When one talks to people about socialism or communism, one 
very frequently finds that they entirely agree with one regarding 
the substance of the matter and declare communism to be a very 
fine thing; “but”, they then say, “it is impossible ever to put such 
things into practice in real life”. One encounters this objection so 
frequently that it seems to the writer both useful and necessary to 
reply to it with a few facts which are still very little known in 
Germany and which completely and utterly dispose of this objec- 
tion. For communism, social existence and activity based on 
community of goods, is not only possible but has actually already 
been realised in many communities in America and in one place in 
England, with the greatest success, as we shall see. 

Incidentally, if one goes into this objection somewhat more 
deeply, one finds that it is made up of two further objections; 
these are, firstly: no workers would be prepared to carry out the 
menial and unpleasant manual tasks; and secondly, with everyone 
having an equal claim to the communal possessions, people would 
quarrel about these possessions, and in this way the community 
would break up again. The first objection is overcome very simply, 
as follows: these tasks, being now within the community, are no 
longer menial; and furthermore they can be almost entirely 
dispensed with by improved facilities, machines and so forth. For 
instance, in a large hotel in New York, the boots are cleaned by 
steam, and in the communist colony at Harmony in England (see 
below) not merely are the water-closets, which are so conveniently 

fitted out in the English fashion, cleaned automatically, but they 
are also provided with pipes which take the waste directly to the 
great dung-pit.— Regarding the second objection, however, all 
communist colonies so far have become so enormously rich after 
ten or fifteen years that they have everything they can desire in 
greater abundance than they can consume, so that no grounds for 
dispute exist. 

The reader will discover that most of the colonies that will be 
described in this article had their origins in all kinds of religious 
sects most of which have quite absurd and irrational views on 
various issues; the author just wants to point out briefly that these 
views have nothing whatsoever to do with communism. It is in any 
case obviously a matter of indifference whether those who prove 
by their actions the practicability of communal living believe in one 
God, in twenty or in none at all; if they have an irrational religion, 
this is an obstacle in the way of communal living, and if communal 
living is successful in real life despite this, how much more feasible 
must it be with others who are free of such inanities. Of the more 
recent colonies, almost all are in any case quite free of religious 
nonsense, and nearly all the English Socialists are despite their 
great tolerance quite without religion, for which very reason they 
are particularly ill-spoken of and slandered in sanctimonious 
England. However, when it comes to providing proof, even their 
opponents have to admit that there is no foundation for all the 
evil things that are said of them. 

The first people to set up a society on the basis of community of 
goods in America, indeed in the whole world, were the so-called 
Shakers. These people are a distinct sect who have the strangest 
religious beliefs, do not marry and allow no intercourse between 
the sexes, and these are not their only peculiarities of this kind. 
But this does not concern us here. The sect of the Shakers 
originated some seventy years ago. Its founders were poor people 
who united in order to live together in brotherly love and 
community of goods and to worship their God in their own way. 
Although their religious views and particularly the prohibition on 
marriage deterred many, they nevertheless attracted support and 
now have ten large communities, each of which is between three and 
eight hundred members strong. Each of these communities is a 
fine, well laid-out town, with dwelling houses, factories, work- 
shops, assembly buildings and barns; they have flower and 
vegetable gardens, fruit trees, woods, vineyards, meadows and 
arable land in abundance; then, livestock of all kinds, horses and 
beef-cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, in excess of their needs, and 

of the very best breeds. Their granaries are always full of corn, 
their store-rooms full of clothing materials, so that an English 
traveller who visited them said he could not understand why these 
people still worked, when after all they possessed an abundance of 
everything; unless it was that they worked simply as a pastime, 
having nothing else to do. Amongst these people no one is obliged 
to work against his will, and no one seeks work in vain. They have 
no poor-houses and infirmaries, having not a single person poor 
and destitute, nor any abandoned widows and orphans; all their 
needs are met and they need fear no want. In their ten towns 
there is not a single gendarme or police officer, no judge, lawyer 
or soldier, no prison or penitentiary; and yet there is proper order 
in all their affairs. The laws of the land are not for them and as 
far as they are concerned could just as well be abolished and 
nobody would notice any difference for they are the most 
peaceable citizens and have never yielded a single criminal for the 
prisons. They enjoy, as we said, the most absolute community of 
goods and have no trade and no money among themselves. One 
of these towns, Pleasant Hill near Lexington in the State of 
Kentucky, was visited last year by an English traveller named 
Finch, who gives the following description of it. 

