Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Individual Liberty by Benjamin R. Tucker

Status: Almost Complete (v.2)

The PDF scan of this had a ton of scanning artifacts. Just running the images through a cleaning algorithm, I was able to shave off ~5 MBs of pure speckles.

Comparison of page vii:
Original
After Algorithm

A lot of the markings were cleaned manually as well.

Size Comparison (PDF):
Original: 22.0 MB
Finereader: 15.1 MB (31% reduction)
Cleaned + Finereader + Bookmarks: 11.2 MB (~50% reduction)

EPUB: https://mega.co.nz/#!rEwGEIbA!QIBqIQJ--XGG7MgwsubmkgS3KFNe-659mvHwroQmciE
PDF: DEAD LINK (If you are interested, please leave a comment)

Fix Notes:


Page 10: individuals

[...] the government to certain individuals, or to indivduals holding certain kinds of property, of issuing the circulating medium, a privilege which is now enforced in this country by a national tax of ten per cent. upon all other persons who attempt to furnish a circulating medium, and by State laws making it a criminal offence to issue notes as currency.

Page 10: therefore

[...] but equally good, credits of the customers, and a charge therefor of less than one per cent., not as interest for the use of capital, but as pay for the labor of running the banks.

Page 21: aggression

Seeking, then, the elements common to all the institutions to which the name “State” has been applied, they have found them two in number: first, agression; second, the assumption of sole authority over a given area and all within it, [...]

Page 51: astonishment

Now the only as-stonishment is—at least in the United States—that the church is allowed to stay at any other level. But the political superstition has replaced the religious superstition, and Mr. Read is under its sway.

Page 55: unnecessary

Nearly all the evils with which mankind was ever afflicted were products of this "grand race experience,” and I am not aware that any were ever abolished by showing it any unneccessary reverence.

Page 67: prohibitionists

Yes, just as despotic as the prohibtionists who believe it is their right to defend themselves from drunkards and rumsellers.”

Page 80: necessary

Of the superior effectiveness of passive resistance to arbitrary and invasive policies it is hardly necesary to speak.

Page 81: advantage

Local autonomy in taxation and direct local rates are very advantageous to passive resisters, and labor is short-sighted in giving up the adavantage.

Page 85: Newcastle

But to say all this to Mr. Donisthorpe is like carrying coals to Newcatsle.

Page 92: addition

[...] thus causing coin to flow into the vaults of the banks and add to their reserve; that this additon had enabled them to add further to their circulation, until, by a continuation of the process, [...]

Page 112: therefore

[...] which each of them could obtain in exchange for his equally good but less reputable individual credit, having to pay therefor nothing but the cost of this exchange of credits.

Page 124: approaching

The hypothesis of free and mutual banking excludes on the one hand any legal limitation of the supply of currency whereby each note would acquire an extra value due to the enforced scarcity of the tool of exchange, and, on the other hand, any inflation of the currency to a volume exceeding the basis or sufficiently aproaching the limit of the basis to inspire an appreciable fear that the notes are in danger from a possible depreciation of the security.

Page 126: borrower

In the existing unideal world the collateral securing a mutual-bank note would guarantee its holder that, unless the original borower buys back the note in order to cancel therewith his own note held by the bank, the bank itself will ultimately convert the collateral into the commodity [...]

Page 138: extent

The solvency of the Scotch banks is due mainly to the following facts: first, that the stockholders in every bank except the three oldest of these institutions are liable to the whole exent of their personal fortunes for the bank’s debts; [...]

Page 142: impression

I was greatly interested in it, and the pamphlet made a deep impresion on me, suggesting to me a thousand thoughts; [...]

Page 144: attention

The question of the redemption of mutual bank notes in specie was still engaging the attenion of some of the students of the problem, [...]

Page 153: monopoly

[...] when he says that the present value of money depends upon monoply or scarcity, he is speaking of merchandise money.

Page 155: monopoly

A voluntary custom of selling preferentially for gold would not be a monoply, but there is no such voluntary custom.

