should be demanded of an operative. This gives us some idea of the application required during the thirteen hours of daily labor. The atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be pure; on the contrary it is charged with cotton filaments and dust, which, we were told, are very injurious to the lungs. On entering the room, although the day was warm, we remarked that the windows were down; we asked the reason, and a young woman answered very naively, and without seeming to be in the least aware that this privation of fresh air was anything else than perfectly natural, that "when the wind blew, the threads did not work so well." After we had been in the room for fifteen or twenty minutes, we found ourselves, as did the persons who accompanied us, in quite a perspiration, produced by a certain moisture which we observed in the air, as well as by the heat.

The young women sleep upon an average six in a room; three beds to a room. There is no privacy, no retirement here; it is almost impossible to read or write alone, as the parlor is full and so many sleep in the same chamber. A young woman remarked to us, that if she had a letter to write, she did it on the head of a band-box, sitting on a trunk, as there was not space for a table. So live and toil the young women of our country in the boarding-houses and manufactories, which the rich and influential of our land have built for them.

IV. EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNISM

A. The Rappites, 18401

During the period 1808-1860 many experiments in communism were made in the United States. Of the best known of these experiments one was carried out by the Rappites at Economy, Pennsylvania, another by the Owenites at New Harmony, Indiana, and yet others by the followers of Fourier in various parts of the country. An English traveler gives an account of his visit among the Rappites as follows:

The settlement of Economy embraces at present a tract of about 4,000 acres of rich land, on the northern bank of the river Ohio, in the State of Pennsylvania, from 16 to 20 miles below Pittsburgh the land alone being worth, at 20 dollars an acre, 80,000 dollars, and the dwellings, stores, and larger buildings, 80,000 dollars more while the stock of grain and cattle, materials of manufacture, machinery, and implements, is thought to be worth 160,000 dollars;

1 The Eastern and Western States of America. By J. S. Buckingham (London, [1842]), II, 212−3, 216–20.

in addition to which, they have in cash, bank-stock, and other descriptions of securities, nearly 200,000 dollars; so as to make the whole property amount to about 500,000 dollars or 100,000£ sterling, for a community of about 500 persons, equivalent to 1000 dollars each.

The plan of the town is symmetrical; the streets, about 80 feet in breadth, crossing each other at right angles, and lined on each side with trees, but not paved, either at the sides or centre, as there is no thoroughfare of vehicles or passengers in sufficient numbers to render this necessary. The dwelling-houses, of which there are about 100, are small of two stories chiefly; many of brick, and others of wood most of them standing separately, and having a large portion of garden-ground attached to them, which is very neatly cultivated. . . .

The property being held in common, no individual lays claim to anything as his own; and as nothing is either bought or sold among themselves, money is of course unnecessary. Stores of various descriptions exist, for the several articles in daily consumption - such as provisions of all kinds, clothing, furniture, &c., all of a simple, but wholesome and substantial kind; and each of these stores is placed under the superintendence of a competent individual. At stated periods in the day or week, the caterer for each family goes to the store, and procures such articles as may be required, and there is no limitation to the quantity to be supplied. Experience soon establishes a sort of standard of probable sufficiency, and this is generally found to be adequate to the regular consumption, beyond which there is no temptation either to hoard or waste. As there is always enough for every one, there is no apprehension of scarcity; and as the habit of care and economy is established both by precept and example, waste would be deemed sinful, and is never practised. It is the same with clothes as with provisions. Only certain articles of apparel, all substantial and good, but simple in colour and form, are made for males and females, from materials woven, and labour supplied, in the place; and whenever any of these garments are required, application to the store is sufficient to obtain them, "without money, and without price."

Persons being thus assured of a full and sufficient supply of good food, good clothing, comfortable shelter, and an equal share of whatever social privileges, or accumulations of property within the community, may be the fruits of this system,- cheerfully give their labour as an equivalent for this; especially as that labour is healthy, light, and in no respect degrading. The men work about ten hours a

day; having breakfast at half-past six - dinner at half-past eleven and supper at half-past five. The females working in the cottonfactory have only eight hours' labour; and in the dwellings still less, for at nine in the evening every one retires, and they have several hours of leisure in the day. . .

To them, it is matter of the utmost indifference, whether the Banks suspend payment or redeem their notes in specie - whether trade is flourishing or otherwise - whether bankrupts are many or few and whether the Whigs or the Democrats prevail. They go on tilling their fields, and reaping their harvest; feeding their sheep, and shearing their wool; growing their fruits, and gathering them inlet the times be what they may. All the materials produced by them are first stored in sufficient quantity for the consumption of their own community, and the rest they send to market. The only things they require to buy, are cotton for their manufactures, and colonial produce for their household supplies; neither of which their soil or climate will admit of their growing. Their own wool and their own silk they work up into cloth, velvets, silks, and satins. Of these also they sell the surplus above what they themselves consume. To avoid all risks, they sell at small profit for ready money; and they purchase their raw cotton, their coffee, tea, sugar, &c., with ready money also, at reduced rates. And as, in every year's transactions, there is a considerable gain to the community - since they always produce much more than they can consume the excess of gain is expended in the purchase of new land, the erection of new buildings, and the procuring of new stock; or it is otherwise invested in some secure manner, so as to ensure the safety of both principal and interest.

