Written in 1893, A Dream of an Ideal City is a very short treatise on a very long topic. The author, Albert Kimsey
Owen1, was a civil engineer (when there weren't many, according to US census reports) and a dreamer,
part of which was a vision of a Utopian community situated in Mexico on the Gulf of California.
There is so much about this planned community that is suggested in these few short pages that it is
hard to summarize, because the text is mostly summary—so I think I'll just quote from it at length from the online
copy at the Internet Archive. (And frankly sumamrizing a bouncing summary like this that is nothing but very long
sentences and very many commas would just be too annoying a process for the end result. Reading the quotes though
is perfectly fine if not tiring.)
Overall View, Placement and Work:
- "I love to dream of the citizens in a large community being associated, for life's work, in one great firm incorporated to build, by and for themselves, the best appointed, the most beautiful, and the greatest city on earth; a park residence, a city in which the metropolis, with its facilities,
entertainments and cultures, and the country, with its green fields, hedgerows and shades; a seaside resort, where surf-bathing, fishing and yachting will be only an hour's remove from the places
of industry, commerce and home; every citizen may have self-appointed employments, a sufficiency of
this world's goods, and an elegant leisure in which to enjoy life with all its well-appointed pleasures and
modern advantages."
Here's another section of a sentence that seems almost to never end in spite of it varied contents:
- “...the municipality being laid out, built up and managed with order, system and authority from the
start to the finish — of the plan being studied, fixed and approved, before a step has been taken to execute the work — of the construstion of stone piers, the laying of giant sea-walls fronting the Straits of Joshua
and Ohuira Bay, the digging of canals to extend and improve the water front, the planting of palms- along
these great quays, the eredting of model blocks, the opening and shading of thoroughfares, the establishing
and perfecting of varied and useful home industries upon areas reserved especially for them, and the
building and furnishing for each resident family of a handsome and permanent home from the centre,
solidly and rapidly to the four quarters of the compass, over one of the fairest plains, and in one of the
most health-giving localities ever selected for the dwelling-place of mankind.”
On Sleep and Worship:
- “I love to dream of the citizens of an entire metropolis so well organised, and so nicely attraded, each to
do what he or she can best do to carry out the general plan decided upon, that daily leisure can be enjoyed
by every worker at least during eight hours, and yet leave one-third of each working day for sleep, and
where the Sabbath can be kept sacred to the privacy and to the sandity of that greatest of all shrines, to
ones home altar; to the worship of one s household gods; to the holiness of one's fireside idols; to the
devotion that one ever owes to one's wife and children at home.”
On Income and Ownership:
- “I love to dream that thousands of family groups will be induced to co-operate under one management,
that they may have their own municipal and ways and means of payment; that they may be entirely independent of the outside world for their money, employments, homes, foods, clothing, and for all
essentials ; and that they may be inter-dependent with others only for the exchange of the things they
do not want, for the surplus commodities of other communities which they do want — for those non-essential articles which come under the name of luxuries, and which may, if necessary, be
dispensed with without causing suffering or discomfort to any citizen.”
Labor and Work:
- “I love to dream of a city where there will be one buyer, who buys to sell again, for all its citizens,
and where everything that is bought will be substantial and unadulterated, and will be sold to the
citizens, in retail quantities, at wholesale cost prices.” - "I love to dream of a city where every citizen, to be in good standing, must be industrious, during
hours appointed for work, in some occupation which is produdtive of something that is useful and
ornamental, and is ordered by the Board of Directors.”
Suffrage and Equal Rights:
“I love to dream of a city where woman will have all the political and property rights enjoyed by
man, and where she will be given the option to select first from all employments, and the first place
by courtesy, and the privilege of the doubt.”
On Money:
- “I love to dream of a city where there will not be a stock or produce exchange, where "bears" and
"bulls," "lambs" and "tigers" will not exist; where "puts," "calls," "margins" and "futures" will
have no place; where the "roulette table," the " three-card-monte,' the "plaza de toros," the cock
fight, the boxing match and the horse race will be for ever tabooed. “
On Booze:
- "I love to dream of a city where there will not be a public saloon, a dive, or a house of prostitution—
of a city where girls and boys will be as safe from evil influences in the thoroughfares as they are
in their own homes, at midnight as well as at noon."
NOTES:
“Albert Kimsey Owen (c.1848-1916), was a utopian reformer and founder of a co-operative community in Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico. By profession Owen was a civil engineer. He went to Colorado to survey a railroad route, then on to Mexico to help lay out what was to become the Mexican Central Railroad. Upon first seeing Topolobampo Bay [Sinaloa] in 1873, Owen's dream was to found the perfect city, a colony based on cooperative principles, complete with workers, artisans, and intellectuals, to be supplied by a railroad line from the United States, with entry at El Paso, across the Sierra Madred mountains, to the Bay of Topolobampo. Since this would be the shortest route to the Pacific from the great industrial cities of the United States, he envisioned Topolobampo as a center for the Pacific trade."
“The Mexican government granted him permission to form the Texas, Topolobampo & Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company in 1881, and the first colonists began to arrive in 1886. Little progress was made on the railroad (which was not completed until 1961), and the colony eventually failed when the members were divided in their views on the ownership of land and water rights. In addition to his activities in Mexico, Owen wrote books and articles on a variety of subjects, including cooperatives, woman suffrage, and currency questions.”--Social Networks and Archival Contexts webiste
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