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Job Harriman (January 15, 1861 – October 26, 1925) was an ordained minister who later became an
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficien ...
and a
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
. In
1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
, he ran for vice president of the United States along with
Eugene Debs Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
on the ticket of the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
. He later twice ran for mayor of
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, drawing considerable attention and support. He also founded a socialist
utopian community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...
called
Llano del Rio Llano del Rio was a commune (or "colony") located in what is now Llano, California, east of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County. The colony was devised by lawyer and socialist politician Job Harriman after he had failed his bid t ...
in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, later relocated to
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...
.


Biography


Early years

Harriman was born on January 15, 1861, in
Clinton County, Indiana Clinton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 33,224. The county seat is Frankfort. History Clinton County officially came into existence on March 1, 1830, and was named in honor of DeWitt C ...
. He lived on the family farm until he was 18. Harriman's early life was filled with religious influences by his parents. After graduating from
Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...
in 1884, he went on into the ministry. He gradually came to doubt the ability of the church to fundamentally affect the lives of common people and to see organized religion as a trap. He recalled in 1902:
"It is in doubt and not in faith that the salvation of the world is to be found. Faith is a delusion and a snare: a pitfall, a prison. It intimidates the intellect. With fear of eternal damnation religion crushes intellectual activity; with hero worship it destroys individuality; with hopes for the beyond it prevents the growth of ideals for the present. It makes of us a race of intellectual cowards; it changes but little if any our daily conduct toward each other. But doubt sets us free."
As Harriman moved away from a belief in
spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape ...
and towards
philosophical materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
, he came into contact with socialist literature, being particularly impressed with the 1886
utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...
novel, '' Looking Backwards'', by
Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 – May 22, 1898) was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel ''Looking Backward''. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerou ...
. In 1886, he moved to San Francisco and where he established a local Nationalist Club, dedicated to attempting to put Bellamy's ideas into practice in America. Later, Harriman came into contact with the writings of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, which turned his early Christian socialist inclinations towards
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
. Harriman married the sister of a college roommate, Mary Theodosia Gray. In 1895, the couple had twins, a girl and a boy, with the girl dying as a young child. Harriman left the church and took up the study of law, becoming a lawyer and establishing his own law firm.


Political career

Harriman was initially a member of the Democratic Party but, as he became conscious of socialist ideas, he left that organization and joined the
Socialist Labor Party The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...
(SLP). He was a gubernatorial candidate for California on the SLP ticket in 1898. Harriman broke with the SLP during the acrimonious split of 1899, which was largely linked to the SLP's insistence on establishing competing socialist dual unions with the existing
trade unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...
. Harriman thereafter was affiliated with the East Coast-based variant of the
Social Democratic Party of America The Social Democratic Party of America (SDP) was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1898. The group was formed out of elements of the Social Democracy of America (SDA) and was a predecessor to the Socialist Party o ...
(SDP), a group whose members included
Henry Slobodin Henry L. Slobodin was an American attorney, socialist activist and frequent candidate for public office from New York. Slobodin was active in the Socialist Labor Party of America before leaving in 1899 alongside other socialist activists like Mor ...
and
Morris Hillquit Morris Hillquit (August 1, 1869 – October 8, 1933) was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of America and prominent labor lawyer in New York City's Lower East Side. Together with Eugene V. Debs and Congressman Victor L. Berger, Hillqu ...
. In
1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
during unity negotiations between the Eastern and Midwestern SDP organizations, Harriman ran for
vice presidency of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice pr ...
on the Social Democratic Party of America ticket along with presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs. Harriman twice ran for mayor of
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
on the Socialist ticket during the 1910s. In the 1911 primary, he came in first with 44% of the vote. Harriman was one of the lawyers for the
McNamara Brothers The ''Los Angeles Times'' bombing was the purposeful dynamiting of the ''Los Angeles Times'' Building in Los Angeles, California, United States, on October 1, 1910, by a union member belonging to the International Association of Bridge and S ...
, along with
Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
. He was unaware of their guilt, and thus was taken by surprise by a plea bargain negotiated by Darrow, which, unfortunately for Harriman, was announced after the primary but before the general election. His association with the widely reviled McNamaras proved fatal to his campaign and George Alexander won the election. He ran again in
1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...
, earning 26% of the vote in the primary.


