Raymond Cyrus "R.C." Hoiles (November 24, 1878 – October 31, 1970) was an American
newspaper publisher. He was born in
Alliance, Ohio
Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 21 ...
, and started his career as a subscription solicitor in the local newspaper ''
The Alliance Review''. Hoiles and his brother bought among many newspapers ''
Santa Ana Daily Register'' in 1935. Hoiles became president of
Freedom Newspapers in 1950, in which position he stayed until his death in 1970.
Biography
Hoiles was born on November 24, 1878, in
Alliance, Ohio
Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 21 ...
, into a middle-class family. His parents were Samuel Harrison Hoiles, a farmer, and his wife, Ann Ladd Hoiles. The family farm was located on the outskirts of the town, which had 4,000 inhabitants at that time. Hoiles went to a school in town; in his elderliness he remarked that the most important thing he had learned there was "that the State, or a majority of citizens, had the right to use taxation to support the public school system". He once mockingly said of his education that "attending government schools … handicapped me in developing my moral and mental faculties. …
short it retarded my education." According to Carl Watner, Hoiles learned from his father at the time he graduated from high school that he should "never ask anybody to do something for him that he was not prepared to do himself". He later studied electrical engineering at Mt. Union College in Ohio, where he worked as a subscription solicitor for ''
The Alliance Review'', a newspaper edited by his elder brother.
In 1919, shortly after the end of
World War I, Hoiles, together with his elder brother, sought to expand their media empire. The first newspaper of which they took possession was ''
Lorain Times Herald
Lorain may refer to:
Places
* Lorain, Ohio
* Lorain, Pennsylvania
* Lorain, Wisconsin
* Lorain County, Ohio
** Lorain County Community College
* Lorain Township, Minnesota
People
* René Lorain (born 1900), French athlete
* Sophie Lorain, Ca ...
'', the second was ''
Mansfield News
The ''Mansfield News Journal'' is a daily newspaper based in Mansfield, Ohio, that serves Richland, Ashland and Crawford counties, as well as parts of Morrow, Knox and Huron counties in the north central part of the state.
History
The ' ...
''—Hoiles served as publisher for both of them. Believing that what the country needed were newspapers that "believe in moral principles and have enough courage to express these principles", Hoiles, then aged 56, purchased ''
Santa Ana Register'', a daily newspaper for the Californian town of
Santa Ana.
Political views
Hoiles wanted to abolish
public schooling
Public school may refer to:
*State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
*Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...
(which he called "taxpayer supported schools") and advocated the secession of the United States from the
United Nations. He opposed the presidential candidacies of
Dwight D. Eisenhower and
Robert A. Taft, finding their views not sufficiently
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
. None of his newspapers did, however, endorse any candidate for public office.
The ''Register'' was also one of the few American newspapers that decried the
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
In a 1964 interview with ''The New York Times'', Hoiles described himself as a
voluntaryist, stating that "government should exist only to try to protect the rights of every individual, not to redistribute the property, manipulate the economy, or establish a pattern of society."
References
External links
*
Doherty, Brian (2007-04-10
R.C. Hoiles, American Original ''
Reason''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoiles, Raymond Cyrus
American newspaper chain founders
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
1878 births
1970 deaths
American libertarians
Freedom Communications
Old Right (United States)
People from Alliance, Ohio
Voluntaryists
Journalists from Ohio