NO. 20.

NOVEMBER 1889.

15 CENTS.

THE
OMMONWEALTH.
A.
Journal for Those
Who Labor and who Think.

BURNETTE G. HASKELL
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.

Subscription $1 per annum in advance; $20 per cent discount to clubs of five. Advertisements 50 cents per line; $2 per inch. Circulation 2,000 copies. Established March 1888. It is

The Organ of the Kaweha Co-operative Colony Co., Limited.
A Joint Stock Company and Co-operative Commonwealth, established upon the basis of Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" and Lawrence Gronlund's "Co-operative Commonwealth," and now three years in successful operation in the Giant Forest and on the North Fork of the Kaweha River, Tulare Co., California. P. O. Address, Three Rivers, Cal.

Publication Office, 712 Greenwich St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

THE COMMONWEALTH PRINT,
712 GREENWICH ST.
1889.

THE COMMONWEALTH
THE
ORGAN OF KAWEAH COLONY
A JOURNAL FOR THOSE WHO LABOR AND WHO THINK.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY BURNETTE G. HASKELL AT 712 GREENWICH ST., S. F. CAL.

Entered at pound rates at the Post Office at San Francisco, California, March 8, 1889 as second class matter

VOL. 3. NOVEMBER 1, 1889.

NO. 20

INTRODUCTORY NOTES.

The COMMONWEALTH has now been in existence for twenty months. Its back numbers are all exhausted and the valuable information they contained is inaccessible to the large list of new subscribers.

This number will therefore be devoted mainly to a resume of what has already appeared. Fifteen thousand copies of it are published.

The increasing demand for more detailed and more frequent communication from Kaweha will necessitate very shortly the change of the COMMONWEALTH into an eight page weekly and its removal to the Colony grounds.

A cylinder press and engine and a good plant of type have been purchased and if possible the next number of the paper will be got out at "Advance."

The attempt has been made in this number of the COMMONWEALTH to give a general survey of the whole movement embraced by the publication.

First is found an impartial description of the locality of the Colony; then comes a survey of the ideas that underlie the movement; and then a pen picture of the enterprise.

The first following seven pages are printed from the plates of a book descriptive of California recently issued by Bancroft, 122 Sutter St., San Francisco, price $3.50 and entitled: "A la California"; its author is the late Col. A. S. Evans.

Clarence King's "Mountaineering in the Sierras" is another standard work which gives some picturesque views of the Colony region.

The attention of readers who receive copies of this issue is called to the fact that the price of the COMMONWEALTH is One Dollar per annum in advance.

Every member of the Colony is authorized to receive subscriptions to the COMMONWEALTH and is urged to really try to form a club. If the present list be doubled (and it can, if everybody helps) we can get out 64 pages every month and have something to be proud of in the way of a Journal. We want to publish illustrations of the Colony, which can be done if everybody will bear a hand. Sample copies sent free to all who wish them. Apply to J. J. Martin, Box 427, Visalia, Cal., or to Burnette G. Haskell, 712 Greenwich Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Read Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward."

Read Laurence Gronlund's "Co-operative Commonwealth."

AN IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT.

A Description of Kaweha Colony Region from a Recent. Standard Work

"A la" California" by Col. A. S. Evans.

WONDERLAND.

THE "GIANT FOREST" OF TULARE COUNTY,

California, is situated in the northeast portion of the county em-
braced in townships fifteen and sixteen south, and ranges twenty-
nine and thirty east, Mount Diablo Base and Meridian. This
portion of the great timber belt that stretches for several hundred
miles along the Sierra Nevadas, at an altitude of between six
thousand to ten thousand feet, derives its title "Giant" from its
remarkable growth of Redwood (Sequoia Gigantea). Specimens
of mammoth Redwood can be seen at various places in the State,
some of them perhaps equally as large as those found in the Giant
Forest, but no where else in the world can be found a collection
of trees of such enormous proportions.

Owing to its almost inaccessible location the forest remains in-
tact in all its primitive majesty. The history of a thousand years
can be read at a glance. Giants of past ages lie as they have fall-
en centuries ago, frequently one across the other, some partly em-
bedded in the earth, others completely buried. Many of these
fallen giants have been burnt hollow, the fire consuming the heart
of the tree, leaving an immense tube, in instances large enough
for a horse and rider to pass through. Some of these burnt logs
are fifty, sixty, and sometimes one hundred feet long, with a hol-
low space of from eight to twelve feet diameter, tapering off to two
feet or less, and are frequently used by hunters and trappers as
winter quarters. Mr. Wolverton, a hunter and trapper, and "Sage
of the Forest," has occupied one of these logs for several years.
The front of his "Log" Cabin has been framed in with "shakes,"
and boasts the modern appendage of a door. The diameter of
the log at the entrance is about twelve feet, or would be were it
not partly imbedded in the ground, and in a length of about fifty
feet tapers off to about two feet. The shell of the log is about
four feet in thickness, without the bark, which rotted from the
trunk, probably about the time that Christopher Columbus made
his first visit to the "New World." Upon one side of the log has
been cut an opening for a window, while another, filled in with
stone, serves as a fireplace. The interior is furnished with chairs

"KARL MARX," IN THE GIANT FOREST, SURROUNDED BY A GROUP OF KAWEAH COLONISTS, —TAKEN IN 1887. —

100

THE COMMONWEALTH.

398

"KING OF THE FOREST."

and bunks of primitive construction. Upon shelves are contained provisions, steel traps and hunters' material. Skins of bear, deer, fox and other animals lie around in all directions. The trusty rifle hangs above the rugged fire-place, and the faithful dog lies at the feet of his master, longing for the signal of departure. The grizzly hunter himself is an intelligent, hospitable, kindly man, pleasant to meet in such lonely, silent quarters; and his dwelling is probably one of the most unique in existence.

The largest tree measured by the writer is one hundred and seventeen feet around its base; at four feet from its base the same tree measured ninety-eight feet in circumference. There are several trees nearly or quite as large as this one, and it is positively asserted by several reputable witnesses that one exists in the forest measuring one-hundred and twenty-six feet in circumference. It is difficult in such a wilderness of "Monarchs" to find a given location, and, although the writer sought diligently for some hours for an interview with this "King of the Forest," he was obliged to go away disappointed; but with the firm conviction from the statements made, and from the surrounding evidences, that undoubtedly a tree of the dimensions described does really exist.

The forest is remarkable for its "groups" of giant trees. Upon a five acre lot was counted ten trees of the following dimensions: one tree 30 feet diameter, two trees 28 feet, and one each 27, 26, 25, 23 and 22 feet in diameter. In height these trees averaged from two hundred and seventy-five to three hundred and twenty-five feet, and it is estimated would yield an average of one hundred thousand feet of lumber to the tree. Besides these were several trees of from fifteen to twenty feet diameter, growing upon the same lot. Another remarkable group consists of eight trees standing equidistant in a parallel line, like colossal columns supporting the empyrean sky. In another group was counted fifteen giants, occupying a space of about one-hundred feet square, not one of which was less than two hundred and fifty feet high. In the hollow of a double tree of less than average dimensions, nineteen people comfortably ensconced themselves, with ample room for more. A delightful feature of the "Giant Forest" is the number of its ice-cold springs and sparkling rivulets. One of these, known

THE COMMONWEALTH.

101

"MORO ROCK."

399

as "Redstone Creek" is remarkably beautiful. The limpid stream gurgles among moss-covered rocks o'erhung with delicate lace-like ferns, and its banks bordered with bright-hued tiger lilies. An occasional ray of bright sunshine cleaving its way through the dense foliage overhead lights up this pretty tableau of mosses, ferns and flowers with enchanting effect.

Another pleasing feature is the meadows, of which there are several in the forest. These are delightful glades, containing from ten to one hundred acres each, of rich, level grazing land. Surrounded by the tall, silent sentinels of the sombre forest, they appear to the fanciful eye like carpets of green velvet upon which the forest nymphs and fairies hold their moonlight revelries. In the eye of the prosy but practical stock-man, their beauty consists in the number of sleek cattle they will support during the sultry summer season.

The flora of the forest is varied and beautiful. A plant resembling the hyacinth, known as the "snow plant," is a noticeable feature, growing only at an elevation of from six to eight thousand feet. The air during midsummer is perfumed with musk and wild roses, which are abundant. In some places the hill sides are covered with ferns. The hazel nut, wild raspberry, gooseberry and strawberry are plentiful everywhere. The "Golden Arbor Vitæ," and other ornamental trees, also have their natural home in the forest.

The scenery in and around the forest is of the grandest. At the entrance to the forest from the Marble Cañon, Moro Rock, a huge mass of solid granite, rises perpendicularly some seven hundred feet from its base. The best near view of this remarkable rock, which can be seen plainly from the valley fifty to a hundred miles away, is obtainable from "Admiration Point," but only those who are sure-footed and have a steady nerve had better trust themselves to the edge of this precipitous pinnacle which overlooks the mighty marble chasm. From here the fourteen falls of the "Marble Fork" are seen gushing and rushing with hasty stride down the mighty marble staircase of its own construction. From here, also, an excellent view is had of "Castle Peaks," "Kaweah Peaks," and "Needle Rock." The two former are well known

102

THE COMMONWEALTH.

400

"CATHEDRAL ROCKS."

features of the Sierras, the latter is a peculiar natural formation
in the shape of an obelisk, rising perpendicularly some five hun-
dred feet, and said to be ninety feet across at the top or point;
another rock of nearly similar dimensions stands alongside, giving
the two, when viewed at a certain angle, the appearance of Cathe-
dral spires; hence they are also known as "Cathedral Rocks."
But the best general view is obtained from the top of old Moro
itself. Under the skillful guidance of Mr. G. W. Swanson, this
giddy eminence was, with some difficulty, attained. From here
the country lies extended before the beholder like a map. At our
feet the Marble Cañon, along which the silvery line of the Kaweah
River can be traced for miles. To our left, Paradise Cañon and
the precipitous peaks of the higher range of snow-clad mountains.
At our back and to our right, the solemn, silent forest. To the
west, the great San Joaquin Valley, with its sinuous, shining rivers,
its big lake and little towns, dotted all over its vast area: every-
where that the eye turns, a picture of the grandest sublimity is
presented.

Another remarkable view, more particularly of the great Forest
and of the higher range of mountains, is obtained from an eleva-
tion known as "Point Exclamation," situated in nearly the center
of the forest. From this point the immensity and beauty of this
vast body of timber can be comprehended at a glance. The be-
holder cannot refrain from an exclamation of surprise as the scene
bursts upon him for the first time, hence the name, "Point Ex-
clamation."

The major portion of the timber lands in the Giant Forest was
purchased from the government some three years ago, by individ-
uals who have since formed a company known as the "Kaweah
Co-operative Colony Company," for the purpose of cultivating and
developing this valuable resource, and settling up the county. A
wagon road is being built by this company, which will shortly be
completed, when the construction of a railroad will commence
forthwith. It is gratifying to know that it is not the intention of
this company to sweep from off the face of the earth these grand rel-
ics of past centuries. Portions of the forest will be cleared and culti-
vated, but the "Monarchs" will be left to reign supreme in their

THE COMMONWEALTH.

103

A GREAT DISCOVERY.

401

mighty grandeur, to excite the awe and admiration of generations
yet to come.

Before leaving the subject, "The Giant Forest of Tulare," we
will insert an item which appeared in the *Amador Sentinel* Aug.
15, 1888.

A GIANT TREE.

*The Discovery of an Engineer in Tulare County—A Sequoia 176 Feet around.*

Fred W. Clough, a well-known engineer of the Comstock, has
been spending some weeks in the wilds of the Sierras, about
the headwaters of the Kaweah River, Tulare County, Cal. He was
accompanied in his wanderings by Westley Warren, an old Com-
stocker who now resides in Tulare Valley. About the headwaters
of the Kaweah they got into an unexplored and almost impene-
trable region. In one place they were obliged to cut a trail for
nearly a mile in order to get through the chaparral that blockaded
the mountain pass. Mr. Clough says that on the trip they discov-
ered a tree of sequoia species, which he believes to be much the
largest on the Continent of America. Mr. Warren, who has seen
the big trees of Mariposa, those of the Big Tree Grove in Cala-
veras county, and all the big trees of the Coast Range, says there
is no place in California a tree that approaches in size that on the
Kaweah.

The men had with them no rule, tape-line or measure of any
kind, but Mr. Warren measured the tree with his rifle, which is
four feet in length. He found it to be forty-four lengths of his
gun in circumference at a point as high above the ground as he
could reach. The top of the tree has been broken off, but it is
still of immense height. This monster tree stands in a small ba-
sin near the Kaweah, and is surrounded on all sides by a wall of
huge, rugged rocks. There is so much brush in the vicinity that
the little valley in which the big tree stands is almost inaccessible.

A landmark, and a notable feature of the landscape, is an im-
mense rock known as Homer's Nose. This rock stands on a
mountain that has an elevation of from 8,000 to 9,000 feet above

104

THE COMMONWEALTH.

402

THE COAST REDWOODS.

the level of the sea. The rock itself is about five hundred feet in height. It is visible above the pine forests from Tulare Valley. The small valley in which the big tree stands is a mile or two east of Homer's Nose. About it are many giant trees, several larger than the big trees of Mariposa. Lower down the Kaweah is what is called the Giant Forest. At this place a colony of Socialists have taken up ten square miles of timber land. On their land are many trees that are from 13 to 18 feet in diameter. The mountain men say the big trees (the sequoia) are a cross between the redwood and the fir.

THE COAST REDWOODS.

While we are interested in the subject of "Big Trees," it will be well to consider the nearest relation of the Sierra Nevada Mammoths, the redwoods of the Coast Ranges. These redwoods are to be found in the coast counties as far south as Monterey Co., and northward to Del Norte Co. They as well as the Sequoia Gigan-tea, are distinctly a California production, not being found any-where else. The coast redwoods invariably grow in soil which has as bedrock a sandstone formation. Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties have a very fine belt of timber from ten to twenty miles wide, and thirty to forty miles long. At Felton, in Santa Cruz Co., is a group of about twenty large trees, which are from ten to eighteen feet in diameter. One has a cabin-like cavity at its base which has in the past been used as a dwelling, and it has been said that it is the birth-place of one of our native Californians. These trees cover about twenty acres, and are known as "The Big Trees of Santa Cruz."

Marin County has quite an area of redwood timber standing; the cool and romantic shades of which are a delight to the resi-dents of San Francisco, who indulge considerably during the camp-ing season in fishing, hunting, and picnicing, at this short distance from the city.

Sonoma County contains immense wealth in her redwoods, most of which grow in close proximity to the Russian River, be-

THE COMMONWEALTH.

105

OTHER LARGE TREES.

403

ginning at a point near Forestville, and extending as far westward as Duncan's Mills. One particular part containing many and large trees is known as "The Pocket."

When the next county (Mendocino) is reached, and its great belt is examined, one is inclined to think that there is no immedi-ate danger of a scarcity of redwood lumber. This belt is as long as the coast line of the county, ninety miles, and is on an aver-age twenty miles wide. There are about fifteen saw-mills in this belt, cutting from twenty-five to sixty thousand feet of lumber per day, besides several smaller ones, and the single mills. There are also large numbers of railroad ties being constantly shipped. There is an extra large redwood situated on a branch of Alder Creek on Isaac Crispin's place, six miles back from Manchester (a small place near Point Arena). This tree is 67 feet in circum-ference or 22 feet in diameter, and about 300 feet high. It would make 200,000 feet of good lumber, worth over $4,000 in S. F. There are many trees in this forest from 12 to 15 feet in diameter, and some few larger. Near Orr's Hot Springs a tree eleven feet in diameter has been cut down and the rings counted accurately, and if one ring represents a year's growth, this tree is 829 years old!!

Humboldt County can boast of as fine redwood timber as ex-ists, that portion of forest growing on the banks of the South Fork of Eel River being composed of trees of more than ordin-ary size. This belt is 45 miles long (running with the river), and 1½ to 15 miles wide. Near J. G. Meyers' residence will be found one 21 feet in diameter, and one 23 feet in diameter has been re-ported, also several of 20 to 21 feet. B. F. Sears has a fine tree 20 feet in diameter on his land. There are a great many trees here twelve feet in diameter or more—hundreds of them.

The Van Duzen belt is a magnificent forest, and is said to be equal to that of Eel River. The Mad River forests north of Ar-caia are also famed for the size and extent of redwoods. It may be interesting to add that the principal tree of "The Petriñed Forest of Calistoga" is a redwood.

106

THE COMMONWEALTH.

NATIONALISM.

What it is, and How it Originated. Boston's Most Eminent American
Writers, Thinkers and Divines Discover How to Scientifically
Curb Monopolies and Abolish Poverty. The Better
Classes Enthusiastically Embrace the Cause.

BOSTON, April 13.—The seed of State socialism has suddenly taken root in the highly cultivated soil of Boston. The men and women whom the doctrine now numbers among its adherents are of the Brahmin caste of New England. Among them are the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, the eminent Unitarian divine, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the well-known writer; Miss Frances Willard, the leader of the Women's Temperance Union; Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, the temperance lecturer and advocate of woman's rights; Rabbi Solomon Schindler, the acknowledged leader of Jewish thought in New England; Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, president of the Women's Education and Industrial Union, and scores of others more or less well known.

It is not, perhaps, accurate to term their doctrine Socialism, although the difference is not radical except in one point. They call themselves Nationalists, and advocate the nationalization of all industries—that is, governmental control and direction of all business and all labor of whatsoever nature. But where the socialist would give to each the full produce of his labor, the nationalists believe that each is entitled to an equal share in the joint production of all.

The Nationalist Club has an odd origin. It was started by a book. This book, "Looking Backward," is a novel written by Edward Bellamy of Chicopee Falls, Mass. Its zero is a young Bostonian who goes into a mesmeric sleep in 1886 and awakes in the year 2000. He finds Boston even a bigger, brighter and even brainerid city than ever. But the social conditions are entirely changed. The government has become the employer of all—the provider of all. Service is required of all between the ages of 21 and 45. After that the income of each continues, but each may pass his time as he chooses. Machinery has become so efficient that the hours of those who labor are but brief. There is no money and no wages. In place of this persons receive a non-transferable certificate, entitling them to an equal share in the annual product of the country. For convenience sake this is made up in book form, with little coupons representing dollars and cents, and when they become due the amount is punched out. There are no prisons and no poorhouses. Neither are there any churches; every one is connected with the "sermon room" by telephone. So with the lecture-rooms and concert-halls.

But the book is packed with such detail it cannot be told in a paragraph. The condition of things which it portrays brought about by the gradual absorption by the government of all monopolies and trusts. Beginning with a hatred of them, the people were gradually led to see that these gigantic combinations really afforded the cheapest way of producing everything, and finally they confiscated the whole lot.

THE NATIONALIST CLUB.

The Nationalist Club was formed by interested readers of this book. Capt. Charles E. Bowers, U. S. A., is its president. Regarding the formation of the Club, he says:

"This was a spontaneous movement, and no one man or set of men are responsible for it. The tendency for a great many years has been in this direction, unconsciously in the minds of the people; so when we did start they were ready. Nationalism is not an outgrowth of Socialism, for this Club was started by people who knew nothing about Socialism. On December 1, 1888, some twenty readers of Bellamy's book came together at 61 State street and formed the Nationalist Club. Now we have 125 members. We have limited the number to 250, not because we wish to be exclusive, but because we wanted other clubs to be started in other parts of the city. The movement is spreading rapidly all over the country. We are in correspondence with people from Maine to Texas. Clubs have been formed in New York, Hartford, Ct., Washington, D. C., Portsmouth, N. H., Westboro'. Mass., Oakland and Los Angeles, Cal., Troy and Albany, N. Y., Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and in Indiana and Alabama.

"Some of the New York Nationalists are Stuart Merrill, a man of letters; J. Edward Hall, Thaddeus B. Wakeman, president of the Liberal Club; Thomas Davidson, Jonathan Sturgis, the author; Prof. De Leon, of Columbia College; W. McIlvaine of Hrper's Monthly; John W. Lovell, the publisher; W. C. Temple, the general manager of the N. Y. Electrical Supply Company. W. D. Howells is not a member of the Club, though in full sympathy with the movement.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

107

THE COMING MOVEMENT.

"We believe that it is the coming movement for the people, and that it will carry them more rapidly than the Republican party did in 1855-6. We are not confined to any political party, and women go into the movement with as much energy as the men.

Already some of the most distinguished women of the country have joined our ranks. "We expect when a sufficient number of clubs is started in the country, to have a National League.

"As an evidence of our activity here, a committee from our club recently attended and spoke at a meeting of a legislative committee on manufactures and advocated the order enabling cities and towns to sell gas to the inhabitants. Thus, you see, the towns are crowding the movement, not the movement the towns."

In conclusion Captain Bowers said: "We come out flat-footed and say that the nation shall take charge of the business of the country; but of course, we understand that it can only be done step by step. We seek injustice for no one, and we believe that peoples will soon find that the scheme is conducive to an universal benefit. In my judgment, the telegraph, the telephone, the railroads and the express business will soon be 'nationalized,' and the government will manage them so well that the opposition to the rest of the movement will be slight."

RABBI SOLOMON SCHINDLER.

Rabbi Solomon Schindler is at present engaged in translating Mr. Bellamy's book into the German language. Asked in regard to the doctrine of Nationalism and the work of the club, the Rabbi said:

"Why do I believe in Nationalism? I believe in it because in the first place by it the nation guarantees to every person a good livelihood, receiving in exchange from the person his best work. Most assuredly I believe the idea is a practicable one. If the nation can take charge of the transit and delivery of my mail, why cannot it also carry my packages? If it can carry the packages, why cannot it also carry the persons who own the packages? If furthermore, the nation can defend the safety of its subjects by means of its armies and navy, why may it not defend them against hunger and thirst? I see no reason, in the same line of logical sequence, why the government should not supply its children with lunch, since it already supplies them with books. Again, the city of Boston controls and directs the sewage of the city.

"Why should it not also control the horse cars and other large interests that are centered within its limits? I do not consider that such results are at all improbable, for this is a period of transition. Large corporations are continually buying up smaller ones, and the process will continue until the largest of all are merged into the government."

