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 Job Harriman. After Harriman's unsuccessful vice-presidential bid, he returned to California and ran for mayor of Los Angeles 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 Clarence Darrow 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 Antelope Valley. 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 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!"