The Communistic Societies of the United States by Charles Nordhoff

C >> Charles Nordhoff >> The Communistic Societies of the United States

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

[Relocated Footnote: Lest I should to some readers appear to use too
strong language, I append here a few passages from a recent English
work, Mr. Thornton's book "On Labor," where he gives an account of some
of the regulations of English Trades-Unions:

"A journeyman is not permitted to teach his own son his own trade, nor,
if the lad managed to learn the trade by stealth, would he be permitted
to practice it. A master, desiring out of charity to take as apprentice
one of the eight destitute orphans of a widowed mother, has been told by
his men that if he did they would strike. A bricklayer's assistant who
by looking on has learned to lay bricks as well as his principal, is
generally doomed, nevertheless, to continue a laborer for life. He will
never rise to the rank of a bricklayer, if those who have already
attained that dignity can help it."

"Some Unions divide the country round them into districts, and will not
permit the products of the trades controlled by them to be used except
within the district in which they have been fabricated.... At Manchester
this combination is particularly effective, preventing any bricks made
beyond a radius of four miles from entering the city. To enforce the
exclusion, paid agents are employed; every cart of bricks coming toward
Manchester is watched, and if the contents be found to have come from
without the prescribed boundary the bricklayers at once refuse to
work.... The vagaries of the Lancashire brick makers are fairly
paralleled by the masons of the same county. Stone, when freshly
quarried, is softer, and can be more easily cut than later: men
habitually employed about any particular quarry better understand the
working of its particular stone than men from a distance; there is great
economy, too, in transporting stone dressed instead of in rough blocks.
The Yorkshire masons, however, will not allow Yorkshire stone to be
brought into their district if worked on more than one side. All the
rest of the working, the edging and jointing, they insist on doing
themselves, though they thereby add thirty-five per cent, to its
price.... A Bradford contractor, requiring for a staircase some steps of
hard delf-stone, a material which Bradford masons so much dislike that
they often refuse employment rather than undertake it, got the steps
worked at the quarry. But when they arrived ready for setting, his
masons insisted on their being worked over again, at an expense of from
5s. to 10s. per step. A master-mason at Ashton obtained some stone ready
polished from a quarry near Macclesfield. His men, however, in obedience
to the rules of their club, refused to fix it until the polished part
had been defaced and they had polished it again by hand, though not so
well as at first.... In one or two of the northern counties, the
associated plasterers and associated plasterers' laborers have come to
an understanding, according to which the latter are to abstain from all
plasterers' work except simple whitewashing; and the plasterers in
return are to do nothing except pure plasterers' work, that the laborers
would like to do for them, insomuch that if a plasterer wants laths or
plaster to go on with, he must not go and fetch them himself, but must
send a laborer for them. In consequence of this agreement, a Mr. Booth,
of Bolton, having sent one of his plasterers to bed and point a dozen
windows, had to place a laborer with him during the whole of the four
days he was engaged on the job, though any body could have brought him
all he required in half a day.... At Liverpool, a bricklayer's laborer
may legally carry as many as twelve bricks at a time. Elsewhere ten is
the greatest number allowed. But at Leeds 'any brother in the Union
professing to carry more than the common number, which is eight bricks,
shall be fined 1s.'; and any brother 'knowing the same without giving
the earliest information thereof to the committee of management shall be
fined the same.'... During the building of the Manchester Law Courts,
the bricklayers' laborers struck because they were desired to wheel
bricks instead of carrying them on their shoulders."]

THE INSPIRATIONISTS,

AT

AMANA, IOWA

THE AMANA COMMUNITY.

I.

The "True Inspiration Congregations," as they call themselves ("_Wahre
Inspiration's Gemeinden_"), form a communistic society in Iowa,
seventy-four miles west of Davenport.

The society has at this time 1450 members; owns about 25,000 acres of
land; lives on this land in seven different small towns; carries on
agriculture and manufactures of several kinds, and is highly prosperous.

Its members are all Germans.

The base of its organization is religion; they are pietists; and their
religious head, at present a woman, is supposed by them to speak by
direct inspiration of God. Hence they call themselves "Inspirationists."

