American Utopia: Cooperative Colony

Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony

A Brief History of Llano del Rio

Louisiana's New Llano Colony

Demographics of the Colony

Colony Time Line

Map of New Llano

Declaration of Principles

Application for Membership

The Colony Letter Files

Photo Archives

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: A Brief History of Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony

A Brief History of Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony

Llano's story begins when, in 1900, the newly unified Socialist Party selected two Indiana natives to head up their Presidential ticket. Eugene Debs was selected as their Presidential candidate. His running mate, described by novelist Jack London as "the best socialist speaker on the coast," was an idealistic and prominent young lawyer named . After Harriman's unsuccessful vice-presidential bid, he returned to and ran for mayor of in 1911. This was an era wrought with poor economic conditions for the average American. Big business controlled the work force and the worker was just beginning to find his voice. Disenchantment with businesses' labor practices was so great that both the labor unions and the Socialist Party threw their support behind Harriman. Harriman was favored to win the election. But a curious turn of events destroyed Harriman's chance to become the first Socialist mayor of Los Angeles.

The McNamara brothers, active labor unionists, were accused of blowing up the Los Angeles Times building. The Times owner, Harrison Gray Otis, was a prominent and powerful figure in California, and he was violently anti-union. The bombing case made national headlines. Harriman represented the McNamara brothers, and no less than joined him in their defense. Unbeknownst to Harriman, Darrow was strong-armed into cutting a deal with the prosecution. Just days before the mayoral election which Harriman was favored to win, Otis and the Times forced the brothers to confess -- and Harriman lost the election.

Disillusioned with trying to affect change through the political system, the charismatic Harriman and a number of other socialists decided that economic change could best be achieved by giving Americans an opportunity to experience a socialist way of life firsthand in a cooperative colony.

In 1914, these visionaries established the Llano del Rio Colony, 45 miles north of Los Angeles, in the . There, although hounded by Otis and the Times, and overwhelmed by prospective colonists disillusioned with the American political system, the colony prospered until it was discovered that an earthquake fault diverted much of the water the colony had counted on for its growth. Surrounding land barons refused to sell water to the colony, and Harriman and his colleagues scouted the country for another site. In 1917, 200 of the 600 original California colonists chartered a train and moved the entire colony to the former lumber town of Stables, Louisiana and changed its name to New Llano.

For the next 20 years the colony evolved its own brand of cooperativism, southern style. The colony not only coexisted with, but thrived alongside their neighbors in west Louisiana. In doing so, Harriman and the Llano colony accentuated the dreams of socialist Utopian believers in America and around the world.

Though life was not easy at the colony, no one starved either physically or intellectually. The colony was one of the first groups in America to adopt the Montessori teaching method. A prominet socialist, feminist, and architect, Alice Constance Austin helped design the California community. A leading national socialist paper, The American Vanguard (aka The National Ripsaw) moved its operations to New Llano. Theodore Cuno, one of the founders of Labor Day, made New Llano his home until his death. Cuno endowed the colony with a substantial library, one of the best in Louisiana. The colony produced many high-quality items, from shoes to machine tools to popular foodstuffs, and people came from as far away as Texas to buy the reasonably priced, well-made goods. There were numerous colony orchestras and theatrical groups which performed at the colony roof garden, free of charge, to fellow colonists and their neighbors. In fact, surviving colonists today still recall the intellectual life and cultural activities at New Llano http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: A Brief History of Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony

as oneof the most important successes of their cooperative venture.

In California they were tested politically; in the south they struggled with their own idealism. One colonist described the discussion about whether to admit African-Americans to the colony; having just been run out of California for their economic beliefs, the colonists decided that being Socialist was aggravation enough to their new neighbors. But one young woman at the time remembers her family's close relations with the Black community nearby. The colony's relation with one prominent African-American, scientist George Washington Carver, was their salvation. At one point the colony suffered from malnutrition and Carver is credited with pointing out to the transplanted farming colonists better soil and crop use pertinent to the south.

Llano's social programs, which in their day were considered un-American, were another source of pride. Seventy-five years later, similar programs have been instituted and borne much fruit in America. The minimum wage, Social Security, low cost housing, welfare, and a move toward universal health care were all instituted at Llano far ahead of the rest of America.

The colony remained in Louisiana for 22 years, adapting to new physical, social, and economic conditions. Then, in 1939, a series of financial problems and internal dissention forced the colony into receivership. Several years later writer Aldous Huxley, living at the defunct California colony, wrote about Llano's legacy. He likened Harriman's dream to that of Ozymandias, "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Louisiana's New Llano Colony

Louisiana's New Llano Colony

By Beverly Lewis & Rick Blackwood

[published in Louisiana Cultural Vistas, the quarterly magazine for The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Winter 94-95 (vol. 5, #4)]

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing." -- Oscar Wilde

On that map referred to by the late Irish writer is a spot in west Louisiana where the hopes and ideals of over 10,000 people came together to create America's longest lived socialist community, the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony.

For a whole generation, the Llano Colony practiced what the rest of the preached: a livable wage, an eight-hour work day, an end to child labor, quality education and cultural opportunities, social security, affordable housing, and food and health care for all in return for an honest day's work -- ideas considered not just radical but subversive in their day. Perhaps the most surprising fact of all this is that the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony, founded in 1914, lasted so long not in its initial home of California, a state with a reputation for tolerance and liberality, but in conservative, rural Louisiana.

In California the colony's voting strength marginalized and alienated its ranching neighbors, a cause of rising tension. The colony board realized that for Llano to survive it would have to move. In 1917 a specially chartered train transported over 200 colonists, their households, and their many industries to a defunct lumber mill town in west Louisiana called Stables, soon renamed New Llano. Many were excited by the new location; however, the move put a great economic strain on the colony, from which it never quite recovered.

Two Leaders/Two Styles of Leadership

Llano del Rio's successes were due in part to two very different men who became the General Managers of the colony and also the social commitment of the colony's western and subsequent southern locations.

Llano (pronounced `Yaw-no') Colony was the brainchild of Job Harriman, a prominent socialist, lawyer, and seminarian, who served as Eugene Debs' vice-presidential running mate on the Socialist ticket in 1900. For many years Harriman experienced first hand that few socialist victories were won at the ballot box. To Harriman's way of thinking, the mainstream press and big business had a way of putting the worst possible spin on what was all about.

It became evident to Harriman "that a people would never abandon their means of livelihood, good or bad, capitalistic or otherwise, until other methods were developed which would promise advantages at least as good as those by which they were living." This idea evolved into the Llano colony, a self-supporting socialist experiment designed to provide "equal wages, equal educational and social advantages, and equal comforts, including housing and commissary furnishings." Harriman found ready backers. Capital was raised http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Louisiana's New Llano Colony

by selling stock to members who joined the colony, and land was purchased. From the beginning, Llano del Rio was a corporation, in its own way as American as apple pie.

