A Documentary History of
American Industrial
Society
Volume VII
ROBERT OWEN
Father of Industrial Communism in America
(From a portrait in the library of the Working Men^s Institute, New Harmony,
Indiana)
A Documentary History of
American Industrial <*
Society ,
Edited by John R. Commons
Ulrich B. Phillips, Eugene A. Gilmore
Helen L. Sumner, and John B. Andrews
Prepared under the auspices of the American Bureau of
Industrial Research, with the co-operation of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington
With preface by Richard T. Ely
and introduction by John B. Clark
Volume VII
Labor Movement
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO.
All rights reserved
AMERICAN BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH
DIRECTORS AND EDITORS
RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin
JOHN R. COMMONS, A.M., Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin
JOHN B. CLARK, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy,
Columbia University
V. EVERIT MACY, Chairman, New York City
ALBERT SHAW, PH.D., LL.D., Editor, American Review
of Reviews
ULRICH B. PHILLIPS, PH.D., Professor of History and Political
Science, Tulane University
EUGENE A. GILMORE, LL.B., Professor of Law,
University of Wisconsin
HELEN L. SUMNER, PH.D., United States Bureau of Labor
JOHN B. ANDREWS, PH.D., Secretary,
American Association for Labor Legislation
THE DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF AMERICAN
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY COMPRISES
VOL. I Plantation and Frontier, Volume 1,
by Ulrich B. Phillips
VOL. II Plantation and Frontier, Volume 2,
by Ulrich B. Phillips
VOL. Ill Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 1,
by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore
VOL. IV Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 2,
by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore
VOL. V Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 1,
by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner
VOL. VI Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 2,
by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner
VOL. VII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 1,
by John R. Commons
VOL. VIII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 2,
by John R. Commons
VOL. IX Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 1,
by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews
VOL. X Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 2,
by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews
LABOR MOVEMENT
1840-1860
Selected, Collated, and Edited by
JOHN R. COMMONS, A.M.
Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin
Volume I
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION to Volumes VII and VIII . . . 19
LABOR MOVEMENT DOCUMENTS, 1840-1860:
I ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
1 General View . . '. . . . . .47
(a) By an English Owenite
(b) By an Irish "Perpetual Traveller"
2 Immigration . . * . . . . 81
(a) The Voyage
(b) The Arrival
(c) Attitude of American Labor
(d) Views of a German Communist
(e) Effect on Class Feeling
3 The Northern Negro . . . . . 96
4 Extension of the Area of Competition . . . IOO
5 The Banking System and the Merchant-capitalist . .102
6 The Auction System ...... 105
7 The Printers, New York, 1850 . . . .109
8 The Factory System . . . . . .132
(a) A Visit by an Associationist
(b) Factory Rules
(c) Boarding-house Rules
(d) Boarding-house Keepers
(e) Obtaining Operatives
(f) A Labor View of Rhode Island Factories
II OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION
Introduction .... . .147
References . . . . . . I5 1
I Robert Owen . . . . . .152
(a) "A Rational State of Society"
(b) Religion and Marriage
(c) Immediate Measures
(d) To the Capitalists
(e) Owen's Letters to England '
I 4 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(1) Reform in the United States
(2) Owen's Mission
( 3 ) Fourierism
(4) Robert Dale Owen
(f) World's Convention
(1) Owen's Suggestion
(2) The Call
(3) Reforms to be accomplished
(4) Proceedings
2 Local Fourier Societies . . . . .185
(a) Fourier Association of New York
(b) Southport (Wisconsin) Fourier Club
3 Associationists' Convention . . . . .188
4 American Union of Associationists .... 203
5 Relation to other Reforms ..... 207
(a) Abolition
(1) The Phalanx on Slavery
(2) Horace Greeley to the Anti-slavery Convention
(3) Compensation to Slave Owners
(4) Anti-slavery Standard on Association
(5) Wendell Phillips on Labor
(6) Ripley's Criticism
( b ) Owenism - Communism
(1) An Owenite questions Brisbane
(2) Owen on Fourierism
(3) Kriege criticizes Association
(c) The Working Men's Movements
(1) The Strike for Wages
(2) "The Ten Hour System"
(3) The New England Working Men's Association and the "Brook
Farm Friends"
(4) Cooperation the Outcome
(d) The French Revolution of 1848
6 The Practice of Association ..... 240
(a) The Beginning
(b) Organizing a Phalanx
(c) Associations in western New York
(1) Meeting of the American Industrial Union
(2) The Clarkson Association
(d) Wisconsin Phalanx
(e) Trumbull Phalanx
(f) Columbian Phalanx
(g) Integral Phalanx
(h) Causes of Failure
seven] CONTENTS 15
III LAND REFORM
References ....... 287
1 Theory and Propaganda .....* 288
(a) George Henry Evans
(1) By an Associationist
(2) By a Disciple
(b) "To the People of the United States"
(c) "Vote Yourself a Farm"
(d) Organized Labor - Shoemakers
(e) Attitude of Germans
(f) The Pledge
(1) In 1844
(2) In 1848
(g) Proposed Bills
(1) For Congress
(2) For the States
(h) Memorial to Congress
(i) To the Congress of the United States
(z) A Voice from Congress
2 Relation to Other Reforms . . . . 325
(a) Association
(1) Evans's Attack
(2) Macdaniel's Reply
(3) Evans's Rejoinder
(4) Land, Labor, Capital, and Education
(5) Freedom and Organization
(6) Land Monopoly and Communities
(b) Owen's Communism
(1) Evans's Criticism
(2) Owen's Reply
(c) Cooperation
(d) Abolition
(i) William Lloyd Garrison
(z) Gerrit Smith
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT OWEN .... Frontispiece
From a portrait in the library of the Working Men's Institute, New
Harmony, Indiana
TITLE-PAGES OF ENGLISH PAPERS . . . . . 1 1 1
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE HENRY EVANS . . . .183
PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK W. EVANS . . . .183
By permission of Messrs. Charles H. Kerr and Company
PORTRAIT OF WILHELM WEITLING . . . .183
PORTRAIT OF ALVAN EARL Bo v AY . . .'" .183
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. CHANNING . . . 191
By permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company
GERMAN-AMERICAN LABOR PAPERS, 1846-1873 . 227
PORTRAIT OF ALBERT BRISBANE * . . . 243
By permission of the Arena Publishing Company
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES
VII AND VIII 1
There have been in American history three great
periods of philosophizing: the period prior to the pres-
idency of Thomas Jefferson, the decade of the forties,
and today.
The forties far outran the other periods in its un-
bounded loquacity. The columns of advertisements in
a newspaper might announce for Monday night a meet-
ing of the antislavery society; Tuesday night, the tem-
perance society; Wednesday night, the graham bread
society; Thursday night, a phrenological lecture; Fri-
day night, an address against capital punishment; Sat-
urday night, the "Association for Universal Reform."
Then there were all the missionary societies, the wom-
an's rights societies, the society for the diffusion of
bloomers, the seances of spiritualists, the "association-
ists," the land reformers -a medley of movements that
found the week too short. A dozen colonies of idealists,
like the Brook Farm philosophers, went off by them-
selves to solve the problem of social existence in a big
family called a phalanx. The Mormons gathered them-
selves together to reconstitute the ten lost tribes. Robert
Owen called a "world's convention" on short notice,
where a dozen different "plans" of social reorganiza-
tion-individualistic, communistic, incomprehensible -
1 1 am indebted to the editors of the Political Science Quarterly for per-
mission to use in this place my article on " Horace Greeley and the Working
Class Origins of the Republican Party," vol. xxiv, no. 3. In selecting and
editing the documents, I have been assisted by Mr. Wm. M. Leiserson.
20 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
were submitted in all solemnity. It was the golden age
of the talk-fest, the lyceum, the brotherhood of man-
the "hot air" period of American history.
Fifty years before had been an age of talk. Thomas
Jefferson and Thomas Paine had filled the young na-
tion's brain with the inalienable rights of "life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness." This second era -the
forties -had also its prophet. Horace Greeley was to
the social revolution of the forties what Thomas Jeffer-
son was to the political revolution of 1800. He was the
Tribune of the People, the spokesman of their discon-
tent, the champion of their nostrums. He drew the
line only at spirit rappings and free love.
This national palaver was partially checked by the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The spectacle of slave-
drivers, slave rescues, and federal marshals at men's
doors turned discussion into amazement. The palaver
stopped short in 1854 w i tn tne Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
That law marked off those territorities for a free fight
for land between slave-owners and small farmers. On
this land issue the Republican Party suddenly appeared.
Its members came together by a magic attraction, as
crystals appear in a chilled solution. Not one man nor
one set of men formed the party, though there are many
claimants for the honor of first suggesting the name or
calling the first meeting that used the name. It was the
fifteen years of revolutionary talk that made the party
possible. Men's minds had been unsettled. Visions of
a new moral world had come down upon them. Tradi-
tion had lost its hold and transition its terrors.
We hear much nowadays of the "economic interpre-
tation of history." Human life is viewed as a struggle
to get a living and to get rich. The selfishness of men
hustling for food, clothing, shelter, and wealth deter-
seven] INTRODUCTION 21
mines their religion, their politics, their form of gov-
ernment, their family life, their ideals. Thus economic
evolution produces religious, political, domestic, phil-
osophical evolution. All this we may partly concede.
But certainly there is something more in history than
a blind surge. Men act together because they see to-
gether and believe together. An inspiring idea, as
well as the next meal, makes history. It is when such
an idea coincides with a stage in economic evolution,
and the two corroborate each other, that the mass of
men begins to move. The crystals then begin to form;
evolution quickens into revolution ; history reaches one
of its crises.
For ideas, like methods of getting a living, have their
evolution. The struggle for existence, the elimination
of the unfit, the survival of the fit, control these airy
exhalations from the mind of man as they control the
more substantial framework of his existence. The great
man is the man in whose brain the struggling ideas of
the age fight for supremacy until the survivors come
out adapted to the economic struggle of the time.
Judged by this test, Horace Greeley was the prophet
of our most momentous period. The evolution of his
ideas is the idealistic interpretation of our history.
Greeley's life was itself a struggle through all the
economic oppressions of his time. In his boyhood his
father had been reduced by the panic of 1819 from the
position of small farmer to that of day laborer. The
son became an apprentice in a printing office, then a
tramp printer; and when he drifted into New York
in 1831, he found himself in the midst of the first work-
ing men's political party, with its first conscious struggle
in America for the rights of labor. Pushing upward
as publisher and editor, the panic of 1837 brought him
22 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
down near to bankruptcy, but the poverty of the wage-
earners about him oppressed him more than his own.
"We do not want alms," he heard them say; "we are
not beggars; we hate to sit here day by day idle and
useless; help us to work -we want no other help; why
is it that we can have nothing to do?" 2 Revolting
against this social anarchy, as he called it, he espoused
socialism and preached protectionism. This was the
beginning of his "isms." Not that he had been immune
before to cranky notions. When only a boy of thirteen
he broke away from the unanimous custom of all classes,
ages, and both sexes by resolving never again to drink
whisky. When "Doctor" Graham proclaimed vege-
tarianism in 1831, he forthwith became an inmate of
a Graham boarding-house. But these were personal
"isms." They bothered nobody else. Not until the long
years of industrial suffering that began in 1837 did his
"isms" become gospels and his panaceas propaganda.
His total abstinence of 1824 became prohibitory legis-
lation in 1850. His vegetarianism of the thirties be-
came abolition of capital punishment in the forties.
The crank became the reformer, when once the misery
and helplessness of the workers cried aloud to him.
Greeley's "isms" are usually looked upon as the ami-
able weaknesses of genius. They were really the neces-
sary inquiries and experiments in the beginnings of con-
structive democracy. Political democracy theretofore
had been negative. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jack-
son needed no creative genius to assert equal rights.
They needed only to break down special privilege by
widening the rights that already existed. Jefferson
could frame a bill of rights -he could not construct
a constitution. Jackson could kill a "monster" bank-
Greeley, H. Recollections of a Busy Life (New York, 1868), 145.
seven] INTRODUCTION 23
he could not invent a people's control of the currency.
Negative democracy of Jefferson and Jackson had tri-
umphed. It had done its needful work, but its day was
ended when a thousand wild-cat banks scrambled into
the bed of the departed monster. Political democracy
went bankrupt when the industrial bankruptcy of 1837
exposed its incapacity. It had vindicated equal rights,
but where was the bread and butter? The call of the
time was for a new democracy -one that should be
social and economic rather than political; constructive
rather than negative; whose motto should be reform,
not repeal ; take hold, not laissez faire.
But there were no examples or precedents for such a
democracy. The inventor of a sewing-machine or the
discoverer of .a useful chemical compound endures hun-
dreds of failures before his idea works. But his failures
are suffered at home. The world does not see them.
Only his success is patented. But the social inventor
must publish his ideas before he knows whether they
will work. He must bring others to his way of think-
ing before he can even start his experiment. The world
is taken into his secret while he is feeling his way. They
see his ideas in the "ism" stage. To the negative dem-
ocrat this brings no discredit; he has no device to offer.
To the constructive democrat it brings the stigma of
f addism. The conservatives see in him not only the rad-
ical, but also the crank with a machine that might pos-
sibly work.
Greeley's Tribune, prior to 1854, was the first and
only great vehicle this country has known for the ideas
and experiments of constructive democracy. The fact
that the circulation of the newspaper doubled and re-
doubled beyond anything then known in journalism,
and in the face of virulence heaped on ridicule, proves
24 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
that the nation, too, was feeling its way toward this new
democracy.
Naturally enough, Greeley was a puzzle both to the
radicals and to the standpats of his day. The forking
Man's Advocate* said of him:
If ever there was a nondescript, ft is Horace Greeley. One night
you may hear him make a patriotic speech at a Repeal 4 meeting.
The next day, he will uphold a labor-swindling, paper-money sys-
tem. . . We should be sorry to be driven to the conclusion that
such a man could be actuated only by paltry partyism.
The Abolitionists were incensed when he wrote to the
Antislavery Convention at Cincinnati that white slav-
ery in the North claimed his first efforts. The Whigs
and protectionists used him, but dreaded him. The
New York Express charged him with
Attempting incessantly ... to excite the prejudices of the
poor against the rich, and in the general, to array one class of society
against the other. . . We charge the Tribune . . . with
representing constantly that there is a large 'amount of suffering
arising from want of employment, and that this employment the rich
might give. We charge the Tribune with over-rating entirely the suf-
fering of the poor ... all of which tallies with, and is a por-
tion of the very material, which our opponents use to prejudice the
poor against the Whigs as a party. 5
Two years after this attack by the Express, the Cour-
ier read him out of the party:
There can be no peace in the Whig ranks while the New York
Tribune is continued to be called Whig. . . The principles of
the Whig party are well defined ; they are conservative, and inculcate
a regard for the laws and support of all the established institu-
tions of the country. They eschew radicalism in every form; they
sustain the constitution and the laws; they foster a spirit of patriot-
ism. . . The better way for the Tribune would be at once to
admit that it is only Whig on the subject of the Tariff ... and
3 Working Man's Advocate, June 29, 1844, P- 3, col. 4.
4 Repeal of the Act uniting Ireland with England.- ED.
5 Quoted in New York Tribune, Aug. 5, 1845, p. 2, col. 2.
seven] INTRODUCTION 25
then devote itself to the advocacy of Anti-rent, Abolition, Fourierite
and Vote-yourself-a-farm doctrines. 8
These quotations give us the ground of Greeley's
"isms" -the elevation of labor by protecting and re-
organizing industry. Even the protective tariff, fav-
ored by the Whigs, was something different in his
hands. The tariff arguments of his boyhood had been
capitalistic arguments. Protect capital, their spokes-
men said, because wages are too high in this country.
Eventually wages will come toward the European level
and we shall not need protection. Greeley reversed the
plea: protect the wage-earner, he said, in order that he
may rise above his present condition of wages slavery.
The only way to protect him against the foreign pau-
per is to protect the price of his product. But, since cap-
ital owns and sells his product, we needs must first pro-
tect capital. This is unfortunate, and we must help the
laborer as soon as possible to own and sell his product
himself. "We know right well," he says, 7 "that a pro-
tective tariff cannot redress all wrongs. . . The
extent of its power to benefit the Laborer is limited by
the force and pressure of domestic competition, for
which Political Economy has as yet devised no reme-
dy. . . "
Here was a field for his socialism. It would do for
domestic competition what protection would do for
foreign competition. Protectionism and socialism were
the two wheels of Greeley's bicycle. He had not learned
to ride on one.
But the socialism which Greeley espoused would not
be recognized today. It is now condescendingly spelled
"utopism." He felt that the employers were victims
6 New York Courier and Enquirer, Aug. 14, 1847; quoted in Weekly
Tribune, Aug. 21, 1847, p. 3, col. 5.
7 Tribune, March 27, 1845, p. 2, col. 2.
26 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of domestic competition just as were the laborers, and
he assumed that they would be just as glad as the labor-
ers to take something else. What he offered to both was
a socialism of class harmony, not one of class struggle.
In the idealistic interpretation of history there are
two kinds of idealism -a higher and a lower. Greeley's
significance is the struggle of the two in his mind, the
elimination of the unfit from each, and the survival and
coalescence of the fit in the Republican Party. The
higher idealism came to him through the transcendental
philosophers of his time. The lower came from the
working classes. The higher idealism was humanita-
rian, harmonizing, persuasive. The lower was class-
conscious, aggressive, coercive. The higher was a plea
for justice; the lower a demand for rights. In 1840,
Greeley was a higher idealist. In 1847, he had shaved
down the higher and dovetailed in the lower. In 1854,
the Republican Party built both into a platform.
