The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-12-30
SUCCESSFUL SOCIALISM.
A Peculiar and Prosperous Com
munity Of Iowa.
Although 1t Was Started as an Expert
ment, the Colony Has Grown and
FlOurished-A Remarka-
BILE People.

Most socialistic experiments in this
country have fallen fat, but there are
a few remarkable exceptions, says the
situated in Iowa county, Ia. and is
called the Amana society, or Commu-
nifty of True Inspiration. This social
istic society has stood the test of time,
for it is very nearly as old as the state
OF Iowa. Indeed, it traces its early be-
ginning back to the German Pietists Of
the seventeenth century. But in this
country and in Iowa it was incorpo-
rated in 1859.
This society is a shining example. 1t
has succeeded. 1t numbers now about
seventeen hundred souls and they are
all healthy and happy and fast grow
ing rich. They own some twenty-five
thousand acres of land, all cultivated
up to the highest notch and well
supplied with live stock, and they
have mills and manufactures of al
most every description. They carry
on these many enterprises with
the energy and skill of a peo-
pie who believe that all must work.
Not even the old are exempt from the
universal law. You may visit Amana
society any day except Sunday and you
will find everybody at work, one equal
to the other, men and women, some IN
the fields or vineyards, some in the
factories, and a large contingent, most
of these women, as it happens, in the
large cooperative kitchens, where the
hrO hny.Sss
and "sisters" together, as they say.
They all eat the same food, wear the
same blue jeans or blue calico, live in
houses equally free from paint, and
when they die each one is given the
same kind of wooden slab to mars his
resting place. A few do, indeed, pos
sess their own families, but even this
is discouraged, and life of celibacy
held up instead as the highest ideal.
They are a simple, PLAIN folk, but
they are always apparently contented
and happy. A visitor will be surprised
to find SO large proportion OF old peo-
pie among them, for very few die OF
youth or middle age, and few are ever
sick. There are no cases Of nervous
prostration here, and insanity and sui
eide are unknown. Nor has any mem
Der of the community ever filed fell
On'S cell.
This appears like beautiful Illus
tration of the good things attendant
upon socialism and M. Zola's panaccn
of 'sincessant work." and it seems too
bad for the sake of the theory that the
Amanites do not base their success
upon these principles. They claim,
rather, that socialism and ''incessant
work. are only the means by which
they attain higher good. This higher
good is freedom in observing their own
religion.
This religion of theirs, however, is sc
pure and beautiful that one readily
sees it is potent factor OF their sue
cess. Like their lives. it is without
establishment or show. 1t teaches
them to speak the truth, to do no mur-
der, not even in war, to love one an
other, and to listen often for the ''in-
ward voice" of revelation. Thus they
live, like the patriarchs Of old, "a pc
culiar people" not for the sake of ex-
pertinent, but because they desire SO
to do. and with all their popularity
they find themselves happy and pros
porous.