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The Amana Society.

BY

BERTHA H. SHAMBAUGH.

N the Iowa River in the heart of the Hawkeye State, there is a

commu

nity of seven villages so foreign in language, manners, dress and traditions that it forms literally a bit of Europe in America. This quaint spot is the home of the Amana Society, as it is "known in law," or, as it is called by its members, the Community of True Inspiration. Of the many co-operative and communistic societies that have sought to realize their ideals on American soil, the Amana Society is the only one whose history records a continuous increase in its membership and in the valuation of its property. This interesting society has long since passed the experimental stage. It stands to-day as the realization of the Utopiasts' dreams of a community of men and women living together in peace, plenty, and happiness, far removed from the competitive struggle of this strenuous world.

fronted with the alternative of disbanding or moving. It was then that "the Lord revealed, through his instrument Christian. Metz that he would lead them out of this land of adversity to one where they and their children could live in peace and liberty." A committee of four was sent to America to purchase land. The location. was made near Buffalo, New York, where their first village in America was laid out in

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AN AMANA GARDEN WITH VILLAGE IN DISTANCE.

Communism was not a part of the original plan of the Mystics and Pietists among whom the Community of True Inspiration took its rise; but, being sorely persecuted by both Church Church and State for the heresy of maintaining that the Lord speaks his will through man to-day just as he did in olden times, their descendants banded together in the tolerant kingdom of Hessen where they finally adopted a communistic life in order to give profitable employment to each member of the group. When, however, the policy of the Hessen government touching this freedom to worship God was reversed, these Inspirationists were con

1843. In all some eight hundred souls left the Fatherland to join the pilgrim colony and enjoy freedom of conscience in tolerant and democratic America.

After a twelve years' residence in the Empire State, the society decided to re-locate on the frontier where land was cheaper and the opportunities for development were greater. The present location in the State of Iowa was selected by the committee sent out by the society in 1855. Here during the past half century the prophecy of the far-sighted Christian Metz has been ful

filled. The little handful of Inspirationists in Germany struggling to pay the rent of their first estate has developed into the prosperous Amana Society of to-day with eighteen hundred members owning twenty-six thousand acres of Iowa's richest prairie land and operating numerous mills and factories whose products find a market from Maine to California.

The seven Amana villages popularly known in the West as the "German Colonies" are: Amana, the capital and the oldest and largest of the villages; East Amana; Middle Amana: "Amana before the Heights," or High Amana; West Amana;

TYPES OF AMANA GIRLS.

South Amana and Homestead. All of the colonies are within a radius of six miles from "Old Amana." It is this system of village life that has been the great conservator of the society's purity and simplicity. By this means the society, while taking advantage of every progressive step in the methods of agriculture and the processes of manufacture, has been able to sustain in its social, political, and religious life an insular position.

Each village is a cluster of from forty to one hundred houses arranged in the manner of the German "Dorf," with one long straggling street and several irregular off-shoots.

At one end are the village barns and sheds, at the other the factories and work shops. Each village has its own saw-mill, its general store, its bakery, its meat market, its dairy, its school, and its church. At the railway stations there are grain houses and lumber yards.

The establishment of hotels has been made necessary by the hundreds of strangers who visit the colonies every year. Some come for the outing; and some, interested in political and social science, come for purposes of "investigation"much to the amusement of the colonists. But the greater number come out of sheer

curiosity, to find out, as Charles
M. Skinner expresses it, "what
there is so durned private goin'
on here." Owing to the pre-
dominance of this last class, the
colonists when interviewed often
"forget their English and possi-
bly their manners." It is their
only means of defense. "I don'
know" is one of the first English
sentences the Amana baby learns
to lisp. This he delivers auto-
matically to every inquisitive
stranger who ventures a ques-
tion on the assumption of the
old adage regarding children
and fools. Each village has its
water tower and fire engine, and
every able bodied man in the vil-
lage is ex-officio a member of
the fire department. Although
the loss by fire during the last
twenty-five years has been be-
tween eighty and one hundred
thousand dollars, the society still
deems it a matter of economy to
rebuild rather than pay insur-

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ance premiums.

