W. H. Van Ornum, Why Government at All?

It's been a project ten or so years in the making, so I'm very happy to finally have W. H. Van Ornum's Why Government at All? available in electronic form. It's a real indicator of how much easier this has all become that, although the version of this text that I so painstakingly scanned a decade ago has never emerged from the limbo of old Zip discs and the like, I was able to start from scratch and archive this 350+ page volume in a little over a week, while working on several other projects and conferencing with my students. Van Ornum is not one of the names that we remember particularly, but he was one of the more important anarchist voices in the pages of The Twentieth Century, and Why Government at All? deserves its place among the more ambitious works produced by anarchists in the U. S. There is a good deal here to disagree with, but that's to be expected. The anarchist tradition in the U. S. produced lots of articulate writers but very few extended treatments. The ones we have are treasures that ought to be preserved.

Why Government at All?
William Henry Van Ornum

Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1892
issued without copyright

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

• Preface

PART I. REVIEWS.

1. Introduction
2. Henry George: his Economic Absurdities and Contradictions
3. The Single Tax: Inadequate, Illogical, Cumbersome, and Unjust
4. State Socialism: its Origin, Objects, and Methods
5. State Socialism: its Foundation and Necessary Development
6. The Fallacies of Karl Marx
7. The Fallacies of Edward Bellamy
8. The Fallacies of P. J. Proudhon and his School
9. Social Palliatives
10. Reform by Political Methods

PART II. PRINCIPLES

1. The Motive of Human Action
2. The Object of Human Life
3. The Purpose and Condition of Human Society
4. The Development of Individual Character
5. Human Equality
6. On Property
7. Human Liberty
8. Slavery
9. The Church and the State

PART III. GOVERNMENT—LAW

1. Recapitulation
2. Government: Its Nature, Origin, and Tendencies
3. Government: Its Functions
4. The Real Scope and Functions of Civil Administration
5. Government: Its Relation to Public Enterprises
6. Crime: Its Nature and Cause
7. Crime: Its Treatment
8. Public Education
9. How Laws are Made
10. Summary

PART IV. THE REMEDY

1. The Abolition of the Law
2. Effect Upon Public Order and Security
3. Effect Upon the Distribution of Wealth
4. Effect Upon the Development of Individual Character
5. Solution of the Woman Question
6. Solution of the Race Question
7. Solution of Every Phase of the Social Question
8. Conclusion