WARD BELLMY, SOCIAL ENGINEER
BRYANT, HELIN
M*aid Bellamy, Social Engineer W tv HflfH MTAMT §&*iY Utopias tadbtw written Wow Looking Baofctoord. Why did this book have such a uniqu*. ing effort? Why did it sell I copies thin may...
...At 21 he wrote: "Socialism...
...Bellaaay's ver»atUity to Leonardo da Vinci'*, but this i* m by-product of an attempt to revaluate an important thinker...
...In 1936, at tna request of Columbia University, John Dewey, Charles Beard and Edward Weeks • a c h listed the 25 books of the preceding...
...At timea it seem* over-enthu.ia.tic, a* when it liken...
...HpPkere gradually developed in the mind *f Edward Bellamy the conviction that H human nature could have a great environment it would act nobly...
...In addition, he was called a plagiarist...
...They could have given his movement a much-needed backbone, Dr...
...Morgan thinks, tha professional recognition he deserves, fa spite of the tremendous impression he saade, ha has not commonly been ranked with, say, Marx...
...interaatint to know how he cam* to write it...
...is an undiscovered country . . . Jew must find it...
...T Dr...
...Morgan, "to 'fiw up one region of valuaa—ethical and spiritual, for another region of valuesMaterial and political...
...Why did it so largely §P|fta and shape American Socialism...
...leHsmy's originality lay, too, in the rart ¦' ** "he did not become submerged in logic," but clothed profound in simple story form—so simple ahile it gained him an enormous S, it lost him, Dr...
...Something in this way it waa that, no thanks to myself, I stumbled over the destined cornerstone of the new social order...
...But though Bellamy may have failed to use Socialist cooperation to the fullest, the Nationalist program embodied many of the minimal steps urged by the Socialists, and much of that program has been enacted into law, including the right of rities to own their own utilities, direct election of Senators, income tax, woman suffrage, an extended school year, the right of labor to erg*.nice, minimum wages, maximum boors, and soil conservation, to Mas* but a /aw of it* points...
...and Eduard Benes join a .InI...
...i*Jfcy did it generate the Nationalist mevement that swept the country ? Ia his able and interesting biography Sk Morgan suggests these things hap* ifjpwd partly because it was Bellamy who ^jjrrst "took Utopia out of the region of kasy dreamland and made it a concrete program for tha actual modern world...
...I From boyhood, Bellamy had read voraciously...
...In aasessinir Bellamy'a book, it ia...
...The idea was of...
...W ft ia uncertain whether he Tead Marx Before he wrote Looking Baeklyard...
...Yet we cannot forsake the dream...
...Undo Tom's Cabin...
...Great trusts were coming into existence, strikes were frequent, social unrest was she common topic...
...Why did -enng Ramsay MacDonald, Aristide Brian...
...In hia youth ho saw operatives working 12 hours a day for 9 cents an hour, with women receiving about half that rate of pay, and pale, ragged children even less...
...Bellamy's idoal *ociety envisaged a system In which everyone would receive from tha state an equal income, »uffici*nt for comfortable living;.' All moans of production WOT* to belong to the state, and all work waa to be performed by a conscript industrial army of man and woman between 21 and 26...
...Morgan's opinion, Bellamy crystallized tha American attitude toward social progreaa that for half a century has taken issue with "tha spirit of irreconciliable class conflict which finally took form in the Russian regime...
...In Dr...
...The picture charmed millions, but incurred bitter attack...
...Waa it a brilliant tour d* force or tho result of Ions...
...Work was to be eased and life embellished by ingenious inventions, many of which, like automobile*, farm machinery and radio, are already commonplaces...
...Each headed his list with />«« Kapilal and followed it with Looking Backward...
...After »ome ****** object lessons in centralisation, W* are discerning mors clearly the dangers attendant upon th* noble dream of a happy society...
...Tbo conscripts war* to b* able to choose their jobs, tho laaat attractive labor being compensated by the shortest work-hours...
...Such recognition, however, seems on the way...
...In 1871 he met the Fourieristic Socialist Albert Brisbane and •jns deeply interested in his theories...
...Morgan quotes a statement of Bellamy's that aeema to support the first view, but marshalls common sense and cold fact to modify it "I had at the outset no idea of attempting a serious contribution to the movement of social reform" Bellamy asserted...
...round eJea ita ideaa...
...It -is definite that he never acceptedUhe idea of claaa war...
...half century that had, in their opinion, most influenced the world...
...that what »*h need most is not so much a great change in human nature as better patterns of living or thinking...
...A European trip showed him appalling conditions, and sharpened his perception of similar conditions developing at home...
...At that time, American Socialists were largely city-dwelling German immigrants, and Bellamy feared they would bring with them a European taint of violence and atheism...
...L"ESP1TE tome ideologic*] differences, tho Socialists helped to found and swell the Nationalist Clubs formed to further Bellamy's propossls...
...Bellamy waa assailed for assuming impossible inventions, for over-stressing mechanical as opposed to artistic development, and—most serious criticism—for advocating a system of regimentation thaf would lead to slavery...
...Why did it sell I copies thin may American novel ex...
...Although believing in tha dependence of human nature on environment, he refused, says Dr...
...Dr...
...He was born in a "Utopia-minded" family in a New England mill town...
...More than any other single person ho kspt before DM country that larger view, which has in it tha genius of America...
...Why have men fTlwr*t*hl Vsblet), Norms., Thomaa ¦kg WDliam Allen White expressed so ease an indebtedness to it...
...a fairy tale of social felicity...
...This first Bellamy biography restate* tha modern dilemma and stimulates tha search for an a*»w«r...
...Ha insisted on achieving a synthesis large enough to include both...
...At sixteen he devoured John Stuart Mill...
...Morgan's biography is a svmoathetie study of th* man and • provocative critique of hi* idea...
...Morgan disposes of that accusation by pointing out that any able writer knows his field, and that "where Bellamy took other men's ideas it was to use them as bricks to build a house of his own design...
...preparation...
...Th* attempt is timely...
...Morgan thinks, of organisational talent and solid social doctrine...
Vol. 28 • February 1945 • No. 6
