The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and ObservationNordhoff, Charles
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The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation
Nordhoff, Charles
Collective settlements -- United States
"Rent of rooms will be reasonable, and board will be finally settled for
at its cost, as near as may be; but in computing it for advance payment,
it will be rated rather above than below its expected cost, to provide
against contingencies. If too much is advanced, the excess, when
ascertained, will either be repaid or otherwise duly accounted for.
"Facilities for cheap boarding, and for tables graduated to suit
different tastes and circumstances, will be limited at first, and until
associates become numerous enough to form messes and board themselves.
"Second: each person so admitted will be required to deposit, as may be
directed, the sum of one hundred dollars for himself, and an equal sum
for every other person admitted with him at his request, on which
interest will be allowed at the rate of six per cent, per annum. This
deposit is expected to be kept unimpaired until the projectors think it
may safely be dispensed with, but will be repaid, or so much thereof as
is subject to no charges or offsets, whenever the person on whose
account it was made withdraws from the enterprise and ceases to reside
on the domain; as will also any unexpended residue of the amount
advanced for rooms and board.
"This deposit, besides furnishing a guarantee against the destitution of
the person making it, is recommended by another consideration not less
important--it secures him, in case he wishes to retire from the
enterprise, because he can find no satisfactory position in it, or for
any other reason, against retiring empty-handed, or remaining longer
than he wishes for want of means to go elsewhere.
"In addition to these cash advances, each person admitted as an
associate or candidate will be required to provide furniture for his
room, and all other articles needed for his personal use, including,
generally, the hand-tools with which he works. But some of these
articles may, in certain cases, be rented or sold on credit to persons
of good industrial capacity who have complied with the other conditions.
"We should esteem, as especially useful, a class of residents who,
having an income, independent of their earnings, adequate to their
frugal support at least, can devote themselves as freely as they please
to attractive occupations which are not remunerative, it being such
occupations probably that will furnish the first good examples of a true
industrial organization. Next to be preferred are those having an
independent income which, though not adequate to their entire support,
is sufficient to relieve them from any considerable anxiety concerning
it; for they can, to a greater or less extent, yield to the impulses of
attraction with comparative indifference to the pecuniary results of
their industry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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