The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-22
EXODUS OF THE zoARITEs.

The Oldest Communistic Body in the The Zoarites, the oldest and most successful communistic body in the United States, have abandoned their Ohio settlement It is two years since the formal dissolution of the organiza- ton; during this interval the division of property has been slowly going on The 136 members in good standing have received their share, amounting in cash
 or property to about $5,0Oo each. Only
 seventy of the 136 have gone to Minn- esota, where the leaders have purchas-
 ed 6,000 acres of land; the new move
 ment includes only those who are past
 middle age, the younger men and wo-
 men having refused to take the oath of
 communism Lida Rose McCabe,
 writing for the New York Evening
 Post. assigns the following reasons for
 the failure of the community:
 Zoar received its death blow in 1884,
 when 1t was made station on the
 Wheeling and Lake Erie railroad.
 This first encounter with the modern
 world forced it to assume municipal
 form Then came the public schools
 and the summer boarder. Women be-
 gan to ape the fashions of the visitors.
 Families fell to doing chores, sewing.
 laundering for the stranger, receiving
 pay which they gradually forgot to
 turn into the common treasury. Boys
 built boats and rented them, putting
 the money in their pockets. Young
 Zoar tasted the world and it's oppor-
 tunities. Restlessness and discontent
 set in, It was stimulated by Levi
 Blmeler, the village schoolmaster. He
 is the one Zoarite educated outside the
 community. He openly advocated the right of members to withdraw, if they desired and to receive their distribu-
 tive share. To promulgate his views, he published in 1895, a four-page sheet, of which he was the editor, publisher and pressman, doing the printing on hand-press. It was the only publica- tion ever attempted at Zoar. It ac- complished its purpose; it disrupted the society. Never, perhaps, has com munism had longer trial under more favorable conditions than at Zoar. Yet decline in membership from 800 wig orous young persons, to seventy mid dle-aged, and in property from S1,500,- 900 to 6,000 acres of unimproved land, Is their numerical and financial story, while as spiritual force, they are practically dead.
 Before the passing of this unique community, its history was written in detail by F. o. Randall, editor of the transactions of the Ohio historical so- ciety; it Is indorsed by the secretary of the Zoar society, and is an import ant contribution to socloloy. From it Miss McCabe has abridged the follow ing account of the society's history and mode of living: The Zoarites came to Philadelphia from that hot-bed of re- ligious discontent Wurtemburg, Ger, in 1877, finding welcome among the Quakers, who furnished them funds to migrate the following spring to Ohio, where they purchased 5000 acres of land-a military grant in the wilder ness of Tuscarawas county. At first there was no intention of communis- tic settlement Time revealed, how ever, that they were unequal in age, experience and enterprise. The leaders saw that the undertaking would fail unless it was established upon a different basis. A community of goods and efforts was in conse- quence effected.
 The community was governed solely by three trustees, who had unlimited power. They provided board clothing and dwelling for each member, ire spective of person. They managed all the industries and affairs of the soci- ety. They appointed each member to his special work, but never without consulting his personal inclination and peculiar ability. Aside from the trus- tees there was an agent general, who controlled the society's dealings with the outside world. This office was held by Joseph Bimeler, founder of the Zo- arites. and born leader of men, until his death in 1853, after which it re- mained vacant. Bimeler was practi- cally king, and his house is known to this day as the kings palace"
 For some years the kings palace" has been the repository for goods to be dis tributed among the community. Thither came each family twice a week to receive food, clothing and house. keeping goods. No account of the dis tribution was kept. Each person was permitted two suits of clothes year. Each selected his or her material There were the village tailor, dress maker, and shoemaker, and as all fol- lowed the same mode, rivalry had no place in their fashioning. Until recent date they spun and wove their own tanned leather for their shoes and supplied not only the needs of the but controlled a large out side market in stoves tiles and other