New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-09-10

sioaeet 4" t,fook Farm Association" was sthftsd
/, mite, ieno,aucs that such a msn a, Fourier
svor s.isted. Fouicr's idsas and writings were
soon aftof made known In this conntfy' am, 80
far NJ Ln6yn we're studied with Interest by
INNS, Of tbo,e Interested In tho attempt Mt lndus-
trial md Household Association. very msny of
Lis suggestions were generally deemed hsppy
and practcsl and his fundamental i1ea oil
having encb person work for h'mselI
receive tho fair value Of bis pfodnc's,
and pay tbsrefrom for bis own food, lodging ana
clothing, was almost universally accepted ~ e'-
scntialy lust and m securing far larger measure
Of personal liberty than was attanable under the
Communist system Of st. Simon and Robert owen.
In short, what was accepted FROM Fourier was his
method Of reconciling Individual Property with
unfailing Work, just Recompense and generous
Abundance for all willing to labor, to deal Justly
and to seek personal only in accordance with gen
eral good Fouriers Industrial Association re-
sembles Bank, Railroad, or Manufacturing Cor
poration, wherein the combination of moderate
investments in one large capital secures great
econo.iss and far larger product than could be
attained by isolated and competitive efforts
These suggestions of and aspirations toward
more harmonious Society were beginning to make
an impression on the public mind, which must IN
time have led to grand and benefcent results, when
their enemies raised the cry that "Fourlerlsm
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 Fourer's unknown to the great
body of those here called Fourierites, and added
that Fourier's doctrine of Passonal Attraction
tended directly to that theory Of sexual relations
since christened Free Love-
The American Assocatonists promptly repealed
this charge stating most explicitly that they held
no such doctrine az was attributed to them; that
thew were believers in the sanctity and perpetuity
of Marriage as BY law established; and that' II
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 Fourierlsm
as hostile to Marriage was in the attacks which
they were now Iefuting.
But in fact those attacks were made and have
been r. peated by men who knew they were false,
and did not care whether false or true so long as
they subserved their purpose Since lo4o' there
have been not less than dozen attempts to realize
Industrial Association with general reference 10
the economical suggestions of Fourier. Several oil
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. Visters and proba-
TONERS have been coming and going at all times ;
members have been leaving disappointed. disguised
and hostile and enemies have had itching ears for
every breath of scandal The vulgar multitude,
who constitutionally believe that every convent Is
brothel and every society of Shakers den OF
unnatural pollution, would have eagerly welcomed
book protesting to reveal the lewd orgies OF
"Fourier Pbalanx :" and it is rather matter OIL
surprise to US that no enterprsing hack has ever
seen fit to invent one. There has not another
such capital chance for making little fortune
| rapidly and certainly lain falOw through the
last dozen years. Yet the truth has been so no.
| torious, 60 psIpsole, so undo Unable, that each
one of these "Fourier Phalanxes," so called,
has been eminently pure in sentiment and free
| from sexual incOntneDce, that nobody has been
quite brazen enough to assert the contrary
To insinuate as tbeorsm tina. they ought to be
immoral was easy; it required a little more
hardihood to maintain as fact that they are
impure. Yet Brook Farm had been some time
in operation before this anti Marriage CRY was
raised and all men must realize that, had
"Free Love" been the real creed of these
"Fourerites," it could not have been wholly
excluded from their acts. Yet We say with
confidence that there has never been time IN
the history of these Socialist experiments when
an avowal of the Free Love" doctrine by any
member would not have necessitsted his with
drawal or caused bis expulsion.
But such charges as that Of "Free Love"
against the AssociatiOnists will always ind be-
levers, not alone because the mass of men wish
to find them true, and many find in their own
hearts and lives reasons for wishing the repro
bsted doctrine a sound one, but because the
loose fish that float in the putfid saallOTs Of
society always seek to nourish their own vices
by Harvesting them to some current if not popu-
lar theory. st. Paul had to rebuke his nominal
converts for turning the grace of God into
"licentiousness;" and this peryersion, which is
the fact with respect to few, is true in the
popular belief with regard TO the community.
The Roman world in the first two Christian
centuries, though itself sunk in the grossest PEN
sual debasemeut, absolutely shuddered at the
stories it heard and believed Of the bestial orgies
frequently celebrated by the Christians. Mscksy,
in his progress Of the Human Intellect" OBJ
serves that no one has ever set forth higher and
Of fha Daif W he