ELEMENTS IN NATIONALISM.

In reply to a question from the reporter as to the comparative merits in Nationalism and Socialism, Rabbi Schindler said: "Nationalism is not, strictly speaking, an outgrowth of Socialism. It is a vast improvement upon it."

"Nationalism does not propose to revolutionize the world by force. It does not expect to bring out fruits earlier than the proper moment for such fruition."

"It is a new social birth which is surely coming, and we who are interested are endeavoring to help the birth along by alleviating the pangs of labor."

"I consider, however," said Rabbi Schindler, "that one of the grandest features about the theory of Nationalism is this: It removes, once and for all, a great load from the minds of the people. It destroys forever the fear, now existing in their hearts, that tomorrow they may be deprived of their means of earning a livelihood. Suppose, for instance, my flock were to decide to-day that they wanted another preacher?"

The reporter suggested that there would be a thousand avenues open to the Rabbi.

HIS HARD EXPERIENCE.

"But I do not know that," said he. "I have no certainty that such is the case. When I went to New York from Germany eighteen years ago, with just as much ability as I now possess, though of course with not so broad an experience. I could find no way to employ my knowledge for a long time. I searched in all parts of the city for an occupation, but no opportunity presented itself. I did my best to obtain a place where I could teach, but no place could I obtain. At last I secured employment in a sawmill at $6 a week. I relate this to show that no one can be sure of obtaining what he desires."

"How soon do you expect Nationalism to prevail in this country?" asked the reporter.

"I feel confident," replied Rabbi Schindler, "that the country will be thoroughly nationalized, so to speak, before the end of another century. This does not seem wonderful to contemplate when we reflect upon the vast changes which the world has undergone even in the last half century. See the changes which Germany has experienced during that period! Reflect upon what a transformation has taken place in this country! I could express my ideas at that time as I can now, for the people were not ready for them."

"Yes, I am confident that in less than 100 years from now the country will be enjoying Nationalism and all the great benefits thereof."

["108", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "ARTHUR HILDRETH.", "Another member of the Club, was asked regarding the ethics of the proposed equal division among all of the product of all.", "\"Yes,\" said he, \"Nationalists believe, and that is the very heart of their creed, that every man and woman, strong and weak, sick or well, should have an equal share in the products of industry.\"", "\"This is a hard doctrine.\"", "\"You think that if a man is born with certain personal advantages he ought, on that account, to have more of this world's goods than he needs, while his unfortunate brother, perhaps morally a better man, should have less than he needs, be tormented by fear and bound to bow his head in devout thankfulness for any favors his strong brother may vouchsafethim. This, you think, is justice?\"", "\"Well, that is the common opinion.\"", "\"By conducting business on a national scale and saving the labor now wasted in contention, it is believed that, with shorter hours, wealth could be produced ample for the comfort, and even the luxury, of all. Why then grab more than our share? We do not so act at the dinner table. So long as wealth is unequally distributed men will fight like dogs over bones. Have we really nothing better to do than squabble over these trivial matters? The true riches, infinite and, as we hope, eternal, are those of the soul—science, literature, art, friendship, love, religion.", "\"When material wants are supplied with the clockwork regularity of the Post Office we shall have leisure to devote ourselves to the higher life. How else can men ever be greatly raised above the level of snarling dogs?\"", "\"If men are not rewarded in proportion to their labor, would they work?\"", "\"They would be so rewarded—with honor and affection, and promotion to offices of trust and difficulty. Each man's record would be known, and none but physical or moral invalids would be likely to fall behind. The first would be cared for. The moral invalids, persons without patriotism and without shame, might be supported in the poorhouse as spiritual paupers.\"", "PERFECTION NOT NEEDED.", "\"But would not human nature require to be perfected before it would be fit for such a social system?\"", "\"Perfect human nature is not necessary to run the Post Office, nor would it be necessary to carry on any other business operation. As to equal division of the products, that is a matter of policy which would be readily agreed to as soon as it was evident that there was enough for all.\"", "\"But the corruption of our government?\"", "\"In spite of the supposed corruption our letters are delivered punctually, our roads are made, our houses are supplied with water, our cities are drained. Perhaps, then, the corruption is exaggerated. When corruption exists in a state of industry the people can always right themselves. If more was at stake, the people would be more watchful. Under Nationalism, opportunity for corruption would be reduced almost to zero. It is a matter of policy which would be readily agreed to as soon as it was evident that there was enough for all.\"", "\"But, after all, would not the life proposed be very insipid?\"", "\"On the contrary, we should only then just begin to live. The business strife of our present life is doubtless a pleasure, at least to those who win, and there may be many who can imagine nothing more delightful. But to prefer the mere excitement of overcoming of each other to the development of the loftiest attributes of human nature is to prefer a never ending game of poker to an object of rational pursuit.\"", "REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE.", "Rev. E. E. Hale, speaking of the name \"Nationalist,\" and of the functions of government, says: \"The name 'Nationalist' seems to me a poor name; first, because it is used for so many other things; and, second, because it does not express in any way the present necessity. For instance, the particular battle at this moment is the persuading the Legislature that the city of Boston is as good a right to distribute gas to the people as it has to distribute water. It is almost absurd to say that a local question like this belongs especially to the 'Nationalist' Society, and it is a great pity that so poor a name should be given to such an endeavor.\"", "\"It should be understood, then, that the 'Nationalist Club' so called, unites people who think that the Nation ought to have the charge of every industry, with other persons who believe in the old-fashioned American system, which is that any community, town, State or Nation ought to be permitted to do what it can do better than any one else.\"", "\"This matter would not be at all confused if it were not that two-thirds of our writers for the press write under simply European education, without any experience in the practical habits of our own country. But a boy who has grown up in a country town can", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "109", "build a corduroy road as a town. He has been out taking care of the oxen of the men whom the town ordered out to build that road.", "\"That boy is not frightened by any talk of Socialism or of Nationalism when he is asked if the town may or may not introduce gas or lay rail over the corduroy road which it has built. He knows that the American system is to bring people together—to do the best thing in the best way. It is only when this boy has been taken from his natural surroundings and sent to a college, where he reads somewhere that government must be 'severely limited on every side,' because somebody has lived under a tyrant, that he is in the last confused in this matter. There are, however, plenty of practical instances which show that, when Americans are hard pressed, they choose to do their own business in their own old-fashioned way. Thus, the Government of the United States, as I had occasion to say the other day, has made, from a very early period, the muskets and small-arms it needs for its service, and for that of the State militia. It developed at Springfield and at Harper's Ferry the best manufactories of small-arms in the world. The English establishment at Enfield was confessedly founded upon its model. The whole system of interchangeable parts was first developed in the Springfield factory. These factories now go on in their work. No one questions the economy and precision of their work.", "THE RAILWAY QUESTION.", "\"The terror of the European system oppresses a comfortable people most when they are discussing the railway system of the country. This supervision takes it for granted that if the State should control the railroads the railroad employes would control the State. There is no State should control the railroads the railroad employes would control the State.

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at the rate of one cent for a pound, Mr. Black's last novel, because it is one number of what is called "Lovell's Library."

EDWARD BELLAMY'S BELIEF.

Edward Bellamy, the author of "Looking Backward," was asked his opinion as to the probable method by which the existing industrial system will tend to evolve toward nationalism during the next dozen or fifteen years.

"Of course," said Mr. Bellamy, "the general answer is: By the progressive nationalization of industry. More especially, however, two lines may be indicated along which the process of nationalization is likely to take place. One is the assumption of entire governmental or national control over their particular groups of industries—using the word in its largest sense—preferential control over the necessary agencies of the government, the state, and the localities in which they are organized, and the like, should as well as express services of lighting, water, heat, etc., should as soon as possible, become branches of public administration. It is scarcely necessary to say that strictly non-political basis of administration of all nationalized business would be an essential condition for the programme favored by nationalism."

"What is the other line along which we are advancing toward nationalization?"

"It is the extension of supervisory national control over forms of industry for which it may not be expedient immediately to assume the entire responsibility of the state."

This supervision would at once check a great number of present abuses, and in itself amount to a partial nationalization

while preparing the way for the completion of the process.

The concentration now going on of entire classes of industries in the hands of trusts and syndicates creates a demand on quite other grounds than those of nationalism proper for the establishment of this sort of supervision as a measure of protection to the people, and shall therefore expect to see it come out soon.

Industries to which it will be particularly and stringently applicable from the start will be those like the coal supply, the lumbering and the fishery

ly applicable from the start will be those like the coal supply and the fishery, which deal with staples that may in a peculiar sense be said to be the common inheritance of the people.

"Those industries also touching closely the food supply of the people are destined speedily to pass under some form of national regulation."

The manipulators of corners in the grain, meat, sugar, coffee and other food markets are doing far more to bring in nationalization than the arguments of its advocates.

Industries to which it will be particularly and stringently applicable from the start will be those like the coal supply, the lumbering and the fishery, which deal with staples that may in a peculiar sense be said to be the common inheritance of the people.

THE IDEAS OF COLONEL HIGGINSON.

Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson says: "It is my hope that the great ends sought for by the scheme of nationalization may be attained, even though the progress be of an extremely slow nature."

I cannot prophesy as to the time. I can judge only by experience. The government seems to have done extremely well with whatsoever it has assumed the management of. I have always been in favor of co-operation as against competition, and I believe that the essence of nationalism is for the very best interests of the people."

SYLVESTER BAXTER.

Sylvester Baxter, a leading editorial writer on the Boston "Herald," says: "The time has now arrived for an intelligent and universal application of the principles of human organization to the more advanced nations of the world. Through the growth of corporations and the development of modern invention we have been learning the lessons of industrial association power of consolidation of all branches of business into trusts and other trade combinations is showing us that the principle of competition, with its disastrous wastes is rapidly dying out."

It now only remains to apply practically the lessons thus learned for the benefit of the entire people for whom these industrial services are rendered, and not for the profit of the comparatively few under whose auspices these functions are now performed."

HARRY W. ROBINSON.

Harry W. Robinson, a member of the Boston Bar, says: "To be fit for competitive age, i. e., to be 'fit to survive' (in the scientific sense of this cold hearted phrase), one should get rid of the high sentiments of honor, justice and right. And a shrewd man, who desires success in a worldly way, will not be handicapped by such sentimental luggage. He must be a consummate fool who expects by fair dealing to win high stakes in industrial and commercial life. The guerrilla warfare of barbaric times is reflected in the individualistic struggle for animal existence, made necessary by the very structure of modern economic institutions, which are based on private greed and interest rather than on the firm foundation of social justice and human needs."

JOHN RANSOM BRIDGE.

John Ransom Bridge says: "The nationalist believes that the trouble does not lie at the door of the much abused laborer or the much slandered capitalist. He says that the trouble is with the present industrial system. Like the worn out clothes of the growing boy, it has served its day. The world, or at least the civilized portion of it, is ready for this practical application of a higher principle than the competitive system upon which our present social structure is founded."

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ure is founded. And the question is, Shall we stand idly by and watch a small plutocracy oppose the new regime by endeavoring to shape changing conditions to their own selfish ends, until the pent up forces of evolution suddenly sweep away obstructions and obstructors alike or, to prevent future friction and bloodshed shall we demand that the way be cleared for the new?"

SECRETARY WILLARD.

Cyrus Field Willard, the Secretary of the club, says: "As long as a private individual has a right to buy and sell the necessaries of life, any number can come together and pool their control of their property in the necessaries of life, thus forming a 'trust.' What is right for one individual to do is right for any number.

"All laws against trusts will therefore fail. The only solution is for the nation, organized administratively to conduct the industries in trust for the people. Precedents are as thick as blackberries,"

"We now have a political republic. What we want is an industrial republic. We want no more coal barons, factory lords, railroad kings, merchant princes, silver kings or oil kings. We want the individual slavery of to-day abolished, and it will be."

GENERAL A. F. DEVEREUX.

One of the most enthusiastic nationalists in the city is General A. F. Devereux, who helped to turn the tide of battle at Gettysburg and who is praised for his bravery by Hancock in his work on the rebellion.

General Devereux said: "The best informed minds are convinced of the essential error in the economics of the present age. They feel that we are nearing the rapids and that catastrophe is imminent unless wise measures are taken in advance. They do not conceal their anxiety to bring about a peaceful and orderly revolution through reason, rather than to leave it to a wild upheaval of the passions, goaded to madness by want, misery, suffering and despair among large masses of the people. Let us not be caught in a cyclone like our fleet at Apia."

HENRY W. AUSTIN.

Henry W. Austin, chairman of the Advisory Committee and also chairman of the Editorial Board of the "Nationalist," a magazine soon to appear, and whose name, attached to poems, stories and historical essays, may be seen with increasing frequency in the "Century," "Once a Week" and other prominent periodicals, says: "Those who think nationalism utopian and without precedent are grievously in error. When the Spaniard, thirsty for gold and glory, those chief intoxicants of immature humanity, swooped on the splendid empire of Peru, he found a curious community in which, according to that calmest of historians, our own President, there was no such thing as a poor man—no such word in use as poverty. He found it a paradise of nationalism: he left it a hell of competition."

—From the Daily "New York Press," Sunday, April 14, 1889.

KAWEAH COLONY.

—o—

Readers should remember that the idea of Kaweah Colony was broached long before Nationalism became a popular fashion, long even before it had its present name.

Five years ago the first meeting of Kaweha Colonists was had; and from that date until now the work has gone ahead. It is no longer an experiment. It is now a demonstrated success.

During the whole time that the work has been carried on, though amid hardships and conditions equal to those of any frontier town, yet crime has not once manifested itself among us in any shape or form.

There has never been a blow given in anger, a scandalous story afloat, a fight, a drunken person, a theft, nor any other misdemeanor during this whole space of time.

But further, the air of loving kindness, the atmosphere of real fraternity, the free, frank, happy and good-humored environments that mark our mountain home, exert an irresistible charm on all who visit us.

This is the social side of Nationalism practically applied—"All for one and one for all."

This much ought to interest you to thoroughly and carefully examine the details of Kaweah and next to ally yourself with it, if you can conscientiously resolve to abandon mere selfishness and pin your faith to knowledge, truth and love.

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A PEN PICTURE
OF

THE KAWEAH CO-OPERATIVE COLONY COMPANY,
LIMITED, A Joint Stock Company,

Located In Kaweha Canyon and the Giant Forest of Tulare Co., California.

### OBJECTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

The purpose of this organization is to carry out practically, the theories in regard to an enlightened civilization which have been the theme of philosophers and thinkers for ages.

The impulse given to civilization by the invention of the printing press, and the introduction of modern machinery, and the fact that these grand results of science are prostituted by the avaricious for ignoble ends, and that under the competitive system these conservators of labor are transformed into engines of oppression, make it imperative that some practical step should be taken to avail ourselves of the blessings which nature and science have bequeathed to us.

With this end in view Kaweha was organized in August, 1886, by a few who were tired of the competitive system and having heard of and seen the unusual advantages offered in Kaweha, proceeded at once to organize the Commonwealth.

### ITS PRIME MISSION.

Its prime mission is to insure its members against want, or fear of want, by providing comfortable homes, ample sustenance, educational and corrective facilities and to promote and maintain harmonious social relations, on the solid and grand bases of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

### AN ECONOMIC SOLUTION.

The much vexed question as to why it is that those who do the work of the world do not enjoy its fruits, and the remedy therefor is solved for the first time in the history of the world at Kaweha.

Kaweha is not a Communistic society, merging all individuality in a dead level of Equality, nor yet a Capitalist scheme where Justice and Fraternity are sacrificed to the spirit of a selfish greed, but rather that gentle medium, the golden mean between the two, where absolute Justice weighs all things, where rights and duties are reciprocal and where Science lights the altar fires of earthly happiness.

Here all shall receive the full value of their labor and each shall labor for the good of all. Here the Man shall be sunk in the STATE and yet shall be given such freedom for growth and development that he, like some golden pinnacle of a perfect palace, shall tower far above the foundation walls.

Here women shall no longer be slaves nor toys, nor children drudges, nor little babes be bound to factory wheels. Here men shall lock their lips too close to lie, and wash their hands too white to filch from other men. Here shall be Joy, Music and Laughter, Art, Science and Beauty and all things else for which Poets have sung and Martyrs died, and of which in the outer world we see but the palest phantoms.

Here in Kaweha, all these things *SHALL* be, because Kaweha is founded upon eternal scientific truths that need but conforming to, to secure these results.

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### THE MONEY QUESTION.

The exchanges of the colony are effected by a system of time-checks, which can be used as money in all transactions between individual members and the colony. The "minute" takes the place of the "cent" as the unit of value. The rate as a basis of exchange for United States current funds, or other values is fixed at present at half a cent per minute. Thus a two-hundred minute, bill or check, is worth one dollar in United States current funds and has equal purchasing power at the stores of the colony, subject, of course to certain limitations necessary at our present stage of incipiency. This system of time-checks works admirably, and is of great convenience to members, several thousand dollars having already changed hands since its adoption. These checks are graded from ten minutes (5c), the lowest, to 20,000 minutes ($100.00), the highest, and are complete in every detail as a medium of exchange.

### OF WHAT A MEMBERSHIP CONSISTS.

A membership in this Association consists of an equal share with all other members in the emoluments, profits, privileges, hereditaments of the colony. It guarantees to every member an equal share in all that the bounteous soil will yield and all that improved machinery can produce, measured by the amount of time said member has usefully employed, or the proportion of mental or physical energy he has himself expended in the general result, whatever it may be.

### WHO ARE DESIRABLE.

Only those are desired as members who are in sympathy with the great movement now going forward for the elevation of mankind, one of our motives being to show in a practical manner how the vexed labor question may be peacefully solved by instituting a system of industrial co-operation, in which all participants will have equal opportunities of advancement.

### WHO CAN BECOME MEMBERS.

All persons of progressive tendencies and good moral character, male or female, are eligible for membership in this Colony. The Company, however, reserves the right to reject any applicant they may deem objectionable. In cases where an applicant is rejected the money deposited by him is promptly returned.

### HOW TO BECOME MEMBERS.

Persons desiring to become members should communicate at once with J. J. Martin, Visalia, Tulare County, Cal., sending their full name and address, when they will receive a copy of the Deed of Settlement and Bylaws and full particulars as to plans, etc., with a blank form of "application" which the applicant will be required to fill out.

### COST OF JOINING.

The price of a full membership is $500.00, of which $100.00 must be paid in U. S. money before a member is entitled to take up a residence and obtain employment from the Colony. The membership fee can be paid in full at once, or in installments of any amount not less than $5 per month.

Upon making application for membership, the sum of $10 in U. S. money must, in all cases, accompany the application. In case of rejection this sum will be returned in full to the applicant.

Those who prefer to do so can pay the total amount of their membership at once in money or approved material.

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### ADMISSION OF MEMBERS TO EMPLOYMENT AT THE COLONY.

The following rule, at present governs the admission of members to work at the colony.

A member must have paid the sum of $100 in U. S. money upon his certificate of membership before he is entitled to employment.

Those who pay the sum first are entitled to precedence in the order of such payment.

The remaining $400.00 due upon the certificate can be paid in money or acceptable material, or in the time-checks of the Colony earned by the member.

Members admitted to work upon the above conditions have the privilege of drawing upon the Colony for board or supplies, while working, under prescribed rules, paying for the same in the time-checks earned by them.

### ACTUAL RESIDENCE NOT COMPULSORY.

As it will not be convenient nor desirable for all members to settle in the Colony at once, all that will be required of those who prefer to postpone actual residence, is to pay up the price of membership. They will then be entitled to take up their residence when it suits their convenience.

### A HOME ALWAYS.

If a member, after living in the Colony for a time desires to change or thinks that he can do better outside, he can leave the Colony, for any length of time without forfeiting his membership. When he chooses to return, his home, its opportunities and enjoyments will be open to him; he will not, however, receive any benefits during his absence. Thus the Colony, by providing employment for its members, insures them against want and fear of want; at the same time allows the utmost freedom to the individual.

### CO-OPERATION AS A PROMOTER OF MORALITY.

One of the greatest evils resulting from the present competitive system of industry is the enforced celibacy of our young people. The reluctance to marry on the part of our young men is because they do not feel themselves financially able to assume the responsibilities of a married life. Under the co-operative system (see Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward") these responsibilities are reduced to a minimum. Both sexes having equal opportunities to earn a living will be financially independent of each other.

Thus the woman will not marry for a home nor will the man dread the burden of the marriage yoke. Under such conditions the "Almighty Dollar" will cut but little figure. Affection, congeniality and morality will be the only incentive to union.

### INSURANCE AND SICK BENEFITS.

As an insurance against poverty and sickness, nothing could be more complete than the security this Association affords. Poverty will be unknown in the Colony, but in case of sickness, medical attendance, being a public service, is free to those who need it.

Insurance in the event of death is unnecessary, as the orphan children of members will be a public charge while those who are old enough to do so can always earn their own living.

As an insurance against the vicissitudes, calamities and misfortunes of the competitive system, a paid up certificate in this Colony is superior to any insurance extant.

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### SCENERY.

Our well-known friend and comrade, John H. Redstone of San Francisco, who has crossed the Alps seven times in the course of his life, proclaims the scenery in the vicinity of Kaweha to be equal to anything ever witnessed by him in his extended European travels; while the Giant Forest with its beautiful green meadows and crystal pools, surrounded by the lofty giant trees whose tops seem to touch the sky, is a sight to be seen nowhere else, and in the opinion of many, is worthy a special journey around the world to witness.

"Moro Rock" rising in one solid mass one thousand feet or more from its base to its dome-shaped apex; "Castle Peaks," "Cathedral Rocks;" the snow-capped "Kaweha Peaks," the "Aquatic Staircase" of the Marble Fork; the giddy heights overlooking the Marble Canyon; the "Humming Falls;" "Homer's Nose;" "Exclamation" and "Admiration" Points--from whence magnificent panoramic views, a hundred miles or more in extent, are attainable;—the silent, sombre Forest with its delightful glades, its babbling brooks and numerous water-falls; the alder and spice-wood groves of the "East Fork;" the rushing torrents and placid pools of the Kaweha, are "things of beauty" that will remain "a joy forever" to our Colonists.

