RHETORIC: HELEN KELLER'S SOCIALIST YEARS

by

MARY WALKER, B.A

A THESIS

IN

COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment of die Requirements for

the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Approved

Chairp^son of ttie^ t̂ffnmittee

Accepted

Dean of the Graduate School

May, 2003

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

All of my friends and family have been lifesavers during this entire process—

thank you! A very grateful thanks is extended to my husband Tye Walker for his loving

support and patience. Also to my father Dr. John P. Abraham whose support has been a

very present help. It goes without saying that I have an excellent committee: Dr. M.

Gring, Dr. P. Hughes, and Dr. D. Williams. The courses I have taken with all the

committee members taught me so much, and I can only hope that my thesis is a testameni

to that. It must be said that Dr. M. Gring went above and beyond what 1 ever expected

from a thesis chair—thank you. I believe that what I have leamed from Dr. M. Gring wil

stay with me throughout ray academic pursuits. There is not enough that can be said for

Deborah Simpson's kind smile and ready ear. One last grateful note must be extended to

Dr. B. McGee who forced me to realize, after my stint in the hospital, that a Master's

degree is still possible if I am willing to try.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

CHAPTERS

L INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE LIFE OF HELEN KELLER 4

IIL AN OVERVIEW OF SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES 16

IV. RESEARCH MODEL 25

V. THE SOCLALIST INTERVENTION AS REPRESENTED BY HELEN KELLER 33

VI. DISCUSSION: A SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTION 52

REFERENCES 64

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The name Helen Keller is inseparable from inspiration - she is a symbol of

achievement beyond all odds. She is known worldwide for her amazing life led in the

media of succeeding despite deafiiess and blindness—what was once considered

insurmountable disabilities (Foner, 1967). It is rare to fmd a school that does not teach

the story of her language acquisition with the aid of her remarkable teacher Anne

Sullivan, a search for aid to the blind without turning up Helen Keller's name, or an

inspirational text that does not quote her. Airing on television networks are commercials

for institutes for the blind named after her, online are several web sites for charitable

organization and education groups for the blind also named after her, and at the store

entrances the Salvation Army hands out thank you notes that quote her.

When struck blind and deaf, Helen Keller was championed to obtain an education

by none other than Alexander Graham Bed (Keller, 1903, 1930; Lash, 1980). Later Helen

Keller was befriended by many admirers including Oliver Wendell Hohnes, Charlie

Chaplin, Thomas Edison, and especially by dose friend and author Mark Twain (Keller,

1903. 1930; Lash, 1980). After the story of her language acquisition and her desire for

more education hit the press and eventually became a book, she was on demand

worldwide. She contmually surprised people with her accomplishments—the written and

spoken word, her college degree, and her mtdligent wit. Helen Keller sought to help the

world with whom she had regained communicative contact. She published letters taking

up the cause of the less fortunate, women's rights, workers rights, minority rights,

children's rights, and ultimately the rights and needs of the blind (Keller, 1930, 1938;

Foner. 1967; Lash. 1980; HKworld.org, 2002). By 1957, Helen Keller traveled five

continents to visit a total of 35 countries. Helen Keller met every president of the United

States from Calvin Coolridge to John F. Kennedy (Beckwith, 2002). She published 14

books before her life's end and regretted not accomplishing more (Lash, 1980;

Hkworld.org. 2002).

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan with their ever-talking hands are almost

inseparable in their ambition and accomplishment—if Helen Keller's past is not looked at

closely. From teacher to lifetime friend, roommate, and stage performer of Helen

Keller's famous childhood. Anne Sullivan was certainly a key figure. The two traveled

together and performed the story of Helen's language development to promote the

success and earn a living together (Keller, 1903). Anne followed her to college and

helped her earn a degree and they became life long friends (Keller. 1903, 1930; Lash,

1980). Almost without exception, discussion or writings over or by Helen Keller are

followed by the mention of her extraordinary teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan

(D'Andrea, 1999; Kleege, 2000). Even Helen, in her first book over her life, portrays

Anne Sullivan as a sort of protagonist with the autobiography more of a story of

Sullivan's success as a teacher and friend (Kleege, 2000).

Socialism is the main aspect of Helen's life that is ahnost entirely separate from

Sullivan. Helen had some distinctions from Sullivan's expectations of her as when she

discovered a Christian denomination separate from Sullivan, supported the women's

rights movement contrary to Sullivan, and had a boyfriend without Sullivan's knowledge

or approval. But neither Sullivan nor Helen granted these things more relevance than

their almost singular being together. It was Socialism that had its voice solely and

entirely from Helen (Keller, 1913; Foner, 1967). Eventually this desire for a perfect

society filtered into Helen's ultimate focus of helping the blind to have improved

situations. Sullivan and the world joined in this endeavor and Helen Keller's life has been

celebrated ever since.

But little is ever said about this American icon's Socialist era (Foner, 1967).

Perhaps this is because she is an American symbol and the nation hardly celebrates

Socialist attempts (Foner, 1967; Johnpoll& Johnpoll, 1981; Burbach, 1997). Regardless,

this stage of Helen Keller's life was significant in its passion and sdf-revelation to her.

Keller was not the fu-st deaf-blind girt to obtain language (Shattuck, 2001) but she was

the first to believe and be encouraged that language was her connection to the world. Her

writings are a testament to her ambition and mental development.

To explore the available artifacts she has left behind from this era is to open the

door to how it is a person discovers purpose; this is especially the case with Keller whose

purpose and lite has left such impact on American cuhure by reaching out through the

communication she gained. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight significant areas in

Helen Keller's Socialist literature obtained from primary artifacts, Out of the Dark a

Socialist text she authored, a collection of Socialist publications gathered by Philip S.

Foner in the book Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years, and Keller's Journal to answer two

questions: How did Helen Keller's connection to Socialism help to develop her as an

independent entity (separate from her family and her mentor Anne Sullivan)? What role

did Socialism play on Helen Keller's communicative construction of herself as the

memorable social activist?

CHAPTER n

THE LIFE OF HELEN KELLER

As with all people, Helen Keller was both expressed and defined by many factors

from family to vocation. Her lifetime, spent under the scrutiny of the press searching to

find what a deaf and blind female girl would write and say next, was spent in an

uncompromismg quest to be more than what the world expected of her.

Family

Helen Adams Keller was bom without impediment to sight or hearing in 1880, on

June 27, in Tuscumbia, Alabama (Keller, 1903, D'Andrea, 1999; Lash, 1980). Her

family, though not wealthy, did not go without and was well connected (Lash. 1980).

Helen's father was Arthur Keller, a captain who fought in the confederate army, son of

the daughter of the first colonial governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood. Captain

Keller was the editor of a weekly Democratic newspaper until Grover Cleveland

appointed the Captain as U.S. marshal of Northern Alabama. He had two sons, James

and Simpson, who were nearly aduhs when Captain Keller married Helen's mother Kate

Adams, descendant of foimding father John Adams.

Mrs. Keller was much younger than the Captain and was considered an educated

Southern belle with an intelligent sense of humor and, prior to marriage, lived an

indulged life in Tennessee (Lash, 1980). Her marriage to the Captain was more

demanding, as he believed in supervising not conducting the running of the household;

so, despite black servants who worked the farm, Kate Keller sewed, cooked, and cleaned

all day. It became clear that she felt her marriage was a mistake by the time she was due

to deliver Helen and would have periods of several days without speaking to her husband.

Helen's mother was also an early proponent of women's suffrage (Lash, 1980).

Kate Keller had two more children after Helen, a daughter named Mildred and a

son named Phillips. Helen had a mishap with the daughter when she caught her lying in a

doll cradle. Helen ai^rily overturned her treasured doll cradle baby and all, and had Mrs.

Keller not caught Mildred she may have taken a fatal fall. Later on in life, when Helen

developed language, the sisters became close and were even in the same school for a time

spending their free moments with one another (Keller, 1903). Mildred later married

Warren L. Tyson and Mrs. Keller spent her days after her husband died partly with them

and partly with Helen (Keller, 1930). Helen knew of her mother's sorrow over her

deafiiess and blindness and was appreciative of Mrs. Keller's attempts to be supportive of

all Helen's endeavors. Though her early memories of her mother are limited she always

admired her mother's love of nature and books and regretted her mother's disappointment

over her disabilities. When Mrs. Keller died in 1921 Helen hopes, "...that in the Great

Beyond where all truth shines revealed she would fmd in my limitations a satisfying

sense of God's purpose of good which runs like a thread of gold through all things"

{Keller, 1930, p. 223).

Teacher and Language

Helen Keller, in her first year of life had begun waving to people and with "wah-

wah" began imitating the word water (Keller, I903,Selden, 1997; D'Andrea, 1999; Lash,

1980). About this time at a year and a half years old in February of 1881, Helen feU iU to

the point of death with what in hindsight may have been meningitis but went undiagnosed

at the time (Beckwith. 2002). Though she survived. Helen lost her sight and hearing by

the age of two (Keller, 1903; D'Andrea, 1999; Lash, 1980). With her parents' constant

attention and, at times, hopeless spoiling of their disabled child, Helen began to

experience the world around her, "My hands feh every object and observed every

motion, and in this way I leamed lo know many things" (Keller, 1903, p. 5).

Helen nonverbally developed a crude, demanding symbol system and learned to

do simple tasks guided by touch and scent (Keller, 1903). However, Helen grew

frustrated whh her inability to communicate and be communicated with effectively. In

response she began throwing seemingly unprovoked tantrums as Helen describes here:

I do not remember when 1 first realized that I was different from other people. I had noticed that my mother and my friends did not use signs as I did when the wanted anything done, but talked with their mouths. Sometimes I stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips and gesticulated frantically without resuk. This made me so angry at times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted. (1903, p. 6)

Helen made these childish attempts to solve her communication gap—like the moving of

her lips or putting on her fether's reading glasses and holding the newspaper as she had

known her father did when reading (Keller, 1903). The aggravation over these

unsuccessful attempts seemed to hold no reprise. Her limited world was becoming

smaller and her tantrums began occurring daily.

Her mother, Mrs. Keller, read about a deaf-blind child named Laura Bridgman

that was taught language—a remarkable first. Keller's father was determined that

education was the only way to tame Helen's unrestftal spirh. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell

took up the initiative, on 7-year-old Helen's behalf, to have her educated as much as

possible; he contacted Perkins School for the Blind director Michael Aganos. Aganos

knew of the perfect candidate for such an assignment and soon a teacher arrived in

Tuscumbia m March of 1887 (Keller, 1903, Lash, 1980). Anne Sullivan was practiced at

the manual language for the deaf-blind developed by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe with

Laura Bridgman, Howe's system's first success (Shattuck, 2001). Roger Shattuck (2001)

summarizes best Helen Keller's relevance though she was the second and not the first

deaf-blind child to have a mentor and be introduced to a symbol system:

They [Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman] seem almost a single history. Withm half a century, two infant females in rural settings were struck totally deaf-blind by twenty-four months and, exceptionally, suffered no accompanying physical or mental disability. Both grew into attractive little girls—but dumb, dependent, and barely socialized into an overstrained family. At the age of seven, both girls encountered a teacher-savior who imposed firm discipline and trained them to communicate through the manual alphabet. In both cases the breakthrough to communication gained worldwide attention as a near-miracle of education and fortitude...for all their similarities, however, Laura and Helen cannot be assimilated into one compound history.. .Helen and Annie, locked together like Siamese twins with their constantly talking hands, threw themselves directly into theworld. (pp. 41-42)

Partially blind, herself, Anne Sullivan took on Helen Keller as though it were her

destiny and not her job (Keller, 1955). The relationship had a rocky start with Helen

locking SuUivan m her room and Sullivan fighting manners into Helen (Keller, 1903).

Sullivan would not be deterred from her task; she spelled into Helen's hand objects as she

touched them, "I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly.. -I did not know that i

was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fmgers go in

monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell many words in this

uncomprehending way..." (Keller, 1903, p. 15).

At first. Sullivan and the finger movements was ordy a novel diversion for Helen,

but then the spark of connection between the name for water being spelled into her hand

as it gushed over the other hand stimulated Helen's mind (Keller, 1903; Lash, 1980;

D'Andrea, 1999). Helen's excitement could not be contained, she wanted to learn the

name for all objects/people and Sullivan happily obliged and along the way taught her to

form grammatical sentences. Then came the greater task, teaching Helen words for

concepts that cannot be felt or smelled—words like love:

She drew me closer pointing to my heart, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it...my teacher could not show me love. (Keller, 1903, p. 21)

But. Sullivan began to form a deep bond with Helen—she was revealing the world of

communication and education to a blind-deaf child. Helen was unwaveringly guided to

reach the next stage of enlightenment:

Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and speUed with decided enyihasis, 'think." In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on m my head. This was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea. (Keller, 1903, p. 21)

Sullivan, or Teacher as Helen called her, became the light in Helen's long night (Keller.

