fox guilty.
By 1918, there was nothing left of the
i Fox’s case turned into a cause célèbre
Community except a few diehards and some
and was appealed all the way to the U.S.
rundown property: A dilapidated Liberty
Supreme Court. In February 1915, the
Hall, wharf and schoolhouse. Some adult
highest court, in an unanimous opinion
children of the original colonists and some
written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,
newcomers sued to dissolve the Mutual
ruled against Fox, stating, “By indirectioh
Home Association, sell off its properties and
and unmistakably, the article encouraged
"let Home became just a regular little town.
and incites a persistence in what we must
The diehards contested; a long, bitter court
assume would be a breach of state laws
battle ensued; and eventually tHe dissolvers
against indecent exposure.”
won. The lawsuit was the dying breath of
The court’s ruling depended on “the bad
tendency test for free speech cases,”
the intentional community of Home.
Wadland writes. “The approach, based upon
At the end of his research and writing,
eighteenth-century English common law,
Wadland did not grieve for Home’s demise.
asserted that governments could punish
He said, “The measure of any utopian
those responsible for publications that have
experiment is not a question of how long did
a tendency to' cause or incite illegal
it succeed as much as how bold was the idea
activities.”
and how happy were the people who
It took a few more years before Holmes
participated in i t The third question is:
and the court began to recognize that the
What is [the experiment’s] ultimate legacy.”
U.S. Constitution guaranteed free speech
Wadland saicTHome was really a bold
even to those who advocate against
government and its laws. “But the future
idea, and there’s no doubt people really ”
sets no precedent for the agitator who helps
enjoyed their time there.
to create it,” Wadland writes. “For now, Fox
As for its lasting impact, Wadland said
had to serve his sentence.”
a n a rc h ism ra ise s ih te r e s tin g q u e s tio n s a b o u t
Fox was sentenced to two months. Among our human organizations from small-scale
other activities during his prison time, Fox
families to large governments. “Government
read aloud to the other inmates from the
can seem like an entity, a fact,” he said. “But
works of the Norwegian playwright Henrik
Ibsen and the Russian novelist and anarchist the government is created by people
showing up at their job, doing their jobs.
Leo Tolstoy.
Change occurs when we collectively decide
to participate in a different way.”
The last battle
Reprinted courtesy o f Street Roots sister
By July 1915, “the leading prudes” had
left Home, and the community’s internal
paper, Real Change News, Seattle, Wash.