### MARBLE CANYON.

One of our most valuable resources of the future and at the present time one of the most enchanting pictures of natural beauty, is the Marble Canyon of the Kaweha, situated at the entrance to the Giant Forest. Here, gigantic walls several hundred feet in height, composed of several distinct varieties, from the black to the mottled, to the streaked, to the pure snow-white, form a precipitous chasm through which boils and roars as it springs from ledge to ledge in a series of magnificent falls, one of the sparkling tributaries of the Kaweha.

### CLIMATE.

"The glorious climate of California" has become proverbial, and to nowhere does it apply with more force than in the foot hills of the Sierras. The colony lands are situated at an altitude ranging between 2,000 and 6,000 feet; the air is dry and invigorating; the extremes of heat and cold are not felt as they always are where damp or humid conditions prevail. During the hottest days of last summer at Advance (altitude 2,500 feet) the thermometer, in some instances, reached 104 Farh., but owing to the dryness of the atmosphere and the refreshing breezes that set in regularly every day about noon, this high degree of temperature was only noticeable by reference to the thermometer. At the forest, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the weather is always cool and pleasant during the hottest days. The nights in summer time are perfectly delightful; such a thing as sleeplessness occasioned by heat is unknown in Kaweha. A blanket is always requisite even in midsummer.

The severest winter, ever known in California occurred in January 1888, The snow lay on the ground for about a week, something never known before. The lowest point reached by the thermometer at Advance was 18 degrees above zero or 14 degrees below freezing point. At the upper camp the lowest point reached, was 20 degrees below freezing point or 12 above zero. In the forest, at an altitude of 6,000 feet, the snow lies sometimes for two and three months, but the cold is never severe, owing to the peculiarly dry climate. The snow-fall in the forest is of advantage in the felling of large timber, as the yielding surface of the snow prevents the trees breaking into splinters.

Thus it will be seen that with its varied altitudes, Kaweha, within a

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range of twelve or fifteen miles, affords almost any climate that can be desired, except the extremely tropical or arctic.

HEALTH AND PLEASURE RESORT.

To the health-seeker, the tourist and those who can appreciate and enjoy Nature in her rugged splendor, Kaweha offers unrivaled attractions. There are canyons and caves to be explored; mountain peaks to be scaled; rambles to be had alongside babbling brooks; picnicking beneath shady groves; hunting, bathing and fishing to the heart's content.

IN THE SPRING TIME.

The hill sides are literally covered with beautiful and delicate flowers in endless variety. Even from among the crevices of the rocks may be seen the "Spanish Dagger" with its marvelous white wax bloom growing freely ten feet high. Orioles and wild canaries take possession of the trees and fill the air with their melodies; humming birds are frequently seen fitting among the flowers. In the evening, the tall mountain peaks around, reflect back the rays of the setting sun in roseate hues long after that orb has sunk below our mountain horizon.

BATHING AND BOATING.

There are many excellent pools with bright, sandy bottoms, along the North Fork, which invite the swimmer and diver. The water is delightfully refreshing and invigorating, and bathing can be indulged in by both young and old. Swimming is an accomplishment excelled in by our young Colonists of both sexes. There are also stretches of placid water, which, with a little artificial help can be made available for boating.

PROPOSED INDUSTRIES.

As soon as practicable after the road now (March, 1889,) being built by the 'Colony, is finished, saw-mills and factories will be erected for the working up of the crude material. The object being to employ the greatest number of hands possible, in useful and profitable production. There is a lively and almost unlimited demand in the great valley below, for lumber, dressed and undressed, fence posts and rails, railroad ties, telegraph poles; doors, window frames, sashes, blinds, furniture of all kinds and numerous other articles of comfort and necessity. The development of these will open up avenues of employment in other directions; stores and ware-houses will have to be built and means and methods of transportation and distribution established. The lumber industry alone, in its various branches, will employ quite an army of workers.

THE MARBLE INDUSTRY.

Several veins of the finest varieties of marble in inexhaustable quantities have been discovered and located upon Colony territory. This industry will be developed as soon as practicable and bids fair to rival the timber in importance and value.

LIME ROCK.

This important and indispensable article is found in abundance upon various portions of the Colony territory and will, undoubtedly, in the near future, prove a source of income to the Colony in addition to its inestimable value for home use.

FRUIT PRODUCTS.

The various grades of altitude embraced in our territory, together with the salubriousness of the climate, make it possible for almost any but tropical productions to be grown at Kaweha. At an altitude of from

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1,500 to 3,000 feet, semi-tropical fruits, such as oranges, lemons, olives, prunes, raisin grapes, almonds, figs, etc. do exceedingly well. From 3,000 to 7,000 feet the apple, pear, peach, plum, hazelnut, walnut and other products of the temperate zone, flourish to perfection. In the lower altitudes the grape grows wild; in the upper, the gooseberry, hazelnut and blackberry are found in abundance.

The wonderfully productive capacity of the soil of Tulare and Fresno Counties, their giant trees and magnificent vineyards and fruit orchards are the marvel and admiration of the world.

The hillsides of Kaweha are admirably adapted for the growth of the olive and these produce the most valuable crops known, with the least expense incurred in the production.

FISH PRODUCTS.

The pools of the Kaweha are well stocked with trout. It is the intention of the Colony to build weirs for the proper cultivation and preservation of suitable varieties of fish for food purposes. The North Fork of the Kaweha is admirably suited for this purpose.

EXCEPTIONAL MARKETS.

Everyone knows that the main struggle under the competitive system is for a market for the goods produced. It is this, more than anything else, that makes a hell of industrial life.

This main obstacle in the way of a worker receiving the full product of his labor is surmounted in the colony on account of its location. A market for its products lies at its doors.

The great San Joaquin valley, seventy to a hundred miles broad and three-hundred long is filling up with a dense and active population of agriculturalists and horticulturalists. These import their manufactured goods from San Francisco over the great S. P. R. R., a line having no competition and making enormous traffic charges. It is conservatively estimated that goods manufactured at Kaweha could command the market and still be sold at considerably below the present ruling prices in the valley. The high railroad charges act virtually as a protective tariff in favor of Kaweha manufacturers.

So far as the timber is concerned, the valley consumes at present 500,-000 feet of lumber a day for houses, fences, barns, etc., and there will be a demand for nearly double that amount next year, increasing as the valley becomes more closely settled.

The bulk of the lumber used now is brought by ship to San Francisco and thence by rail to the valley. It commands a price of from $30 to $80 a thousand, which is considerably in excess of San Francisco prices.

As soon as the colony road is completed, lumber can be got down to market at a cost of not more than $15 per thousand, and this lumber of the choicest and finest grades.

MILLS, MACHINERY AND POWER.

It will be the policy of the management to economize human labor in every way possible by the introduction and use of the most improved machinery; our colonists will thus reap and enjoy the boons conferred by Science upon the toiler. The benefits arising from the natural wealth and from the use of labor-saving machinery will be divided upon an equitable basis among those who perform service to the colony. The profit from these sources, which under the competitive system, has created the mon-eyed autocracy of America, under our co-operative methods is divided among those who do the work.

## THE COMMONWEALTH.

The river is a means of power of inestimable value. The best methods of economizing and turning to account this vast natural energy is engaging the attention of the Colony at the present time. It will be the policy to erect flouring and woolen mills as soon as practicable and to follow these with factories of any kind that may be deemed profitable and desirable.

### HOMES FOR COLONISTS.

As soon as the forest is reached by the road now nearly completed, the erection of permanent homes for members will commence. Hotel accommodations will be provided for those who do not desire separate homes. It is proposed to select town sites, one in the Forest, at an altitude of between six and seven thousand feet, and another on the North Fork about twenty-five hundred feet. By such an arrangement business needs, comfort and pleasure will be best served. In the summer-time the Forest city will attract those who desire a cool temperature; in the winter, many will prefer the town by the river. In the upper town, the lumbering will be done, while on the river, the factories will, of necessity, be located.

It will be the policy of the Colony to erect substantial and artistic buildings, both public and private, in harmony with the natural beauty of our surroundings.

### AMUSEMENT AND RECREATION.

The necessity of providing proper and healthful amusement for both young and old will be recognized by all. To make life enjoyable and to relieve its members of the necessity of a perpetual application of their noses to the grindstone are among the main objects of this Association. Therefore all that can be done to encourage the happiness and well-being of the Colony in this respect is being done.

### RELIGION.

The religious opinions of a member are not questioned. The ideal religion of the colony is to "do unto others as we would they should do unto us." Perfect liberty of speech and action is permitted so long as the same does not infringe upon the rights of others.

### ADMINISTRATION.

The aim has been to make Kaweah a thoroughly democratic institution, in the true meaning of the term. Members are all upon an equal footing so far as opportunities are concerned. The property of the colony is owned by the membership as a whole, no one having a larger interest than another. Dividends are payable only upon the time actually employed by a member in some useful occupation. All have an equal voice and vote in the affairs of the Commonwealth. The affairs are administered by a board of five trustees, any or all of whom can be recalled at any time, under rules laid down in the By-laws. Each distinct branch or division of industry is under the supervision of a chief carefully selected by the Board of Trustees but who is subject to removal at the will of a majority of the workers in his department. By this means a thoroughly democratic and satisfactory administration of affairs is maintained. General meetings of the colony are held upon the colony grounds the first Saturday of every month, when reports of the board of trustees, of the secretary and treasurer, and of the chiefs of departments, are received and acted upon. These meetings are the legislative assemblies of the Commonwealth, at which all its important affairs are discussed and transacted. Every member of the Commonwealth has a right to be present and to vote, or speak upon any question presented.

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### NO FORFEITURES NOR ASSESSMENTS.

Money paid into this Association is never forfeited. If a member, through sickness or misfortune, should be unable to meet the monthly payment due upon the certificate, before the installment of $100.00 entitling him to take up residence is paid, the sum he has already paid in, whatever it may be, will stand to his credit until such time as he can pay the balance. In cases of willful neglect to remit dues, the member's name can, at the option of the members, be stricken from the roll, but he will be entitled to receive back the sums to his credit as provided in Section 11, Article I, of the By-laws.

No assessment of Stock will be levied.

### WHAT HAS BEEN DONE.

The principal work done since the inauguration of the Colony, nearly three years ago, has been the building of a road through the lands of the Colony, towards the Giant Forest. This was considered and said to be impracticable, except at a great outlay of capital. By dint of perseverance and economic administration of funds, more than three-fourths of the task is done, at a cost of less than one-hundred thousand dollars. Those who claim to be experts upon such matters estimated the cost of building such a road at $250,000. There is nothing in the remaining distance to be finished presenting any greater obstacles than have already been overcome, therefore all fears of inability to complete our gigantic task have faded from the minds of even the most timid. These apparently insurmountable difficulties however, were blessings in disguise; had they not existed, Kaweah would never have been preserved in its entirety for the grand purposes we intend it to serve.

It required grit, pluck, self-denial and an abiding faith in the integrity of their comrades, on the part of those who essayed this heroic struggle with nature in her most rugged and obstinate form; but our colonists, as far as they have gone, have nobly and courageously proved the oft repeated assertion made by economists and reformers that "Labor is King." Before their sturdy strokes the impassible barriers, one by one, have fallen; a thousand times and more has the canyon re-echoed the mighty blast that has torn the massive rocks asunder and hurled mighty boulders, like children's toys, down into the depths below. The roaring torrent has been bridged, the mountain scaled and an entrance to the magnificent possessions of Kaweah effected.

Several thousand vines and trees have been set out and are thriving well. Irrigating ditches have been made and the Colony is amply supplied with vegetables of its own production. Last Summer, a few peaches and grapes were gathered from trees and vines set out less than two years ago.

### IN THE FUTURE.

As soon as timber is reached, avenues of employment will open up in all directions. A thousand hands can be kept busy in various and profitable ways. It is to secure a number of the right kind of citizens for our Commonwealth that this prospectus is issued. We must have men and women who can put their soul into the work and are earnest in their endeavors to establish the social condition to which we aspire.

Let all who feel that they ought to identify themselves with this grand work, come forward manfully and put their shoulders to the wheel. We need willing hands, courageous hearts and means sufficient to impart the momentum necessary to start our little world revolving upon its own axis.

We invite the co-operation of all who are in sympathy.

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CONSTITUTION, BY-LAWS AND JOURNAL FREE.

Copies of the Constitution and By-laws of the Colony, also sample copies of the Colony journal "The Commonwealth," published monthly will be sent free on application to the Secretary.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Those who wish to apply for membership, or who desire information upon any subject regarding the Colony, should communicate with the Secretary, J. J. Martin, Visalia, Cal.

THE FULCRUM OF ARCHIMEDES,

AN EXPOSITION OF THE TIME-CHECK SYSTEM, AND ITS RESULTS IN KAWEAH COLONY.

"Give me a fulcrum, and with my lever I can overtip the world and send it spinning through eternal space," quoth the old Greek, three thousand, nine hundred years ago. Not only in mechanics but in all other divisions of life do we find continually a parallel idea expressed. The search for the Absolute, the quest of the Philosopher's Stone, all inquiry after the wherefore and why, are but expressions of the intense desire of all mankind to find a central truth in every department of thought.

In Kaweha Colony, we believe we have found the Social fulcrum upon which to rest the lever of labor, whereon exerting merely the strength of our puny arms, we may be able to give new force and direction for all time, to the manifold energies of old Mother Earth.

This fulcrum we believe to be our Time-Check System. To understand its full powers and possibilities, the whole financial system of the world must be clearly understood, but to see at a glance the major portion of them it is only necessary to know a few simple truths concerning the "Money Question".

There is an immense amount of mental confusion abroad concerning financial systems, due mainly to the obfuscations of the capitalist press and print. Not one person out of a thousand has the slightest glimmer of a clear idea concerning the true laws governing the exchange of commodities by use of money, or what "money" is. A few words upon this subject will therefore be pardoned.

No man really works for money but simply to get something that will buy goods. He would not receive gold, silver or paper if he could not get for them bread, clothes and shelter.

A man abofs under our complex system for "money" simply because the "money" will buy back a portion of the goods that he has produced or equivalent goods of a different kind produced by another workman. He works because he has to be sheltered, clothed and fed; if the money he received would nót buy goods he would not take it; he couldn't build a house of the greenbacks, nor make a coat of a nickel, nor eat a silver dollar. It is goods that he works for. Consequently he will re-

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ceive as his pay anything that will buy goods and anything that wil', give him an increased supply of goods will suit him better than what he has at present.

Now the figures of production show that the average American worker at the present hour only receives in wages value enough to buy back about one-tenth of his product; in other words, the baker has to bake nine loaves of bread (for which he gets no pay) for someone else, before he is allowed to produce the tenth loaf, the value of which goes into his own pocket; the blacksmith, miner, carpenter, etc., do the same; nine blows of the hammer for somebody else before they get in the tenth blow for themselves. The economic position of farmer, artisan, clerk and common laborer is the same; everyone who toils for wages is in the same boat. These are some of the simplest and yet some of the least understood principles of political economy.

Now I call to your attention the fact that the private capitalist who "owns" the natural resources and tools of production will not use them himself nor permit others to do so unless he can make a profit. It is true that until pooling or combination takes place, the competition of capitalist with capitalist tends to minimize profits, not however for the benefit of the worker; what matters it to him if he be robbed of nine-tenths of his earnings, whether it be by one robber or ten? The competition among the capitalists reduces the amount of spoil to each capitalist but does not by a single cent decrease the total of the booty. Let the State interfere; let it take up productive enterprises; let it produce and sell to the people at cost; the private capitalist is forced out of "business" and compelled to work for what he consumes. Competition, with the State producing at cost, becomes impossible. And the State, under the scheme outlined, does exact justice to the worker. It pays him in a certificate of goods produced and receives back that certificate for the goods.

This is what is proposed to be done in Kaweha, where the Colony Company as a whole represents the State.

For all labor done by anyone of its members it issues a time-check or certificate of which I reproduce a sample. (See Foot Note.)

These checks would not be irredeemable currency because they would only be issued in return for labor done and would be received in payment for the product of that labor; and only issued again in payment for new labor done, etc. Here would be the long looked for perfect medium of exchange. Money would be fulfilling its true mission, and the same blow that struck Profit with a death wound, through Competition, would kill Interest forever.

For outside exchange purposes this currency has to be given a monetary value which will be arbitrary until the Colony has on hand the results in produce, of say, five year's work. Then it will have a scientific basis of value which will be ascertained as follows: the aggregate market value of the goods produced for the years divided by the number of minutes of labor taken to produce the goods, will give the quotient: the market value of each minute's labor. But the actual value or "worth"-is entirely a different matter. As each certificate is given for the labor of, say one minute, it is bound to be redeemed by the Company by one minute's labor in return. This will make the time of one man of equal worth with the time of every other man. If it be urged that this is not just, that one man will hence be lazy and another industrious; our answer is first, that we admit that it is not exact justice but it is much better than the present system, and that we can in time make it exact enough for practical purposes either by increasing the hours of labor of easy occupations or by raising the price paid per minute of dangerous and unhealthful ones; second, that

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there will be no incentive for any worker to be lazy and shirk, for he will be working for himself, just as two partners do now in the competitive system; third, that if one should be a shirk his fellow partners would soon discover it and for the common interest either compel him to amend or withdraw.

Now a word or so touching the "worth" of each certificate. Each minute, at present, has the arbitrary value of one-half a cent. But it is worth far more than that. Suppose I am a working Colonist earning time-checks and that by the time the timber is reached and felled I have, standing to my credit unexpended, the sum of 1,667 hours. This represents 208 days of my labor of eight hours daily. Its "value" is only $500, but its actual "worth" far more. If it takes the Colony with fifty men one day to get out 25,000 feet of lumber of which I need 12,500 feet for my house, it will cost me but 200 hours of labor for the lumber (which if I bought and paid cash for in the market at $40 per thousand would cost $500.) or at 30 cents per hour—$60. I thus save $440 in this way alone when I come to build. You will find that the ratio will everywhere be the same, as $1,000 is to $93, [the average amount of value received in 1880 by workers out of the $1,000 value produced.] so will the outside price be to the price for which the Colonist will be served. In Kaweah, instead of getting one-tenth of his earnings, the worker will receive the full product,—as $93 : $1,000 ::x [outside price] : z [colony price].

It will be noticed that these time-checks below shown, are only exchangeable among Company members. Is this always to be so? Yes, to a certain extent, this series of checks being based upon cost as a limit; but we shall have another series for other work. As soon as the Colony begins to produce an overplus of goods which are marketable in the great San Joaquin valley, it will be found to be necessary and politic to issue the second series of time or product checks for use on the outside. These will call for goods upon presentation and will be so graded in value that the goods in which they are redeemed will always be in excess of the amount to be got from competitive dealers for the same apparent face value in actual money. That is to say, instead of cheapening our goods to compete with the capitalist, we will increase the purchasing capacity of this money which we shall use in the outside world. And as the capitalist must always sell at a profit, and as the limit to which we can go is the whole worth of the time-check [which leaves absolutely no margin whatever for profit, but gives equitable exchange] we have an absolute command of any market we enter.

Thus for all surplus goods we manufacture, we issue the circulating product-check properly valued. With these checks we go into the valley and purchase for them what we need, horses, cattle, sheep, wheat, flour, hay, cloth, sugar, tea, coffee, etc. Every farmer will take them gladly; first, because he can get for them more than their market value in lumber and manufactured articles made by us and which he must have; second, because he will need this circulating medium, being as he is, notoriously, penniless, so far as actual cash is concerned, and under the heel of the local banker and grain broker. Every storekeeper for similar reasons will also take them, for if he himself does not need the goods which their redemption will bring, his purveyors of produce, the farmers themselves will receive them in pay for the produce that they bring to him for sale.

Nothing is more certain than that an expansion of the circulating medium brings about better times. It is only when this medium is irredeemable that the after-clap, the panic and bankruptcy ensues. But gold and silver are just as much an irredeemable currency as were greenbacks and bank-notes.

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Bear this central truth forever in mind: "Money is that which will buy goods; the best money is that which will buy the most and that note alone is real money which is issued only when goods are produced and is received back for the goods themselves."

Once let Kaweah currency be established, redeemable by the goods themselves, and neither ballot nor bomb will be needed to win this Earth for those who labor and who think.

It will do no harm for the Colonists to remember that a time-check is not "money" merely; it is far more than that; it is CRYSTALLIZED LABOR.

Money is but a simulacrum, the palest phantom of labor; goods, even, are but the labor mixed up with raw material; the ESSENCE, the force itself of Labor is pure, only in the TIME-CHECK.

There is an ethical demonstration of this truth: the just measure of labor must be TIME and LIFE-FORCE EXPENDED. There are no other factors common to all kinds of work; and without common factors, scientific measurement is impossible. A "dollar's worth" of work of a child, a housewife, a Chinese and a skilled mechanic means respectively three, two, one or a third of one day's toil. As well attempt to measure oak lumber, electricity and lead by the pint and gill as to pretend to just comparison of the values of labor by an arbitrary "dollar."

In Kaweah Colony at present the secretary, printer, clerk, farmer, laborer and housewife are paid at the same rate per hour. It is not claimed that this is exact justice but it is certainly more nearly right than the prevailing system. At present we measure by TIME alone, not measuring the LIFE-FORCE.

That both should be measured can be shown as follows: It is admitted primarily that the life of one man is, ethically, of equal value with that of another in this world. Man's position in modern civilized society is that of inter-dependence, not independence; he is simply a part of the social machine. In return for the surrender of his liberty and his labor for Society, Society on its part guarantees to him, not equality, but equal rights. If then, the quicksilver miner, loyally doing his duty to Society, is only able to live and work ten years and then must die, while the clerk is able to live and work for Society, forty years, then the labor of the former is of four times the value and should receive four-fold compensation. Statistics could be collected and thus the average expenditure of life-force in each occupation be ascertained.

In Kaweah, however, the conditions are such that there would be but little variance in the lives of each, and the use of TIME alone, as a measure is close enough for practical use. The brain workers will be the chief sufferers but their additional capacity ought to make them more willing to sacrifice for others.

I have no space to enlarge upon the immense influence that would be exerted upon the great farming population of California by whoever controls their currency, no space to show how they will learn, step by step, under our guidance, the easy road to their full economic emancipation.

