The Co-opolitan: A Story of the Co-operative Commonwealth of Idaho — Background and Themes

The Preface as Manifesto

Forbush opens not with a story but with an essay. He declares that “no radical and permanent reform can be successfully effected without the consent of what are called ‘the substantial business interests’ of the established system.” This sentence reveals his core assumption: change must be evolutionary, not revolutionary. He dismisses “political Co-operation” as doomed because “the Industrial System is against it.” The preface’s tone is weary and pragmatic, contrasting with the utopian content that follows. Forbush’s diction—words like “Mephisto,” “will-o’-the-wisp,” and “millions in the competitive system”—frames capitalism as a seductive, almost supernatural opponent. This rhetorical choice sets the novel’s argumentative, rather than narrative, trajectory.

Taxation as Plot Engine

The excerpt detailing the single-tax system on land values is the novel’s most extended piece of policy exposition. Forbush describes how cattle men were taxed collectively on the total acreage of their range, with each owner responsible for ensuring neighbors paid their share. The language is precise: “the value of the range per acre was estimated upon the basis of its use for grazing purposes.” The narrative then recounts legal and armed resistance, with the Great Council—composed entirely of Co-operators—reversing a lower court decision. The press is portrayed as hostile, siding with the cattle men. Forbush’s authorial voice here is that of a legal historian, not a novelist; he is more interested in the mechanics of enforcement than in dramatizing conflict.

Labor, Aliens, and the Limits of Inclusion

Forbush addresses labor competition directly. When mine owners attempt to import Chinese, Italian, Hungarian, and Slavonian workers, the Great Council responds with laws prohibiting aliens from owning real estate or being employed within the state. The Supreme Court later upholds these laws. Forbush’s language is notably blunt: “We offered no encouragement to dishonest practices.” The passage reveals an exclusionary strain in the cooperative vision—one that protects existing workers by barring outsiders. The author does not question this policy; he presents it as a natural defense against “cheaper labor.” This detail complicates the utopian label, showing that Forbush’s commonwealth is built on selective membership, not universal brotherhood.

The Rhetoric of Righteousness vs. Money

Throughout the excerpts, Forbush returns to a central binary: righteousness versus money. In the preface, he writes that “Righteousness without money is a will-o’-the-wisp as against Mephisto, with millions in the competitive system.” This metaphor recurs implicitly in the later passages, where the cooperative commonwealth’s moral authority is contrasted with the “immoral” press and the “honest” cattle men who flee taxes. Forbush’s authorial stance is defensive; he repeatedly anticipates criticism and rebuts it. The novel’s structure is thus argumentative, with each policy described as a response to an objection. This rhetorical pattern—assertion, challenge, refutation—gives the prose a legalistic rhythm, more akin to a brief than a narrative.

Readers should approach The Co-opolitan as a work of political advocacy dressed in fiction. Forbush’s choices—the expository preface, the policy-heavy dialogue, the absence of individual character arcs—all serve his didactic purpose. The novel is best understood not as a story but as a thought experiment: what would a cooperative commonwealth look like if built through legal and economic mechanisms? The answer, Forbush suggests, is a state that taxes land values, excludes alien labor, and operates mines directly. Whether one finds this vision inspiring or troubling, the book’s value lies in its detailed articulation of a specific reform program.

That rainy afternoon, The Co-opolitan felt less like a blueprint than a quiet prayer for fairness. I kept circling back to its faith in gradual change, education over upheaval. Later, reaching for something lighter, I found myself tucked into The Plymouth Express Affair — Context and Discussion, and realized both books share a patient eye for small turns that remake a whole world.