Job Harriman

Job Harriman
Job Harriman, 1902.
Born	January 15, 1861 Clinton County, Indiana, U.S.
Died	October 26, 1925
Occupation	Politician
Spouse(s)	Mary Theodosia Gray
Children	Gray Chenoweth Harriman

Job Harriman (January 15, 1861 – October 26, 1925) was an ordained minister who later became an agnostic and a socialist. In 1900, he ran for Vice President of the United States along with Eugene Debs on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America. He later twice ran for mayor of Los Angeles, drawing considerable attention and support. He also founded a socialist utopian community called Llano del Rio in California, later relocated to Louisiana.

Job Harriman was born on January 15, 1861 in Clinton County, Indiana. He lived on the family farm until he was 18.

Harriman's early life was filled with religious influences by his parents, and after graduating Butler University in 1884 he went on into the ministry. Harriman gradually came to doubt the ability of the church to fundamentally affect the lives of common people and to see organized religion as a trap. He recalled in 1902:

"It is in doubt and not in faith that the salvation of the world is to be found. Faith is a delusion and a snare: a pitfall, a prison. It intimidates the intellect. 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. It makes of us a race of intellectual cowards; it changes but little if any our daily conduct toward each other. But doubt sets us free."

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