Celebrated author Jack London considered Harriman to be "the best socialist speaker on the West Coast." Another colleague described him as a man "of rare eloquence, deep sincerity, and irresistible personal charm." Harriman's powers of persuasion were such that within three years more than 1,000 residents flocked to Llano, far too many to sustain with the site's limited water resources.

In theory the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony was supposed to be a self-sufficient cooperative. New members were required to purchase 2,000 shares of colony stock, paying at least 25 percent up front (this fee was reduced in Louisiana.) Membership money bought goods the colony needed to get the enterprise underway. Everyone over the age of 18 had a job. Usually jobs were assigned, but people were allowed to change jobs if they proved competent. In California, the colony advertised wages of $4 a day (the usual rate in California in 1914 was $2.50 a day), but the advertised rate could not be met until the colony was self-sufficient. In the interim, the wage became $2 a day -- one dollar would be applied to food and housing, another to unpurchased stock, if there was money available. This was usually not the case.

The first years in Louisiana were the toughest. Harriman, suffering the final stages of tuberculosis, was soon forced to return to California. Many others departed in the first year, leaving a core group behind to salvage what was left. From within this group emerged George Pickett, the man who would be the colony's only other General Manager until it went into receivership in the late 1930's.

Pickett's and Harriman's management styles couldn't have been more different. Whereas the intellectual Harriman envisioned Llano to be a totally self-supporting cooperative in keeping with its status as a social experiment, Pickett, a former insurance salesman and real estate agent, saw an opportunity to bring into the colony desperately needed cash by making their goods available to their neighbors. Harriman had been the charismatic leader who sparked the flame; Pickett was the man who figured out how to stake it. In retrospect, George Pickett was better suited to make these changes than Job Harriman. Pickett's abilities were rewarded with fierce loyalty among these early colonists.

The Louisiana Economic Experiment

The opening of trade immediately established a rapport with New Llano's neighbors by bringing new industries and skills to the rural hill country. Louisiana's first artesian ice plant became one of the colony's most successful ventures. People from as far away as Texas traveled to the colony to purchase blocks of ice. The colony opened the first library in Vernon Parish, considered one of the best in the state at that time. The blacksmith shop had an exclusive contract to do the metal work for the Kansas City Southern Railroad in that part of the country. Residents today can still recall how brand new shoes from the colony cobbler shop were as comfortable as if they'd been worn for two years. New Llano's veneer plant turned out some of the finest woodwork in Louisiana. Then, too, New Llano was also the first town in Vernon Parish to have electricity.

The colony did not have hard and fast rules about how outside purchases were transacted. If someone from Leesville brought in grain to be milled, the colony would either take its percentage of the grain or accept cash. This cash provided the colony with funds for necessities like oil and fuel. Fortunately for parish residents, prices at New Llano were extremely reasonable because there were no employee wages or profit- gouging to jack up the products' cost.

There was another factor in the parish's acceptance of the cooperative colony, and that was the political sympathies that lingered in the hill country from the end of the 19th century. Forty years before Llano's arrival in Vernon Parish, the lumber business had been one of the South's most profitable industries.

Like many other big businesses in its day, the industry was unregulated. The lumber owners controlled every aspect of their companies, including the workers: wages were paid in script (as company money was called) whole populations were carted around from one mill town to the next, the workers were often in debt to the company-owned stores. As a result, some of labor's first union organizing occurred in Louisiana, and west Louisiana became the site of one of the first labor strikes in America. http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Louisiana's New Llano Colony

During this period, Louisianians supporting the unions considered themselves part of the Populist Party. By 1900 many west Louisianians were counting themselves socialists. In fact, during the 1900 presidential election, Louisianians registered more socialist votes per capita than almost any other state in the country, - - the very ticket that featured Eugene Debs and Job Harriman. "Big Bill" Haywood of The Industrial Workers of America (also known as the `Wobblies') and Emma Goldman, a prominent activist and Communist, made frequent stops at rallies in western Louisiana. In spite of the "divide and conquer" practices of the lumber companies moving their workers around, the long and bloody labor strikes continued for decades, attesting to the fervor and commitment the disenfranchised workers felt for the social reforms the unions championed.

By 1916, a year before the Llano colony moved to Vernon Parish, the I.W.W. finally gave up. This was due in part to the fact that much of the old growth timber in the region had been harvested. Profits fell and the companies began to sell off what they could.

In 1917, when the Gulf-Anderson Lumber Company arranged s sale of one of their abandoned mill towns to the Llano socialists, there was some apprehension on the part of the California colonists about their reception into their new Southern home. Although the word "socialist" was not foreign to the Louisiana colony's neighbors, it had taken on new connotations since the May and November revolutions in Russia. However, Llano soon recognized that the lifestyle the cooperators brought with them incorporated many of the social reforms they themselves had fervently supported against the lumber companies.

Innovative Social Services

The social services and programs at the colony proved to be decades ahead of their time. The services were free and staffed by the members themselves. Seventy-five years before the Family Leave Act was passed, colony mothers had the option of taking up to six months off work after the birth of a child. When they returned to work, child care was provided. Years ahead of its time, a feminist revolution touched down in west Louisiana. Women, as well as men, were free to work in any area they were capable. For some women, this was in the sawmill; others chose more traditional jobs like cooking in the cafeteria or working in the sewing room.

Education was of primary importance to the colony. After four hours of study, the older children worked four hours in some related industry, applying knowledge they had learned in the classroom. So successful was this distributive approach to education that it was common for colony children who had occasion to attend public schools to skip two grades. School children might learn about construction, design irrigation systems, or operate and print a newspaper. Alternative opinions were encouraged in classroom discussions, even if they differed with the teacher's All that was asked was that the student know how to substantiate his or her position. Adults, too, availed themselves of night classes on topics as varied as philosophy, psychology, and the latest scientific farming techniques, sometimes augmented by visiting lecturers.

Medical care was available to any colonist who needed it, but it was often a mixed bag. New Llano was served by a chiropractor, Doc Williams, the only medical professional in residence. However, he was highly regarded by the colonists and later in Leesville where he and his wife Cecil practiced following the country's demise. Older people, no longer able to work, were cared for by the community. The colony's health environment seemed, on the whole, a good one. During 1918, when people throughout the parish were felled by the flu epidemic, not one colonist died. Colonists also attributed their relative good health to various factors, including goats' milk, and a near-vegetarian diet.

Llano del Rio faded into oblivion upon its demise but it was famous in its own time. Over 10,000 people called Llano home at one time or another. In 1933, Senator Morris Shepard from Texas introduced Senate Bill 1142 to establish a federal corporation to organize self-sustaining agricultural and industrial cooperative communities financed by bond issues in an effort to alleviate the unemployment problem during the Depression. The only cooperative representative to address the Senate Subcommittee was George Pickett.

Despite its utopian aim, Llano del Rio was not a perfect world. Leadership positions remained predominantly male. There were restrictions on membership. Some colony families had outside income they used to

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Louisiana's New Llano Colony

purchase luxury items like butter and store-bought dresses, causing resentment from colonists without such resources.