1955). Teacher's expectations motivated Helen and her companionship completed her:

My teacher is so near to me that 1 scarcely think of myself apart from her. How much ofmy delight...is due to her mfluence, I can never tell. I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps ofmy life are in hers. Ail the best of me belongs to her, there is not a talent, or an inspiration or a joy in me that was not awakened by her loving touch. (Keller, 1903, pp. 28-29)

Anne SuUivan's death in October of 1936 was a devastating loss for Helen. Anne

was her teacher, friend, surrogate mother, translator, and motivation. Her death was in

the midst of world tours they were taking whh their friend Polly Thompson. Helen relates

her feelings in her journal:

The deepest sorrow knows no time—it seems an eternal night. Truly did Emerson say that when we travel we do not escape from ourselves, we carry with us the sadness which blurs all places and all days. This is the first voyage Polly and I have had without Teacher, who was the life and center of our joumeyings by land and sea. Not until now have I realized that I shall not see her on earth. Our friends who came to bid us good-by brought flowers and fruits for only Polly and me. We have just one room whh two beds and coffee served mornings for only two. Dear, brave Polly, who used to read aloud to Teacher constantly, now reads to me with her fmgers when I can pay any attention. The anguish which makes me feel cut in two prevents me from writing another word about these life-wrecking changes. (Keller, 1938, p. 1)

Vocation and Education

It was evident that Helen's strong will was present in the learning process. She

demonstrated remarkable intellect and quickly learned the manual language and to read

Braille. Teacher even helped her learn French though Teacher herself did not origmally

speak the language. Helen begged to leam Latin and, as she declared she would to Dr.

Alexander Graham Bell, leamed Greek, too (Lash, 1980). She mastered five languages

by the time she graduated from college. Helen began to learn to speak using her vocal

chords in 1890 and expressed deep joy at her dogs coming to her commands and her baby

sister, Mildred responding to her voice (Keller, 1903; 1930).

10

Eventually, Helen's love for communication led her to attempt writing. She wrote

a story entitled "The Frost King," that impressed Teacher. Helen mailed it to a dear

friend who had helped Sullivan and Helen durmg the first portion of their journey

together, Michael Anagnos from the Perkms Institute for the Blind (Keller. 1903; Lash.

1980). Unfortunately the story's theme was found to be copied from the "Frost Fairies."

Helen could not recall having read the original story and offered the best explanation she

could figure: she had been read to and read so many stories and books that she must have

mistaken memory of the story for writer's inspiration (1903). However, Helen chose to

leam a valuable lesson from this escapade that cost her the respect of Anagnos. She

committed to herself and to all her readers that every line she wrote from then on she

would double-check for its originality. Helen's writing career ultimately focused on real-

life events, but not before she entered college. Helen fu-st prepared for examinations at a

school that her sister Mildred soon jomed her in. Oilman School for Young Lad ies

(Keller, 1903; Lash, 1980).

After successfully passing her entrance examinations, Helen entered Raddiffe in

1900. She was able to continue learning German and Latin and they added French to her

repertoire (Keller, 1903). Many of the required texts were translated into Braille as were

the notes, but just as many were not. Teacher took up the slack with these texts by

wearmg her weakening eyes haggard readmg and translating word for word from her

hand lo Helen's (Lash, 1980). Teacher also sat in each class and spelled out every word

the professor said in each class save two where the instructors learned and clumsily used

the manual language to give Teacher a rest (Keller, 1903).

As studies commenced, Helen and Teacher had also committed to writii^ down

Helen's story with the help of a friend, John Macy (Lash, 1980). The premier of The

Story of Mv Life satiated the world that had been fascmated that a deaf-blind girl had

accomplished language and had been following her stories and letters in magazines

(Lash, 1980; Shattuck, 200I)and was attempting to earn a degree. The press followed

herprogress with anticipation and off and on controversy over Sullivan's role as

translator {whether it is Sullivan or Helen doing the thinking). Helen and Teacher

purchased seven acres in Wrentham to live the same year that Helen graduated Cum

Laude from Raddiffe m 1904 (Foner, 1967; Lash, 1980).

Anne Sullivan formed a romantic interest m John Macy and m May of 1905 they

married. Anne Sullivan Macy was still Teacher, though, and Helen moved in with the

couple and Teacher cared for the now full-grown Helen as her life companion (Lash,

1903; Keller, 1938; 1955). John Macy was a Socialist, though his wife was not. Teacher

gave one book to Helen to open her mind to the existence of the movement as part of her

ongoing education—not to endorse it (Keller, 1913). The Macy marriage fell apart and

John left Anne in 1914 (Lash, 1980). Still, Teacher remained by Helen, her Hfe-long

project and friend (Keller, 1955).

Helen published many letters in newspapers and publications and traveled around

the world speaking. She took priority interest in the suffering of others and made it her

life-long contribution to raise funds specifically for the blmd. Her lasting books include:

The Story of My Life; The World I Live Jn; The Song of the Stone Wall; My Religion; Out

of the Dark; My Later Life; Journal; and Teacher.

Helen's Romantic Interest

Helen was a joyous spfrit and a cuddly child—she loved to hug and touch. When

she found for herself the meaning of love, that which makes us happy and drives us to

reach for others, she reached out to hug and kiss everyone (Keller, 1903; Lash, 1980).

For a while, however. Helen believed that romantic love was one of life's treasures

denied her (Lash, 1980).

That did not keep her from her many views on marriage. She had decided by

1915 and declared in an interview that marriage should ideally be on equal grounds for

both parties but that a man's control over the household's finances would prevent that;

she was very proud that she and Teacher paid their own way. She commented further

that a man's looks are secondary to humor and tendemess. Helen believed anyone should

marry if they can because it is the way the humanity was preserved (Lash, 1980).

Helen did fmd love for a brief, confusing time (Keller, 1930). John Macy hired

an assistant in the days when Teacher was ill and they were separatmg from each other.

Later, when the ladies' other companion Polly Thompson was to visit family, Mr. Macy

assigned his assistant to Helen and she took him along on one of the international tours

(Lash, 1980). The young man's name was Peter Fagan. He learned the manual language

and how to read Braille and became very fond of Helen. For reasons undocumented,

Peter fell out of favor with Helen's mother and Teacher did not think him serious (Lash,

1980). However, Peter Fagan was a devout Socialist (Lash, 1980). Helen's own socialist

ideology not only distinguished her from Teacher (Keller, 1913), it had distanced her

from her mother who did not agree (Keller, 1930). Moreover, Teacher was distracted by

her worsening health and her marital collapse to even concern herself with Peter.

Helen and Peter kept their affair a secret at fust (Lash, 1980). Helen wanted to

tell Teacher and her mother, but before she got the chance two of the servants told

Teacher. Teacher did not believe it initially but informed Helen's mother when the

Boston Globe published a rej>ort that Peter Fagan had taken out a marriage license to wed

Helen Keller. Helen's mother was furious and demanded to know everything from her

thirty-sbc year old daughter. Since her mother made no atten^t to hide her disgust over

the affair. Helen calmly denied the whole accusation to guard Peter (Lash, 1980). Peter

followed suh and denied to the press that he filed for a marriage license, but soon the

truth came out that they both had indeed intended to marry (Lash, 1980; Keller, 1930).

Mrs. Keller actively opposed them ever seeing each other again and kept abreast of any

news of Peter's whereabouts to avoid their meeting. While Mrs. Keller and Helen stayed

with Mildred, though, Peter and Helen secretly saw each other, which soon ended when

Mildred spied one of their meetings. Once their mother was told, Mildred's husband was

sent with a gun to drive Peter off Peter said he loved her but did not follow through whh

any more rendezvous (Lash, 1980).

Nature and Helen Keller

From her childhood, Helen had a deep love of words and the outdoors—the two

interests joining in her descriptions of long walks or sailing trips. In the book The Story

of My Life, which was the encore to various short essays on her experiences published m

The Ladies Home Journal, Helen is quick to point out to the curious:

I trust that my readers have not concluded from the preceding chapter on books that reading is my only pleasure; my pleasures and amusements are many and varied. More than once in the course ofmy story I have referred to my love of the country and out-of-door sports. When I was quite a little girl. I learned to row and swim, and during the summer...! ahnost live in my boat...of course 1 cannot guide the boat very well. Someone usually sits in the stem...while I row. (1903, p. 89)

Helen mentions her love of her dogs and children, and ever returns to her joyous long

walks and or her longing for stories or descriptions of nature's exploits (Keller, 1903,

1930,1938). Helen even related how writing about her life helped her fiilly grasp her

love of nature:

I had always reveled in the wonders of nature; but I had not dreamed what abundance of physical enjoyment I possessed until I sat down and tried to express in words the lacy shadows of little leaves, the fihny wings of insects, the murmur of breezes, the tremulous flutter of flowers, the soft breathing breast of a dove, filaments of sound in the waving grass, and gossamer threads intertwining and unreeling themselves endlessly. (Keller, 1930 p. 35)

Rehgion

Eighteen ninety-six was an eventful year for Helen. Helen entered the Oilman

School for Young Ladies in Cambridge in preparation for study at Raddiffe, Captain

Keller passed away, and Helen found her religious niche in the teachings of Ernest

Swedenborg (Keller, 1930; Lash, 1980). Helen's grief for her father and dedication to

higher education seemed to cuhninate in her lor^ awaited declaration of a religion.

Anagnos had requested that Helen be allowed to form her ideas of God on her ovm as a

kmd of experiment to fmd out if humanity's quest for God was an innate tendency.

Helen's father was Presbyterian and her mother. Episcopalian. Teacher, who flinctioned

for a long time like an extension of Helen herself, was an indolent Catholic (Lash, 1980).

Sullivan, however, in the role of teacher, friend, and in more contact with Helen's

family than Anagnos. expressed the difficuUy trying to open Helen up to Society and shut

her out from its religious discourse. For a long while, though. Teacher obeyed and did

not advise Helen about God despite her questions. To Anagnos dismay. Teacher

eventually took Helen to a church to quench her curiosity but carefully monitored

doctrinal messages relayed to Helen. Helen was alive with questions about a God who is

love but allows suffering through blindness and unkindness, what a spirit is, and where

heaven was (Lash, 1980). Helen discovered on her own what a spirit meant to her and

how it was God could transcend all she was and be everywhere at once by taking a

mental journey to a place she had read about but not seen (Keller, 1903). The problem

was then how she could reconcile which concept of God was correct; it was hard to

discern stories of the Bible from the myths she had studied in Greek and Roman

literature.

Helen soon came across a Braille copy of Heaven and Hell by Emanuel

Swedenborg (1688-1772). Bishop Brooks from Trinity church in Boston had been her

religious guide until she discovered this book that held answers Bishop Brooks did not

offer. It touched her that this book, like Bishop Brooks, also relayed the message of a life

where she would be able to see again after death and of a loving God. but that it did not

speak of the condemnation of people Helen viewed as well meaning like Jews and other

non-Christians. The Swedenborgian philosophy extols all who live right and believe in

God (Lash. 1980; Swedenborg, 2000). The religion also holds that the Bible is the word

of God, the freedom of all people is to discover their beliefs, love is the main element of

reality that when expressed in action creates Truth, and that the spirit in all is the lived

second coming of Christ in all believers (Swedenborg, 2000).

CHAPTER 111

AN OVERVIEW OF SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES

Only 93 years after the constitution was ratified, Helen Keller (1880-1968) was

bom (Lash, 1980). The land during these early times had become a recognized nation

with a steady influx of European immigrants. These immigrants brought with them a

culture that made the nation, from the socialist perspective, ripe for differing political

opinions to attempt to take root. This social movement that had been sweeping up

supporters in Europe set its sights on the United States in hopes this new country was the

place to establish its ideology of government (Bell, 1967). Indeed socialism had recmits

from very early on. however, it was more of an instigator of political stirs than an

established American party to be contended with despite rts efforts to be so. Its

recognizable start was in 1897 and its generally accepted end was in 1972 (Johnpoll &

Johnpoll. I98I). As Helen Keller at the time of her passing, was not the vocal socialist,

as earlier in her Hfe, this synopsis will focus on the younger days of socialism in the

United States before its defmite pass out of popular tolerance.

Socialism can be summarized as the alternative to capitalistic and feudal systems

that left the hardest working people in the worst financial situations. In terms of tangible

goals, socialists sought out an economic system that is based on cooperation rather than

competition and which utilizes centralized planning and distribution of goods and means.

The nature of this system has been described as the impossible dream (Johnpoll &

Johnpoll, 1981) because of the nature of the Utopia it predicted if implemented

(Muravchik. 2002).

