The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-03-16
PRACTICAL COMMUNISM.
CADETS Icarian Communities and their
Long Story.

Modern Practices Wear Away the Move
ment of the French aud Idealist Who
Thought to Establish New Order of
Things His Disciples and Descendants
Succumb to the Existing Order-History
of Romantic Social Experiment
Times of Adversely and Trial.
Four miles east of Corning, Ia. is a sms Il
village of Line houses with the usual num-
rar of barns and outbuildings. 1t is known
The French Colony or New Icarian Com
munity. II is a historic place. Here in this
lit lie hamlet of twenty souls, representing
five families, are buried the hopes of two
generations.
After an eventful life of forty seven years
comes the announcement that "Icaria,'
the Utopia of the French savant and Com
inunist. CADET. succumbs TO the inevitable
and will soon pass into history.
In following the peregrinations of this
colony it will be necessary to begin with the
period of Etienne CADET, one of the leading
So ialisfs of his time. who had long
poused the cause of the working classes,
says a correspondent of the Chicago
tribune. For personal attack through
lis newspaper On Louis Philippe CADET was
sentenced to two years imprisonment but
escaped to London and after an absence
of five years he returned 10 Paris and pub
lished in 1910 ''Le Voyage en- Icarie,' an
.xtravagant work descriptive of an ideal
society living in peace and plenty. reyolu-
tion having substituted equality for all
class distinctions.
There soon rallied around CADET the n os
earnest and devoted citizens in the ranks
of the social reformers. The propaganda
was so skillfully directed, even In the ham
let's that in d few years the lcarian school
counted over 100000 adherents. CADET had
often said to his friends that a long course
of education should prepare the people for
a communistic life; its premature and par
tial realization would be more dangerous
than useful. But challenged on all sides 10
prove the practicabilfty of his theory he
resolved to silence his adyersaries by the
est Enlistment of a vast experime ntal colo
ny.
This decision was received with enthusi-
asm and after due preparation an advance,
guard of sixty-nine Icarians sailed ION
Havre Feb. 3, 1913, for Texas, " b re large
grant of land BIZ d been secured. Another
body of ninetee,. embarked on the 81 of
The following June. Excessive labor under
toirii sun before they had become accli-
mated made them vi tins to malaria and
yellow-fever. which almost annihlated the
entire colony. hoveria, their physician
became insane. Disheal tened and enfee-
bled il. health the remaining.few began II
wear isome journey 10 New Orleans intend
iag 10 return to France. Here they were
met by 400 recruits, who were followed nv
CADET. He became their Moses and they
journeyed to Navoo, H., WI ich WIS then
being abandoned by the Murmons. hey an
rived tbe.e on the 18th of March. 1919, and
negotiations were closed whereby the de-
serted Mormon town was to become new
Acadia. Here prosperity smiled on them
for time and at the zenith of her progress
The new Eden had population of 1880.
A theatre, shops, and schools were estab-
lished and the soil Tiled.