Let us see the origins of these two levels of idealism
before they came to Greeley.
Boston we are told, is not a place -it is a state of
mind. But every place has its state of mind. The Amer-
ican pioneer, in his frontier cabin, in the rare moments
which his battle with gigantic Nature leaves free for
reflection, contemplates himself as a trifle in a succes-
sion of accidents. To him comes the revivalist, with
his faith in a God of power and justice, and the pioneer
enters upon a state of mind that constructs order out
of accident and unites him with the almighty Ruler of
Nature. This was the state of mind of Boston when
Boston was Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony.
But Massachusetts grew in wealth. Wealth is merely
Nature subdued to man. Capital is the forces of Na-
ture taking orders from property-owners. God is no
longer appreciated as an ally for helpless man. The
seven] INTRODUCTION 27
revivalist becomes the priest and the protector of cap-
ital.
Now a new contest begins. Capital requires labor
to utilize it. Labor depends on capital for a living.
The contest is not between man and Nature, but between
man and the owner of capitalized Nature. Boston
saw the first outbreaks of the struggle in 1825 and 1832.
In the former year the house-carpenters, in the latter
year the ship-carpenters, determined that no longer
would they work from sunrise to sunset. They con-
spired together and quit in a body. In the former year
the capitalists, with Harrison Gray Otis at their head,
in the latter year the merchant princes whose ships
traversed the globe, took counsel together and published
in the papers their ultimatum requiring their workmen
to continue as before from dawn to dark. 8 Losing their
contention, the workmen again in 1835 began a gen-
eral strike for the ten-hour day throughout the Boston
district, only again to lose. Meanwhile the factory sys-
tem had grown up at Lowell and other places, with its
women and children on duty thirteen and fourteen hours
a day, living in company houses, eating at the company
table, and required to attend the company church. While
some of the ten-hour strikes of 1835 had been successful
in Philadelphia and in New York, the working people
of New England were doomed for the most part to
the long day for another fifteen years.
It was in the midst of this economic struggle that
unitarianism and transcendentalism took hold of the
clergy. These movements were a revolt against the
predicament in which the God of Nature had unwit-
tingly been made the God of Capital. They were a se-
cession back to the God of Man. At first the ideas
were transcendental, metaphysical, allegorical, harm-
8 See vol. v, chap. vii.
28 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
less. This was while the working men were aggressive
and defiant in their demands and strikes. But, after
1837 and during the seven years of industrial depres-
sion and helplessness of the working men following
that year of panic, transcendentalism became pragmatic.
Its younger spokesmen allied themselves with labor.
They tried to get the same experience as manual work-
ers, and to think and feel like them. Brook Farm was
the zealous expression in 1842 of this struggle for real-
ity and for actual unity; and after 1843 the Brook
Farm representatives began to show up at the newly-
organized New England and New York conventions
of working men, calling themselves also by the lofty
name of "working men" delegates.
But this was not enough. Reality demanded more
than unity of sentiment. It demanded reconstruction
of society on the principle of unity. At this juncture,
1840, Albert Brisbane came forward with his ameri-
canization of Charles Fourier's scheme of social re-
organization. Here was a definite plan, patterned on
what seemed to be a scientific study of society and of
psychology. Brook Farm welcomed it and tried it.
Greeley clothed himself with it as gladly as Pilgrim
put on the armor after the slough of despond. He
opened the columns of the Tribune to Brisbane. He
became a director of the North American Phalanx,
president of the American Union of Associationists, ed-
itorial propagandist and platform expounder. Total
reorganization of society based on harmony of inter-
est; brotherhood of capital, labor, and ability; substi-
tute for competition which enslaved labor in spite of
the natural sympathy of the capitalist for his oppressed
workmen; faith in the goodness of human nature if
scientifically directed -these were the exalted ideas and
naive assumptions that elicited the devotion of Greeley
seven] INTRODUCTION 29
and his fellow-disciples of the gospel of transcendental-
ism.
Two things disabused his mind. One was the actual
failure and bankruptcy of his beloved phalanxes; the
other was the logic and agitation of the working men.
The higher idealism dissolved like a pillar of cloud,
but it had led the way to the solid ground of the lower
idealism. What were the origins of this lower idealism?
Three years ago, in England at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
in the company of a working man official of a trade un-
ion, I visited the thousand acres of moorland belonging
to the medieval city and now kept open as a great play-
ground within the modern city. My trade-union offi-
cial showed me the thousands of working men and their
families enjoying themselves in the open air. I asked
him about the fifty or a hundred cows that I saw calmly
eating grass in the midst of this public park. He ex-
plained that these cattle belonged to the descendants
of the ancient freemen of Newcastle, who, in return
for defending the town against the Scots, had been
granted rights of pasturage outside the town. He said
there had recently been a great struggle in Newcastle,
when these freemen wanted to enclose the moor, to
lease it for cultivation, and to divide the rents among
themselves. The working men of the city rose up as
one man and stopped this undertaking. But they could
not get rid of the cows.
One hundred and thirty years before this time, in the
year 1775, Newcastle had seen a similar struggle. At
that time the freemen were successful ; they succeeded
in having the rentals from a part of the moor, which
had been enclosed and leased, paid over in equal parts
to each of them. Thomas Spence, netmaker, thereupon
conceived an idea. He read a paper before the Phil-
osophical Society of Newcastle, proposing that all the
30 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
land of England should be leased and the proceeds di-
vided equally among ,all the people of England. He
was promptly expelled from the Philosophical Soci-
ety. He went to London and published his scheme in
a book. 9 In 1829, me book came to New York and fur-
nished the platform for the first working men's politi-
cal party. This party americanized Spence by amend-
ing the Declaration of Independence. They made it
read: "All men are equal, and have an inalienable
right to life, liberty and property."
George Henry Evans, also Englishman by birth but
American by childhood and by apprenticeship in a
printing-office at Ithaca, started a paper, the Working
Man's Advocate, in 1829, and became the thinker of the
working men's party. But before he began to think he
adopted the motto of the party as the motto of his pa-
per: "All children are entitled to equal education; all
adults to equal property; and all mankind to equal priv-
ileges." He soon saw his mistake, as did most of the
other working men. Every individual has a right to
an unlimited amount of that kind of property which
he produces by his own labor and without aid from the
coerced labor of others. Such an unlimited right is in-
consistent with equality, and therefore equal right to
property can be asserted only as regards that which is
not the product of his own or another's labor, namely,
land. But the holders of the existing private property
in land could not be displaced without a violent revolu-
tion. This Evans saw from the violent attacks made on
him and the working men's party. But there was an
immense area still belonging to the people and not yet
divided. This was the public domain. There man's
equal right to land could be asserted. He sent marked
copies of his paper to Andrew Jackson in 1832, before
9 Davidson, J. M. Four Precursors of Henry George (London, 1899), 26.
seven] INTRODUCTION 31
Jackson's message on the sale of the public lands. The
working men's party disappeared and was followed by
the trades' unions of 1835 and 1836. The sudden rise of
prices and the increased cost of living compelled labor
to organize and strike throughout the eastern cities,
from Washington to Boston. These strikes were for the
most part successful; but the workmen saw prices and
rents go up and swallow more than the gains achieved
by striking. Evans pointed out the reason why their
efforts were futile. The working men were bottled up
in the cities. Land speculation kept them from taking
up vacant land near by or in the west. If they could
only get away and take up land, then they would not
need to strike. Labor would become scarce. Employ-
ers would advance wages and landlords would reduce
rents. Not for the sake of those who moved west did
Evans advocate freedom of the public lands, but for
the sake of those who remained east. This was the idea
that he added to the idea of Andrew Jackson and An-
drew Johnson. Theirs was the squatter's idea of the
public domain -territory to be occupied and defended
with a gun, because the occupant was on the ground.
His was the idealistic view of the public domain -the
natural right of all men to land, just as to sunlight, air,
and water. The working men of the east were slaves
because their right to land was denied. They were
slaves, not to individual masters like the negroes, but to
a master class which owned their means of livelihood.
Freedom of the public lands would be freedom for the
white slave. Even the chattel slave would not be free
if slavery were abolished without providing first that
each f reedman should have land of his own. Freedom
of the public lands should be established before slavery
is abolished.
These views were not original with Evans. They
32 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
were the common property of his fellows, born of their
common experience, formulated in their mutual inter-
course and expressed in the platforms of their party
and the resolutions of their trades' unions. Thus at
the first convention of the National Trades' Union, in
1834, one of the resolutions recited, as clearly as Evans
did later, the connection between surplus labor and
land speculation. But it was Evans, mainly, who gath-
ered these ideas together and framed them into a sys-
tem. He and his disciple, Lewis Masquerier, worked
out the three cardinal points of a natural right: equal-
ity, inalienability, individuality. Men have equal
rights to land because each man is a unit. This right is
inalienable; a man can not sell nor mortgage his natural
right to land, nor have it taken away from him for debt,
any more than he can sell himself or be imprisoned for
debt. This right belongs to the individual as such, not
to corporations or associations. Here was his criticism
of communism and Fourierism. Establish the individ-
ual right to the soil, and then men will be free to go
into, or stay out of, communities as they please. "Asso-
ciation" will then be voluntary, not coercive, as Fourier-
ism would make it. Thus did the communistic agra-
rianism of Thomas Spence and of the Working Men's
Party of 1829 filter down into the individualistic ideal-
ism of American labor reform in 1844.
When the labor movement broke down with the panic
of 1837, Evans retired to a farm in New Jersey, but
kept his printing-press. When the labor movement
started up again in 1844, ne returned to New York and
again started his paper, the Working Man's Advocate,
later changing the name to Young America. He and
his friends organized a party known as National Re-
formers, and asked the candidates of all other parties
to sign a pledge to vote for a homestead law. If no
seven] INTRODUCTION
33
candidate signed, they placed their own tickets in the
field. They printed pamphlets, one of which, Vote
Yourself a Farm, was circulated by the hundred thous-
and. In 1845, they united with the New England
Working Men's Association to call a national conven-
tion, which, under the name of the Industrial Congress,
held sessions from 1845 to 1856. The main plank in
the platform of the New England Working Men's As-
sociation had been a demand for a ten-hour law; and
the two planks, land reform and ten hours for labor,
were the platform of the Industrial Congress. Through
the New England Association the Brook Farmers and
other Fourierists came into the land-reform movement.
It was in the latter part of 1845 that Greeley began
to notice the homestead agitation. For the Tribune he
wrote an editorial beginning with his recollections of
the working men's party which he had found fourteen
years before when he came to New York. Now, he
said, there had come into existence "a new party styled
'National Reformers' composed of like materials and
in good part of the same men with the old Working
Men's Party." He then describes their scheme of a
homestead law and adds his qualified approval.
Evans, in his Young America, commented on this ed-
itorial, and especially on Greeley's assertion that the
reason why the working men's measures had not sooner
attracted attention was that they had been put forth
under what he called "unpopular auspices." Evans
said:
All reforms are presented under "unpopular auspices," because
they are presented by a minority who have wisdom to see and cour-
age to avow the right in the face of unpopularity; and all reforms
are pushed ahead by popularity-hunters as soon as the pioneers have
cleared the way. I do not mean to class the editor of the Tribune
amongst the popularity-hunters, but simply to express a truth called
forth by his rather equivocal designation of that enlightened and
34 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
patriotic body of men who, if the history of this State and Union
be ever truly written, will be prominent in it as the "Working Men's
Party." 10
Five months later Greeley definitely committed him-
self to the working men's platform, and to the reasoning
with which they supported it.
The freedom of the Public Lands to actual settlers, and the limita-
tion of future acquisitions of land to some reasonable amount, are
also measures which seem to us vitally necessary to the ultimate eman-
cipation of labor from thraldom and misery. What is mainly wanted
is that each man should have an assured chance to earn, and then an
assurance of the just fruits of his labors. We must achieve these
results yet; we can do it. Every new labor-saving invention is a
new argument, an added necessity for it. And, so long as the labor-
ing class must live by working for others, while others are striving
to live luxuriously and amass wealth out of the fruits of such labor,
so long the abuses and sufferings now complained of must continue
to exist or frequently reappear. We must go to the root of the evil. 11
From the date when Greeley took up the measure it
advanced throughout the northern states by rapid
bounds. He used precisely the language and arguments
of the Working Mans Advocate.
The National Reformers and the Industrial Congress
had worked out logically three kinds of legislation cor-
responding to Evans's three cardinal points of man's
natural right to the soil. These were land limitation,
based on equality; homestead exemption, based on in-
alienability; freedom of the public lands, based on in-
dividuality.
In order that the rights of all might be equal, the
right of each must be limited. For the older states it
was proposed that land limitation should take effect
only on the death of the owner. Land was not to be in-
herited in larger quantities than one hundred and sixty
10 Young America (New York), Nov. 29, 1845.
11 Weekly Tribune, May 2, 1846, p. 3, col. 3.
seven! INTRODUCTION
35
or three hundred and twenty acres. Wisconsin was the
only state in which this measure got as far as a vote in
the legislature, that of 1851, where it was carried in the
lower house by majorities on two votes but was defeat-
ed on a final vote. The struggle was exciting and Gree-
ley watched it eagerly. Then he wrote :
Well, this was the first earnest trial to establish a great and salu-
tary principle; it will not be the last. It will yet be carried, and
Wisconsin will not need half so many poor houses in 1900 as she
would have required if land limitation had never been thought of. 12
The measure was brought up in the New York legis-
lature and was vigorously advocated by Greeley, but
without decisive action.
The second kind of legislation, based on man's natur-
al right to the soil, was homestead exemption. Pro-
jects of this class were far more successful than those
looking to the limitation of holdings. Exemption leg-
islation swept over all the states, beginning with Wis-
consin in 1 847," but in mutilated form. The working
men demanded absolute inalienability for each home-
stead, as complete as that of the nobility of Europe for
each estate. But the laws actually enacted have not pro-
hibited sale or mortgage of the homestead, as Evans
proposed. They have merely prohibited levy and exe-
cution on account of debts not secured by mortgage.
Voluntary alienation is allowed. Coercive alienation
is denied. Greeley and the working men would have
disallowed both.
Freedom of the public lands was the third sort of
legislation demanded. Every individual not possessed
12 Tribune, March 27, 1851.
13 The legislation of Texas in 1829 and 1837 was entirely different in
character and motive. Somewhat similar laws had been adopted in Missis-
sippi, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida prior to 1845, as a result of the panic
of 1837.
3 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of one hundred and sixty acres of land should be free
to get his equal share in fee-simple out of the public
domain, without cost. The public domain, it was ar-
\/ ue d, belongs, not to the states nor to the collective peo-
ple of all the states, nor to the landowners and taxpayers
of the states, but to each individual whose natural right
has not as yet been satisfied. America is fortunate in
having this vast domain unoccupied. Here all the car-
dinal points of a natural right can be legalized without
damaging vested rights: individuality, by private prop-
erty without cost; equality, by limitation to one hun-
dred and sixty acres; inalienability, by homestead ex-
emption. The universally accepted notion, based on
the then rate of migration, that it would require sev-
eral hundred years to occupy the public domain, gives
color to their optimistic expectations of the effect of
free land on wages. This was the idealistic vision in
1844 f the Republican Party's first great act in 1862.
Greeley espoused all of these measures. He himself
introduced a homestead bill in Congress in 1848. He
urged land limitation and homestead exemption upon
the state legislatures. The Tribune carried his message
throughout the north and prepared the mind of the peo-
ple for the constructive work of the future.
I might speak of others who helped to carry the work-
ing men's idealism into republican reality. I will men-
tion only Galusha A. Grow, the "father of the Republi-
can Party," and Alvan E. Bovay, the disciple of Evans.
Galusha Grow's first great speech in Congress, in
1852, on Andrew Johnson's Homestead Bill, was print-
ed by him under the title "Man's Right to the Soil," and
was merely an oratorical transcript *from the Working
Man's Advocate.
The other less distinguished father was Alvan E.
seven] INTRODUCTION 37
Bovay. For him has been claimed the credit of first
suggesting to Greeley the name Republican Party, and
of bringing together under the name the first little group
of men from the Whig, Democratic, and Free Soil Par-
ties at Ripon, Wisconsin, in i854/ 4 Bovay had moved
to Wisconsin in 1850. Before that time, as our docu-
ments for the first time bring to light, he had been
associated with Evans and with the Working Men's
Party in New York, almost from its beginning in 1844.
He was secretary, treasurer and delegate to the Indus-
trial Congress. It was in New York that he became ac-
quainted with Greeley. Bovay's speeches were reported
at length in the Working Mans Advocate and Young
America, and his letters frequently appeared in the
. Tribune. Whether he was the only father of the party
or not, it is significant that it was these early views on
the natural right to land, derived from Evans and the
working men, that appeared in the Republican Party
wherever that party sprang into being. It is also an
interesting fact that the working men were accustomed
to speak of theirs as the true Republican Party; and
that Evans, in his paper in 1846, predicts that the Na-
tional Reformers mark the beginning of the period
when there "will be but two parties, the great Repub-
lican Party of Progress and the little Tory Party of
Holdbacks." 15
Greeley also took up the ten-hour plank of the Work-
ing Men's Party. Prior to 1845, under the influence of
Fourierism, he had opposed labor legislation. In 1844
he wrote:
The relations of Labor and Capital present a vast theme, . . .