A financial system of such far-reaching magnitude is accompanied by an entire

philosophical ideology of hope and equality that required a great deal of faith. In this

way, hs followers were embracing a life that placed its political goals in a religious

position. Many socialist followers and leaders, like Kari Marx, rejected God in favor of

this sort of prophetic heaven on earth were financial equality would free all that is good

and creative in humanity (Muravchik, 2002). Not all socialists in the United Slates,

however rejected their God, but rather incorporated their traditional religious theology in

with their political aspirations, as was the case with the Christian Socialists

(Dombrowski, 1966). Regardless, socialism was the answer for many Americans in the

form of a well developed, if impossible, dream.

The first socialists joined labor unions; but the goals of the unions themselves

were far different from the uhimate goals of Socialism. The unions sought to gain the

working class a respect level on par with that of the rich business owners (Bell, 1967).

With new technology this goal was close to becoming a reality leaving Socialism at a

loss. Still, all social revolutions in early America were spurred on by a dissatisfied

working class-providing the groundwork for SociaHsm to continue (Bell, 1967).

Nevertheless, the average American worker was in a better state of health and prosperity

than European counterparts (Bell, 1967); the new land was not as easily won over by the

Utopian philosophy offered by socialism. Therefore many different socialist-oriented

groups emerged and tried to answer the U.S. need; these groups included but were not

limited to the Labor Reform. The Working Man's Party, The Socialist Party, and the

Christian Socialists.

Labor Reform

During the decade of 1850 to 1860 socialists, like the anarchists, were ignored

radicals (Johnpoll & Johnpoll. 1981). The political atmosphere in which immediate

decisions had to be made over slavery enhanced the Utopian aspect of socialism so that it

was dismissed as an impractical solution. Socialism had become an anathema to a

problem not primarily economic (Burbach, 1997). Labor unions denounced the rhetoric

of socialist or socialist-like ideals (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981). However, after the Civil

War, despite political leanings towards capital gain and production. Labor reform revived

notions that paralleled Socialist ideals. Various people unwittingly recharged these ideals

by expressing hopes for society at large and lobbying for the restructuring of the average

laborer's day and wage. Wendell Phillips a Harvard educated. Christian intellectual

acknowledged that there was a class struggle that he feft was the fuel for unnecessary

crime, like theft. Phillips never professed to be a Marxist, though he was accused of it,

he stood by his societal ideal m the name of the Gospel declaring the possibility of a

Christian commonwealth on earth. The causes he stood by included human rights for

women, revision of the living situations of the workmg class, and the abolition of slavery.

He predicted he would not see many of these causes won in his lifetime and, with the

exception of the slavery issue, was correct. But all that he had actively lobbied for was

eventually reconstmcted (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981).

20

One of Phillips's goals was championed by Ira Steward, a reformer with a

pragmatic approach. He chose one cause in particular to implement, and though he

worked closely with German Socialists, was narrow in his focus—the creation and

achievement of the eight hour workday for the average laborer (Johnpoll & Johnpoll,

1981). These friendly dealings that Steward had with Socialists was representative of the

tolerant and even cooperative relationship Socialists had established.

Though proponents of Labor Reform attempted to use the Republican and

Democrat parties lo achieve their goals by voting only for those who supported reform

goals, many soon foimd this to be a sluggish means of achieving reform. In 1864, the

creation of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) held some promise, and

Kari Marx invited the Labor Reformers to consider joining (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981).

Though it was an invitation positively received, the National Labor Union's agenda (it

was more political than economic) and financial capabilities to send representatives to the

IWA prevented a complete merger with the socialist group.

The Working Man's Party

Workingman parties began to spring up as official labor parties initially started by

William Heighton (Johnpoll & Johnpoll. 1981). The fu-st party was started in

Philadelphia m July 1876 (Dombrowski, 1966). Though the term socialism was not used

in their title this party was comprised of laborers with socialist ideals and representatives

from these new parties were sent to the IWA to be recognized internationally, as well.

Heighton's general premise was that all weahh was acquired at the laborer's

expense and the imbalance of wealth amongst the masses was deleterious to society;

metaphorically terming the minimal compensation given to workers as an iron chain of

bondage (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981). Heighton encouraged more parties to form and

publications to begin, and accordingly, in Massachusetts and New York, Workingman

Parties were established. Heighton attempted to establish a permanent party of

Workingmen to prompt major political action. Though many of the specific areas they

stood for was considered radical at the time, much of the proposals for reform has

occurred and is common in contemporary America (pubhc education, not being

imprisoned for debt, opposition to monopolies, etc.). However the planned political

movement was too deviant from popular culture at the time and the Working Man parties

faded away. New York's Workingman party led. amongst others, by Robert Dale Owen

was the shortest lived; the rise and fall of socialist parties soon afterwards was termed the

Owenite period (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981).

Eugene V. Debs

Dissatisfied with the pace of labor reform and unimpressed with the dwindling

support for the Workmg Man's parties, a man, "fierce in his convictions, kind and

compassionate in his personal relations (Zinn, 1999 p. 16)" began supporting a movement

of strikes against the issue closest to his heart. Eugene V. Debs in 1894, not yet a

Socialist, started the American Railway Union to lead a nationwide boycott of raih-oads

while taking militant action like burning railway cars. Imprisoned for his actions, he was

afforded the time m jail to bmsh up on socialist literature with growing affinity and when

released from prison the first time dedicated himself to the socialist dream (Bell, 1967;

Zinn, 1999). In the first 17 years of the twentieth century many people followed suit with

socialists in the U.S. supporting the notion of production for use and not profit. Socialist

works and newspapers, like the Appeal to Reason, were widely read and by 1910

approximately 100,000 people were members of socialist parties and included office

holders, railroad worker, coal miner, lumberjacks, and those Christians with an interest in

the social state of the U.S. (Dombrowski, 1966; Bell, 1967; Zinn, 1999)

Socialist parties began to form in the U.S. and Debs was at the forefront by

joinhig the Brotherhood of the Co-operative Coramonweakh and helping to create the

Social Democracy of America. However, because the majority of the party favored

colonizing and forming a socialist society. Debs and other dissenters began the Social

Democratic Party of America (Dombrowski, 1966).

The Socialist Party

The Social Democratic Party of America under Debs leadership met in delegation

with the Socialist Labor party in 1900 and worked together on a presidential campaign

and merged the following year to form the Socialist Party of America (Stang, 1905;

Dombrowski, 1966). The Socialist Labor Party still persisted independently. The

platform of the Socialist Labor party resembled the fiiture communist agenda.' The

Socialist Party, though in line with the goal of correctmg the means of production to

Attempting to gam control quickly by any means, even if it be violent, to establish a government that is in control of all productive resources.

23

establish a class-less society, was more intent on taking political action with the current

government by forming a working class party that advocates collective ownership by the

people (Dombrowski, 1966).

By the 1900s. Socialism was represented almost entirely by the two parties.

Socialist Party of America and the Socialist Labor Party (Stang, 1905; Dombrowski,

1966). The maintaince of and recmits for membership were accomplished by

publications. Four monthly magazines were widely read: "The International Socialist

Review." Wilshire's Magazine," 'The Comrade," and "The Southern Socialist" (Stang.

1905). The "Appeal to Reason" publication had the highest circulation for the weekly

socialist journals; there were also several daily international publications (Stang. 1905;

Dombrowski, 1966).

These publications aided in overcoming the inkial assumptions that socialism was

in the same category of anarchist rebels, which threatened to prematurely discredit

socialism because anarchists advocated violent measures to eliminate all goverrmient

(Stang, 1906). Nevertheless, the party met with much opposition in the United States

because of its reputation of being irreligious and challenging the current system of

government despite its popularity wkh a portion of the working-class (Stang, 1906).

Christian Socialists

Although in Europe k was claimed that socialist ideas had its roots in intellect and

fairness from the time of Plato, in America k was claimed that the Old Testament

prophets and Jesus encouraged the socialist notions especially by the clergyman that

24

turned to socialism in the time between 1870-1940 (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981). Earnest

attempts were made to establish a socialist movement that was Christian at ks foundation

W.D.P. Bliss was a prominent leader, editor, and organizer of such efforts. He

was a coi^regational leader who identified with the plight of the working-class and was

openly crkical of the church perpetuating class distinctions to the point that as he

mcreasingly embraced socialist ideals he decided to change membership to the Episcopal

Church. He sought for the church to unite without denomination as one Christian body

that encouraged seeking freedom m unity not just freedom or just imky as he fek the

Catholic and Protestant churches did (Dombrowski, 1966). Bliss set up a meetii^ hall

for all Christian groups to meet and discuss the problems of the working class and was

the charter member and planner of the Church Association for the Advancement of the

Interest of Labor (CAIL). Bliss had also prior to his affiliation with the CAIL worked for

the United States government as an investigator for the Department of Labor

(Dombrowski, 1966).

Others joined Bliss in his fervor for an establishment of a representative kingdom

of God on earth. Theoretician William Rauschenbusch, a professor of church history and

proponent of Baptist theology posited that socialism ought to be the Christian's choice

for social order because of the offer of solidarity based on love, emancipation from

poverty for the masses, and the seeking of tme justice. Rauschenbusch became the center

of some of the mtemal bickering amongst Christian socialists and so never actually

became a member though he professed his dedication to his interpretation of the socialist

ideology (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981).

25

Despke those who tried to lead the Christians that supported socialism to a

defmite platform their role was largely educational and avoided definitive party

affiliation though some supported the labor movements wkh a sociaHst slant and a few

went as far as to join the Socialist Labor Party. However, in the 1900s many Christians

were members of Socialist Party of America. A prominent Christian Socialist of this

tune period was J. Stitt Wilson who represented the belief that Christ's sacrifice was for

Christians to realize an mcreasingly more just society wherein evil would progressively

vanish as mankind embraced God (Johnpoll & Johnpoll, 1981).

Helen Keller's Affiliation to Socialism

A compassionate and socially mmded person, Helen Keller found herself captured

by the concept of Socialism (Keller, 1913; Foner, 1967), where everyone would be equal

and no one wealthier or entkled to more than the next. Anne Sullivan, her teacher and

lifetime companion, married John Macy who was a member of both the Socialist Party

and the Industrial Workers of the World (I WW). Sullivan, however, was not moved to

become a Socialist herself She did thmk k knportant to relay this world movement to

her student. To Helen she gave a book whose style Sullivan found imagmative. H. G.

Well's New Worlds for Old. Helen Keller was taken by k in more than educational

appreciation—she found a promise of a world of equality and no suffering.

Keller, independent of Macy and Sullivan, became involved by publishing letters

and speakmg about her commkment to Socialist ideals. Keller read many Socialist

publications, but most frequently she read the National Socialist (Keller, 1913; Foner,

1967). She declared herself a Socialist and a member of the IWW. Often Keller and

Macy argued wkh Sullivan to change her mind but were unsuccessful. Realizing the

attention the world paid her. Keller carefully followed the treatment of the poor, laborers,

and Socialists and refused to keep silent about mistreatment and her dreams for a better

future (Keller, 1913). In 1921, Keller decided to narrow her focus for helping society to

raising funds for the Blmd and advocating the betterment of their cause (Foner. 1967).

Soon thereafter she rarely declared Socialist views, but she still wrote to people she

considered comrades, urging them on in the hope that Socialism would become

successful (Foner, 1967). The idea that Keller's words might mspfre workers drove

Nazi's in 1933 to bum her books (Foner, 1967).

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH MODEL

Helen Keller left an knpression on the framer of this methodology. In one of the

preliminary articles that reasons out the model, the author uses Keller's symbol

acquiskion to emphasize the importance of communication to social involvement

(Brown, 1978). The article points out that the "child-become-symbol-user (Brown, 1978

p. 127)" gamed a means to categorize experience and recognize and manage elements in

all events as a resuk. It seems appropriate, when considering Keller's pertinence m

making a point for this methodology's development, that the methodology may make

Keller's use of communication m social participation germane, as well.

William R. Brown developed a model of Social Intervention that analyzes

communicative mteraction in terms of systems and interdependency. Brown builds this

model on certain precepts about the human propensity to communicate in order to deal

wkh the world (1978). These precepts move beyond the biological fight or flight

response to new skuations mto a response of categorization and abstraction. The use of

language is mkially a symbol system built to communicate about objects that have been

named and. Brown posks, eventually to create ideological notions that help to bind

together and separate populations m terms of world views (Brown, 1978). The

abstraction of ideas for symbols is simply an extension of naming and can be used to

attribute needs to others creatuig shared and competitive motives. The Rhetoric of Social

28

Intervention (RSI), then, presumes that human conception of and reaction to realky is due

to symbol dependant perspectives of language, behavior, sUuation, and communky.