Victim of the Times

Human nature and its history ultimately took its toll on the colony. The colony's history was sandwiched in between two of the country's worst depressions. Both depressions impelled many to consider Llano a viable alternative to an unstable life on the outside. The difference in the Louisiana experiment was that the Llano in California had the momentum of being a new enterprise. In the late twenties, the colony in Louisiana enjoyed some of its most prosperous years. It established several satellite colonies, including a produce farm in Premont, Texas, a cattle ranch in Gila, New Mexico, and a highly profitable rice ranch in Elton, Louisiana. Not surprisingly, then, when the Depression hit in 1929, New Llano was overextended, and, like so many businesses around the country, faced financial ruin.

The colonists tried a variety of ways to get out from under debt and this factionalized the members. By 1937, Llano's records and enmities were so complicated, the community was financially paralyzed. It filed for bankruptcy and was placed into receivership. The receivership itself proved a messy state of affairs. The first receiver was declared `incompis mentis' and removed. The colony assets were so grossly undervalued and undersold at the receiver's sale in 1939 that lawsuits ensued for the next 40 years.

As history goes, the Llano del Rio Cooperative Community has been written off as a failure, like so many other Utopian communities. But was the colony a failure? As Dr. Robert Hine, a history scholar, pointed out, "How do you call Llano a failure? When two-thirds of American businesses fail within their first three years, do you call capitalism a failure? Llano lasted 25 years," a good run for any corporation.

During the next two generations, Americans enacted the Social Security Act, a minimum wage law, the family Leave Act, and other social legislation, reforms we take for granted today. And while Democrats and Republicans take credit for enacting these reforms, what is lost to history is the fact that these ideas did not originate with these mainstream groups. such causes were initially proposed and championed long before they became politically popular by those who took great risks of being blackballed, beaten, deported, jailed, and ostracized. Socialists, communists, labor unions, and cooperative communities like Llano del Rio all played their roles in bringing the need for reform into American consciousness.

Beverly Lewis is co-producer, director, and writer of American Utopia, a one hour historical documentary about America's longest-lived socialist Utopian colony, funded in part by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and broadcast on WLPB-TV in November, 1994.

For more information about American Utopia, call Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge at (504) 767-5660.

Screenwriter Rick Blackwood is the co-producer of American Utopia. He and Ms. Lewis have worked together on several documentaries. He is the head of the Screenwriting Program in the English Department at LSU in Baton Rouge. He recently completed a script for the producers of Free Wail and Date.

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Demographics of the Colony

Who Came and Who Could

Demographics of the Colony By Beverly Lewis

[published in Louisiana Cultural Vistas, the quarterly magazine for The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Winter 94-95 (vol. 5, #4)]

People who joined the New Llano came from all walks of life, from most states in the union, and from many foreign countries. Because the cost to join in California was so high, members tended to be from the middle-class or upper middle-classes. A number of members paid on installment plans or traded their way into the colony allowing many from lesser incomes to be able to join.

A cross-section of the male population reveals seventy percent hailed from farming and business sectors. The rest considered themselves professionals, factory and construction workers, clerks, and miners. No statistics list women's professions before they entered the colony, but surviving records indicate that several among them were architects and professors.

A fair number of these people considered themselves intellectuals and were philosophically attracted to Harriman's socialist experiment. Principally, the colony advertised in socialist newspapers, so most of the members were of a socialist bent. However, membership in any party was not a requirement nor was a union card.

Race and ethnicity were certainly factors in the colony's demographics, particularly when the colony moved to the South. The colony's bylaws had no official word on any racial restrictions, but an official letter penned during the California period specifically indicated that "Mongoloids and Negroids" were not admitted. However, the colony did accept Jews, which was considered a very progressive step at the time.

Colonists making the move to Louisiana were philosophically torn about the race issue in the South. A number felt that no one who wanted to join should be turned away, especially Blacks, with whom the colonists intellectually sympathized. It is unclear if the migrating colonists themselves knew the extent of labor union activity in west Louisiana but they expressed concern that coming in as a group of Yankees and socialists might already be rocking the boat. Many feared that playing the race card in the South might scuttle the whole venture.

Individual stories from the Louisiana colonists indicate that positive relations did exist with nearby Black communities. Colonist Stephen Baldwin had just stepped off the train in New Llano with his family when he encountered a Black family distraught over the impending breach birth of a family cow. Baldwin assisted in delivering a healthy calf, and from that time he was referred to as Doctor Baldwin by the Black community. Baldwin's daughter, Rhea Cunningham, remembers walking into Leesville with Black friends and having them say goodbye before they approached the town and moved to the other side of the street. Llano's General George Pickett would occasionally lecture in the nearby Black community.

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Colony Time Line

Colony Time Line

SEPT. 29, 1900 Job Harriman becomes Eugene Deb's runningmate in the first Socialist Party presidential campaign.

OCT. 1 1910 Los Angeles Times Building bombed. Over 22 people perish.Publisher Harrison Gray Otis, one of the most influential men in Los Angeles bent on keeping L.A. an open shop, blamed his usual suspects, the labor unions. It was Otis' desire to make Los Angeles the financial capital and center of power on the West Coast and he could only do this if he could successfully keep out the labor unions.

APRIL 1911 The McNamara Brothers and Ortie McManigal, labor union extremists, are arrested for the bombing. Because the city's future and the growth of labor unions is at stake, their trial became a national cause celebré. Prominent lawyer, socialist, and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Job Harriman is tasked to defend the accused. As the trial looms, Clarence Darrow is brought in to take over for the campaigning Harriman. Popular national sentiment favors the defense.

OCT. 31, 1911 Socialist candidate Harriman receives more votes than anyone else in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, 20,157; 4000 more than the incumbent George Alexander.

DEC. 1, 1911 James B. McNamara confesses to bombing. With the evidence stacked against them and a death penalty looming, Darrow counseled his clients to confess. The prosecution lobbied for and won the right to decide when the confession would be announced - this in an effort to defeat the socialists and labor union candidates at the polls. Everyone knew Harriman's mayoral seat was the price for saving the McNamaras from execution. Harriman is not a party to these negotiations.

DEC. 5, 1911 Four days later the mayoral election is held. Harriman is defeated. Harriman goes back to lawyering. In the next few years, realizing socialism will not easily win at the ballot box, Harriman regrouped and decided that if people could see the benefits of socialism in an actual working community they might find its ideas more palatable.

1913 The 'lost' silent film "From Dusk To Dawn" is produced/released by the Occidental Motion Picture Company of California. The film was possibly also known as "Labor vs. Capital." Writer- director Frank Wolfe was one of the first to join the colony and served as one of its board members. The film is considered a seminal American socialist/pro-labor form and was one of the first of its genre marketed in America to an appreciative mainstream audience (it played in Marcus Loew's theaters in the northeast, midwest and Pacific Coast.) Of equal value is the documentary footage cut into the narrative: motion picture images of Eugene Debs, Clarence Darrow (who plays himself in reference to the McNamara trial) and JOB HARRIMAN. The film, a "4 or 5 reeler" (40-50 minutes) has been 'lost' for years and numerous efforts to locate it have turned up nothing. Because of its http://lpb.org American Utopia: Colony Time Line

popularity presumably many prints were struck and perhaps some have survived. Please let us know if you run across a copy of the film!!!

