Arthur Kitson

Arthur Kitson, M.E., was born in London, England ... He is the fourth son of James Kitson, Esq., of London and cousin of Sir James Kitson, Baronet ... Arthur Kitson was educated by private tutors and at King's College, London, where he won the Whitworth scholarship in a competitive examination, being second out of 600 contestants. He came to the United States immediately after college, and was engaged by the Baldwin Locomotive Company of Philadelphia.[1]

He married Fannie Ernestina Aschenbach in Spring Garden, Philadelphia on 25 March 1886.[2] They had seven children but eventually divorced.[3]

Arthur Kitson knew William Jennings Bryan personally and in Pennsylvania worked for Bryan's U.S. Presidential campaign in 1896.[4]

He was the managing director of the Kitson Empire Lighting Company of Stamford, Lincolnshire and held many patents.

In 1901, he invented the vaporised oil burner. The fuel was vaporised at high pressure and burned to heat the mantle, giving an output of over six times the luminosity of traditional oil lights. This device was later improved by David Hood at Trinity House.

Kitson was invited to contribute critical testimony to the Cunliffe Currency Committee in January 1919. In place of oral testimony, he published his criticism at his own expense and furnished copies to every member of the committee.[5] He later formed the Economic Freedom League with Frederick Soddy and was active in this venture through the 1920s.[6]

He was declared bankrupt in 1925.[7]

Kitson became convinced Jewish bankers were the cause of his bankruptcy and most of the world's miseries. He sent Ezra Pound a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion even before Pound changed from a money radical to a notorious anti-Semite.

By the time of his death in 1937, Arthur Kitson was the second most influential fascist in Britain, the first being Oswald Mosley. In his late years he was brought to Germany to consult with Nazi party economists.[8]

• A Scientific Solution of the Money Question. Arena Publishing Company, 1895.
• The Money Problem. Grant Richards, 1903.
• Industrial Depression: Its Causes and Cure. Fisher Unwin, 1905.
• An Open Letter to the Right Hon. David Lloyd George. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1911.
• Trade Fallacies: A Criticism of Existing Methods, and Suggestions for a Reform Towards National Prosperity. P. S. King & Son, 1917.
• A Fraudulent Standard. P. S. King & Son, 1917.
• The Great Pacifist Conspiracy!: A Warning and an Appeal to the British Public. Dolby, 1918.
• Money Problems: A Discussion of the Basis of our Monetary and Credit Institutions with Suggestions for the Establishment of a Scientific Currency System. Dolby Brothers, 1920.
• Unemployment: The Cause and a Remedy. London: Cecil Palmer, 1921.
• The Bankers' Conspiracy! Which Started the World Crisis. London: Elliot Stock, 1933.
  • Audiobook available.
• A Modern Pilgrim's Progress. Oxford: Alden Press, 1935.

Published under pseudonym "A Fellow Pilgrim".

• Cowen, Tyler & Kroszner, Randall. "The Development of the New Monetary Economics", Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 95(3), June 1987.
• Fisher, Irving. Stable Money; a History of the Movement, Adelphi, 1934.
• Hammes, David & Wills, Douglas. "Thomas Edison's 'Except One'; The Monetary Views of Arthur Kitson Revisited", Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 32(1), 2005.
• Surette, Leon. "Arthur Kitson", Pound in Purgatory: From Radical Economics to Anti-Semitism, Chap. X, University of Illinois Press, 1999.
• Wales, Wendy. "Arthur Kitson, Cook's Biographer". Captain Cook Society.

• C. H. Douglas
• Thomas Edison
• Silvio Gesell
• Alfred Mitchell-Innes
• Ezra Pound
• Frederick Soddy

• Works by Arthur Kitson at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Arthur Kitson at Internet Archive