Such an ordering of ideas, like motives, moving from abstraction into concrete

form generates action and a social order that ideologically categorizes the world wkh

communication mediating. These shared identities across the social hierarchy helps bring

order to the world for an individual who shares m an ideology's beliefs and an

interpersonal power sharmg is possible (Brown, 1978). Moreover, though perspectives on

reality are how humans make sense of the world k is not always the basis for action.

Often people's behavior is contingent upon what others expect, preference, or direct

orders (Brovm, 1986). This suggests that the interaction between social mvolvement and

communication produces not ordy varying ideologies but also the schematic that

ideologies fiinction dynamically as a system in order to survive. The system maintains the

order that the ideology brings to the world—a sense of personalized reality.

This order is of importance to a human— t̂o the extent that a person will shift

attention away from concepts that cast shadows on the ideology or rationalizes

actions/ideas the person might not otherwise support save that leaders of the ideology

generate them (Brown, 1978). When deviant messages are allowed to be amplified k

hurts the ideology, so the needs of the ideology's followers feeds a power sub-cycle to

counter the deviance. Countering deviant messages must do more than ignore them.

Brown points out, or the system that ideologies function as would stagnate. The power

cycles must conduct attention-switching renaming of the message, that is to frame new or

deviant information in alertness to needs both real and communicatively constructed.

This perpetuating cycle will maintain kself so long as the people still grant it

communicative authority—sharing beliefs to satisfy the ideology's system of needs,

power, and attention.

The system then has three functional entry points when usmg this methodology:

attention, power, and need (Brown, 1978; Brown, 1982; Brown. 1986; Brown, 1987;

Grmg, 1998). The model kself functions as a system so that any entry point wiU

inexorably incorporate the other two concepts as subsets to the researcher-chosen entry

(Brown, 1987). In other words, each of the three entries is mutually inclusive of the other

two—k is holographic and trilectic. Brown's methodology specifically fi^mes the

analysis of intervention through rhetorical material m terms of identifying the intervener,

the audience, and the intervention itself (Gring, 1998).

Attention

Attention is the concept Brown uses as an extension of his naming proposkion

(1982). The term attention-shift is used in labeling the use of communication to narrow,

refocus, and, in an underlymg manner, rename (Brown, 1982, Grmg, 1998).

Communication's Imk to language use is pertinent as k is coupled wkh a worldview of

events, people, and ideas. Therefore a successful attempt at refocusing attention is ki

essence a renaming, skice nammg is that which makes somethmg "real" to a person

(Brovm, 1978). Once the renaming, or attention shift, has occurred, the mtervention into

social needs and power will enact a need for action or consequential behavior.

30

Communication, therefore, dictates, motivates, and supports action (Brown, 1982). This

places relevance on the social mtervention that occurs prior to any social movement.

If persons reverse trends wkh thek rhetorical efforts so that communication

resuks m a reflection of new trends, then the person has accomplished an attention-shift;

the trend has been, in an elementary sense, renamed (Brown, 1982). These attention-

shifting rhetors often utilize different methods to call mto question epistemological and

axiological assumptions over knowledge and its value to alter the appearance of social

realkies. Brown points out that a rhetor may shift along the spectrum of epistemological

knowledge-acceptmg varieties, perhaps from the doctrinal to the intuitive ways of

knowing to scientific reasoning, for instance (1982). Different levels of metaphor may be

used to guide different levels of the gestalt movement from one accepted attention to

another (Brown. 1982). The ideological or philosophical nature of social interaction, or

ontology, may also be called upon to question scientific axiological conclusions or uses

m terms of interpretation as well as its relative pragmaticism. In short, the attention shift

mcludes any new way of attending to a subject/person/issue that results from social

mtervention.

Power

Brown makes the evaluative observation that rhetoric has been overlooked as

power by the scholarly (1986). His methodology attempts to correct this oversight by

includmg a new-fangled view of power as k is expressed rhetorically. Tradkionally

power is viewed as that abilky to act in a way that produces an effect. Attaining and

maintainmg such ability so that k is a recognized right to a person/group places them m a

poskion of power. However, how power is maintained and recognized and Hmited is

where rhetoric's significance lies.

Furthermore, power operates within what Brown terms a "code" or culturally

based mles for acceptable boundaries to communication (1986). This code is implick to

communication and behavior and so is yet another determinant of power. The

transmission of selections for power is narrowed m scope by this extra-discursive code;

the rules that iimk options are taken for granted, as culture often is.

The social intervention model describes power as a division of shares in decision

making over the fiiture of the situation the mtervention is focusing on (Brown, 1986). A

key point here is that power in any skuation is not limked to one person/group, it is

always socially dependant upon the communicative recognkion of another's power to

help brmg about an effect. Thus, a share in the power cycle is dependant upon and

limked to a social system that communicatively allows the shift of power shares from one

group or individual to another (Brown, 1986). This emphasizes hierarchies that surround

the decision in question for an expression of power to intervene. Hierarchies form when

people are communicatively labeled or recognized as ordered by the amount of power

shares they have upon decision-makmg. Expressmg ethos ui spacious rhetoric so that

others may recognize credibility becomes an example of a person gaining ground in a

hierarchy and obtaming power shares (Brown, 1986). A power share is essentially a

responsibility in choosing amongst possible code-determmed options that depends on

other symbol users to cooperate in the choice in order for the decision to be made

32

(Brown, 1986). Once k is made and an effect occurs, the expression of power is what

one recognizes traditionally as power. This responsibility, though, for varying reasons of

symbol recognition will shift between people who make the power share real. In this

way, the power code fimctions across tunes as a "rhythm of cycles" (Brown, 1986, p.

187).

This rhythm is a spkal of progressive developments and awareness of its patterns

is through communication. In other words, the question of who holds the power shares

can only be answered by communicative recognition and this recognition occurs when

the one(s) seeking power shares have communicated well enough to be recognized.

Moreover, as power is not a straightforward issue, cycles of conflict and maladjustment

can occur if the recognkion of power is not periodically revised between cooperative and

competkive forces (Brown, 1986). This rhythm of power recognkion, when viewed with

the lens of Brown's emphasis on interdependency and intervention through rhetorical

argumentative tactics, suggests mukiple spirals are open for analysis: a spiral of

communicative recognkion of power within the overall system; a spiral of

communicative recognkion of power within the rhetor's (or group of rhetors') rhetoric

that attenpts to accept, reflect, and possibly attempt to change the system of power; and a

spkal of anticipated consequential behavior from share recognition and dispersment of

shares as reflected by the rhetorical artifacts.

Need

33

Need completes the topoi of entry points for this methodology. Needs are

mclusive of biosocial imperatives and thai which can be communicatively constmcted as

needs (Brown. 1987). The advocacy or hampermg of needs and whether or not these

needs are bekig denied or fulfilled are to be analyzed usmg Brownian methodology.

Biosocial needs are those needs that, though socially and communicatively

understood as needs, are also needs that are not dependant upon human communication to

be realized as needs (Brown. 1987). These needs are carried biologically and fostered

socially—nature and nurture. For example, hunger as a biological imperative that is

complex ki the societal use of it and social needs as a biological and socially nurtured

need. Growth and survival are the qualifiers for this category of needs. 1 hese needs may

be individual or group centered to meet or suppress these urges; the spectmm of needs

ranges from mdividually stressed needs like thirst to collectively reinforced needs that

function as motives (Brown, 1987). Brown summarizes. "...Constant, however, is the

assumption that human needs are givens, that they exist to be expressed in

conmiunication; when expressed they become a social intervention. Rhetoric, in such

cases, consists of making appeals from or to these biosocial givens. Though expressed

and shared through symbols. they...are the engines of change m human affaks" (1987, p.

53).

When the nexus of need is looked at in the system of analysis the other two topoi

are found to proceed in a complementary manner (Brovm, 1987). This trialectic

functions such that attention will shift to one need verses another, and power will react

competkively or cooperatively to fulfill the need that has the new focused attention.

Approach to Methodology

Using Social Intervention as a method requires an evaluation of ks different

components with respects to the chosen representative rhetorical artifacts. The

mtervention focuses on an occasion where a momentous change was caused or prevented

by rhetoric and can be used to focus on one person's use of rhetoric to be mvolved wkhin

the intervention.

In the case of this study of Socialist rhetoric, one person Helen Keller will be

focused on. The mtervener, however, is twofold: the Socialist Helen Keller as an

mtervener mto the system of the Unked States and non-Socialist Helen Keller as an

intervener into the system of the United States. The fu-st mtervention attempted to bring

about the realization of Socialist benefits to the United States and hoped to encourage the

realization of the Socialist agenda. The second intervention is the successful mtervention

on Helen Keller's part— t̂he polkical movement of recognizing blind people's rights.

However, a brief discussion must needs be had in the chapter over the intervention of

Socialism, as Keller understands it, mto the system of her person; for in attempting an

intervention on the coat tads of Socialism she has introduced k into the development of

the system of her person, as well. The pertmence of which frames the two main

interventions of this study. There will be brief discussion over the preceding intervention

of Socialist rhetoric on Keller's view of needs that leads to her first mtervention atten^t

and over the complementary system of world polkics and Keller's minute intervention

attempt there.

To explore each of the two main systems, two different entry points will be

employed: power (Brown, 1986) for the first main system and attention shift (Brown.

1982) for the second. Two of the primary artifacts. Out of the Dark a Socialist text Helen

Keller authored and a collection of Socialist publications gathered by Philip S. Foner

were chosen for their obvious relevance to her Socialist years. However k should be

noted here that Foner's collection Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years was chosen not only

because it is a comprehensive, longitudinal textual collection, but also because he did no

addkional edking to the original publication of each section. Keller's Journal was

selected as her personal testament to her fmal life mission.

CHAPTER V

THE SOCIALIST INTERVENTION AS REPRESENTED BY HELEN KELLER

This chapter focuses on the mtervention of Helen Keller into the U.S. polkical

system. However two other systems complement this one and need to be addressed. The

first is the system of Helen Keller. Saliency of discussing this system first is because the

intervention of her understanding of Socialism refocused her attention so that she would

ultimately attempt an mtervention into the government. The second system is that of the

world's varying governments into which Keller intermittently attempted intervention.

She understood Socialism to be a world dream and as she developed mto a world traveler

found the need, on occasion, to speak up to other goverrunents, as well. In a later section,

this chapter will move into the world system and how Keller's rhetoric attempted

intervention.

The system of Keller as a person needs to be discussed first. Keller was not a

Socialist irmately, obviously, and she did not become a Socialist until her teacher.

Sullivan exposed her to the book New World's for Old, as mentioned m the mtroduction

of this thesis. The book illuminated Keller's concern for others m a way she had not

considered—a comprehensive solution. Keller was stmck by the condkions and causes of

many of the blind in the U.S., "1 shall never forget the pain and amazement which 1 fek

when 1 came to examme the statistics of blindness, its causes, and its connection wkh

other calamities that befall thousands ofmy fellow-men' (1913, p 9-10). The low class

workers' skuation was just as much a concern for her, "why is k that so many workers

37

live m unspeakable misery'" (Keller, 1913. p. 15)? Conversely, Keller's own skuation

was strikingly different—she was never held back or went without, "Here I sit, warmly

clad, secure against want, sure that what my welfare requires the world will

give.. .Through these generous surroundmgs 1 feel the touch of a hand, invisible but

potent, all sustammg..." (1913, p. 3). Though this situation that had left her

unquestioning and comfortable with democracy and capitalism durmg her early life,

when she focused on overcoming her disabilky, the naggkig feeling that she was the

exception and not the mle became hard for her to ignore.

As she became more and more educated and capable of communicating with

those around her and connecting to that interdependent cycle of shares in society, as

described in a chapter entkled "An apology for gokig to college," Keller was struck by

the disparky between her skuation and many other blind, deaf, hard working, poor people

(1913). In other words, Keller responded to the book New Worlds for Old because it

began an intervention mto her system. This prompted her to request and explore more

Ikerature on the subject. It is clear that this was an individual intervention into Keller.

Anne Sullivan was left untouched by Socialist rhetoric; she viewed k as an educational

explok and nothing more. Keller viewed k as the answer and calling she had long

awaited—her way not only to communicatively connect wkh the world, but to also make

a difference in it. The Socialist movement had accomplished ks unwkting intervention

and gamed a recruk m Keller. Keller then joined ks movement hoping to intervene wkh

her rhetoric to help make Socialism a reality.

U.S. Government System

Socialism as a system is a collection of diverse people who for diverse reasons

seek the eventual rise to power of a new centrally-controlled government and means of

production. Keller intervened mto the system of the government by the people by

appealmg to the people with the Socialist agenda. Her argumentative approach to the use

of power for a new government mvolved carefully choosing causes to which she fek her

voice had a share in influencmg—for instance the causes of the Wind and of women.