MAY 1, 1914 Job Harriman's dream of an experimental socialist colony comes true. The Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony celebrates its official founding day with five members, a team of horses and a cow. In exchange for an honest day's work a member received free shelter, food, education, health care, a job, a guaranteed minimum wage, free cultural activities, and more. The colony was set up as a corporation. One bought a set amount of stock to become a member, originally $1000 worth; this was reduced in the Louisiana years. The colony was located in the Antelope Valley about 75 miles north of Los Angeles.

1914-15 The `Fresno Gang' joins the colony. This included The Western Comrade publisher Ernest Wooster, Industrial School teacher and later Kid Kolony founder George Pickett, and osteopath Robert K. "Doc" Williams.

EARLY 1916 Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony is re-incorporated, this time in Nevada and the corporation becomes known as the Llano del Rio Company of Nevada.

JULY 1916 Walter Millsap joins the colony.

DEC. 1916 The colony's population has mushroomed to over 1000 people. The colony has grown too quickly. There was not enough housing, crops, or infrastructure to keep pace with the new members. The colony's voting strength outnumbered their Antelope Valley neighbors causing friction and water rights the colony once thought secure were called into question. The L.A. Times continued to publish only negative stories about the colony's endeavors. The colony began to search for another, larger site with more water and less outside opposition.

1917 125 children are enrolled in colony schools. The Llano kindergarten is one of the first and largest Montessori schools in California.

OCT. - DEC. 1917 Approximately 150 colonists charter a train and move lock, stock and barrel to Stables in western Louisiana, a played-out lumber mill town soon renamed New Llano by the colonists. The colony is contracted to buy a certain number of acres each year at $6 an acre. A skeleton colony is left behind in California in the hands of an unscrupulous board member.

1918-1924 The Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony barely survives two years of bad crops, the influx and quick exodus of 200 Texas farmers who didn't understand they'd joined a cooperative colony and then departed with almost everything that wasn't nailed down. Other members didn't like the climate and left. George Pickett hit the road and raised money and donations to keep the colony going. His success garnered him the loyal support of many members. Pickett is elected General Manager of the colony in 1920. Harriman, who was ailing from TB and traveling back and forth to L.A. to straighten out muddled colony affairs, did not see eye to eye with Pickett's more practical reforms. The colony split into two factions; Pickett's won out.

1922 The colony purchases rice farm in Elton, LA, soon known as "The Rice Ranch." It became one of the colony's more successful ventures along with the artesian well ice plant (1925), veneer http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Colony Time Line

plant, and grist mill.

1923 Commonwealth College established at the colony by William Zeuch and Kate Richards O'Hare, who also published her magazine "The American Vanguard" at the colony for a time.

OCT. 25, 1925 Job Harriman dies in Los Angeles of TB related complications. He was survived by his wife, Theo, who had his body and memoirs cremated, and a son, Gray. Perhaps reaching back to his seminary days, shortly before his death Harriman noted that cooperation was not easily acheived unless it was underscored with a stronger spiritual commitment. He saw greed surface among the poorest colonists at Llano while often those who were more affluent in the colony held closer to the colony's ideals. Harriman summarized these and other observations in the introduction to Ernest Wooster's book "Communities of the Past and Present." (see bibliography). This was one of the last articles by Harriman published.

1926-27 First receivership trial. Pickett absolved of misconduct of colony affairs.

1930 Pickett tries to settle remaining colony debt to the Gulf Lumber Company, the original owners. Anxious to get whatever they can for it, the company agrees to cancel all debt for $25,000. The colony never successfully raised the capital necessary.

DEC. 1930 Approximately 500 people now call Llano home. The Depression brings more desperate people each day to the colony's doorstep. Pickett favored the Good Samaritan route and allowed itinerants food and lodging in return for a day's work (and courted their support when opposition turned his way). Paying members resented these new arrivals who did not have not paid their way in.

EARLY 1930s The Rust brothers move to the colony and begin development of their innovative cotton picking machine. In 1933 they traveled to Russia for six weeks of demonstrations. Rust cotton pickers sold well there.

1932 Colony establishes satellite colonies on 3500 acres in Gila, New Mexico (for a cattle ranch) and in Premont (or Fremont), Texas (for fruit and other produce) and elsewhere. This was, in part, a response to the results of studies conducted by George Washington Carver. Carver determined that the colony soil was too poor to support crops necessary to maintain an adequate diet. These expansions, coming at a time of great financial weakness, did more than anything else to undermine the colony's viability.

1932 Pickett, Doc Williams and other colony members, in cooperation with outside speculators, drilled three costly oil wells at the colony to no avail. Vernon Parish is about the only parish in Louisiana that doesn't produce oil.

AUG. 1933 The Federal Securities and Exchange Commission declares the colony insolvent and prohibits all sale of colony stock.

MAY 1, 1935

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Colony Time Line

May Day Revolution ousts Picket as General Manager while Pickett is away in Washington, D.C.. Pickett's trip was in regard to Senate Bill 1142 which he co-drafted and persuaded Senator Morris Shepperd of Texas to introduce in 1933. The bill proposed, in response to the Depression, a federal corporation establishing a number of relief communities around the country; The Llano Colony was one of the only cooperatives offered as a role model. Pickett, backed by parish courts, is soon reinstated as General Manager at the colony.

1937 The colony goes into receivership for the second and final time.

mid 1939 The Receiver closes the books on Llano. The colony's assets (20,000 acres, numerous houses, farms, two hotels, a general store, a saw mill,and a score of industries) were valued at pennies on the dollar (about $6000) which resulted in lawsuits from the colonists up into the 1970s. At his death in the late 1950s George Pickett was among the plaintiffs. Pickett was buried was in New Llano, LA, survived by his wife, Alice, and a son, Blair.

late 1939 The United States conducts the largest field war games ever, in western Louisiana. Called the Louisiana Maneuvers, the exercises took place over most of the western half of the state. The first administrative center for the Maneuvers was located in the former colony buildings until facilities at Camp Polk (later Fort Polk) could be built. The population of the parish increased from a few thousand to 50,000 in three months. The colony missed out on this windfall by only a few months.

1962 Walter Millsap is extensively recorded by UCLA's Oral History project. Millsap was the unofficial historian of the colony. He joined during its California years and made the move to Louisiana where he shared a home for some months with Harriman (whose estranged wife would not make the trip). Upon Millsap's return to California, he kept in touch with many Llanoites and ex-Llanoites, published a cooperative newsletter, founded the United Cooperative Industries, and was active in Upton Sinclair's EPIC movement (as were quite a few ex-California colonists). He gathered a remarkable collection of correspondence, colony records, and photographs before his death in the early 1970s.

1970 7400 acres still owned by the Llano del Rio Colony stockholders.

