R.C. Hoiles in his own words

R.C. Hoiles, short of stature and full of energy, was described as everything from a philosopher to a zealot. But, he was our "zealot," and in truth, he came to his philosophy of individual liberty over the course of many years and after reading and thinking deeply, conversing with contemporary thought leaders around country, and examining his own life. He was fearless and consistent in defending his principles and always open to a robust discussion.

He lived what he believed and his attitude toward life showed itself in ways big and small. He was bold in standing up against school segregation in the late 1940s in Orange County and against internment of Japanese Americans during WWII in California, and humble in choosing a name for his company – Freedom – as opposed to naming it after himself.

The quotes below were gathered from a number of sources* and, we believe, show something of the man, his viewpoint, and his fire for freedom for each of us. – Cathy Taylor


"I do not believe," said Hoiles in a scathing indictment of the tyranny of the majority, "that multiplying a wrong by any number makes it right."

"I believe," Hoiles said, "this is what (Thomas) Jefferson meant when he said: 'I know of but one code of morality, whether it be for men or for a nation; I believe in doing unto others as I would like to have them do unto me.'"

"There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. True nobility consists in being superior to your previous self." (He called this "The Key to Continuous Happiness" because he believed that the man who is constantly trying to improve himself is the happiest person and his happiness grows with age.)

"The Yardsticks of Morality we have mentioned indicate several facts, uncontested by any Christian or Jew, of our acquaintance. They include: 1.That every man is born with certain inalienable rights. 2. That these rights are equally the birthright of all men, that they are the endowment of the Creator and not of any government."

"What we need above everything else, if we would change the course of socialism and collectivism, is more people devoting more time to seeing that the youth of the land is instilled with belief in the great moral laws and the Commandments and the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence."

"A good job for a person is one that permits him to get all he produces, no more, no less, as determined by a free market for his production and to advance and use all the talents that God gave him physically, mentally and morally as rapidly as possible."

"How can people correct their errors if they are not pointed out? And if a newspaper is afraid to let people point out their errors or will not point them out itself, it simply is worshipping the Golden Calf and is not worthy of the respect of American citizens."

"If there is anything a man of integrity should want to learn, it is whether what he is doing is in harmony and consistent with what he says he believes."

On newspapers:

"What this country needs as much as anything else are newspapers that believe in moral principles and have enough courage to express these principles and point out practices and beliefs that violate moral principles. A newspaper that only tries to run editorials and columnists and news items that are popular is of mighty little value to its readers."

"A newspaper that is afraid of losing subscribers because of principles is of little value to itself or anyone else. It might make dollars but its publisher loses his own self-respect – his own soul."

"There were more crusading newspapers in years gone by than there are today. Today too many newspapers are afraid of offending somebody and losing a dollar by taking an unpopular position. The result is that they cease to develop, cease to be of much use in their community as far as getting people to better understand human relations that will promote goodwill, peace and prosperity."

One other example will illustrate R.C.'s sublime indifference to compromise, even though his adherence to principle might be costly. Once in Santa Ana, a cub reporter was writing news stories about a group of local businessmen who had contrived an anti-chain store organization. When the managers of the chain stores, who represented over half of the advertising revenue of the Register, walked into his office and demanded that the stories about their opposition cease, Hoiles responded in the following manner. "You can take your advertising out of my paper. That's your business. But I'm running this paper and I'll say what is to be printed in it as long as I'm running it, and if the stories are true, and we think that they are news, they're going to run whether you like it or not." [ Raymond Cyrus Hoiles, p.8]

"A newspaper has a responsibility because it is the most economical method of exchanging ideas. A newspaper that is afraid to discuss things that are "sacred cows" to the majority will be afraid to handle news stories that might cost it advertising or subscriptions. A newspaper that hides behind its columns and will not answer any or all questions about what it is advocating is not a real newspaper and is of little value to its readers."

The whole purpose of the editorial page of a newspaper, in R.C.'s view, was to get people to think ... the exposure of readers to libertarian ideas in the editorial page was designed to awaken in them the concept of self-rule and self-control. In fact, R.C. saw "the editorial page of a newspaper, which is kept open for contrary points of view, and which is well prepared and thoughtfully assembled, as a daily school room made available to its subscribers," whether "rich or poor, young or old, and without the duress of taxes nor the compulsion of forced attendance."