of

The Amana houses are two (sometimes three) story structures of frame, brick or a peculiar brown sandstone which is found in the vicinity. It has been the purpose the society to construct the houses as nearly alike as possible--each as desirable as any other. The frame houses are all unpainted, the society believing it to be more economical to rebuild when occasion requires than to preserve the wood with paint. The style of architecture is the same throughout the entire community-plain, square structures with gable roofs. In the summer time, when the houses are uniformly half-hidden

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with vines, it is only with the aid of a weather-beaten sign peeping out from a wreath of grape vines or a cluster of roses that the stranger is enabled to distinguish the "hotel" or the "store" from the school, the church, or the private dwellings. Each house is surrounded by a yard brimful of flowers. Such masses of bloom! Such a display of color! Such a collection of quaint old-fashioned posies!

There is no crowding in the Amanas. The same spirit which led the society to adopt the village system has led it to provide plenty of room for its people. Each family has its own house, and, in spite of the strict communism of the society, each man's home is his castle. Here he is at liberty to indulge his own taste in decoration, provided he does not go beyond his allowance. Here each member of the family has his own room where he may ride his hobbies or store his keepsakes without being disturbed.

The Society subscribes for various technical and trade journals for the use of the different places of business in the community. The members are left free to indulge their own inclinations as to reading matter. They purchase books, newspapers and magazines, all of which are paid for out

of their several allowances. There is scarcely a family among them which does not subscribe for one or more papers or magazines. But all literature which might have an evil influence is forbidden.

Every woman makes her own clothes, and every mother makes the clothing for her own small children. The village tailor usually makes the men's clothing. Utility and not adornment is the chief regard. The dress of to-day is the same as it was at the founding of the society. Mothers and daughters, grand-mothers and granddaughters dress alike, not in the sober grays of the Quakers nor in the more brilliant purples of the Amish, but in plain calicoes of gray or blue or brown. The waist is short and very plain, while the skirt is long and full. An apron of moderate length, a "shoulder-shawl," and a small black cap completes the summer costume. The only headgear is a sun-bonnet with a long cape. The winter dress differs from this only in being made of flannel; while a hood takes the place of the sun-bonnet.

Generations of right-thinking and rightliving have produced a distinctive type in the Amana colonists. Both the men and women have strong faces and honest eyes. There is a gentleness in their demeanor that

AMANA KITCHEN-HOUSE.

reminds one of the Quakers, and a firmness and a seriousness in their manner that bespeaks their Pietist inheritance.

Here in Amana is one place in the United States where the "servant problem" does not overshadow the "trusts and the tariff." There is no cooking done by individual families. Each village has from four to sixteen large "kitchen-houses" where the meals are prepared and served. From sixteen to forty persons eat at one kitchen, the number depending largely upon the location. The places are assigned by the trustees.

There is no prettier picture anywhere than an Amana grandmother with her knitting, unless it is, perhaps, the homage she is paid by the younger members of the household. The constitution of the society promises to its members "support and care in old age, sickness and infirmity." Unproductive members of the society enjoy all the privileges and the comforts that the community has to give. It is doubtful whether there are many places in the world outside of Amana where more tender care and respectful attention is given the aged

an infirm.

The permanency and prosperity of the Amana Society seems to be due largely to its political organization. The entire conduct of affairs rests with a board of thirteen trustees who are elected annually by popular vote, and who in turn elect from their own number a president, a vice-president and a

secretary.

There is no log-rolling, no buy ing of votes, no subsequent distribution of sps. Each office seeks its man; and when by common consent he has been found, he is elected and then re-elected as long as he remains faithful to his trust. The

e-holder in turn accepts his office not for its honors or its perquisities but as a

sacred responsibility. What a paradise for the disheartened members of the Municipal Voters League! With Amana's political ethics what transformations might be wrought in the "City Hall combines" and "Court House gangs" of some of our larger cities!

The inspirationists of Amana are lawabiding. Their business of a legal character is transacted at Marengo, the seat of Iowa county. In suits with outside parties they do not hesitate to employ counsel. But all private differences, that is, disputes among the members themselves, are settled by the elders or trustees.