“Pleasant Hill consists of a great number of large, handsome hewn stone and 
brick houses, manufactories, workshops, farm buildings, all in the neatest order, 
some of the best in Kentucky; the Shaker farm-land was easily known by the fine 
stone wall fences by which it was enclosed, and by its superior cultivation; a great 
number of fat cows and sheep were grazing in the fields, and numerous fat swine 
were picking up fallen fruit in the orchards. The Shakers possess nearly four 
thousand acres of land here, of which about two-thirds is under cultivation. This 
colony was commenced by a single family about the year 1806; others joined 
afterwards and they gradually increased in numbers; some brought a little capital 
and others none at all. They had many difficulties to contend with, and suffered 
many privations at the first, being generally very poor persons; but by diligence, 
economy and temperance, they have overcome all and now have a great abundance 
of everything and owe nothing to any man. This Society consists at present of 
about three hundred individuals, out of which some fifty to sixty are children 
under sixteen years of age. They have no masters—no servants; far less do they 
have slaves; they are free, wealthy and happy. They have two schools, a Boys’ and a 
Girls’ School, in which are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar and the 
principles of their religion; they do not teach science to the children as they believe 
science is not necessary to salvation. As they tolerate no marriages, they would 
inevitably die out, if new members were not always joining them; but although the 
prohibition on marriage deters many thousands and many of their best members 
leave again for that reason, so many new members nevertheless still come that their 
number constantly increases. They rear livestock and variously cultivate the fields, 
and themselves produce flax, wool and silk, spinning and weaving them in their 
own manufactories. What they produce in excess of their needs they sell or 
exchange amongst their neighbours. They generally labour from sunrise to sunset. 

The board of trustees keeps all the books and accounts in a public office, and the 
books are open for all members to see, as often as they choose. They do not know 
themselves how wealthy they are, as they never take account of their stock; they are 
satisfied to know that all they have is their own, for they are in debt to no one. All 
they do is to make out a list of the debts their neighbours have with them once a 
year. 

“The Church is divided into five families (divisions) of from forty to eighty in 
each; each family has a separate domestic establishment and lives together in a 
large, handsome mansion; and all get every article required, and as much as they want 
from the common stores of the Society, and without any payment. A deacon is appointed 
to each family, whose business is to see that all are provided with every thing they 
want, and to anticipate their wants as far as possible. They all clothe in 
Quaker-fashion — plain, clean and neat; they have a great variety of articles of food 
and all of the very best description. If a new member seeks admission, he must, 
according to the laws of the Society, give up every thing he has to the community 
and is never allowed to claim it back, even if he leaves; nevertheless it is their 
practice to give back to each as much as he brought in. If a person leaves who has 
brought in no capital, he is not allowed by the Jaws to claim any thing for services 
either, as he has been fed and clothed at general expense whilst he was working; 
nevertheless it is their custom in this case too to make parting presents to every 
person if they leave in a kind and proper manner. 

“Their government is established in the manner of the first Christians. There is 
a male and a female minister in each Society, and each has an assistant. These four 
ministers are the highest power in the whole Society and decide all cases of 
contention. There are also two elders in each family of the Society, with two 
assistants and a deacon or administrator. The property of the Society is vested in 
the board of trustees, which consists of three persons, oversees the whole 
establishment, directs labour and carries on transactions with neighbours. They 
have no power to buy or sell any land without the consent of the Society. There are 
of course also foremen and managers in each department of labour; however they 
have made it a rule that no commands are ever given by any one, but all are to be 
persuaded by kindness.”* 

Another colony of Shakers, New Lebanon in the State of New 
York, was visited by a second English traveller, by the name of 
Pitkeithly, in the year 1842. Mr. Pitkeithly most thoroughly in- 
spected the whole town, which numbers some eight hundred 
inhabitants and owns between seven and eight thousand acres of 
land, he examined its workshops and factories, its tanneries, saw- 
mills and so on, and declares the whole arrangement to be perfect. 
He too is surprised at the wealth of these people who began with 
nothing and are now becoming richer with each passing year, and 
he says: 

“They are happy and gay among themselves; there is no quarrelling but on the 

contrary friendliness and love prevail throughout their habitation, in every part of 
which reigns an orderliness and regularity which have not their equal.” ’ 

So much regarding the Shakers. As we said, they enjoy complete 

community of goods and have ten such communities in the United 
States of North America. 

