CHAPTER IX

THE ONEIDA COMMUNITY

Further communistic experiments-The Oneida Community-Its administration-The reign of God-"Mutual criticism" Promiscuity-- Dissolution One Community formed by Americans, the others by Germans.

In

FURTHER experiments were made in the United States, there being thirty-two Socialistic establishments in 1842. John Humphrey Noyes, the author of the first "History of American Socialism," founded the Oneida Community in 1848, under the influence of Fourier's ideas. Its supporters contributed $107,000; in 1857 the balance sheet shewed assets of $67,000-a loss of $40,000. the ten succeeding years they made a profit of $180,000; in 1874 they possessed 900 acres of land and numbered 300 members. Their affairs were administered by twenty-one committees, there being one committee for twenty members; there were also forty-eight directors of the various industries. The staff therefore must have been

ample.

They believed that the kingdom of God was at hand; they desired the total and immediate abolition of sin, and they practised sexual promiscuity within the community, limited by freedom of selection. Control was exercised by "mutual criticism," with or without the consent of its object. Nordhoff has given a description of one of their sittings at which fifteen members were assembled. For a quarter of an hour they attacked a young man whose emotion was made apparent by his paleness and by the large drops of perspiration which he emitted.

The community existed for thirty years. Outside opinion was hostile to the system of sexual

morality which they practised, and possibly the "Perfectionists" were themselves tired of it; they gave it up, but from that day the community was dissolved, and in 1880 it became a commercial limited company.

This is the only community which was formed by Americans, all the others were formed by Germans, and all of them failed for the same reason, the corruption and despotism of those who directed them, and internal dissensions and rivalries, so that the time which ought to have been employed in production was wasted in disputes and compromises.

CABET AND THE AMERICAN ICARIANS

i. The "Voyage en Icarie" Its catchwords Symmetrical arrangements-The State-In this land of freedom all liberty is suppressed-Absence of civil and penal law-Powers of police-The dictator Icarus-The Budget. ii. A practical experiment Texas Nauvoo Dissensions-Cabet expelled-His death-Cheltenham's experiment-End of the Icarians of Nauroo. CABET was born at Dijon in 1788. He was a lawyer by profession, and had taken an active part in the revolution of 1830. He was appointed Procurator-General in Corsica, and was recalled and elected a deputy in 1834. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and retired England, whence in 1839 he brought back his "Voyage en Icarie," written under the influence of Morelly's "Basiliad" and of the ideas of Owen. Under this title, with a peculiar typographical arrangement of his catchwords he brings together all the vague and high sounding expressions which were current in Socialist circles:

to

EACH FOR ALL

EDUCATION

INTELLIGENCE- REASON

MORALITY

MACHINERY FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL

INCREASE OF PRODUCTION

EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF PROFITS

TO EACH ACCORDING
TO HIS NECESSITIES

ABOLITION OF MISERY

PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

CONTINUAL PROGRESS

ABUNDANCE

ᎪᎡᎢ

COMMON WELFARE

ORDER

UNION

PRIMARY DUTY-
TO LABOUR

FROM EACH ACCORD-
ING TO HIS POWERS

The

These catchwords are always in fashion. book, written in a declamatory style, is divided into three parts; the first is devoted to a description of the inhabitants, the second to a history of

E

Icaria, the third to the principles upon which Icarian civilisation is founded. We find once again the symmetry which was seen in the earlier romances; one hundred provinces contain ten divisions. The counties contain a county town, eight villages and a number of farms. There are one hundred provincial provincial county towns, nine hundred divisional county towns, and eight thousand villages surrounding the capital of the land of Icaria. The police has attained a degree of perfection which all the cities of the world may well envy to-day. There are several harvests a year.

The principal meals are taken in common, but for the making of soup each family is furnished with the "Cook's Guide," an official and perfect publication. All Icarians are perfumed, and they have at their disposal dirigible balloons, thanks to the communism which had also succeeded in

abolishing the tooth-ache. The State directing everything is in advance in everything-this is the greatest miracle of Icaria.

There is only one great newspaper, the "National Journal," for the liberty of the Press is of no value in this land of liberty. There is but one national history-for children must be brought up to moral unity. Statistics are the chief instrument of Government, they regulate all occupations, the callings of the young, victualling and all other requirements. Daily labour, which occupies seven hours in the summer and six in the winter, is compulsory on all men up to the age of sixty-five, and on women up to fifty. Anyone refusing to work is confined in a public prison.

The Government is in the hands of a president and of fifteen ministers elected biennially by the people. The Sovereignty of the people is ensured by two thousand representatives, at the rate of two for each division. Officials receive no salary. Fifteen special committees control the fifteen ministers and regulate all the conditions of social

life, including the bill of fare of the common meals and the dress of the ladies.

There is naturally neither civil law nor a judicial bench. Inasmuch as there can only be minor offences, criminal law is supplanted by a few minor censures. There are places of worship, priests and priestesses, whose functions are confined to preaching, for there is no ritual.

Cabet does not venture to accept the necessary consequence of his conception of society, the community of women.

I put aside the history of the transition which at the end of a violent crisis brought this astonishing State under the control of the Grand Icarian, invested with the dictatorship.

Cabet enumerates the twenty-three decrees by virtue of which all property remains vested in the existing holder without the possibility of alienation, wealth is to be cut down, the condition of the poor improved, wages and the price of commodities fixed, and the cost of government limited, but supplemented by five hundred million francs per annum to procure work for the unemployed, and by one hundred millions for the training of the workers of the future.

II

In 1847 Cabet made an appeal for the organisation of an Icaria in America. He received numerous offers of service from traders who had goods to dispose of. In January, 1848, he purchased a million acres in Texas, and in February sent out sixty-nine enthusiasts who, on arriving at New Orleans on March 27th, were apprised of the Revolution of 1848, and regretted having left France at such a time. Cabet thought that he had bought a tract of land in a ring fence, but found that he had become possessed of scattered lots. The Icarians reached these lands in the midst of all kinds of difficulties. A second body of ninety