Jekyll Island Club a hotbed of fascism?

Does fascist really describe the Jekyll Island Club core members who helped Frank Goodyear design the structure of Bogalusa? Yes and no. Yes if you define fascism as below. No if you use one of its other variations which have been used by those who consider themselves fascist but merely use a fascist social structure to form a dictatorship. The Jekyll Island Club members were fascist in the sense of business elitist who desired to control the government/business functions of society and make this combined entity the core of society. It differs from Communism in that it places business leaders as the ruling class of society and subjects political leaders to the business community. Facism is based on the survival of the fittest rule.

Keep in mind the business class we are discussing are not ordinary workers,factory managers, etc. These are the leaders who control the money and major industries which are consolidated under their model to operate as a unified force against all those who compete for control over society.

The essential question is who runs the society? Is a society dominated by big business which dictate the functioning of all other social institutions or should there be a more equal play between the competing forces of social functioning? For the Jekyll Island crowd it is business which rules the world plain and simple. Everything functions at the bequest of consolidated business leaders such as those who vacationed on the island. Convenient philosophy which would ensure their families as rulers through out the generations. Oddly enough Bogalusa functioned under the direction of the Great Southern Lumber Company as the embodiment of the fascist model.


(First and most important is the glorification of the state and the total subordination of the individual to it. The state is defined as an organic whole into which individuals must be absorbed for their own and the state's benefit. This "total state" is absolute in its methods and unlimited by law in its control and direction of its citizens.

A second ruling concept of fascism is embodied in the theory of social Darwinism. The doctrine of survival of the fittest and the necessity of struggle for life is applied by fascists to the life of a nation-state. Peaceful, complacent nations are seen as doomed to fall before more dynamic ones, making struggle and aggressive militarism a leading characteristic of the fascist state. Imperialism is the logical outcome of this dogma.

Another element of fascism is its elitism. Salvation from rule by the mob and the destruction of the existing social order can be effected only by an authoritarian leader who embodies the highest ideals of the nation. This concept of the leader as hero or superman, borrowed in part from the romanticism of Friedrich Nietzsche , Thomas Carlyle , and Richard Wagner , is closely linked with fascism's rejection of reason and intelligence and its emphasis on vision, creativeness, and "the will." ) From this link.


Clearly when unions attempted to gain control in Bogalusa it was tantamount to an attack on the ruling elite of the Nation. Bogalusa was their model city. Their magic city which demonstrated just how well corporate fascism worked to produce good in society. The idea of the federal government under Woodrow Wilson going into Bogalusa to aid unions is misguided. After WW1 Conger Goodyear was in Europe conducting an examination for the United States of the condictions of coal mines in Europe. The Goodyears were helping map out the post war division of assets which is called the plunder of war for the government. The most important legislative victory for Wilson was the creation of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve was born on what island? Well they don't call it the Creature from Jekyll Island for nothing...But that is another Jekyll Island creation which will have to wait for another day to discuss.

For now it is good to know that the powers of the state/business/media/church/racial membership/government were all manipulated in a planned manner by the Jekyll Island Club to create a well functioning community which was lead by a strong leader who controlled it all. The Goodyears were not subject to the government they used the government to their advantage. They knew Presidents on a first name basis and Presidents knew the power their group of business partners held in the Nation. So a group of workers from the rural south didn't stand a chance for getting help from the White House with the Goodyear family in the picture.