The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-09-20
From the New York Tribune.
THE FATE OF REFORMERS.


whose bold and Selt-sacrifcing proclamation of
truths previously unknown or Inexperienced
the human race has been enlightened and made
happier-should have been subjected to odium
and contumely through their lives and to igno-
miny and reproach even after death. The
execution or exile of the noblest statesmen and
heroes ofGreece in her days Of glory, including
Socrates; the fate of the Roman Gracchi, and
hundreds like them-not to mention the cruel
hxion of Christ-are insolvable puzzles to mil
lions, who, perceiving that the truth is no mans
enemy but all mems ultimate interest, cannot
realize that its proclaimers and champions
should be stoned into untimely graves by angry
multitudes whom that truth was specially cal
culated to benefit.
The explanation of this seeming anomaly i'm
ports that, though truth is indeed all mems ulti-
mate interest, yet there are thousands to whose
supposed and Immediate interests it is implaca-
bly, hostile and threatens to prove fatal Thus
it is the universal interest that every human
being should always have work at fair wages; :
but the highly respectable citizen who is rapid.
ly amassing wealth by hiring shirts made at
slxpence each and pantaloons at shilling a
pair does not realize this. How should he? If
work at fair wages were guaranteed to all,
where would he find women to delve eighteen
hours per day in his service for the price Of Il
avenue palace is rising stone upon stone. by
virtue of these very privations and sufferings
which he, like everybody else, processes to re-
greet and wish ended he may not be conscious
OF hypocrisy in that profession; but who eX-
poets him TO accept and commend the means
whereby those social evils must be overcome
IT overcome they are to be? He will tell
| you how profoundly he sympathizes with the
needy and furnishing; he may even boast, not
untruly, that he gives as much as you do for
their relief; but to ask his cooperation in meas.
ures calculated to lift the least fortunate class
out of their degradation and misery, is TO send
him away sorrowing because of his great pos
sessions. To seek the Abolition of Pauperism
for the able-bodied is in his view a most I'M
Christian enterprise; for did not Christ saw,
The poor We have Arrays with your" lie
who attempts to confne Paupersm to the
manned, the decrept, the paralytic, is, accord
ing to conservative logic, flying in the face of
Providence, and defying the averments of the
Saviour. And thus the great majority of that
numerous and influential class who realize that
they consume and enjoy larger share of
worldly goods than they produce or benefcentlv
earn, are instructive and deadly enemies of any
suggested social Moderation. They may not
be consciously hostile to benefcent changes ::
they are only incapable of realizing that chan.
ges which would probably place them in posi-
ton relatively less enviable than their present
can be benehcent. Who could expect of the
craftsmen of EphesuS any Just appreciation of
the worship Of Diana? 1t suilices them to know
that Shy this craft the fabrication of shrines
for that imaginary goddess-they were sub
sisted and enriched. Find where you may one
who is enjoying rank, or luxury, or honor, which
he has never deserved, and you see in him q
bitter antagonist of what he calls land perhaps
imagines to BEL Socialism"
1t is now some fifteen or sixteen years since
few earnest minds, after bordering anxiously
and patiently the great problem of social misery
from want and compulsory idleness, of which
our great cities afford the most striking exam
pies, attained the conclusion, avowed by the
HerGid that "there is something wrong in our
social arrangements that permit such ca
lamities. After due consultation and renec-
ton, they commenced one experiment after
another, intended to test the capacity of man
kind to maintain state of society more in
innate and truthful, more just and bcnefcent,
than that which has just driven the sisters Stein
to murder and suicide. These experiments
were vulgarly termed "Fourerite." though
none of them ever authorized that designation,
or CONFIRMED to Fourier's methods-in fact the
pioneer "Brook Farm Association was start
ed in utter ignorance that such man as Fourier
ever existed. Fourier's ideas and writings were
soon after made known in this country, and, so
far as known, were studied with interest by
most of those interested in the attempt at In
dustrial and Household Association Very
many of his suggestions we're generally deemed
happy and practical; and his fundamental idea
of having each person work for himself, receive
the fair value of his products, and pay there
from for his own food, lodging, and clothing,
almost universally accepted as essentially
just, and as securing a far larger measure of
personal liberty than was attainabe under the
Communist system Of st. Simon and Robert
Owen In short, what was accepted from
Fourier was his method of reconciling In
dividual Property with unfailing Work, Just
Recompense, and generous Abundance for all
willing to labor, to deal Justly, and to seek per-
sonal only in accordance with general good.
Fourier's Industrial Association resembles a
Bank, Railroad, or Manufacturing Corporation,
wherein the combination of moderate invest
ments in one large capital secures great econ
omies and a far larger product than could be
attained by isolated and competitive efforts.
These suggestions of and aspirations toward
a more harmonious society were beginning to
make an impression on the public mind, which
must in time have led to grand and beneGcent
results, when their enemies raised the cry that
Fourierism contemplated the overthrow of
the Institution of Marriage. TO prove this
they produced two or three brief translatons
OF alleged extracts from some work of Eourier's
unknown to the great body Of those here called
Fourierites," and added that Fourer's doc
trine of Passional Attraction tended directly to
that theory of sexual relations since christened
" Free Love-"
The American Assocationists promptly re-
PEELED this charge, stating most explicitly that
they held no such doctrine as was attributed to
them; that they were believers in the sanctity
and perpetuity of Marriage as by law establish
ed and that, if Fourier held any different !
view, they had not adopted and were no wise
responsible for it. They may have added, and |
probably did, that the first the great body of /
them ever heard of Fourierisrn,' as hostile /
to Marriage, was in the attacks which they were |
now refuting.
Eut iii fact those attacks were made and have /
been repeated by men who knew they were /
false, and did not care whether false or true, so
long as they subserved their purpose. Since .
1910, there have been not less than q dozen I
attempts to realize Industrial Association with |
general reference TO the economical suggestions |
of Fourier. Several Of these have continued |
through eight or ten years, and have at times
had from sixty to one hundred and twenty
members, including married and single, men,
women, and children. Visiters and probationers
have been coming and going at all times
members have been leaving, disappointed. dis.
gusted, and hostile; and enemies have had
itching ears for every breath of scandal. The
vulgar multitude, who consttutionally believe
that every convent is brothel, and every socie-
ty OF Shakers a den of unnatural pollution,
would have eagerly welcomed book protesting
to reveal the lewd orgies of Fourier Pha-
lanx; and 1t is rather matter of surprise to