Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1326

Carbon of a letter to J. Mattern, Dept. of Political Science, Room #20-A, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

January 15, 1941

Dear Dr. Mattern:

     Along the line of our conversation yesterday, I am sending you another copy of my “Energy Concept of Population” in which I hope you will find some line of suggestion for a carrying of a technique of the physical sciences into the social and political realm. The adoption of the life-year as the unit of social life and energy seems to open the door to quantitative treatment of social processes. It is then almost startling to observe how the qualitative or creative form of energy distinguishes itself by the potentialities of its units being high while their numbers are by necessity correspondingly low.

     In case you do not have any of my little printed booklets readily at hand, I am enclosing several of them herewith. In “The Inspiration of Beauty” I have set out the kind of free and pleasurable motivation which I believe leads to an objective view and dispassionate examination in any field of inquiry. The “Energy Concept” is a suggestion for a method of objective analysis of human societal organization. An application of this method is contained in “Private Property in Land Explained,” which you will observe is a functional analysis with respect to the process performed by the institution, in contrast to the static analysis of Spencer and Mill and others with its unfruitful results and pathological implications. The last two booklets under the combined title, “Real Estate: How to Raise and Restore Its Income and Value,” are offered as practical engineering technique for utilization of the social processes discovered in the preceding analysis. I hope your examination of these booklets will be with a view to discovering whatever grains of gold they may contain however much of it appears as sand.

     The pleasure still lingers with me that I took in your engaging conversation yesterday. Best hopes and wishes for your forthcoming volume.

    Sincerely yours,

SH:ML   Enclosures: 4             Spencer Heath