Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-08-30
sUCcEssEUL SOCIALIST COLONY

Sir Edwin Arnold
/ SUCCESSFUL SOCIALIST COLONY
The One at BuenoS Amigos. Peru,
! Where BellamyiSm IS Literally
Carried Out.
/ NJ. q. de Fargny, Frenchman,
gives an uncOmmOnly interesting az
count of SocialiSuc settlement i'll
Peru, nearly forty years in existence,
and said to be successful, at least In
| material ways. 1t is an extreme eX-
ample of state socialism, wherein the
/ tastes and rights of individuals are
sacrificed to the community, and even
what are usually supposed to be pIi-
NAL human sentiments are diSre-
garded. Don Jose Rodriguez, so,
cialiStic Peruvian, obtained in 1858
from the government Of Peru large
land grant on the CotOto river, and
established there with siXty-tive others
the colony of BuenoS Amigos. AS he
furnished most of the money for the
experiment he became director and
laWmaker The colony now has 1000
members, mostly Of Spanish races, but
including Germans, English and Amer
leans. The increase has been chiefly
from births, though recruits are re-
ceived upon evidence Of good charac-
ter and the payment of $500 each to
the common treasury. Negroes and
Indians are excluded and religious
proselytism is forbidden. Lands, tools,
and products are the property of the
community, and all surplus products
are sold abroad, the proceeds going
to the common treasury. Rations are
distributed alike to all, but whose will
pay for luXuries, whether of food,
clothing, or household furniture, may
obtain them from the common store.
The imperishable portion of such
things, however, remain common prop
erty even when in the hands of the
individual.
The community is divided into de-
partments, divisions and sections
Each section chooses and may remove
it's own head, and heads of sections
nominate division directors, who in
turn choose department chiefs. These
last are removable only by a majority
vote Of the community. They are, in
effect, minister of works, education,
trade and health, those being the titles
Of the departments, and collectively
they constitute a tribunal discharging
duties elsewhere contided to ministers
of justice and finance. The depart
ment of works looks after agriculture,
stock raising, mining, manufactures,
and all public works. That Of educa-
ton deals with schools, music and the
mechanic arts; that of trade with eX-
ports, imports and the distribution of
products; that Of health with houses,
hospitals and young children.
An hours work is the unit of the
financial system, and the monetary
table runs thus:
80 minutes one hour.
s hours one day.
) days one week.
t % weeks one month
L months one year.
State notes of equal size but differ
ent colors represent each of these de-
nominations. The hour is arbitrarily
fixed for the purposes of outside trade
at value of about % cents. Minute
notes, worth about one-halt a cent, are
for small transactions. These notes
are given in exchange for work done.
The time notes are guaranteed by 4
reserve of bullion exceeding the face
quitting the colony may exchange his
notes for Peruvian money and in ad
ditiOn he will receive his share Of the
profits. Although the full working day
is eight hours, only four hours, and for
only five days week, are eXacted.
From that no adult in sound health
can escape. Any person failing to
work twenty hours in the five days
that constitute the working week must
make UP that time on Saturday or
Sunday Under the eye of an over
seer armed with a leather strap, If
this enforced labor is done in Slovenly
fashion, the culprit is beaten with the
strap. There is no marriage law. a
man and a woman live together in
free union, and either may find an
other mate when tired of the arrange
ment. A woman at the approach of
childbirth goes to a hospital and stays
there with her child until it is Weaned.
Then she leaves it in the hospital to
the care of trained nurses.
From the hospital the child goes to
a public school. where it lives night
and day until grown to the age when
work is exacted of all. Then the new
member of the working community is
set at whatever task his or her apti-
tudes, as developed at school, seem to
point out as the proper one. The pay
is the same for every kind. of labor.
Private houses at Buenos Amigos
are plain, but airy, according to the
New York Sun. a large common
! building is handsomely built of free
| stone and marble taken from the COM
munity's quarries. The streets are
we'll made and clean, and an aqueduct
i to bring in water from the Cototo
river is nearly completed. All these
public works are carried on by the
! labor Of the community, under the d1rec-
| ton Of the departments. When one
department has more WOrkmen at its
| command than it needs they are
turned over TO such departments as
are short of hands. Thus everybody
| is kept busy at least four hours day,