14 Curtis, F. History of the Republican Party (New York, 1904), vol. i,
173. There were doubtless other spots of independent origin. See A. J.
Turner's Genesis of the Republican Party (Portage, Wis., 1898), pamphlet.
18 Young America, March 21, 1846, p. 2, col. 3.
38 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Government cannot intermeddle with them without doing great mis-
chief. They are too delicate, complex and vitally important to be
trusted to the clumsy handling of raw and shallow legislators. . .
The evils ... are Social, not Political, and are to be reached
and corrected by Social remedies. . . Legislation to correct such
abuses can seldom do much good and will often do great harm. . , 16
His idea of the harmony of interests is seen in his
hope that employers would reduce the hours of labor
by agreement. "We do hope to see this year," he wrote
in 1844, "a general convention of those interested in
Factory Labor to fix and declare the proper hours of
labor, which all shall respect and abide by. . . " ir
And when the first Industrial Congress was about
to assemble he wrote :
An Industrial Congress, composed of representatives of Employers
and Workmen, in equal numbers, ought to be assembled, to regulate
generally the conditions of Labor. . . A general provision, to
operate co-extensively with the Union, that ten hours shall constitute
a day's work, might be adopted without injury to any and with
signal benefit to all. . , 18
After the Congress he wrote again :
We should, indeed, greatly prefer that a satisfactory adjustment
were arrived at without invoking the aid of the law-making power, ex-
cept possibly in behalf of minors. We believe if the matter is only ap-
proached in the right way by those interested, discussed in the proper
spirit, and pursued with reasonable earnestness and perseverance that
legislation will be found superfluous. . . How many hours shall
constitute a day's or a week's work should be settled in each depart-
ment by a general Council or Congress of all interested therein, whose
decision should be morally binding on all and respected by our Courts
of Justice. 19
But, with the failure of the Industrial Congress to
bring in the employers, Greeley aggressively adopted
16 Tribune, Jan. 25, 1844, p. 2, col. i ; Feb. 16, 1844, p. 2, col. 2.
17 Tribune, Feb. 16, 1844, p. 2, col. i.
18 Tribune, Sept. 30, 1845, P- 2, col. i.
19 Weekly Tribune, Dec. 27, 1845, p. 4, col. 4.
seven] INTRODUCTION 39
the legislative program of the working men and har-
monized it with his theory of the protective tariff. Be-
fore this he had written:
If it be possible to interpose the power of the State beneficently
in the adjustment of the relations of Rich and Poor, it must be evi-
dent that internal and not external measures like the Tariff would be
requisite. A Tariff affects the relation of Country with Country and
cannot reasonably be expected to make itself potently felt in the
relations of class with class or individual with individuals. 20
Two years afterward, when New Hampshire had
adopted the first Ten-hour Law and the employers were
violating it, he wrote :
That the owners and agents of factories should see this whole
matter in a different light from that it wears to us, we deem unfor-
tunate but not unnatural. It is hard work to convince most men
that a change which they think will take five hundred or a thousand
dollars out of their pockets respectively is necessary or desirable. We
must exercise charity for the infirmities of poor human nature. But
we have regretted to see in two or three of the Whig journals of New
Hampshire indications of hostility to the Ten-hour regulation, which
we can hardly believe dictated by the unbiased judgment of their
conductors. . . What show of argument they contain is of the
regular Free Trade stripe, and quite out of place in journals favorable
to Protection. Complaints of legislative intermeddling with private
concerns and engagements, vociferations that Labor can take care of
itself and needs no help from legislation that the law of Supply and
Demand will adjust this matter, &c.- properly belong to journals of
the opposite school. We protest against their unnatural and ill-
omened appearance in journals of the true faith. . . To talk of
the Freedom of Labor, the policy of leaving it to make its own
bargains, &c. when the fact is that a man who has a family to support
and a house hired for the year is told, 'If you will work thirteen hours
per day, or as many as we think fit, you can stay, if not, you can have
your walking papers; and well you know that no one else hereabout
will hire you' - is it not the most egregious flummery? 21
20 Weekly Tribune, Aug. 2, 1845, p. 3, col. x.
21 Weekly Tribune, Sept. 18, 1847, p. 5, col. 2.
4 o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
These and other quotations from Greeley in volumes
vii and viii depict the evolution of the theory of the
protective tariff out of the Whig theory into the Repub-
lican theory. The Whig idea was protection for the
sake of capital. Greeley's idea was protection for the
sake of labor. The Whigs did not approve of Greeley,
but his theory was useful in 1840, and in that year they
hired him to get out campaign literature. At that time
he was a higher idealist, a transcendentalist, a zealot
for harmony of interests, and believed that capitalists
would voluntarily cooperate with labor and need not
be coerced by legislation. He was disabused of this
notion when he saw the way in which employers treated
the ten-hour movement. Whatever the working men
had gained on this point they had gained against the
Whigs, through Jackson, Van Buren, and the Demo-
crats. Modifying his faith in harmony of interests,
he took up legislation in behalf of class interests and
rounded out a theory of labor legislation by the states
to supplement protective tariff legislation by Congress.
This became the Republican theory of protection in
place of the dying Whig theory.
Thus have I sketched the origin and evolution of the
two species of idealism as they appear here in our docu-
ments and as they struggled for existence in this epoch of
American history. This biology of ideas exhibits both
an adaptation to and a rejection of the contemporaneous
economic development. The transcendentalism of New
England, with its humanized God and its deified man,
was rather a protest against the new economic conditions
than a product of them. As the years advanced and in-
dustrial anarchy deepened, the protest turned to recon-
struction. But the tools and materials for the new struc-
ture were not politics and legislation, but an idealized,
transcendental working man. Transcendentalism res-
seven] INTRODUCTION 41
urrected man, but not the real man. It remained for
the latter, the man in the struggle, to find his own way
out. By failure and success, by defeat, by victory often
fruitless, he felt along the line of obstacles for the point
of least resistance. But he, too, needed a philosophy -
not one that would idealize him, but one that would
help him to win a victory. Shorter hours of labor, free-
dom to escape from economic oppression, these were the
needs that he felt. His inalienable "natural right" to
life, liberty, land, and the products of his own labor-
this was his philosophy. Politics and legislation were
his instruments.
It is easy to show that "natural rights" are a myth,
but they are, nevertheless, a fact of history. It was the
working men's doctrine of natural rights that enabled
the squatter to find an idealistic justification for seizing
land and holding it in defiance of law. "Natural right,"
here as elsewhere, was the effective assailant of legal
right. Had it not been for this theoretic setting, our
land legislation might have been piecemeal and oppor-
tunist like the English -merely a temporizing conces-
sion to the squatters on account of the difficulty of sub-
duing them by armed force. Such an opportunist view,
without the justification of natural rights, could not
have aroused enthusiasm nor created a popular move-
ment nor furnished a platform for a political party.
The Republican Party was not an antislavery party.
It was a homestead party. On this point its position
was identical with that of the working men. Just
because slavery could not live on one-hundred-sixty-
acre farms did the Republican Party come into con-
flict with slavery.
Thus has the idealism of American history both is-
sued from and counteracted its materialism. The edi-
torial columns of the Tribune from 1841 to 1854 are its
42 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
documentary records. There we see the two main cur-
rents of idealism passing through the mind of Greeley
and coming out a constructive program for the reor-
ganization of society.
But, from the standpoint of the actual laborer, in his
need of leisure and wages, idealism, whether high or
low, is too remote. Even legislation shortening the
hours of labor proved hopeless in face of the trickery
of politics and the crudity of bill-drafting. Not until
another generation had passed did labor legislation
begin appreciably to affect the condition of labor. But
the wage-earners of the forties, like the wage-earners
before and since, could not wait upon the deliberations
of philosophy or the windings of politics. Wages,
hours of labor, and cost of living are immediate facts
and require urgent attention. It could not be expected,
even were such facts appreciated, that such attention
would be devoted, by humanitarians and politicians.
The working men perforce resorted to measures inde-
pendent of reliance on others. The strikes of 1843, at
the brief revival of business, attest their unphilosophical
mode of reform. Afterward, when business sagged and
strikes failed, they resorted to cooperation. At first
criticized as partial and superficial by associationists
and by land reformers, the remarkable cooperative
movement in New England, under the name of Pro-
tective Unions, ultimately secured their endorsement.
In fact, to Greeley's eager and practical mind, cooper-
ation, initiated and managed by workmen themselves,
was the finest fruit of Fourierism. It seemed to assure
the independence of labor without hostility to capital.
And this was true even when cooperation advanced
from the distributive form, designed to supplant the re-
tail merchant, to the productive form, designed to dis-
place the employer. This curious transition in the labor
seven] INTRODUCTION 43
movement reached its height in 1850, in the industrial
councils and working men's congresses of New York,
Boston, and Pittsburgh. The labor organizations of
that date combined productive cooperation and strikes
as the two equally effective modes of attack on employ-
ers. If not successful by means of strikes they would
become their own employers by means of cooperation.
Utterly unsuccessful in this distracting program, the
movement disappeared in 1851, and it was not until
1853 that trade unionism took on its modern form and
policies. Forced again by a rise of prices and cost of
living to get immediate results, the working men broke
away from the beneficial and cooperative side-shows of
the preceding ten years. In order to get and retain an
advance in wages they now began also to demand the
recognition of their unions, and for the first time we
find as much importance attached to the minimum wage,
the "closed shop," the ratio of apprentices, the secrecy
of proceedings, as was attached to shorter hours and
higher pay.
This marks the turning-point of the labor movement,
just as the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebras-
ka Bill marked the turning-point of the political move-
ment. The era of talk gave way to the era of action.
The struggle of the small farmer against the plantation
slave-owner was parallel with the struggle of organized
labor against organized capital. In the one case it was
an "irrepressible conflict" ending only in the arbitra-
ment of war. In the other, it is the rising menace of
western civilization. In both cases the philosophizing
of the forties prepared the minds of men for a new level
of action. The right of labor to organize for defense
or aggression came finally to be as fully accepted in 1853
as it has been at any time thereafter. And this has deep
significance. For, social struggle is not precipitated
44 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
by the fundamental economic or moral issue at stake,
but rather by the methods and strategic positions that
opposing social classes adopt and occupy in order after-
ward to dominate the fundamental issue. Thus it was
that the political crisis and the Civil War occurred,
not on the question of the existence or nonexistence of
slavery nor on that of the enactment of a homestead
law, but on the right of the slave power to extend and
strengthen its organization. So the struggle of capital
and labor since the decade of the forties has not oc-
curred on the right to organize and strike, but on the
right to use the weapons of struggle and to extend the
control of organization. Prior to that time labor organ-
izations trusted to the moral effect of a strike and an ap-
peal to the public to preserve the victory. Since that
time they more and more rely on the preservation of
the union with its weapons of limited apprenticeship,
closed shop, minimum wage, and the like.
Horace Greeley was as truly the prophet of this high-
er labor movement as he was the prophet of the political
movement. His crude idea of an Industrial Congress
in 1844, to be composed equally of employers and work-
men, had evolved in 1853 into the modern idea of the
joint trade-agreement of the trade union and the em-
ployers' association. Not the domination of one class
and the submission of another, but the equilibrium of
two classes through their own representative govern-
ment and rules of procedure, was the burden of his
message to both employer and laborer. And may it
not be that the struggle of capital and labor, unlike that
of plantation and homestead, shall avoid the irrepress-
ible conflict by accepting this high ideal of the joint
trade-agreement as it emerged from the philosophizing
of the forties?
JOHN R. COMMONS.
I
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
i. GENERAL VIEW 22
(a) BY AN ENGLISH OWENITE
New Moral World (London), Jan. 20, 27, April 20, June 29, July 6,
1844. " Notes of Travel in the United States," by John Finch. The
writer was an adherent of Robert Owen's, and published these and
several articles on American communities in Owen's paper. His
visit to America was made in 1843.
[January 20] , .-.. It is much easier to obtain
employment, at present, in the United States than in
England; but in this respect they are getting into a
worse and worse condition. The manufacturers, in the
East, have introduced all our improvements in machin-
ery, (and the effects are the same as in this country) they
are making very large quantities of goods; competition
is increasing, prices are very much reduced, and the wag-
es of labour, generally, throughout the States and Cana-
da, have been reduced from thirty to fifty per centwithin
the last four years, and wages are still reducing in some
parts of the country, in spite of their trades' unions and
democratic institutions; and, if competition continue,
no parties can prevent wages from falling as low there
as they are in England, and this within a comparatively
short period. Wages in America are not much higher,
even now, than they are with us. Agricultural labour-
ers can be hired, in Illinois and other states, for from
eight to twelve dollars per month. Smiths and me-
chanics for from twelve to eighteen dollars per month,
with board. The boarding of labourers of all kinds is
almost universal in the small towns and villages in the
agricultural districts. They think nothing of board
22 See also especially chapters iv and v.
48 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
and lodging in the west; it can be found them well for
from $i to $1.50, or 45. to 6s. per week. At Baltimore
iron works the labourers earn about as. 8d. per day, and
the head men, at the furnaces, get about $i, or 45.
per day. In Pittsburg the wages of the labourers, at
the iron works, is about the same. A few of the prin-
cipal workmen, at the iron works, earn as much as $2 per
day. At the founderies and engineering establish-
ments, at Paterson, near New York, the average
wages of labour throughout the works is only about
45. 6d. per day now; and this may be taken as a
fair average of the wages of engineers [machinists]
and founders, in the eastern cities; great numbers
were out of employ when I landed, in May last;
but the trade is much better, and very few are out
of work now. In the great lead district of Galena there
are about 40 smelt works, and first-rate smelters earn
258. per week; second-rate smelters, i8s. per week; la-
bourers at the smelt works, i6s. per week, and carters,
155. per week, all without board; but wages are paid in
Galena with cash, not in truck, as in most places. The
miners were getting 55. 8d. per 112 Ibs. for their lead
ore, and pig lead was selling at 95. 6d. per cwt, 112
Ibs. The wages of labour was double what it is now, in
Galena, in 1838. Great quantities of sale shoes and
boots are made in and about Salem, in Massachusetts ;
the workmen can earn only about i6s. per week; and the
shoes are sold as cheap as sale shoes are sold in England.
Tailors generally get good wages, but they are not us-
ually well employed ; their wages are about 6s. per day.
Bricklayers, stonemasons, and plasterers earn as much
as tailors. This will give some idea of the rate of wages.
The price of fuel, and the rents of houses for labour-
ers are very high in all the eastern states ; food is also
much higher there than in the west. It is highest at
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 49
Boston and New York, but even there, food is from 25
to 50 per cent cheaper than in Liverpool. Rents are
high in all parts of the Union, and clothing is higher
than it is with us. Wood fuel can be had for merely
the expense of cutting and preparing in most parts of
the west. On the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi
the steam-boats are supplied at from 45. to 6s. per cord
of 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 feet high, and coals can be had
at Plttsburg, and on the Ohio, for less than 55. per ton.
Pork, beef, and mutton are bought in Indiana, Illinois,
and other western states, at from id. to i^d. per Ib.
Our friend C. F. Green, killed a cow in New Harmony
while we were there, and he could scarcely sell it at
that price, on credit. A whole carcass of good mutton
sells there for a dollar, eggs are sold at ad. per dozen,
good fowls at 45. per dozen, butter at 3d. to 4d. per Ib.,
Indian corn yd. to lod. per bushel, wheat at $.50 to $.60
or as. to as. 6d. per bushel. Most of these articles are
more than double these prices in the eastern states, ow-
ing to their not growing enough for themselves, and the
expense of carriage from the far west. Apples, pears,
peaches, &c., are very plentiful and very cheap in the
west. We saw whole orchards of fine apples in Indiana
and Kentucky rotting on the trees, not being considered
worth the expense of gathering. The same evil exists
in the western states of America, as respects agricultur-
al produce, as we find in England as to manufactured
goods ; excessive competition, and consequent reductions
in wages, have driven so many from the eastern states,
to cultivate land in the west, added to the shoals of emi-
grants daily arriving from other countries, that the pro-
duce is so abundant, it can scarcely be sold for the ex-
pense of taking it fifty miles to a market, and prices
will still go lower and lower as more and more land is
brought into cultivation, till the man who cultivates
50 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
his own land will not be able to get a living, as is now
the case with our friend C. F. Green, with a most beau-
tiful and fertile farm of 140 acres freehold.
One of the greatest evils the working classes have to
contend with in the United States and in Canada, for
it is generally practised in both countries, is the abom-
inable cheating truck system, which is carried on with
more barefaced impudence there, and to a greater extent
than it ever was practised in this country. The follow-
ing is a verbatim copy of a printed notice given by Ben.
Cozzens, a large manufacturer, who has two large cot-
ton factories and a print work, and employs from a
thousand to fifteen hundred pair of hands, at Crompton
mills in Rhode Island. Single men at board, who can-
not take goods, have ten per cent deducted from their
wages in lieu of it.
NOTICE. Those employed at these mills and works will take
notice, that a store is kept for their accommodation, where they can
purchase the best of goods at fair prices, and it is expected that all
will draw their goods from said store. Those who do not are in-
formed, that there are plenty of others who would be glad to take
their places at less wages. BENJ. COZZENS.
Crompton Mills, February, 1843.