These were the launching points for publishing her reactions to the issues of workers or

the U.S. response to Russia. Her approach to her share ki democracy's fiitiu-e was

vigilantly mapped in this way. Keller's specific articles are a testament to her quick wk

and perceptiveness—for she quickly became aware of how her opmion was dismissed

based on her disabilky and dependence on her family and Anne Sullivan (Foner, 1967).

Keller takes advantage of the attention warranted her and responds intelligently to

demonstrate her independence and abilky to claim such a share m society's stmcture—

always careful to pokitout her opinion was educated and well-studied, "I...tumedtothe

literature of our day for an answer" (1913, p. 15). She understood that reactions to her

involvement could be strong but so could her response:

For several months my name and Socialism have appeared often together in the newspapers... I am glad that many people are interested m me..,In the fiiture I hope to wrke about Socialism and to justify in some measure the great amount of publicky...l should like to make a statement ofmy poskion and correct some false reports and answer some crkicisms which seem to me unjust. Fkst—how did I become a Socialist? By reading.. .In the light of the foregomg I wish to comment on a piece about me which was printed m the Common Cause and reprinted in the Live Issue, two anti-socialist publications. Here is a quotation from that piece: 'For twenty-five years Miss Keller's teacher and constant companion has been Mrs. John Macy, formeriy of Wrentham. Mass. Both Mr.

And Mrs. Macy are enthusiastic Marxist propagandists, and k is scarcely surprising that Miss Keller, depending upon this lifelong friend for her most mtimate knowledge of life, should have knbibed such opinions.' (Keller, 1913, p. 18-22)

She responds to the edkor of this quote in no uncertain terms:

Mr. Macy may be an enthusiastic Marxist propagandist, though 1 am sorry to say he has not shown much enthusiasm m propagatmg his Marxism through my fmgers. Mrs. Macy is not a Marxist, not a Socialist. Therefore, what the Common Cause says about her is not true. The editor must have mvented that, made it out of whole cloth, and if that is the way his mmd works, k is no wonder that he is opposed to Socialism or anyihmg else intellectually worthwhile. (Keller, 1913, p. 22)

Even if she was defensive ki a way about remarks regardmg her disabilky, her condkion

and the mitial reaction to her Socialist rhetoric caused her to be cautious. For example,

Keller expressed here her trepidation at wrking to Senator La Follete for that very reason;

I have heskated to wrke to you because I know that the newspapers opposed to the Progressive movement will cry out at the 'pathetic explokation of deaf and blmd Helen Keller by the motley elements who support La Follete.' It would be difficuk to knagine anything more fatuous and stupid than the attitude of the press toward anything I say on public affaks. (Foner, 1967, pi 13)

Keller was referring to the article that accused her beliefs of stemmmg from her long-

term caretaker, Anne Sullivan Macy. The same article admonished agamst such

exploitation of Keller. Clearly. Keller was shaken by the comment as was demonstrated

in her letter to La Follete, even though she retorted:

There is a chance for satkical comment on the phrase, 'the explokation of poor Helen Keller.' But 1 will refram, sunply saying that I do not like the hypocritical sympathy of such a paper as the Common Cause, but I am glad if k knows what the word 'explokation' means. (Keller, 1913 p. 23)

Further grasping that her views on her own life have sold books to attentive

readers with power shares, ki terms of votes, Keller publishes a book wkh Socialist

overtones through most of k and blatant declarations in portions of k (1913). Keller is

aware that, as a female ckizen prior to women's suffrage, her power shares stretched only

so far as people were willmg to read what she had to say. Traditionally they looked to

her for her harrowmg tale of overcoming a deaf bhndness into a leamed. communicating

society (Foner, 1967; Lash, 1980). She responds m kmd wkh this book, creatively

weavmg U as a tale of society's metaphorical blindness and relating k to her own literal

blindness and to the cause of the blind in general who have been stmck as such because

of poor working condkions. The title of the book is a declaration of her overarching,

argumentative metaphor, Out of the Dark, mdicating her battle to overcome this

limitation and calling for society to do the same (Keller, 1913). Such carefully chosen

responses and use of metaphor to stimulate and challenge mtdligent reactions is a prime

example of methods in a rhetor's use of power according to RSI by Brown (1986).

Keller is not Iknked to metaphor, however, but uses challenges, irony, and quick

responses to the changing polkical field. As Keller states of her Socialist power

investment, "you will see that it is the workers themselves who will work out thek own

salvation. All we can do is to get mto the procession" (Foner, 1967, p. 53).

Attention Shift

Though attention shift runs as a chord through the power cycle (Brovm, 1978).

there are some particular renaming efforts that are more blatant (Brown, 1982). The first

attention shift of salience ki the artifacts is Keller's defense of her mtdlectual capabilkies

despite public doubts over her opinion-forming competence. Second, Keller's basic

proposal, that establishes her intervention mto the power cycle of the U.S. government, is

for a renaming of democracy to exclude capkalism thus pavmg the way for Socialism.

In response to media defamation, Keller renames her opinion-forming aptitude as

a learned decision: "First—how did I become a Socialist? By reading...." (1913, p. 18)

Also, she faced public's skepticism over her education and in Out of the Dark reminds

them of k:

People are too prone to think that the actual is the limit of possibilky. They believe that all that has been done is all that can be done. They ridicule every departure from practice. 'No deaf-blind person has ever taken a college course,' they say, 'Why do you attempt what no one else has ventured? Even if you succeed in passing the entrance examinations, you cannot go on after you go mto college. You have no books. You cannot hear lectures. You cannot make notes. You are most foolhardy to attempt somethkig in which you are sure to fail.' Thus counseled the unadventurous people to whom the untrodden field is full of traps and pkfalls. Akhough they are Christians, yet they are possessed of the idea that man does everything, and God does nothing! (Keller, 1913 p. 86-87)

Ardently she pomts out the misconception that the blind are lackkig m mental capacky,

so much so that she adds to her Socialist text the proper way to raise a blind child:

Laugh and talk wkh your blmd child as you look and smile at your seemg child. Pass his hand lightly over your features and let him feel...the child will leam these expressions, come m tkne to unkate them.. .It is very necessary for the blmd child to have a face which speaks to the world of seeing persons in the language which they are accustomed to read ki each other's countenances. Without that he will be isolated...people shrink fromablind-lookmg face and mistake its blankness for stupidity. (Keller. 1913 pp.197-198)

Keller also in a chapter entkled "What the blmd can do" attempted to put to rest, with an

extended essay of capabilkies, the stereotype that the blmd are capable only of

performmg manufacturing duties because of the false assumption that they cannot

participate in kitellectual affaks (1913).

When her ideals were unfairly attacked by the papers—focusing on unrelated

details rather than socialist reasoning, Keller fmds metaphor a useful tool, just as Brown

posks a rhetor relies on (1986). Note how Keller admonishes the editor of the New York

Evening Sun who commented on 'females' who dispense 'socialistic commonplaces':

It is you who are smashmg the china in my cupboard, Mr. Editor! What has been done to you? You fly into atkadeat eyerything...Angds of Heaven, defend me from your wrath.. .these commonplace truths sound harsh to your delicate ears. It is 'mconvenient' that one deaf and blind from infancy, and 'brought up under the capkalistic system' should utter such impious blasphemies against a system which every one knows to be humane, philanthropic. Christian... Mister Edkor it is you who are deaf and dumb and blind. (Foner, 1967, p. 50)

Keller's attention shift proposal for intervention defined the capitalistic aspect of

the U.S. m such a way to show how k compromised tme democracy. In this call for

revision, she accuses the U.S. of upholding a false democracy and a false use of society's

power shares:

Are not the dominant parties managed by the mlmg classes, that, the propertied classes, solely for the profit and privilege of the few? They use us millions to help them into power. They tell us. like so many children, that our safety lies m voting for them. They toss us crumbs of concession to make us believe that they are workmg kiour mterest...We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. (Foner, 1967 p. 31)

Note here how Keller uses the kony of the nationalistic phrase 'we, the people..." from

the U.S. Declarationoflndependenceintheconstmctionof her argument for a

declaration of a new power ki the U.S. Ukimatdy, Keller is requesting a renaming of

democracy as a sieppkig-stone to Socialism—the dream of paradise on earth. Keller

predicted:

We are marchkig toward a new freedom. We are leamkig that freedom is the only safe condkion for all human beings, men and women and children. Only through freedom, freedom for all. can we hope for a true democracy. Some of us have

imagined that we live in a democracy. We do not. A democracy would mean equal opportunity for all...Such a democracy has never existed (For\cr, 1967, p. 53).

Keller was clear in her belief that the democracy of her time was not functional,

"so long as those who vote are at the beck and call of party machines, the people are not

free" (Foner, 1967 p. 31). Notice her tkade over democracy in this excerpt from a speech

from the Labor Reform meeting m 1915 concerning the nation's military policy:

This great republic is a mockery of freedom as long as you are doomed to dig and sweat to earn a miserable living while the master enjoys the fruk of your toil. What have you to fight for? National independence? That means the masters' independence. The laws that send you to jail when you demand better living conditions? The flag? Does it wave over a country where you are free and have a home, or does k rather symbolize a country that meets you wkh clenched fists when you strike for better wages and shorter hours? (Foner, 1967 p. 74)

Again Keller pointed to democratic rights as poignant to this attention shift, 'The

majority of mankind are working people. So long as thek fair demands—the ownership

and control of their lives and livelkiood^are set at naught, we can have nekher men's

rights nor women's rights" (Foner, 1967 p.32). Keller was suggestkig that the flag, laws,

and democracy in general would be made right sans Capkalism. She also suggested that

the U.S. could be the begmning of the world dream Socialism, "the future of the world

rests ki the hands of America. The fiiture of America rests on the backs of 80,000,000

working men and women and thek children" (Foner, 1967 p. 75).

She ties this world dream and the attention shift m symbolically with seasonal

Christian ideology:

A great Change is coming—peace upon earth, good-will to all men.. .Loi^ and confident the Christmas bells are rkiging...The night of man's captivity is at an end, the dawn of peace between man and man hasteneth to come and k shall not tarry.. .already men and women are working and thmking and living for this Great

Change, and thek efforts are mighty wkh the might of intelligence and good-will. For them the bells of a world Christmas are ringing... (Keller, 1913 pp. 274-275)

Indeed Keller fek her polkical views to be consistent with her religious ones that were

also of marginal public acceptance, "Swedenborg shows, love teaches us the highest of

all arts—the art of living" (1913 p. 263). She included a tribute to his teachings in Out of

the Dark. Swedenborg taught that the second coming of Christ is m Christians who live

His truth to make earth a better, more tolerant land (Swedenborg. 2000). Keller used

metaphor in describing Swedenborg's version of practicing Christianrty, "In love we fmd

our release from the evils of physical and mental blindness^'' (Keller, 1913, p. 262).

These ideas of mental and social blmdness and ks link to the causes of physical blindness

are a prevalent theme in Keller's argumentative framework. In her accumulation of

education Keller foimd what perpetuated what she believed was the lowly state of many

in Capitalism:

Perhaps in college you may meet wkh books which suggest to you that it is noble and comely to be unhappy. Many clever people have found many reasons for unhappmess. Some leamed men have peered between the curtains of life's tabernacle, found it empty and a cunning sham, and in the dknness of thek spkkual sight they have gone away gmmblkig, never suspectmg thek own blindness. From thek conclusions tum to Stevenson and Browning, read St. Paul's epistles, leam that the tabernacle is a temple whereki God abides. (1913 p. I l l )

Keller was certaki that her attention shift would soon be shared by the world, subscribing

to the prophetic nature of Socialist rhetoric (Muravchik, 2002).

Power Shares

Brown emphasizes kiterdependency and the communicative share in future

choosing as the fiinctional aspects ofpower (1986). A rhetor's attempt to intervene into

social dynamics will always mcorporate the use ofpower. The rhetor that proposes a

shift by exclusion, inclusion, increase or decrease in shares over future decision-making

may have the rhetoric analyzed wkh power as the focal point.

The goal of Helen Keller's socialist rhetoric was mtended to prompt her readers to

reevaluate the polkical power shares of Unked States society m the late 1800's to early

1900s. The two texts that will be used as artifacts are collections of this rhetoric.

Thematically, Keller's proposal is for a Socialist society in which the means and yield of

production be centrally controlled and dispersed evenly (Keller, 1913; Foner, 1967).

Keller's belief is that with such a system wherein weakh and poverty extremes are

nonexistent, that everyone has a share in society's brighter future. Keller muses,

•...mukkudesofmen, for some strange reason, fail to share m the much-talked-of

progress of the world" (1913, p. 9). As a resuk, she argues m her rhetoric both for support

and to encourage those who share in this dream, "...the heart of man labors toward

immeasurably distant goals. Discouraged not by difficukies without, or the anguish of

ages wkhin, the heart listens to a secret voice that whispers: 'Be not dismayed; m the

future lies the Promised Land" (1913, p. II).