Llano Cooperative Colony

Following the narrow defeat in his second bid for mayor of Los Angeles, Harriman turned his back on electoral politics. He instead sought to establish a self-sufficient community upon socialist principles. Together with a group of like-minded investors, he purchased a parcel of land in
Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and ...
in California, which the group named
Llano del Rio Llano del Rio was a commune (or "colony") located in what is now Llano, California, east of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County. The colony was devised by lawyer and socialist politician Job Harriman after he had failed his bid t ...
. The land included water rights — a critical factor due to the location of the land in an oasis in the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
. Advertisements were taken in the socialist press and shares sold to interested families for $500 cash. In addition, each family was asked to contribute a minimum of $2,000 in personal property to a "common storehouse" established for the benefit of the entire community. Beginning with just five families, by 1914 the Llano community had grown to over 1,000 people. Tents were replaced by
adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
buildings and various enterprises, such as a sawmill, kiln, cannery and bakery, were established. The group issued its own monthly magazine, ''The Western Comrade'' (later changing its name to ''The Llano Colonist'') with Harriman acting as editor. Local farmers began to complain that the socialist community was consuming more than its fair share of precious water, resulting in a stream of lawsuits over the issue. Worse yet, the community proved incapable of advancing beyond a very basic economic level, causing discontent among its members. A new location was found in
Leesville, Louisiana Leesville is a city in, and the parish seat of, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,612 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Fort Polk South Micropolitan Statistical Area and is additionally served by ...
, in 1918, but the new environs did not suit Harriman and he soon returned home to Los Angeles. The Llano community survived in difficult conditions into the 1930s.


Death and legacy

Harriman died on October 26, 1925. He was survived by his wife, Mary Theodosia Gray, and his son Gray Chenoweth Harriman.


See also

* 1911 ''Los Angeles Times'' bombing


Footnotes


Works

* ''Single Tax vs. Socialism'' With James G Maguire and Richard D Taber. New York: American Section, Socialist Labor Party, 1895.
''The Class War in Idaho: The Horrors of the Bull Pen: An Indictment of Combined Capital in Conspiracy with President McKinley, General Merriam and Governor Steunenberg, for their Crimes against the Miners of the Coeur d'Alenes..''
New York: Volks-Zeitung Library, vol. 2, no. 4 (July 1, 1900).
The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance Versus the "Pure and Simple" Trade Union: A Debate Held at the Grand Opera House, New Haven, Conn., November 25, 1900, between Daniel De Leon Representing the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance and the Socialist Labor Party, and Job Harriman Representing the "Pure and Simple" Trade Union and the Social Democratic Party. Stenographically Reported by B. F. Keinard.
New York City: New York Labor News Co., 1900. * ''The Socialist Party and the Trade Unions'', Los Angeles: Los Angeles Socialist, 1902. * ''Lewis-Harriman Debate: Socialist Party vs. Union Labor Party: Simpson Auditorium, Los Angeles, California''. With Arthur M. Lewis. Los Angeles: Common Sense Pub. Co., n.d. 906 * ''The Western Comrade'' (editor). Los Angeles, CA, and Leesville, LA: 1913-1918
Vols. 1-2

Vols. 3-4

Vol. 5
Owned by Harriman from June 1914 (vol. 2, no. 2).


Further reading

* *


External links

* Cecilia Rasmussen

''Los Angeles Times,'' October 31, 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Harriman, Job American Marxists American agnostics Founders of utopian communities Socialist Labor Party of America politicians from California 1900 United States vice-presidential candidates Utopian socialists 1861 births 1925 deaths Socialist Party of America politicians from California Social Democratic Party of America politicians Socialist Party of America vice presidential nominees People from Clinton County, Indiana Politicians from Los Angeles Butler University alumni California lawyers