This Magazine

A Free Thought Church at McMinnville, Oregon — May, 1896 The portrait of Nettie A. Olds (right), appears as the frontispiece of this number of this Magazine. We also herewith present our readers with a picture of a part of the interior of the church of which Miss Olds is the pastor. Below will be …

By E.W. Kenyon — March, 1903 Chicago, IL: There is probably no subject, at present, more alive and interesting to all classes of people than that of economics. It fills the very intellectual atmosphere we breathe, even attracting the attention of the unthinking. We hear it from rostrum, press and pulpit. It generally takes an …

By Walter Collins — February, 1903 One of the most neglected questions that needs the attention of progressive people is funeral reform. The very first and most important step is to quit burying human bodies. Man is the only animal of his size that is permitted to pollute the earth in the very locality that …

By Ida Ballou — September, 1902 Sidney, Ohio: Says Goethe: The world’s my delight; I gazed on the distant, I look on the near, On wood and on planet, On field and on deer, And the beauty eternal Of all things I see, And pleased with myself. All bring pleasure to me. Glad eyes look …

Can a Freethinker Consistently Vote for Roosevelt for President? Editorial—September, 1902: If the Republican Party shall nominate Roosevelt for President, can any Free Thought Republican consistently vote for him, knowing the fact that in his book he called Thomas Paine a “dirty little atheist?” We had come very near deciding that he could not, when …

By E.W. Kenyon — July, 1902 Chicago, IL: If the signs of the times ripen into what they purport, there can be little question that the storm center of human advancement will be in the economic and industrial questions that are pressing with accelerated motion toward an equitable solution. That there is a profound and …

By Judge C. B. Waite — August, 1901 An address delivered by IMA President Waite at its first public meeting held at the Great Northern Hotel July 6, 1901. Friends: We meet to-day to report progress in a movement started for the purpose of doing honor to a great American citizen, now no more, a …

By George Allen White — December, 1901 My brothers, sisters, you who long for the reign of Truth and Right. Does it seem that the world is ruled by wrong, and that error is Infinite? Does it seem that the light of to-day is caught through the dim, low-windowed past? Yet know that Truth is …

Date: January 25, 2016 at 6:30 Place: O’Connor’s Cafe and Bar, 7850 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, Oregon A presentation by Silverton Historian Gus Frederick. This talk addressed the Freethought movement in Oregon during the latter quarter of the 19th Century, beginning with the seeds of the Oregon State Secular Union, the growing Freethought scene in …

By Elizabeth Cady Stanton — June, 1901 Continued from May: The ladies of the tribe of Ymanan are celebrated for their beauty and musical talent; when they give concerts the men come eagerly from the most distant parts, adorned like male ostriches. The women of the Berber tribes sing every evening to the accompaniment of …

By Elizabeth Cady Stanton — May, 1901 Without going into any of the fine calculations of historians, as to the centuries of human growth, I would simply state that some agree on about 85,000 years. They assign 60,000 to savagery, 20,000 to barbarism, and 5,000 to civilization. For my present purpose, these facts are only …

By Horace L. Green – June, 1898 Matilda Joslyn Gage died on the 18th of March at the home of her son-in-law, L. F. Baum, in Chicago, at the age of 72 years. In 1863 we opened a law office in the city of Syracuse. On the floor above us was published a temperance paper …

By Mrs. Myra E. Withee — September, 1901 St. Paul, Minnesota: There came to my hand a short time since a copy of a so-called Free Thought paper. As I have for many years been in sympathy with Free Thought, I eagerly scanned its pages thinking to find something of interest. The first article which …

By John E. Remsburg—March, 1902 Oak Mills, Kansas: President Roosevelt in his “Life of Gouverneur Morris” (p. 288), characterizes Thomas Paine, one of the founders of our Republic, a gentleman whose personal appearance and habits were above reproach, a man who was physically and intellectually as large as Mr. Roosevelt is, and a devout believer …

Mr. Nill is doing a good work for Liberalism by furnishing the secular journals of his vicinity with Free Thought articles of a mild character. This one appeared in “The Watertown Herald” as an editorial. He writes: “I think there is much truth in the old saying that ‘you can catch more flies with molasses …

By Josephen K. Henry — May, 1901 Boston Investigator: Mrs. Carrie Nation is now indeed a national attraction on the stage of American journalism. She holds the center of the stage with such power that neither international nor national attraction distracts the public mind from the artistic hatchet wielder. The conditions of our boasted Christian …

By Mary G. Woodhull — May, 1901 From The Literary Era: From the time I was a child I was familiar with the picturesque form and face of Poet Whitman. His genial “How are you, my child?” still rings in my ears, and many a time did I turn to catch a glimpse of the …

