Charles Erskine Scott Wood - Politics

Politics

As a lawyer during the early twentieth century, Wood represented dissidents such as Emma Goldman. His politics verged upon anarchism. He wrote articles for radical journals such as Liberty, The Masses, and Mother Earth.

Wood was unflagging in his opposition to state power. He advocated such causes as civil liberties for anti-war protesters, birth control, and anti-imperialism. In 1927, he wrote in Heavenly Discourse that the "city of George Washington is blossoming into quite a nice little seat of empire and centralized bureaucracy. The people have a passion to 'let Uncle Sam do it.' The federal courts are police courts. An entire system with an army of officials has risen on the income tax; another on prohibition. The freedom of the common man, more vital to progress than income or alcohol, has vanished.”