COMMUNISM IN AMERICA. The centre of inter est in communism is henceforth in America. One of the provisions in the 'oldest American charter' (1606) was that there should be a common store house in which the products should be kept, and from which each should receive according to his needs. Jamestown lived under this scheme for five years, the idlers giving Capt. John Smith much trouble meantime. The Pilgrims had similar arrangements, which were soon changed. but for a long time much land was held in commtm. Of this custom Boston Common is a survival. These arrangements were but temporary. however. In 1774. driven by religious opposition. 'Mother Ann Lee' came from England with a ',wall com pany of Quakers, NV110 were called Shaking Qua kers because of certain physical movements in religious exercises. The name was soon short ened to Shakers. They settled at Watervliet. near Albany. N. Y. Mother Ann died in 1784. In 1787 a covenant was adopted establishing celibacy and CI immunity of goods. Their communism grew out of their religion. Christianity, they say, does not admit of divisions into rich and poor; `mine' becomes. 'ours.' and riches and poverty, with their misery, disappear. The Shakers have lived happily and contentedly and have had great material prosperity. Says Professor Ely: "Eco nomically the Shakers have been a great suc cess." They have now some seventeen societies in different States, the largest being at .lount Lebanon. N. Y. They own some very valuable property. (See SHAKERS. 1 The Harmonists. or Separatists. as they were called in Germany. left the Fatherland because of sectarian opposi tion and settled in I:805 at liarmony. Pa., under the leadership of George Rapp. They, too, have been very successful financially. At one time they had a thousand members. hut now only forty or fifty remain. They are obliged to em ploy outsiders to carry on their enterprises, so that they have practically become a close corpora tion. See HARMON I sTs.
The Amana Community of seven villages in Iowa was founded by another German sect, the Inspiration/xis, who settled near Buffalo. N. Y.. in 1842, moving to Iowa in 1835. Religion is the primary thing. Yet they have prospered and possess fertile and well-improved lands. They number 1800 or more. Marriage is permitted. In 1844 yet another German sect settled at Bethe1. Mo.. moving later to Aurora, Ore. They have been fairly successful. (See ArtiANA.) The French in 1848 under Cabet, who tried to estab lish Iearia, were not successful. After many dis couragements and disappointments they were finally settled in Iowa. Trouble followed trouble, and the end came in 1895. See ICAIUANs.
All of these communities were started by for eigners, though most of the Shakers have been Americans. Au American colony of some fifty members was started by .John Humphrey Noyes in 1847 at Oneida. N. Y. Later a small branch was established at. Wallingford, Conn. They be lieved in freedom from sin and were called Per fectionists (q.v.). Between 1S40 and 1850, under the leadership of Albert Brisbane, Horace Gree ley. Charles A. Dana, and others, Fourierism spread over the country, Greeley advocating it in the New York Tribune. Some thirty-four 'pha lanxes' were started in various places, most of which were short-lived. The most famous was Brook Farm (q.v.). near Boston, which began as a coOperative school. The North American Phalanx, in Monmouth County, N. J., was time most successful, lasting some twelve years (1843 5o). Ripon, Wis., dates back to the Wisconsin Phalanx of 1S44. This association paid $1.08 on the dollar when it dissolved. The movement gradually subsided.
In recent years a number of attempts to found communistic settlements have been made, but they have broken down largely because of inter nal dissensions. Among these may be mentioned Kaweah. in California (1884 ) ; Topolobampo, Mexico (1886) ; and time Ruskin Cooperative Col ony, in Tennessee (1893). The only recent. Euro pean settlement was an attempt in 1803 to realize the ideals of llertzka's 'Freiland' in Africa. The reason for the failure of many of these en terprises is not far to seek. Lack of unity of purpose and unwise management bring sure de struction. Fourierism was a compromise. It re tained gross inequalities while condemning those of the world. It was not a unifying principle.
(in the other hand, those which have succeeded have possessed just this unity—usually in adher ence to some social or religious ideal which has made the interests of the individual the interests of the group. That material prosperity has ac companied this unity history clearly shows. The social life of the Shakers and of the Amana Com munity has always deeply impressed the visitor from the outside world. Howells in his Undiacor ersnl Country tells of their life and makes one of his characters say. "They're what they seem; that's their great ambition." In his autobiography, Ilornee Greeley wrote of the Shakers: "No one will pretend that they have failed. No; they have steadily and eminently expanded and in creased in wealth and every element of material prosperity, until they are at this day just ob jects of envy to their neighbors. They produce no paupers; they excrete no beggars; they have no idlers, rich or poor: no purse-proud nabobs, no cringing slaves. If there were no other success akin to theirs—but there is—it would still be a demonstrated truth that men and women can live and labor for general. not selfish, good—can banish pauperism. servitude, and idle ness, and secure general thrift and plenty by moderate cooperative labor and a complete iden tity of interests." No more fair and judicial view of communism has been presented than John Stuart Mill gives in his Principles of Political Economy. recognizes the evils of private property and the desirability of emedying them. lle notices the difficulties of communism, that men would evade work, that it would he hard to make it fair distribution of work. He raises the question as to whether commanism gives greater freedom and liberty to the individual. The statement is summed up in: "It is yet to he ascertained whether the communistic. scheme would be consistent with that multiform development of human nature, those manifold unlikem‘sses, that diversity of tasks and talents and variety of intellectual views which not only form a great part of the interest of human life, but by bringing intellects into a stimulating collision, and by presenting to each innumerable notions that he would not have conceived of Iiintself, are the mainspring of mental and moral progression.• The experience of the last century is of great value. The social and economic fruits endure though the individual communities have gone. The questions of AIM have not all been answered in the affirmative nor yet in the negative. Most of the features of many of the experiments to which exception is taken—free love, celibacy, and the like—are not essential features. Private property has its evils, but it has been a powerful incentive to progress. Will communism give an equal incentive without the evils? The tendency to-day is away from the formation of isolated groups. In the middle of the last century many and intelligent men thought. to reform the world in a few years. Cabet allowed fifty years for a preparation—then complete communism. Such dreams have largely vanished. The settle ments have seemed to furnish little 'scope for ambition, and ambition is one of the chief traits of mankind.' The socialists and all who may hope for comnmnism are now seeking it by the way of gradual political reform. in summing up American communism, Professor Ely says: "It has accomplished much good and little harm. Its leaders have been actuated by noble motives, have many times been men far above their fellows in moral stature, even in intellectual stature, and have desired only to benefit their kind. lts aim has been to elevate man and its ways have been ways of BIBLIOGRAPHY : Consult : Ka r0111111nnismBibliography: Consult : Ka r0111111nnism in Central Europe at the Time of the Refor mation (London, 1897) : Kleiniichter. Die Stoats rOnballe (Vienna. 1891) ; Stammhammer, Biblio graphic. des So.-....ialismus and Kommunismus (Jena, 1893-091; Stegman-Ilug,o, Handbuch des Sozialismus (Zurich. 1897) ; Ely. French and German Socialism (New York, 1883) : Nordhofi'. The Communistic Societies of the United States (New York. 1875) : Ely, The Labor Movement in America (L'd ed. New York. 1890) : Noyes. tristory of American Socialism (Philadelphia. 1869) Shaw, Icaria (New York, 18S4). See SOCIALISM.