Keller's kmd heart and good fakh in humanky had reinterpreted the use of each

votkig citizen's democratic power share as a step in the dkection towards a more equal

society. Keller reasons out this power share distribution on the basis of democracy and

labor (1913; Foner, 1967). Democracy, Keller relates, is a system where policy makkig

lies wkh the people and she extends this view to include an economic equilateral

dispersion not only to captains of industry, but to the laborers themselves (Foner, 1967).

It is evident that Keller relied on metaphor and personal testknony as tools for

persuasion. From societal 'blindness' to the 'subtle hand' of the laborer. Keller weaves

her increasmgly less subtle prod for a correction of these social ills. Keller also seeks to

inspire—in the way that she herself was mspired. Much of her rhetoric that pleas for a

power shift has a reverential, almost religious tone to it—consistent with her essay on

Christmas and her tribute to Swedenborg. For instance, m her essay "The Hand of the

World," Keller is borrowing a tkle from poetry by Helen Fiske Jackson that spoke of

man's "transcendent art" (Foner. 1967) and Keller fiirther implies not rewarding this

transcendence wkh what it provides society, "k would mean that every child had a

chance to be well bom, well fed, well taught and properly stared in life...It would mean

that all men enjoyed the fruks of their labor" (Foner, 1967 p. 53).

She further encourages confidence and joy in her comrades and people in general

as if it were a holy calling. Like here, in a reprinting ofa response to a young gkl

beginning college, she encourages her wkh admonitions to right ills:

Be happy, talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours. Rebel against the hardness and injustice of things as much as you like. It is always well to keep your fightkig edge keen to smite wrongs wherever you meet them. But never doubt the excellence and permanence of what is yet to be.. .Joy is the holy fire that keeps ourpmpose warm and our kitelligence aglow. (1913, p. 110)

Again, in a speech delivered by Keller she relates how people must inevkably

accept Socialism to right ills. Note the religious overtones, as well:

47

But some of us are wakmg up. We are fmdkig out what is wrong wkh the world. We are going to make k right. We are learning that we live by each other, and that the life for each other is the only life worth livmg. A new light is coming to millions who looked for light and found darkness, a life to them who looked for the grave, and were bkter m spkit. We are part of this light. Let us go forth from here shafts of the sun unto shadows... let us break every chain. Then, indeed, shall we know a better and nobler humanky. For there will be no more slaves. Men will not go on strike for 50 cents more a week. Little children will not have to starve or work ki mill and factory. Motherhood will no longer be a sorrow. We shall be 'just one great family of friends and brothers.' (Foner. 1967, p.53-54)

Persuasive attempts like this are often met with resistance and particularly when the

appeal is suggesting such a drastic change m power, as m the arrests of Eugene V. Debs.

Again, with the use of metaphor Keller responds to the skuation of Eugene V. Debs

imprisonment in a letter reprkited in the New York Call, "To my mind, the decision has

added another laurel to your wreath of victories. Once more you are going to prison for

upholding the liberties of the people" (Foner, 1967 p. 98). Illustrated m this letter too, is

Keller's personal testament to her affiliation by referring to other Socialists as

'comrades.' Wkh such a membership, Keller fek the right or share ofpower to speak to

others who held the cause:

In the persecution of our comrades there is one satisfaction. Every trial of men like you. every sentence against them, tears away the veil that hides the face of the enemy. The discussion and agkation that follows the trials define more sharply the positions that must be taken before all men can live together ki peace, happiness and security. (Foner, 1967 p. 98)

She symbolically labeled the Socialist movement as Christmas bells and clearly aligns

herself to k, "Together the bells anti / call aloud, and we are not afraid" (Keller, 1913 p.

274)! Keller also encourages the use of the vole as a power share for the fiiture choosmg

ofa better, SociaHst society:

I realize that the vote is only one of many weapons ki our fight for the freedom of all. But every means is precious and, equipped with the vote, men and women together will hasten the day when the age-long dream of liberty, equalky and brotherhood shall be realized upon earth. (Foner, 1967 p. 68)

The preceding quote was taken from an excerpt ki 1915 that Keller wrote to encourage

women's suffrage. Apparently, she who once believed capitalism would have to fall

before women suffrage could be accomplished, reconsidered. It seems Keller believed

that perhaps wkh men and women together in a spirit of human rights, votes would

culminate closer to a fiiture choosing ofa Socialist reality.

Need and the Cycle of Power

Brown relates how the power dynamic is a cycle with spkals of progression over

tune (1986). Need is the underlying current of kispiration to the call for a new power

dynamic (Brovm, 1987). This cycle widens and narrows to communicatively recognize or

exclude groups" shares in the power of future choosmg. Keller's rhetoric reflects how

she adapts over time to the changing sentknents ki society's spkal over whose voice and

perceived or real needs ought to be recognized. RSI posks that needs, even biosocial

needs those lUte hunger and safety, have to be communicatively recognized to be met. It

further notes that things that are not biological imperatives can be communicatively

constmed as needs (Brovm, 1987). Keller rose to this demand when rhetorically framkig

the needs of the workmg laborer. Notice how she stmctured her rhetoric biosocially ki

this published letter to Strikers in 1912:

Thek cause is my cause. If they are denied a living wage, I am also defrauded. While they are industrial slaves, I cannot be free. My hunger is not satisfied while they are unfed. I cannot enjoy the good things of life which come to me, if

they are hmdered and neglected. I want all the workers of the world to have sufficient money to provide the elements a normal standard of living—a decent home, heakhful surroundmgs. opportunky for education and recreation. (Keller, 1913 p. 34)

Keller acknowledged the communicatively constmcted American need of freedom and

used an attention shift by addkig to this defmition the right to sufficient wages. This

"Worker's Right," as Keller names a reprkitkig of this letter in her book, is a need that

socialism was attempting to perpetuate (Bell, 1967) argukig much as she did here.

Surely the things that the workers demand are not unreasonable. It cannot be unreasonable to ask of society a fak chance for all. It cannot be unreasonable to demand the protection of women and Iktle children and honest wage for all who give thek tkne and energy to mdustrial occupations. (Keller, 1913 p. 35)

Keller connects this argument to her choice to joki the Socialist ^enda:

Because I am known to be kiterested m bettering the condition of the blind, many ofmy correspondents, whose hearts are stkred by the thought of blindness, offer to help thek brothers ki the dark, and they ask me how to begki... A class of college gkis in an instrtution near great manufacturing ckies and coal-mines asked me to inkiate them into philanthropic endeavour (sic) for the sightless. I told them to study the life that swarms at thek very doors—the mill-hands and the miners...that the blind man. however poignantly his individual sufferkig appeals to our hearts, is not a single, separate person whose problem can be solved by kself, but a symptom of social maladjustment. That soimds discouragkigly vague and cosmic. It may have perplexed the gkls to whom I wrote it. They asked me how to help the blind...and I offered them ?/ie universe. (Keller, 1913 pp. 37-38)

What Keller calls 'vague and cosmic" in the preceding quote seems to encapsulate her

involvement in a system—the interdependency of humanky. Brown, too, offers this

notion ofa system (1978) that, though vague, is a startir^ point for understanding the

rhetoric of intervention in a situation much like Keller's. Overall. Keller attempted to

help enable the Socialist concept ofa system that helps humanity while highly aware of

her intervention into an established system. This awareness and her own handicapped

50

situation perhaps makes clear how her rhetoric reflects a singular microcosmic version of

what Brovm describes as a 'spkal' of power (1986).

As mentioned, her awareness of the problems of the blind prompted her special

concentration on Socialism, "1. deaf and blind, have been helped to overcome many

obstacles. I want them (workers] to be helped as generously in a stmggle which

resembles my own ki many ways" (Keller. 1913 p. 35). Unfortunately, her personal

blmdness and deafiiess came under attack when she announced her newfound polkical

affiliation—the press sought to blame it on her limked development and kidependence.

Keller, however, gave her kifirmity the benefit of understandkig it as a need that has to be

met. It spkaled her attention regarding power towards others wkh the same afflictmg

need garnered from appalling causes:

As the years went by and I read more widely...! shall never forget the pam and amazement which I felt when I came to examine the statistics of blmdness, its causes, and ks connection wkh other calamkies that befall thousands ofmy fellow-men. i leamed how workmen are stricken by the machine hands tfiat they are operatkig. It became clear that to me that the labor saving machine does not save the laborer. It saves expense and makes profits for the owner of the machine. (1913 pp. 9-10)

In her book Out of the Dark, in a letter first printed ki the New York Call entkled "How I

became a Socialist." Keller called society blind; she was attemptmg to justify her

connection of her physical condkion to the polkical movement—her spiral—and also

protect against any notion of being too na'ive to choose for herself because of that same

condition. Her mantra was declared two years before the publication of her book in an

article in the New York Call, "Let our battle cry be: "no preventable disease, no

urmecessary poverty, no blkiding ignorance among mankind " (Foner, 1967 p. 30). In the

mantra she illustrated the beginning of her power spkal, as what she discovered was

preventable blindness due to lack of education and proper workmg conditions. Keller

reiterated ki Zeigler Magazine for the Blindthai same year:

1 recommend that all who are interested in the economic problem of the sightless study the economic problem of the seeing...facts about the labor condkions in America... The facts which they spread before us show that k is not physical blmdness, but social blindness which cheats our hands of the right to toil. (Foner, 1967 p. 36)

Usmg metaphor agaki to cycle from the 'right to toil' society's metaphorical

condkion, Keller names the deservmg work of the everyday laborer, "the hand of the

world" (1913, p. 3). She describes her kidulged life m mutual comparison and

gratefukiess to the skuation of those who built her home, sold her food, prmted the pages

of Braille she read, etc. in the first chapter of her book. Out of the Dark (\913) and states,

"society is founded upon it"(p. 4). She spoke so venerably of this 'hand' that k is put m

an almost ordained light and then the world is chastised over ks "uncelebrated hands of

the worker"" (p 7).

Keller added another communicatively constmcted need, the need for happiness,

"there is enough sadness in the world wkhout yours...clever reasons for unhappmess...a

cuimkig sham" (1913, p. 111). This implied wkh ks location in her socialist text that this

is a frequently unmet need as, "the majority of mankind is groimd down by industrial

oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease" (Foner, 1967, p. 32).

Another exemplary instance of Keller's rhetoric reflecting the spkal ofpower

appeals was the women's suffrage movement, of which Keller's mother was a proponent

(Lash, 1980). Keller responded to another such proponent in a letter that was published

ki the New York Call, after she read up on the cause of voting for women and cycled k ki

with her socialist dream:

I do not believe that the present government has any intention of givkig women a part in national polkics...so long as the franchise is denied to a large number of those who serve and benefit the public, so long as the franchise is denied to a large number of those who serve and benefit the public, so long as those who vote are at the beck and call of party machines, the people are not free, and the day of women's freedom seems still to be in the far future...We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats...we elect expensive masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and for thek class...surely we must fee men and women together before we can free women. (Foner, 1967 p. 31)

Keller places this issue in the backgroimd of her main argument, the instatement ofa

Socialist government wkh the implied promise that the power cycle ofa Socialist

movement will include women in the revolution of the oppressed. She was more dkect

here ki an oration at Sociological Conference where she predicted the bliss that would

have occurred if the government had been Socialist, "It would mean that every woman

had a voice ki the making of the laws imder which she lives" (Foner, 1967, p. 53). Not

that Keller simply dismissed the validky of women's rights, but rather that she fek

society was too rigid ki ks present form to sknply amend the oversight. She described

the hardship, not only of bemg a disabled person going to college, but the original stigma

of bemg female m the chapter, "An apology for gokig to college" (1913). Keller clarified

her grateftikiess at the admission of women into universkies, however, and of her

subsequent admission despke her condkion. She summarized, "I would not part wkh

one of those stmggles.. .they tested my powers and developed the kidividualky which I

had been advised to bring up on books at home" (p. 100).

Again, Keller's inkial motivation to push for socialism was the ckcumstance of

the blind but this spfraled out to kiclude the poor workman, and then the deaf, as she

described after ckkig a letter from a workman gone hearkig-impaked:

This workman is deaf, but his poskion is sknilar to that of many of the sightless. We have been accustomed to regard the unemployed deaf and blind as victims of thek infirmities. This is to say, we have supposed that if thek sight and hearing problem were miraculously restored, they would find work.. .1 wish to suggest to the readers of this article that the unemployment of the blmd is only part ofa greater problem.. .in the majorky of cases there is no relation between unemployment and ability. A factory shuts dovm and all the operative, the more competent as well as the less competent, are thrown out of work.. .the employees were not to blame for the reduction of work...the considerations of the market compelled k. (Foner, 1967 pp. 34-35)

Here she wove the deaf in with the blind and the everyday worker to point a defmkive

fmger at capkalism.