They came from Germany in the year 1842, and settled at first near
Buffalo, on a large tract of land which they called Eben-Ezer. Here they
prospered greatly; but feeling the need of more land, in 1855 they began
to remove to their present home in Iowa.

They have printed a great number of books--more than one hundred
volumes; and in some of these the history of their peculiar religious
belief is carried back to the beginning of the last century. They
continue to receive from Germany accessions to their numbers, and often
pay out of their common treasury the expenses of poor families who
recommend themselves to the society by letters, and whom their inspired
leader declares to be worthy.

They seem to have conducted their pecuniary affairs with eminent
prudence and success.

II.--HISTORICAL.

The "Work of Inspiration" is said to have begun far back in the
eighteenth century. I have a volume, printed in 1785, which is called
the "Thirty-sixth Collection of the Inspirational Records," and gives an
account of "Brother John Frederick Rock's journeys and visits in the
year 1719, wherein are recorded numerous utterances of the Spirit by his
word of mouth to the faithful in Constance, Schaffhausen, Zurich, and
other places."

They admit, I believe, that the "Inspiration" died out from time to
time, but was revived as the congregations became more godly. In 1749,
in 1772, and in 1776 there were especial demonstrations. Finally, in the
year 1816, Michael Krausert, a tailor of Strasburg, became what they
call an "instrument" (_werkzeug_), and to him were added several
others:

Philip Moschel, a stocking-weaver, and a German; Christian Metz, a
carpenter; and finally, in 1818, Barbara Heynemann, a "poor and
illiterate servant-maid," an Alsatian ("_eine arme ganz ungdehrte
Dienstmagd_").

Metz, who was for many years, and until his death in 1867, the spiritual
head of the society, wrote an account of the society from the time he
became an "instrument" until the removal to Iowa. From this, and from a
volume of Barbara Heynemann's inspired utterances, I gather that the
congregations did not hesitate to criticize, and very sharply, the
conduct of their spiritual leaders; and to depose them, and even expel
them for cause. Moreover, they recount in their books, without disguise,
all their misunderstandings. Thus it is recorded of Barbara Heynemann
that in 1820 she was condemned to expulsion from the society, and her
earnest entreaties only sufficed to obtain consent that she should serve
as a maid in the family of one of the congregation; but even then it was
forbidden her to come to the meetings. Her exclusion seems, however, to
have lasted but a few months. Metz, in his "Historical Description,"
relates that this trouble fell upon Barbara because she had too friendly
an eye upon the young men; and there are several notices of her desire
to marry, as, for instance, under date of August, 1822, where it is
related that "the Enemy" tempted her again with a desire to marry George
Landmann; but "the Lord showed through Brother Rath, and also to her own
conscience, that this step was against his holy will, and accordingly
they did not marry, but did repent concerning it, and the Lord's grace
was once more given her." But, like Jacob, she seems to have wrestled
with the Lord, for later she did marry George Landmann, and, though they
were for a while under censure, she regained her old standing as an
"inspired instrument," came over to the United States with her husband,
was for many years the assistant of Metz, and since his death has been
the inspired oracle of Amana.

In the year 1822 the congregations appear to have attracted the
attention of the English Quakers, for I find a notice that in December
of that year they were visited by William Allen, a Quaker minister from
London, who seems to have been a man of wealth. He inquired concerning
their religious faith, and told them that he and his brethren at home
were also subject to inspiration. He persuaded them to hold a meeting,
at which by his desire they read the 14th chapter of John; and he told
them that it was probable he would be moved of the Lord to speak to
them. But when they had read the chapter, and while they waited for the
Quaker's inspiration, Barbara Heynemann was moved to speak. At this
Allen became impatient and left the meeting; and in the evening he told
The brethren that the Quaker inspiration was as real as their own,
but that they did not write down what was spoken by their preachers;
whereto he received for reply that it was not necessary, for it was
evident that the Quakers had not the real inspiration, nor the proper
and consecrated "instruments" to declare the will of the Lord; and so the
Quaker went away on his journey home, apparently not much edified.