1993 One of the last original deeds from the Louisiana colony is sold.

May 1, 1994 The Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony celebrates for the first time a reunion in Louisiana on the occasion of colony's 80th anniversary. Reunions, primarily of the California colonists, were held sporadically in Riverside, California in the 1940s and 1950s.

An extensive bibliography can be found in the Study Guide elsewhere on this Web Page. Information for this timeline was gathered from many of those sources plus archival and private sources located by the producers of American Utopia.

http://lpb.org/ http://lpb.org American Utopia: Llano del Rio Declaration of Principles

Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony Declaration of Principles (as they were published in the 1920s)

The rights of the community shall be paramount over those of any individual.

Liberty of action is permissible only when it does not restrict the liberty of another.

Things used productively must be owned collectively.

Law is a restriction of liberty and is just only when operating for the benefit of the community at large.

Values created by the community shall be vested in the community alone.

The individual is not justly entitled to more land than is sufficient to satisfy a reasonable desire for peace and rest. Productive land held for profit shall not be held by private ownership.

Talent and intelligence are benefits which should rightly be used in the service of others. The development of these by education is the gift of the community to the individual, and the exercise of greater ability entitles none to the false reward of greater possessions, but only to the joy of greater service to others.

Only by identifying his interests and pleasures with those of others can man find real happiness.

The duty of the individual to the community is to develop ability to the greatest degree possible by availing himself of all educational facilities and to devote the whole extent of that ability to the service of all.

The duty of the community to the individual is to administer justice, to eliminate greed and selfishness, to educate all, and to aid in time of age or misfortune.

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Llano del Rio Application for Membership

Application for Membership

in the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony

Only industrious men and women of high ideals and constructive ideas with reputations of good citizenship are desirable members of the LLANO DEL RIO CO-OPERATIVE COLONY. If you are willing to put your whole ability and spirit into this enterprise, to work in harmony with your fellow co-operators, and to abide by the rules adopted, you will be cordially welcomed as part of this noble enterprise.

Name of applicant

Address

City State

Am't of Contract Amt 1st P'm't

Balance to be paid how

When

Payment received by

Payments to be made

Mail Agent

Approved by LLANO DEL RIO COMPANY of Nevada

By

Date Approved Date of Application

I offer as references of my good character and ability the following persons: (If you can give a farmers' union or labor union officer, do so. Give at least three names)

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Llano del Rio Application for Membership

Name Occupation Address

READ THIS CAREFULLY ---- It is understood that if this application is rejected, the initial payment which accompanied it is to be returned at once. Any false statements made in this Application for membership will be considered sufficient grounds for canceling contracts issued on representations made herein.

Full name in your own handwriting

R. F. D.; P. O.; Street State

Where born Age Height Weight Married

Give names, ages, relationship to you, state health of those who will come with you; tell if workers or not:

Names Age Worker? How related? Bad health or infirmaries?

HEALTH

Are you strong and able bodied? If you have had any ailments or infirmities, state all of them here:

(If you have rupture or rheumatism, muscular weakness, nervous afflictions, etc., it must be stated. Your value as a member will be judged from the statements you make here.)

OCCUPATION

In the first column state professions or trades with which you are thoroughly familiar and at which you can work at the general standard demanded. In the second place those of which you have some knowledge and at which you have worked. In the third place those at which you prefer to work or those you wish to learn.

Proficient at Time Experienced Can work at Preferred

If there are others coming on your membership who have special training or ability and will work, state:

EMPLOYMENT

Since the age of 18, what have you worked at most?

At what line of work have you had the most preparation and training?

Check every line of work at which you have been employed or of which you have some knowledge in this list:

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Llano del Rio Application for Membership

__ Accountant __ Auto Mechanic __ Boiler Maker __ Caterer __ Cleaner and Dyer __ Engineman __ Cook __ Actor __ Baker __ Brick Mason __ Chauffeur __ Artist __ Farmer __ Cooper __ Concrete Worker __ Barber __ Butcher __ Chemist __ Confectioner __ Draftsman __ Fireman __ Auditor __ Blacksmith __ Carpenter __ Civil Engineer __ Electrician __ Foundryman __ Construction Man __ Machinist __ Telephone Man __ Nurse __ Plumber __ Tailor __ Teamster __ Sheetmetal Worker __ Vulcanizer __ Painter __ Plasterer __ Shoemaker __ Photographer __ Welder __ Pharmacist __ Stenographer __ Undertaker __ Veterinarian __ Surveyor __ Printer (state branch) __ Teacher (state subjects) __ Woodworker (state kind) __ Musician (state instrument) __ Instrument maker, repairer (kind) __ Foreign Languages (which) MISCELLANEOUS ______

In your opinion at which work were you most successful?

Which paid you best? Which did you enjoy most? Why?

Along what line would you like more training?

What kinds of work must you avoid because of injury or ill-health?

Are you willing to work at jobs you don't like until opportunity for agreeable work is presented?

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Do you believe in the profit system?

Is it right to take or receive interest?

Do you believe that the Golden Rule, (Do unto others as you would be done by) is sufficient for rule of personal conduct?

What should be done with an article that was definitely lost by someone?

Do you understand the present economic system, if not are you willing to learn if admitted to colony?

Will solving the economic problem ultimately lead to solving the social problem?

What is the character and quality of your reading?

Do outside circumstances or conditions determine human conduct alone?

Do states of mind have beneficial or harmful effect upon physical health?

Is happiness a state of mind or dependent upon affluent material conditions?

Does the peace and tranquility of the of the community depend on mutual respect and kindness of heart of its members?

Do you believe in a peaceful settlement of ALL misunderstandings?

Have you an understanding of the causes responsible for the existing social and economic conditions?

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Llano del Rio Application for Membership

Do you believe that freeedom can be had only thru the acceptance of responsibility?

What is your idea of social power?

Do you feel that you could adjust yourself peacefully, harmoniously, and industriously within such a group as we have here in Llano Colony?

Which is harder to solve: the Economic or the Social problem?

Along what lines do you desire further education?

Are you willing to abide by the rules and laws of the Colony as adopted by general usage?

What reasons chiefly influenced you in taking out a membership? (Please answer fully)

When do you expect to come to the Colony?

INVESTMENT

Are you able to pay cash for your membership? If not, how will it be paid?

Have you property you wish to sell? Would you wish to invest the proceeds?

If the opportunity offered you to loan certain sums in addition to your membership, the security being satisfactory, would you make such loans? What sum? How soon?

WHAT WILL YOU BRING WITH YOU?

Piano? Stoves? Auto? Beds? Bedding?

Tables? Carpenter Tools? Musical instruments? Cupboards?

Other tools? Other Items?

REMARKS

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

The Colony Letter Files

We have tried to remain as faithful to the originals as possible within the limitations of HTML. Spelling and punctuation have not been changed (although it's possible a typo or two crept in during transcription), and the letters are formatted as much like the originals as possible. However, keep in mind that not all browsers display text identically.