As Keller progressively specified whom she considered part of the society that

would benefit from Socialism, she added minorkies to the pool of the majorky in 1912:

"When indeed shall we leam that we are all related one the other, that we are all members

of one body? Until the spfrk of love for our fdlowmen, regardless of race, colour (sic) or

creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human

brotherhood—imtil the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of

responsibilky for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attamed" (Keller, 1913

p. 35).

System of World Pohtics

Once Keller fek comfortably wkhin a poskion ofa recognized Socialist as well as

a person with a voice in the Unked States, she became more daring in the widenkig of her

54

scope of fiiture choosing. Keller made argumentative appeals for the system of the U.S

to mtervene into the system of the world's reaction all nation's socialist attempts:

It seems to me we Americans are foreordained to lead in humankarian enterprises. We are prosperous, we are bubbling over wkh youthfiil energy and optknism. We can, if we are so mmded, roll back the clouds of calamity which overshadow the world. We can keep the torch of service bright in every land. (Foner, 1967, p.

She makes defmite her belief system m Socialism's world agenda and aspiration for the

U.S. to lead the way:

Knowledge and sympathy travel like light and make all the common roads of the earth safe for everybody to walk ki unafraid. An international association for the prevention of disease and the conservation of heaUh would be a long step towards creatkig the thkig we hope for out of the travesty we call civilization. (Foner, 1967, p. 117)

Keller also spoke on specific polkical action taken by the U.S., Japan, France, and Great

Britain when a blockade of Soviet Russia came into effect:

The allied and associated governments which are guiky of this infamy violate every principle of civilization, every rule of common honesty. For our governments are not honest. They do not openly declare war agamst Russia and proclaim the reasons. They are fighting the Russian people half-secretly and in the dark with the lie of democracy on thek lips and the indkect weapon of the blockade in their hands. We caimot remain silent while the government for which we are partly responsible assists in starving women, children and old people because, forsooth, our polkical mlers and perhaps a majorky of the American public do not approve the ideas which underlie Russia's experiment in a new type of society No thinking American can be silent, can fail to be on one side or the other. There can be no middle ground. Those who are not for fair play to Russia, for the removal of all alien soldiers from Russian soil, for the lifting of the blockade, are Russia's enemies. And Russia's enemies are the friends and upholders of Czarism, of oppression, of explokation, of the plunder of one people by another. Silence and trade. Every word of sympathy for the men. women and children of Russia, whom the allied governments are trymg to starve into submission to the interests behkid those govenmients, is a word on the side of humanky and progress...Hold any opinion you may happen to have about Russia and it government. It is worn to attack Russian wkhout an open declaration of

war and an avowal of the tme causes. That is simply honest politics ki accordance with the Constkution of the United States. (Foner, 1967, p.lOO-lOl)

Keller joined the People's Freedom Union in condemnation of the blockade in 1919

(Foner, 1967). In 1920, she and Harriet Stanton Blatch wrote President Woodrow Wilson

m a letter published m the New York CalL

We would remind you that in 1781, when Francis Dana was sent to Russia as the representative of our own young republic, he was received by Czarist Russia. Is this country to be less tolerant more than 200 years later? We awak some...action from your administration...and agaki beg to ask you...end this unjust war. (Foner, 1967 p. 103)

Keller was wknessing the beginning of the end of her world dream for Socialism was

attempting to throw her hat ki the ring ki peaceful polkical appeals, one last tune m this

letter begging that President Wilson reconsider the blockade.

56

CHAPTER VI

DISCUSSION, THE SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTION

Attention Shift of Helen's Life Pugin-^e Intervener. Socialism

Though Keller entered the system of her country attempting to affect k with her

beliefs, her rhetoric reveals much dissonance that she had to overcome. For kistance, all

of Keller's autobiographies are m praise of her Alma matter, so she must reason wkhm

herself, as when critiquing its courses on economics m her socialist book that k must

sknply be a matter of explainmg this economic oversight, 'we must educate ourselves and

one another.' Keller's power cycle is also a reflection of the turbulence she underwent

trying to makitain that k is the uUimate solution to social ills. When the difficukies

began to come from wkhm and not from non-socialist doubters from wkhout, Keller's

life callmg began to become refocused. For example, Keller preached against militancy at

first:

We must organize with our more enlightened brothers and declare a general strike against war. My father was a Confederate soldier, and 1 respect soldiers. But 1 grow more and more suspicious of the polkical powers that take men away from thek work and set them shooting one another. Not all the military poems that I have read have roused in an heroic deske to welcome my brother home wkh a bullet in his heart. We women have the privilege of going hungry while or men are in battle, and k is our right to be widowed and orphaned by polkical stupidky and economic chaos. (1913 pp. 43-44)

Moreover, in 1916, Keller published in the New York Ca//for a strike agamst

war, "for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing shrapnel

and gas bombs...be not obedient slaves ki an army of destmction" (Foner. 967 p. 81).

Keller even asserted that Capitalism is characterized as bellicose, ".. .militarism that is

57

one of the chief bulwarks of capkalism, and the day militarism is undermined capitalism

will fair (Foner, 1967, p. 90).

Yet, when socialist rhetoric became more and more taboo and the dream seemed

fiirther from being recognized by peacefril means. Keller joined the Industrial Workers of

the World (IWW). This was a more bellicose Socialist faction. In an interview

conducted by Barbara Bindley and reprkited by Foner, Keller explakis the shift:

1 became an IWW because I found out that the Socialist party was too slow. It is sinking in the political bog. It is almost, if not quke, knpossible for the party to keep ks revolutionary character so long as it occupies a place under the government and seeks office under it.. .the tme task is to unke and organize all workers on an economic basis.. .nothing can be gained by political action. That is why I became an IWW... Why? Because I discovered that the tme idea of the IWW is not only to better condkions, to get them for all people, but to get them at once...I feel like Joan of Arc at tknes...truly He has said, 'Woe unto you that permks the least of mine to suffer.' (1967 pp. 83-85)

Though Keller maintams the holy tone of all her argumental rhetoric, she has clearly

spkaled more widely out mto a blatant attention shift. Desperation is noticeable again ki

this excerpt—it is clear that Keller saw her poskion losing polkical ground.

The I WW was in favor of military coups to take over government rule if need be.

However, the tentative plan when Keller jomed was, "by organizing kidustrially they are

forming the structure of the new society in the shell of the old" (Foner. 1967 p. 93).

Keller foresaw chaos because of the miserable state of the working class and the rigidity

of the U.S. government to argumentative appeals for Socialism. Attempting to hold onto

the notion that Socialism was foreseeable, she joined the IWW hoping that some level of

organization after impendkig war could maintaki civilization:

Capitalism will inevitably fmd kself face to face wkh a starvmg mukkude of unemployed workers demanding food or destruction of the social order that has

staved them and robbed them of thek jobs. In such a crisis the capitalist class cannot save itself or ks instkutions Its police and armies will be powerless to put down the last revok. For man at last will take his own, not considerkig the cost. When that day dawns, if the workers are not thoroughly organized, they may easily become a blmd force of destruction, unable to check thek own momentum, then- cry for justice drowned in a howl of rage. Whatever is good and beneficent in our civilization can be saved only by the workers. And the Industrial Workers of the World is formed wkh the object of carrykig on the business of the world when capitalism is overthrown. (Foner, 1967, p. 93)

The mtervention, in Keller's viewpokit, was at a crossroads: she had to believe that the

revolution was nigh or admit that the mtervention was feilkig. Keller had believed in the

prophetic vision of an kievitable Socialist world and yet the dream seemed ever fiirther

from realky.

Also, as demonstrated in the previous chapter, Keller began on the side of

delaymg women's suffrage until the end of Capitalism and the instkution of Socialism

with democracy but changed her mind. Keller seemed to sense that the votkig public of

the tkne was not as mclined as she would have liked to vote against Capitalist agendas.

She took a chance on taking a fumer stance on women's rights, as though ki hopes that

the movement of human rights might encourage more voles for Sockilism. Keller

described:

Economic urgencies have driven women to demand the vote. To a large number of women is entmsted the vkally important public function of training all childhood. Yet k is frequently impossible for teachers to support themselves decently on thek wages. What redress have these overworked, underpaid women without the vote? They count for nothing polkically...A majorky of women that need the vote are wage-earners. A tremendous change has taken place in the industrial world since power machines took the place of hand tools. Men and women have been compelled to adjust themselves to a new system of production and distribution. (Foner. 1967 pp. 65-66)

Keller saw a new opportunky wkh these laborers if they earned the vote, and, though

consistent with her beliefs about how society should be mn. k was a change from her

previous altkude that the suffrage movement was more ofa distraction from the real issue

of kistating a Socialist economic system. Also, notice the use of the word 'urgencies,'

which seems to suggest a slight desperation ui her rhetorical focus.

Keller's alignment to such dramatic shifts ki prmciple seems to be a

demonstration of her turmoil over the loss of what seemed the best solution to the

problems of the common man and, closer lo the heart, the blind.

Keller spoke of the 'polkical bog' that was overtaking the Socialists. Indeed, the

Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party were mnnkig ki place ki state and national

elections in terms of wkis and losses (Stang. 1905). The IWW was a dose parallel to

communism and, as historian Daniel Bell states, "for the twentieth century

communist...he is the perpetual alien livmg m hostile territory" (1967, p. 13). Bell

further summarizes, "Socialism's high hopes, however were soon shattered. 'Good

times' had relumed, and interest ki...Socialism slackened" (1967, p. 27). Socialism,

communism, and anarchy were close to losing all substantiative groimd and, though she

fought it at fust, Keller realized it. She had rhetorically clung to high hopes until

Socialism's prophetic tone was fast becoming a failed dream.

Soon after these IWW publications, in 1929, Keller's Socialist rhetoric ceased.

This lack of published communication is salient—the silence may be a reflection of her

loss of Socialist goals or ofa time of reconsideration or, frankly, any number of

improvable things. It suggests one definke thkig. the gap m RSI and most

communication research—no conclusive analysis can be made about any system

extraneous from available rhetoric. This thesis can show only rhetorical evidence of

dissonance and disappointment but must refrain from concludkig that Keller no longer

considered herself a Socialist. All that is known is that she refrakied from speaking any

fiirther on the subject according to biographers, historians, and her available interpersonal

communication (Lash, 1980).

However, k can be noted that an mtervention by Keller into the U.S. system did

not cease, even if it was suddenly lackkig in Socialist overtones. In essence with

Socialist publications, Keller was seeking fak treatment: less work hours, better pay.

heaUh care, education, women's rights, and minority rights. She could not see the

Capkalisl system existing wkhout stomping on these needs that were communicatively

enhanced for her with Socialism. Though she may not be overt about her narrowed focus

and reasons for k her that the notion that these needs might have to be addressed one by

one dearly occurred to her. Less dramatic than her shift to the IWW from the Socialist

party, was her narrowed life focus: the cause of rights for the blind. She took k upon

herself, not to save the entke world, but to brmg the sightless nearer to the seemg. It was

what drew her attention to Socialism ki the first place but it garnered from the events of

the Socialist movement a long term intervention kilo Helen Keller's system as a person:

the realization that rights for the blind would be a huge milestone for people's rights.

Keller's Socialist rhetoric had always had a concentration on the blmd; so m a

sense she was not backtrackkig, just focusing on the area her power shares were most

relevant. Notice a story Keller related ki an essay published towards the end of her

Socialist years in The New Leader in 1925:

1 read about a baby who is so nearly blind that he will have to be educated ki a school for the sightless. This baby was bom two and a half years ago at one of the hospkals m a large cky of this state. It seems to me that this can mean just one thing—gross carelessness on the part of somebody. We live m an age of publicky. Should not the public have been acquainted wkh the facts m this case and the responsibility placed where k belongs? I realize that it is a matter for thankfulness. Not so very long ago the blindness of that baby would have been regarded as an inevkable misfortune. The little victkn would have been pkied,

and m the course of tkne sent to an kistkution. But now we know that the cmel fioikless beating of clipped wkigs agamst dark windows of that human spirk need never have been if prompt, effective treatment had been given the infant's eyes. (Foner. 1967 pp. 116-117)

Even ki the mantra, mentioned in the last chapter of this thesis, that Keller tried to

perpetuate she began wkh, "no preventable disease..." (Foner, 1967 p. 30)—with a clear

kisinuation of preventable blmdness. She related her life's work when she first entered

into a declaration of her Socialist views, "It has been my duty, my life work, to study

physical blmdness...! leam that our physicians are making great progress..." (Keller,

1913 p. 33). Keller was aware of progress and that the polkical arena was possibly more

ready for an adjustment in this arena. She asserted in an entke chapter in Out of the Dark

about the capabilkies of blmd ckizens, and entkled k "What the blmd can do" (Keller.