One of the printed notices, from which this was cop-
ied, was put into my hands by a man who lately worked
for Benjamin Cozzens, and who has returned home,
tired of America, in the Roscius. Five colliers returned
home by the same vessel, who had been working at
Pittsville, in Pennsylvania, where the same vile truck
system is carried on to the greatest extent. They de-
clared that when their American wages were turned
into cash, they could earn as much, and were as well off,
in their own country. I know the general prevalence
of this system, by information from masters as well as
men. The average of loss to the workmen by this sys-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 51
tern is not less than twenty-five per cent of their wages,
and in many cases it is attended with a loss of fifty per
cent. When masters have no shops of their own, they
give notes to the men to get their goods at other shops,
who supply them with inferior articles at high prices,
and out of the money the workmen are cheated of, they
allow a per centage to the master. In many places the
shopkeepers will not give flour and groceries for these
notes; they tell them these are cash articles only, in
which case the men are compelled to take other goods
which they do not want, and then have to submit to a
still greater loss in disposing of them for cash to get ab-
solute necessaries. At Shreeve's iron and nail works, in
Cincinnati, and at other cut nail works, the workmen
are paid in casks of cut nails, charged at high prices,
by which they lose at least twenty-five per cent in all
they receive. When I told the masters that we have
severe laws against this infamous practice; they replied,
"Here we do as we like; ours is a free country." Yes,
America is as free for working men as England, for in
both countries, when trade is bad, the workmen must
labour on such terms as are offered, or go without em-
ployment and starve. The condition of the working
classes in America, however, is much better at present
than it is here; but my conviction, from all I have seen
and heard in America, is, that the wages of labour are
everywhere falling, and that the condition of the la-
bourer is gradually becoming worse. . .
[January 27] ... In judging of their condi-
tion, you must take into account the length and severity
of their winters, and the excessive heat of their sum-
mers, in the northern states and in Canada. Their win-
ters commence in November, and continue till the end
of April -about six months in the year -during which
period all building operations, and all agricultural em-
52 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ployments, except the felling of timber and preparing
fuel, are suspended; and, being all frozen up, naviga-
tion on their rivers and canals, and all employments
dependent on these, are stopped, and many other em-
ployments, depending on water power, are also stopped ;
the cold is so excessive that the thermometer is frequent-
ly twenty degrees below zero ; they are obliged to keep
large fires in their dwellings, and to have a large quan-
tity of extra warm clothing to prevent them from per-
ishing; it is often dangerous to go out of doors for any
length of time, in winter, without completely covering
every part of the body; parties sometimes have their
nose, or some other part of their face, frozen, without
being aware of it themselves ; a friend meets them, and
tells them that they are frozen, the remedy is immedi-
ately to rub the part affected with snow, which restores
it; but many perish from cold, particularly the blacks
in Canada. As goods cannot be brought to the ports,
commerce is also in a great degree prevented. The con-
sequence is, that unless workmen get good wages and
plenty of work in summer, to enable them to lay in a
good supply for winter; their condition is and must be
much more wretched than the labourers in England.
Indeed, for several winters past, and especially last win-
ter, great numbers out of employment in Boston, Salem,
Providence, New York, and other places, were supplied
with soup, bread, fuel, and other articles, by charitable
contributions. Most of the log houses in the west ap-
pear to me miserable shelters, either for man or beast,
during their rigorous winters, but they have abundance
of wood fuel there to keep them warm for the trouble
of getting it.
In the middle of summer, on the contrary, the weather
is so excessively hot, (frequently ninety to a hundred
degrees), that it is very difficult to do a day's work at
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 53
hard labour, beside which, in the western states, you are
much annoyed by the bite of mosquitoes, and, in those
parts, fever and ague are very prevalent in summer.
Imagine a settler, in the west, on his own farm of one
hundred acres, situated four miles distant from any
other dwelling, and fifty miles from a market for his
produce, living in the middle of a forest, in a log cabin
of his own construction, and with the exception of a
few acres, which he has prepared for Indian corn and
wheat, for the support of himself and family and cattle,
all around him impenetrable thicket and lumber. His
land is very fertile without the use of manure, and he
has had good crops this year, he has provided all the
food he requires for his cattle and his family, and he
has 30 bushels of wheat and 70 Ibs. of butter, surplus,
to dispose of, to buy iron for his ploughs, and clothing
and other articles for his family, consisting of himself
his wife and three children. He lives in Illinois, and
sets out for Chicago with his wagon, yoke of oxen, and
his load of produce, over a bad road, and the journey,
sale, and purchase, takes him eight days ; he takes with
him food for himself and oxen, which reduces his ex-
penses to $.50 per day, which is $4; his wages are worth
$4 more; he has the good fortune to sell his wheat at
$.50 per bushel, cash, which is $15, and the butter for
$.08 per lb., which is $5.60; the whole is $20.60, for
all his year's surplus produce, or 4 53. 6d. English;
take from this i6s. 8d., expenses, and 2os. for i cwt. as-
sorted iron, he has no poor-rates, tithes, taxes, church-
rates, or rent, to pay, except about as. 6d. for land tax,
and yet he has only 2 6s. 4d. left to buy clothing for
himself and family, for the rigours of an American win-
ter, and for all other family expenses. Should he and
his family fall sick, there is no neighbour within four
miles, and, probably, no physician within 20 miles of
54 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
him. I believe great numbers of bush-settlers perish,
whose fate is never generally known, and yet great
numbers of Yankees, in the eastern states, when I showed
them that the condition of their labourers was rapidly
getting worse, replied -"There is no danger that the
condition of our labourers will ever be so bad as that
of the labourers of England; they have always a re-
source, by leaving the eastern states, and purchasing
land in the west, at $i. 25 per acre; they can cultivate
this land, get a good living, and, in a few years, become
independent." I have already shown the fallacy of
this argument, but we will give another illustration.
I was talking with some of the workmen, spinners,
in the largest jean manufactory in Steubenville, in the
state of Ohio, who were telling me of the recent reduc-
tions in their wages, and of the rascally truck system,
which is universally practised in that town and neigh-
borhood -the workmen are generally paid by notes on
the shops, by which they lose at least 25 per cent, in
price and quality; but, they are frequently paid in pieces
of jean of their own make, charged at high prices, by
which they often lose 50 per cent, which reduces their
actual wages to about 2S. per day, English money. I
asked why they submitted to these impositions, why
they did not leave it and go to the land, &c. They re-
plied -"The land in Ohio is dear, generally, and we
could not travel to the west without money, and we can-
not save money; it is as much as we can do to provide
our families with necessaries. We should want money
to travel, then money would be wanted to buy the land,
to buy agricultural implements, to buy seed, and then
we should want more to support us till we could dis-
pose of part of our crops, and we have no money at all.
But, suppose we had all these means, we know nothing
about the cultivation of land -we have all our lives
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 55
worked in a factory, and know no other employment,
and how is it likely that we should succeed? besides
which, we have always been used to live in a town, where
we can get what little things we want if we have money,
and it is only those who have lived in the wilderness,
who know what the horrors of a wilderness-life are."
From what has been said it must be evident to our
readers: First. That the wages of labour are every-
where falling in the United States and in Canada, and
that the condition of the working population is getting
worse and worse, in spite of their high protective duties
upon foreign goods, and every other means they have
adopted to prevent these reductions.
Second. That the vile truck system is carried on in
these countries to a greater extent than it was ever prac-
tised in our own, in spite of annual parliaments, univer-
sal suffrage, and vote by ballot.
Third. That going upon the land, on the most fav-
ourable terms, under a system of society based upon
competition, would afford no remedy for these evils, but
would in the end only increase them, even though there
were neither rent, tithes, nor taxes to be paid.
Fourth. That American labourers, being necessarily
idle nearly half the year, during the winter, ought to
receive double our English wages in summer, to place
them on equal terms with English labourers, which is
not the case, as their wages are nominally very little
higher than they are here. The only advantages they
have are more employment, freedom from taxes, and
the cheapness of provisions. But we have seen that even
the cheapness of food is a great injury to the mass of the
people, the agricultural population.
Fifth. That the causes of those evils are the same in
America as in England, the vast extension of scientific
and mechanical power, and the consequent great in-
56 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
crease of manufactured goods, and the great and rapid
extension of agricultural operations; by which means
an immense surplus is produced, whilst competition re-
duces everything to so low a price that no parties are
able to get a remuneration for producing them; and
that all that is wanted, either in America or in England,
is, rational arrangements to distribute the wealth pro-
duced in a just and equitable manner for the benefit of
all classes. . v ;,
[April 20. Speaking of the mineral resources]. . .
Now I put to the smallest grain of wit that may be con-
tained in the cranium of the most thick-headed dunce
in existence, whether there is the least probability, that
an educated, intelligent, enterprising, and industrious
people, (as the Americans undeniably are,) will, any
longer than they can possibly help it, suffer this incal-
culable amount of wealth to be buried in the earth, and
supply themselves with the same articles from a country
that altogether excludes their principal surplus article -
corn; that taxes their tobacco from the south 1000 per
cent, their mutton, beef, and pork of the Western States
100, and butter and cheese 50 per cent.
These restrictions upon their trade in England, have
produced in every part of the United States (even at a
present sacrifice to themselves in price) a fixed deter-
mination to do without British goods of every kind as
soon as possible, and in the mean time, by laying a heavy
duty upon all imported articles, to give every encour-
agement to their own mining and manufacturing oper-
ations. They already make two-thirds as much lead as
is made in Great Britain, in the neighbourhoods of Ga-
lena, Dubuque, and St. Genevieve on the Mississippi
alone, and they have lead mines in other States to some
extent- and they can now produce lead at least 10 to 20
per cent cheaper than it can be made for in this country.
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 57
Their anthracite coal mines produce one million tons,
and their bituminous coal mines considerably more than
one million tons of coals annually. Their copper mines
are fast extending, but at present the quantity produced
is inadequate to the demand. The quantity of iron now
made in the United States is not much less than 500,000
tons annually, and is continually increasing; it is made
principally by the use of charcoal fuel, which greatly
improves its quality. In a very few years they will not
only make all they require, but have a large surplus.
Salt is made in very large quantities in New York, Penn-
sylvania, Virginia, and other States; this manufacture
will also soon supersede the use of the foreign article.
Machine making is carried on on a very extensive
scale in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other States
in that part of the Union, and also in Pittsburg and
other places, for the use of the factories. The manufac-
ture of steam engines, water wheels, and machinery for
saw mills and other purposes, is very extensive in and
near Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg,
and there are large establishments of these kinds in
many other places that I visited. American boiler
plates are used, exclusive of all other, for making their
engine boilers, &c., and are superior in quality to most,
and inferior to none, that are made in England. The
quantity of cut nails made there exceeds anything I
could have supposed ; most of their buildings, even their
churches, being of wood. Many of the iron manufac-
turers work up the whole of what they produce into
cut nails on the spot. A rolling mill at Boston, another
at Reading in Pennsylvania, and a third at Cincinnati,
which I saw, each makes from fifty to sixty tons of cut
nails weekly, besides many others that I heard of. Till
within the last three years, a large quantity of Swedish
iron was imported for cut nail making; this trade is now
58 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
at an end, as they use none but their own iron. Some
idea may be formed of the extent of their engineering
business, from the fact of their having about 400 steam
boats on the waters of the Mississippi, and more than
60 on the large lakes alone. These steam boats wear
out every four years, and their double engines in eight
years, so that it requires 100 steam boats and 100 en-
gines to be made every year to meet the demand, which
is every year increasing; besides which, there are great
numbers of steamers employed in the coasting trade,
and on the Hudson and other rivers. Locomotive en-
gines are made there for their 7,000 miles of railroad,
and steam engines are used for a hundred other pur-
poses. All their superior kind of locks are made at
home. Their axes for cutting down timber, joiners'
edge tools, wood screws, scythes, and many other ar-
ticles in the cutlery trade, are superior to any that are
made in England. All these articles are made there
in very large quantities, and are bought by workmen in
preference to English, at 50 per cent higher prices,
both in the States and in Canada. I saw some beautiful
articles of these kinds in various places, and compared
them with the best they can get from England, which
were much inferior.
The fact is we have been too proud of our machinery
and improvements, and besides this have been continu-
ally striving to make cheap, instead of making good
and useful articles ; and to effect this object, have been
constantly reducing wages and adding to the labour of
our operatives, till we are starving our workmen to
death, and losing our character abroad altogether.
Whilst at the same time our rulers, from the most self-
ish motives, have doubled the evil by levying enormous
duties upon their greatest surplus articles.
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 59
This vicious system of competition and class legisla-
tion, based on their great parent evil, private property,
must come to an end speedily. Free Trade, in all ar-
ticles with all the world, may, if adopted, prop it up a
little longer. Free Trade is right in principle, and must
be beneficial in practice -therefore let us have Free
Trade as soon as possible. But let no one deceive him-
self by supposing that this measure will remove the in-
curable diseases of our present social system, for as long
as the causes of the misery and degradation of our work-
ing classes remain, the effects will not cease.
[June 29] ... In England, capital is super-
abundant among the wealthy classes, and yet, both in
and out of parliament, the general cause of distress and
want of work is stated to be over-population, and the
great panacea recommended is emigration. In Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Upper Canada, Lower Cana-
da, and the United States, on the contrary, the cause of
their difficulties, and the want of greater prosperity, is
attributed to deficiency of capital and want of popula-
tion. Converse with whom you will in America, they
will tell you of the great resources and numerous means
of acquiring wealth these countries afford: "Only,"
say they, "send us any number you please of good work-
men, sober, steady, with a little capital, prudent, and
industrious, and we will engage they will soon become
rich in this country; but these are not the sort of persons
you generally send us ; instead of these, there come out
a set of ragged, pennyless, shiftless, helpless, drunken
creatures, that know how to do scarcely anything, and
consequently cannot get employed, and become pau-
pers ; and these are almost the only paupers we have, and
almost the only drunkards ; for you will scarcely ever
see a native American that is either a pauper or a drunk-
60 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ard." And I believe there is a great deal of truth in
this statement, from what I have seen of thousands of
emigrants just arrived in those countries.
It is a curious fact, that the democratic party, and
particularly the poorer class of Irish emigrants in
America, are greater enemies to the negro population,
and greater advocates for the continuance of negro slav-
ery, than any portion of the population in the free States.
I endeavoured to ascertain the cause of this strange
anomaly, and was informed, that ten or twelve years
ago, the most menial employments, such as scavengers,
porters, dock-labourers, waiters at hotels, ostlers, boot-
cleaners, barbers, &c., were all, or nearly all, black men,
and nearly all the maid servants, cooks, scullions, wash-
erwomen, &c., were black women, and they used to ob-
tain very good wages for these employments; but so
great has been the influx of unskilled labourers, emi-
grants from Ireland, England, and other countries,
within the last few years, into New York, Boston, Phil-
adelphia, and other large towns in the eastern States,
who press into these menial employments (because they
can find no other) , offering to labour for any wages they
can obtain; that it has reduced the wages of the blacks,
and deprived great numbers of them of employment,
hence there is a deadly hatred engendered between
them, and quarrels and fights among them are daily oc-
curring. I found most of the waiters and female ser-
vants at the large hotels in the eastern States white per-
sons, whereas in most hotels in the west, and all the
hotels in the slave States, these persons were blacks.
The working people reason thus : "Competition among
free white working men here is even now reducing our
wages daily; but if the blacks were to be emancipated,
probably hundreds of thousands of them would migrate
into these northern States, and the competition for em-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 61
ployment would consequently be so much increased,
that wages would very speedily be as low, or lower here,
than they are in England ; better, therefore, for us, that
they remain slaves as they are." Hence we see why the
American abolitionists of slavery are more unpopular
among these parties in America, than Socialists are
among the priests and upper classes in England -hence
we see why the repeal association in Cincinnati wrote to
O'Connell in defence of slavery, and why many repeal
associations in the United States, particularly in the
south, broke up and refused to give any more assistance
to the repealers in Ireland, after receiving his denuncia-
tions of that accursed system. "Man is the creature of
circumstances," and all these parties act in this manner,
because they live in a state of society based on private
property and individual interests, each seeking his own
advantage, regardless of the just rights of others.
For persons well skilled in agriculture, with a little
capital, (and much less will do in America than in En-
gland), men who are not prejudiced, but willing to
learn, and to follow the modes of culture there adopted,
which are altogether different from English farming,
will succeed much better either in Canada or the Unit-
ed States than they can possibly do in England. Good
workmen at any handicraft, mechanical or manufactur-
ing operations, particularly if they can turn their hands
to a variety of operations connected with their busi-
ness, with good moral character and sober habits, will
be sure to meet with encouragement as soon as they are
known. These should also have some money, as this
will open to them many opportunities of doing well
for themselves in that country, and if they fail to get
employment in their own business, will enable them to
go upon the land. I would not, by any means, advise
shopkeepers, shopmen, clerks, book-keepers, gentle-
62 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
men's servants, or unskilled labourers of any kind, to go
to America, expecting to get a living by these callings
or by common labour, unless they are desirous of com-
peting with the blacks -these employments are despised
by the American people. Nor need any gentlemen-
farmers go there, expecting to get rich by the hired
labour of others. The American farmer that expects
to thrive, must either hold the plow or drive. Nor is
this a country for gentlemen of large fortune to go to,
to live upon their incomes, and to make a grand dis-
play, because all such fooleries are only laughed at by
the commonest mechanic in New England. The only
way they can really enjoy themselves, and be attentively
and respectfully waited upon in the free States, is by tak-
ing private rooms at a large hotel -the re they will receive
every respect due to men of rank, so long as they be-
have themselves properly; but they must not show their
airs, scold, and insult the white men and maid servants
as they do in England, or they will soon let them know
that they are speaking to free-born American citizens.