It is through the operation of the time-check (by which the worker in Kaweah will get the full product of his labor and the Company of workers will be able to enjoy the benefits of civilization) that the permanence of the New Civilization will be assured. An attack upon its integrity in any shape is an attack upon the very life of Truth and the basis of honest life.

What will it do for us in Kaweah if we use it as we should? Let me answer you as soberly as I can, and endeavor to picture to you what it means to me.

You are already cognizant of the merely material advantages of Kaweah, —of its perfect climate, its sapphire skies and crystal waters, its banks of flowers, hanging fruits and clinging vines, its giant trees and lace-like

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ferns, its Marble Canyon, its pictured rocks of prehistoric days, its stores of natural wealth, its snowy mountain peaks, its fig trees loaded down, its coign of vantage as a market and its perfect system of social life whereby with the labor of one's own hands, bread, and wine as well, shall each man have. You know, perhaps, also how the co-operative system will give to us all there, the luxuries as well as the necessities of life. I do not propose to dwell upon these things. Instead, I want to tell you in as clear words as I can, what is the main attraction to be found for me in the future of Kaweah. It is its promise of a cultured, a scientific and an artistic life. I think I know the aspirations of most of our members in this direction and though knowing how hard it is to put these things in words, I shall yet try to tell you "what we hope Kaweah will be," that you may understand in a measure why we are so devoted to it.

You may remember Mr. Martin's tract wherein he showed that the "Fear of Want" was the gauntest spectre of all the ghosts that haunt our lives. But this phantom, Kaweah's material beauties will charm away; leaving in its place to many, a shade almost as sombre, —"ennui." For this curse there is but one cure, to know the object of life and to pursue it. To know, to love, and to create, these three things constitute the sum of human happiness; and in Kaweah we shall, perhaps for the first time in the history of the world, see a community, free from unsatisfied physical wants, endeavoring to cultivate their best and truest selves.

We shall have schools there,—not for children alone but for youths and maidens, for the babies and for the men and the women. We big ones want to know something of Science and Art and Literature; we shall study chemistry in our own laboratory, physics in our own lecture room, astronomy in our own observatory, music in our own conservatory. And we shall not confine ourselves to the dryest branches. We shall have songs and a band; and the music of tinkling guitars under summer stars, by the rushing waters of the white North Fork.

We shall teach each other the courtesies of life and it well may be that among us alone of all the peoples of Earth shall be taught courage as a creed, fidelity as a dogma, truth as a commandment, love as a law, and purity as a truth. Here we shall learn to love and do kindness, self-sacrifice, gentleness, toleration, mercy and speechcraft. Here, if we will it, shall live and be, gratitude, modesty, generosity, independence, perseverance, temperance, judgment and justice. From this haven of rest we shall shut out cowardice and treachery, falsehood and impurity, hatred and servility, ferocity, bigotry, rudeness, dishonesty and laziness. Here shall we hitch our wagons to the stars, not block their wheel with stones and mud.

We shall tell our children of the heroes of the world, not the butchers; of the moralists, not the priests; we shall have the choral music and the measured dances of Athenian days to teach them grace; the quaint ceremonies of the Middle Ages to show them beauty; the modern wonders of light and electricity to show them truth; the tales of Old Rome to plant the hearts of men within their breasts; the songs of Old Sparta, to move their arms to valiant deeds; the cruelly pitiable histories of the modern wage-slave to stir their souls to heroic ire and bind their wills to Freedom's cause and creed alone.

We shall have painters and sculptors, I hope, in time, though it will be enough now for us all to be humble students. Great poets and orators, writers and thinkers shall be cradled between our mountains, and better than all this even,—our babes will grow up to be good men and women.

We shall have dances as I said before, and the old Olympian games, the new turn verein, boxing, fencing, wrestling, shooting, archery, run-

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ning and riding, and there will be swimming baths and boating too.

A graceful carriage, an easy walk, habits of order and discipline are taught by the military drill and so we shall have this regularly, let us hope for the women as well as the men.

Even now in building the road the boys at work, having an eye to beauty, have preserved natural attractions that others would have destroyed. They have planted flowers and trees along the line of the road. This practice should be kept up—should be enlarged and every pathway should be a work of art. They have marble-basined wells at East Branch now; every spring that gushes out of the canyon should be coped and tended. Every house should be a work of beauty and every garden a bower. One of the Colonists proposes to build a Norwegian cottage, another a Swiss chalet, another a granite tower.

We shall make of real land and water, a map of the world to teach geography, and the stereopticon shall show us in colors, the beautiful places abroad, the great pictures and the faces of dead and absent heroes.

There shall be marriage festivals and betrothal feasts; hayings and Mayings and merry-makings; there shall be badges of honor for those who exceed either in the study or the field; all shall have rights that all shall respect; and more, all shall have duties that each must fulfill.

Upon one of the flats by the river we shall build out of the colored marbles of Marble Canyon a Temple and Theatre, for ourselves alone and here also will we pursue the True, the Beautiful and the Good.

In all things we shall keep one rule in mind, that brave, old rule of Ruskin's, to do whatever work comes to our hand to do, and to do that work well.

One thing more. When the fight is fought and life is done, here we shall not bury our beloved dead,—shall not lay them beneath the soil to wait for worm and sickening decay,—nay; rather upon the high hills in the shadow of Moro Rock as did the prehistoric men before us, on the same altars, shall we burn their vacant bodies and in the ashes bed roses and lilies for memorial wreaths.

Life is not worth living in the desolate outside world of misery, strife and pain. It must and shall be changed. In our Commonwealth we shall try as faithfully as men and women can to realize the picture I have drawn. Will you not join hands with and help us in our work? Now, is the time and this moment the very hour.

BURNETTE G. HASKELL.

\*\*Foot Note:—Sample Time-Check.

No.—Series "B"—Two Hundred Minutes. Kaweah, California, August 1st, 1888. This Bill or Time-Check is issued and put forth by the KAWEAH CO-OPERATIVE COLONY, LIMITED, A JONT STOCK COMPANY of KAWEAH, Tulare Co., Cal., in return for services rendered by a Member of said Company, and is evidence that said Member, or his successor, the BEARER, if he also is a member, has performed for said Company the number of MINUTES' labor set out above, in payment for which he has agreed to receive in return either an equivalent amount in time of any other labor the Company may be able to render, or goods at cost which the Company may have on sale at said time or credits upon membership fee or share subscription under regulations provided by the Membership and Trustees.

Irrespective of this certificate the Dividends issued yearly on the hours worked are payable to the credit of the member who did the work and not to the holder of this certificate. This certificate is void in the hands of a non-member of the Company and is NOT TRANSFERABLE to persons outside of said Company.

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*Correspondence About the Colony.*

Notes and Items Extracted from Letters Received by the Secretary and the Editor.

Washington, D. C., Sept. 11, 1889.

DEAR MR. HASKELL: I have received several numbers of the COMMONWEALTH magazine addressed to members of our club, which I have distributed as far as Summer vacations permitted.

The Kaweha Colony is an effort which must command the attention if not sympa-
thy of Nationalists as no other reformatory effort can. It looks toward practical
action—in fact is acting—upon those co-operative methods which are the basic ideas
al and physical considerations. I know of no other practical association which at
the same time preserves individual rights and liberty. Your article in the August
number in answer to questions of a correspondent has particularly attracted my at-
tention as reaching high-water mark in requirements for social reform. What we
need is men and women who have attained such a stature mentally and morally that
they can see themselves reflected in each other because of a common origin with a
common destiny.

It is very gratifying to me to see the welcome which Nationalism receives from Kaweha Colony, because of the intelligent appreciation which it must receive from those "men of good will" who compose it. While I can do but little materially to aid your special movement, I gladly send you greetings and God-speed.

Enclosed find $1.00 as subscription to you magazine—I only wish I could make it
ten, I am

Very Sincerely,

Your Fellow-worker,

M. A. C.

LOS ANGELES, CAL., Oct. 20, 1889.

B. G. HASKELL, DEAR SIR:—Would you please send me or Comrade Brann about a dozen or two of Kaweha Colony Pamphlets (Prospectus). I have been asked for them for more than half a dozen times, and I have no more, so please send me them as soon as you can. Our group meetings are well attende. There are always children and adults of all ages present. Amongst the children there are some 'who will not take a back seat our among Colony youth. Our meetings are more like entertainments than meetings of business.

Don't forget to send some extra copies of the COMMONWEALTH for distribution to the Los Angeles Group.

Not knowing any more particulars which would be of interest to you I send the
heartiest regards from all L. A. Comrades.
Yours Truly,
D. T. Hengst.

A Outsider's Trip to Kaweha.

VISALIA, CAL., Oct. 18, 1889.

Last year while living in San Francisco I heard much of Kaweha Colony, its objects and aims, as well as of the weird beauty of its location and surroundings.

A few ago days I had the opportunity to pay it a visit and make observations regarding it.

It is situated in the northeastern portion commencing on the North branch of the Kaweha River and about 8 miles north a little east of Three Rivers. This last place is at the junction of what are called the middle and north and south branches of Kaweha River. The Colony lands extend from the point above named along the North Branch about 4 miles to the East Branch of the North Branch. They then extend up the East Branch for number of miles till they reach and include several thousand acres of most excellent and prolific timber land which was originally so perfectly isolated from the outside world by almost impassable declivities and mountain gorges that it had heretofore been regarded as absolutely inaccessible. And although it had been many times looked over and even, I believe, in one instance surveyed by longing and hungry capitalists, yet the obstacles to its approach were deemed so great and the expense of overcoming so enormous, that they were finally deterred from making the effort.

About 4 years ago a little band consisting mostly of plain working-men, with a
few bright, intelligent and cultured co-adjutors, having spied out this isolated re-
gion put their heads together, determined to see if some means could not be devised

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by which this beautiful mountain fastness could be approached in such a manner as
to unlock the terra incognita beyond and above and cause it to yield for human use
and delectation not only its esthetic side, but also its uses on the material plane of
human endeavor. Gradually this little band extended its numbers and finally com-
menced entering for homesteads and otherwise purchasing these lands in severally
till they had absorbed the major part of the land accessible in this particular locali-
ty including the valuable timberlands and also a Giant Forest of the noble and far-
famed Seoia Gigantia which is ultimately to become the basis of a magnificent park.

When this had been accomplished a giant problem arose in the minds of the pro-
jectors of this grand scheme.—How and by what means this grand forest was to be
brought into relations with the outside world.

Nothing daunted by the seeming impossible this heroic band band set themselves
to a practical solution of this seemingly almost unsolvable problem. Practical en-
gineers were at once set at work to survey out and plan a roadway up the declivitous
mountain gorges. But these were mostly poor and hardy hand-workers with but
little ready cash, and how were they to proceed in a gigantic undertaking with hard
cash for immediate outlays?

After much anxious thought and deep reflection they hit upon a plan of co-opera-
tive labor and partnership of lands, and after scraping together all the capital they
jointly commanded they volunteered their labor under pledge to receive time-checks
for it and to await the results for their redemption. Here was exhibited the faith
and courage of the Spartan. Here was exhibited the true nobility of manhood.
What has been the result? As the scheme regarding this astonishing movement became
known to those who sympathized with the plans of this unique co-operative move-
mentbegan they to apply for membership and money came slowly in and now at the
end of but 2½ years 20 miles of the finest mountain road ever built has been comple-
ted by the work of an average of 25 men during this time, that contractors, applied
to would not agree to build for less than a quarter of a million dollars. In all
this no debts for current expenses have been incurred, except the accumulated time-
checks for labor and these pass current in the Colony for all expenses of the holders
and the balance will ultimately be redeemed in cash if desired.

I should like to describe the general policy of the Colonists, but my paper is al-
ready much more extended that was at first intended and besides it has many times
been expounded through the COMMONWEALTH.

I would like to speak of the people now resident in the Colony and of their kind-
ly tolerant spirit, in fact of all the pleasant traits that go make up the *esprit du
corps* of the community. Also attempt to describe the peculiarities of climate, and
above all the matchless scenery which for picturesque beauty and magnificent sublim-
ity is scarcely surpassed if equalled in any other country.

But as it would require so much space I will desist for the present and trustto
some future inspiration when at least passing justice might be done to its almost
matchless loveliness and grandeur.
SAMUEL S. GUY, M. D.

How Usury Absorbs.

From the Duluth, Minn., Age.

All wealth is created by labor but money is created by law. If we were to de-
troy every title to land, every bond, mortgage and other evidence of debt, together
with every dollar of money, whether metal or paper, we would have jusa as much
actual wealth, as we had before. The real wealth is all produced by labor, and if it
would be destroyed money would be useless, as labor alone would have power to re-
produce it.

Labor creates all wealth and by law we create money to facilitate the exchange of this wealth. If this money was confined to its legitimate sphere, as a medium of exchange, it would be a convenience that would be a blessing to all. But the first use of money is for purposes of speculation. As now manipulated its principal use is to create debts and exact usury which is in the nature of a tribute which labor is compelled to pay to the money-lender for the privilege of creating wealth.

It is this tribute which creates capitalists. Every time the money changes hands it is expected to pay interest and every time it pays interest it is increased in value and it will purchase more of the products of labor. The Union Record of St. Louis, aptly illustrates the modus operandi by which labor is robbed and capitalists created

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by the manipulation of this law-creating value called money.

Capitalist No. 1 can borrow $1,000,000 of the working people's money from the government at one per cent, and make $10,000 easily by lending $500,000 each to--

Capitalist Nos. 2 and 3, who pay two per cent for its loan, and make $5,000 each by lending it in packages of $100,000 to--

Capitalist Nos. 4 to 13, who pay 3 per cent, and split it again in packages of $10,000 to $15,000 and make from $1,000 to $3,000 each by lending it at 4 to 6 per cent to capitalists who call themselves--

Business men, who either invest it to bring 10 per cent, take mortgages on farms, (in which case the farmer pays for the use of some of his own money) or loan it in turn to a class of--

Small Shylocks who will "advance money on your furniture without removal" and take 5 per cent per week for the loan or 260 per cent per year !

There are a great many more who "get their hooks in on the swag" before the workingman who pays $2.69 for the loan of $1 of his own money; but this is one way capitalists are made through our thievling banking system.

Such is our system of absorbing the actual value created by labor, by the manipulations of the law-created medium of exchange. This is the system of finance boasted of by so-called statesmen, and over the success of which millions have shouted themselves hoarse. Well may we exclaim, "What fools we mortals be !" to re-joice at that which pauperizes labor and creates a purse-proud oppressive plutocracy.

## PROGRESS OF THE WORK.

### A Report of its Status September First. The Erection of the Mill Discussed.

AVALON, EAST BRANCH, Sept. 5, 1889.

TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE K. C. C. C., DEAR SIRs:—We the undersigned a committee appointed by you to investigate and report upon the time required to complete the road and necessary work etc., to place in working condition, would beg leave to report as follows:

First,—the distance between "Flag Staff" and the further "Saddle" where we consider the best point for the first mill site, if operated by steam is 6120 feet; of this there is about 1,200 feet of rock work, 650 feet can be plowed and scraped and 600 feet of natural road. The time to complete this with the present force will take to the first November 1889. To prepare foundation, the log ways, lumber yard, frame work, etc., will with the present force take at least three weeks. To operate the mill by steam-power would require a log chute to be built from the top of the bluff, which would take ten days' time. To operate the mill by transmitted electricity it would be most advantageous to place the mill-site near the top of the bluff. This will require the completion of the road 4,000 feet further a little past the point known as "Haskell's corner. To get the machinery in position will take a month's time. Weather permitting it will take six weeks' labor with the present force to place the road in proper shape after it is completed and to haul lumber profitably over it making a total of 18 weeks' time with the present force before a mill can be profitably operated.

Respectfully submitted,

WM. CHRISTIE,
H. T. TAYLOR, Committee.

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THE COMMONWEALTH.
THE GREAT PARIS EXPOSITION.

### Some Remarkable Features Presenting Some Original Ideas for Use in the Kaweaeh Colony in our Future Scheme of Education and Development,

From the New York Sunday Sun.

The great Exposition in Paris, toward which the whole world has been moving, will illustrate what patriotism and national pride can accomplish. The vast palace built by Frederick the Great after the seven years' war to show Europe that Prussia was not bankrupt, was a bagatelle to this triumphant achievement of France. One stands appalled at the financial resources of a nation which has for thirty-five years poured out its blood and treasure in one continuous stream, yet here in the year of our Lord 1889 can present a Universal Exposition of such magnitude and grandeur that it is safe to say that all other national efforts in this direction are now surpassed. The building, or, rather, palaces, erected for this Exposition are a sufficient study without considering the treasures they contain. The daring engineering feats, the unique combinations of warmly tinted terra cotta and iron for vertical walls, the enamelled domes, the colossal figures and decorations in high relief, the charming and tasteful colorations of interior surfaces, all testify to the tranchendent artistic inventive, and executive ability of the wonderful French people. The engineering exploits violate in many cases what might be called axioms. An arch has always been rigid at its crest, a tower has always been broad, thick, and solid at its base; and just in proportion to the span of the arch or the height of the tower have the keystone and base been ponderous. Here in the Hall of Machines, with a truss-arch span of five hundred feet, the crest of the arch is in no way united, but the two elements of the arch simply lean against each other, a transverse steel roller receiving the enormous pressure of contact. The base of the arch, instead of widening out and being heavily grounded in masonry to stand lateral stress, comes down to a point and rests daintily on a cast iron plate with a circular bearing. These audacious contrivances are to permit expansion and contraction; and the whole vast roof, over a sixth of a milelong, risesand falls with every change of temperature. The usual conception of a tower a thousand feet high, requires a base so dense and broad that vision and circulation would be obstructed, yet here is the great Eiffel tower resting on light, airy arches of such stupendous proportion that the eye has unimpeded range, and thronging thousands stream beneath it in every direction. A description even of the chief merits of the interior display is well-nigh impossible. A most wonderful and complete exhibition is made in every department of human effort. The students of science, art, mechanics, may here find material for exhaustive monographs. One may see in a building devoted to the liberal arts the development and progress of every industry illustrated by a wealth of material for ingenuity of demonstration that is bewilderingly. It would be enough, for example, to show a series of violins from the earliest form to the perfected Stradivarius; but here we behold not only the successive stages in the development of the violin, but the well-worn work-room of the violin maker, with benches, tools, and all the appliances involved in the construction of the instrument, as well as the different portions of the violin in various stages of completion. The successive stages in the history of man are shown with a skill little short of marvellous. To Mr. Hamy, director of the Ethnological Museum of the Trocadero, the Exposition is indebted for this instructive exhibit. Life-size models, strikingly realistic, give one an idea of paleolithic man hammering out his rude stone implements at the mouth of a cave; and round about are scatter ed bones of extinct animals and other accessories to complete the illusion. Graphic figures of men of the neolithic and bronze and iron ages are encountered as you pass through this great building devoted to the development of humanity as shown by the various industries and arts. The student of ethnology finds ample material for study. Not only the life of prehistoric and ancient peoples is set forth in that ingenious and picturesque way in which the Fredch excel all others, but the living examples of various races are seen here moving and acting. This department covers a large area; with negroes of various tribes in huts made by themselves; Cochin Chinese, with buildings as brilliant in color as they are grotesque in form; Javanese,

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with their strange music and dancing: Tonkinese, performing feats on horse-back; and many trades of these races are carried on to the delight of admiring crowds. In the main exhibition grounds one may walk through a Cairo street lined with buildings, many of which have been brought from Egypt. Here is the metal worker, the potter, the wood turner, with his head bent down within an inch of his big toe, with which he hold the turning chisel. Barbaric sounds come out from buildings where troops of Morocco musicians, Abyssinians, Egyptians, with wild music and barbaric dancing, entertain an ever-changing audience. Something may also be learned of the history of habitations. Under the direction of Mr. Charles Garnier an attempt has been made to give full-sized models of the houses of various races, ancient and modern. A Persian house, constructed after the suggestions of M. Dieulafoy, an ancient Assyrian house, an Egyptian house; and, indeed, all nations are represented even to a ridiculous travesty of a North American Indian's wigwam. Some of these reproductions are doubtless correct, but, judging from the house of the Japanese, it is evident that M. Garnier did not take the trouble to consult any competent authority. He has endeavored to answer adverse criticisms by saying that he intended to represent a Japanese house, two thousand years ago; but this makes the caricature laughable. His Chinese house is equally inaccurate and unworthy. The application of fictile* ware to building purpose occupies a large space. The importance of this material, which never decays or corrodes, becomes most impressive as we look at the immense range of uses to which it can be adapted. Among the objects are a large variety of roofing tiles, some with glass inserted in, the others made entirely of pressed glass, and mouldings, friezes, dados of terra cotta, ordinary bricks with one end glazed, and a great variety of useful and ornamental devices illustrate the employment of fired clay in building in ways generally undreamed of. The exhibition of the city of Paris occupies two large buildings, and here is displayed all the paraphralania of city administration. Fire engines, ambulances, models of schools, pedagogic material, hospitals, full-sized models in the ground, showing sewage pipes and traps; maps of Paris, showing by different shades of color the vital statistics of the city, such as the percentage of deaths by disease, suicide, and violence, make a most wonderful and instructive display. The maps showing high death rate, illegitimate births, and violent deaths have some correspondence indicating the kind of people with which these conditions are associated, while suicide indicates a different class in a different portion of the city. The contents of these two buildings alone would repay a month's study. Viewed from the summit of Eiffel tower, that marvellous achievement of modern engineering, the scene is overwhelming. The Champ de Mars, the colossal structures that invade it, the vast areas inclosed, the Seine imprisoned and its bridges confiscated, the Trocadero attached, the Invalides assimilated, the bewildering outburst of color, the inconceivable gayety and delight of the scene, all produce an impression upon the mind such as no humanly contrived spectacle ever before effected. All the occasions of spectacular delight that have ever been known, whether they sprang from the industry of a people or the pride of a conqueror, pale into insignificance before the display now made in Paris. To see it and to absorb its variety, day by day, is a liberal education, and a most potent and irresistible incentive to progress and endeavor. Over a quarter of a million persons have visited it in a single day, and it is not too much to say that each one was better for it, had added to his sum of knowledge, and derived some new and whole-some impulse. And just now this would deeply and intensely interest every citizen of New York and every citizen of the whole country. We are about to have an exhibition ourselves, and we mean to make it commensurate with the dignity and the standing of ourselves as a people among the peoples of the world. We shall not measure it by what the French have just done or by what we have ourselves in the past accomplished; but we shall make it an adequate and comprehensive expression of what we have achieved for our nation for human progress and improvement in the wonderful age in which we live. It is not inexpedient, therefore, to turn now for incitement and suggestion to the marvellous spectacle of industry to which all Europe is flocking on the banks of the Seine; and to learn therefrom what may serve to set us to our task with suitable energy and spirit.

