Tom: That this article should have appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette is all the more sad. This newspaper – then the Gazette Telegraph - was a major part of the family chain owned by R.C. Hoiles. R.C.’s dedication to what we would now call “libertarian” principles was no better reflected than in his front-page World War II-era editorials – particularly in his California-based papers – condemning the government’s sending of Japanese-Americans to concentration camps.
The Gazette Telegraph - with R.C.’s son Harry as publisher – was a centerpiece in the 1950s-1960s development of libertarian thinking. Bob LeFevre – who founded and operated the Freedom School/Rampart College just north of Colorado Springs – served as editor of the GT. His newspaper work schedule was arranged to accomodate Bob’s working and teaching at the school. Without this very supportive family and newspaper, the libertarian movement might have been greatly slowed.
Thanks to Bob, R.C., and Harry, the GT served as an outlet for a great number of then unknown columnists to get their ideas into the public. Harry Browne, Sy and Riqui Leon, and I – among others – first got our liberty-based opinions into print through the Hoiles newspapers. Mr. Noreen’s article would not have made the pages of this paper in those days.
