With fear of eternal damnation religion crushes intellectual activity; with hero worship it destroys individuality; with hopes for the beyond it prevents the growth of ideals for the present.

"[1]As Harriman moved away from a belief in spirituality and towards philosophical materialism, he came into contact with socialist literature, being particularly impressed with the 1886 utopian novel, Looking Backwards, by Edward Bellamy.

[2] In 1886, he moved to San Francisco and where he established a local Nationalist Club, dedicated to attempting to put Bellamy's ideas into practice in America.

Harriman thereafter was affiliated with the East Coast-based variant of the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), a group whose members included Henry Slobodin and Morris Hillquit.

In 1900 during unity negotiations between the Eastern and Midwestern SDP organizations, Harriman ran for vice presidency of the United States on the Social Democratic Party of America ticket along with presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs.

He was unaware of their guilt, and thus was taken by surprise by a plea bargain negotiated by Darrow, which, unfortunately for Harriman, was announced after the primary but before the general election.

In addition, each family was asked to contribute a minimum of $2,000 in personal property to a "common storehouse" established for the benefit of the entire community.

[3] The group issued its own monthly magazine, The Western Comrade (later changing its name to The Llano Colonist) with Harriman acting as editor.

[6] Local farmers began to complain that the socialist community was consuming more than its fair share of precious water, resulting in a stream of lawsuits over the issue.