Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1345

Carbon of letter to Dr. Frederick Osborne, Research Associate in Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West and 79th Street, New York City

January 31, 1941

Dear Doctor Osborne:

A number of persons, including my friend, Dr. C. L. Huskins, Department of Genetics, McGill University, have suggested that owing to your well-known interest in the administration of municipal affairs, you would be interested in some of my research in connection with the institution of property in land, with special reference to its possible bearing upon public and municipal adminis­tration.

 Accordingly, I take the liberty of enclosing, here­with, an explanation of the above named institution which has been made, I think for the first time, from the functional or administrative point of view. The result of this analysis and interpretation has suggested practical measures lying within the power of the organized real estate interests of almost any community for the rehabilita­tion of their properties and values through giving construc­tive attention to and protecting the business and economic. interests of those who occupy or may be attracted to occupy their communities and properties. The practical business aspect of this matter is being brought to the attention of real estate interests with a view of their giving constructive business services to their communities and thus restoring their now precarious incomes and declining values.

 I feel sure you are the sort of person to be inter­ested in the kind of motivation (esthetic) under which alone rational and intellectual results and discoveries can be made. I send you, therefore, a little pamphlet on the Inspiration of Beauty and what it leads to. This motivation makes it possible to approach human and social phenomena in a dispassionate manner and by employment of the same quantitative and mathematical processes that have been so fruitful in the natural field. I have made an attempt in this direction under the title, “The Energy Concept of Population.”

 In this I propose a unit of population that is founded upon and entirely consonant with the c.g.s. (or the English) system of scientific units. This seems to lead to inter­esting and promising, even though very elementary results. I hope it will afford you pleasure to read and consider this very brief outline as a method and approach to the scientific analysis of social forces and organization. It may interest you to observe how the quantitative and qualitative aspects of population energy seem mathematically to merge and how the efficient society, while becoming more and more serviceable to itself, becomes, at the same time, of vastly greater service to the individuals of which it is composed. I have undertaken to apply this energy concept to the analysis of specific social institutions, and I am impressed by the apparent facility with which this can be done. The pamphlet entitled, “Private Property In Land Explained” is an example of this, as you will see, even though the energy concept is not explicitly applied or specifically referred to in it.

 Of the enclosed two pamphlets entitled, “Real Estate, How to Raise And Restore Its Income and Value”, with the sub-titles, respectively, of “Questions For The Consideration Of Land Owners” and “The Administration Of Property As Community Services”, the first of these is, in a brief interrogative form, an epitome of what is set out at greater length in the second.

 Believing that you will find these matters approached from an unusual and possibly a very beneficial direction, and desiring to have the benefit of your comments and criticism, I take the liberty of asking you for an appointment either during the lunch hour or at some other con­venient time for the purpose of making your acquaintance, and having such encouragement from you (or the reverse) as you consider the subject may deserve.

 

 I arrived in New York City yesterday, and would appreciate having a message from you either at the Woodstock Hotel, 127 West 43rd Street, or at the Town Hall Club of which I am a member.

 Please let me assure you that my interest in all of the above matters is wholly esthetic and intellectual, and that I do not seek nor contemplate obtaining from any source any material aid or personal prestige.

Yours very sincerely,

Spencer Heath

 

SH:ML

Enc. 4 small pamphlets

Energy Concept