The congregations were much scattered in Germany, and it appears to have
been the habit of the "inspired instruments" to travel from one to the
other, deliver messages from on high, and inquire into the spiritual
condition of the faithful. Under the leadership of Christian Metz and
several others, between 1825 and 1839 a considerable number of their
followers were brought together at a place called Armenburg, where
manufactures gave them employment, and here they prospered, but fell
into trouble with the government because they refused to take oaths
and to send their children to the public schools, which were under
the rule of the clergy.

In 1842 it was revealed to Christian Metz that all the congregations
should be gathered together, and be led far away out of their own country.
Later, America was pointed out as their future home. To a meeting of the
elders it was revealed who should go to seek out a place for settlement;
and Metz relates in his brief history that one Peter Mook wanted to be
among these pioneers, and was dissatisfied because he was not among those
named; and as Mook insisted on going, a message came the next day from
God, in which he told them they might go or stay as they pleased, but
if they remained in Germany it would be "at their own risk;" and as Mook
was not even named in this message, he concluded to remain at home.

Metz and four others sailed in September, 1842, for New York. They found
their way to Buffalo; and there, on the advice of the late Mr. Dorsheimer,
from whom they received much kindness, bought five thousand acres of the
old Seneca Indian reservation at ten dollars per acre. To this they added
later nearly as much more. Parts of this estate now lie within the
corporate limits of Buffalo; and though they sold out and removed to the
West before the land attained its present value, the purchase was a most
fortunate one for them. Metz records that they had much trouble at first
with the Indians; but they overcame this and other difficulties, and by
industry and ingenuity soon built up comfortable homes. Three hundred and
fifty persons were brought out in the first year, two hundred and
seventeen in 1844; and their numbers were increased rapidly, until they
had over one thousand people in their different villages.

[Illustration: Amana, a general view.]

Between 1843 and 1855, when they began to remove to Iowa, they turned
their purchase at Eben-Ezer (as they called the place) into a garden. I
visited the locality last year, and found there still the large,
substantial houses, the factories, churches, and shops which they built.
Street cars now run where they found only a dense forest; and the eight
thousand acres which they cleared are now fertile fields and
market-gardens. Another population of Germans has succeeded the Amana
Society; their churches now have steeples, and there is an occasional
dram-shop; but the present residents speak of their predecessors with
esteem and even affection, and in one of the large stores I found the
products of the Iowa society regularly sold. A few of the former members
still live on the old purchase.

They appear to have had considerable means from the first. Among the
members were several persons of wealth, who contributed large sums to
the common stock. I was told that one person gave between fifty and
sixty thousand dollars; and others gave sums of from two to twenty
thousand dollars.

They were not Communists in Germany; and did not, I was told, when they
first emigrated, intend to live in community. Among those who came over
in the first year were some families who had been accustomed to labor in
factories. To these the agricultural life was unpleasant, and it was
thought advisable to set up a woolen factory to give them employment.
This was the first difficulty which stared them in the face. They had
intended to live simply as a Christian congregation or church, but the
necessity which lay upon them of looking to the temporal welfare of all
the members forced them presently to think of putting all their means
into a common stock.

Seeing that some of the brethren did not take kindly to agricultural
labor, and that if they insisted upon a purely agricultural settlement
they would lose many of their people, they determined that each should,
as far as possible, have employment at the work to which he was
accustomed. They began to build workshops, but, to carry these on
successfully, they had business tact enough to see that it was necessary
to do so by a general contribution of means.

"We were commanded at this time, by inspiration, to put all our means
together and live in community," said one to me; "and we soon saw that
we could not have got on or kept together on any other plan."

Eben-Ezer is a wide plain; and there, as now in Iowa, they settled their
people in villages, which they called "Upper," "Lower," and "Middle"
Eben-Ezer. From the large size of many of the houses, I imagine they had
there, commonly, several families in one dwelling. At Amana each family
has its own house; otherwise their customs were similar to those still
retained in Iowa, which I shall describe in their proper place.

In 1854 they were "commanded by inspiration" to remove to the West. They
selected Iowa as their new home, because land was cheap there; and in
1855, having made a purchase, they sent out a detachment to prepare the
way.