Two letters from Job Harriman, just before and after the Los Angeles mayoral election of 1911: Harriman to Hillquit, November 6, 1911 Harriman to Hillquit, December 19, 1911

A letter to the colony from a prospective colonist: Gaddis to Colony, April 18, 1917

A correspondence between prospective colonist Herman Figour and the Colony: Figour to Colony, April 19, 1917 Colony to Figour, April 26, 1917

Another correspondence between the colony and a prospective colonist: Glaser to Colony, May 11, 1917 Colony to Glaser, May 16, 1917 Glaser to Colony, December 4, 1917 Colony to Glaser, December 13, 1917 Glaser to Colony, late December, 1917

A letter from the Colony to prospective colonist David Gilbert: Colony to Gilbert, December 27, 1917

A letter from the colony to a prospective member. An interesting account of what the colony aspired to and its use of a capitalist tool, the corporation: Colony to Farris, February 21, 1918

A letter from Colony vice president Ernest S. Wooster to Robert Snyder: Wooster to Snyder, December 22, 1919

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

LAW OFFICES HARRIMAN RYCKMAN & TUTTLE JOB HARRIMAN HIGGINS BUILDING J.H. RYCKMAN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA EDWARD W. TUTTLE

Morris Hillquit, November 6th, 1911 320 Broadway, New York. My Dear Morris: - Yours of November 1st just received. I wish that you would see that Miss Maley is sent to us. I believe she would be an excellent campaigner. There are those, however, I think would be an injury rather than a benefit and I trust you will not send any one unless we know who they are to be. I will let you know in regard to what the National Executive Committee can do, if anything, in a few days. Can you not come? Could you not bring Hunter with you? I am specially anxious for you to be here the last week before December 5th. We are conducting a large campaign and doing it in systematic order. The other people are frightened to death. I believe we will be able to rout them. This morning the Tribune, the principal campaign organ of Alexander, states that it is not a question of merits or demer- its of Socialism, but of the merits and demerits of Mr. Alexander and myself. Now, I am perfectly willing to go on the stand, and we will challenge Mr. Alexander on this ground to appear in public as to who is better qualified for position of mayor. The old man does not know anything and he has never forgotten anything, so you can see his state of mind. He never heard of a social problem and would not know it if he met it in the street. He seems to be honest but many of those who know him best claim that he is hypo- critical; personally I am not acquainted with him. We have many important questions here and we have the dope on the questions. I wish you would come. You can afford it, especially to see how a movement runs along lines I have advocated for the last seven years. The union men are all in with us and the unions are paying their officers to help man our campaign, so that the organization is the best possible. If you could but see this and see how it is working you would not hesitate one moment, when you go back to New York, to step squarely on over to the po- sition I have taken for the last ten years, for you will see, by watching our movement, how easy it is to bring the entire labor movement of any city bodily into the Socialist movement. I do not wish to discuss this matter with you because I haven't time, otherwise I should be delighted. I do not think that it is possible for them to defeat us at the polls, although they have five dailies and we have but one; but, on the other hand, we have five votes where they have but one. Thanking you for your interest and expecting to call on you for other work before this month is over, I am, Sincerely yours, [Job Harriman]

JH - R

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

LAW OFFICES HARRIMAN RYCKMAN & TUTTLE JOB HARRIMAN HIGGINS BUILDING J.H. RYCKMAN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA EDWARD W. TUTTLE

December 19, 1911

Mr. , 320 Broadway, New York City, N.Y.

My dear Morris: - Yours of December 14th at hand. I, of course knew that we had no chance of election as soon as the plea of guilty was entered, but, we would have been elected had this not happened. Twenty or twenty-five thousand votes were changed by that act. It came too late for recovery but the movement was rallying fast in the last two days. We have conducted the greatest campaign ever conducted in any city in this country. wish you could have been here. Organized labor was in action political and made a tremendous fight when they moved solidly together. This campaign has confirmed my theories for the last seven years, and I want you to consider that more strongly than ever before. You watch the state of California, we will do the same all over the state the next campaign. Now Morris do not think that I am over hopeful. I know what I am doing. If I could spend my time in this state from now until next fall we would not send any less than fifteen and possibly twenty-five men to the state legislature, and by so doing would lay the foundation for a campaign three years hence, which would probably result in our capturing the city. state. There are about 400,000 male voters in this city.state. We have 150,000 organized union labor men,and then with these would bring our proportion of the vote to 300,000 out of 800,000 total vote, but with that solid power a large number naturally followed and this in a three cornered fackt we will cast one-half of the votes as we did here, and you can see that in a three-cornered fight in this city we would surely win. In a three cornered fight in this city we won in the primaries, and we would have won in the election if we had had a three cornered fight. I wish I could come East and see you. It seems to me that now is the time for a change of front. We have done the thing in Los Angeles that should have been done all over the nation. Sincerely yours, [Job Harriman]

http://lpb.org American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

Agent

Pledger, Texas, April 18th 1917 Llano del Rio Co, Llano, Cal. Dear Comrades: I enclose money order for $10.00 to apply on my shares, which is all I can possibly spare at this time. Answering your letter of 13th, I assure you I am for the Colony, heart and soul, and my wife is equally enthusiastic, we are striving in every way possible to save our earnings, so that we may increase our payments on Colony shares. We are practicing rigid economy, working like slaves to raise a garden, with an unequal struggle against a severe drouth, in order to reduce the cost of living. We have property worth twice what it would require to put us in the Colony, and have been trying every way to turn it into cash, but so far without success. We would willingly and gladly sacrifice everything we have, to get into the Colony, and live in a tent, until you saw fit to provide us a house. I notice old comrade Copley was wise enough to stay in out of the storm. I told him when I was there, that he would be glad to get back. Count on us, we will surely make some turn that will land us in the Colony before the end of the year, and we expect to bring others with us. Fraternaly yours [J.N. Gaddis]

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N.Y. N.Y. Apr. 19, 1917 The Llano del Rio Co-Op Colony. Dear Gentlemen. ----- Your letter and information at hand. I thank you for attention. Before I enroll myself in the army of the Colony I would like to have an answer to my questions. 1) If a married member has to pay an additional $1000 for his wife before he is accepted in the colony. 2) Does a colonist has to pay rent out of his $4 a day besides for board. 3) Can a member select the work he is more inclined. 4) Does the company return back the money for the shares if a Colonist after working in the Colony wont to quit [STAMP: rec'd Llano Apr 25, 1917]

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April 26 1 9 1 7. Herman Figour, 312 2d Ave., New York City. Dear Comrade: Your favor of recent date at hand. In reply to your questions will say: One membership will be sufficient for a man and his wife. She will be given a contract of employment if she wishes to perform service to the Colony. We do not charge any rent. Men usually find their work at whatever they are best fitted to do. But it would be impracticable for men to make decision from time to time as to where they would work. Our membership is based on the sale of stock. The laws of the state prohibit us from buying our own stock. If one wishes to withdraw, we will undertake to assist him. We are enclosing application blank as per your request, and hope this indicates you are going to take out your mem- bership and join us. Yours fraternally, FEW: LAP Vice President.