(UNCHANGED) Page 155: Missing smallcaps and indentation at the bottom of the page. Every other "reply" has a paragraph which starts with smallcaps words and no indentation.

Mr. Fisher’s article is nothing but a string of assertions, [...]

(UNCHANGED) Page 157: Missing smallcaps and indentation.

A laborer’s product is such portion of the value of that which he delivers to the consumer as his own labor has contributed.

Page 159: accomplish

I know that it is a crime in this country, and I believe that the laws of England contain restrictions that oc-complish virtually the same result.

Page 159: alcoholic

If whiskey were the only alchoholic drink allowed to be used as a beverage, it would command a higher price than it commands now.

(UNCHANGED) Page 175: Missing smallcaps and indentation.

Let me suppose a case for Mr. Benton.

(UNCHANGED) Page 185: Missing smallcaps and indentation

This smacks of Henry George.

Page 191: happiness

—in other words, that man derives more happines from freedom than from luxury,—

Page 193: monoply

And when you have abolished the money monoply, and when, in consequence, the wages of the man with the bit of land have begun to rise above the cost of living, the labor question will be nine-tenths solved.

Page 204: propose

But if the community does not proprose to go to this extreme; if it proposes to recognize the individual and treat with him, [...]

Page 227: occupancy

—not occupany or use, as Mr. Byington seems to have understood.

Page 250: therefore

If they have their foundations in justice, why should men guilty of nothing but a legitimate act of coöperation and partnership be punished therefor by having their just rights taken from them?

Page 255: understood

[...] they thoroughly understod their course, we, at any rate, have pretty nearly forgotten their understanding.

Page 256: monopoly

The most serious of these four monopolies is unquestionably the money monoply, and I believe that perfect freedom in finance alone would wipe out nearly all the trusts, or at least render them harmless, and perhaps helpful.

Page 260: partly

[...] we got very angry with Carlyle for patly putting the American Iliad in a nutshell and epigrammatically establishing the substantial similarity between the condition of slave labor at the South and that of so-called “free” labor at the North.

Page 270: referred

I understand that there was some doubt in Chicago whether the millionaire refered to "meant business” and was entitled to serious consideration.

(UNCHANGED) Page 270: Missing smallcaps and indentation

I understand that there was some doubt in Chicago whether [...]

Page 274: Professor

Again I ask you, Profesor Sumner, does your anxiety lest the individual be interfered with cover the field of finance?

(UNCHANGED) Page 275: Missing smallcaps and indentation

Liberty welcomes and criticises in the same breath the series of papers [...]

Page 278: magnificent

The book is a magificent assault on the majority idea, a searching exposure of the inherent evil of State systems, [...]

Page 284: accomplishment

There are some invasive acts or threats which cannot be executed by individuals, but require crowds—or conspiracies, if you will—for their acccomplishment.

PDF ONLY:



Bookmark Errors:

Page 84: Subchapter in the bookmark was missing "a Remedy".

Page 244: Method was placed in the wrong section

Added these subchapters:

Sociology - I. - How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ
Sociology - I. - Postscript
Economics - I. - The Redemption of Paper Money
Economics - II. - Liberty, Land, and Labor
Economics - III. - The Postoffice and Private Mail Service
Economics - III. - Competition and Co-operation
Economics - III. - Liberty and the Boycott
Economics - III. - Anarchism and Copyright

14 comments:

  1. OT, another request to help you occupy your copious free time ;)

    Reassessing the Presidency would be another good one to convert to epub. https://mises.org/document/3358/Reassessing-the-Presidency-The-Rise-of-the-Executive-State-and-the-Decline-of-Freedom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Way ahead of you, I finished that one up last year: :D

      http://misesbooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/status-created-fixed-epub-httpwww.html

      Delete
    2. Ah, for some reason I thought your work tended to get posted on Mises.org, and I didn't find it there. Serves me right for not being thorough enough to go through your archives. :)

      Delete
    3. I would say starting around mid 2012, I started getting into a position to be the semi-official EPUB guy.