And if they wish to travel, they cannot do better than
content themselves with the railroads, steam boats, and
stage-coaches of the country, which are cheap and good
enough for anybody. In travelling they must not ex-
pect that lords and baronets will meet with half as much
respect as the wives and daughters of respectable me-
chanics and farmers. The only parts where aristocracy
can show its fantastic airs, is in the land of aristocrats
and slaves -the southern slave States, where they can
build or purchase splendid mansions, procure gilded
carriages, buy or hire men-servants and maid-servants,
whom they may scold, whip, imprison, torture, starve, or
shoot with impunity, without their daring to utter one
saucy word, or lift an arm in their own defence to save
their lives. But there is one great drawback to these aris-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 63
tocratic enjoyments - there are no game laws - there are
no imprisoning, transporting, or hanging of poachers;
nor are there any laws of primogeniture, to perpetuate
high-sounding titles of nobility; but they will, never-
theless, find themselves quite at home there, as the high-
minded slave-owners of Virginia, Carolina, and Ken-
tucky boast much of having descended from the most
noble families in England.
Though land of the very best quality may be obtained
in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee much cheaper
indeed than in any of the free States -though the cli-
mate is milder, more pleasant, and more healthy than in
the northern States -and though the Virginians, Ken-
tuckians, and Tennessians are very desirous of a grand
accession of white settlers in these States, where large
quantities of good land may be had for from two shil-
lings to four shillings per acre, and their mineral wealth
is inexhaustible -still I cannot recommend Englishmen
to go there, because labour being generally performed
by slaves, labour there, as in our own country, is consid-
ered degrading, and wealthy idleness honourable. The
woman that should dare to perform the domestic la-
bours of her family with her own hands, or the white
man that should degrade himself by working hard in
his own fields or workshop, would be considered not
worthy of being spoken to by respectable neighbours,
and even the niggers would despise them. To live re-
spectably there, he must buy or hire male and female
negroes to do all his work, his wife and daughters must
become do-nothing, worthless ladies with pianos, and
he must regularly and most aristocratically take his
dog and gun, go into the woods, hunt, and shoot wild
animals and runaway negroes. The consequence is,
that whilst the free States are progressing faster in pop-
ulation and in wealth than any other countries in the
64 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
world, the proud and lazy slave-owners of the south
are making comparatively little or no progress. Be-
sides which, there is more fierce barbarity, more lawless
violence, greater immorality, and less rational liberty
in the slave states of America, than were found among
the poor unfortunate Indians whom they have inhu-
manly murdered or driven out of the country.
English agriculturalists will do better by settling in
the eastern States, upon land partly brought into cul-
tivation, though the price of this land be higher, than
they will in travelling to the far west, because it will
save them the expense of travelling there and the la-
bour of clearing forest land, which English farmers
know nothing of, because the mode of culture adopted
there will be more like what they have been used to
at home, and because they will be near the best markets
to dispose of their surplus produce. There are large
tracts of good land to be had in New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and other eastern States. The Yankees
are leaving these States and these lands in shoals, and
stretching themselves out to the farthest west, to Wis-
consin, Iowa, and even the Oregon territory; let them
go, they are the best pioneers for settling that country.
English farmers will thrive best in the eastern States,
and will feel themselves more at home there.
Factory machine makers will find most employment
in the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New
York, at Pittsburg, and in the State of Ohio. Engineers
and locomotive engineers will do best in the same States,
and also at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louis-
ville, and St. Louis. Workmen in factories will also
get employment in these places more readily than in any
other part of the States. Canada is engaged almost en-
tirely in agriculture and the timber trade. . . A
great number of ship and boat-builders are employed
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 65
on the Ohio river, at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and Louis-
ville, and many are employed at St. Louis, Boston, New
York, and Philadelphia. Colliers will find most em-
ployment in the neighborhoods of Pittsville, Cumber-
land, and Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania. Furnace-men,
puddlers, and rollers at iron works, will find most work
in Pittsburg, and other parts of Pennsylvania. Edge-
tool makers in the neighbourhoods of Boston and New
York, and in the country lying between these two places.
Tanners, curriers, and leather-cutters will find more
employment in the State of Massachusetts than in any
other. Large quantities of leather are also made in
New York State, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.
Sale shoe-makers will find most employment in Massa-
chusetts; large numbers are also employed in New
Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio States.
Wages are very low for sale shoes, but shoe-makers and
tailors, good workmen, get good wages in the cities and
towns generally: shoemakers one dollar per day, tail-
ors one dollar and a half per day. Workmen in differ-
ent trades frequently strike for advances in wages, or
to prevent reductions, and they generally succeed; nom-
inally the masters yield. I found this to have been the
case in many places, and it answers the workmen's pur-
pose while trade is good. The tailors were out when I
was at Pittsburg, and were parading the streets with a
band of music; they were out only one day, when the
masters yielded, as they had done shortly before in Cin-
cinnati. I conversed with some of the journeymen tail-
ors on the subject. They say that the vests and trousers
are mostly made by women, and the coats by men ; that
the keepers of retail, ready-made clothes shops purchase
part of their goods from other towns, and get the rest
made by persons out of employment, much below the
regular rates of wages, and sell at very low prices, conse-
66 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
quently regular good workmen are confined to bespoken
articles for first-rate master tailors; hence their employ-
ment is very precarious. They are often out of work,
and are glad to get employment occasionally, at reduced
wages, from the ready-made clothes shops, which re-
duces wages eventually, in spite of all they can do to
prevent it. The principal glass works and glass-cut-
ting shops are in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl-
vania-most in New Jersey; there are sixty-four glass
houses and thirty glass-cutting shops in these three
States. Stone-masons will find most employment in
New York, and New York State; next in Boston and
Massachusetts; third in Philadelphia and Pennsylvan-
ia ; and next in Connecticut and Ohio ; in the rest of the
States the use of stone is comparatively small. Lead
miners should go to Galena, Dubuque, or St. Gen-
evieve, on the Mississippi. Hat, cap, and bonnet
makers will meet with most work, first in New York
State, second in Boston and Massachusetts, third in New
Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New
Jersey. The best farming lands are in New York, Penn-
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois States. Swine are
reared principally in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, New
York, /Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Indi-
ana, Illinois, and Missouri States. Sheep in New
York most of all, also in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont,
Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Horses are reared
principally in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsyl-
vania, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois. Neat
cattle -New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, ( Virginia, Ten-
nessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Printers and
book-binders -New York, Pennsylvania, Massachu-
setts, Ohio, Connecticut. I hope this information will
be useful to most classes and employments, and that it
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 67
will be useful to emigrants going to the States in search
of employment. . .
[July 6] I have been frequently asked, Would you
advise English workmen to emigrate to America and
Canada? In reply, I would advise every working man
in this country, who has a useful trade in his fingers,
who is a good workman, is sober, steady, industrious,
prudent, and has some money, over and above what
will pay for his passage, to emigrate as soon as he can,
either to the United States or to Canada; because I see
no hopes of his condition being improved at home. The
governing powers have seized upon six millions of acres
of land that belonged to him, by means of what they are
pleased to call Inclosure Bills, and divided it amongst
themselves; and have, this session, brought in a bill for
dividing four millions of acres more among them, which
is all that remains to you; you cannot, therefore, go
upon your land. The employers of the poor have a no-
tion that you can live upon very low wages; machinery
has placed you completely at their mercy, and they
never think they have you low enough as long as you
can exist at all. They will not shorten your hours of
labour: they are now attempting to pass a tyrannical
Masters and Servants' Bill, that will enable them to
oppress you still more. The Poor Law Bill prevents
you from getting sufficient relief from the workhouse,
and everything you use is taxed beyond endurance.
The Americans and Canadians are your brothers, they
have land enough, food enough, and raw materials for
labour enough for you all; they invite you to come, and
will receive you with open arms to an untaxed land,
flowing with milk and honey.
Whether you go out upon the individual private
property system, or whether you go with the intention
68 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of forming communities of united interests, I would
advise you not to go out singly and individually, but
to form yourselves into Emigration Societies, and to
go out in colonies as the Germans generally do, com-
prising in their number men of all the trades necessary
for forming a self-supporting community. Having sub-
scribed funds for the purpose, you should appoint a del-
egation of several clever business men to go over to that
country to choose a good location, and bargain for the
land; in doing which, particular attention must be paid
to healthiness of situation, conveniences for railroad
or water carriage, proximity to good markets, fertile
soil, abundance of good water, fuel, materials for build-
ing; and if you can, plenty of valuable minerals easily
accessible, and the location should be suitable for the
principal trades you intend to follow, both as to pro-
curing raw materials, and disposing of the surplus goods
that are made. Having done this, the Society should
charter a vessel, to take them out at the proper season
of the year, with the tools and machinery, and such
other articles as their pioneers report will be useful and
worth the carriage. The pioneers should make prepa-
ration for receiving and lodging them on their arrival,
and for conveying them to the situation that is chosen.
The Government emigrant agents at Quebec, Mon-
treal, and Kingston, and the government land agents, in
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and in every State
in the Union, will willingly and cheerfully give every
information and assistance, and the best advice to all
respectable emigrants that are able to purchase land
and support themselves till they can get their first crop
from the land; and these are the parties both you and
your pioneers should first apply to on arriving there,
because they will be able to inform you what land the
governments have to dispose of, and probably can in-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 69
form you of eligible estates to be sold by private indi-
viduals. Mr. Buchanan, the government general em-
igrant agent at Quebec, told me that our government
have very large tracts of excellent land to dispose of in
Milbourne County, Lower Canada, south of the St.
Lawrence River; and that fifty acres of this land will
be given to every adult male, over twenty-one years of
age, that applies for it, on condition that they can sup-
port themselves till they have got in their first harvest,
and engage to get one crop off one-third part of that
land within five years; and, as soon as that is accom-
plished, the land will be legally conveyed to them free
of any expense. He also said the government has large
quantities of land in Upper Canada, where the climate
is milder: the government price of cultivated land is
generally about five shillings per acre freehold. The
Canada Company has about one million acres to dis-
pose of in Upper Canada, which they offer on very fa-
vourable terms. Government requires cash payment
for the land they sell, but the Canada Company will
give credit to new settlers, by their paying six per cent
interest for the money, and give them the privilege to
purchase this land by instalments in any way they are
able; great encouragements are given to deserving set-
tlers in Canada, and the Canadians are very desirous of
having a great accession to their present population.
The government of Michigan, United States, had five
hundred thousand acres of land to sell when I was there.
I saw the agent, the price was one dollar and a quarter
per acre, payable (if the purchaser choose) in govern-
ment bonds, reckoned at par, which might then be had
at less than fifty per cent, which would reduce the price
of the land to about two shillings and sixpence per acre.
There is very good land there: apply to the govern-
ment land agent, at Jacksonville, on the railroad, Mich-
70 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
igan, about fifty miles from Detroit. There is a large
quantity of land to be sold in Illinois; and there are
also large tracts of land to be sold in many of the States,
that were bought by speculators during the speculative
mania a few years since, and are now being sold for the
payment of the arrears of state taxes upon them. The
only internal taxes they have to pay, are the municipal
taxes in the towns and cities, and a tax upon land
amounting to from about thirty-five to seventy cents
upon every hundred dollars' value of the land per an-
num: this pays the expenses of the state governments
and the education of the people. The federal govern-
ment is supported by the customs duties. I heard of
great numbers of estates and business establishments to
be sold, belonging to private individuals, in every part
of my journey. The Americans are a restless people,
always on the move ; they cannot endure to remain long
in one place, and are always travelling west: there is
just as great a rage for the west on the borders of the
Mississippi as there is in New York and Boston. I
found numbers of Yankees from the eastern States liv-
ing in wretched log cabins in Illinois, that were doing
well and saving money fast in Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, &c. In travelling by stage coach from St. Louis
to St. Charles, whilst stopping at an inn in a little vil-
lage to water the horses, I inquired of a farmer the
price of land there, and whether there was any to be
sold. "Yes," he replied, "there is plenty to be had here :
I have about one hundred and seventy acres, half of it
under cultivation." "What will you take for it?" "I
will sell it for ten dollars per acre, including the build-
ings, consisting of a log cabin, stables, &c." "How long
have you been here?" "About eleven years." "Why do
you wish to leave?" "I wish to purchase a larger lot
farther west: I have a large family, and this will not
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 71
be land enough for a farm for each of them, besides
which, my lads are getting into an idle way, hunting
and shooting a great part of their time, because I have
not work enough for them. The fact is we get our liv-
ing too easily; but if I can get a large farm of new land,
they will be obliged to work to clear it, and bring it into
cultivation." . .
(b) BY AN IRISH "PERPETUAL TRAVELLER"
Nine Years in America: by Thomas Mooney, a traveller for several
years in the United States of America, the Canadas, and other British
Provinces in a Series of Letters to his cousin, Patrick Mooney, a
farmer in Ireland, second edition (Dublin: James McGlashan, 21,
D'Olier-Street, 1850). Sold by all booksellers.
Extracts from pages 15-17, 18, 19-20, 21, 22, 27, 37-39, 91-92.
. . . Nor do they content themselves with learn-
ing one trade only. Most young mechanics learn two
trades, and that in half the time usually devoted to ac-
quire trades in Ireland; two to three years is about the
measure of time devoted to the study of a mechanical
branch in America. They labour hard in the day, and
they attend all kinds of lectures, instruction, and amuse-
ments in the evening. The young girls who work in
factories, or at trades in their own homes, pay superior
teachers for instruction in the light and more elegant
female accomplishments, such as singing, music, danc-
ing, drawing and languages.
The necessity imposed upon every one to obtain by
his or her own exertions a living, begets that industry
which pervades every American family. Every mem-
ber of the family will do something to contribute to
the family commonwealth: though the father may hold
a public office, the boys are ready and willing to do any
work which they know how to do to obtain money. I
have frequently had the advertisements for my lectures
posted on the walls of .a town, by the sons of printers of
newspapers, or by sons of sheriffs, jailors, or other pub-
72 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
lie men. Butchers serve out their meats -bakers their
bread -dairymen their milk -grocers their various
wares. On the other hand, the wealthiest men may be
seen returning from the public markets with various
articles of food, such as turkeys, legs of lamb, pieces of
pork or beef, or baskets of vegetables, in their hands.
A great share of the light manufacture of America,
is done by women in the farm-houses, especially in the
New England states. For instance, straw bonnets. There
are large straw bonnet establishments in New York and
Boston, which have their agents continually travelling
among the farm-houses. This agent drives a sort of van
or omnibus, and brings round bunches of straw plait,
and models of bonnets of the newest fashion. These he
leaves with the farmers' wives and daughters, all round
the country, who work up into bonnets, according to the
peculiar model, the plait so left. In due season the
agent returns with some more plait, and distributes it
to the straw-sewers as before, and receives up the bon-
nets, for the making of which he pays. All the females
of an entire district, including the doctors' and minis-
ters' wives, are engaged in this work. In another dis-
trict, where boot and shoe-making is carried on upon
a large scale, the upper parts of boots and shoes are sent
in bound into the farm-houses, where they are closed,
bound, and otherwise prepared by female labour, and
sent back in the same box by the stage coach, the wag-
gon, or the railway. In the getting up of clothing,
shirts, stocks, hosiery, suspenders, carriage trimmings,
buttons, and a hundred other light things, the cheap
labour of the farm-house is brought to the aid of man-
ufactures: every district has in it some peculiar branch
which is there successfully cultivated. The readiness,
too, with which females enter into the factories, into
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 73
the great book-binding and tailoring establishments -
contributes to make industry the leading idea of every
one -for the females of a nation form the nation. . .
Nor is it all work and no play with these republicans.
On the contrary, the boys and girls, of a family have
plenty of money of their own saving, and no people of
the world enjoy more public amusement. Lectures,
concerts, balls, pictorial exhibitions, theatricals, circus-
es, are to be met with in every village and hamlet.
Every swarming village has its reading room and "ly-
ceum," in which a course of public lectures is delivered
during the winter. Those lectures embrace all that is
interesting to the people, from the constitution of man
to that of steam engines. The people are passionately
fond of music and dancing, and all such amusements.
They dress gaily, and wear out their clothes very fast;
but they have a perpetual income from their industry,
on which they rely in full confidence to replenish their
wardrobes and their pockets. They keep their persons
very neat, very cleanly, and study much the art of dress.
I think they are the best dressed population in the world,
though it must be admitted that streaks of absurdity are
sometimes visible in their sumptual economy. . .
The American farmer, Patrick, never pays any rent.
When he takes a farm he buys it forever. If it be
what is called "wild land," he pays the government
about five British shillings an acre; and if he has no
money on his first settling, it makes little matter, pro-
vided the land be not taken up, or "entered" by another.
He goes on cultivating in perfect confidence, giving
notice to the nearest government office. Two, three, or
possibly seven years may pass over before he is called
upon to pay the purchase money. Even then, if he
should be so unfortunate as not to be able to discharge
74 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the claim, he still has a "squatter's right;" and if anoth-
er man has the hardihood, in face of public opinion, to
buy his farm over his head, then the buyer must allow
him for his "improvements," according to the valua-
tion of twelve sworn men.
In the state of Wisconsin there has recently been
enacted a law, denominated "The homestead exemption
law," which is, in my humble opinion, the wisest law
ever yet adopted by any nation to preserve the indus-
trious from the machinations of the idle, and prevent
the process of the pauper manufacture. It is this: A
farmer buys and cultivates a farm; it may be large or
small, 40 or 500 acres. He traffics and trades with the
world, and in the course of time becomes unfortunate;
his creditors come down upon his property with their
executions ; but this law interposes to an extent sufficient
to prevent the unfortunate farmer becoming a pauper.