1913). In that chapter she promoted the work of Massachusetts Association lo Promote

the Interests of the Adult BIkid. Never once did Keller shy from the opportunity to place

the cause of the blind at the forefront of her pleas for the rights of workers, women,

children, minorkies, etc. In another chapter of the book, "The heaviest burden of the

blind," Keller elaborated on what she defined as needs to bemel (1913). She

discouraged against what she labeled "disorganized charily" because "k is creditable to

62

the heart but not to the mind" (Keller, 1913 p. 214). Keller did not want the blmd pkied

but rather provided with the opportunky to ftinction as close to the nondisabled world as

possible. All this care was taken so that the blmd would not be left behind in the

championkig of Socialist societies. When Socialist societies became a more distant

promise to Keller she contkiued on a much narrower course of mtervention.

Helen Keller, the American Icon. Intervener: Keller

Helen Keller was a marvel when she acquked a flinclional language, wkh the

endeavor of her parents and the tutelage of Anne Sullivan. She was a triumph when she

graduated from Radcliff College wkh Anne Sullivan translating. A polkical hot ticket

when, with Teacher and companion Polly Thompson, she traveled the country and the

world. But. how much of these exploits were purely of her own volkion? Who was

Helen Keller as an individual? Keller did nothing she did not want lo do and made that

abundantly clear from the beginning wkh her parents and Teacher, being a strong willed

child. Acquking language, going lo college, and spreadkig awareness for the blind

around the worid would not have occurred unless she chose to participate. But, Keller's

reasons for doing so were dependant on her life events and choices. The interest in her

language acquiskion could have been the end of her public kitrigue, much like Laura

Bridgman the other deaf-blind language marvel (Shattuck, 2001). At Teacher and her

parents' proddmg she believed in her abilities for college work but admits in Out of the

Dark that she did so to become more educated; not necessarily to prepare for a vocation.

Once again. Helen Keller's name may have faded from knmediate historical recognkion.

This thesis matter is kidicative of Helen Keller's comkig kito her ovm through

communicative explok. In her case Socialism needed lo mtervene to motivate her,

despite parents and Sullivan's lack of alignment, to attempt to mtervene mto the Unked

States' polkical system. Her Braille reading hands and willingness lo speak and write

connected her to that system. Socialism then once again kitervened mto her system wkh

ks lack of polkical realization ki the U.S. Keller was then left with a choice: give up

entkely or continue what began k all: rights for the blmd. She accomplished almost

skigle handedly one of the goals she had incorporated kito her Socialist agenda—no

small accomplishment. Indeed she did so originally wkh Teacher and Thompson's

companionship, but without her name and will the mtervention would have ceased.

When Anne Sullivan died, Keller could have given into grief and quk, but she held strong

to take one goal as far as she could. This is Keller's lasting, successful intervention.

Beyond the instkutions who claim her name and the history books that teach her

campaign for the blind, is the artifact that speaks her mind: the journal she published of

her thoughts after her parents' and teacher's deaths. The first several pages speak of her

grief and lonelkiess without Teacher and the reader's get to know how completely

motivated in her intervention she must have been to contkiue wkh such grief

Deaf and blind a second time, 1 fmd any effort to speak cheerfully, to resume interest in a changed world, to work alone through substituted guides and minds different from Teacher's—all these I find as hampermg as sharp pain-throbs. Nevertheless, as the hours glided by fresh life pulsed through me; and my hold on present duties and opportunkies grew stronger. (Keller, 1938 p. 28)

Pressmg on, Keller took Thompson when she traveled and used various other guides

when she was not available. She spoke at conventions and to world leaders (Lash, 1980;

Keller. 1938). She formed polkical opkiions consistent wkh her previous outspoken

views, particularly about Germany and Hitler's regime that she found intolerable, but

remained focused on blmd people's rights (Keller, 1938). Keller was busy about this

work from speaking lo collectkig donations:

This momkig I was m such a rush to do some work before kitermptions stated, I had only a cup of coffee for breakfast. There was an knportant gift to my work for the blind to be acknowledged. I had promised Mr. Cromwell that I would speak into a record for the blind of France at Montevideo Buildkig this afternoon... (Keller, 1938 p. 174)

Entries like these can be found throughout her journal of her diligent work and far-

reaching effort. In a meeting with Madame Curie's daughter who was minister of public

welfare in France, Keller met a blmd lawyer that delighted her in his natural mannerisms

and communicative responsiveness:

It was delightful to exchange views wkh him on the work for the handicapped and the best methods of solving their problems. We agree that as far as possible they should be giventhejoy of normal life. 'Lack of sight is not our chief difficulty,' he declared, 'but lack of understanding and cooperation ki our stmggle for rehabilitation.' 1 was thrilled because he uttered with new force my message that the blind suffer most from the wrong attkude of the public towards them and that when this attkude is replaced by intelligent sympathy and helpfulness their obstacles will no longer be insurmountable. (Keller, 1938 pp. 177-178)

This lawyer was an example of how she hoped all blind people would feel free to be like.

Keller was excked by successes despite hard exertion, like on Febmary 27' in her journal

while in Forest Hills:

Work the livelong day. But there were glad thoughts to lighten my tasks. This morning 1 received the good news that a commission for the blind has after long years of effort been appokited in Oregon, and there will probably be another m Washington State this spring. Thirty states have established commissions for the blind since I served the first one in Massachusetts. 1906, and this alone would make me feel repaid for the struggle of almost a lifetime to interest people in the handicapped. But 1 had a wonderful surprise today, learnkig that a Mr. Duff.

who. It is thought, heard me speak for the foundation ki Washkigton, D.C , 1926. had left us a hundred thousand dotlarsl I thought such big contributions to the work for the blmd were forever of the past, since financial depression had ekher crippled or put a quietus on numerous philanthropic activkies in America Now I dare hope agaki that I may raise the second million to set the Foundation firmly on Its feet as a national agency rendering effective service to those deprived of sight in every part of this country (Keller, 1938 p. 214)

It IS no small accomplishment to raise such money durmg the 1930's and die Great

Depression. The Commission for the blind is still strong and carries the torch of her

dream for equal rights despke the seeming inlermption of Socialism. Socialism may

have spread her efforts thin across so many problems that she sought the easiest solution

to, but it was a necessary diversion to center her on what she is remembered for today.

Metatheoretical Evaluations

Overall, the significance of Keller's mtervention emphasizes the complexky of an

indiyiduaFs motivation and interpretation of social movements, hence the complexky and

salience of interventions in general. Keller is an explicit example of the communicative

import of events that led to the relevance of her life as an American icon. Human

interaction, the formation of meaning, identky creation by communication, and

commitment and recognkion ofpower gained a new pierspective from Keller's rhetoric.

One level of relevance of this complexky reemphasizes Brown's argument of how

power is unfortunately curtailed in the study of communication (Brown, 1986). This

analysis of the communicative formation of an icon illustrates the mutual relevance of

power and communication and of communication's demonstration ofpower. Moreover,

RSI gained another application of ks model in this thesis. The appropriateness of RSI for

this study was demonstrated in the resuks and is consistent wkh Brown's assumptions

about the system of needs, power, and attention. In chapter five the three components of

RSI were distkict enough to warrant subheadings but in this chapter the three or so

mtertwkied that they blend together in the analytical recreation of her ukimate life

purpose. This is demonstrative of the complexky of interventions and how people gain

relevance and prompt action through communication emphasizing another of Brown's

arguments—that to speak of such complexky one must view k in terms of systems (1972;

1982; 1986; 1987). It is notable that research on social movements often takes for

granted the whole dynamic of the communicatively constructed motive to intervene, but

as RSI points out and is relevant to Keller's influence is the complex nature of this

overlooked system.

The extra-communicative fiinction of interventions is best explained by the

communication that takes place when demonstrating the interactive system both in social

movements, social change, and individual/group attention shifts. So, this is substantiated

in this thesis by how Keller's letters, essays, speeches, and journal entries reflect her

goals, successfiil and unsuccessful attempts, frustrations, and ukknately how attention is

shifted. Her silence after her Socialist rhetoric stopped and her successful mtervention

began further mtensifics the relevance of how communication can serve an analyst

seeking to understand her kitrapersonal Socialist mind. Thus an internal, kiterpersonal,

and broader level of polkical systems that Keller deaU wkh and operated within

demonstrates the complexky that is a system and the poignancy of communication's role.

RSI, k should be iterated, is limited lo available and known communication. Also, RSI

and the material/artifacts kself can adjust researcher choices of the power, need, and

attention subsets.

Furthermore, this study is significant in many arenas kiduding ks theoretical

scope. Fkst, this analysis places historical accounts of Keller ki a communicative light.

This emphasizes the importance of the field of communication study on historical events

and figures. Second. Keller's development kito who she is remembered for places

psychological evaluations of people's hfe stages ki a communicative light, again, ft

seems evident that Keller's delay in social development was due lo limked contact with

the social world. This limited contact was due to a lack ofa communication system for

nearly the first decade of her life (Keller, 1903; Lash, 1980). It was ftirther Hmited by

social resistance ki accepting the blind and the deaf as legkimate parts of society (Keller,

1913; Foner, 1967). However. Keller communicatively challenged this prejudice and the

resuk of her life granted legkimacy to the disabled communky. This is heurislically

indicative that other fields of study may be better served to place more importance on the

development of communication on both historical events and on psychological social

effects. More specific to Helen Keller, future research may also look at Aime Sullivan as

a system that kitervenes into Keller and vice versa. The implications of this research

focused on Keller's independence but she is commordy iissociated with her mentor in

most other areas of her life and development. Though this study did not concentrate on

the actual Social Movement of Socialism and human rights, RSI analyses like the current

one can be used to complement a Social Movement approach.

Communication's significance on Keller's life clearly did not end with the

acquiskion of language. Overall, Keller's long-ignored. Socialist rhetoric has many

implications on the person the world chose to remember. It would seem that the rhetoric

that keeps Keller memorable also serves lo shadow over her unpopular Socialist rhetoric.

However, it is evident that Keller would not be the memorable figure if not for her

intellectual journey that included Socialism.

REFERENCES

Bell. D. (1967). Marxian Socialism in the United States. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Universky Press, (originally 1952)

Brown, W. (1978). Ideology as communication process. The Quarterly Journal of Speech. 64,(2). 123-140.

Brown, W. (1982). Attention and the rhetoric of social mtervention. The Quarterly Journal of Speech. 68. 17-27

Brown, W. (1986). Power and the rhetoric of social mtervention. Communication Monographs. 53.180-]99.

Brown, W. (1987). Need and the rhetoric of social intervention. Ohio State Universky, Process and Pattern- An Holistic View of Communication. Collected Essays of William R Brown, 50-95, privately printed.

Burbach, R. (1997). Socialism is dead, long live socialism. NACLA Report on the America. 31, 15-20.

Dombrowski, J. {1966). TTie early days of Christian Socialism in America. New York, New York: Octagon Books, Inc.

Foner, P. S. (1967). Helen Keller. Her Socialist Years: writings and speeches edited, with an introduction by Philip S. Foner. New York, New York. International Publishers.

Gring, M. A. (1998). Attention, power, and need: The rhetoric of religion and revolution in Nicaragua. World communication. 27(4). 27-37.

Johnpoll, B. K. & Johnpoll, L. (1981). The impossible dream: the rise and demise of the American left. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Johnson, K. (2002). The Life of Helen Keller. Hdenkellerfoundation.org. Retrieved: September 25, 2002.

Keller, H. (1903). The Story of My Life. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Keller, H. (1913). Out of the dark. Garden Cky, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.

Keller, H. (1930). Uidslream My Later Life. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.

Keller, H. (1938). JournaL Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.

Keller, H. (1955). Teacher. Anne Sullivan Macy A Iribule by Ihefosler-chUdofher mind. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Kleege, G. (2000). Helen Keller and " the empire of the normal," American Ouarlerlv 52 (2) 322-325.

Lash, J. P. (1980). Helen and Teacher- The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing.

McNamara, J. (2001). American Association of the Deaf Blind. AADB Home Office. aadb.org. Retrieved November, 20, 2001.

Muravchik. J. (2002). Socialism vs. religion. The American Enterprise. 13 (2), 33-35.

Shattuck, R. (2001). The marble cell. The New Republic. 225. 39-45.

Shuur, D. (1999). Helen Keller. Time. 23. 163-164.

Stang, W.M. (1905). Socialism and Christianity. New York, New York: Benziger Brothers.

Swedenborg, E. (2000). Heaven and Hell [EngHsh translation]. Westchester, Pennsylvania: Swedenborg Foundation.

Augusto, C. R. (2002) American Foundation for the Blind, atb.org Retrieved: November 09, 2001.

Ziim, H. (1999). Eugene V. Debs and the idea of socialism. The Progressive, (5i(l), 16-18.

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