History of American SocialismsNoyes, John Humphrey
History
History of American Socialisms
Noyes, John Humphrey
Communism -- United States; Socialism -- United States
"Our crops will be enough to carry us through. Last year we
paid over a thousand dollars for provisions. We have sixty-five
acres of corn, fifty-five of oats, twenty-four of buckwheat,
thirty of wheat, twenty of rye, twelve of potatoes, and two of
broom-corn. Our corn, owing to the excellent soil and superior
skill of the foreman of the farming department, is the best in
all this region of country. Thus we have already one of the
great advantages of Association, in securing the services of the
most able and scientific, not for individual, selfish good, but
for public good. We are fortunate, also, that we shall be able
to keep all our stock of fifty cows, etc., and not be obliged to
drive them off or kill them, as the farmers do around us, for we
have nearly fodder enough from our grains alone. Thus we are
placed in a situation for building up an Association, for
establishing a perfect organization of industry by means of the
groups and series, and in education by the monitorial
manual-labor system, and shall demonstrate that order, and not
civilization, is heaven's first law.
"Some eight or ten families have lately left us, one-fourth
because they had been in the habit of living on better food (so
they said), but the remainder because they were averse to our
carrying out the principles of Association as far as we thought
they ought to be carried. On leaving, they received in return
whatever they asked of us. They who enter Association ought
first to study themselves, and learn which stage of Association
they are fitted for, the transitional or the perfect. If they
are willing to endure privations, to eat coarse food, sometimes
with no meat, but with milk for a substitute (this is a glorious
resort for the Grahamites), to live on friendly terms with an
old hat or coat, rather than have the society run in debt, and
to have patience when many things go wrong, and are willing to
work long and late to make them go right, they may consider
themselves fitted for the transition-period. But if they sigh
for the flesh-pots and leeks and onions of civilization, feel
melancholy with a patch on their back, and growl because they
can not have eggs and honey and warm biscuit and butter for
breakfast, they had better stay where they are, and wait for the
advent of perfect industrial Association. I am thus trifling in
contrast; for there is nothing so serious, hearty, and I might
add, sublime, as the building up of a Phalanx, making and seeing
it grow day by day, and anticipating what fruits we shall enjoy
when a few years are past. Why, the heart of man has never yet
conceived what are the to-be results of the equilibrial
development of all the powers and faculties of man. It is like
endeavoring to comprehend the nature and pursuits of a spiritual
and superior race of beings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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