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Survey Report of Topolobampo Bay
Block of Pacific Colony
A quick examination of the blueprints for Pacific Colony serve to remind us that the aspirations behind Pacific Colony’s dreams were often much grander than was humanly possible. The gorgeous water fixtures, geometrically precise layouts, and elaborate landscaping proved to be grandiose dreams for the colonists attempting to settle Topolobampo bay. The first and foremost obstacle they faced was the lack of drinking water; ultimately the attempt to build a ditch from Los Mochis to the colony took up most of the colonist’s efforts. Additionally, the land’s lack of cultivation proved a massive obstacle, many colonists were forced to leave in makeshift shacks or tents with dirt floors and little protection from the elements. Considering that the colonists needed to dig a massive ditch to provide clean drinking water, build homes (with no building materials or resources), and cultivate virgin soil it is no surprise that in the colony’s 10 years of existence they never came close to the original blueprints.
Albert K. Owen and Capitalism
Perusing Albert K. Owen’s various writing it is easy to trace his vexed relationship with capitalism and industry. In a draft entitled “The Industrial Re-formation: A Prologue,” Owen laments any real human progress since the dawn of time and asserts that “The reason why man has not advanced himself in keeping with the tools, machines and devices, that he has invented and put into service, is because not any government or society, since history began, has considered and treated government or society as a whole, but have been content to deal with one of its essential problems at a time to the exclusion of the others.” Owen argues for substantial transformations to current society. In a different document entitled “Key to the Solution of Some of the Graver Industrial Problems,” Owen outlines the general premise of a type of socialist communism that he believed would be key to overcoming some of the major social ills of his time. He claims “it is plain that if a national charter is taken out that will encourage all the people to get into one or more of a series of great inter-dependent, inter-sustaining, socio-industrial organisms, combining everything good and useful in the Merger and in the Department Store, we can not only obtain for every family a beautiful garden home, park environed but likewise every other advantage that can result from the labor that we do for ourselves, and from the products we exchange.” Owen recognizes that there are issues with capitalism and industrialism, but believes they need just be reorganized to better serve the public as whole.
Owen and Capitalism (Contd.)
Much of Owen’s vexed relationship with capitalism and industry can be seen as a product of the time he lived in. In an unregulated economy of laissez-faire capitalism Owen’s America existed in a sort of liminal space where the deficits of capitalism were abundantly clear, but legitimate alternatives were difficult to imagine (not too different from our current moment). An excerpt from one of Owen’s private notebooks helps shed light on the ways in which Owen’s own thinking was heavily influenced by the society he was apart of. The notebook pages are scribbled all over with financial figures and railroad mileage. Among the scribbles, Owen has pasted a scrap from the newspaper which reads, “Fifteen thousand men are employed in the construction gangs of the Northern Pacific railroad, and track is being laid at a rate of ten miles a week. In a short time this railroad and its Canadian rival will both be opened to the Pacific coast. And then look out for a grand pooling combination of all the Pacific roads.” In this passage, labor is discussed as expendable; not discussed in terms of men, but in terms of mileage were week. Owen never refutes this logic and instead goes on to discuss the distance a different stretch of railroad.
Printing in Pacific Colony *
The Credit Foncier newsletter of Pacific Colony can be considered one of the colony’s few consistently successful ventures. One of Ira Kneeland’s myriad photographs of the colony depicts the massive printing press. Franz Shelenger operates the massive machine, John Dawkins looks on, and Maria Howland sits in the corner playing the violin as she observes the process. The Credit Foncier newsletter was central to social life in Topolobampo, in fact, much of the scandal surrounding Marie Howland was played out in the pages of the newsletter. It is no wonder that Mrs. Howland oversees the process as she was one of the paper’s main contributors, often taking a micro-managerial role in the newsletters editing. One has to assume that the printing press was one of the few large pieces of equipment brought to Topolobampo from the States. It is hard to imagine that the colonists would have had the resources to buy a new press with the measly funds available in the public store.
Pacific City Scrapbooks: Capital, Industry, and Globalization
The Pacific City scrapbooks are an interesting place to turn when trying to make sense of the colony’s interactions with the outside world. Each scrapbook is a collection of newspaper clippings and ads. It is unclear who put the scrapbooks together, or for what purpose. The only clue towards their application lies in the name of each scrapbook; they are divided by department, things like Agriculture and Construction. From this, we can assume that whoever compiled these scrapbooks was using them as a framework to understand what type of advancement was happening in these departments and use them as models to structure pacific City. The agriculture scrapbook begins with a news clipping which quotes Prince Bismark in a speech to agrarians in which he proclaims, “We must stand shoulder to shoulder against the drones who govern us, and who produce nothing but laws.” This opening solidifies Pacific Colony as a place devoted to both agricultural reform and social reconfiguration.
Pacific City Scrapbooks:
A marked difference between the Construction and Agriculture scrapbooks is the inclusion of ads. Where the Agriculture books feature little to no ads, the Construction book features a myriad of ads for model homes, flats or furniture. We can assume this difference is attributed to Capitalisms absorption of the housing market; the commodification of living spaces, and furniture. Additionally, an inherent aspect of architecture is its value as art; a perfect avenue for commodification. In “Key to the Solution of Some of the Graver Industrial Problems” Owen describes department stores as making large profits for a concentrated number of investors, a problem he believed could be fixed by the creation of national charters. In this way construction would remain commodified, but by Owen’s logic, everyone in the nation would benefit from this commodification.