Apart from the Shakers, however, there are other settlements 
in America based on community of goods. In particular the 
Rappites are to be mentioned here. Rapp is a minister from 
Württemberg who in about 1790 dissociated himself and_ his 
congregation from the Lutheran Church and, being persecuted by 
the government, went to America in 1802. His followers went 
after him in 1804, and thus he settled in Pennsylvania with about 
one hundred families. Their combined fortune amounted to about 
25,000 dollars, and with this they bought land and tools. Their 
land was uncultivated virgin forest and cost them their total 
fortune; however they only paid for it in stages. They now joined 
together in community of goods [Guitergemeinschaft], and made the 
following agreement: 

1) Each member surrenders all his possessions to the communi- 
ty, without gaining any privileges from this. All are equal within the 
community. 

2) The laws and regulations of the society are equally binding 
on all. 

3) Each member works only for the benefit of the whole society 
and not each for himself alone. 

4) Whoever leaves the society has no claim to compensation for 
his work, but is given back everything he put in; and those who 
have put nothing in and depart in peace and friendship receive a 
parting gratuity. 

5) In exchange the community undertakes to provide each 
member and his family with the necessities of life and the 
necessary care in sickness and old age, and if the parents die or 
withdraw, leaving their children behind, the community will bring 
up these children. 

In the first years of their communal life, when they had to puta 
wilderness under the plough and also pay off some 7,000 dollars 
of the purchase price of the land each year, times were naturally 
hard for them. Several of the more wealthy were deterred by this, 
withdrew and took out their money, which much aggravated the 
colonists’ troubles. But most held out faithfully and in this way 
had paid off all their debts in 1810, within just five years. In 1815 
for various reasons they sold up their whole colony and once more 
bought twenty thousand acres of virgin forest in the State of 
Indiana. Here they built the fine town of New Harmony after a few 
years and put most of the land under the plough, established 
vineyards and corn-fields, built a wool- and cotton-mill, and 

became richer with each passing day. In 1825 they sold up their 
whole colony to Mr. Robert Owen for twice one hundred 
thousand dollars and set off for the third time into the virgin 
forest. This time they settled by the great river Ohio and built the 
town of Economy, which is larger and more handsome than any in 
which they had previously lived. In 1831 Count Leon came to 
America with a company of some thirty Germans to join them. 
They received these new arrivals gladly, but the Count stirred up 
some of the members against Rapp, and for this reason it was 
decided at a meeting of the whole community that Leon and his 
followers should leave. Those remaining behind paid those who 
were dissatisfied more than one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, 
and with this money Leon founded a second colony, which failed, 
however, on account of mismanagement; its members dispersed 
and Count Leon died shortly afterwards as a tramp in Texas. Rapp’s 
settlement, on the other hand, has flourished to the present day. 
The above-mentioned traveller Finch reports about its present 
circumstances: 

“The town of Economy consists of three long wide streets and five equally broad 
streets that cross these three at right angles; it has a church, a public hotel, a 
woollen factory, a cotton factory, and a silk-mill, a cocoonery for rearing silkworms, 
public stores for selling to strangers and for the supply of the members, a museum 
of natural curiosities, workshops for the various trades, agricultural buildings and 
large, handsome houses for the various families, with a large garden by each house. 
The farm-land belonging to it is about six miles in length and about one mile wide, 
contains large vineyards, an orchard of thirty-seven acres, and grain and pasture 
lands. The number of members is about four hundred and fifty, all well clothed, 
well fed and splendidly lodged, cheerful, contented, happy, and moral people who 
for many years have not known want. 

“For a time marriage was greatly discouraged among them too, but they now 
marry and have families and are very desirous of increasing the number of 
members if proper persons would present themselves. Their religion is the New 
Testament, but they have no special creed and do not interfere with the opinions of the 
members, so long as they let the others be and abstain from sowing dissension on 
matters of faith. They call themselves Harmonists. They have no paid priests; Mr. 
Rapp, who is above eighty years of age, acts both as priest and governor. They like 
to make music and occasionally have concerts and music-meetings in the evenings. 
They commenced their harvest the day before my arrival with a grand concert in 
the fields. In their schools they teach reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar; 
but, like the Shakers, they do not teach any of the sciences. They labour much 
longer than they need, from sunrise till sunset all the year; all labour and those 
who cannot work in the factories in winter find employment with threshing and 
feeding cattle, etc. They have 75 milking cows, large flocks of sheep, and great 
numbers of horses, hogs and poultry, and from what they have saved, they have 
lent large sums to businessmen and bankers; through bankruptcies they have lost a 
great deal that they lent, but they have still a great amount of useless money which is 
constantly increasing. 

