Fred Schulder

Fred Schulder (15 April 1874 - 31 July 1961) was an American individualist anarchist writer, speaker, and traveling salesman from Cleveland, Ohio.

Schulder was born on 15 April 1874 in Germany to Carl Robert Schulder and Henriette Stoecker.

Schulder was influenced by the work of Benjamin Tucker and Henry George. He sometimes described himself as a "single-tax anarchist," reflecting the joint influence of Tucker and George on his views.

In his early career, Schulder made his living traveling throughout America selling subscriptions to Liberty — an anarchist/socialist/libertarian periodical published by Benjamin Tucker from August 1881 to April 1908. On Schulder, Tucker stated in "On Picket Duty" (Liberty XVI.3, Whole No. 399, September, 1907, pp. 3-4), "Mr. Fred Schulder, of Cleveland, who became my traveling salesman last March, did very well in New York city during the spring months. His work during the summer has been a little less encouraging, particularly because it has been done in small towns, which are much more difficult to canvass profitably, and partly because so many people are away from home in the hot weather. Early in September, Mr. Schulder will go to Philadelphia for a stay of several weeks. He should find that city an excellent field, much Anarchistic seed having been sown there. I bespeak for him the hearty co-operation of all the Philadelphia friends of Liberty."

On September 18, 1898, Schulder presented a paper titled The Relation of Anarchism to Organization before The Franklin Club — a social and intellectual dis­cuss­ion group in Cleveland, Ohio. The following year, Schulder was encouraged to prepare his club lecture for publication in pamphlet form by his friend, the renowned printer Horace E. Carr. The paper (inscribed to American individualist anarchist/author Laurance Labadie by Schulder) is now in public domain and available at hathitrust.org.

In 1907, his paper "Our Laws" was published in Liberty magazine, Vol. XVI.—No. 4, Whole No. 400 (October, 1907). 51-52. The following year, "A Healthy Sign" was published in Liberty, Vol. XVII.—No. 1, Whole No. 403 (April, 1908). 31.

Famous Russian-born American anarchist writer Emma Goldman mentioned Schulder in her 1931 autobiography Living My Life.

Cleveland had for years been a free-speech stronghold, owing to the libertarian conditions established there by the single-tax mayor, the late Tom Johnson. Brave citizens of different political views had since zealously guarded those liberties. Among them I had many friends, but none more helpful than Mr. and Mrs. Carr (Horace E. Carr), Fred Shoulder [sic], Adeleine Champney [sic], and our old philosopher Jacobs. They had always exerted themselves to make my public work successful and to enhance my leisure hours by charming fellowship. It was therefore a severe shock to see this exceptional city go back on its traditions. But the ready response to our call to organize a fight against the suppression held out the hope that the right of free expression would again prevail in Tom Johnson's home town.

In 1970, American historian James J. Martin mentioned Schulder in his book Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism, 1827-1908. "Others attempted the task assumed by [William] Bailie in reconciling the many elements which went to make up individualist anarchism as it emerged from the combined influences of Spencerian (Herbert Spencer) and Stirnerite (Max Stirner) doctrines. One of these projected syntheses was the brief outline of Fred Schulder, The Relation of Anarchism to Organization. Another was Francis D. Tandy, an associate of Cohen in Denver, whose Modern Social Tendencies and Voluntary Socialism were anarchist works of considerable repute,87 showing influence of Tucker, Spencer and Henry David Thoreau. Both Tandy and Schulder were recipients of Tucker's approval in their activities along the program of educational propaganda for the anarchist cause."

Well-known historian Paul Avrich let American anarchists speak for themselves in his book Anarchist voices: an oral history of anarchism in America (co-authored with Barry Pateman, Princeton University Press, 1995.) In the book, Oriole Tucker Riché said about Schulder:

Mother--Pearl Johnson--was the daughter of a New England couple, Horace Johnson and Florence Hull, one of four daughters of Moses Hull, a minister of advanced views who became a well-known spiritualist. Pearl went to the Sunrise Club in New York and knew Bea Schumm. It was George Schumm who suggested her to Father to work in his bookshop a few years before I was born. One of Mother's sisters was Dr. Bertha Johnson. Fred Schulder, who worked as a salesman for Liberty, was Aunty Bertha's boyfriend. His son with Adeline Champney, Horace Champney, was the Quaker who sailed a boat to Vietnam a few years ago to protest against the war.

Whereas Elmer B. Isaak, said:

Henry George (1839-1897), American writer and founder of the single-tax movement, who advocated an annual tax on the rental value of land and the imposition of no other taxes. His book Progress and Poverty (1879) became the bible of the single-tax movement, selling millions of copies around the world and influencing such diverse figures as Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, and Sun Yat-sen. His disciples in the United States included many anarchists, among them Bolton Hall, Fred Schulder, George S. Seldes, and Alexis C. Ferm.

Schulder lived in Cleveland, Ohio, with his companion Adeline Champney, also an individual anarchist writer. They described themselves as "philosophical anarchists," and had chosen not to marry.

They had two children: Horace Champney (1905 - 1990) and Freeman F. Champney (1911 - 1998). Horace was a pacifist and anti-war radical involved with A Quaker Action Group, who sailed a boat full of medical supplies to North Vietnam during the American War.

Schulder passed away on 31 July 1961, in Fairborn, Greene, Ohio, at the age of 87.