B. The Owenites at New Harmony, 18301

The experiment at New Harmony was short lived, and many reasons have been advanced to account for the failure of the experiment. An account of the failure, by an apparently unbiased observer, is as follows:

New Harmony is seated on the banks of the Wabash; and following the sinuosities of that river, it is distant sixty-four or five miles. from the Ohio, but over land, not more than seventeen. This settlement was purchased by Messrs. MacClure and Owen from Mr. Rapp, in the year 1823. The Rappites had been in possession of the place for six years, during which they had erected several large brick build

1A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles Through the United States of America. By S. A. Ferrall (London, 1832), 92-3, 97-9.

ings of a public nature, and sundry smaller ones as residences, and had cultivated a considerable quantity of land in the immediate vicinity of the town. Mr. Owen intended to have established here a community of union and mutual co-operation; but, from a too great confidence in the power of the system which he advocates, to reform character, he has been necessitated to abandon that design at present. . . .

Whilst at Harmony, I collected some information relative to the failure of the community, and I shall here give a slight sketch of the result of my inquiries. I must observe that so many, and such conflicting statements, respecting public measures, I believe never were before made by a body of persons dwelling within limits so confined as those of Harmony. Some of the ci-devant “communicants” call Robert Owen a fool, whilst others brand him with still more opprobrious epithets: and I never could get two of them to agree as to the primary causes of the failure of that community.

The community was composed of a heterogeneous mass, collected together by public advertisement, which may be divided into three classes. The first class was composed of a number of well-educated persons, who occupied their time in eating and drinking - dressing and promenading attending balls, and improving the habits of society; and they may be termed the aristocracy of this Utopian republic. The second class were composed of practical co-operators, who were well inclined to work, but who had no share, or voice, in the management of affairs. The third and last class was a body of theoretical philosophers - Stoics, Platonics, Pythagoreans, Epicureans, Peripatetics, and Cynics, who amused themselves in striking out plans exposing the errors of those in operation — caricaturing -and turning the whole proceedings into ridicule.

The second class, disliking the species of co-operation afforded them by the first class, naturally became dissatisfied with their inactivity and the third class laughed at them both. Matters were in this state for some time, until Mr. Owen found the funds were completely exhausted. He then stated that the community should divide; and that he would furnish land, and all necessary materials, for operations, to such of them as wished to form a community apart from the original establishment. This intimation was enough. The first class, with few exceptions, retired, followed by part of both the others, and all exclaiming against Mr. Owen's conduct. A person named Taylor, who had entered into a distillery speculation with one of Mr. Owen's sons, seized this opportunity to get the control of

part of the property. Mr. Owen became embarrassed. Harmony was on the point of being sold by the sheriff - discord prevailed, and co-operation ceased.

C. Description of a Phalanx, 18491

In various parts of the United States communistic groups called phalanxes were organized. A description of one of these phalanxes by a friend and supporter follows:

The Wisconsin Phalanx was incorporated February, 1845. The original members were chiefly from Southport, Wisconsin; they possessed no experience in associative life, and had derived their ideas of the theory of Association, principally from the pamphlets and newspaper writings of the school of Fourier. By a clause in the charter of the Phalanx, the increase in the annual appraisal of all the property, real and personal of the Phalanx, exceeding the cost, was to be yearly divided or credited one fourth to stock, and the remaining three fourths to labor, in such manner as the by-laws should provide.

The Domain of the Phalanx contains about one thousand, eight hundred acres of prime land, prairie, oak-openings, groves and meadows, in Ceresco township and vicinity, Fond-du-lac County. This region of country, is not exceeded by any part of the whole State, for beauty of scenery, healthfulness of situation, and fertility of soil. (No ague of local origin, has ever been known here, and not one adult male member of the Society, since the institution of the Phalanx, has deceased. Five women have died on the Domain, during the entire existence of the Society; but before their coming to Ceresco, they were all afflicted with the diseases, which proved fatal to them. Several infants and small children, have died from complaints incidental to that period of life; the cause, no doubt, would be found in a want of correct knowledge and physiological treatment in regard to infants and young children; a lack of knowledge certainly not greater here than elsewhere. We are confident that no region in the whole Northwest, can be found more remarkable for continued good health, than Ceresco, and the adjacent country.

1

There is a good water power on the Domain, the property of the Phalanx; and we have in operation a Grist Mill and a Saw Mill, the

1 Documentary History of American Industrial Society. Edited by John R. Commons and others (Cleveland, 1910), VII, 264-6. Printed by permission of the publishers, The Arthur H. Clark Company.