The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
WHERE TIME IS MONEY
CosME, THE CURIOUS GREAT-GRAND-
CHILD OF GREAT BRITAIN.
A Paraguay settlement In which
There Is No Money Except Time, and
Where All Do Their own Work.
New York Tribune.


New York Tribune.
The announcement has just come to hand
of the final failure and abandonment of
the New Australia colony, founded
few years ago in Paraguay. The news was
not unexpected for the enterprise had for
a considerable time been in a parlous state,
owing partly to poor crops and partly to
jealousies and dissensions among the MEM
bers. For 1t was a cooperative, not to say
a communistic, concern. 1t had its origin
in Australia in 1891. There were then some
great strikes and other labor troubles in
that country, and number of families,
thinking the prevailing scheme of social
organization all wrong, decided to establish
a Utopia Of their own, where everything
should be just as they wanted it to be. In
order to be free from all old influences,
they left Australia altogether and went to
Paraguay. Their ideal was an entirely self
supporting state, in which all things re-
quired for use should be produced and
there should be no need of either imports or
exports. It was not intended that the
state should ever contain more than twen-
ty thousand people. About five thousand
members were enrolled with gross cap
ital of more than 100000
At the very outset, however, dissensions
arose. In theory, all were to be of one
mind, seeking only the common good of
all The usual Socialist sentiments were
much to the fore From each according to
his ability, to each according to his needs"
and all the rest. In practice, however,
the colonists showed that they had changed
their skies but not their minds in migrat-
ing to South America from Australia. The
old human nature soon cropped out as pro-
nouncedly as ever. Each wanted his own
way and to promote his own individ-
ual interests. There was chairman, or
president, of course, chosen by the whole
body to be their servant. But he showed
himself just as much disposed to be their
ruler as though he had been a king instead
of chairman of commune The major
ity of the people soon grew dissatisfied with
his autocratic ways and wanted to depOSe
him, to which he strenuously objected.
of the colony Men said that if they could
not have their own way they would not
work. And so, on one of the most fertile
soils and in one of the most genial eli
mates in the world, the enterprise lam
guished and steadily declined. AT last the
Paraguayan government was appealed to
for relief. 1t persuaded them to abandon
their communionistic system, which had
proved a failure, and to divide their prop
6rty among themselves Tor IlQlNlQual own
ership Thus the cooperative experiment
was abandoned, and the coloniSts resumed
the same individual social relations they
had abandoned in Australia and had fed to
another continent to avoid.
THE OLD IDEALS TRIED AGAIN.
Some of them, however, were made of
sterner stuff A hundred or more had suffi-
cient faith, or fanaticism, or some other
controlling spirit, to keep them true to the
old ideals. When the downfall of the origi
nal colony seemed assured, they seeded
and established another settlement on their
own account many miles away. That is the
colony OF Cosme, which still fourishes and
bids fair to do so as long as the fervor of
spirit of the founders lasts, or until it is
swamped by the influx of new members or
worn away by the attrition of adjoining
communities. At present the canny Scots
who form the dominant element in it seem
possessed of something of the spirit of the
Pilgrim Fathers in their earnest devotion
to their ideal-a spirit which alone has been
found able to make communism succeed.
The colonists Of Cosme began their enter
prise with almost no Worldiy gooas. 1 ItS
parent colony when they seeded from 1t.
They had nothing but what they could carry
with them They had not only to clear and
till the land and to build their own houses
but to make their furniture and clothes
and even the implements with which they
worked. But they did it. They made fur
niture, plows, wagons, and all else they
needed. They made, indeed, all the things
a community of simple habits commonly
needs, except money That they have not
made, and do not yet seem to need.
All things are owned in common and all
work is done for the benefit of ALL in the
true Socialist fashion. Each man is re-
quired to work seven hours day. For
that he receives no remuneration except,
of course, the home and food and other
things which all enjoy alike. But any one
may work overtime as much as he pleases.
or goods, but in time. For every hour
overtime he works he receives credit When
he thus has seven hours to his credit he
can take holiday. In ike manner ne can
work up enough credit to entitle him TO
vacation of a week or a month or more.
poets to be able to reduce the required
hours of labor. That will increase the
chances of earning vacations by working
overtime, so that men Will be enabled TO
secure longer vacations.
Nor is that the only way in which time
is used as. money. When man wants
self he goes to man who can make II ana
buys it Of him, paying him in time by trans
ferring some of the time which is set down
to his own credit to the credit of the seller.
Thus if chairs worth three hours each,
a man who has thirty-six hours set down
to his credit can purchase dozen of them.
In such fashion are all the business opera
tons of the community conducted. A dif
ferent method would, of course. have to be
emploved in dealing with outsiders. But
then the colony has practically no dealings
with outsiders 1t is entirely Self-contatned
and self-sufficient. 1t supplies all its own
wants and accepts no money, but only other
goods in barter from such of the neighbor-
ing people as desire any of its surplus
product.
RIOTOUS LIVING IS CHEAP.
A curious illustration of the indifference
to money felt by the colonists of Cosme was
furnished by three of them who recently
made a visit to Asuncion. They had worked
overtime until each had three weeks to his
credit, and they determined to spend that
time in a vacation. SO they took a dugout
canoe which they had made for the purpose
and started down the river. AT Asuncion,
a hundred miles from Cosme, they sold the
canoe for about S. and Travelled home over
land. They were ten days on the journey.
They lived well, lodging in the best houses
in the villages they passed through, and,
indeed, INDUCED in all manner of extrava-
gances in order to run through with all the
money before they got back to Cosme,
where it would be of no use to them. In
this they were not successful and actually
had to take some dimes home with them.
The inability of three men to spend S. in
ten days of riotous living gives most i'm
pressiVe idea of the primitive conditions of
life in that delightful country, and of the
ciYorlicffv of the tastes of these devoted