Prior to 1912 and the discovery of red-shifted nebulea, the universe was thought to be fixed,immutable and perfect. The handiwork of God. We now know that it is, at best, a work in progress. Being thought perfect, it was stated by somebody who should have known better, that it would look the same no matter from where it was viewed. As this was in the nineteen teens, there could be no possible scientific basis for this statement. It was, at best, guesswork, and as such was foolhardy. I defy anybody to provide evidence that was known at that time, that could back up this claim.
With regard to expansion, I didn't say that the universe is not expanding, indeed the outer regions still are. What I said was that the "faster with distance" view could be produced by either an expanding or a collapsing universe, and that in 1929 they could not have known which it was. With the further information that we have today, they probably would have stated that collapse is more likely to be occurring than expansion.
With regard to the balloon analogy, this one dimensional surface is what the universe would resemble if escape velocity had been reached. There would, of course, be no clumps of matter, only the particles of the early, energy only universe.
So tell me, what is it that this forum has against the notion that gravity is exerting restraint from within that has caused the faster with distance view through slowing from within and that this produces the illusion of acceleration? It would seem entirely logical, obeys all physical laws and does not require the invention of a new force in order to explain things. We're not talking warp factors here, or time travel, merely interpreting information to produce the simpleist and easiest of answers.