It reserves from the grasp of the law the homestead;
that is, the farmer's house, barn, stables, ploughs, oxen,
waggons, farm horses, cows, pigs, poultry, furniture,
and forty acres of the land nearest to his dwelling. It
may be said this is unjust to creditors, but the answer
is at hand -the creditors are purchasers with notice.
The law presumes that no American farmer will seek
credit, and that no merchant or shopkeeper will give
him credit. When people have to pay out money for
what they want, or think they want, then do they begin
to value money, time, and labour. And when shop-
keepers require money for their wares, then it is very
likely they will do well, and not, as under the credit
system in Europe, make paupers, first of their custom-
ers, and lastly of themselves.
The Wisconsin homestead law has lately been adopt-
ed by two of the old states, viz., Vermont and New
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 75
Hampshire, and will, I am persuaded, be adopted by
the other free states. . .
The food of the American farmer, mechanic, or
labourer, is the best I believe enjoyed by any similar
classes in the whole world. At every meal there is
meat, or fish, or both ; indeed, I think the women, chil-
dren, and sedentary classes, eat too much meat for their
own good health. However, it is an error on the right
side, easily cured when discovered. The breakfast of
the common people is made up of coffee or tea, fish,
meat, butter, bread, potatoes, all on the table. Dinner:
meat and fish, potatoes, bread, pies made of apples or
berries of all sorts, indian pudding. Supper: tea, meat,
bread, hot cakes, &c.
This kind of diet, or "board," with lodging and
washing, can be had in the "mechanics' boarding hous-
es" in any of the cities of America (except those in the
south) at two and a half dollars a week (us. British)
for men, and one dollar and a half (6s. 6d. British) for
women. In the western states the same board and lodg-
ing can be had by the same classes for two dollars (8s.
6d. British) a week for men, and one dollar for women.
In the southern cities board is nearly double these rates.
From all these causes the value of common manual
labour is higher in the United States than in any other
part of the world. The average value of a common un-
educated labourer is 80 cents (35. 4d.) a day. Of edu-
cated or mechanical labour, 125 to 200 cents (55. to 8s.)
a day; of female labour, 40 cents (is. 8d.) a day.
Against meat, flour, vegetables, and groceries at one-
third less than they rate in Great Britain and Ireland;
against clothing, house rent and fuel, at about equal;
against public taxes at about three-fourths less; and a
certainty of employment, and the facility of acquiring
houses and lands, and education for children, a hundred
7 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
to one greater. The farther you penetrate into the coun-
try, Patrick, the higher in general will you find the val-
ue of labour, and the cheaper the price of all kinds of
living.
. . . The paupers in the whole United States are
under 50,000, scarcely one of which is to be found beg-
ging in the streets. The great bulk of paupers are found
in the alms-houses of the seaboard cities (named be-
low), and in the large and dense manufacturing towns;
the majority formed by the deposit from emigration,
or the excrescence of the factories, or the dregs of in-
temperance. These are fed in the alms-houses by a tax
on the citizens ; and the most of this pauper crowd are
Irish -the unfortunate appendages of the great annual
immigration from that country. In the interior the
paupers bear but the merest fraction to the rest of the
inhabitants. I have never found more than some 40 or
50 paupers in the sole alms-house of a town of eight or
ten thousand inhabitants ; and in the country or farming
districts, not over a dozen old people in the alms-house,
and these almost supported by their own cultivation of
the alms house farm. . .
. . . I will first suppose you are unmarried; if
so you can get on right well in the new world. If you
don't fall into work which you like, or are accustomed
to, you will get work of some sort. The lowest wages
going in the United States for a labourer's day's work,
is seventy cents, or about three shillings British money.
This would be eighteen shillings for a week; and you
can obtain good board, lodging, and washing for a little
less than ten British shillings, or two and a half dollars
a week. So that you will be able to save seven or eight
shillings a week to buy the farm, which farm you can
buy for five shillings an acre, and about which I shall
fully inform you as we go along. Remember that, if
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 77
you please, you can, as soon as you get into a regular em-
ployment, save the price of an acre and a half of the fin-
est land in the world every week! and in less than a year
you will have money enough to start to the west, and
take up an eighty acre farm, which will be your own
for ever. When you are in America six months, you will
become so .accustomed to their work, and generally so
handy, that you will get a dollar a day, or even some-
thing more, if you mind well your character and bus-
iness.
Let me next suppose you are married, but as yet with-
out children. In this case your chance is still better.
A "man and wife" will soon get employment in the
same family: the man in the laborious duties belonging
to his class, and his wife as an indoor help -not "ser-
vant," as such are styled at home. A female house ser-
vant is worth four to five dollars a month and board,
in any part of the United States ; and if she has any good
idea of cooking, or washing, and "doing up" fine wash-
ing- or will learn to do these things from her American
mistress, she will readily get six or seven dollars a
month and board. In all the British provinces of
North America, the wages of common labourers and
females is, as a general rule, one third less than it is in
the United States. There are some classes of mechanics,
however, who get as good wages in the British provinces
as the same kind get in the States, about whom I shall
hereafter speak.
Here then we will suppose your wife is putting up
at least four dollars a month, or about fifty dollars in
the year, which will stock the farm; and in one year,
or thereabouts, though you land here without a penny,
you and she will have enough wherewith to start off to
the west, where the land is good and cheap. This you
will do provided you do not drink your money, and that
78 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
she does not spend hers in the gew-gaws of the millin-
ers. Never mind costly dresses, Patrick, until you get
the farm, and have something from your own estate to
sell. Then dress as fine as your neighbours -and you
can do it then ; but in the meantime, always be cleanly
in your person -on working days as well as on Sun-
days. Shave off your heavy beard, and don't wear bushy
idle looking whiskers -cleanliness of face, shirt, and
well-mended working dress, are equal to the best writ-
ten character you could bring from Ireland -and rather
better, too, as you will find out in the course of a short
time here.
I will next suppose you have a wife and children,
large and small. In this case I confess I feel great diffi-
culty in giving advice. The cost of getting a family
over to the United States is nothing to the supporting of
them here. I speak now of young children from ten or
twelve years of age downwards. All healthy active
children above these ages can provide for themselves;
the girls as well as the boys can readily obtain employ-
ment either in families or in factories ; but the smaller
children will be a dead weight on you, like a millstone
round your neck, as long as you are earning wages from
week to week : but when you get the farm, Patrick, the
more children you have the happier you will be. How-
ever, in the beginning the smaller children will be a
very serious pull-back on your progress ; for if you bring
them out with you before you get the farm, your wife
will have to stay at home in some expensive lodging to
mind them ; and then all the money you can earn will
be required to support your idle wife and idle little
children, and you will hardly ever get one dollar to
overtake another; and there you will remain an unfor-
tunate town drudge all the days of your life, not much
better than you have been in Ireland. Thousands of
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 79
our countrymen, who were reared all their lives on
farms, and who never were acquainted with the vicious
life of cities, have, on arriving in America, nestled in
the filthy cellars and garrets, and have worked in the
nasty labour which is alone open to friendless strangers ;
and when they have earned a little money in this way,
instead of moving out in quest of a wholesome farm,
have married, and commenced a family in the midst of
poverty, vice, and sin, which family are subject to the
thousand evil influences of city life, and too frequently
disgrace the parent and the fatherland which gave the
parents birth. Remember then, that the American cities
are not the homes you seek for. Get out of them as fast
as you can, either on foot or otherwise. Face towards
the setting sun; take any work or job that offers as you
travel ; do this, and you will find at last the true home
you seek. . .
I may here safely lay it down as a general rule, once
for all, that clerks, drapers' assistants, shopmen, gro-
cers, newly arrived from Ireland, have very poor
chances of getting "situations" in New York, or in any
of the chief cities near the sea board. They must take
some secondary work to support them, and bide their
time, before they can find the place for which they are
suited. There are classes of mechanics for whom New
York and other Atlantic cities may afford the most cer-
tain employment, such as watch and timepiece makers
of the highest capacities, carvers and gilders, house
decorators, fine stucco men, fine tool and instrument
makers, silver workers, gold workers, upholsterers, first
class boot makers, first class tailors (cutters,) first class
hat finishers, slaters, barbers and hair dressers, who
have practised in London, Dublin or Paris, white-
smiths, fine engravers, especially on wood; fine orna-
mental stone cutters, horse-shoers, opticians, fine car-
8o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
riage-spring-makers, harness-makers, fine machine-
makers, founders in metals, fine leather-dressers and
curriers, sail, rigging, and rope-makers. All these can
probably do better in New York, Philadelphia, and
the other Atlantic cities north, as far as Portland, in the
state of Maine, and southward, as far as Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, than in the western interior. The wages for
most of those mechanics, always reserving that they
must be first class in their respective crafts, are two
dollars a day; it may be a shilling or two less, or a shil-
ling or two more, according to circumstances. Me-
chanics of second and third rate abilities will do far
better a thousand miles westward. So also will all
those who aim at getting good farms and living happy.
Labourers, small capitalists, females, young and old,
should never rest until they get back to the great west-
ern states.
2. IMMIGRATION
(a) THE VOYAGE
New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 2, 5, 1853
[December 2, p. 3] . . . Upon this deck the
"steerage passengers" will be conveyed to New- York.
The height between the two decks, is seven feet. This
space is however curtailed some three-fourths of a foot
by the beams which support the upper deck. How-
ever, as the law demands that "not less than six feet of
space shall intervene between the decks," we should not
grumble.
Between the fore and after steerages, a partition has
been erected. Formerly both sexes were lodged to-
gether, and sometimes men and women were placed in
the same berth, without regard to decency or consan-
guinity. By formerly, I mean not more than four years
ago. By a recent act of Parliament, the sexes are now
divided, the males occupying the forward and the fe-
males the after steerages. The law, however, is far
from being enforced, as I have shown in my second ar-
ticle. I shall have occasion to refer to this subject, at
greater length, in a subsequent article.
On this deck, extending the whole length of the ship,
440 human beings will eat, drink, and sleep; will pre-
pare food for cooking; will keep food for eating; will
dress and undress; cleanse and become filthy again, for
eight mortal weeks -56 days and nights.
We are now, after much rolling and tumbling, sup-
posed to be standing at the extreme end of the ship.
At our back are the stern windows, through which a
little light struggles; and when, as now, there is no
82 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
probability of the water dashing in, they are opened,
and a little wholesome air admitted. The width of the
ship at this point is hardly 28 feet; at the center she
swells out some 10 feet more. The steerage looks like
a long and gloomy tunnel, its roof broken at distant
intervals by hatchways, down whose shaft-like aper-
tures the light of day descends. Each side of this tun-
nel exhibits two ranges of shelves, the extreme ends of
which are lost in the murky distance. These shelves
are suspended from the upper deck by iron braces, and
designed to "accommodate" the passengers -they are
"the sleeping apartments." The berths are six feet in
length and 18 inches in width, with a partition six
inches in height between every four berths. The sleep-
ers lie athwart ship, with their head to the center of the
vessel. I have said the sleeping spaces are 18 inches
in width, but at the foot the width for four persons is
not more than five feet, the space is so curtailed by the
ship's knees, which jut out at regular intervals all along
the vessel. The berths are composed of common pine
boards. When the ship arrives in New- York they are
taken down by the carpenter, and stowed away for the
use of the next "outward cargo." From the deck to
the bottom of a berth is about 18 inches, from the bot-
tom, of a lower berth to that above it is two feet and a
few inches, and the same from the bottom of the top
berth to the deck above. Thus people sleep in two lay-
ers, on each side of the ship, as close together as it is
possible to stow them. There is no attempt at classi-
fication; the vicious and the virtuous lie side by side
in the steerage of an emigrant ship.
It will of course be imagined that an ample supply of
fresh air makes up for the density of the packing. . .
With such a heterogeneous mass of luggage, it would
be very difficult for air, if supplied ever so liberally, to
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 83
have a free circulation; but as the quantity furnished
is exceedingly limited, the atmosphere of the steerage
is always fetid.
All the light admitted into the steerage finds its way
through the hatchways, stern-ports and a few side-ports.
The air is admitted from the hatchways and down three
tubes, or chimney-like pipes, called "ventilators."
These tubes run through to the spar-deck, where their
open mouths are faced to the wind. The diameter of
each is about twelve inches. By such means all the
light and air is supplied which 440 "2 ics. or 3 pas-
sengers" are supposed to require, or at any rate are en-
titled to. . .
The Government Inspector has gone below with the
Captain, I presume to fulfill the duties of his office.
That is to inspect the stores of water and provisions, and
to certify that all the requirements of the law have been
complied with. Presently they return from the cabin,
apparently on very friendly terms with each other. The
uninitiated would imagine that the business of inspect-
ing the stores and arrangements of so large a ship would
require a long time, but it occupied less than an hour.
It is rumored that the biscuit, flour, oatmeal, and sim-
ilar stores have been inspected, and their quality and
quantity certified to from neat samples displayed in the
cabin. Further, that generous wine, and stimulating
brandy was provided there, to take off the raw chill of
the morning; and that a bank note for iohas been mys-
teriously secreted among the officer's papers ; which sin-
gular circumstance he does not discover until the ship
has got her clearance papers signed, and has put to sea.
Of course, he resolves to return it when she again ar-
rives in the port; but of course the matter escapes his
memory, amid the multitude of circumstances of sim-
ilar singularity.
84 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
I do not say that such rumors are facts; but I do as-
sert that I have heard the second and third officers of
the ship jest over the matter, and "reckon our skipper is
a smart fellow," when she had been to sea but 30 days,
and the allowance of water was curtailed one-half. . .
[December 5, p. 3] . . . It will have been ob-
served by all who have ever gone down into the steer-
age of an emigrant ship, even after it has been cleansed
and purified and fumigated in the best manner, that
there always remains a sickening, death-like odor, ex-
ceedingly nauseous and unwholesome. This is the re-
sult of the absorption of putrid animal matter by the
timber of the ship. The reader will suppose himself on
board the emigrant ship, and ten days out from Liver-
pool. This sickening smell in the steerage has become
absolutely poisonous. The impregnated timbers, quick-
ened by the animal heat of so many human beings
crowded into the vilely-ventilated steerage, exude a
clammy, pestilential sweat, rendering the air doubly
deleterious to health, and the emigrants ripe for the
ravages of contagious disease. . .
To turn to matters more to the point, the first con-
sideration among the passengers on arising in the morn-
ing would naturally be cleanliness. But for that pur-
pose salt water must be used -fresh was too scarce and
valuable. Salt water can only be procured by ascend-
ing two long and slippery ladders, and scrambling to
the bow of the ship, where a salt-water pump is situ-
ated. No washing apparatus is provided, but the pas-
senger has the privilege of setting his wash-bowl upon
the deck and performing his ablution as best he may.
After this necessary operation has been gone through,
breakfast is the next consideration. The passenger has
just left the noisome steerage and inhaled pure air; he
must again descend, and from the depths of his provision
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 85
chest or barrel find something for his meal. But this
food is unfit to eat; it has absorbed the putrid flavor
of the steerage atmosphere; and, instead of possessing
nutritious properties, is disgusting to the stomach and
deleterious to health. Perchance, if he is very poor, his
food will consist mainly of oaten cake or oat meal por-
ridge. In many instances I have known the emigrant
forced to use his meal bag as a pillow, because the pers-
piration from his skin was less objectionable than the
reeking filth of the steerage deck. If he has to make
oaten cake he is forced to knead it upon a barrel head,
or the top of a box, and these, in the absence of seats,
have to serve for that purpose also. After this tasty
preparation, it involves a struggle of hours to get the
meal cooked, and even then it is often too filthy to be
eaten with open eyes, and too nauseous to be retained
upon the stomach. . .
Every morning water was served out. Every morn-
ing each passenger that would use it must go for it.
Accordingly at the call of the carpenter away the pas-
sengers would hurry to get their cans. These vessels
for holding water are all purchased of the ship chand-
ler, in Liverpool; in shape they are similar to a var-
nish can; are made of the poorest apology for single tin,
and leak with singular freedom. During the first few
days after a ship leaves port the passengers are gener-
ally sick, and not having had the precaution to secure
their property, it rolls about in every direction, and of
course sustains much damage. That will probably ac-
count for the diversity of shape, and the entire absence
of symmetry in these water cans. The water is carried
in the ship's hold, beneath the deck of the steerage.
Every passenger is therefore compelled to descend to
this disgusting region, and slip and slide about until
he receives his allowance. The carpenter is the pre-
86 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
siding genius over the dispensing of this and the solid
necessaries of life. He compels several of the male pas-
sengers to descend into the hold and serve out the wa-
ter. They insert a small pump into a hogshead of water,
and pump the fluid into a tub. The carpenter sits upon
a chest or barrel on the steerage deck, and takes a board,
upon which has been marked the several numbers of the
passengers, and calls each from the commencement.
The can is passed below, the water measured from the
tub, and poured into it, and then returned to the owner.
As each person is served, the carpenter inserts a pin in
the number of his berth.
This mode of serving out water is attended with great
waste, and the passengers never receive a full three
quarts. I here unhesitatingly assert that from the time
the ship left Liverpool, until she arrived in New York,
none of the passengers, as a rule, received more than two
quarts of water, instead of "three," as demanded by law
and stipulated for by the passage contract. The car-
penter, to whom was entrusted the duty of serving the
passengers with water and provisions, was the vilest
ruffian that ever disgraced humanity. . .