It is a remarkable evidence of the prudence and ability with which they
conduct their business affairs, that they were able to sell out the
whole of their eight-thousand-acre tract near Buffalo, with all their
improvements, without loss. Usually such a sale is extremely difficult,
because the buildings of a communistic society have peculiarities which
detract from their value for individual uses. The Rappists, who sold out
twice, were forced to submit to heavy loss each time. I do not doubt
that several of the northern Shaker societies would have removed before
this to a better soil and climate but for the difficulty of selling
their possessions at a fair price.

The removal from Eben-Ezer to Amana, however, required ten years. As
they found purchasers in one place they sent families to the other;
meantime they do not appear to have found it difficult to maintain their
organization in both.

III.--AMANA--1874.

"The name we took out of the Bible," said one of the officers of the
society to me. They put the accent on the first syllable. The name
occurs in the Song of Solomon, the fourth chapter and eighth verse:
"Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from
the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions'
dens, from the mountains of the leopards."

Amana in Iowa, however, is not a mountain, but an extensive plain, upon
which they have built seven villages, conveniently placed so as to
command the cultivated land, and to form an irregular circle within
their possessions. In these villages all the people live, and they are
thus divided:

Name Population Business

Amana 450 Woolen-mill, saw and grist mill,
and farming
East Amana 125 Farming.
Middle Amana 350 Woolen-mill and farming.
Amana near the Hill 125 Farming, saw-mill, and tannery.
West Amana 150 Grist-mill and farming.
South Amana 150 Saw-mill and farming
Homestead 135 Railroad station, a saw-mill, farming,
and general depot.

The villages lie about a mile and a half apart, and each has a store at
which the neighboring farmers trade, and a tavern or inn for the
accommodation of the general public. Each village has also its
shoemakers', carpenters', tailors', and other shops, for they aim to
produce and make, as far as possible, all that they use. In Middle Amana
there is a printing-office, where their books are made.

The villages consist usually of one straggling street, outside of which
lie the barns, and the mills, factories, and workshops. The houses are
well built, of brick, stone, or wood, very plain; each with a sufficient
garden, but mostly standing immediately on the street. They use no
paint, believing that the wood lasts as well without. There is usually a
narrow sidewalk of boards or brick; and the school-house and church are
notable buildings only because of their greater size. Like the Quakers,
they abhor "steeple-houses"; and their church architecture is of the
plainest. The barns and other farm buildings are roomy and convenient.
On the boundaries of a village are usually a few houses inhabited by
hired laborers.

Each family has a house for itself; though when a young couple marry,
they commonly go to live with the parents of one or the other for some
years.

As you walk through a village, you notice that at irregular intervals
are houses somewhat larger than the rest. These are either cook-houses
or prayer-houses. The people eat in common, but for convenience' sake
they are divided, so that a certain number eat together. For Amana,
which has 450 people, there are fifteen such cooking and eating houses.
In these the young women are employed to work under the supervision of
matrons; and hither when the bell rings come those who are appointed to
eat at each--the sexes sitting at separate tables, and the children
also by themselves.

"Why do you separate men from women at table?" I asked.

"To prevent silly conversation and trifling conduct," was the answer.

Food is distributed to the houses according to the number of persons
eating in each. Meal and milk are brought to the doors; and each
cooking-house is required to make its own butter and cheese. For those
whom illness or the care of small children keeps at home, the food is
placed in neat baskets; and it was a curious sight to see, when the
dinner-bell rang, a number of women walking rapidly about the streets
with these baskets, each nicely packed with food.

When the bell ceases ringing and all are assembled, they stand up in
their places in silence for half a minute, then one says grace, and when
he ends, all say, "God bless and keep us safely," and then sit down.
There is but little conversation at table; the meal is eaten rapidly,
but with decorum; and at its close, all stand up again, some one gives
thanks, and thereupon they file out with quiet order and precision.

They live well, after the hearty German fashion, and bake excellent
bread. The table is clean, but it has no cloth. The dishes are coarse
but neat; and the houses, while well built, and possessing all that is
absolutely essential to comfort according to the German peasants' idea,
have not always carpets, and have often a bed in what New-Englanders
would call the parlor; and in general are for use and not ornament.