On the internment of Japanese in WWII:

Perhaps his finest hour came during World War II, when he defended the 110,000 Japanese Americans who had been taken from their homes – even though there was no evidence to show they were anything other than loyal Americans – and sent to relocation camps in America's interior. The Register was the only newspaper we know of that defended the Japanese Americans' constitutional rights. As the Japanese American Citizens League once put it, Hoiles "was the only one with the courage of his convictions." [Gazette Telegraph, January 23, 1966, p. 8-E]

From a Register Editorial on Oct. 14, 1942: "Few, if any, people ever believed that evacuation of the Japanese was constitutional. It was a result of emotion and fright rather than being in harmony with the Constitution and the inherent rights that belong to all citizens."

From a column R.C. wrote on Oct. 14, 1942: "The question we should consider is whether or not this evacuation will in the long run really help us win the war. If it will not, we should make every effort possible to correct the error as rapidly as possible. It would seem 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. We need all the manpower we can obtain. To remove the Japanese from the place where they could serve our country by helping us furnish food and doing useful services weakens us in our defense by that amount. We must realize, as Henry Emerson Fosdick so wisely said, "Liberty is always dangerous but it is the safest thing we have." That, also, in reality, means that true democracy is always dangerous but it is the safest thing we have. If we are not willing to run any risks and cannot have faith in humanity and regard people innocent until they are proved guilty, we are on the road to losing our democracy. We cannot help but believe that we would shorten the war and lose fewer lives and less property if we would rescind the order and let the Japanese return and go to work, until such time as we have reason to suspect any individuals of being guilty of being disloyal to America. Few, if any, people ever believed that evacuation of the Japanese was constitutional. It was a result of emotion and fright rather than being in harmony with the Constitution and the inherent rights that belong to all citizens.

On school segregation, which he called "un-American" and "un-Christian":

In 1947 the federal courts in California sided with the NAACP in a decision that was the trial run for Brown v. Board of Education. Federal Judge Paul McCormick cited California law and the federal Constitution in striking down the practice of segregating Mexican-American schoolchildren (Mendez v. Westminster).

"It seems that the Santa Ana School Board [the lawsuit was named after one family and one school district, but was filed on behalf of 5,000 children in four districts including Santa Ana] knows no law except might makes right. The members of the board thought they had the power and they wanted to use it. They were not stopped because of their beliefs in Christian, moral and American principles; they had to be stopped by the court ruling against their desire to show their authority. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution prevented them from continuing their un-American, un-Christian desires." (April 16, 1947)

On public schools:

Of all the inflammatory things R.C. Hoiles wrote and said in his 91 years, none aggravated people more than his words about government schools, known to most of the rest of the world as public schools. But, that was his strength – to challenge and present in a new light institutions that so many had come to take for granted, or even revere.

"What's the difference in principle between tax-supported schools and tax-supported medicine, or tax-supported business of any kind (or) tax supported churches?" Hoiles asked rhetorically nearly 60 years ago. How he would flinch to see how unfortunately prescient his words were.

"I believe that tax-supported, government schools violate the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence," Hoiles said on more than one occasion.

The "handicap" [as he called it] that R.C. got from [attending] the public schools was the belief that the State or the majority of citizens had the right to use taxation to support the public school system.

"I never once read in any book or heard any professor in the high school explain the basic principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the individual; that the government had no right to do anything that each and every individual did not have a right to do. Instead, they had to teach that the government or the local school district, if the majority so willed, had a right to force a Catholic parent or a childless person or an old maid or an old bachelor to help pay for government schools... The textbooks did explain the error in the belief in the divine right of kings. But they never explained the error in the belief in the divine right of the majority. It simply substituted the divine right of the majority for the divine right of the kings."


"I, of course, believed in taxes, having gone to a state school. I used to contend that I believed in voluntary taxes. I was straightened out on this error by Frank Chodorov, who pointed out that there was no such thing as voluntary taxation – to use that term was a contradiction of words. That caused me to overcome the handicap that I learned from the state schools and Methodist college of believing in taxation.... "

On Voluntarism

He chose this theme because he sincerely thought that to the degree that more and more people believed in and practiced voluntarism, "the more they will increase their happiness, their physical and spiritual health, their peace of mind and their prosperity."

* Sources include Editorials from The Orange County Register; "The Uncompromising R.C. Hoiles" by Carl Wattner; "R.C. Hoiles, Civil Rights Pioneer," by Jonathan Bean; "R.C. Hoiles: An American Original," by Brian Doherty and internal company documents.


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