## COMMUNISM.

### REMINISCENCES OF THE COMMUNITY AT YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO.

The subsequent article was prepared at the request of a minister who had looked in vain for any account of the communities established by Robert Owen, in this country. It is simply what it pretends to be, reminiscences by one who, while a youth, resided with his parents as a member of the community at Yellow Springs. But for some years together, since his manhood, the writer has been associated with several of the leading men of that social experiment, and has through them been informed in relation to both its outer and inner history. The article may contain some errors, as of dates and other matters unimportant to a just view of the community; but the social picture will be correct. With the hope that it may convey a useful lesson, it is submitted to the reader.

Robert Owen, the projector of the communities at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and New Harmony, Indiana, was the owner of extensive manufactories at New Lanark, Scotland. He was a man of considerable learning, much observation, and full of the love of his fellow men; though a disbeliever in Christianity. His views concerning the Bible were fully announced in the celebrated debate at Cincinnati, between himself and Dr. Alexander Campbell. But whatever may have been his faith, he proved his philanthropy by a long life of beneficent works. At his manufactories in Scotland, he established a system based on community of labor, which was crowned with the happiest effects. But it should be remembered that Owen himself was the owner of the works, and controlled all things by a single mind, for the good of the operatives. The system, therefore, was only a beneficent scheme of government by a manufacturer for the good of himself and his operatives.

Full of zeal for the improvement of society, Owen conceived that he had discovered the cause of most of its evils in the laws of *meum et tuum*; and that a state of society where there was nothing *mine* or *thine*, would be a paradise begun. He brooded upon the idea of a community of property, and connected it with schemes for the improvement of society,

until he was ready to sacrifice his own property and devote his heart and his life to his fellow men upon this basis. Too discreet to inaugurate the new system among the poorer classes of his own country, whom he found perverted by prejudice and warped by the artificial forms of society there, he resolved to proceed to the United States, and among the comparatively unperverted people, liberal institutions and cheap lands of the West, to establish *communities*, founded upon common property, social equality, and the equal value of every man's labor.

About the year 1824, Owen arrived in Cincinnati. He brought with him a history of his labors at New Lanark; with glowing, and, not unjust, accounts of the beneficent effects of his efforts there. He exhibited plans for his proposed communities here; with model farms, gardens, vine-yards, play-grounds, orchards, and all the internal and external appliances of the social paradise. At Cincinnati, he soon found many congenial spirits, among the first of whom was Daniel Roe, minister of the "New Jerusalem Church"—a society of the followers of Swedenborg. This society was composed of a very superior class of people. They were intelligent, liberal, generous, cultivated men and women—many of them wealthy, and highly educated. They were apparently the best possible material to organize and sustain a community, such as Owen proposed. Mr. Roe, and many of his congregation soon became fascinated with Owen and his communism; and together with others in the city and elsewhere, soon organized a community, and furnished the means for purchasing an appropriate site for its location. In the meantime, Owen proceeded to Harmony; and, with others, purchased that place, with all its buildings, vine-yards and lands, from Rapp, who emigrated to Pennsylvania, and established his people at Economy.

It will only be added of Owen, that after having seen the New Harmonians fairly established, he returned to Scotland. After careful consultation and selection, it was decided by the Cincinnati Community to purchase the Yellow Springs as the most eligible site for their purpose. It was really one of the most delightful regions in the whole West, and well worthy the residence of a people who had resolved to make many sacrifices for what they honestly believed to be a great social and moral reformation.

The Community, as finally organized, consisted of seventy-five or one hundred families; and included professional men, teachers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, and a few common laborers. Its economy was nearly as follows:

The property was held in trust forever, in behalf of the members of the Community, by the original purchasers, and their chosen successors, to be determined from time to time by the voice of the Community. All additional property, thereafter to be acquired, by labor, purchase, or otherwise, was to be added to the common stock, for the benefit of each and all:

Schools were to be established, to teach all things useful (but religion):

Opinion upon all subjects was free; and the present good of the whole Community was the standard of morals:

The Sabbath was a day of rest and recreation, to be improved by walks, rides, plays and pleasing exercises; and by public lectures:

Dancing was instituted as a most valuable means of physical and social culture; and the ten-pin alley, and other sources of amusement, were open to all.

