Stirring Science Stories/February 1941/Today Rather Than Tomorrow
Today Rather Than Tomorrow
When we read stories of the future, many of us must have thought:
"But this is possible today, why cannot we do it and achieve the future in the present?"
In 1840, a Frenchman, Etienne Cabet, wrote a book called "A Trip to Icaria." This described a magnificent new country West of the Mississippi run on model lines with plenty for all—a veritable paradise. So convincing did this volume read that a large group of people set sail for New Orleans and made the long trip through the wilds into Texas. There their dreams ran into reality. Swindled by a land company, the going was tougher than they had imagined. Another expedition reached America; the Texans joined them and sailed up the river to Illinois where they again established themselves. This time they managed to struggle on, still trying to create their Icarian Utopia, until 1887.
In Paraguay an Australian, William Lane, enthused by Bellamy's "Looking Backward," established the settlement of New Australia in six hundred square miles granted him by the government. His great mistake was in insisting on prohibition; the colonists insisted on staying "wet," Lane left, and now the project is just another native town.
Theodor Hertzka, a German, wrote, in 1889, a volume telling of a wonderful nation established in Africa which would by 1925 lead the world in glory. An expedition set out to establish his Freeland in Uganda but enthusiasm ran on the rocks due to such unimaginative things as sandbars, monsoons, jungles, savages, etc.