The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-02

through other centuries. Unless the law
 of the community stated that none should eat who did not work, there were apt to | be many drones in the hive. In explain | ing the community Flights that failed' all writers agree that the communistic idea was not the cause The failure lay in bad management the laziness of the
 members, the cratic ideas on food and
 dress and In the fact that too close com
 panionship, day in and day out, breeds dscontent and lessens a persons regard for his nelghbor.
 The best example of community life in
 the world Is said to be the Amana com
 munity of Iowa, 8 cooperative associa-
 tion of 1900 souls who have seven vil- lages lying in Iowa county, between Dav
 enport and Des Moines. Each member
 places in the common stock an amount
 varying from 5000 to $60,000, and should
 he become dissatisfied is permitted to
 withdraw the exact amount invested,
 though sometimes at the discretion of the
 board he may be allowed a small inter-
 est on the amount The Amana commun-
 ity owns about 26,0O0 acres of land, and
 several mills, including those for the man
 ufacture of calico and woolen goods. Be-
 sides working all their own adult mem-
 bers they employ about POO outsiders.
 They have no child labor in their mills
 and have seats arranged for the women
 workers.
 As a community Amana is one of the
 few that recognizes the difference in the ind of ifo
 other like organizations allow eaah man
 or woman in the village an amoAnt of
 credit or a quantity of supplies Iequal to that of every other one, the Abnana folk have ruled that a physician, fdr ex- ample, may need different food ana diff ferent supplies than a mechanic, and that
 the students outfit may differ from that of the factory worker. A common dining
 room supplements the individual homes
 of the members, and improved machin-
 cry has made the general housework a
 pleasure rather than a burden to the | women.
 The great success of Amana may be
 accredited to the fact that the members are all Of the same race industrious Ger
 mans who are not afraid of work and who
 are of the same social class. Communis-
 tic life is not the chief object, the religious 1 beliefs being given first place, and only
 members admitted who are of the com
 mon faith. Marriage Is not encourag ged | but is permitted, so membership is re-
 cruited from within as well as by imml- grafton. Each new candidate must serve | two years probation before being taken
 in. As individuals the Amanates have
 not so much land apportloned to them as | other residents of Iowa, yet as people
 they seem to be happy, peaceful and con- | tented. Their 26O00 acres of land are val | uel at $40 an acre, and they have over
 5000 acres of it under cultivation. Their
 mills and factories earn $325,0o0 a year,
 their buildings are valued at s40O, 900, and | their live stock at $70,000.
 | The most widely known of the success | full community flyers are the Shakers I They have the largest membership num- | berlng about one thousand, and their l communities may be found in Maine, New 1 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut | New York, Ohio, Kansas, Georgia and
 Florida. They came first from England | in 1774, Mother Ann Lee bringing over | three or four to establish her faith in | the New World They settled in New l York. and, like all other smaller sects
 were persecuted by the larger religious
 denominations. By 1897 they had extended l thSli iltHiDtISiilp ldT west as OnlO ana | Kentucky. They live simply and quietly,
 devotng their time to the pursuits of l agriculture and manufacture They prac- | tice celibacy and recruit their members
 from the outside, adopting children and
 bringing them up in the faith.
 Ephrata on Cocalico Creek, In Lancas- 1 ter county, Pennsylvania, though rich in | poetic history and romance, is one of tho
 passing communities. Through Conrad 1 Beissel native of the Palatine. body | of Germans established this most unique l Of Protestant communities, for this is the l one where an order of monks and nuns | practiced mediaeval austerity in the very l heart of new world that was a refuge
 Tor believers in the reformation. Their neighbors were members of the order known as The Woman of the Wilder | ness" or "rhe Order of the Solitary" In
 fact. so many Germans came to join these
 earlier communities that Benjamin Franz | lin seriously feared that Pennsylvania
 would become a German province. Years ! ago the community numbered several i hundred. Now mere handful holds the 1 thread of the romantic past to knit it with 1 the present. In former years there were l five large mills where corn was ground 1 timber cut, cloth fuled and oil pressed 1 from linseed. Of these only one stands l to grind flour and meal for the neghbor- l hood.
 Once low-roofed community houses shel- 1 tered cowled priests who bent over illumi- mated manuscripts with the patience and l skill of the cloistered men who preserved 1 learning for all the world during the i dark ages. In one of these simple cells ! the Declaration of Independence was | translated into French and German by a i gifted scholar in the monastic habit, ] while Congress awaited the work to send 1 to foreign shores. Here the wounded from l Germantown and Brandywine were gath | cred in the days of the revolution, and in
 the secular burying ground hard by the l continental soldiers who fell in the war
 were, buried. Today few earnest people
 keep up the old faith with only a sem
 blance of the old prosperity.
 :, Germany contributed two other success.