(b) THE ARRIVAL
New York Daily Tribune^ July 14, 1853, p. 3.
. . . It is well known to the writer of this article,
and I doubt not to a majority of the people of these
United States, that most of those who emigrate hither
for the purpose of becoming citizens, are of the honest,
industrious and confiding class, who suppose they are
coming to a land of freedom, where at least their first
entrance into this City would bt met with honesty on
the part of those into whose hands they first fall, be-
fore leaving for their new and western home. Such, I
am sorry to say, is not the fact. Their very first recep-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 87
tion, and in many cases even before leaving the good
ship that has labored and brought them to our shores,
they are beset by a set of the most unprincipled scamps
(emigrant runners) that ever disgraced any city; and
through falsehood and deception, are made to believe
that they are the agents of railroads and captains of
steamboats. They then take them to some booking
house, where the same falsehoods and swindle is gone
through with; tickets sold, and in many instances three
prices paid, and the poor emigrant fleeced out of $12
or $14 in the second class fare to St. Louis. These are
every day occurrences, and not isolated cases. When
will these things be looked into by the proper author-
ities? Has not the Legislature the same power to enact
a law prohibiting the sale of such tickets, as well as
prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets and policies? One
is as much a swindling or gambling operation as the
other, and just as sure of usurping and ruining the mind
and morals of men and youth. Any person conversant
with forwarding of emigrant passengers for the last
ten years, can plainly see the deleterious influence upon
the morals of those engaged either as runners or bookers,
as they are called, as well as upon the neighborhood in
the immediate vicinity. Respectable ladies cannot go
in the vicinity of these booking-houses, without having
their minds shocked by the recital of the most profane,
vulgar and obscene language from the by-standers and
hangers-on of these places. In any other city but this
such things could not be; the proper authorities would
arrest its progress, and the evil be abated.
There is no necessity for these booking-shops; the
public good does not require them; the very tickets are
worthless unless exchanged by the regular constituted
agent before leaving the City. Thus you see the poor
but unsuspecting emigrants are yearly robbed of tens
88 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of thousands of dollars by these booking-houses, under,
I had almost said, false pretenses. And I would re-
spectfully ask under what head it does come, if not
false pretense? And I would again ask, of what earthly
use are they to any one but themselves? Surely not to
the emigrant; for in addition to the extra charge for
tickets, they make an enormous extra charge for extra
baggage, which they also claim and collect, and thus
again they rob the poor and unsuspecting emigrant, and
even females with children do not escape their fangs.
For the sake of justice and humanity towards these
unsuspecting strangers who come among us, let the
whole community rise in honest indignation, and com-
pel these booking-houses to discontinue their unholy
traffic, and go into an honest and honorable calling. B.
(c) ATTITUDE OF AMERICAN LABOR
Voice of Industry (Fitchburg, Mass.), Oct. 9, 1845. "Progress of
Monopoly."
We copy the following item from the Lowell Journal.
"Two hundred workmen from England arrived at the
Iron Works at Danville, Penn., where they are to be
employed."
The above few lines contain an important lesson for
every workingman and woman in America, they clearly
exhibit to the unbiased, investigating and reflecting
mind, the onward rapid strides of the great, deep-root-
ed inhuman monster system of capital against labor,
which is fast devouring every tangible and valuable
right that belongs to the working classes of this country,
as moral, physical and intellectual beings, capable of
filling the land with an abundance, and generating
peaceful industry, virtue and happiness. . . The
democratic republican capital of this country, which
has been so amply fortified against foreign despotic
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 89
capital by the suffrages of American workingmen ("all
for their especial benefit;") says there are not enough
"free, independent and well paid" workingmen and
women in this country; consequently foreign operatives
and workmen must be imported -no tariff on these! no,
no, it wont do to protect the capital of American work-
ingmen and women (their labor) against foreign com-
petition! for this would be anti-republican. But, "pro-
tect the rich capitalist and he will take care of the la-
borer."
Now the capitalists of the Danville Iron works wish
to protect themselves against these "disorderly strikes,"
by importing a surplus of help ; the Lowell capitalists
entertain the same republican idea of self protection,
the Pittsburg and Alleghany city capitalists, whose
sympathies, (if they have any,) have been recently ap-
pealed to, wish to secure themselves against "turn-outs"
by creating a numerous poor and dependant populace.
Isolated capital everywhere and in all ages protects it-
self by the poverty ignorance and servility of a surplus
population, who will submit to its base requirements -
hence the democratic or whig capital of the United
States is striving to fill the country with foreign work-
men-English workmen, whose abject condition in their
own country has made them tame, submissive and
"peaceable, orderly citizens;" that is, work fourteen
and sixteen hours per day, for what capital sees fit to
give them, and if it is not enough to provide them a
comfortable house to shelter their wives and children
and furnish them with decent food and clothes, why,
they must live in cellars, go hungry and ragged ! - and for
this state of things, capitalists are not answerable. O!
no-"they (the laborers) aint obliged to take it- they
are free to go when they please !" . . .
90 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Working Man's Advocate, March 23, 1844.
THE NATIVE AMERICAN PARTY. What has given
rise to the new party now organized in this city and
two or three other places, under the above name? Evi-
dently, an influx of foreign labor into a market already
overstocked. The existence of this conspicuous evil is
clearly the motive of those who form the body, the rank
and file, of the Native American Party. The officers
and leaders of the party, who are chiefly composed of
the disappointed office seekers of the other parties, are
incensed against the foreign population for the very
disinterested reason that their occupation of office seek-
ing has been encroached upon by adopted citizens.
Another truth connected with this subject is, that both
of the old parties have, to curry favor with the foreign
born interest, freely dealt out to them the bribe of petty
offices, in order to secure their influence and votes for
offices of more importance.
This state of things has very naturally led to the for-
mation of the Native American Party. The body of the
party, the suffering working classes, smarting under the
effects of competition, and justly incensed to see foreign-
ers promoted to office merely because they are foreign-
ers, are led on by men to expect a distribution of the
city offices as a reward of victory. . . Let no work-
ing man be deluded with the idea that, even could the
measures of the Native American Party, the exclusion
of foreigners from the polls and from office, be accom-
plished, one cent would be added to their daily pittance
or one hour's labor more secured to them. . . The
plain and simple remedy for the real evils complained
of by the Native Americans is, to free the country from
the curse of speculation in land and let the people go
and cultivate the people's farm.
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 91
(d) VIEWS OF A GERMAN COMMUNIST
Folks Tribun (New York), May 9, 1846.
DIE ZUNEHMENDE ElNWANDERUNG AUS DEUTSCH-
land. Mogen auch die hartherzigen Aristokraten dies-
es Landes mit verbissenem Ingrimm den neuen An-
kommlingen aus Deutschland entgegensehen, die in
immer grosseren Schaaren an dieser Kuste landen,-
mogen auch selbst deutsche Zeitungschreiber es ver-
suchen, den vielfach eingeschiichterten Arbeitern die
zunehmende Einwanderung als ein Ungliick darzustel-
len, alle achten Republikaner in Amerika emfangen die
gequalten Fliichtlinge mit offenen Armen, denn sie
wissen, dass, wer durch den Druck des Despotismus ge-
zwungen ward, seinen heimischen Heerd zu verlassen,
eine tiichtige stiitze der Demokratie werden muss.
Aber freilich, wenn alle diese armen Arbeiter be-
stimmt waren, sich in den Stadten gegenseitig in Wege
zu stehen, wenn man ihnen nicht die Mittel geben
konnte, sich selbst und die Ihrigen mit ihrer Hande
Arbeit zu ernahren und fur alle Wohlstand zu erzeug-
en-dann miissten wir bei jedem ankommenden Aus-
wandererschifl heisse Thranen, denn jedes brachte uns
neues Elend und neuen Jammer, jedes verminderte den
Lohn und vertheuerte die Lebensmittel. Und was sollte
denn am Ende aus uns werden? Miissten wir nicht zu-
letzt erbarmlich verhungern, trotz Demokratie und Re-
publik? Eigensinnige Menschen, die Ihr seid, wollt
Ihr denn nie einsehen lernen, dass Ihr die Mittel in den
Handen habt, Euch und alien den ungliicklichen Ein-
wanderern auf einmal zu helfen? Wollt Ihr denn nie
einsehen lernen, dass Ihr nicht zu verhungern braucht,
so lange Ihr noch zu essen habt, und dass Ihr Euch
reichlich zu essen schlaffen konnt, so lange Ihr noch
unbebautes Land habt, und Hande, es zu bearbeiten?
92 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Werdet doch endlich verniiftig und gebraucht Eure
gesunden Sinne, Euch gliicklich zu machen. Behaltet
fest in den Handen, was Ihr habt und lasst Euch nicht
auch noch den letzten Rest vor der Nase wegstehlen-
Ihr seid doch wahrhaftig nach gerade genug bestohlen.
Sagt den Spekulanten: "Hande weg von unserem Land,
was noch unser 1st, soil unser bleiben, und von jetzt an
wollen wir es der Arbeit aufheben zu freiem Ge-
brauch-wir wissen jetzt, dass wir uns von Eurem Bank-
noten nicht satt essen konnen, wir gebrauchen andere
Nahrungsmittel, und die miissen erzeugt werden, da-
rum behalten wir den Boden, damit wir sicher sind,
nicht Eure Leibeignen zu werden ! n
1st erst der Boden frei, da wird jeder redliche Ar-
beiter, der seine alte Heimath verlassen, um in der
f reien Luft auf dieser Seite des Ocean's ein gliicklicher-
es Leben zu fiihren, ein Segen fur unsere Republik, und
wir konnen jedes AuswandererschifT mit tausend Freu-
denschiissen willkommen heissen, denn Arbeit giebt's
die Hiille und Fulle, und je mehr producirende Hande,
desto mehr Wohlstand.
[Translation of the above.]
THE INCREASING IMMIGRATION FROM GERMANY.
While hard hearted aristocrats of this country may,
with suppressed rage, look forward to the new arrivals,
who in ever greater numbers land on these shores from
Germany, and while even German editors may try to
represent to the overtimid working men this increasing
immigration as a misfortune, all staunch Republicans
in America will receive the distressed fugitives with
open arms, for they know that whoever has been com-
pelled by the oppression of despotism to leave his na-
tive hearth must become a valuable support to dem-
ocracy.
But if, indeed, all these poor working men were des-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 93
tined to be in each other's way in the cities, if they could
not be given the means to support themselves and fam-
ilies by the work of their hands and to assist in produc-
ing general prosperity, then we might well shed hot
tears at each incoming immigrant ship, for each would
bring so much new misery and new sorrow, each would
decrease the wages and raise the price of provisions.
And what would become of us in the end? Would we
not miserably starve in spite of democracy and repub-
licanism? Self-willed people, as you are, will you then,
never learn to comprehend that you have the means in
your hands to help yourselves and all the unfortunate
immigrants at the same time? Will you never learn to
realize that you need not starve, so long as you still
have something to eat, and that you can get plenty to
eat so long as you have uncultivated land and hands to
cultivate it? Grow wise at last and use your sound
sense, to make yourselves happy. Hold fast what you
have, and do not let the last remnant be stolen away
before your eyes, for truly you have been robbed
enough. Say to the speculators, "Hands off of our land,
what is still ours, shall be ours, and from now on we
shall reserve it for honest labor and free use -we know
now that we can not satisfy our hunger with your bank
notes, we need other means of sustenance and these must
be produced, therefore we shall keep the soil, so that
we may be assured, that we will not become your bond-
men!'
If once the soil is free, then every honest working
man, who leaves his old home in order to lead a happier
life in the free air on this side of the ocean, becomes a
blessing to our republic, and we shall be able to wel-
come every immigrant ship with a thousand guns, for
work gives abundance, and the more producing hands,
the more wealth.
94 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(e) EFFECT ON CLASS FEELING
The Harbinger (Brook Farm), July 3, 1847, p. 51.
TRIP TO VERMONT. . . No one of the social ten-
dencies of this State is more striking than that re-
lating to labor. There has been within fifteen years,
almost a complete revolution in this regard. Time
was, when the sons and daughters of farmers deemed it
no disgrace to labor for wages on a neighbor's farm
or in his domestic employment. The employer consid-
ered himself in no way superior to the employed; they
stood on a basis of equality, and regarded each other
with mutual respect. Now it is among the rarest things
to find the son of a farmer, or even a native of the State,
working by the month or by the day upon a farm, and
it is equally rare to find a farmer's daughter perform-
ing domestic service in a neighbor's family, and if any
are found doing it, it is because they can command un-
usual wages, and at the same time feel that they do not
compromise their social standing. It was little thought
when it commenced, that the employment of Irish and
Canadian helps would so soon accomplish such a revo-
lution. But would employers give $12 per month, and
$i per week, for the help of their neighbors' sons and
daughters, when they could get far more compliant and
servile ones for half the money, and with a little instruc-
tion equally skilful? And would those who had former-
ly performed this labor, continue to do it, when attend-
ed with such a reduction of wages, and when their so-
cial standing was affected by it? The Irish girl and
Canadian were not treated as equals. They were not al-
lowed to eat with their employers, were never allowed
to entertain company in the parlor, and go to parties
with the sons and daughters of the farmer; and here
was a distinction odious, and till then unheard of,
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 95
broadly and clearly drawn between the farmer and his
helps -between the employer and the employed. This
was a language, whose significance could not fail to be
understood, by those who had formerly officiated in the
capacity of hired men and girls. To be a "hired man"
or a "hired girl" was no disgrace, but to be a mere
"help" was odious and abominable.
Moderate farmers instead of seeing, as formerly,
their daughters securely and honorably employed in a
neighbor's service, watched over, and cared for, as chil-
dren and friends, now see them quitting home, friends,
and paternal guardianship, to throng the factories of
Manchester, Lowell and Andover. . .
3. THE NORTHERN NEGRO
New York Daily Tribune, March 20, 1851.
CONVENTIONS OF COLORED PEOPLE. There is now in
session in this City a Convention composed entirely of
colored citizens. The object of the Convention is to
consider the present condition of the Negro race, and
to devise means for its improvement. On Tuesday eve-
ning, Dr. J. McCune Smith read a report from the
Committee on the Social Condition of the Colored
Race. It was an elaborate document, containing a great
many curious facts. The first question discussed was,
whether the colored people should endeavor to organize
themselves in the City, or devise a plan of settling in
the country. The report made, considers the subject:
The advantages about city life with us are, that a larger number
of us can be within short distances of each other, and thereby may
easily organize without such disadvantage as would grow from the
same number being banded in a single county.
We get a large amount of friction without being so condensed
as to be reached by a law for removing us from any rural locality -
such laws as expatriated Indians and Mormons. We can be, if we
will, much better provided for in the matter of education in the city
than we could in the country. We can, if we choose, throw vastly
more trade of our own and of other people, in the way of each other
in the city, than we could in the country.
The disadvantages of our City life I mean those peculiar to us,
for all city life is, after all, a kind of hot-house forcing of human
beings -are the following:
1st. Our lives are much shortened. Look at the preponderance
of widows and children among us. They so far exceed the calami-
ties of mere sickness, that our benevolent societies have been obliged
to cut off the widows and orphans, in order to help the sick.
2nd. Next, the seductions of the City - policy gambling, porter
houses, with their billiards and cards, create a gang of lazaroni of
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
97
both sexes, women hastening through the streets, with their bonnets
untied; men, shirtless and shoeless, hanging round the corners, or
standing, walking, gutter-tumbling signs which our foes call the
type of our condition.
3d. City life shuts us from general mechanical employment;
while journeymen in the cities refuse to work with us, and colored
bosses have either too little capital, or too little enterprise, to bring
up and employ apprentices and journeymen.
4th. From the necessity of seeking employment in the city, as ser-
vants, porters, &c., our manhood is, in a measure, demeaned, lowered,
kept down ; and I doubt much whether manhood flourishes very much
among citizens of any class.
5th. The enormous combination of capital, which is slowly in-
vading every calling in the city, from washing and ironing to palace
steamers, must tend more and more to grind the face of the poor in
the cities, and render them more and more the slaves of lower wages
and higher rents.
No sane man can doubt, from this or any comparison of the kind,
that country life is the better choice for our people; not consolidated,
isolated country life, but a well mixed country and village life. The
matter of education, the great disadvantage of country life, might
be remedied by concert of action.
As to the practicability of removing to the country, it was argued,
that savings might be effected by the two thousand colored families
in the city, in a rigid economy of house-rent and fuel, enough to estab-
lish a bank, which would soon colonize the entire class. The topic
was first illustrated in the matter of house-rent thus:
In the rear of No. 17 Laurens-street, is a back lot which cost
$2,500; on it are erected two buildings, which cost $6,OOO, Total,
$8,500. Interest on which, at 7 per cent, is $595 ; and add for taxes,
insurance and wear $100, making full cost $695 per year. These
two buildings are occupied by twenty colored families, who pay an
average of $7 each per month; that is $1,680 per year. Here is a clear
profit to the landlord of $985 per year, above interest and expense.
Here then, in the single item of rent, twenty families are paying
enough to fit out two families a year most amply and abundantly for
the country.
Again: If those buildings were owned by a colored Savings In-
9 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
stitution, whose surplus funds should be devoted to setting up colored
young men on farms, such institution, after paying depositors six per
cent would have a splendid surplus for starting farmers or men in
others business. If we take a larger view of this matter of house
rent, the results are amazing. According to the above estimate, each
one of the twenty families in the rear of 17 Laurens-st. are paying
$37 per year too much for house rent.