      Before that I was really just submitting EPUBs via email, and hoping they would be put up. (Most of them probably got lost in the abyss).

      Nowadays I just post the EPUBs to the backend after they are finished. Then it just sits there until someone gets around to looking up copyright info (some books it is illegal to have in a different format, and Mises.org would get in trouble for hosting an EPUB), getting a new cover designed, purchasing eISBNs, new descriptions, getting it converted and posted on Amazon, getting it posted onto Mises.org, etc. etc.

      Now that I look back on those earlier EPUBs... I am glad that some of those weren't put up officially on Mises.org. One of these days I will have to go back and fix everything up to match my current standards.

      The highest priority though is getting all the works into EPUB, then after that is completed, I can go back and fix the little things. (CSS, footnote positioning, typos, paragraph breaks, indentation, etc.) :)

      Delete
  2. Do you know of a decent EPUB version of Tucker's "Instead of a Book"?

    Bad OCR-only EPUB version at archive.org.

    http://archive.org/details/cu31924030333052

    Multi-page HTML here.

    http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/

    Thanks, Bill Starr
    Columbus, Indiana
    Sat, 2 Feb 2013, 7:18 pm EST

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really don't venture out of anything besides the PDFs/EPUBs hosted on Mises.org.

      Building an EPUB from that fair-use.org version shouldn't take very long, since it is already HTML. Perhaps I will have a version done later this week.

      As a side note, I would only use archive.org for the original source document (most likely a scan that is PDF). I would avoid all of their auto converted formats.

      Delete
  3. And I've *yet another* request to add to your to-do list. :D

    Economics and the Public Welfare by Benjamin Anderson:

    https://mises.org/document/5365/Economics-and-the-Public-Welfare

    No urgency to this one (my ereader just died, and I can't replace it for a bit, and my to-read backlog is HUGE even absent that), just getting the request in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I completed that one September 29th, 2012:

      http://misesbooks.blogspot.com/2012/09/economics-and-public-welfare-by.html

      Delete
    2. Dang! And I *checked* your links. Must need new glasses. Sorry. :)

      Delete
    3. It is called Ctrl+F! :)

      If you are looking for a book, you should also look in the backlog of posts. I create the posts with a date of when I actually completed the EPUB, not necessarily on the date when I post the book. For example, I accidentally forgot to post Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace, but was reminded about it in this topic:

      https://mises.org/community/forums/t/32871.aspx

      If you would be interested I could just send you a link directly to my Mediafire folder where all of the completed EPUBs are posted. Please email me at (insert my username) @ gmail.com.

      Delete
  4. Hey Tex2002ans looks like you have been getting swarm of requests. Looks to me that its a sign that your doing a great job! I hope you can fit this next pdf to epub in to your busy schedule. No hurry!

    https://mises.org/%28S%285infh54545jgeta0e5win055%29%29/document/1905/Monarchy-and-War

    Again I am grateful to you for taking the time to produce these wonderful epubs.
    PEACE & FREEDOM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm this looks to be from the Journal of Libertarian Studies. I will have to hold off on this one and ask around, perhaps someone at Mises has some of the original source files?

      If not, I might make converting those a very very long term project.... it would be weeks/months of work though.

      The Institute recently paid a company lots of money to convert the Libertarian Forum into EPUB:

      https://mises.org/document/5125/Complete-Libertarian-Forum-19691984

      I then spent many hours doing further editing on the EPUB (getting rid of cruft, optimizing images, fixing lots of typos, adding in missing bold/italics). That took me a nice chunk of time tweaking thousands of pages.... even though I was only doing superficial changes! Can't imagine how long that would take if I had to do everything else as well.

      I would want to do everything in one big shot, and just release one all encompassing EPUB, just like what was done with Libertarian Forum.

      Delete
  5. It is down. Shame, since your version is supposed to be such an improvement. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reuploaded, thank you for letting me know it was down.

      > Shame, since your version is supposed to be such an improvement. :)

      It is! And EPUB is just way better than PDF anyway. :)

      Delete