We dream of the time when the Canyon of Kaweah shall be a perpetual exposition greater than this of France; and by Science, harmony, labor and love we are now toiling to make it come soon. Would you not like to help us in this work?

* Ware manufactured by the potter's art.

THE COMMONWEALTH.
THE COLONY LANDS.

147

*A Clear Description of their Character and Location by E. C. Miles, C E. The Acreage and Water Power Described.*

Presuming that a brief description of our mountain home, and its varied presences, would be of interest to the friends of our great enterprise, I herewith present you the same.

CAYOAHIA

"Kawean co-operative Colony" lays claim to, and occupies about eight miles' in extent along the North Fork, of the Kaweha River; and includes lands suitable for culture in grain, vegetables and fruits; this belt will average about ⅜ of a mile in width, and lies mostly on the east side of the river. Also about ten miles along the canyon of East Branch, also the Pine and Redwood Forest and adjacent lands aggregating 8,000 acres more.

One section of these lands was purchased as a school section by J. J. Martin, our secretary; the balance has been taken by the members of the colony as homesteads and preemptions.

CAYOAHIA

Our colony also possesses as stated the valley and adjacent slopes of the East Branch.

This is a magnificent stream, the largest tributary of the North Fork, from the East, and the purity of its waters and the beauty of its cascades and waterfalls can never be overdrawn by any pen description.

Our wagon road extends along the northern slopes of this stream, and enters the forest at a distance of about five miles in the air line, from its mouth; the whole length of this part of road however is about ten miles.

The amount of available land forgarden and fruit culture along this valley and slopes will never exceed two sections; it has in addition to the waters of the East Branch, several valuable springs, and much of its soil is exceedingly rich, a mixture of clay and black loam.

The valley and slopes of the East Branch naturally connect the lands upon the Kawean, with those of the forest; and the contours of those slopes are remarkably favorable to the construction of our road.

While they are deeply cut up with long canyons extending down to the creek, yet they are quite shallow high up on the mountain side, so that the grade is quite easy and very uniform over all this part of the route.

The forest, usually by us and others called the Giant Forest, has two important divisions, made by the passage of the Marble Fork, a branch of the Middle Fork of the Kawean.

The general course of the Marble Fork is from the north east to south west.

Our road first enters that part of the forest lying west and south of the Marble Fork, but Giant Forest proper lies east and south of the Marble Fork.

This first part of the forest embraces about seven sections of timber lands located in quite a compact form, all of which our colony now owns.

Giant Forest proper contains only about six sections of valuable timber lands, and all of this is owned by the colony. This part of the forest embraces the redwoods, and the whole is a dense mass of timber.

Now I have gone over in outline the different portions of our land and timber domain, and will proceed to give a more particular description of the several interesting features belonging to each.

The valuable lands of Kawean valley, in the possession of the colony, commence at Halstead's line and Haskell's Bluffs. Here is the homestead of Comrade Haskell much of it hidden from sight, by the hills, from the road, but containing nearly a hundred acres of excellent land. Next comes the pretty flat of Comrade Davis and next at about two miles below Advance, the ranch of comrade Braddock. Here were the headquarters of an ancient sheep ranch, a small creek also puts in here, hence the name of this ranch "Sheep Creek Flat." And I must say I think you will not call it either a euphonious or a dignified name when you have seen the natural beauty and advantages of the place. But in spite of the name, the lands here lie upon both sides of the river and embrace eighty acres suitable for culture in

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fruit. About thirty acres of this is quite level, and is adapted therefore to general culture. The soil is a rich clay and black mold.

The whole of this ranch in soil, altitude and climate is remarkably adapted to both apple and olive culture.

This is a fine site for a manufacturing village; it has a noble water power, and the grounds are finely adapted to such a purpose.

Advance, the "City of Tents" with the American flag flying, Sundays and week days alike, is at present the headquarters of the colony. It is located upon the east bank of the river, on a beautiful northwestern slope 125 feet above the river, and commands a grand view of mountain and river scenery. To the east, through an opening in the hills, may be seen the towering rocks of Ash mountain. Its western face is a perpendicular mass of granite, capped upon the summit, with a few pines and cedars.

The color of these vast columns is an ashy gray, tinted with blue and yellow; and when lighted up by the morning sun its magnificent grandeur is unexcellcd. The lands in the immediate neighborhood fit for culture, do not exceed twenty-five acres.

But one half mile back from the river, and southeast from Advance, lies a beautiful mountain plateau, or basin, the ranch taken up by your humble servant. It contains about eighty acres of cultivatable land, about fifty acres of which would make one of the finest apple or olive orchards in Tulare County.

It has a fine spring, and a deep rich soil. The altitude of this ranch is upwards of four thousand feet, and it is the experience of fruit growers in this part of the state, that in this locality, an altitude of from four to six thousand feet will give us the finest quality of apples. Advance, by means of its falls and rapids upon the river, has a water power not surpassed by any, even in old New England.

It has any amount of power, is available at a moderate expense, with all the grounds necessary for extensive manufacturing interests.

On the whole, Advance possesses a fine village site, one hundred acres of cultivable lands, and great natural advantages for a manufacturing town, with water and climate unexcellcd.

Going up the river, northeast from Advance, one-half mile, the valley opens out into a wide plateau of rolling hills, slopes and ridges from Ash mountain, cut up here and there with ravines.

This plateau is called "Progress." It is triangular in shape, the massive ridge of Ash Mountain bounding it on the east, smaller hills and ridges on the south and the river on the west.

The western face of the mountain extends nearly in a straight line northwest and southeast, and the direction of the river is a little east of north, so that this northern spur of the mountain intersects the river about two and one-half miles from Advance, and one mile from East Branch. Our road passes over this spur at a place called Point Lookout—so called on account of the grand view it has of the river and mountain scenery, both north and south.

The plateau at Progress embraces some over three square miles of surface, the whole descending, some of it gradually, other portions abruptly, towards the river. More than one-half of this mountain basin can be put under profitable culture in orchard and vineyard.

Two small creeks run the whole year, through these grounds, and would furnish water for both irrigation and household purposes, but not enough for the vineyard.

When once occupied as a future town site, the streets would naturally extend along parallel to the mountain ridges and slopes, gradually winding and descending to the water's edge, and so make connection with the extensive manufacturing establishments that must at no distant day be located here.

To furnish this town site with an ample supply of water from the Kaweah River adjacent to these grounds would require it to be raised only some 500 feet. If taken out of the river a mile or two higher up, this height would be reduced considerably, but the expense of piping would be increased. But in either case the expense will be of minor importance compared with the value of the homes made here and the extent of the manufacturing business that will be transacted at this point.

Our Road is so laid out as to aid, in a most advantageous way, their occupation and development; and the contour of the slopes is such that practicable wagon-roads can be made, connecting all parts of this plateau with each and every other.

I will now call your attention to the lands of our town-site of "Kaweah," all of which lie north of Point Lookout.

Immediately north and extending to the East Branch is half a section of beautiful

THE COMMONWEALTH.

149

slopes and mesa lands, just above the river bottom, fifty to seventy-five acres of which will soon be put into vines and fruit trees.

Twenty-five acres of this mesa, bordering upon both the North Fork and the East Branch will be cultivated this winter, partly in garden and partly in orchard.

Upon a beautiful little flat, just at the junction of the East Branch and the North Fork, within a stone's throw of each, and nestling in the quiet shade of oak and alder trees, may be seen the white tents, the settlers at East Branch or "Avalon." By their enterprise and skill you may indeed see here the "marble-basined wells"; and close by you may hear the music of the "Brook" that flows "on forever," now mingled with the sweeter music of children's voices. Here, too, are beds of beets, onions and strawberries; and the rose and dahnia bud and tint, beautiful as ever.

Just across the East Branch, on its northern bank, is found the Colony Garden, now flourishing under the diligent care of Comrade Miller. The garden contains at present a little less than five acres of ground; but adjoining this on the east and extending up the valley of the East Branch is the ranch of A. B. Burdick. Mr. Burdick has a ditch now nearly completed that will cover some forty acres, and presently, when these lands are joined in one great garden for fruit culture then this little valley will "blossom as the rose," and yield in rich fullness all varieties of fruit grown in California.

North of this valley and extending up the North Fork lies a grand amphitheatre of hills and slopes, all centering in towards a common basin, or plateau, of moderate altitude. This basin, including the lands naturally tributary to it, contains an area of more than 3,000 acres, and has ample room, therefore, for the principal town of Kaweah on the North Fork.

Like "Progress," this plateau also can easily be connected in all its range of localities, from its highest slope to the river flats below, with practicable wagon-roads; and it can be supplied with the best and purest water, at comparatively small expense, taken from the East Branch. The main ditch or pipe need not exceed two miles in length to cover most of these lands. For use as water power it will be practicable to take the water from the North Fork in any desired amount.

As a location for a mountain city, "Kaweah" has many and great advantages.

It has a large area for cultivation, residence, manufacturing and other business interests.

It has any amount and variety of building material—lime, brick, stone, marble, etc.

It will only be about ten miles to the lumber mills of the Forest, so that it can command its lumber for building and manufacturing purposes, at moderate rates for hauling.

It has a water power equal to any on the continent, and suitable grounds for the location of factories and mills of all sorts.

Its water for household use, its healthfulness of climate, and its grandeur of natural scenery are unexcellcd by those of any locality on the globe.

E. C. MILES, C. E.

OLD "KARL MARX."

On page 98 of this issue is a cut of the largest tree yet found on our colony grounds. It is named after the greatest of political economists and is 39 feet in diameter or 117 feet in circumference. Another one near by, 35 feet, is named "John Swinton."

The engraving is "process work" from a photograph and preserves faithfully the resemblance of the colonists around the tree. The two parties seated on the left side of the picture are (1) a visitor from San Jose and (2) John Haist. Commencing on the left the members in their order are as noted: the old grey-headed man is Nealon, then comes Martin Schneider, then young George Miles; the first man with a staff is Henry Schneider, the next is Peterson, then Albie Martin the son of the Secretary, then John Regnier our heroic life-boat-service man modestly in the rear, in front of him, engineer and agriculturalist E. C. Miles, the next two are George Speed behind and Wright in front, then Mrs. Wright and genial Mrs Taylor; the next man is H. T. Taylor the engineer of the Road, then Keller, Kuss, Mrs. Kuss, Lybeck, Mackey and next Captain Andrew Larsen who has his arm over Frank Meacham's shoulder; then comes Ting the vocalist, Bloomfield, and faithful John Zobrist at the end.

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THE COMMONWEALTH.
THE LATEST NEWS!

The Road Practically Done and Other Work Now Well Under Way,

ADVANCE, CAL., Oct. 30th 1889.

The Road work is nearly completed. Camp was moved again this week for the last time. Work on cabins is going on for winter quarters for the forest crew. The majority of the men will be put in the agricultural and fruit departments until sufficient ground is prepared for cultivation. Shakes and the frame-work for the large barn at East Branch have been got out and the teams are now busy hauling them down from the Forest. The barn will accomodate 24 Horses besides the requisite amount of hay and grain necessary for their feed.

Work has been commenced on the main pipe to be laid from Cold Springs in the forest to the mill site, where the cabins for the forest crew are being built. The pipe for the same has been shipped from the City and will be hauled up in a few days and put in operation. Work is being rapidly pushed preparing the ground for plowing. About thirty acres have been cleared and grubbed; the force has been small but a larger force will be put in, in a few days. There is but little brush or trees on the portion they are at work on at present. About 500 acres can be prepared with very little labor. The heavy rains of the past month have soaked the ground so that it is in fine shape for plowing. Four plows will be set to work in a few days. The work of surveying and plotting an additional sixty acres of fruit property to planting has been commenced. Also surveying and staking out the water ditch to irrigate the same. Next year vegetables will be grown between the trees, thus giving a return for the cultivation of the trees that is necessary.

A fine crop of tomatoes was grown in the Colony garden this year of which a large amount has been canned.

Among the new arrivals are Coms. Marchant and Slark and Mrs. V. Goodwin all of whom have come to stay, also Geo. Ryland the leader of our Band has returned from his visit, and will put in proper training the young band that is rapidly growing; it has now 8 eight instruments and desires to add more in the near future by making a band of 16 pieces. Everybody in camp is enjoying good health and as usual are endeavoring to contribute to each other's welfare both morally and intellectually.
W. C.

The Pioneer Corps,

Under what conditions the men there
are working.

It is well for everyone to understand the exact position of affairs at Kaweah. We have a large force at work on the road but we ought to have more. But the road workers at present are supported from the income which comes from the installments of non-resident members. Some months these men will get an epidemic of paying up and other months similar epidemic the other way. Desiring as we do to make the greatest progress we try to keep the fullest possible force on. But we do it under a "risk" which is carefully explained to every member who desires to go up now and assist the pioneer work. That "risk" is this: it may occur that we shall get a larger force than our income will support. This deficiency in receipts might make it necessary for some to seek employment again

outside the Colony. If such a contingency should arise we ask the member to accept it gracefully and to those who could if necessary make that sacrifice and who have paid their first $100 the Secretary generally says "Come." No person should without notice and permission from the Secretary remove to the grounds.

SPECIAL NOTICE:—All applications for membership, and all money on membership account should be sent to J. J. Martin, P. O. Box 427, Visalia California.

Special Notice.

Members are cautioned that they *must* not go to the Colony expecting employment, unless distinctly called there in writing by the Secretary. No one else is authorized to say "come"; and those who take it upon themselves to come without authority will not be received.

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THE COMMONWEALTH.

The Labyrinthine Way.

For the COMMONWEALTH.

Flesh-eating beasts creep stealthily along
Unburdened by weak fears of going wrong;

To them the natural, right, and only way,
Is that made odorous by the passing prey.

Man gropes along a labyrinthine maze
Of fateful, intricate, bewildering ways;

Unable to distinguish right from wrong,
Loth to be still, afraid to move along.

Can any lead him? Guides have gone astray,
Striving to tread the labyrinthine way;

So, like the beasts, he gives that path his heed,
To which his nature's strongest promptings lead.

Kirkville, Iowa, Oct. 1, 1889.
CLARA DIXON DAVIDSON.

ITEMS FROM CAMP ADVANCE.

The fall term of the Advance school began the first Monday in September. The children seemed glad to get back to books and lessons after their long vacation. Every Thursday afternoon from three to five o'clock Mrs. Ting has all the children interested in sewing. At present they are doing "squares" for a Colony quilt which will probably be put together by the ladies about Christmas time. They will also be taught hemming, sewing on buttons, darning and fancy kindergarten sewing. Their sewing days are only a pleasant past-time as they sit around the room, each with his or her little box of work, and while their little fingers are busy, they are gaily talking and laughing.

Among the visitors during the past few weeks we note Dr. Hunter from El Dorado Co., Mr. Rockwell and Dr. Boone of Traver who made a short trip to the Forest, Mr. Stetson, from San Francisco, Mr. Davidson and partner, photographers, from Visalia, who took several views.

Comrade Plaisted from San Francisco has come to work on the Road.

Mrs. Christie paid Mrs. Deming of Visalia a flying visit. Mrs. Hubbard and Miss Swettenham have also spent a few days in Visalia.

Mrs Redstone, after a six weeks' sojourn with friends in the valley, returned to Advance, and all were glad to welcome her home.

Two dining halls were ready for accomodating colonists and friends. One is at East Branch in charge of Miss Swettenham, the other under Mrs. Christie's supervision at Advance.

We have organized a Nationalist Club and adopted the principles of the original club at Boston. Have elected the following officers: — President, Wm. Christie; Vice-President, Mrs. Ting; Secretary, Miss Louise Redstone; Treasurer, Mr. Elford; Executive Board, Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Elford and Miss Kate Redstone. Have fitted up a tent for Assembly and Library where we meet every Wednesday evening. Our meetings are interesting. One evening we had a debate, in which the affirmative was victorious. Question was—"Resolved that the People of our Country are sufficiently educated to accept and carry out the principles of Nationalism."

We have received word from Los Angeles that they have formed a group of the members of Kaweah Colony and have elected Comrade Biddle chairman. Frank R. Brann Secretary. Members of the Nationalist Clubs of that city are manifesting

["152", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "great interest in our colony adding beneficial members from there each week. Comrade Tieberg (a new member from that place) paid us a visit and has returned for his family:", "Mrs. J. L. Sturtevant has gone to Oakland for a visit and will remain this winter.", "Our visitor, Mr. Lynn Fox, who spent the summer with us and left lasting impressions by his \"sweet violin music\" has returned to his home in Lemoore. He was accompanied by Al. Redstone who will remain in the valley a short season. Mr.", "J. H. Fox made a flying trip to our mountain village.", "We regret to say that Comrade Evans was summoned by telegraph to San Francisco on account of the extreme illness of his wife.", "Mrs. Martin and Daisy are visiting in Visalia at Mrs. Demings.", "Comrade Pfeiffer has gone to San Francisco.", "We felt quite a shock of earthquake Sunday night Sept. 29th at 9:25 p. m. and it lasted three-quarters of a minute and was preceded by a rumbling sound like deep thunder.\nD. B.", "Financial Statement.", "SECRETARY'S STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS", "On acct. Membership Fees for the month ending September 30, 1889.", "<table><thead><tr><th>No.</th><th>NAME.</th><th>AMT.</th><th>No.</th><th>NAME.</th><th>AMT.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>180</td><td>August Ruppert.</td><td>$15 00</td><td>207</td><td>H A Martin.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>181</td><td>F A Plaisted.</td><td>.90 00</td><td>208</td><td>E O Cochrane.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>182</td><td>Nathan Philbrick.</td><td>.5 00</td><td>209</td><td>P J Teberg.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>183</td><td>Jas. Cheesewright.</td><td>.20 00</td><td>210</td><td>P J Teberg.</td><td>.150 00</td></tr><tr><td>184</td><td>Jacob Hakins.</td><td>.20 00</td><td>211</td><td>H S Hubbard*.</td><td>.275 00</td></tr><tr><td>185</td><td>Lizzie M Blanchard.</td><td>.5 00</td><td>212</td><td>Oswald Weinert.</td><td>.30 00</td></tr><tr><td>186</td><td>A M Blanchard.</td><td>.5 00</td><td>213</td><td>S Biddle.</td><td>.90 00</td></tr><tr><td>187</td><td>T O Wightman.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>214</td><td>M Reider.</td><td>.90 00</td></tr><tr><td>188</td><td>Lewis G Boggs.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>215</td><td>M Gulick.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>189</td><td>Geo. A Purday.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>216</td><td>W S Joy.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>190</td><td>Jas. Pritchard.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>217</td><td>A G Ritche.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>191</td><td>Louis H Marlow.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>218</td><td>F W Bishop.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>192</td><td>Wm. C Fink.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>219</td><td>John Haist.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>193</td><td>Annie L Weybright.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>220</td><td>Albert Currlin.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>194</td><td>Dan'l G Ross.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>221</td><td>Wm. E Perreau.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>195</td><td>Wm. H Carpenter.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>222</td><td>Geo. S Dodd, Jr.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>196</td><td>Carl F Hase.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>223</td><td>Thos. A Vest.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>197</td><td>A W Gratz.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>224</td><td>Mrs. Julia A Nathan.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>198</td><td>Chas. O Bugge.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>225</td><td>Frank D Jackson.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>199</td><td>Samuel Biddle.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>226</td><td>H C French.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>200</td><td>Michael Reider.</td><td>.10 00</td><td>227</td><td>Chas. V Marsh.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>201</td><td>Alex. Larsen.</td><td>.20 00</td><td>228</td><td>Wm. H Hatchfield.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>202</td><td>Jacob Hakins.</td><td>.5 00</td><td>229</td><td>Bernard Frese.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>203</td><td>A B Elford.</td><td>.42 25</td><td>230</td><td>Dan'l Ross.</td><td>.5 00</td></tr><tr><td>204</td><td>J C Weybright.</td><td>.5 00</td><td>231</td><td>A Gratz.</td><td>.10 00</td></tr><tr><td>205</td><td>Annie L Weybright.</td><td>.5 00</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>206</td><td>Miss J M Weybright.</td><td>.5 00</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>$1187 25</td></tr></tfoot></table>", "Respectfully Submitted,", "J. J. MARTIN, Secretary.", "Countersigned: Wm. CHRISTIE, Treasurer.", "Examined and found correct:", "A. DODGE,", "O. STROMBERG, Auditing Committee.", "The amounts prefaced with * were received in Colony Time Checks.", "The General Assembly convened at the usual hour Saturday, Oct. 5th, but on account of the unavoidable absence of the Secretary, the meeting was adjourned until he could be present with his minutes and reports. The minutes of the adjourned meeting have not reached this office at this writing, but will be duly published in next issue. —ED.", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "153", "The Colony Band.", "There is now being established on the Colony Grounds what will in time become a full brass and string band of fifty or sixty pieces. An able teacher and leader is in Camp now and as fast as instruments and music can be sent he will proceed with the organization and instruction necessary. Voluntary subscriptions are requested to purchase the necessary instruments, etc.", "Those who had subscribed up to last issue were these:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>Jos. Harveston.</td><td>$1 00</td></tr><tr><td>J J Campbell.</td><td>.6 50</td></tr><tr><td>Capt. Andrew Larsen.</td><td>.2 00</td></tr><tr><td>John H Redstone.</td><td>.2 75</td></tr><tr><td>Geo. H Ames.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr><tr><td>Burnette G Haskell.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>Theo. Hengst.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Bach.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Isaakson.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>J G Weaver.</td><td>.1 75</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. McDonald.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr><tr><td>A W Allen.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>Oswald Seifert.</td><td>.2 00</td></tr><tr><td>Robert Den.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr><tr><td>J F Cheesewright.</td><td>.2 00</td></tr><tr><td>J K Phillips.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>Coleridge Russell.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>M Hakins.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Fay.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr><tr><td>A M Pepion.</td><td>.50</td></tr><tr><td>W M Leavens.</td><td>.1 00</td></tr></tbody></table>", "<table><tbody><tr><td>F. M. Hadsell</td><td>$1.00</td></tr><tr><td>Los Angeles Group</td><td>$8 00</td></tr></tbody></table>", "Mr. T. Tucker (who is not a Colony member) of the Oakland Nationalist club has volunteered to donate Fifty dollars if ten others can be found among the Colony Membership who will donote ten dollars each. The following have agreed to do so in case the others respond:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>T. G. Ashton.</td><td>$10 00</td></tr><tr><td>John H. Redstone.</td><td>$10 00</td></tr><tr><td>Burnette G. Haskell.</td><td>$10 00</td></tr><tr><td>J. F. Cheesewright</td><td>$10 00</td></tr><tr><td>T. A. Vest</td><td>$10 00</td></tr></tbody></table>", "At least $100 more ought to be had as soon as is convenient.", "The person in charge of this department at present is the undersigned to whom all contributions may be sent. G. H. AMES.\n116 Turk Street, San Francisco, Cal.", "Write to J. J. Martin for any desired particulars concerning Kaweah.", "Subscriptions Wanted.", "This winter immediately after the first rains we want to plant along the line of the colony road at least two thousand fruit and shade trees for ornamental and useful purposes. If planted along the line of the road just after the rains, they will need no irrigation, and by this time next year will have added immensely to the beauty of the Road. The young trees will cost at Visalia about $1.50 per hundred. Sixty subscribers at 50 cents apiece are wanted to get these. Following is the list thus far secured,", "Acknowledged in September number page 57:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>Burnette G. Haskell</td><td>50 cents</td></tr><tr><td>Thomas G. Ashton</td><td>50 cents</td></tr><tr><td>Captain Andrew W. Larsen</td><td>50 cents</td></tr><tr><td>James F. Cheesewright</td><td>50 cents</td></tr></tbody></table>", "Acknowledged in October number, page 94:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>J. J. Campbell</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Capt. W. S. Joy</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Merari Gulick</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>F. Hammar</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. Grace G. Hunt</td><td>55 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Jacob Hakins</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene Hough</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr></tbody></table>", "Acknowledged now:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>C. Russell</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>Geo. Ames</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>J. G. Weaver</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>James K. Phillips</td><td>50 cts.</td></tr><tr><td>G. H. Scheel, St. Louis</td><td>$1 00</td></tr><tr><td>Total to date</td><td>$3.55</td></tr></tbody></table>", "Send contributions to T. G. Ashton, 712 Greenwich st., who has the matter in charge.", "DISBURSEMENTS.", "One B-flat cornet..................10 00", "\" \" \" (mouthpiece)..................50", "One E-flat Alto..................10 00", "\" \" \" get cornet duets..................35", "\" \" \" guitar strings..................1 00", "\" \" \" box Putz pomade polish...........25", "<table><tbody><tr><td>BALANCE on hand Sept. 27,</td><td>$22 10</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>5 90</td></tr></tbody></table>", "Since last issue the following have been received:", "<table><tbody><tr><td>J. G. Weaver</td><td>50 cents</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Johnson</td><td>50 cents</td></tr><tr><td>J. H. Redstone</td><td>.25 00</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Herregodt</td><td>.50 00</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Kelsey</td><td>.50 00</td></tr><tr><td>F. D. Jackson</td><td>.25 00</td></tr><tr><td>Hayes C. French</td><td>.50 00</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Hakins</td><td>.50 00</td></tr><tr><td>Unknown</td><td>.25 00</td></tr><tr><td>T. A. Vest</td><td>.25 00</td></tr><tr><td>To October 15:</td><td>$4.00</td></tr></tbody></table>", {"bbox": [867, 1015, 1129, 1051], "category": "Text", "

