Dune Author Frank Herbert’s ties to the Pierce County Republican Party
Frank Herbert, author of Dune—widely considered the greatest work of science fiction—was born in Tacoma at St. Joseph hospital on October 8, 1920. He attended local schools, including Lincoln High school where he wrote for the student newspaper.
He spent some time working in the Republican party during his 30s. Here’s a bit about his Republican activities in the Pacific NW:
In 1954…Herbert got a job as a speechwriter for Oregon Republican Guy Cordon, who was running for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Herbert was soon spending time in Washington, D.C., and while there he met Senator Joseph McCarthy, a cousin on his mother's side, at a party…
In 1956, Herbert took a job as a public information officer for a Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress who lost the race. Someone on the campaign told him about a U.S. Department of Agriculture project near the town of Florence on the Oregon Coast. Drifting sand dunes were engulfing houses and threatening the highway. The federal government was planting 300 acres with European sea grass to get the menacing dunes under control.
In 1958, he visited Tacoma's Republican headquarters and landed a job on the campaign of William "Big Bill" Bantz, who was taking on Washington's popular Senator, Henry "Scoop" Jackson in the upcoming election. Jackson won almost 70 percent of the vote. https://www.historylink.org/File/21248
Socialism in Washington
Herbert’s grandparents moved to Washington in the late 1800s to help set up the socialist commune called Burley, which is located just west of Gig Harbor near Purdy.
Socialism runs deep in Washington state.
The socialist Brotherhood of the Co-operative Commonwealth (BCC), established in St. Louis in July 1896, believed that if a single state could be shown to prosper under socialism, the rest of the country would follow suit. Washington was fertile ground for the first effort -- the Progressive movement had put down early roots in the state, organized labor was increasingly activist, and fertile land was abundant and inexpensive. In September 1897 Equality Colony near Edison in Skagit County was established to put theory into practice, and on June 18, 1898, the BCC newspaper, Industrial Freedom, published at Equality, carried this invitation:
"The Brotherhood of Co-operative Commonwealth has room for all manner of socialistic organizations which accept its central idea, that of carrying the State of Washington for socialism in 1901" ("Room for All").
It was not long before many at Equality who belonged to "all manner of socialistic organizations" were arguing with one another about all manner of things. Turf disputes between national and local BCC leaders soon infected the rank and file, but the problems were both theoretical and personal. As one history notes, "each man trusted his neighbor to do his best, fairly and equitably, and it didn't work" (Neil and Brainard, 116). By the end of 1903, only 38 people were still sticking it out, and by 1907 feuds, freeloading, a devastating fire, and lawsuits brought the final collapse.
Other secular colonies in the state during that era included the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony (1887-1904) at Port Angeles, the anarchist Home Colony in Pierce County (1894-1921), the socialist Burley Colony in Kitsap County (1898-1913), and Whidbey Island's Freeland Colony, established just as the twentieth century began. (Note: Confusingly, one faction at Equality Colony adopted the name Freeland Colony in 1904, by which time the Freeland Colony on Whidbey Island, an entirely separate entity, had been in existence for nearly four years.) https://www.historylink.org/file/20913
Nowadays we have numerous socialist organizations in Washington. Right here in Tacoma, we have Tacoma Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America, Party of Socialism & Liberation, Freedom Socialist Party, and the Democratic Socialists of America, to name just a few. There are many more socialist organizations that just don’t use the word in their name.
Those organizations have good intentions, but they failed in the early days of our state and brought us nothing but empty promises. They will do the same again.