“Their endeavour was always to make themselves every article they required so 

that they should need to buy from others as little as they could and eventually 
made more than they needed; later they acquired a flock of 100 merino sheep to 
improve the strain of their sheep, paying fifteen thousand dollars for them. They 
were among the first in establishing the woollen manufacture in America. Then 
they began to plant the vine, grow flax, erect a cotton factory and rear silkworms 
for manufacture. However in all things they first take care to abundantly supply 
their own wants before they sell anything. 

“They live in families of from twenty to forty individuals, each of which has a 
separate house and domestic establishment. The family gets its supplies as much as 
it requires from the common stores. They have an abundance for all and they get as 
much as they wish without charge. When they need clothing, they apply to the head 
tailor, the head seamstress or shoemaker and are furnished with it made to their 
taste. Flesh meat and the other foods are divided among the families according to 
the number of individuals in each, and they have everything in abundance and 
plenitude.” * 

Another settlement enjoying community of goods was established 
at Zoar in the State of Ohio. These people are also Separatists from 
Wurttemberg who detached themselves from the Lutheran Church at 
the same time as Rapp and, after being persecuted for ten years by it 
and by the government, likewise emigrated. They were very poor 
and were only able to reach their destination with the support of 
philanthropic Quakers in London and America. Led by their 
minister, Baumler, they arrived in Philadelphia in the autumn of 
1817 and bought from a Quaker the land which they still own today 
and which is seven thousand acres in area. The purchase price, 
which amounted to some six thousand dollars, was to be paid off 
gradually. When they arrived at the site and counted their money, 
they found that they had just six dollars per person. That was all; not 
a penny of the purchase price of the land had yet been paid, and out 
of these few dollars they had to buy seed-corn, farm-tools and 
provisions until the next harvest. They were confronted with a forest 
with a few log cabins, and this they had to put under the plough; but 
they set to work with a will, soon had their fields ready for ploughing 
and in the very next year built a corn-mill. Initially they divided their 
land into fairly small pieces, each of which was farmed by one family on 
its Own account and as its private property. But they soon saw that this 
would not do, because since each one was only working for himself, they 
could not clear the forest fast enough and put it under the plough, 
they could give each other no proper assistance at all, and in this way 
many got into debt and were in danger of becoming quite impoverished. 
After a year and a half therefore, in April 1819, they joined together in 
community of goods, worked out a constitution and unanimously chose 

their minister, Baumler, as Director. They then paid all the 
members’ debts, were allowed two years extension on the purchase 
price of the land and worked with redoubled enthusiasm and united 
efforts. With this new arrangement they did so well that they had 
paid off the whole purchase price of their land together with the 
interest four whole years before the appointed time, and how they 
are faring in other respects, the following description of two 
eyewitnesses will show: 

An American businessman who comes to Zoar very frequently 
portrays the place as a perfect model of cleanliness, order and 
beauty, with a splendid inn, a mansion for the aged Baumler to live 
in, a fine public garden of two acres, with a large greenhouse, and 
fine, well-built houses and gardens. He portrays the people as very 
happy and contented, industrious and respectable. His description 
was published in the Pittsburg (Ohio) newspaper (Pittsburg Daily 
Advocate and Advertiser, July 17th 1843).2 

Finch, whom we have mentioned several times, declares this 
settlement to be the most perfectly organised of all those living in 
community of goods in America. He gives a long list of their wealth, 
and says that they have a flax-spinning mill and a woollen-mill, a 
tannery, iron-foundries, two corn-mills, two sawmills, two threshing- 
machines and a host of workshops for every conceivable trade. He 
also says that their arable land is better farmed than anything else he 
had seen in America. The Pfennig Magazin estimates the Separatists’ 
property at between one hundred and seventy and one hundred and 
eighty thousand dollars, all of which has been earned in twenty-five 
years, since they began with nothing at all except six dollars a head. 
There are about two hundred of them. They too had prohibited 
marriages for a time, but like the Rappites they have gone back on 
that and now they do marry. 

