The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-07-07


and went home to love socialism only as
a theory. There was another year in
which an empty bin and more than $50
lusty people to feed tried the hearts of
the bravest. They held On and held
out and the gloom passed into sunlight
with this spring. Utopia was an ex-
pertinent until the crops were planted
and the harvest in sight There is not
a man in the colony at present who
would sell his $500 share in the enter
prise for less than $500, and he figures
this value in exactly the same way that
a member of an established corporation
would figure it.
FATHER OF THE MOVEMENT.
This idea that the workingman could
produce and distribute his productions
had lived only in the books until Ruskin
was conceived. A man named Wayland
started the plan among socialists to
build city of their own, to own a
farm of their own and to manage fac
tories of their own. He had a paper
in Greensburg, Ind. 1t was devoted ex-
clusively to the cause Of labor, advocat-
ing all manner of reforms. 1t taught
there was no hope for the workingman
until he should get into the avenues of
trade and work for no one but himself
or community of men that would work
as much for him as he would for the
init Jn
but the possibility of cooperation, the
abolition of private property and the
founding of commonwealth where a
days labor should be the standard of
value
Wayland issued a call for volunteers
to make a practical test of the theory
which he had been spreading in every
English-speaking town where there was
a loyal socialist He promised that he
would get site for the colony, move
his printing establishment to it and
contribute all that he had in the world,
including the paper, to the settlement.
1t was to be cooperative village, the
title of all the real estate to be vested
in all. There was a gererous answer
to the CALL until the G. lied were COM
PEELED to sign the articl.s Of agreement
as stated in the app1icatss.ll blanks. This
frightened away all but the most devot-
ed, little band which resolved to cut
the bridges behind them and so into
the wilderness for new start
WAYLAND'S BAD BARGAIN.
Wayland was a theorist. He went
west to pick out a farm, but he had
never considered whether strawberries
grow on trees or corn on mulberry
bushes. There were many sites offered
him and, despairing in the task of see-
ing them all, he selected some one else
to visit the lands in Tennessee The
agent went to Tennessee City. There
was a Chicago land company agent
waiting for the representative of the
new commonwealth. There was also as
far as the eye could Sc the finest
stretch of the hardest looking country
that lies out of doors. 1t was not set
q
about the railroad station-long, lank,
lean, industrial Micawbers who have
been waiting since forty years ago for
the ground to turn ITSELF up and raise
it's own crops.
1t wa sa desolate place for the found
ing of Utopia and the agent tcld Way
land So The especial tract which the
company wanted to seil-wanted to sell
very quickly-was three miles inland.
1t was on the stage road, over hills
roamed by savage razor-bachs and in
habited with rowing mules which the
natives would not let work because it
made them tired to see the mules busy.
There was absolutely nothing in sight,
even at the station, 5ut boom hotel
built in the woods and one or two cot
tages. There was no mark on the prop
erty of the commonwealth save the
blazed trees which had served as guide
posts to the ia -meT5 in the season of
trail through the undresbrush ran
straight up when it did not run straight
down into gulleys and rocks. The agent
saw the prospect, or as much as any
man could see ir an almost impentrable
thicket and told INayiand that it was
probably the worst place on earth to
take any set of men
Wayland took the land. This much
the community will say about Wayland,
but no more. 1t is one Of the rules of
the brotherhood colony to be forgiving.
The promoter heralded the founding of
the settlement in his paper and the Chi
cago land company put up the price on
it's 10000 acres over the line. The an
nouncement was full of glorious adjec-
tives and the men willing to martyr
themselves to the cause of practical 60
cialism started for the capital cf the
new republic. They did not know ex
actly where it was, but started, as let
ters are still coming, for "Ruskin, fifty
miles west of Nashville The town
name was not on the maps. Wayland
had never seen it.
FIRST SETTLER AT RUSkIN.
Sho -