Once again I have found a particularly relevant writing of Elbert Hubbard’s to share with you. In the March 1913 Fra he wrote a piece called “Homes For Workingmen”. It was a promotional piece for a house builder who erected a remarkable 200-500 houses at a time. Yet another endorsement by Elbert, one of our country’s earliest pitchmen, writing on behalf of an early developer.
What was intriguing about this piece was the story he used to draw you into the article. I found it chillingly relevant to our world today. Following is this introduction:
“There is a story told about two Anarchists who were sent out of Europe for Europe’s good. They duly arrived in New York, where Anarchist Number One remained, with intent to look around a little, and possibly place a few inconvenient bombs so as to bring about a Better Day. Anarchist Number Two moved to Iowa. A year went by, and Anarchist Number One wrote to Anarchist Number Two, inquiring how the revolution was coming on. And Number Two replied: “Nothing doing in the anarchist line. Have married and bought a house.”
And that is all there is of the story. Revolution to a man happily married loses itself in a fadeaway. The man with a wife and a home is interested in exactly the other thing. What he wants is peace, good order and safety.
It is an interesting fact that the thirty-eight convicted dynamiters were not any one of them real-estate owners. Also, it is worth noting that they were not workingmen, although they had been once. They were gentlemen adventurers. They rented furnished rooms. Hockin testified that he owned no property of any kind, and that the only home he had was a furnished room in Chicago. Others gave similar testimony. No one seemed to connect up with the fact that a man who merely lives in a room is not apt to be much interested in the welfare of society at large.”
Elbert then segues to the benefits of home ownership for society at large and endorses the businessman-home builder. I practically froze when I first read this. All I could think of was how similar his "anarchist number one and anarchist number two" were to the 9/11 terrorists living here and plotting before their attack on the U.S.
Hubbard’s obscure reference to 38 convicted dynamiters had me intrigued. I wanted to learn more. After less than successful googling, my Vanity Fair September 2008 issue serendipitously arrived with a book excerpt that sheds some light on the times in which Hubbard was writing. In 1910 the Los Angeles Times building was bombed. An event called the “crime of the century”. By 1911 over 100 bombings had occurred across the country with explosions in Springfield, IL, French Lick, IN, Omaha, NE, and Columbus, IN. There was “a terrorist war” (quotes used in the book) being waged by anarchists and others hired by the unions of the day.
It seems the early years of the last century were as much of a shock to the public’s sense of security and safety as what we have experienced early in this century. Oddly enough, I find this something of a consolation in that it demonstrates the cycle of man's learning and the development of society. The union's were fighting for humane working conditions - a result of improved education and people's sense of self worth. Nowadays there are power struggles to maintain the status quo or retreat to nationalism (Russia, South Ossetia) railing against the tide of nonstop, leaderless globalization generated by unfettered technological access across borders. Technology allows and promotes the freedom of every man for himself demonstrated in the naive self promotion of a teenager's Facebook page or the vengeful intercontinental communications of a terrorist cell. But without 100 years hindsight on 9/11 and the (current) war on terror, we will have to wait and see what man learns from our times.
- Sue
Book: American Lightning:Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century, by Howard Blum.