By Harriet M. Closz — April, 1901 Webster City, Iowa: One of the many pagan customs which was abolished during the early years of the Christian era was the cremation of human bodies, and to the belief in the resurrection of the body and in the healing properties of bones and relics of the dead …

By Professor James A. Greenhill — August, 1900 Clinton, Iowa: The total eclipse of the sun that was scheduled for May 28th, of the present year, can now be numbered among events of the past. Over the greater portion of Iowa and Illinois clouds hid the face of the god of day till after the …

By Kate De Peatt, Secretary, O.S.S.U. — May, 1899 Vale, Oregon: The first of March finds me doing active field work, and on the 6th I bid farewell to the State of my birth, crossed the Snake River and renewed my acquaintance with the good people of Idaho. I am accompanied by those stanch workers …

By Ratna Senanayaka — July, 1901 However our modern Christian friends may claim their religion as being a direct revelation from God, it is nevertheless obvious that the pioneer Christians (Moses and the Hebrews), in laying the foundations of their social systems and political institutions, did not escape that ancient Hindu influence which pervaded Persia, …

By Kate De Peatt — August, 1898 The Tenth Annual Convention of the Oregon State Secular Union, held at Wagner, Oregon on July 3, 4 and 5, 1898, was a complete success in every way. Wagner is a pretty little settlement nestled in the Blue Mountains and is just the place for such a gathering. …

It would seem from the following letter from Katie Kehm Smith, Secretary of the Oregon State Secular Union that the State of Oregon is taking the lead of any of the other States of the Union in the organization of the Liberal minded people. For ourselves, we would much rather, that the words Free Thought …

By Professor J.A. Greenhill — February, 1901 Clinton, Iowa: It is not to be supposed, nor even taken for granted, that all the facts connected with the phenomena presented in the study of astronomy, are fully and clearly understood by the scientist of to-day, yet it must be admitted that much of what is true …

John Earl Hosmer — April, 1902 All evil originates and grows from the dismal swamp of ignorance. There seems to be three main branches in our twentieth century civilization. At the head stands one that Freethinkers are proud to be rid of, and many of us are loud in our ridicule and denunciation of those …

By W. E. Johnson — April, 1899 For two thousand years it has been the fashion of this earth to denounce as “infidels” all who do not endorse one’s particular brand of theology. Christians denounce the Mohammedans as “infidels” and “heathen,” notwithstanding the fact that the Muslims worship the same God and do reverence to …

By Samuel Roberts — July 1903 (Remarks by Samuel Roberts before the Men’s Club of the Universalist Church, 65th street and Stewart Avenue, Chicago, April 25, 1903) “All truth Is safe and nothing else is safe, and he who keeps back the truth or withholds It from men, from motives of expediency, is either a …

By Viceroy Li Hung Chang — August, 1900 From The Chicago American of July 8: The powers regard China as a pie from which they intend to cut themselves slices according to whim and appetite. Big guns give no title for the possession of a country. The will of the people is that title. The …

By Elizabeth Cady Stanton — November, 1900 Many years ago we desired to establish a Homeopathic College for women. A friend of mine, having inherited a million of dollars, I urged her to make a generous contribution for this purpose. She said she would consult her pastor, as she did in all her charities. After …

By Dr. P.A. Zaring — March, 1901 Tampico, Indiana: We are sometimes astonished at controversies between persons of the same belief, over the shades of meaning of synonymous terms. There are persons who investigate principles with all possible care, and delve deep into the most profound thoughts, without paying due attention to the particular words …

By Marie Harrold Garrison — December, 1900 Before me lies “A Defense of Agnosticism,” by our widely celebrated, deeply loved, most sincerely respected and truly revered worker for universal liberty of thought and expression, George Jacob Holyoake. The above-mentioned article is in part a reply to my “Weeds and Agnostics,” which appeared in the Free …

By George Jacob Holyoake — November, 1900 The term “Agnostic” is only of mid-century growth, but it marks the development of accuracy of thought in the nineteenth century as no other term does. Agnosticism means discernment as to the extent of personal knowledge, and veracity in stating it when discerned. Theism, Atheism, and Agnosticism denote …

By Marie Harrold Garrison — October, 1900 A whole year passed in the country causes one to consider seriously in more phases than one the subjects of grain-raising and of weed-growing. “Every human life is a field under more or less cultivation,” says the “last-day” composition of a sweet girl graduate. Trite as the sentence …

By H. L. Green — December, 1901 We have lost about all our faith in the power of Freethinkers to organize, notwithstanding we have spent a good share of our long life in endeavoring to organize them. The more intelligent people are the more difficult it is to organize them into societies. Each one has …

By B. F. Underwood — March, 1899 Unorganized Liberals have fewer labels to classify them, and fewer fences to divide them from others of the same community than those who are inside church organizations. The sects generally claim to teach all the virtues; yet one may belong to none of the sects and possess the …