Each village is governed by a group of from seven to nineteen elders who are appointed by the Board of Trustees from the older and more spiritually inclined members of the community. It is this group of village elders that assigns to each his appor tioned task. To them each member desiring more money, more house room, an extra holiday or easier work must appeal: for these allotments are as occasion requires "revised and fixed anew." The system of government is thus a sort of federation wherein each village maintains its local independence, but is under the general supervision of a governing central authority-the Board of Trustees.

In accordance with the fundamental law each member of the community "is in duty bound to give his or her personal and real property to the trustees for the common fund, at the time of his or her acceptance as a member, and before the signing of the constitution." These contributions to the common fund of the society have varied from $50.000, the largest sum paid into the treasury by any one member, to the bare working capacity of the ordinary laborer. In addition to his livelihood each member is allowed by the Board of Trustees an annual "sum of maintenance" of from twentyfive to forty dollars. As this allowance is made in the form of a credit at the village store, and is guarded by a pass-book and a "day of judgment" at the close of the year. it is not likely to be spent in riotous living.

Members withdrawing from the society are entitled to receive back the moneys paid by them into the common fund and to interest thereon at the rate not exceeding five per cent per annum from the time of the adjustment of their accounts until the repayment of their credits. Such a system is not

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particularly attractive to the American spirit of commercialism; yet the number of applicants for admission is larger than one might suppose. The standard of membership, however, is so high that applicants are often rejected after the required period of probation.

At one period in the history of the society, celibacy was encouraged as being a more spiritual state, though it was not rigidly insisted upon. When a youth and maid became betrothed they were sent to different villages for a year. If at the end of that time they remained faithful to each other and steadfast in their purpose, the marriage was allowed to take place. This earlier opposition to marriage is evidenced to-day by the large number of bachelors and spinsters past middle life. To maintain the perpetuity of the society by accessions from the mother country or from the outside world proved to be impracticable; and so the society has shown wisdom in encouraging marriage among its youth. Without this change in attitude toward the institution of the family the Community of True Inspiration would probably have repeated the history of the Shaker societies.

It is a highly significant fact that Amana's broad acres are among the choicest in fertile Iowa, since mutual sympathy and common beliefs without economic prosperity are not abiding bonds of union. Indeed the perpetuity of such a society as Amana depends ultimately upon the physical environment of which the soil is the most important factor. While agriculture is not the chief industry, it is carried on with the German proneness for system in the most modern and scientific methods.

The general plan of the field work is determined by the Board of Trustees, but a field "boss" or superintendent is responsible to the society for the proper execution of their orders. He sees that the farm machinery is kept in order, he appeals to the elders for more men to work in the field when necessary, and he obtains from the "boss" of the barns and stables the horses that are needed.

From fifteen to eighteen ox teams are used for the heavy hauling, it being the experience of the society that oxen are better than horses for work which requires heavy and steady pulling. When the worldly visitor watches these splendid animals as they come meandering down the flower-bordered

street, guided only by the "gee" and "haw" of the driver, he finds it hard to realize that only twenty miles away street cars are clanging and delivery carts rattling over the hot pavements, while street venders are screaming the merits of their wares.

Amana's mills and factories were among the first erected in the state of Iowa. Half a century ago the two flouring and grist. mills were important centers for the pioneer farmers for fifty miles around. The society is perhaps best known in the business world through its woolen mills which have been in active operation for forty-two years. Over half a million pounds of raw wool are consumed in the woolen mills annually. It has always been the aim of the society to manufacture "honest goods," and they have found a ready market from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.

The hours of labor in the woolen mills during the greater part of the year are the usual Amana hours of from 7 to II a. m. and from 12:30 to 6 p. m. But during the summer months when the orders for the fall trade are being filled the mills run from half past four in the morning to eleven at night (the factories are lighted throughout by electric light). In spite of the long hours and the busy machinery there is a very unusual factory air about the Amana mills. The rooms are light and airy. There is a cushioned chair or stool for every worker "between times." An occasional spray of blossoms on a loom frame reflects the spirit of the workers. Here and there in different parts of the factory is a well equipped cupboard and a lunch table where the different groups of workers eat their luncheon in the middle of each half-day. In the villages where the factories are located, the boys of thirteen, or fourteen years of age who are about to leave school are employed in the

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ICE CART, DRAWN BY OXEN.

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