Finch reproduces the Constitution of these Separatists, which 
consists principally in the following: 

All the Society’s officers are elected, in fact by all its members who 
are above twenty-one years of age, from amongst their own number. 
These officers comprise: 

1) Three managers, one of whom is re-elected each year, and who 
may be dismissed by the Society at any time. They administer all the 
property of the Society and provide the members with the necessities 
of life, dwelling, clothing and food, as well as circumstances permit 

and without favour for anyone. They appoint assistant managers for 
the different kinds of work, settle small disputes and may, jointly 
with the Council of the Society, promulgate new regulations, which, 
however, must never conflict with the Constitution. 

2) The Director, who remains in office as long as he enjoys the 
confidence of the Society and manages all business as chief officer. 
He has the right to buy and sell, and to conclude contracts, but in all 
matters of importance he can only act with the consent of the three 
managers. 

3) The Council of the Society, which consists of five members, one of 
whom resigns each year, and which enjoys the highest power in the 
Society, promulgates laws with the Managers and the Director, 
supervises the other officers and settles disputes when the parties are 
not satisfied with the Managers’ decision; and 

4) The Paymaster, who is elected for four years and who alone of 
all the members and officers has the right to have money in his 
keeping. 

Besides this, the Constitution decrees that an educational establish- 
ment shall be set up, that all members shall surrender all their 
possessions to the community for ever and can never demand them 
back, that new members may only be accepted after they have lived 
with the Society for a year and if all the members vote for them, and 
the Constitution can only be altered if two-thirds of the members are 
in favour. 

These descriptions could easily be much expanded, for almost all 
the travellers who go into the American interior visit one or other of 
the above-mentioned colonies, and almost all accounts of these journeys 
describe them. But not even a single one has been able to report any ill 
of these people, on the contrary, they all have only praise for them 
and the most they can find to criticise are the religious prejudices, 
especially of the Shakers, which, however, clearly have nothing to do 
with the ideal of community of goods. I could thus also quote the 
works of Miss Martineau, Messrs. Melish and Buckingham and many 
others; but as sufficient has been said above and these people anyway 
all tell the same tale, this is not necessary. 

The success enjoyed by the Shakers, Harmonists and Separatists, 
and also the general urge for a new order in human society and the 
efforts of the Socialists and Communists that this has given rise to, 
have caused many other people in America to undertake similar 
experiments in recent years. Thus Herr Ginal, a German minister in 
Philadelphia, has founded a society which has bought 37,000 acres of 
forest in the State of Philadelphia, built more than 80 houses there 
and already settled some five hundred people, mostly Germans, there. 

They have a large tannery and pottery, many workshops and 
storehouses, and they are really thriving. It goes without saying that 
they live in community of goods, as is the case with all the following 
examples. A Mr. Hizby, an ironmaster of Pittsburg (Ohio) has set up 
in his native town a similar society which last year bought some 4,000 
acres of land in the vicinity of the town and is planning to establish a 
settlement there based on community of goods.— In addition there 
is a similar settlement in the State of New York at Skaneateles which 
was founded by J. A. Collins, an English Socialist, in the spring of 
1843? with thirty members; then at Minden in the State of Massachu- 
setts, where about a hundred people have been settled since 1842; 
then two in Pike County in the State of Pennsylvania, which were also 
recently set up; then one at Brook Farm, Massachusetts, where fifty 
members and thirty pupils live on about two hundred acres and have 
set up an excellent schoo! under the leadership of the Unitarian” 
minister G. Ripley; and then one-at Northampton, in the same State, 
which has been in existence since 1842 and provides work for one 
hundred and twenty members on five hundred acres of land, in 
arable and livestock farming as well as in sawmills, silk-mills and 
dyeing, and finally a colony of emigrant English Socialists at Equality 
near Milwaukee in the State of Wisconsin, which was started last year 
by Thomas Hunt and is making rapid progress. Apart from these, 
several other communities are said to have been founded recently, 
but there is as yet no news of them.— This much is however certain: 
the Americans, and particularly the poor workers in the large towns 
of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, etc., have taken the matter to 
their hearts and founded a large number of societies for the 
establishment of such colonies, and all the time new communities are 
being set up. The Americans are tired of continuing as the slaves of 
the few rich men who feed on the labour of the people; and it is 
obvious that with the great energy and endurance of this nation, 
community of goods will soon be introduced over a significant part 
of their country. 

