The Communistic Societies of the United States Part 2

The civil or temporal government of the Amana communists consists of thirteen trustees, chosen annually by the male members of the society.

The president of the society is chosen by the trustees.

This body manages the finances, and carries on the temporalities generally, but it acts only with the unanimous consent of its members.

The trustees live in different villages, but exercise no special authority, as I understand, as individuals. The foremen and elders in each village carry on the work and keep the accounts. Each village keeps its own books and manages its own affairs; but all accounts are finally sent to the head-quarters at Amana, where they are inspected, and the balance of profit or loss is discovered. It is supposed that the labor of each village produces a profit; but whether it does or not makes no difference in the supplies of the people, who receive every thing alike, as all property is held in common. All accounts are balanced once a year, and thus the productiveness of every industry is ascertained.

The elders are a numerous body, not necessarily old men, but presumably men of deep piety and spirituality. They are named or appointed by inspiration, and preside at religious a.s.semblies.

In every village four or five of the older and more experienced elders meet each morning to advise together on business. This council acts, as I understand, upon reports of those younger elders who are foremen and have charge of different affairs. These in turn meet for a few minutes every evening, and arrange for the next day's work.

Women are never members of these councils, nor do they hold, as far as I could discover, any temporal or spiritual authority, with the single exception of their present spiritual head, who is a woman of eighty years. Moreover, if a young man should marry out of the society, and his wife should desire to become a member, the husband is expelled for a year--at the end of which time both may make application to come in, if they wish.

They have contrived a very simple and ingenious plan for supplying their members with clothing and other articles aside from food. To each adult male an annual allowance is made of from forty to one hundred dollars, according as his position and labor necessitates more or less clothing.

For each adult female the allowance is from twenty-five to thirty dollars, and from five to ten dollars for each child.

All that they need is kept in store in each village, and is sold to the members at cost and expenses. When any one requires an article of clothing, he goes to the store and selects the cloth, for which he is charged in a book he brings with him; he then goes to the tailor, who makes the garment, and charges him on the book an established price. If he needs shoes, or a hat, or tobacco, or a watch, every thing is in the same way charged. As I sat in one of the shops, I noticed women coming in to make purchases, often bringing children with them, and each had her little book in which due entry was made. "Whatever we do not use, is so much saved against next year; or we may give it away if we like," one explained to me; and added that during the war, when the society contributed between eighteen and twenty thousand dollars to various benevolent purposes, much of this was given by individual members out of the savings on their year's account.

Almost every man has a watch, but they keep a strict rule over vanities of apparel, and do not allow the young girls to buy or wear ear-rings or breastpins.

The young and unmarried people, if they have no parents, are divided around among the families.

They have not many labor-saving contrivances; though of course the eating in common is both economical and labor-saving. There is in each village a general wash-house, where the clothing of the unmarried people is washed, but each family does its own washing.

They have no libraries; and most of their reading is in the Bible and in their own "inspired" records, which, as I shall show further on, are quite voluminous. A few newspapers are taken, and each calling among them receives the journal which treats of its own specialty. In general they aim to withdraw themselves as much as possible from the world, and take little interest in public affairs. During the war they voted; "but we do not now, for we do not like the turn politics have taken"--which seemed to me a curious reason for refusing to vote.

Their members came originally from many parts of Germany and Switzerland; they have also a few "Pennsylvania Dutch." They have much trouble with applicants who desire to join the society; and receive, the secretary told me, sometimes dozens of letters in a month from persons of whom they know nothing; and not a few of whom, it seems, write, not to ask permission to join, but to say that they are coming on at once.

There have been cases where a man wrote to say that he had sold all his possessions, and was then on the way, with his family, to join the a.s.sociation. As they claim to be not an industrial, but a religious community, they receive new members with great care, and only after thorough investigation of motives and religious faith; and these random applications are very annoying to them. Most of their new members they receive from Germany, accepting them after proper correspondence, and under the instructions of "inspiration." Where they believe them worthy they do not inquire about their means; and a fund is annually set apart by the trustees to pay the pa.s.sage of poor families whom they have determined to take in. Usually a neophyte enters on probation for two years, signing an obligation to labor faithfully, to conduct himself according to the society's regulations, and to demand no wages.

If at the close of his probation he appears to be a proper person, he is admitted to full membership; and if he has property, he is then expected to put this into the common stock; signing also the const.i.tution, which provides that on leaving he shall have his contribution returned, but without interest.

There are cases, however, where a new-comer is at once admitted to full membership. This is where "inspiration" directs such breach of the general rule, on the ground that the applicant is already a fit person.

Most of their members came from the Lutheran Church; but they have also Catholics, and I believe several Jews.

They employ about two hundred hired hands, mostly in agricultural labors; and these are all Germans, many of whom have families. For these they supply houses, and give them sometimes the privilege of raising a few cattle on their land.

They are excellent farmers, and keep fine stock, which they care for with German thoroughness; stall-feeding in the winter.

The members do not work hard. One of the foremen told me that three hired hands would do as much as five or six of the members. Partly this comes no doubt from the interruption to steady labor caused by their frequent religious meetings; but I have found it generally true that the members of communistic societies take life easy.

The people are of varying degrees of intelligence; but most of them belong to the peasant cla.s.s of Germany, and were originally farmers, weavers, or mechanics. They are quiet, a little stolid, and very well satisfied with their life. Here, as in other communistic societies, the brains seem to come easily to the top. The leading men with whom I conversed appeared to me to be thoroughly trained business men in the German fashion; men of education, too, and a good deal of intelligence.