54

THE COMMONWEALTH.

OUR ORGANIC LAW.

THE DEED OF SETTLEMENT AND BY-LAWS OF THE COLONY.

DEED OF SETTLEMENT.

Adopted March 9, 1888.

*(The Certificate of Adherence to which must be signed by every member, and acknowledged before a Notary Public (in California), or a Commissioner for the State of California (in other states).)*

Know all men by these presents that this Indenture, made this ninth day of March A. D. 1888 by and between all of the undersigned, parties hereto

Who execute this deed, agreement and covenant by and with each other, and one with each and each with all, and for and in consideration of the premises, and of love, affection and good will, and further in consideration of the mutual benefit and advantages now accruing and hereafter to accrue, by and between us, and in still further consideration of the company having and to hold office during the pleasure of the members. This board shall be elected by ballot, all members being entitled to cumulate their votes, and shall hold office until recalled.

This Board shall be the legal representatives and special trustees for the company having and to hold office during the pleasure of the members. This board shall be elected by ballot, all members being entitled to cumulate their votes, and shall hold office until recalled.

The Stockholders' meetings shall adopt such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the operation of the company, and may provide for such other officers and employees as may be found necessary from time to time.

They shall and must provide for the administration of this company on purely Democratic lines, and shall provide for the administration of a Society, wherein, between the members it shall be unlawful to take interest, profit or rent, where all labor shall be systemized, shall be paid its full value and whereall products shall be furnished for use to members at cost; where the administration may be democratic, the Referendum, and Minority Representation, where the company may decide its own disputes between members by arbitration and enforce suitable penalties and may regulate the admission, suspension and expulsion of members.

We agree to form and establish, and hereby do so form a limited special partnership or joint stock company under the name and style of the "Kaweh Co-operative Colony Company, of California, Limited, a Joint Stock Company."

The general nature of the business to be transacted is to engage in the production and distribution of wealth; the collection, extraction of raw material, its fashioning by hand-craftsmanship, the culture of both animal and vegetable products, the production of food, clothing, shelter, machinery and any and all of other articles of convenience, necessity or luxury, the establishment of proper methods of distribution, transportation and storage, and the establishment of just and correct systems of credit, account and exchange, the building of houses for ourselves and families, their co-operative administration, the arbitration and just settlement of disputes between ourselves, the practice among ourselves of just systems of social organization, the education of ourselves and our children in proper physical, mental, moral, intellectual and artistic lines, to improve the health, secure the happiness and perfect the well-being of each and every member. And as well to propagate and extend in the world at large the idea of universal and just co-operation.

The names of the partners and stock-holders hereto and their residences are specified at the bottom of this deed and in the certificates of adherence thereto, hereto attached.

All and each of said stock-holders are special and each and all have contributed or are bound to contribute to the joint funds or capital stock or capitalization of the company, the sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) and their liability herein is limited to that amount, of which limited liability, (and as well of the powers and authority of all the members and officers of said company in dealing with the public), NOTICE IS THIS GIVEN TO ALL THE WORLD.

The duration of this partnership is the longest given by operation of the law and it begins at the date of the execution of this instrument as between the parties; and to the world, at the date of the recording in the Office of the Recorder of the County of Tulare, State of California, is the partnership limited by law.

Each stockholder contributes to the common stock Five Hundred Dollars as aforesaid, of which at least One Hundred Dollars must be in lawful money; the balance may be paid in labor or acceptable material. Upon expulsion, resignation or death of any stockholder the value of his capitalization or so much thereof as has been paid in, shall be apportioned out of the common stock and paid over to himself or his heirs or executors, and each stockholder hereby expressly waives all claim to, or right for any increase, interest or earned profits of any kind, whatsoever accruing or due thereon both for himself and his heirs, executors and assigns, it being distinctly understood that upon death and equally so in case of withdrawal or expulsion, that the estate, or himself shall withdraw only the amount with which he has assisted the capitalization, (all rents, profits, interests, improvements, and all realty and personality, except chattels private, reduced to personal possession, and private hereditaments earned and paid over as dividends orwaags to the stockholder during his membership, being distinctly and hereby granted in bulk and for the common use and benefit of the surviving and remaining stockholders). It being distinctly understood and agreed that the estate that each shareholder takes or holds in the increase, improvements and acquisitions of the company, is for life, or years, and not an estate in fee, and that the remainder lies always to the successor only when he shall be accepted as a member. Such remainder to him being a remainder of the same class and character as to the original member and therefore it is as well understood and agreed that no member has the right to sell, assign or transfer his interest herein to anyone whatever without the consent of the company.

It is definitely agreed and understood that any stockholder may be expelled from the company by a two-thirds vote of the other members.

That the detailed methods of carrying out the plans and purposes of this company shall

THE COMMONWEALTH.

155

be hereafter formulated by the members and that if not in conflict with these fundamental articles and if adopted by a majority vote of all the members, they shall be binding on each and all of us equally with these articles.

The legal Officials of the company and those entitled to transact business in its name, all other stockholders being barred from so doing, and the company not being liable for the acts or contracts of others, of which let the world take notice, shall be a board of five Trustees to be elected on or before the first Saturday of May, 1888, by the stockholders as herein provided and to hold office during the pleasure of the members. This board shall be elected by ballot, all members being entitled to cumulate their votes, and shall hold office until recalled.

And it is agreed by and between each and all of us, that at all times during the continuance of this company that we will each and all give our attendance and do our best endeavors, to the utmost of our power and shall exert ourselves for the joint interest, profit, benefit, and advantage, and truly employ, buy, sell, produce, transport, build and merchandise with the stock aforesaid and our joint and separate labor, without fraud or covin, one for all and all for one; as agreed upon herein before and to be hereinafter set out in detail in such by-laws as shall be provided for our government and regulation and direction as herein provided.

In witness whereof the said parties to these presents have hereto set their hands and seals, this.....day of ............A. D. 1888,

........................[Seal]

JOINT STOCK COMPANY BY-LAWS

Original Draft as Adopted March 9, 1888.

Article I. Membership.

PRESENT NUMBER OF MEMBERS, 500; CAPITALIZATION $250,000. HOW INCREASED OR DIMINISHED.

Sec. 1. The capitalization of this company may be increased or decreased from time to time by a two-thirds vote of the share-holders. It is fixed at present at $250,000, divided into five hundred shares to be sold at their par value as hereinafter provided, said par value being Five Hundred dollars per share.

SHARE-HOLDER'S INTEREST LEGALLY DESCRIBED.

Sec. 2. In consideration of the receipt of this $500 as hereinafter provided, the company admits the purchaser to a specified interest and conditional estate for life or years in the colony. This estate consists of an equal right in the advantages, emoluments, dividends, profits declared during his estate, and privileges appertaining, or in any way belonging thereto, and the full use and enjoyment of the same in common with all its members.

The relation established by admitting a member is a personal relation and each and every member is a trustee for each and all others and for the company at large.

WHEN MEMBERSHIP BEGINS.

Sec. 3. Membership shall commence upon payment of the first ten dollars of the amount of capitalization, subject to the conditions and agreements stipulated and set forth upon the certificate of membership.

WHEN AND HOW MEMBERS BECOME ENTITLED TO EMPLOYMENT.

Sec. 4. As soon as a member has contributed in money the sum of One Hundred ($100) dollars, he or she will be entitled to residence and employment on the grounds of the colony. He or she will be placed upon a list of membership in rotation in order of payment. Those whose names rank first on this list will be entitled to precedence in their regular order, and will have the first privilege of employment in the colony.

156

THE COMMONWEALTH.

INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS PERMISSIBLE. AMOUNT OF SUSPENSION FOR DEFAULT.

Sec. 5. Members will be given the opportunity to pay their capitalization of $300 by installment. But these installments must be paid at the rate of not less than $5 per month. Any member in arrears in payment of his monthly installments for three months may by vote of any General Meeting, be dropped from the membership roll.

### CONCERNING APPLICANTS.

Sec. 6. Applicants for membership, not vouched for by any member of this colony, must give satisfactory references as to their fitness for membership. All applicants for membership will be required to fill out the blank form of application prescribed by the colony. Rejected applicants for membership will have the amount deposited by them returned.

### NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES.

Sec. 7. No member shall have any advantage, privilege, benefit or emolument over the others.

### CHILDREN.

Sec. 8. Children of members are eligible to become members of the colony, at the age of eighteen years, upon the payment of the fee prescribed by the By-Laws as applied to any one wishing to become a member, provided, however, that if such applicants have been residents upon the grounds of the colony for the period of five years, prior to their majority, then their fee may be paid entirely in labor if so desired.

### APPROPRIATE WORK.

Sec. 9. Every member shall have equal opportunity to work for the colony in the avenue of employment for which he or she is best fitted.

### EXACT EQUIVALENCE OBLIGATORY.

Sec. 10. Every member will be required to render value in either labor, money, material or services for everything he or she receives from the colony.

### WITHDRAWAL.

Sec. 11. A member can withdraw from the colony at any time by giving three month's notice to the Secretary, of his intention to do so. He will be entitled to receive back all that he has paid upon his certificate, but any debts he may owe the colony will be deducted therefrom. The payment shall be made at the earliest possible convenience of the colony, but shall not be given priority over other liabilities whose payment is necessary to the perpetuity of the colony.

### WHAT BECOMES OF THE FIXTURES TO THE REALITY ON MEMBERS' WITHDRAWAL.

Sec. 12. Upon the withdrawal of a member, his private dwelling and improvements, if he have any, will be valued at a fair valuation upon the basis of cost, and he will allowed the full value of the appraisement, whatever it may be.

### MEMBERS-HOW ELECTED OR REJECTED.

Sec. 13. The Board of Trustees shall provisionally accept or reject all members. All names of members thus accepted or rejected shall be published in the monthly report to all members, and if no contrary vote as provided, is received within thirty days, then the Board's decision shall stand. A negative vote of any five members suspends the applicant until the Board submits his case, which they shall do in their next report. In such vote, five per cent. of negative votes finally rejects.

Any applicant rejected by the Board may, upon recommendation of five members, appeal to the full membership, in which case a two-thirds vote shall elect.

### CERTIFICATES NOT TRANSFERRABLE WITHOUT CONSENT.

Sec. 14. The certificates of membership herein are not transferrable without the consent of the company.

### MEMBERS CAN HOLD BUT ONE CERTIFICATE.

Sec. 15. No person shall hold more than one certificate of membership in the company,

### PREMIUM UPON MARRIAGE. RIGHT OF WIFE TO VOTE ON HUSBAND'S SHARE.

Sec. 16. Two votes inhere to each share where the share-holder is married; one of these votes may be cast by the wife and the other by the husband. Where the share holder is unmarried he or she shall be entitled to cast but one vote.

### REAL ESTATE AND CERTAIN PERSONAL PROPERTY SPECIFIED AS BEING THE PROPERTY OF THE COMPANY AS A WHOLE.

Sec. 17. All land, buildings, stock, crops, machinery, warehouses, tools, stores and other property, expt private dwellings and personal effects and hereditamentsof members contained therein, and other goods and chattels particularly specified as exempt by the company, shall be held in common by the shareholders.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

157

### BUILDING SITE OF MEMBERS. HELD AS TENANT UPON CONDITION.

Sec. 18. Each member shall be entitled to a piece of land not less than one hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty (150 x 150) feet, upon which he may erect a dwelling, and shall enjoy exclusive use and privilege of the same as long as he remains a member of the company.

### NO STORES OR PRIVATE WAGE-HIRING PERMITTED.

Sec. 19. No member or other person will be allowed to keep a store for the sale or exchange of goods or wares of any kind or description upon the lands of the company, nor shall any one colonist employ another.

### COLONY STORE, WHERE GOODS SHALL BE SOLD AT WHOLESALE COST.

Sec. 20. The colony shall keep a store for the convenience of members, at which all articles of necessity can be purchased by them with the labor time checks provided by the colony. Cost shall be the limit of price.

### IN CASE OF DEATH.

Sec. 21. In case of the death of a member, the amount paid upon his certificate, together with the actual cost of the buildings and useful improvements (if any) that he may have erected upon the building lot occupied by him shall be paid to his legal heirs. But the same shall not be payable until one year after the death of the member, unless at the option of the Board of Trustees.

## Article 2. Administration.

### PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS.

Sec. 1. The principal place of business of the company shall be the company grounds at Kaweah, Tulare County, California.

### GENERAL MEETINGS.

Sec. 2. The General Meetings of the company shall be held at the principal place of business on the first Saturday of each month at 2 P. M. A quorum shall consist of twenty members but a lesser number may adjourn from time to time until they secure the attendance of the requisite number of members. The first business of each such meeting shall be the election of a chairman. The General Secretary of the Company shall act as the Secretary of the General Meeting. In his absence a secretary pro tem. shall be elected.

### MONTHLY REPORT OF SECRETARY.

Sec. 3. The proceedings taken at any General Meeting shall be notified to the whole membership by the General Secretary in his monthly report.

### SUPREME AUTHORITY IS THE MEMBERSHIP. HOW SECURED.

Sec. 4. The supreme authority of the company is the Membership and except as otherwise herein provided, a majority vote thereof shall be of binding force. The Referendum, Imperative Mandate, Initiative and Minority Representation are the sacred rights of each shareholder and any attempt by any of the officers or members of the company to abolish or abridge them shall be cause for expulsion. An appeal always lies to the membership upon any question.

### REFERENDUM-WHAT IT IS.

Sec. 5. The Referendum is the means by which the whole membership may pass upon, adopt or repeal any measure initiated by the officers of the company. Such vote of the whole membership may be demanded at any time by ten per cent of the membership.

### IMPERATIVE MANDATE-WHAT IT IS.

Sec. 6. The Imperative Mandate is the power residing in the Membership to recall at any time any officer, agent or employee by a majority vote of the company. It may be put in motion at any time on demand of ten per cent of the Membership.

### INITIATIVE-WHAT IT IS.

Sec. 7. The Initiative is the power residing in the Membership, of themselves to initiate any measure desired. On demand of ten per cent. of the Membership the measure desired must be submitted to the company for their votes and if it receives a majority vote of the whole Membership, must be adopted and followed.

### MINORITY REPRESENTATION-WHAT IT IS.

Sec. 8. Minority Representation shall be secured by the cumulative vote. This vote is explained at length in the Civil Code of California and confers upon each member voting for two or more officers the right to cast all one vote for all the officers, or to vote instead, as many times as there are officers to be elected, for any, etc.

158

THE COMMONWEALTH.

OFFICE OF SECRETARY.

Sec. 9. Until otherwise provided, the Secretary of the company shall keep his office at the city of Visalia, Tulare County, California, and the Bank of —— shall be the Bank of Deposit for the funds of the company.

TENURE OF OFFICE. CALL FOR A GENERAL ELECTION.

Sec. 10. The tenure of office of all officers and employees of this company shall be until recall as above provided. Except that ten per cent of the Membership may at any General Meeting, upon thirty days' notice call for a General Election of all officers. In case of such call then the terms of all officers shall be declared at an end and a new election be had at once. All officers, however, serve until their successors are installed.

GENERAL SECRETARY AND TRUSTEES.

Sec. 11. The General Secretary shall be elected by the Membership and shall be ex-officio, one of the Board of Trustees. Four others shall be elected by the members at least two of whom shall be residents of the colony.

THEORY OF THE COMPANY GOVERNMENT.

Sec. 12. Immediately after election the Board shall organize by electing a Chairman of the Board, a Superintendent and Book-keeper. The first two must be members of the Board, and all must be residents of the colony. The Board shall appoint such other officers, agents and employees as may be necessary from time to time, prescribing their duties by resolution. The theory of government of the company being this: the Trustees elect, the Membership removes. Officers of Departments may be removed by the workers of that department.

DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY.

Sec. 13. The duties of the General Secretary shall be to keep the minutes of all General and Special Meetings, minutes of the Board of Trustees, to conduct the correspondence, recruit the Membership and as Financial Secretary, receive, receipt for and deposit in Bank or with the Treasurer, all sums paid upon Membership account, to keep membership ledgers, issue Certificates of Membership, render regularly, on or before the 15th of each month, a report to each member, of the condition of the company, issue such appeals, notices, referenda, mandates and initiatory resolutions as may be lawfully demanded, and perform such other similar duties as may be ordered by the Trustees.

WHAT FUNDS TREASURER RECEIVES.

Sec. 14. All other funds shall be received by the Treasurer.

SECURITY OF FUNDS.

Sec. 15. All funds by whomsoever received shall be deposited in Bank and no payments whatever made except by check signed by the Treasurer.

BOOK-KEEPER.

Sec. 16. The Book-keeper shall keep the general accounts of the company, receive the time cards of employees, calculate the credits, issue time checks, make a report in writing of all transactions to each General Meeting for the use of the Secretary and perform such other duties as may be provided.

SUPERINTENDENT.

Sec. 17. The Superintendent shall oversee and direct the material work of the company, under direction of the Board of Trustees.

SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION AND COMPANY JOURNAL.

Sec. 18. The Membership at large shall elect also a chief of the Department of Education whose present duties shall be to supervise the publication of a company journal which shall contain the reports of the officers, educational matter and general co-operative news. The journal shall be used by the Secretary to recruit the membership.

AUDITING COMMITTEE.

Sec. 19. The General Meeting has the power to elect an Auditing Committee at any time.

ARBITRATION.

Sec. 20. All quarrels, grievances and disputes shall be settled by arbitration as provided in the laws of the State of California.

SPECIAL MEETINGS.

Sec. 21. Special Meetings of the Membership may be called by the Trustees or by twenty per cent. of the Membership at any time.

159

THE COMMONWEALTH.

Article 3. General Provisions.

EIGHT HOURS' WORK.

Sec. 1. Eight hours shall constitute a day's work in the Colony.

AMOUNT OF PRESENT PAYMENT PER HOURS LABOR

Sec. 2. Thirty cents per hour shall be the established basis of exchange for labor rendered to the colony by the members, and by the colony to the members until otherwise ordered by the colony.

SURPLUS EARNING HOW DISPOSED OF.

