Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-12-11
THE ToPoLoBAMPo COLONY.
Latest Report from that Somewhat Die
appointing Effort at Communism.

Some six years ago Mr. A. f. Owens
wrote book out of which grew CO..
operative movement to found colony,
and city at Topolobampo on the Pacific
coast, in the province of Sinaloa, Mex
leo. Mr.. Napoleon Hoagland who
has just returned from n visit to Topo-
lobampo, has this to say about the col
ony as it is at present:
During the entire time that the col
ony has been on the ground, now
nearly four years, it has had no home
or permanent abiding place of its own.
Strictly speaking, the history of the
Credit Foncier Company's attempt is
neither for nor against the successful
working of Integral cooperation,
the original and basic principles of the
company. Mr.. Owen has himself de-
clared that no part of his plan has yet
been tried. Director WILDER chairman
of the resident board of directors, tells
me that the original plan of co-opera-
ton ''had neither been tested nor
marred." The colony has been an ex-
emplitication, not of integral or entire
cooperation. but of mild or partial
form of communism. For instance,
they have had equal wages for equal
numbers of hours work. The OK
driver and the skilled cabinet-maker
receive equal pay for a days work.
The pay consists in labor checks or
company credits, aud are on the basis
of So, or three cunts of account" for
eight hours work. These are ex-
changeable only through the company
for the labor or the labor products
commended by the company.
The colony is not in debt, but it has
very little money. At present there
are only about $50 people in the COL
ony. This includes women, children
and invalids. There are perhaps
thirty Or forty abe-bodied productive
workers. In such a small community
it is impossible for it to become self
supporting without exchanging prod
uctS with the outside world. Conse-
quently, for the purchase of such COM
modities as are not produced by the
colony, the labor checks are worthless,
for the colony has produced very little
to sell to outside markets. 1t has been
estimated that from 500 900 to $780,
600 worth OF labor ''credits'' have
already been issued. Nevertheless, I
am told that their value, once very
Il
'credits" have always paid for food at
the company's store, at the public res
taurant, or at the private tables. They
have always been receivable for wash
bills and have paid educational and
school expenses. They are illegal
tender for printing, subscription TO the
colony newspaper, and photographs in
limited quantities. They pay for max
ing or mending clothes, boots and
shoes, for jewelry work, for n phvsi-
clans care and medicine for music for
social occasions, and in fact for any
services that one member can do for
another, from the making of a loaf of
bread to the building of house. The
people have no house rent to paw.
They own their own houses They
pay for them in their own labor, where
they do not build themselves; then,
too, they have no taxes to pay. The
company, by special concession, is not
taxed for a period of ten years, but
after that time the individual member
has no tax to pay, for the company
pays the taxes.
The social life of the colony has beer
its chief beauty and charm. The
morals of the community have been
quite superior. The people did not
advertise themselves as saints" They
declared on the other hand that they
meant to get along without priests and
churches. The leaders do not mean
by this that they intend to get along
without paying any attention to relig-
ion. LAWYERS and secret societies are
also tabooed. They hire their doctor
nv bn He at
when people are the healthiest. 1t is
not to his pecuniary interest that any
one should be sick. 1t is to his tinan-
cial interest that, all the colon lists
should keep well. There has been no
police, no jail, no calaboose, no ex-
change of blows. no theft or robbery,
no seductions, no wife beating. no
drunkenness to speak of. Drinking
intoxicating beverages, smoking or
chewing tobacco, cruelty to animals,
profanity and indecent language are
unpopular, among the men as well az
among the women; hence one sees as
little of any of these vices as he would
find at a well-regulatcd Sunday school
picnic. The life in the colony resem-
bes nothing so much as long-drawn
picnic where excuses have been
avoided, but where the ice cream anG
cake have all been consumed. The
grounds where the houses stand at La
Logia, with their thickets and bowers
of fragrant Towering vines, bushes and
trees and winding paths and open
spaces, seem not unlike park run
wild.
Fully one-half or two-thirds of the
people on the ground came during the
first year. They came to stay. Very
few would return to remain if their
expenses to the states were free to
them. They like the climate, the
country and the life, though they have
suffered many privations. The COM
ing year will decide the fate of the col
ony, whether cit is to be or not to be-"
During that time there is every reason
to hope that a permanent organization
will be effected, on solid basis, the
organization now in force being but
temporary makeshift, with but little
authority and little to support it
Globe Democrat.
Daniel Webster's Habits.