However, it is not just in America but in England too that 
attempts have been made to realise community of goods. Here the 
philanthropist Robert Owen has been preaching this ideal for thirty 
years, he has sunk the whole of his large fortune in it and given 
everything he had in order to found the present colony at 
Harmony in Hampshire. After he had founded a society with this 
aim, the latter bought up an estate of 1,200 acres and established a 

community there based on Owen’s suggestions. It now numbers 
over one hundred members, who all live together in a large 
building and have been mainly engaged so far in arable farming. 
As it was to be set up from the start as a perfect model for the 
new order of society, considerable capital was required for this, 
and up to now some two hundred thousand talers have already 
been put into it. Some of this money was borrowed and had to be 
paid back from time to time, with the result that many difficulties 
ensued from this, and for lack of money many of the installations 
could not be completed and made profitable. And as the members 
of the community were not the sole owners of the establishment, 
but were governed by the Directors of the Society of Socialists, to 
whom the establishment belongs, misunderstandings and dissatis- 
faction arose at intervals from this too. But despite all this, the 
matter is proceeding on its course, the members get on exceeding- 
ly well with each other, as every visitor testifies, help each other 
on, and for all the difficulties, the existence of the establishment is 
nevertheless now secured. The main thing is that all the difficul- 
ties arise not from within the community but from the fact that 
the community has not yet been fully realised. For if it were, the 
members would not have to use all their earnings to pay off 
interest and borrowed money but could use them to finish 
equipping the establishment and run it better; and then they 
would elect their managers themselves as well and not be always 
dependent on the Directors of the Society. 

The following description of the establishment itself is given by 
a practising economist who has travelled the length and breadth of 
England to acquaint himself with the state of agriculture and 
report on it to the London newspaper Morning Chronicle, signing 
as “One who has whistled at the Plough” * (Morning Chronicle, 
Dec. 13th, 1842). 

After passing through a very poorly cultivated district, where 
more weeds than corn were growing, in a nearby village he heard 
speak for the first time in his life of the Socialists at Harmony. A 
prosperous man there told him that they were farming a large 
estate, and doing it very well too, that all the lying rumours spread 
about them were untrue, that it would be very much to the credit 
of the parish if but half of its inhabitants would conduct 
themselves with as much propriety as these Socialists and that it 
would be equally desirable that the big landowners of the 

neighbourhood would give the poor as much and as beneficial 
employment as these people. They had their own views on 
property, but for all that they conducted themselves very well and 
set the whole neighbourhood a good example. He added: Their 
religious opinions vary: some go to this and others to that church, 
and they never speak about religion or politics with the people of 
the village. Two of them replied to my inquiries that there was no 
specific religious opinion among them and each man could believe 
what he wished. We were all very disturbed when we heard they 
were coming here; but now we find that they are very good 
neighbours, set our people a good example of morality, employ 
many of our poor, and as they never try to impose their opinions 
on us, we have no cause to be dissatisfied with them. They are all 
distinguished by respectable and well-bred behaviour, and no one 
here in the neighbourhood would dare criticise their moral 
conduct. 

Our reporter heard the same from others too, and then went to 
Harmony. After once more passing through poorly cultivated 
fields, he came across a very well farmed turnip field with an 
abundant, fine crop, and said to his friend, a local tenant-farmer: 
If those are socialist turnips, they promise well. Shortly after, he 
encountered seven hundred socialist sheep, which were likewise in 
splendid condition, and then came to the large, handsome and 
solid dwelling-house. However, everything was still unfinished, 
bricks and timber, half-completed walls and the ground undug. 
They entered, were received in a courteous and friendly manner, 
and shown round the building. On the ground-floor there was a 
large dining-hall and the kitchen, from which the full dishes were 
taken by a machine to the dining-hall and the empty ones back to 
the kitchen. Some children showed the strangers this machine, and 
they were noticeable for clean, neat clothing, healthy appearance 
and proper behaviour. The women in the kitchen likewise looked 
very tidy and decent, and the visitor was most surprised that amid 
all the unwashed dishes—the midday meal was just over —they 
could still look so smart and clean. The fittings in the kitchen itself 
were finer than words could describe, and the London master- 
builder who had made it declared that even in London very few 
kitchens were so perfectly and expensively fitted, a remark with 
which our visitor concurs. Next to the kitchen were convenient 
washhouses, baths, cellars, and separate rooms where each 
member could wash on returning from work. 