They breakfast between six and half-past six, according to the season,
have supper between six and seven, and dinner at half-past eleven. They
have besides an afternoon lunch of bread and butter and coffee, and in
summer a forenoon lunch of bread, to which they add beer or wine, both
home-made.

They do not forbid tobacco.

Each business has its foreman; and these leaders in each village meet
together every evening, to concert and arrange the labors of the
following day. Thus if any department needs for an emergency an extra
force, it is known, and the proper persons are warned. The trustees
select the temporal foremen, and give to each from time to time his
proper charge, appointing him also his helpers. Thus a member showed me
his "ticket," by which he was appointed to the care of the cows, with
the names of those who were to assist him. In the summer, and when the
work requires it, a large force is turned into the fields; and the women
labor with the men in the harvest. The workmen in the factories are, of
course, not often changed.

The children are kept at school between the ages of six and thirteen;
the sexes do not sit in separate rooms. The school opens at seven
o'clock, and the children study and recite until half-past nine. From
that hour until eleven, when they are dismissed for dinner, they knit
gloves, wristlets, or stockings. At one o'clock school reopens, and they
once more attend to lessons until three, from which hour till half-past
four they knit again. The teachers are men, but they are relieved by
women when the labor-school begins. Boys as well as girls are required
to knit. One of the teachers said to me that this work kept them quiet,
gave them habits of industry, and kept them off the streets and from
rude plays.

They instruct the children in musical notation, but do not allow musical
instruments. They give only the most elementary instruction, the "three
Rs," but give also constant drill in the Bible and in the Catechism.
"Why should we let our youth study? We need no lawyers or preachers; we
have already three doctors. What they need is to live holy lives, to
learn God's commandments out of the Bible, to learn submission to his
will, and to love him."

The dress of the people is plain. The men wear in the winter a vest
which buttons close up to the throat, coat and trousers being of the
common cut.

The women and young girls wear dingy colored stuffs, mostly of the
society's own make, cut in the plainest style, and often short gowns, in
the German peasant way. All, even to the very small girls, wear their
hair in a kind of black cowl or cap, which covers only the back of the
head, and is tied under the chin by a black ribbon. Also all, young as
well as old, wear a small dark-colored shawl or handkerchief over the
shoulders, and pinned very plainly across the breast. This peculiar
uniform adroitly conceals the marks of sex, and gives a singularly
monotonous appearance to the women.

The sex, I believe, is not highly esteemed by these people, who think it
dangerous to the Christian's peace of mind. One of their most esteemed
writers advises men to "fly from intercourse with women, as a very
highly dangerous magnet and magical fire." Their women work hard and
dress soberly; all ornaments are forbidden. To wear the hair loose is
prohibited. Great care is used to keep the sexes apart. In their evening
and other meetings, women not only sit apart from men, but they leave
the room before the men break ranks. Boys are allowed to play only with
boys, and girls with girls. There are no places or occasions for evening
amusements, where the sexes might meet. On Sunday afternoons the boys
are permitted to walk in the fields; and so are the girls, but these
must go in another direction. "Perhaps they meet in the course of the
walk," said a member to me, "but it is not allowed." At meals and in
their labors they are also separated. With all this care to hide the
charms of the young women, to make them, as far as dress can do so, look
old and ugly, and to keep the young men away from them, love, courtship,
and marriage go on at Amana as elsewhere in the world. The young man
"falls in love," and finds ways to make his passion known to its object;
he no doubt enjoys all the delights of courtship, intensified by the
difficulties which his prudent brethren put in his way; and he marries
the object of his affection, in spite of her black hood and her
sad-colored little shawl, whenever he has reached the age of twenty-four.

For before that age he may not marry, even if his parents consent. This
is a merely prudential rule. "They have few cares in life, and would
marry too early for their own good--food and lodging being secured
them--if there were not a rule upon the subject;" so said one of their
wise men to me. Therefore, no matter how early the young people agree to
marry, the wedding is deferred until the man reaches the proper age.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31