Sec. 3. At least twenty-five per cent. of all surplus in the hands of the Treasurer each year shall be invested under the direction of the colony, by the Board of Trustees, in a plant of some kind that will tend to promulgate our co-operative views, and to benefit humanity in general—such plant or funds to be forever used for purposes tending to elevate mankind under the control of the colony. The balance shall be declared as dividends among those to whom time checks were issued, in proportion to the hours worked, or shall by company vote be devoted to the improvement of the colony plant. Taxation of company members shall be equal.

TRUSTEES CREATE DEPARTMENTS AND ADMINISTER AS PROVIDED IN GRONLUND.

Sec. 4. The Trustees shall create from time to time as occasion arises, the necessary departments for the administration of the work of the company upon the lines laid down in Gronlund's Co-operative Commonwealth.

AMENDMENTS MUST BE NOTIFIED TO ALL MEMBERS.

Sec. 5. These by-laws may be altered or amended by resolution presented in writing at any meeting of the Colony, provided however, that all such resolutions shall be filed with the Secretary, open to the inspection of members at least twenty days before said meeting. Immediately upon such filing the Secretary shall notify all non-resident members of the purport thereof.

AMENDMENTS—HOW ADOPTED.

Sec. 6. For the amendment of the foregoing by-laws a majority vote of the membership shall be required.

DEED OF SETTLEMENT—HOW AMENDED.

Sec. 7. The Deed of Settlement can only be amended by a three fourths vote of the membership and no by-law can be passed in conflict therewith, it being of superior binding force.

["160", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "ELETON SCHEME OF ORGANIZATION\nOF", "The Kawesh Co-operative Colony.", "(A Model of a Co-operative State.)", "consisting of", "DIVISIONS, (3)", "Under a Manager.", "DEPARTMENTS, (13)", "Under a Superintendent.", "BUREAUX (58) Under a Chief, and", "SECTIONS.", "Under a Foreman.", "DIVISIONS", "I. Division of Production,", "II. Division of Distribution,", "III Division of the Commonweal,", "DIVISION I. [Production.]", "(1) Department of Collection.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Fishing,", "2. Hunting,", "3. Woodmen,", "4. Sand and clay collecting.", "(2) Department of Extraction.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Metallic extraction.", "2. Coal and oil extraction,", "3. Lime extraction,", "4. Slate, stone, marble quarries.", "(3) Department of Growing.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Fish culture,", "2. Fowl,", "3. Insulation,", "4. Flesh,", "5. Forage,", "6. Grain,", "7. Vegetables,", "8. Fruits,", "9. Fishes,", "10. Miscellaneous growing.", "(4) Department of Hand-craft.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Bureau of Food,", "2. Clothing,", "3. Shelter,", "4. Machinery,", "5. Decorations.", "DIVISION II. [Distribution.]", "(5) Department of Transportation.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Freight Traffic,", "2. Passenger Traffic.", "(6) Department of Storage.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Warehouses,", "2. Stores.", "(7) Department of Delivery.", "BUREAU.", "1. Carrier delivery,", "(8) Department of Finance.", "BUREAUX.", "1. General Audits,", "2. Accounts,", "3. Cash,", "4. Exchange.", "DIVISION III. [Commonweal]", "(9) Department of Administration.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Legislation.", "SECTIONS.", "a. Referendum,", "b. Initiative,", "c. Imperative Mandate.", "2. Executive.", "SECTIONS.", "a. Assignment of colony labor.", "b. Assignment of outside work.", "3. Judiciary.", "SECTIONS.", "a. Court of public disputes,", "b. Of private disputes.", "c. Of prizes and rewards.", "(10) Department of Education.\n(children and adults.)", "BUREAUX.", "1. The Colony Journal.", "2. Physical culture.", "SECTIONS.", "a. Gymnastics (turn-verein).", "b. Drill. \"Setting up.\"", "c. Boxing, fencing, wrestling.", "d. Swimming.", "e. Shooting, archery.", "3. Mental culture. (speech craft)", "SECTIONS.", "a. Science-Heat, light, sound, motion, mechan-\nics, electricity, chemistry, geology, zoology, mathe-\nmatics, geography, history, astronomy, languages,\nphilosophy, politics, sociology, metallurgy, logic,\nmetaphysics, natural justice or law, medicine.", "b. Literature-Poetry, prose, belles lettres.", "c. Art-Music, painting, sculpture, architecture,\ndrama, tragedy, comedy, choral music, the dance,\nceremonials and festivals, debate, declamation, the\nBand, Flower Culture, Modelling, Drawing, Design.", "4. Moral culture.", "SECTIONS.", "a. To teach the callionists to love courage, fidelity,\ntruth, kindness, purity, generosity, love, self-sacra-\nfice, independence, modesty, gentleness, toleration,\nmercy, gratitude, justice, forgivness, speech-craft,\npoliteness, honesty, conciousness, declamation, firmness,\nfirm judgment, prudence, perseverance, in-\ndustriousness; and to hate cowardice, falsehood,\ntreachery, infidelity, cruelty, impurity, avarice, nig-\ngardliness, hatred, selfishness, servility, vanity, fer-\nocity, bigotry, vindictiveness, ingratitude, injustice,\nrevengefulness, bestiality, indulgence, rudeness,\ndishonesty, unscrupulousness, garrulity, weakness,\nvacillation, rashness, stupidity, frivolity, desistance,\nand laziness.", "These departments to be carried out by kinder-\ngarten, lecture, debate, exercises and the press.", "(11) Department of Public Service.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Public health,", "2. Drainage,", "3. Fertilizing,", "4. Roads,", "5. Ditches,", "6. Water supply,", "7. Heating,", "8. Lighting,", "9. Pneumatics.", "10. Post Office,", "11. Telegraph and telephone.", "12. Cleanliness,", "13. Propaganda.", "(12) Department of Amusements.", "Should co-operate with the Department of Education.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Of Scientific exhibition,", "2. Athletie exhibition.", "3. Artistic exhibition.", "4. Social amusements.", "* There should be constructed for these depart-\nments, elegant, imposing and artitistle structure\nwhich might be called the FORUM, THE THEATRE, the\nAMPHITHEATRE, the ARENA, ACADEMIE, etc.", "(13) Department of Defence.", "BUREAUX.", "1. Fire Department.", "1. National Guard.", "

62

THE COMMONWEALTH.

THE TIME IS RIPE, NOW: MR. BIERCE.

From the S. F. Wasp, Dec. 13, 1866.

"It * * * (this reform movement) has * * definite objects and is the custodian of methods that can be described with intelligibility and applied with practical effectiveness, Mr. Haskell's clever pen, abandoning the Socialists' favorite but fruitless task of enlargising the dead and daring, ought to set them forth with such lucidity and precision as to compel attention, command respect and engage assent."

AMBERGE BIERCE.

## What Nationalism Is.

The principles of Nationalism have been popularized by Edward Bellamy's now celebrated novel "Looking Backward." This novel is simply a picture of what America will become in the future, stated in a novel and and artistic way.

But the doctrines there taught and the scientific principles laid bare, are not the mere vagaries of a romanticist. Succinctly stated our modern sociologists affirm that invention and civilization have now progressed so far that poverty need no longer exist, that it can be abolished forever and that with it will fall at least 80 per cent of man. Thomas H. Huxley, John Ruskin, Karl Marx, Thomas A. Edison, Herbert Spencer, Etienne Arago, Elisee Reclus, Victor Hugo, Karl Blind, H. M. Hyndman, John Swinton, Laurence Gronlund, Edward Everett Hale, Frances Willard, T. W. Higginson, Jos. R. Buchanan, Abbie Morton Diaz, Prof. Paul de Leon, Thomas Davison and hundreds of others of the most prominent authors, divines and scientists of the world, are and have been among the exponents and advocates of the ideas advocated by Nationalism. Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison were prophets of the movement.

Every new discovery of science is received with the same incredulity, the same unbelief, the same mockery as greeted the announcements of the telegraph, telephone and phonograph. Yet after a few years, people wondered, amazed at the simplicity and the discoveries and almost every intelligent man had an immense self-contempt of the world, and when he thought of the chance he had missed in not making the discovery himself.

So it has been with social science, with Political Economy; when the doctorines of the subject are stated in non-technical language, the very simplicity, clearness and definiteness of the statement, makes the propositions SELF-EVIDENT to every man and carries conviction to every heart.

That you may judge for yourself of the truth of this matter even without reading either Bellamy or Gronlund we venture to sketch the logical premises and conclusions, in intechanical language, of Modern, Scientific Political Economy.

## Seven Fundamental Propositions.

(Logically Stated.)

I. Poverty is the absence of wealth.

II. Wealth is equivalent to "goods"—by this meaning food, shelter, clothing, articles of necessity, luxury, use, amusement or recreation.

III. The prime-factors common to all kinds of goods whether a painting or a loaf of bread, a railroad or an apple tree are (a) the natural resource (or matter, material) produced by Nature and (b) human labor, either hand or machine, applied thereto.

IV. If therefore any lack "goods" it must be because of insufficient (a) natural resource or (b) labor to produce enough for all (or unjust monopoly thereof).

V. But, statistics show that the valley of the Mississippi alone can furnish enough natural product to feed, clothe and house the world; and Elisee Reclus, President of the French Academy of Sciences has estimated that we have already discovered lands and materials enough, if worked, to supply with all luxuries and necessities on this planet, a population of twenty billions; at present we have but a billion and a half.

VI. But, further statistics show that since the beginning of the "Modern Machine Epoch" which began 150 years ago the labor capacity of man has been increased to such an ENORMOUS extent that now the machines of Great Britain alone, are equivalent to the labor force of the whole population of the globe one hundred years ago, and that the water-power of the State of California now running to waste is greater by 90 per cent than the whole utilized power of the world at that same period. Further that the world's present machine and power force equilates the power and labor force of Forty billions of men if it were all put to systemized use. REMEMBER, too, that this power is capable of INDEFINITE EXPANSION. We can go on building machines and machines forever!

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163

VII. Further statistics show that were this machine-force properly organized and applied to the natural resources and were all men organized for business as they should be, less than two hours' labor per day from every man would give to every inhabitant of Earth all of the necessities and luxuries of life that are now enjoyed by those who have an income of Ten thousand dollars per year.

### THESE ARE FACTS OF SCIENCE IMPOSSIBLE OF REPUTATION.

## The Scientific Basis of Nationalism.

### Science Lays Our Foundation.

I. Modern sociological, biological, physiological, zoological, geological and physical science has demonstrated the truth of the doctrines of Evolution not only as applied to the Earth, its plants, animals and man but as well as applied to Society.

II. Simply stated the laws which Nature has established and which govern the growth of things are these, viz.:

1. That all organisms are slightly different from each other at their birth ("Differentiation.")

2. That each however keeps the general characteristics of its parents ("Heredity.")

3. That each organism is modified by the environment or surroundings (Adaptability to Environment.)

4. That those who most easily adapt themselves to their surroundings live and thrive and those who do so least easily die off ("Survival of the Fittest.")

5. That each succeeding organism tends towards specialization of parts and complexity of construction and functions ("Progress.")

III. These laws are as applicable to collective human society as they are to a plant or a man. The scientist therefore who would unveil the past, know the present and predict the future of humanity must know how the SOCIETARY ORGANISM is differentiated in each generation, how it is held back by heredity, how it adapts itself to environments, how the fittest survive and how absolutely impossible it is for it as a whole to dought but progress to complexity and variety of function, mental, moral and physical; that is, ultimately, to that ideal which we call "perfection."

IV. He who would change any existent vice or evil must THEREFORE GO THE ROOT and change the CONDITIONS THAT PRODUCE THE VICE. The circumstances make the man, the environment produces the poverty or the crime.

V. If therefore POVERTY exists it is because mankind has not yet learned to apply boundless labor to boundless natural resources and thus produce temptation of Poverty. If CRIME exists it is mainly because of the environment and temptation of Poverty. Abolish that and Crime lies dead, the world becomes an Eden and Man a god.

VI. It is not only unscientific but it is the shibboleth of an ignorant man to say that it is "human nature" for all men to be bad, that hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized children," that vice and poverty are the result of Adam and Eve eating indigestible apples, five thousand years ago. Poverty and Crime are but the environments, and if you will but exercise ordinary common sense they can be abolished forever.

## The Competitive System Analyzed.

### The Dicta of Science Concerning it.

I. The present industrial system has its type in the struggle for existence among the lower animals. The limited amount of subsistence available, and the tendency to increasing reproduction of the organisms breeds a system of war and slaughter. This brutish and savage system still survives as a human environment. With the growth of the modern machine industry certain economic barriers to a common sense method of production have arisen. Human Society does not go to work and apply boundless machinery to boundless natural resource and thus produce boundless wealth for these reasons: (1) Individuals "own" or claim to own the machines and the "right" to prevent others making and using them, and (2) Individually claim to "own" the natural resources and refuse to permit others to use them.

II. Under this environment of savagery (which we call the "Competitive System") the owners of the "tools" and "resources" refuse to permit other men to use them unless the workers pay the "owners" for said use a certain per centage. This per centage amounts always to the whole of the product less the "wages" of the man who does the work.

III. These "wages" are found to be relatively a fixed sum, amounting to only so much as will enable the worker to live and work and replace himself with another worker when he dies. This is called the "Iron Law of Wages."

164

THE COMMONWEALTH.

That this is so, is evident at once from an examination of the Competitive System.

Only as machines began to be invented did modern production for Profit arise. Formerly the workers of each little town produced for their own town and each worker was a Master Artisan knowing his trade thoroughly. But machines being invented, goods were produced cheaper and the hand-worker found his market supplied. He was thus forced to go into the factory and work for wages and stop inplied. Shortly the factories found they were producing more dependent production. The world ought to be outgrown the shedding of war and death. The world ought to be able to settle this matter in peace and love and without hands at each other's throats. They can do this if the American people will but wake up and assist in the work.

This horrible pauperization of the human race slowly and inevitably progressing and each year growing in intensity is not confined to those who work for wages. Merchants, manufacturers, farmers and professional men alike feel its grind. The merchant with the largest capital and the greatest connections devours the merchant of less powers, he in turn eats the smaller dealer and he, bankrupted, joins the ranks of the waze-workers and under the whip of starvation helps to pull them down to lower depths.

The lawyer and doctor fall by the wayside beneath the blows of the specialist and the small agriculturalist abandons in despair the attempt to compete with the big bonanza farmer armed with railroad rebates and money to hire grain ships for himself or warehouse his wheat for the highest prices.

VI. Now this state of things must continue so long as the environment which creates them, continues. Previous to the development of the machine industry and the establishment of production for profit we had no such thing as panics, no such a thing either as tramp and millionaire. So long as production for profit continues, panics will periodically occur and as the fringe of unemployed labor increases so must the panics or commercial crises increase in frequency and intensity. The reason for this is evident upon inspection:

The worker in one year, let us say, produces $1,000 worth of value; for doing this he receives in wages $346. (Census of 1880.) But after he has produced the goods the worker alters his economic position; he now becomes the consumer; he goes into the market to buy back the same goods he has made. He can only buy back one third of them because he has received wages enough only to do that. The employer is left with two-thirds of his product unsold. The next year therefore when the worker asks for employment he is told that there has been an "overproduction" and that the employer cannot again employ him until last year's goods are sold.

But the worker can not buy them without wages and he cannot get wages without work; and there is no work to be done until the unsold goods are disposed of! Astonishing paradox of a "brainy" and "business" system!

The employer does his best to find "new markets" for his surplus goods and so long as he can do this the machine of profit-production—though rusty, creaking and rickety—keeps on going somehow. But when "new markets" are no longer to be found then the system must fall. Science therefore predicts the inevitable suicide of Capitalism.

It becomes self-evident that as a mathematical proposition equity must be established. Wages must exactly buy back product and product must equate wages or the time inevitably will come when production will be at a standstill and anarchy and revolution prevail throughout the world. For, suppose that each year there remains unsold only one tenth of the product; in ten years there is a whole years' production on hand; employers cannot afford to employ the workers, and they must either starve or revolt and sack the warehouses. There can be no such thing as real "over production" in houses, food or clothes, so long as any human being lacks shelter, bread or a coat; there is in reality an "underpayment" which prevents them buying the things they need.

V. The only remedy for this system of organized idiocy and murder is for the people, the Government to, under the right of eminent domain, assume the ownership of the tools and natural resources and produce and distribute to the people at cost. This is Co-operation. Or in other words it is a joint partnership of all men for the

THE COMMONWEALTH.

165

benefit of all. It is an immense corporation in which we are all stock-holders. And it is simply silly for us to permit the gigantic Trusts composed of half a dozen people to reap the enormous profits of modern civilization that should be made the common property of every man who is willing to work.

Scientists hope that the intelligence of the thoughtful part of the American people will receive such an impetus in the next few years, that the evolution from the Competitive to the Co-operative system will be wisely and peacefully accomplished; and pray that the ignorant rich and the ignorant poor may become too wise and unselfish to face each other with the enginery of war and death.

The world ought to have outgrown the shedding of blood. Worker and Thinker ought to be able to settle this matter in peace and love and without hands at each other's throats. They can do this if the American people will but wake up and assist in the work.

Brothers and Sisters, — humanity, morality and your Country call to you to Lend a Hand.

## Will it Destroy Individuality.

The opponents of Nationalism have only one argument to make against it: they say that a system of state control of industry would destroy individuality. While admitting that crime and poverty would be destroyed they yet say that these evils are preferable to a dead level of commonplace sameness which they claim Nationalism would produce. Without combating this horrible conclusion, we on our part affirm that the premise is not true. It is not Nationalism but Competition that destroys individuality! By individuality we mean originality; and if our opponents would only bethink themselves a moment they would see at once the absurdity of their position. Stated in scientific form it becomes almost a self-evident truth: Originality is only possible where there is the widest possible differentiation in organisms and where the conservative influence of heredity is most over-come; but where the environment kills off those who do not conform to the commonplace and customary conditions of life, originality is almost impossible. The more barriers that are removed the greater chance of the more varied organisms surviving; the more limitations obtain the sooner the race sinks into the form which comes from a common mold. Translated in plain English one could say: If poverty were abolished and all men assured bread and clothes and shelter for two hours' systematic work per day the free life of the body would be certain and men would then be free to turn their attention, each one, to mental and moral improvement; that is, originality would then be in the power of every man. Our opponents show their own conventionality in citing this argument; it is the one their ancestors have used for generations; it is aged; only the dominant influence of heredity could have impressed it upon the articulatory convolutionsof their brains; those who make this argument must (proved from the making of it) be utterly ignorant of the discoveries of modern physiologists; they can never have read and understood Kingdon Clifford's "Mental Conditions," Nor- dain's "Paradoxes," Ribot on the Will, Memory and Personality, Huxley's "Animal Automatism," or even Spencer's "Sociology." The argument is so absurd that it is exploded by its very statement.

As William Morris, the Poet, says, "You talk of originality under this system where men are so idiotic that they wear coats without fronts and vests without backs!" Yes, we do prate of it, and send lawyers to make our laws when it is their interest to have bad laws that they may live by the defects; and we set physicians to running our Boards of Health when their interest and living lies in prevalent sickness. And where would the occupation of the ministers be if all men were good in stead of wicked? We talk of originality indeed when we have chromos instead of paintings, machine-made furniture all of the same pattern, rows of houses built all from the same plans for cheapness, and cities as like each other as two peas.

Why the buttons the men wear on the cuffs of their coats—why were they put there! Original man do you know? Does your tailor who put them there, know? Decidedly not. Well, they have come down by heredity from Frederick the Great who put them on his soldiers' coats to prevent them wiping their noses on their sleeves. If grim Frederick were now alive and saw you all wearing his handkerchief reminder how much stock would he take in your individual originality do you think?

The truth is that under the present system man or woman is bound down in every department of life by the most rigid and senseless rules whose raison d'être has long since ceased.

Remove the FEAR OF WANT by Nationalizing Industry, and humanity will grow and expand in infinite variety and beauty, in refined, and true, and complex and variedly beautiful ways as yet undreamed of by poet or by seer.

["166", "THE COMMONWEALTH.", "## How It Will Be Done.", "The surface \"thinker\" replies to our arguments finally: \"This is a beautiful theory but it can never be done. Human nature is essentially wicked and your 'dream' never will work.\"", "The doctrine of the essential wickedness of human nature has been already annihilated—please remember that. We are already agreed that wickedness is the result of the environment (circumstances, conditions, temptations,) and that if you suit of the environment (circumstances, conditions, temptations,) and that if you result of the environment (circumstances, conditions, temptations,) and that if you change the environment and give no motive for crime, it must cease.", "It remains for us to reply to the proposition that it \"never can be done—that we can never do it.\" We are not trying to do it; NATURE is doing it for us; and she will do it whether we will or not. EVOLUTION will kill Competition and enforce Co-operation it whether we will or not. The only question is: Shall this change come in whether we stir a finger or not. The only question is: Shall this change come in whether we will or not. The

168

THE COMMONWEALTH.

A VISIT TO KAWEAH.

Personal Observations and Reminiscences of Burnette G. Haskell Con-
cerning Kaweha Colony.

I have just returned from another trip to the Colony and I feel sure that some of my observations may be of interest.

It is not a mere colony that we have now, it is an independent Empire, in territory and in resource, — and all the result of five years of grit, nerve and persistent work.

The proper birthday of the Colony is November 9. On that day in 1884 at my call, at No. 871 Market St., San Francisco was held the first meeting of the nucleus that afterwards became "Kaweha Colony." Sixty eight were present, but only the following of that assemblage stuck to the enterprise and are now with us: J. K. Phillips, Paul Deniau, John H. Redstone, E. W. Carpenter, August Redlich, Wm. C. Owen, James J. Martin, R. A. Gilbride, F. T. Morelle, Edward W. Haskell and Burnette G. Haskell. All of these except Mr. Deniau and Mr. Morelle have been continuously with us in the struggle.

My first visit to Tulare County was made on October, 5, 1885; the second on the 29th of December. My first visit to the colony grounds proper was on January 20, 1886; the first homestead claim was filed by me January 23. My next visit was on June 18, 1886 and the next on January 23, 1887, on my way to Denver. My next visit was made in September, 1888; my next on March 12, 1889; my last trip got me at Advance on Tuesday evening October 2.

