New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-03-05
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
AMERICAN sOCIALISMs.

character OF oracle and seeT and honestly announces
himself in the more earthly part Of bookmakcr lie
has lust ga2ed success where success seemed impos-
kible to miss. Socialism, Communism, and their
cousin german Cooperation, are yet Unsoved prob
lens whose attraction is unfailing TO all earnest
thinleT Any account. unbiased and truthful, now
ever plainly written of the Associations of this conn
try their rise and success or failure would copa"u
instant attention Mr. Moves has here snlvfy edlted
the posthumous MSS of one Mcdonald, scotch
printer who had a hobby for visiting and collecting
mass of newspaper scraps and statistics ABOUT ,no
different Associations Inc has edioed Them too wlt-
out any effort apparently to rest ther uuiii'nosS'
adding extracts from fugitive pamphlets anu so"s"-
tona newspaper reports, whose inaccuracy the most
casual reader but slightly acquainted with the SUD
ioct can NJ once detect His object is doubtless
served-that of bringing into notice the Free-LoVe
or Perfectionst Association at Oneida Creek at the
altar of whose theoretical sanity purity and unmen-
tionable practice he ministers at once as bighprest
and oracle in one But slight attention to facts
would have been cheap labor, and have answered his
purpose better.
His classification is of first. in incorrect,
leaving out OF view the antique religious as
sociatiOns, such as Dunkcrs, ZOarites, and Mo
ravians, and the foreign such as the lea
rians and Brazilian. The motive idea of these
belongs in germ 40 more to the Old World than
those of Fourier or Owen, nor was their ma
terrell in many instances more exclusively loTeIgn'
The remaining Associations he divides INTO TWO
rrouIs the Owente Communities numbering eleven
the most important of which at NewHarmony with
900 men 1oIs lasted only three years; and the GU
rerite Phaansteries, in number thirty-fonr, when
had q duration of from five months to eighteen
years Outside of these the exceptional bodies OF
Shakers Rapptes etc, etc. His array, inaccurate
as it is has sort of ludcrous ghasness, so evident
10 the complacent pride with which Mr.. Moves gath
e up and paradcs these dead bones of extinct Asso
citations TO render dramatic the apotheoss OF his
own stn living scheme. The reason for their prema-
ture decay and death he sums up briefly: lst the
want of religion or as he calls it, atiatus' OF,
ID the weakness of such aiiatus todisntegrate the
family unit and make communism the home center.
The book is in short a collection of eptaphS, which
wall doubtless afford great comfort to the Free
Lovers al Oneida Creek, but we lay il down with re-
cret that it should be that no effort other
than a weak partisan one, has yet been made TO give
the true history and solve the reason of the failure
Of these attempts made to lift society into higher,
pureT level Men the most noble and cear-slghted
have given themselves to the work; capital has not
been wanting, worldly wisdom, or hard, steady
drudcery; nor above ALL recognition of the highest
claims of God and human brotherhood. Why, then,
have they failed!
More and more feel" said Hawthorne, looking
back TO Brook Farm, that we had struck upon what
ought 10 be a truth. But while he was there tins
truth that labor should be. without discrimination
equally portioncd to all was not apparent The
yeomau aud the scholar two distinct individuals
and cannot be welded into one" he says, when his
back ached over the pillow or awl, and his thoughts
grew Goldfish.
&" ] cannot conceive ii just SAYS another believer,
that man who invests 100000 should stand on
equa footing, so far as property is concerned, with
one who brings nothing TO q common fund" Half of
the Owenite communities were broken up by the
number Of drones who pressed into the hive and de-
randcd like fare and equal place with the workers
The Unborn aristOcTacy of talent, capital. skill. and
labor viii, in time assert itself and shatter ihc IRA
tona and murderous Procrustes-bed OF leveling
communism. He who has the ten talents will claim
rule over the ten cities, at the last. Men may be
born equal as well free, but Of surety they never
remain So
For the failure OF the other class of Associations
which had their origin in an absolutely antagOnstlC
idea to those of Owens crude theory which insured
10 every man the frcest development of his natural
faculties and made these faculties the basis Of his
work place, and reward, various causes are gwen
by those who shared in them and failed. Now we
arc told it was fire now bad land-ttleS; jealousy
among women some raScaly NaylOr or Jones but
under all is the covert secret, the centrifugal power
in the iudydual-ca il seliShness, if you will the
want OF some wine spiritual mortar which, after all
the parts OF this social building had been carefully
tested and assigned their fitting place, would make
them cohere aud become a temple for a hOlier spirit
of Humanity than Che world yet knows. The prob
leu is vet waiting TO he solved. VIII A. b. and
c. the poet the Wall broker, andthe blacksmith.
I've brought INTO closer contact than now clothed
they are by Nature, /" some in rags, and some III
tars and some in velvet gowns - clothes too, which
they can never outgrow shakeoif whitley ever
give to each tOthcr with such liberal hand
and honest purpose Of that meaning
and truth which life has measured out to
each that they and the world shall understand, as
never before, actual Brotherhood and the God who
made il and will such contact and brotherhood help
them in their pockets. the comfort Of thcT daily
lives widen their thoughts, or elevate their souls
Some of us the most most noble and helpful, too
among rs believe that it Will. and that the day is
close mt hand. Yet few woud I've willing 10 accept
the success of certain exceptional communities as an
augury Of this. The Shakers, Rappites, and Dun
Rers to whose wealth Mr.. Noyes points with snch
triumph. nstancng the Rapp.iHs especially, az a
body imbued with the needful religions afiatus. y
and eyidencing the purity and power vi then faith
by their railroad stocks and Ol-wclls. They do-in
fact very good type Of the lowest grade OF
associations; where the aihatus is the autOcratic
will and religious need of one master mind and the
sole success achieved aimed at that of unhOpetul
unaspiring physical comfort. They do not deserve
10 be classed with the efforts for pure general
socialist society any more than the nuns oI monks OF
convent. In llct the system is not unlike those Of
enoh combinations in the Catholic Church.
Individual emotions and interests being the root
H., .4t.. A., Il