The present secretary told me that he had been during all his early life a merchant in Germany; and he had the grave and somewhat precise air of an honest German merchant of the old style--prudent, with a heavy sense of responsibility, a little rigid, and yet kindly.

At the little inn I talked with a number of the rank and file, and noticed in them great satisfaction with their method of life. They were, on the surface, the commoner kind of German laborers; but they had evidently thought pretty thoroughly upon the subject of communal living; and knew how to display to me what appeared to them its advantages in their society: the absolute equality of all men--"as G.o.d made us;" the security for their families; the abundance of food; and the independence of a master.

It seems to me that these advantages are dearer to the Germans than to almost any other nation, and hence they work more harmoniously in communistic experiments. I think I noticed at Amana, and elsewhere among the German communistic societies, a satisfaction in their lives, a pride in the equality which the communal system secures, and also in the conscious surrender of the individual will to the general good, which is not so clearly and satisfactorily felt among other nationalities.

Moreover, the German peasant is fortunate in his tastes, which are frugal and well fitted for community living. He has not a great sense of or desire for beauty of surroundings; he likes substantial living, but cares nothing for elegance. His comforts are not, like the American's, of a costly kind.

I think, too, that his lower pa.s.sions are more easily regulated or controlled, and certainly he is more easily contented to remain in one place. The innkeeper, a little to my surprise, when by chance I told him that I had spent a winter on the Sandwich Islands, asked me with the keenest delight and curiosity about the trees, the climate, and the life there; and wanted to know if I had seen the place where Captain Cook, "the great circ.u.mnavigator of the world," was slain. He returned to the subject again and again, and evidently looked upon me as a prodigiously interesting person, because I had been fortunate enough to see what to him was cla.s.sic ground. An American would not have felt one half this man's interest; but he would probably have dreamed of making the same journey some day. My kindly host sat serenely in his place, and was not moved by a single wandering thought.

They forbid all amus.e.m.e.nts--all cards and games whatever, and all musical instruments; "one might have a flute, but nothing more." Also they regard photographs and pictures of all kinds as tending to idol-worship, and therefore not to be allowed.

They have made very substantial improvements upon their property; among other things, in order to secure a sufficient water-power, they dug a ca.n.a.l six miles long, and from five to ten feet deep, leading a large body of water through Amana. On this ca.n.a.l they keep a steam-scow to dredge it out annually.

As a precaution against fire, in Amana there is a little tower upon a house in the middle of the village, where two men keep watch all night.

They buy much wool from the neighboring farmers; and have a high reputation for integrity and simple plain-dealing among their neighbors.

A farmer told me that it was not easy to cheat them; and that they never dealt the second time with a man who had in any way wronged them; but that they paid a fair price for all they bought, and always paid cash.

In their woolen factories they make cloth enough for their own wants and to supply the demand of the country about them. Flannels and yarn, as well as woolen gloves and stockings, they export, sending some of these products as far as New York. The gloves and stockings are made not only by the children, but by the women during the winter months, when they are otherwise unemployed.

At present they own about 3000 sheep, 1500 head of cattle, 200 horses, and 2500 hogs.

The society has no debt, and has a considerable fund at interest.

They lose very few of their young people. Some who leave them return after a few years in the world. Plain and dull as the life is, it appears to satisfy the youth they train up; and no doubt it has its rewards in its regularity, peacefulness, security against want, and freedom from dependence on a master.

It struck me as odd that in cases of illness they use chiefly homeopathic treatment. The people live to a hale old age. They had among the members, in March, 1874, a woman aged ninety-seven, and a number of persons over eighty.

They are non-resistants; but during the late war paid for subst.i.tutes in the army. "But we did wrongly there," said one to me; "it is not right to take part in wars even in this way."

To sum up: the people of Amana appeared to me a remarkably quiet, industrious, and contented population; honest, of good repute among their neighbors, very kindly, and with religion so thoroughly and largely made a part of their lives that they may be called a religious people.

IV.--RELIGION AND LITERATURE.

"If one gives himself entirely, and in all his life, to the will of G.o.d, he will presently be possessed by the Spirit of G.o.d."

"The Bible is the Word of G.o.d; each prophet or sacred writer wrote only what he received from G.o.d."

"In the New Testament we read that the disciples were 'filled with the Holy Ghost.' But the same G.o.d lives now, and it is reasonable to believe that he inspires his followers now as then; and that he will lead his people, in these days as in those, by the words of his inspiration."

"He leads us in spiritual matters, and in those temporal concerns which affect our spiritual life; but we do not look to him for inspired directions in all the minute affairs of our daily lives. Inspiration directed us to come to America, and to leave Eben-Ezer for Iowa.

Inspiration sometimes directs us to admit a new-comer to full membership, and sometimes to expel an unworthy member. Inspiration discovers hidden sins in the congregation."

"We have no creed except the Bible."

"We ought to live retired and spiritual lives; to keep ourselves separate from the world; to cultivate humility, obedience to G.o.d's will, faithfulness, and love to Christ."

"Christ is our head."

Such are some of the expressions of their religious belief which the pious and well-instructed at Amana gave me.

They have published two Catechisms--one for the instruction of children, the other for the use of older persons. From these it appears that they are Trinitarians, believe in "justification by faith," hold to the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, but not to eternal punishment, believing rather that fire will purify the wicked in the course of time, longer or shorter according to their wickedness.

They do not practice baptism, either infant or adult, holding it to be a useless ceremony not commanded in the New Testament. They celebrate the Lord's Supper, not at regular periods, but only when by the words of "inspiration" G.o.d orders them to do so; and then with peculiar ceremonies, which I shall describe further on.