On the next floor was a large ball-room and above that the 
bedrooms, all very comfortably furnished. 

The garden, twenty-seven acres in extent, was in perfect 
condition, and in general there was great activity to be observed 
on every side. Bricks were being made, lime burnt, builders were 
at work and roads were being laid down; a hundred acres of 
wheat had already been sown, and still more land was to be put 
under wheat; a pond to take liquid manure was being dug, and 
from the copse situated on the estate, humus was being gathered 
for spreading as fertiliser; in short, everything was done to 
increase the fertility of the soil. 

Our visitor concludes: 

“I believe their land to be well worth £3” (twenty-one talers) “per acre of rent, 
and they only pay 15s.” (five talers). “They have an excellent bargain, if they 

manage it well; and whatever may be said of their social crotchets, it must be said 
of them that their style of farming is of a superior kind.” 

Let us add to this description something about the domestic 
arrangements of this community. The members live together in a 
large house, each with a separate bedroom, which is most 
comfortably furnished; the housekeeping is done for all of them 
together by some of the women, and this of course saves a great 
deal of expense, time and trouble, which would be wasted with a 
large number of small homes, and allows for many comforts which 
are quite impossible in small households. For example, the kitchen 
fire heats all the rooms in the building simultaneously with warm 
air, and there are pipes taking warm and cold water to each room, 
and other such agreeable and practical features which are only 
possible in a communal institution. The children are sent to the 
school which is connected with the establishment and educated 
there at communal expense. The parents can see them when they 
wish and the education is designed both for physical and intellec- 
tual development and for life in the community. The children are 
not tormented with religious and theological controversies, nor 
with Greek and Latin; instead they become the better acquainted 
with nature, their own bodies and their intellectual capacities, and 
in the fields they relax from the small amount of sitting that is 
expected of them; for the classes are held as often in the open air 
as in enclosed rooms, and work is part of their education. Their 
moral education is restricted to the application of the one 
principle: Do not do to others what you would not have them do 
to you, in other words, the practice of complete equality and 
brotherly love. 

As we said, the colony is under the management of the 
President and Directors of the Society of Socialists; these directors 
are chosen annually by the congress, to which each local Society 

sends a member, and they have full, unrestricted powers within 
the Statutes of the Society, and are responsible to the congress. 
The community is thus governed by people who live outside it, 
and in these circumstances there cannot fail to be misunderstand- 
ings and irritations; but even if the experiment at Harmony 
were to fail in consequence of this and of financial problems, 
which however is not in the slightest degree in prospect, this 
would only be one further argument for community of goods, as 
these two difficulties have their cause only in the fact that the 
community has not yet been fully realised. But despite all this 
the existence of the colony is assured, and even if it cannot pro- 
gress and reach completion very rapidly, at least the opponents 
of the community will not enjoy the triumph of seeing it 
collapse. 

We see then that community of goods is by no means an 
impossibility but that on the contrary all these experiments have 
been entirely successful. We also see that the people who are living 
communally live better with less work, have more leisure for the 
development of their minds, and that they are better, more moral 
people than their neighbours who have retained private property. 
And all this has already been acknowledged by the Americans, 
British, French and Belgians and by a large number of Germans. 
In every country there are a number of people who are busy 
spreading the ideal and have already taken up the communal 
cause. 

If this question is important for everyone, it is most particularly 
so for the poor workers who own nothing, who tomorrow 
consume the wage they earn today and may at any time become 
destitute through unforeseen and unavoidable contingencies. To 
them it offers the prospect of an independent, secure existence 
without anxiety, of complete equality of rights with those who 
can now through their wealth turn the worker into their slave. 
These workers are the ones to whom the question matters most. 
In other countries the workers form the core of the party 
which is demanding community of goods, and it is the duty of 
the German workers also to take the question seriously to their 
hearts. 

If the workers are united among themselves, hold together and 
pursue one purpose, they are infinitely stronger than the rich. And 
if, moreover, they have set their sights upon such a rational purpose, 
and one which desires the best for all mankind, as community of 
goods, it is self-evident that the better and more intelligent among 
the rich will declare themselves in agreement with the workers and 

support them. And there are already many prosperous and 
educated people in all parts of Germany who have openly 
declared for community of goods and defend the people’s claims 
to the good things of this earth which have been appropriated by 
the wealthy class. 

Frederick Engels