But although Christianity was wholly ignored in the system, there was no free-loveism, or other looseness of morals allowed. In short, this Community began its career under the most favorable auspices; and if any men and women in the world could have succeeded, these should have done so. How they *did* succeed, and how they did not, will be shown.

For the first few weeks, every one entered into the new system with a will. Men who seldom or never before labored with their hands, devoted themselves to agriculture and the mechanic arts, with a zeal which was at least commendable, though not always according to knowledge. Ministers of the gospel guided the plow; called the swine to their corn, instead of sinners to repentance; and let patience have her perfect work over an unruly yoke of oxen. Merchants exchanged the yard-stick for the rake or pitch-fork. And all appeared to labor cheerfully for the common weal. Among the women, there was even more apparent self-sacrifice. Ladies who had seldom seen the inside of their own kitchens, went into that of the common eating-house, (formerly a hotel,) and made themselves useful among pots and kettles; and refined young ladies, who had all their lives been waited upon, took their turn.

in waiting upon others, at the table. And
several times a week, all parties who
chose, mingled in the social dance, in the
great dining hall.

But notwithstanding the apparent
heartiness and cordiality of this auspici-
ous opening, it was in the social atmos-
phere of the Community that
cloud arose. Self-love was a spirit which
would not be exorcised. It whispered to
the lowly maidens, whose former position
in society had cultivated the spirit of
meekness—"Thou art as good as the
formerly rich and fortunate; insist upon
your equality." It reminded the favorites
of former society of their lost superiority;
and in spite of all rules, tinctured their
words and actions with the love of self.
Similar thoughts and feelings soon arose
among the men; and though not so soon
exhibited, they were none the less deep
and strong. It is unnecessary to specify:
suffice it to say, that at the end of three
months — three months! — the leading
minds in the Community were compelled
to acknowledge to each other that the so-
cial life of the Community could not be
bounded by a single circle. They there-
fore acquiesced, though reluctantly, in its
division into many. But they still hoped,
and many of them no doubt, believed,
that though social equality was a failure,
Community of property was not. But
whether the law of mine and thine is
natural or incidental in human character,
it soon began to develop its sway. The
industrious, the skillful, and the strong,
saw the products of their labor enjoyed
by the indolent, the unskilled, and the im-
provident; and self-love rose against
benevolence. A band of musicians in-
sisted that their brassy harmony was as
necessary to the common happiness as
bread and meat; and declined to enter
the harvest field or the work-shop. A
lecturer upon natural science insisted up-
on talking only, while others worked.
Mechanics, whose single day's labor
brought two dollars into the common
stock, insisted that they should, in justice,
work only half as long as the agriculturist,
whose day's work brought but one.

Of course, for a while, these jealousies
were only felt; but they soon began to be
spoken also. It was useless to remind all
parties that the common labor of all minis-
tered to the prosperity of the Community.
Individual happiness was the law of nature;
and it could not be obliterated, and, before
a single year had passed, this law had scat-
tered the members of that society which
had come together so earnestly, and under
such favorable circumstances, back into
the selfish world from which they came.

The writer of this sketch has since
heard the history of that eventful year
reviewed with honesty and earnestness by
the best men and most intelligent parties
to that unfortunate social experiment.
They admitted the favorable circum-
stances which surrounded its commence-
ment; the intelligence, devotion, and
earnestness which were brought to the
cause by its projectors; and its final, to-
tal failure. And they rested ever after in
the belief that man, though disposed to
philanthropy, is essentially selfish; and a
community of social equality and common
property impossible.

Thus closed in utter failure, an experi-
ment in social reform, which originated
in real philanthropy; and which was
conducted by men of high moral charac-
ter, and of cultivated minds. Their fail-
ure followed naturally from the very or-
ganization of human character. And
though we may deplore the misdirected
zeal of those unwise reformers, none who
knew them will doubt their honesty or
well-meant philanthropy.