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Detroit, Mich 5/11 1917

Llano del Rio Corp. Llano, Cal. Dear Comrades: Enclosed find U.S. money order for $30 for membership payments due for months of April May & June, sorry I could not report for duty this spring as I expected to, because I could not raise the amount desired, but I expect to come some- times next winter if I don't get swallowed up in the war. I am just the right age for the army wouldn't mind fighting if there was a deep enough cause, but I think it is a Wall Street affair, feed the people at home, and ship no munitions of war and things will be O.K. that's my idea of it. Life in Detroit is very burdensome it takes half of a mans wages to pay rent let alone other neceseties. Kindly notify Western Comrade about a change in my address my former addr. was 204 Frontenac Blvd. hoping to hear from you soon I remain Yours fra- ternally [Jos. Glaser]

Jos. Glaser 1313 Concord Detroit, Mich.

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

May 16, 1917. Jos. Glaser, 1313 Concord, Detroit, Mich.

Dear Comrade: -- Enclosed please find regular receipt foryour remittance of $20 for April, May, and June, and we thank you for the same. A notation has been sent to the Western Comrade to change your address in accordance with your request, and the magazine will probably reach you regularly in the future. We hope if you escape conscription you may find your way here to us. We are working along the lines of "Preparedness", as we are bending every effort toward planting and conserving large quantities of food for the future. As the farmer or agriculturist stands very high in the list of exemptions under the Conscription Law, we have hopes that our men here will be allowed to remain and do a man's work in the matter of food pro- duction. The high cost of living is becoming a great burden upon most of the workers and the complaint that one is unable to make ends meet is a most general one.

Yours fraternally,

FFW-OAH Vice President 1 enclosure

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Enclosed find 10c for 2 monts for the Llano Colonist, also send me some literature about the colony. I am a single man of clean habits, somewhat expe- rienced in farming fruit growing and irrigating 26 years old, not afraid of hard work, have got $ 700 cash would like to join as soon as I can raise the sum desired, hoping to hear from you soon I remain yours truly [Jos Glaser] Jos. Glaser # 713 S. Michigan Str. South Bend, Ind.

http://lpb.org American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

December 13, 1916. Jos. Glaser, 713 South Michigan St., South Bend, Ind. Dear Sir: -- Yours of December 4th at hand. We see no difficulty about your taking out your membership and getting married, if you wish to do so. There are plenty of nice girls in the Colony, if you have not one already in view. We shall be glad to welcome you at any time you wish to come. Yours fraternally,

Vice- President FEW/EJS

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Llano del Rio of Nevada Llano, Cal. Dear Comrades: Yours of Dec. 27 received with joy. I have high hopes of getting in action in the colony next spring, as soon as I can get homeseekeers rates from the railroads, will try to send $100 at once upon receipt of an application blank There wont be any need of ma- king any preparations for me except a place at the table. I can sleep any old place under the stars, I am one that has seen the rough side of life, and wont be much of a burden to our Colony. I enjoyed comrade Williams article in the Dec. Comrade very much. hoping to hear from you by return mail I remain yours fraternally [Jos. Glaser]

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

Dec. 27, 1917 Mr. David Gilbert, 546 West 125th Street, New York City, N.Y. Dear Comrade: We have your request for literature which will more fully describe our big cooperative enterprise. The "Llano's Plantation" will explain about the property just purchased here. The "Gateway to Freedom" will give you a clear idea of the methods used and the general plan of organizations. On pages 29 and 30 of the "Gateway to Freedom" you will find instructions as to how to take out a membership. You will doubtless be much interested in the most successful cooper- ative colonization enterprise ever established. We suggest that you subscribe for the Llano Publications, the WESTERN COMRADE and the LLANO COLONIST? samples of which are being mailed to you. These will keep you fully informed of the progress being made. Both will be sent a year for One Dollar. Write directly to the Llano Publications, Stables, Louisiana. If there are any questions that arise in your mind, or if there are points not made clear, we shall be very glad to have you write us and we will answer them to your satisfaction. You will be interested to know that our population here is now about 300. This week a sawmill, a carload of cattle, one of corn, and three of household goods are scheduled to arrive, some of them already having come. Last week a special train brought 130 persons from Calif- ornia. A number of industries are now running. the print shop is ready for business and work on the new WESTERN COMRADE, the first to be printed in Louisiana, is now under way. Please write us when you have read the literature, for we shall be glad to know your impressions and to be sure that you fully understand the wonderful enterprise that we have here. Trusting we may some day number you among our residents, we are,

Fraternally yours,

LLANO DEL RIO COMPANY of Nevada. W-O. P.S. If the literature we have mailed does not reach you within a week after this letter, please notify us so that we may send you a new lot.

http://lpb.org American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

Feb 21, 1918.

Yours of Feb. ____ 1918 answering ours Jan. 23d.

Mr. A. J. Farris, Codigan, Texas. Box 131.

Dear Comrade:

Glad to have the opportunity of going over the plan somewhat so that you will have a clear understanding of our proposition.

We are an industrial and agricultural enterprise. We expect to make money from both the industries and from the ranch. When we do so, the hours of labor will be shortened, more money paid in the shape of wages or we could, if acceptable to the stockholders, start another colony. Personally we favor new colonies when this is a financial and social success.

We are here to solve the food problem as well as to make brighter the lives of the trodden millions. We hope to be an example fit to follow. When this place is a a success other colonies will be founded either by magnanimous individuals or the government itself will apply the efficient methods we are trying to institute.

We have been here since November 1, 1917. Since then there has been much work done. Three hundred acres have been cleared and almost the same amount have been plowed. Almost a thousand acres is being fenced.

Several industries have been started and as necessity arises more will follow. As yet, we are not a financial success. Couldn't be, because there has been nothing brought in from the ranch.

Will illustrate our enterprise by your own experience. You say you have been behind the counter for years. You know that in the beginning of the business few men and small wages were paid. Big wages and a number of men could not be utilized until the business warranted it. When the business grew, and granting that you grew with it, your wages were increased. Now the difference comes in. Unless you were fortunate enough to own the business you got but a part of the proceeds. Here, as a stockholder, an equal partner in the products of the plantation, if we make a profit, you will get your proportionate share.

We are still under capitalism. We must of necessity use tools of capitalism or go against a stone wall. We therefore used one of the most efficient tools known to modern business life the corporation. Instead of using it for parisitical advantage, the increase goes to the workers themselves. Isn't this plain?

To further illustrate. The Kansas City Southern Railroad runs through here and makes several stops daily. We are incorporated just the same as it, but we differ in the division of the surplus created. The stockholders who are not workers on the road, get dividends the workers get wages. Our enterprise is attempting to create a surplus and when we do it will be divided among the workers. We have no parasitic class. You, as a member, would have to put up with whatever miseries there are, and also by the nature of the contract, enjoy the advantages of increased wealth.

