August 21, 2012 05:31 AM UTC

In Others' Words (8.20)

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• by: NeonNurse

World Corporation, King Camp Gillette, New England News Company, 1910

The so-called socialists some people claim are running rampant today are amateurs compared to the big dreamers of the early 20th century.  

I ran across this book because a guy doing a plumbing job for our beauty salon neighbor dropped in to ask me if I had ever heard of a book called ‘The Human Drift’. He is distantly related to the author, King Gillette, who wrote grandiose visions of utopia while also revolutionizing the shaving industry.

‘World Corporation’ is not only a treatise, but the actual documents of incorporation for this grand scheme.  The corporation filed in what was then the Territory of Arizona and published this book to invite the world to join them. They hoped that eventually all bank and trust companies would be selling their public stocks, with the goal of selling 5 billion shares in the US within 5 years.  The corporation offered Teddy Roosevelt a cool $1,000,000 to come on board as company president. (He declined.)

Simply stated, this group wanted to take over the world, in an open and above board way. All business everywhere would be a part of the World Corporation. The cream of humanity, the most intelligent and hard-working, would rise to the top to run the corporation. This would prove so successful that it would eventually eliminate the need for any other form of government.

Because of it being founded on the share-holder system, this World Corporation would belong to all the people in the world. Supposedly the total lack of competition would remove all inclination to hostility, greed and corruption. (Not sure how the ambition factor of people trying to prove themselves more intelligent than the next guy was going to be dealt with.)

This book is available as a free read on Google books. Definitely worth a look!