The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-07-28
$1.OO A YEAR, In ADVANCE.

from a bale Of hay, but he has baked
his hopes and expectations up into lit
tie biscuits Of thought, which he hands
out whenever anyone is near TO devour
them
1t is all wrong to suppose that a
successful colony like ours cannot grow
indefinitely says the baker. as he sits
In the Lyceum Hall and tits back his
chair, while the music teacher is play
Ing violin selection from Carmen"
with the schoolmistress at the piano.
1T is like this: This colony is prosper
GUS and bound to succeed We are not
men of business experience but we are
honest. We have passed the danger
stage. If we can manage this one more
people could manage a bigger one II
the bigger one could be mana ged by un-
learned men, as we are, the st3se could
manage one within it's borders with less
expense and risk than we run. If the
state could manage one then the gov
ernment in the hands of good men
could run national cooperative com
munity. If this government then all
the world. and this is the final end OF
our theory, which is bound to win.''
This is good logic to the baker. He
believes all he says. He confesses he
does not expect to live until this mil
lenium day, but he does assert that he
will live to the day when the govern
ments of the earth will be forced to see
that socialism is the only way to pre-
vent universal war.
Rodgers looks upon this country with
much fear and trembling, unless Rusk-
ms warning is needed and things face
about
There is barely a man in the set
tlement who wants to leave at this
time he continued. I'VE have almost
passed the period of pioneering We
would be worth twice as much as an
association this day had we not lost
two years in blind work on the first
sight, through the bad judgment of the
man who started the community. There
are a great many things in our life
tnat are not as we would like to have
them, but l imagine the forefathers
who landed on Plymouth rock were not
half as well off after three years as we
are this minute"
Rodgers alertness to liken Ruskin to
Plymouth Rock is not alone trait of
his. Jones, the blacksmith uses the
same comparison. Benton. the pho
tographer, talks also about the suffer
fngs the men had down Boston wav
Sturgis, the altruistic barber. who goes
Dareheaded because no hat in the store
Will fit him, rather laments that there
are no Indians to fight. 50 the colony
would be more like the Mayflower crew.
we failed at the beginning because
we overlooked one Of the leading and
fundamental requisites of successful
, socialism-the ownership of tillable
land, resumed the baker, as the butch
er came along, with the suggestion that
he allowed he would 20 out and kill
0hree sheep for one of the colony's
meals the next day. "An ideal civil
lzation must supply opportunity for all
men to labor. An ideal colony must in
Guide the farmer, that the farmer NAV
raise the food for the man who runs
the machine. Altruria must contain all
trades, and if it holds the farmer, It
| must also have place for the farmer 10
! work, and work with profit to himself
and the other whose manufactured pro-
ducts he is to use, trading hour for
, hour. We had soil to begin with but K
was wild, and we could do nothing with
1t. We moved. The world laughed al
us, and l am willing to say right now
that sixty other laboring men in this
country have not Jared as well during
this year, had as many comforts. put in
as much time as music or literature az
we have"
And Rodgers went off to bed, that he
might get up at daylight to scramble
bO4 eggs to make part Of one breakfast
in Utopia's big dining-room.
Go be COntinued)