There is nothing mysterious about this enterprise. It is a plain open and shut proposition. You pay in a thousand dollars and agree to buy one thousand more shares to be paid with labor at the http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

rate of $1 a day, to be deducted from the $4 daily credit. Part of the $4 credit is now being paid in cash, however, sufficient to keep the member. It is impossible to pay more because the thousand dollars put in here wont warrant. The thousand is used in part for wages and the remainder for improvements on the plantation. This is clear isn't it?

A member here has a distinct advantage. He doesn't have to worry about finances. His house rent is nil; he has no food or water bill. The provisions he secures from the commissary is sold to him at cost. Now, if the colonist worries it is his own fault. Of course, we know most of us enjoy worrying. Many of us get our happiness out of misery. This shouldn't be, but it is a bald fact.

You will have a house when you come, but can't tell you what sort now. We are building all the time and plans change. However, you can rest assured the house will be as good as this colony can afford to put up. At present we have no housing problem; we have plent of houses. However, these will be exhausted before long and a new sort of house will have to be built.

Remember, should you come here, that this is no heaven. We can't do the impossible. We haven't an Utopia. You'd think we were some lumber town if you dropped in just now. It will be that way for some time. Also we haven't a bank in the sky out of which we can coin money or power. We must work with what we have and do as all pioneers do overcome by sheer force and persistence.

Would like to have you become an instalment member. The Ten dollars you send here monthly will help develop the place, you can see that.

If you are in doubt about anything please write at once.

Fraternally LLANO DEL RIO COMPANY of Nevada.

Membership Department. E.S. Wooster, Dict. Williams.

PS--Almost forgot to mention that we found no enclosure in your letter. Did you neglect to send it?

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

Job Harriman, President LLANO CO-OPERATIVE COLONY INCORPORATED AS LLANO DEL RIO CO. OF NEVADA

P.O. NEWLLANO, LOUISIANA MONEY ORDERS MUST BE DRAWN ON LEESVILLE, LOUISIANA POSTOFFICE

PLEASE DIRECT ALL COMMUNICATIONS COLONY RAILROAD STATION REGARDING COLONY BUSINESS TO IS STABLES ON MAIN LINE THE COLONY, NOT TO INDIVIDUAL KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN ALL K.C.S. TRAIN STOP HERE

December 22, 1919 Robert B. Snyder, 3219 Chestnut St., New Orleans, Louisiana. Dear Comrade - Just a few lines to let you know all the things you think are ture and some that you do not think are. California J. H. is still in ^ trying to wear the enemy by attrition. It is a slow process and takes lots of patience but it will probably be quicker in the long run. You see we won what we went after in California but in so doing learned that we has more coming to us. Now we want to get that. The colony as an institution has not departed from the policy it set when it started here two years ago. We have made some changes in methods. It is very easy to arrive at conclusions which are not justified by facts and many people have done this. Very few indeed know what cooperation means or have a grasp of the subject that Mr. Harriman has. We have had so many among us whoes desire to experiment at our expense has hindered progress; yet we have not been able to wholly prevent this for to do so it would lead others to believe we had used repressive measures. In the future we expect to allow a great deal of experiment- ation but it will have to be at the expense of the experi- mentor not at ours. Mr. Millsap writes to a member that Atascardo does not come up to expectations, that its government is no better than ours, that it is somewhat lacking in ideals and that the lure of the dollars is the chief incentive. He now concedes that our plan is correct and that it is our ideals which will make the community a success. I am sure you do not agree with me on some points but I can- not believe that our fundamentals are wrong nor that your appraisal of Mr. Harriman is founded on a knowledge of the man. (over)

However, regardless of whether we agree or not do not fail to write and keep in touch with us. We are, Yours fraternally, ESW:MK LLANO COOPERATIVE COLONY. [Ernest S. Wooster]

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: The Colony Letter Files

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Photo Archives

Photo Archives

Little Girl with Apples. This unidentified young colonist became the poster child of the California colony. The photograph was used in advertisements to show the agricultural prosperity of the desert colony. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Llano, California's One-Year Anniversary. Gentry McCorkle drives, while Job Harriman rides shotgun. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Moving Day. Several colonists drove to the new colony in Louisiana, although most of the 200-plus colonists made the move via a chartered Kansas City Southern train.

Llano Del Rio, California. A good shot of the California colony ca. 1915, looking southeast. The administrative buildings are under construction behind the Post Office. Some of the tent houses are visible in the background. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Asembly Hall, Llano, CA, 1916. The rock pillars and foundation are all that remain in the high desert of this imposing building.

Building Rabbit Hutches, 1915. The Western Comrade called the rabbit hutches at the California colony the "World's Largest Rabbitry."

Labor Day 1921 - At the Llano Swimming Hole. One of Llano's major supporters was one of the principals behind the founding of Labor Day in New York. This holiday and May Day were the two big days of celebration at the Colony. The small blond girl in the water, second from the left, is Ruby Synoground Nesnow, who participated in the program. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Women in Overalls. Women were free to work in any job they wanted. Here, several young women pause from roofing the colony's hotel to pose for the camera. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

The Town Goes Up. Roofing the Assembly Hall at the California colony, ca. 1915. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

http://lpb.org/ American Utopia: Photo Archives

Working the Peanut Fields. Women, like the men, got to choose their line of work -- at least theoretically. Here, colony women tend the peanut fields. Ordinarily children were at one of the schools or the child-care facility.

The Rice Ranch. This rice ranch, in Elton, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, was the most profitable of all the colony's holdings.

The Colony Bakery. The colonists ate communally in the colony cafeteria, or were free to take food back to their houses.

The New Llano General Store. The New Llano Colony served not only those who lived on the commune, but neighboring farmers as well. The opening of trade immediately established a rapport with New Llano's neighbors by bringing new industries and skills to the rural hill country of west-central Louisiana. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Debs/Harriman Presidential Button. The Llano colony was the brainchild of Job Harriman, a prominent socialist, lawyer and seminarian who served as Eugene Debs' vice presidential runningmate on the Socialist ticket in 1900.

The Colony Broom Factory. Colonists arrived at Llano with a multitude of skills, and provided the communities around them with goods and skills in short supply. Their wares earned a reputation for long wear, solid craftsmanship and they had the best prices around. There was no markup on the goods produced at the colony because the colonists did not work for wages. PHOTO CREDIT: USED BY PERMISSION OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, CA

Maypole Dance. A maypole dance in celebration of May Day at the New Llano colony.

Outdoor Class. Education was of primary importance to the colony. Vocational education was stressed, and students were encouraged to offer alternative positions, even if they differed with the teacher's. PHOTO CREDIT: MARTHA PALMER, VERNON PARISH HISTORIAN

Blacksmith Shop. New Llano's colonists enjoyed a wide reputation for manufacturing high-quality goods at a fair price. An ice factory, a broom factory, a lumber mill and a candy factory were some of the colony's other successful industries.

Montessori Class. The Llano Colony was one of the first large groups to embrace the Montessori teaching method.

Funeral Band. A colony band plays at a funeral in New Llano. Frequent dances were heavily attended by neighboring communities.

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