The following is, I think, the first word ever printed concerning Kaweha Colony proper. It appeared in "Truth in Small Doses" July 14, 1886:

"NIRVANA!"

Rest is not quitting the busy career,
Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere.

—GOETHE.

[Special Correspondence.]

In the Canyon of the KAWEAH River, Sierra Nevada Mountains,
Tulare County, Cal. June 19, 1886.

Here I am in the garden spot of Earth and at rest for a day. At my feet the rolling, rushing river, eastward, towering above us apparently within musket shot, mountains crowned with eternal snow; around us the blessed valley with scattering vine and olive, fig and orange trees in bloom. If there be a heaven upon earth it is here. Magnificent vistas of mountain spangled with flowers; cloudless skies above, and below the mighty Kaweha with its rush and whirl of angry waters. An Indian name,—"Ka-we-ah" meaning, "Here we rest;" and one can well imagine the grunt of contentment with which the braves of a century ago, utter'd it as they reached its clear, cold waters, its sylvan shades, after their dusty desert marches inward from the sea.

I slept last night upon my homestead claim,—not in the cabin but on the bold bluff above the river,—wrapped in a blanket, with a camp-fire at my feet. The rush and roar of the North Fork sang me to sleep. In the morning, hot coffee at Halstead's cabin, with figs and peaches from the tree, a cup of cream and a fresh laid egg. But before this — a plunge and a swim in a crystal pool alive with great trout, whose speckled sides glinted in the sun.

I think our people in the city should get away once in a while, aye, if only for a day, from the rotteness of the City into some place like this. Looking around me now, I can understand why those who live in the mountains are never fully enslaved.

In this canyon of the North Fork there must be a couple of thousand acres of excellent land soil that will grow anything. There is a boundless supply of water for irrigation and power purposes. There are hundreds of living springs. The river is full of the finest fish, the hills contain deer, bear and other game, and constitute the finest possible stock range. There are and a soil that will grow almost anything. The climate is semi-tropical, the scenery weird and sublime. If only a small colony of us were here together we could raise all the necessities of life: stock, poultry, honey, fish, butter, eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruit. Clothing and tea, coffee manufacturing, transportation, telegraph, electric lighting and heating and all the conveniency hill I can fancy a theatre, a library, school and lecture room. Around it and stretching drive. * * * * *

THE COMMONWEALTH.

169

We to-day have got here some of our people here together, have counted up our resources, have found them sufficient to justify a beginning at once, and have decided to go ahead. As ready have and as fast as possible we will follow them. This colony will be not for gain but for a place of rest and refuge, a center of security and propaganda, out of which we advance in all directions. It shall be co-operative, consisting only of picked persons of plain, practical common sense, who believe in our doctrine and are willing to colonize, not for the purposes of profit out to build up homes, secure an independent subsistence, remove from themselves and families the fear of want and to educate and improve themselves morally, intellectually and physically. * *

All things that can be best worked co-operatively shall be so worked; but the individuality and freedom of the home shall not be infringed upon. Each co-operator shall ultimately contribute to the capital of the colony the sum of $500, to be paid in acceptable materials, land or cash, and to be paid as prescribed. * * *

When any colonist shall desire to leave the colony, it is understood that in no case shall he have any claim for compensation for his share more than its actual cost and his share shall be purchasable only by the colony, who will collectively value his personal improvements and pay him therefor their just price. * * *

For every hour's co-operative work currency checks will be issued, redeemable at the colony store for all products produced at cost price.

Until otherwise changed, the labor of each colonist shall be considered equivalent to the labor of any other for the same time.

I return to San Francisco soon and will talk the matter over in detail with all our friends.

I wish I could paint for you all to see the clear violet of these skies, with their tattered cloudflags of scarlet and gold, the deep greens of the grass and trees, the creamy foam of the rushing river, and that you could hear sounding in your ears, as it is in mine as I close this letter, the sweet song of the lark a treble to the deep war-drum of KA-WE-AH. * * *

Yours,

BURNETTE G. Haskell.

Not a pick had been struck upon the road then. Where I slept then was but 1,500 feet above the level of the sea. Now our road, the engineering marvel of the Coast is literally a mile higher up towards heaven. The Eiffel Tower is 1,000 feet high, the Cologne Cathedral, 510 feet; the Great Pyramid but 460 feet; but our road has an attained altitude now of nearly 7,000 feet. We are into the timber and Kaweha Colony is no longer, in a material point of view, an experiment.

If you would realize vaguely what this means without seeing this road, go out in the open air and look upward to that point in the air where some lofty cirrus cloud floats a mile above you, and figure a winding, solid road built of rock and boulder climbing upwards to it.

But let me try and detail the experiences of this last trip of mine to Kaweha. I was in the midst of a hurry and bustle in San Francisco almost unprecedented. My law business was pressing, the COMMONWEALTH was not yet out and the first large public meeting of the Nationalist Club had to be looked after. Yet Martin had the persistence to telegraph me twice on Tuesday that I must come. I got the last telegram at 5 p. m. and at 8 p. m. with my dear Mother and my only baby Astaroth, we started. They had been preparing to go for a week but my company was entirely unexpected.

We rode all night down the level valley until 6:30 a. m. of Wednesday, October 3rd.; then we got to Goshen and waited around an hour until the Visalia Branch railroad hunted up wood enough to fire up their engine and start on our nine miles further journey. We got into sickly Visalia at 8 a. m. and at 9:30 left for the Colony in company with Secretary J. J. Martin, and Mr. Allen, Government Special Land Agent, in a double-seated, top wagon with two colony horses.

It took us until 12.30 to cross the level valley to Pogue's at the first foothills. Here we had dinner and a genial talk with Mr. and Mrs. Pogue; then into the wag-on again and up the main canyon of the Kaweha.

This year has been the driest ever known and the main river was very low, in comparison. But when we turned off, after leaving Three Rivers, into the canyon of the North Fork it seemed still to be booming. We passed Arcady and my solitary cabin before it got dark but did not see the glimmering lights of "Advance" until after 8 o'clock. The baby had never been away from his Mother before and was continually asking "why,"—"what for?"

Our arrival was greeted with the friendly acclaim of all and we were proudly escorted to the new restaurant just opened. Misses Louise and Kate Redstone served us and the smiling and lovely face of Mrs. Treasurer Christie faced us when we came to pay for our meal, —at cost.

After supper we attended the meeting of the Advance "Nationalist Club" which has thirty-three members.

Soft and luxurious beds at ten o'clock and then a dreamless sleep.

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THE COMMONWEALTH.

Between Advance and Avalon on the flat down from "Progress" on the River are the "Falls of Rubezahl" really a pretty cataract and whose dull roar we could hear

as we drove by. At Progress there is a large area of excellent soil but covered with thick Chemise brush which will be cleared and planted this winter. The sketch annexed is of the falls, and among the party grouped around the crest of the rocks were Comrades F. R. Brann, Daisy Martin, Louise and Kate Redstone and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brann.

But let me continue on our journey:

Soon we saw bear-tracks on the road but never once during the whole trip, despite Taylor's "piercing eye" did we behold even a hair of Bruin himself.

We saw Speed's patch of water-melons lining the road; and had a taste; and then some delicious tomatoes that had a sweetness and flavor unknown to the market, the market-gardener or the city house-wife.

At noon we lunched at "Flag Staff" and Taylor packed the burros with the camping outfit. *Hi! Yah! Yip!* And we each bestrode a Bucephalus and were off to the end of the road where the mere trail begins. My steed was "Charley," a city bred

equine (bought from Comrade Gibson) which had never probably seen a mountain-trail before. But he turned out a jewel; even when trembling with fear he would obey orders; he was worth a hundred men I know of. Quick, sensitive, spirited, brave, sure-footed, anxious to lead, — he made the three days I passed in sad-dle almost a poem. I felt like a Captain of Cavalry in Custer's Seventh. I wish he were human that he could have understood my words of thanks when we parted,— perhaps he did; he certainly relished the glorious apple I stole from Halstead's bin or him.

After an hour's ride we struck the "Saddle" a narrow neck on the range over which the road passes into the Pine timber. Here I verily believe is the most marvelous view in the whole wide world. Here in the Spring we shall put up a hotel for guests and visitors. Imagine yourself standing upon a flat platform not more than a hundred feet wide (a sheer descent on one side of a thousand and on the other of two thousand feet) at the apparent apex of two mountain canyons cut deep down into the earth and spreading one to the north and the other to the south of west. A cloud floats below us in the East Branch gorge, and on the banks of the Main Canyon looking beyond the chasm of the Marble Fork with its fourteen falls we see the smoke of forest fires, happily not among our timber.

I pause in despair for words cannot paint the solemn beauty of this spectacle; why, one can see from here over the hills, across the valley, past the broad gleam of Lake Tulare, beyond the crest of the Coast Range and behold the white foam of the Pacific sea!

THE "FALLS OF RUBEZAHL."

THE COMMONWEALTH.

173

Then casting eyes downward one can mark the road, dug out of the mountain-side blasted through solid rock, torn through granite cliffs, cut through ledges of whitest marble, winding ever upward till it reached where we sat like Centaurs motionless and speechless in our saddles. ****

Time was flying and we had to tear ourselves away.

The present end of the road is a quarter of a mile into the timber and here the boys at work gave us a parting salute, four blasts of dynamite that roared and echoed through the hills like hundred-ton guns and sent the rocks shattered to the waters below. Then we left the beaten track and plunged into the brush.

If you think it was fun then I wish you had been along. As Jim Cheesewright sings "we broke our nose and tore our clothes" and everything else. Uphill and downhill, around and sometimes over fallen logs, mounting and dismounting, howling at the donkeys "Ya-yip-ya, hi-ya-ki-ak!" until finally at 6 o'clock we unsaddled and unpacked at the crossing of Marble Fork, tired and as hungry as twenty wolves. We asked Taylor how far we had gone. "'Bout a mile," he said.

When we got up in the morning refreshed and alert we asked him again, "How far now to the Redwoods?" "'Bout a mile," he told us again. We got there at twelve. Finally we understood our engineer; his mile does no vary as the square of the distance increases; it is independent of such vulgar considerations; Taylor's mile is always about a mile. When therefore in the future he tells us there is still about a mile of road to make let us not be disheartened. However many billions of feet that mile may contain Taylor will always get there in the end. We can at least be sure of that.

Our camp the night previous had been on the banks of the stream deep down in the gorge of Marble Fork. We now had to mount to the top of the plateau on the other side where the Redwood forest stretches for miles, in level, solemn grandeur. We started at 6:30 a. m. and got to Round Meadow at about 10:30. Then we walked over to Sunset Rock and came back to the meadow for lunch.

These meadows, which are scattered here and there through the Forest, are covered with velvet grass and every one has a stream flowing through or a little lake in its center. In former days they were evidently all lake surface. They vary in extent from five to a hundred acres and are exquisite in beauty.

We re-named "Round Meadow"—WALHALLA; that name alone suits it, and WALHALLA it shall be. Standing in its center, one sees on every side of its circular expanse, innumerable monster cedars fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, rising in stately elevation two hundred feet above.

It is actually as if one stood in the old Norse Halls of Heaven. A thousand towing columns with capitals of Gothic branch and bough hold up the turquoise bowl of space that serves to roof us in.

And now it clouds and darkens and distant thunder threatens once, but low and deep. And now strange, flying and dread cloud-shapes rush swiftly by; and the pil-lars of the temple sway and shake; and now from Northward a deeper and a darker shadowed FORM fills the vaulted sky, and then from out its gloom, the red lightning leaps, and there smites upon our ear the crash and roar and reverberation of the thunderbolt of Thor:

But a little space of time and the skies again were gold and sapphire.

At night around our camp-fire we talked of Old Rome and its men who loved the STATE. We had all lately read Froude's masterpiece on Caesar and we discussed his struggle to carry out the programme of the Gracchi, until finally nothing would do but to have a rendition of Antony's oration over his body. So we had it, and when at its end Taylor and Martin (as the Roman populace) piled up the logs and sent the camp-fire blazing upward in great sheets of flame, it did not need much more to make us fancy that time had rolled backward two thousand years and that we were indeed upon one of the seven hills of Rome with fire fetched and mischief all afoot.

We kept our camp-fire burning until long past midnight, and then with our feet towards it we went to sleep on soft, elastic couches of the pine, fragrant, balmy and a boon to weary bones. And while I slept I dreamed of the days that ARE to be when all of the true men, all of the "Old Guard," shall sit where we sat and tell over again to our children the tales of the glorious struggle for the full liberty of man, the glorious redemption of our great land; of how it was won from the reign of lust and selfishness and vice; of how the wage-slaves' chains were shattered and of how our flag floated the fit emblem of a STATE more grand than that of stern old Rome, more glorious than stately Carthage, more divinely beautiful than that one of the elder days that reared the Parthenon to entrance the world.

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THE COMMONWEALTH.

The next day in the morning we continued our survey of the forest. To the westward after the redwoods end and the mountains grow higher, a great stretch

of tamarack woods said to be very valuable for use as paper stock. Then the timber line ends and the range begins an abrupt ascent to a height of ten thousand feet. The accompanying sketch gives some faint idea of the character of this higher ground.

The formation is of solid glassy granite with living springs gushing out every little ways, but with no sign of vegetation.

Here at this altitude are the icy, blue and fathomless lakes fed from eternal snows which Comrade Christie visited some months ago and which may some day be utiliz- ed by us for additional water sup- ply if needed.

The lakes mark the crest of the first great Sierra Range; then there is a valley intervening down some four thousand feet, and then the great main range rises up. It is in this main range that Mt. Whitney towers aloft the highest peak of our whole Republic.

To this hidden valley between the ranges, there is no access to be had except through our forest and by our road. Here is a territory that Nature has kept for our heirs and that some time we shall use.

And it is said by our explorers to be a hidden Paradise.

We had no time to waste and so could not pass the borders of the forest. At seven in the morning we started for Advance reaching it in time for supper.

I have not space to describe in detail what we saw in the forest. I can only say that everything that has been written of it falls short of the truth, and that exaggeration of its grandeur, beauty and extent seems hardly possible. We estimated that there was 15,000,000 feet of sound fallen timber on the ground ready for the saw.

From one of these windfalls the Forest crew had cut timber enough to build four cabins and it looked as if it had only been hacked a little. Some of these prostrate giants contain 100,000 feet of lumber dry and well-seasoned.

Arrived at Advance the next day was devoted to Board business. At this meet- ing the road being so nearly completed it was decided to go ahead with the building of winter quarters for the mill-men, to lay the mill foundations, to build a stable at East Branch, to make a road from Point Lookout down to East Branch, to con- struct a 3,500 ft. flume and ditch along the Branch and then to set all available men at clearing and planting the grounds. It was decided, if possible, this winter to put in 500 acres of barley using 60,000 lbs. of seed which would cost over $1,000; 50 ac- res of vegetables; 100 acres of fruit trees and 200 acres of grapes,—all if the income

I have no space to speak of the plans of water storage and increase and the doz- ens of other things we did and saw.

I reached the city again refreshed and gladdened with my trip and triumphant and thankful at being able to say that the time has now arrived when we can claim Kaweah to be an assured success.

"TWO MILES HIGH."

THE COMMONWEALTH

175

TAKING SAN FRANCISCO BY STORM!

The San Francisco Nationalist Club and its Meetings at Union Square
Hall on Post Street.

The fourth public reception of the Nationalist Club of San Francisco was held at Union Square Hall, 421 Post St., on Monday evening October 7.

The previous meetings held at the parlors of the Palace Hotel had been attended by such a crush that it had become a necessity to find a larger hall; it was supposed that Union Square Hall would furnish ample room, but by a quarter past eight the main body was crowded with the elite of the city.

The hall was decorated with rare cut flowers and potted plants.

P. Ross Martin presided and the Misses Ada and Violet Wheeler and Mrs. Eugenia Clarke sang a trio which was received with continued applause.

Albert Currlin, journalist, made the opening address in which he showed that this was an age of science and that science alone could grapple with the question of Poverty; that Poverty could easily be extirpated and that through Nationalism it could be done.

Mr. T. V. Cator followed with the address of the evening; a most eloquent and scholarly argument and exposition, in which the whole question was clearly pre- sented.

He showed plainly how Corporations must develop into Trusts and how these fi- nally must fall into the hands of the Government to be run by the People at cost.

He made a clear explanation of the evils of the Competitive system and out- lined the benefits of the Co-operative idea.

He touched upon the legal side and showed how all things could be Nationalized gradually, legally and easily; and concluded with a stirring appeal, in the name of both real religion and science, for the Confraternity of Man.

Professor William Ross followed with a reading of Whittier's "Reformer" and scored a pronounced success.

Mrs. Haskell read a paper which was received with approbation.

Mr. F. D. Jackson and Master Bigelow then gave a dialogue, J. J. Martin's "Pub- lic Park Comedy," which dealt with the question of taxation in a novel and humor- ous way and evoked ample laughter and applause.

The meeting was concluded by a song by the Club Chorus.

The daily press reports of the meeting the next day were very commendatory.

The fifth public reception of this club was held on the evening of October 21. It had been raining for three days and at six o'clock p. m. was still pouring. The doors were opened at 7:15 and at half past despite the drenching downpour the people began to crowd in, until at 8 p. m. the hall was well filled.

The stage was decorated with cut flowers supplied by Mrs. Haskell.

Messrs. Hambly, Ringwalt, Dodd, Cheesewright and Larsen acted as ushers and Mesdames Jackson, Cator, and Ringwalt were also active as the ladies' reception committee.

The meeting was called to order at 8:15 and closed at 10:02 p. m. and was in every way a success.

Miss Mate Hildebrandt brilliantly rendered a selected piano solo, and Miss Ev- angeline Ballou sang most exquisitely in a rich contralto an effective vocal number.

J. W. Hines being absent having missed the train from San Jose, Secretary A. W. Dow very effectively took his place and in half an hour's earnest talk affirmed that upon its ethical side Nationalism was simply proposing to put true Christianity into practice.

Mrs. Addie L. Ballou followed in a twenty minutes' earnest appeal for homes and home influences and clearly showed that only through Nationalism could we ever hope to bring the American family circle to its highest point of perfection. She was listened to with the most earnest attention and greeted with repeated applause.

Harry Hambly entertained the assemblage next for ten minutes with his experi- ences. He had once been on the top of Bellamy's "Coach" and thought it excell- ent fun, but he fell off and was now pulling at the rope and it was not now so amus- ng. To have to work for four dollars a day would, he thought, teach people to think

176

THE COMMONWEALTH.

about these questions. They then might realize that thousands didn't even get that.

E. W. Carpenter gave a caustic recitation showing how sensible monkeys probably regarded men who could but did not abolish poverty. It was well rendered and well received.

Mrs. A. D. Ringwald followed in an excellent summary of the case given with good inflection, and excellent gesture but in rather too low a voice. Her concluding remarks are worth recording for the lessons they enforce:

> In speaking to a lady of Nationalism, a short time ago she replied, "Well, I don't know! Somehow I never had much faith in a practical movement of this kind in which women take a part. And being an incompetent teacher, I was struck dumb from want of argument. But I have rallied to this conclusion, that it is one of the primal laws of God that man and woman should go hand in hand, and without which, there can be no expression of harmony or wholeness. Therefore I conclude that no society or organization is worthy of existence in which women can take no interest."

Nationalism is the solving of a great and complicated problem:—The needs of Humanity. And every individual whether great or small, must consider himself as a factor to help to demonstrate its principles.

Burnette G. Haskell made twelve minutes' closing remarks urging those interested to join the Club.

The hall remained crowded (for nearly an hour afterwards) earnestly discussing the various ideas. Forty copies of "Looking Backward" were sold by John H. Redstone and thirty applications for membership received. Many of the audience took applications with them and during the week twenty of these were mailed. The net membership gain of the Club was thus a total of fifty.

The daily press reports of the meeting next day were fair but brief.

Monday evening November 4, the Hall was crowded to the doors and every seat occupied by eight o'clock. Many beautiful cut flowers presented and arranged by the ladies of the Club decorated the upper and lower stage. On the latter was arranged a magnificent collection of fifty rare potted Japanese chrysanthemums presented to Kaweah Colony by the Oakland Nationalist Club, the use of which for the evening had been given to this Club. Large American flags hung from the ceiling and draped the upper stage. The glow of color and the delicate shades of the flags and flowers made the *coup d'oeil* striking and artistic.

The Chairman, Mrs. Ballou, called the meeting to order to listen to a brilliant piano solo by Mrs. Eugenia Clarke which was followed by a melodious flute solo by Geo. H. Ames, Miss Hildebrandt accompanying on the piano.

Mr. T. Tucker of the Oakland Club in half an hour's talk explained in scientific language the relation of individualism to collectivism and showed conclusively that under Nationalism alone could the originality of man be definitely secured.

Mrs. Clarke and the Misses Wheeler followed in a sweet and touching vocal trio, after which the success of the evening, a paper upon "What is Nationalism" was read by Mrs. H. R. Houghton. The *Pacific Union* has published this in pamphlet form and it can be had at their office, 628 Clay Street.

It was succinct, able, logical and interesting and was delivered by the reader in a simple and eloquent way that captured the audience.

Mr. J. J. Martin's classic "The Brick Yard Drama" next followed and it convulsed the audience. Frank D. Jackson and Master Bigelow presented it and without a flaw.

Mr. Burnette G. Haskell concluded with a thirteen minutes' talk which was well received.

Sixty one members were taken in at the meeting and seventeen others received during the week by mail.

## A New Kaweah Nationalist Club.

AVALON, Oct. 20th 1889.

B. G. HASKELL, DEAR SIR:—A Nationalist Club was formed at this place Sept. 21st to be known as the Avalon Nationalist Club.

The following officers were elected: for President, H. T. Taylor; for Vice-President, Miss Carrie Swettenham; for Recording Secretary and Treasurer, A. B. Burdick. We would like the Constitution and By-laws of the Boston Club if you have one to spare, or one of some other club that is in full running order; also any other matter that will be of benefit to our small club of ten. We will try to make up in quality what we lack in number.

Respectfully Yours,

A. B. BURDICK, Secretary,