Ideal City Planning

In a scrapbook collection titled “Socialism and Co-operation,” towards the end of the first book in the file, there is a large newspaper clipping on Mrs. E. M. Bolles’ Lecture on the benefits of socialism for the labor man in 1887. It is noted in someone’s handwriting (the person of which is still yet to be determined) “The People” Providence, R.I. Dec 24/87. The scrapbook collection was apart of many scrapbooks collected under the scope of Department VI. From what has been discovered so far in the Topolobampo collection, Department VI seems to be the heavily involved with the city-planning aspects of Topolobampo. There are dozens of scrapbooks on subjects ranging from Railroads to Bicycles, the majority of which are newspaper clippings that give an account of how well each topic is apparently doing at that particular moment in time. It surmises that whomever was collecting information for “Socialism and Co-operation” was looking for examples of how a utopian society may be able to share the workload among the people within it. Among the other newspaper clippings, this example of socialism demonstrates the positive experience of being in a socialist society, discussing the sins and wrongs of their current society and how socialism will inevitably uplift the individual by fulfilling the needs of everyone. This view of the world being too corrupt for individuals to thrive is almost identically in line with the ideology behind the reasoning for creating Utopias in the United States. From Chris Jennings’ Paradise Now, “The various Utopians all agreed that society was rotten and that for the first time in history, the means to perfect it…were at hand…Rather than trying to improve the world in any of the usual ways…they intended to catalyze a global revolution by building a Working prototype of the ideal society.”  It is no wonder there are so many clippings on socialism in this collection.

Even though it’s not a large scrapbook in the collection, the Department of Education has several sub-departments that it began to collect newspapers on. One of these sub-departments is Literature. When it comes to the planning of a utopian society in a city that was Owen’s dream for such a long period of time, it’s interesting to see what types of literature they were being drawn towards. From the scrapbook, we can see an article on Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the Obscure and the discussion of men falling prey to passion and the fight with intellectualism. There is much we can speculate as to why this clipping was saved in the literature scrapbook, but what was more eye-catching is the smaller article on the novel Dogs and Fleas. The article states: “It is a keen satire on existing conditions, in which the people are dogs, and the plutes are fleas.” With this statement, I found it clearer as to why this was in the literature scrapbook: a book with social commentary on the economic disenfranchise of laborers versus those with money. “Plutes,” in this context, is short for plutocrat, who is someone who rules by virtue of his or her wealth. Owen most likely found Hardy’s novel, and the Dogs and Fleas novel, important reflections on society and the struggles of laboring men and intellectual work. Perhaps these novels were ones to pay close attention to in order to encourage former working class citizens in the utopian colony to become more critical thinkers of the world and society.

In a file named “Fines, rents, leases & licenses,” there is a cover page with handwriting scrawls of what looks like potential ideas of what the cover page for a scrapbook on Department 7, Sub Department 1 for Fines, Rents, Lotteries, Prizes, Leases and Licenses. This page with its scratched out handwriting demonstrates the work that went into each scrapbook in the Topolobampo collection. It shows the careful decisions that Owen made to create his scrapbooks beyond the newspaper clippings. Included with this file are the newspaper clippings he specially chose that discuss the government’s involvement with building rent and reports on the law prohibiting alcohol sales in certain states. This relates to Topolobampo and Owen’s careful planning of how to sustain the colony’s economy for the benefit of everyone. It can be assumed that such writings in the papers were important for Owen to gain a large scope of how to manage the city and what would be ideal for everyone. His aim was to uplift the laborers, but he also wanted to maintain order in the city, so looking at what laws were being passed and how certain cities worked with their people would give him a good overview. Maintaining order is essential for most experimental utopias, as Owen wrote in Integral Co-Operation at Work, “Education and refinement make demand that society be studiously and firmly remodelled upon a fixed plan...that there be order from the start, that all labor be directed in keeping with a general and matured purpose, and that every one be interested in everything that is done” (91). Through order and purpose, the city would follow a purpose and plan for the benefit of everyone involved.

In a newspaper clipping from The Louisville Press Company, comes an article published on April 5^th, 1885 criticizing and joking about the “abstract idea” of the colony’s internal finances that enable it to be a co-operative community. This article highlights the criticism around Owen’s grand idea of his society without payment for services and goods, but how he still planned for the city to be able to make payments and deals outside the colony with their funds. The article goes as far as to create a unit system for the colony’s funds: “Ten tops make one polo; Ten polos make one bampo; Ten bampos make one topolobampo.” From this play of words, the writer then goes even further to make it clear of the joke by writing, “The top, being the smallest piece, might be put in the form of the toy which happens to have the same name. Paper tops could be made of a green color, which the children of the new nation can amuse themselves in spinning…” The article is not only poking fun at the colony’s idea of co-operative working without payment but also pointing back at the flaws of greenbacks that the United States government recently phased out of circulation. This article makes expands on the criticism of “abstract” funds by reminding readers of the faults of the greenbacks before going into the faults of Topolobampo’s proposed economy. Owen most likely kept this document because it mentioned Topolobampo and quoted from the Credit Foncier’s pamphlet on their proposed economics, which could have appealed to others reading the article.

In an article titled “The Sinaloa Colony” from an unknown publisher and date, there are questions from what is presumably the local newspaper of a town called Laramie where many citizens are leaving for Topolobampo. The newspaper writes to one of its former citizens living in Topolobampo. There is concern from Laramie of the “Sinaloa Colony” being a communistic one as the unnamed citizen addresses in his/her reply: “The greatest obstacle to be removed is the idea that the colony is to be communistic. Nothing could be further from the truth than that, and in fact there is as much resemblance between the ‘Credit Foncier’ plan and communism as there is between the electric light and a fallow candle.” The writer continues to disrupt the idea of the colony being communistic by explaining the meaning of co-operative business owning in the colony. These concerns highlight another criticism of the colony from an outsider perspective on socialism. While Owen is adapting socialist ideology and merging it with capitalistic thinking, the idea is so new and monstrous that it can be easily misinterpreted by those outside of the Credit Foncier company. The writer goes on to try and sell the idea to the people reading, writing, “What has been done at Sand Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara can be repeated at Pacific City, for the conditions are not only as favorable but more so. Think for a moment of a city with no saloons, no gambling house, no house of disrepute…” This image of city without problems plays into the idea of socialistic ideology of perfection and portrays a utopian ideal that Owen promoted himself.

“Bound for Mexico” is an article presumably published in Pittsburg as it claims “One Hundred Pittsburg Workingmen and Their Families to Leave” for Sinaloa Colony. The article lays out the reason for it on the Mexican Government granting Owen land rights, making it easier for the colony to expand. The author later interviews Thomas W. Taylor, who is leading the One Hundred Pittsburg citizens to Mexico for the colony, who says, “‘The country is very fertile, with good climate and water, and an excellent harbor. We are going into cotton raising and manufacturing extensively, and I am going down to superintend the building of a cotton mill.”’ It’s an optimistic outlook of potential colonists to Topolobampo compared to the later stories about colonists returning due to the poor conditions. However, this article highlights the enthusiasm and hope people had when looking to join Owen’s grand endeavor. People went on the idea of a better future than the one they were living, and for so many people to invest in the idea, Owen must have been on to something by creating the colony. How it eventually failed does say something, but how it began also shows that people were looking for something new and inspiring. A place where they could work hard and be rewarded for it like Owen believed in. These people were most likely feeling unappreciated by the businesses they worked for, which led them to risk it all on going to Mexico for the colony.