There are some 2,500 colored families in New York and its vicin-
ity; say that each family pays only $10 a year too much for house
rent, and that these families could, by organization, retrench and
accumulate that sum per year, and we would save, in this one item,
$25,000 per year!
In respect to the use of fuel, it was also shown, that it is next in
importance. Our 2,000 families consume at least two and a half tons
coal each year per year, making 4,500 tons. At least two-thirds of
these 2,000 families buy their coal by the bushel or peck, thereby pay-
ing $2 per ton more than the market price, which is a sacrifice of
$6,000 per year. Then, if these 2,000 families combined to buy their
own coal at the wharf, they could save, by purchasing cargoes, $i
on each ton, at least, which is $10,500. Allowing the hire of a coal
yard at $800 per year, and the pay of two good clerks at $800 each,
there would be a clear gain of $8,100 in the single matter of coal,
if we would thoroughly organize the matter.
By similar calculations, it can be shown that we could easily save
$20,000 on groceries and food, and $10,000 on wearing apparel;
beside setting up in successful and commanding business such men as
are capable, intelligent and trustworthy.
In order to accomplish these, the report proposed the
establishment of a mutual bank, in which all the deposi-
tors should be at the same time stockholders, and which
should have power to buy and sell real estate, to dis-
count paper, to lend money on bond and mortgage, and
to deal in merchandise. The Doctor, after concluding
the reading of the report, said that there were $40,000
or $50,000 belonging to colored people invested in sav-
ings banks in Wall-st., and he then presented the follow-
ing resolution:
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 99
Resolved, that a Committee of three be appointed, with power to
present the form of a Mutual Savings Institution, embracing the
matters of house rent, fuel and other domestic wants, and that one of
the conditions of membership of said institution shall be a pledge to
abstain from policy-gambling.
A discussion of the subject at great length took place,
in the course of which fearful revelations were made of
the extent of policy gambling among the blacks, and
the resolution adopted.
4 . EXTENSION OF THE AREA OF
COMPETITION
Federal Union, April 15, 1845; quoted from the Georgia Banner.
Brother Mechanics of Georgia, and especially of our
own Village : The Mechanics of all kinds in this coun-
try are injured by rail roads to some extent. They are
brought single handed to compete with those large man-
ufacturing establishments in the Northern States and
foreign countries, where labour is worth comparatively
nothing, brought in opposition by the aid of steam and
the rail roads as it were in your own village, by the
transportation of the manufactured articles of all kinds,
and sold at your own shop doors at reduced prices by
your own merchants, and bought by your own farmers
from whom you expected patronage. Is this not one of
the main causes why your villages are not flourishing,
the houses vacant, and in a delapidated condition, your
academies destitute of teachers, destitute of pupils? It
certainly is one of the main causes why Mechanics are
reduced to poverty not being able to build up our towns
and cities or to educate their children so as to make them
respectable members of society. Brother mechanics,
this is not as it should be -then rouse up from your leth-
argy, go drooped down and depressed no longer, come
forth in your might and power, and at once as it were,
you will be able to correct the evil. You should form
yourselves into large and permanent manufacturing
companies. With our skill and enterprise you may soon
rear up in your midst, manufacturing establishments of
various kinds to manufacture those very articles that
afford a considerable item in the commerce of the coun-
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 101
try, make your towns and villages soon become flourish-
ing, affording a great market for surplus products,
raised by the farmers in our own midst, and as all classes
will feel the benefit in a short time it will be but a little
while before your business will be profitable to your-
selves and the country in which you live. I might be
asked to suggest some plan to give the above suggestions
a permanent and practical notice to the community at
large. One that I would mention is that it should be
the business of every mechanic of every branch of bus-
iness, to apply himself closely to his business. Let that
be his daily employment instead of, as is too often the
case, quitting his shop, taking the streets, becoming a
street politician, a dandy, or a drunkard. Remedy those
three evils and the work is half accomplished.
A MECHANIC.
5. THE BANKING SYSTEM AND THE
MERCH ANT-C APITALI ST
Public Ledger (Philadelphia), Jan. 30, Feb. i, 1841.
[January 30, p. 2] ... We will suppose the
State of Pennsylvania without banks or manufacturing
corporations, and yet with a population as intelligent,
industrious and enterprising as the present. A mechan-
ic, without money, wishes to buy leather for making
shoes. What are his resources? His intelligence, in-
dustry and integrity, which will surely procure credit
with the tanner and dealer in leather. A jobber or re-
tailer wishes to commence business in Philadelphia.
What is his capital? The same as that of the shoemak-
er, and which will certainly procure credit from the
importer or jobber. A merchant or mechanic would
establish a manufactory, and has not sufficient means.
What is his expedient? Union with others in a partner-
ship, combined with credit founded upon their intel-
lectual and moral capital. Does either of these begin-
ners need a bank? Certainly not. The dealer in leather,
the importer, who represent the rich, will trust the shoe-
maker and the retailer, who represent the poor, upon
no other security than intelligence, industry and integ-
rity; and the operation of the system enriches the poor
without impoverishing the rich. We will next suppose
the establishment of a bank, which, upon a capital of
one million of silver dollars, issues two millions of dol-
lars in paper. Who are the borrowers? The wealthy
importer, the extensive manufacturer, or jobber, or
ship owner, and not the poor mechanic or retailer; the
rich, and not the poor; those who can dispense with
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
103
credit, and not those who need it. What is the conse-
quence? These men with means already ample, thus
augmented, drive all smaller competitors out of the
market, and monopolize its business. An importer, with
a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, can more
easily borrow fifty thousand of this bank, than any one
of ten importers, each having a capital of ten thousand
dollars, can borrow five thousand ; and thus his business
is increased by one half, and theirs diminished in the
same ratio; and the system still proceeding, and the one
growing richer and the ten poorer, the one finally mon-
opolizes the importing, and drives the ten into other
business. Such is the natural tendency of one bank,
which can be counteracted only by a multiplication of
banks, that will finally produce overtrading and revul-
sion. Thus the system, carried to a certain extent, pro-
duces monopoly, and this mischief can be counteracted
only by pushing it to the greater mischief of revul-
sion. . .
[February i, p. 2] But the banking system has great-
ly augmented the number of mere laborers, mere oper-
atives, in proportion to the whole population. If twen-
ty-five men are employed in making and selling shoes
to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, at a
profit of twenty-five per cent, buying leather on credit,
each one's share of profit is one thousand dollars. If
one can borrow one hundred thousand dollars of a bank,
he can buy leather cheaper for cash, supply the same
market with shoes at a profit of twenty per cent, drive
all the rest out of business as makers and sellers, convert
them into his own journeymen, and make a profit of
fourteen thousand dollars, after paying six per cent in-
terest on his borrowed capital. Has this been the opera-
tion of the banking system? All the wholesale shoe deal-
ers in High street will tell us that in this business the
104 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
number of journeymen, mere operatives, and who must
always remain such, increases in a far greater ratio than
the master workmen, or those who combine selling with
making. The same may be said of any other business
which is still conducted by manipulation, or without
labor-saving machinery.
6. THE AUCTION SYSTEM
Public Ledger, Sept. 4, 1843, p. 3; Sept. 8, p. 2.
To the Manufacturers of Cabinet Ware: Being a
journeyman in the trade, it is with much regret I con-
tinually see advertisements in the daily papers, calling
the attention of the public to sales of Cabinet Ware, as-
serted to be from the best manufactories of this city.
I often ask myself how it can be possible that any em-
ployer can be so ignorant of his own interest as to be the
means of encouraging the sale of their own work by
such a ruinous practice -for it is well known that the
prices of the different kinds of Furniture sold at auc-
tion, are far below the first cost. His own interest de-
mands that he should not countenance the public sales,
and more particularly he should look to the interest of
the large number of workmen employed in the making
of the articles sold at such a miserable sacrifice. Al-
ready, by a gradual reduction of the price of labor, the
journeymen are reduced to the necessity of laboring
from 12 to 14 hours per day to gain a mere subsistence.
The continued practice of sending Furniture to Auc-
tion, will and must lower the price of labor, now so low
that the common necessaries of life can scarcely be ob-
tained by the workman. I now ask (in the name of all
the Journeymen Cabinet makers) the employers of this
city to send no more of their Furniture to Auction. If
your necessities are such as to make it necessary for
you to raise money on your goods, do so by selling from
your Warerooms at reduced prices -even by that meth-
od you will save, at least a per centage of ten dollars
per hundred, and have the chance of being able to se-
106 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
cure a better set of customers than you can possibly ex-
pect at Auction. I have understood from various sourc-
es that a large sale of Furniture is contemplated to take
place in the course of this week, at the Masonic Hall.
If such is true I hope all the manufacturers of Cabinet
Ware will keep their Furniture from it. I feel confi-
dent if they will do so, it will be eventually for their
own benefit, and for the good of the numerous body of
journeymen employed in the trade. One of many Jour-
neymen Cabinet Makers- WILLIAM H. QUIRK.
To THE PUBLIC : In reply to an article signed "A
Journeyman Cabinet Maker," we, the undersigned,
would inform the Journeymen and the public in gener-
al, that the Auctioneers of this city are not supplied with
any article of Furniture direct from our warerooms,
either for the purpose of contributing to their sales, or
for the sake of supplying "our necessities." We are
well aware that the different Auctioneers are in the
habit of parading our names before the public when-
ever they happen to get some article of our manufacture
in their auction rooms. That they happen to get some-
times a piece or two of our manufacture is true. In the
course of the year we sell some thousands of dollars
worth of Furniture to unknown individuals, and it
would indeed be very strange if some of our Furniture
did not find its way into an auction. But as for saying
we supply the auction direct from our warerooms we
deny it in the most unequivocal terms.
We also feel sorry to confess that it is true the wages
of the journeymen are low. It is not our wish to op-
press and impoverish an industrious set of men, far from
it; our wish is to do right, and in our best endeavors to
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 107
do so we have injured ourselves; we have always paid
fair prices for our work, and will yet continue to do so.
We may also here mention, that the chief cause of the
wages of the journeymen being now so much reduced
is in a great measure owing to the Journeymen them-
selves.
Some years ago, when the trade was brisk, the Jour-
neymen made out (and we agreed to it) a certain rule
to govern the price of their labor; it continued in force
until, from the hardness of the times, and the general
scarcity of money, we were compelled to ask, and in fact
insist on a reduction in the prices of making all of the
articles sold by us. The offer was instantly rejected by
the men, and they, with the view of compelling us to
accede to their demands, commenced working for a set
of individuals who manufactured a kind of Furniture,
so miserably made, and so poorly finished, that an auc-
tion room was the only proper place to have it exhibited
and sold. This small fry of employers, to enable them-
selves to sell their work cheap, actually gave the jour-
neymen much lower wages than we offered. But, not-
withstanding this, they continued working for such, and
thereby were the direct cause of supplying the very auc-
tions that they now complain of. In the course of time
the prices given by these men became, in a great meas-
ure, the standard price of labor, and now the conse-
quences to the workmen are very plain.
If the Journeymen will look calmly on their own in-
terest, and to the state of the trade, they will at once see
whether it is not better for them to work for a regular
place of business, than to be the means of encouraging
a set of men, who, for the most trifling profits, would
willingly sacrifice the interests of the whole trade of
Cabinet Makers.
io8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
In conclusion, we beg leave to inform the Public,
that none of our Furniture will ever be found in an
Auction room, coming direct from our warerooms.
RICHARD PARKIN, MOORE CAMPION, CRAWFORD
RIDDELL, A. MILLER & Co., THOS. ROBERTSON,
AN'Y QUERVELLE, THOS. P. SHERBORNE, CHAS.
H. & JNO. F. WHITE.
7. THE PRINTERS
Report of the Committee of the Printers' Union on the State of the
Trade, from the New York Daily Tribune, May 22, 1850, pp. i, 2.
The Committee appointed by the "Union" to Inquire
into and Report on the State of the Trade in this City,
respectfully submit the following:
That this Report is prepared in accordance with a
vote of this Union confirming a resolution to the follow-
ing effect:
RESOLVED, that a Committee of Seven be appointed
to take into consideration the state of the Trade, and
have power to draft a Scale of Prices, and report as
soon as possible, which was submitted by one of the
members and unanimously agreed to at a regular meet-
ing held on Saturday, April 6, 1850.
The Committee would here observe, that if the ob-
ject of this Union was to represent the state of the Trade
in its worst aspect it could hardly have selected a more
unsuitable time, inasmuch as the Trade is at present in
a state of prosperity, rare even at this time of the year,
and unexampled at any other; yet even now, when the
prospects of the journeymen are brighter than they us-
ually are, and when all are willing to forget past trial
and suffering in the present, and few care to look far
into the future, your Committee have facts and figures
to report, which fully justify this Union in instituting
this inquiry, and demands some immediate measures at
their hands to remedy the evils which these facts and
figures prove to exist.
Your Committee have received returns from eighty-
two printing-offices in this City; these returns embrace
no AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
all the daily papers, most of the weekly journals, &c.
together with the principal book work and jobbing of-
fices, and some few of the smaller ones; but we have
reason to believe the total number of printing-offices in
this city is not less than one hundred and fifty.
The Committee believe that the worst features of the
Trade are to be found in the smaller offices, holes and
corners, where boys do the work which men are want-
ing, and at half, or less than half, men's wages. There
are a considerable number of these places scattered
about the City, and although the amount of work done
in each is small, the aggregate is considerable, and the
effect is alike injurious to honorable employers, and to
workmen. From this class of offices we could get no
returns which were reliable, and we preferred to omit
them altogether, rather than use such as might prove
fallacious.
Thus, then, we think that we have a right to say that
this Report presents only the best aspect of the Trade,
and that we are warranted in saying that if such are the
best features of the Printing business, it is quite time
that all who feel an interest in it should be up and do-
ing, to remove the evils under which it at present labors.
In the 82 offices from which we have received returns,
there are employed about 850 journeymen and 300 boys ;
and the nearest estimate we can form of the entire num-
ber of persons employed in the printing business in this
City is over 2,000, who may be classified thus :
Foremen 150, Compositors 1,000, Pressmen 200, Boys
at case 600, Boys at press 100, girls at press 100; total,
say 2,150.
In this Report we shall confine our observations
chiefly to the Journeymen and Boys.
Your Committee will now proceed to point out some
of the chief evils which affect the Trade.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1 13
And first, of the Rate of Pay: we find that there is
only one Office which pays 32 cents per thousand, and
six which pay 30 cents ; 23 from which they gradually de-
cline downward to 17 cents. This last is not a common
price, but we think we are only doing an act of simple
justice in referring to one considerable Office which em-
ploys journeymen at this price, (or less, if their neces-
sities are sharp enough to compel them thereto,) and
gives them the most solid matter, even at that. But al-
though 17 cents is not a common price, 23 cents per
thousand is, and we would ask if that is a fair compen-
sation for the toil, both mental and bodily, which a
Printer must undergo? Allowing for time lost in wait-
ing for letter, copy and proofs, in correcting extra
proofs, and other unavoidable delays, compositors do
not average over 5,000 per day, which will bring (not
quite) $7 per week; and when the price of food, the ex-
pense of fuel, clothing and other necessaries and the
enormous rate of house rent is considered, who will say
that even the most prudent can save any portion of his
scanty earnings for the time of sickness or debility, or to
provide for his family when he shall be removed from
among them.
It may here be objected that all are not paid so low,
some get good wages, etc. We admit it; but if we
understand the objects of this Union aright, and more
particularly in its direct action in ordering this Report,
it is, that all who are capable of doing a fair day's work
should have a fair day's wages for doing it.
To prevent any misconception on this subject, your
Committee will now show what is the average earnings
of our craft.
23 Since this Report was submitted to the " Union," the proprietors of an-
other Office (Daily) have voluntarily advanced their prices to thirty-two cents
per thousand.
1 1 4 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Our statistics tell us that in five of the best paying of-
fices in the City, that is to say, in those offices where
men are able to earn the most money, the men average
at the rate of $12.50 per week; but our statistics also
tell us that those offices are Daily Paper offices, where,
from the nature of the work, they are obliged to offer
extra pay to tempt the very best hands in the trade to
labor an average of 16 hours per day, and to expose
themselves to certain premature old age, and probable
early death. If proof of this were wanting, your Com-
mittee could point to a certain office (which is not a
whit more unhealthy or badly managed than others)
where they reckon to lose, that is, to kill, one man every
eighteen months or two years. But those men whom
we are addressing must have had more or less experi-
ence in these matters, and they will not for a moment
dispute it ; to those who have not, we will only say, we
sincerely hope they may never have such experience.
We come now to the second class. These are the best
workmen on the Evening and Weekly papers, and in
the best Book work and Jobbing offices. The Compos-
itors get from 25 to 29 cents per thousand, and the
Pressmen from $8 to $10 per week, or an average of $9
per week, when they are in work; for it must be remem-
bered that the printer is as subject to the fluctuation
of trade as any other tradesman; and even when in
work, if he has not to wait for fine weather, he has to
wait for copy, for letter, for proofs, for sorts, and for
many other things, each of which, taken separately, is
trifling, but the total of which makes itself seen and felt
in the week's earnings.
Let us now consider the condition of the third class -
those whom circumstances compel to work in the mean-
er kind of book and job offices, and whose compensation
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1 1 5
varies from 17 to 25 cents. These men get the lean,
solid "dig;" and truly it would be better for them to dig
dirt! In the fresh, pure air, with the sun shining bright-
ly above, and the cheerful sounds and pleasant scenes
of nature all around them, they could not but be hap-
pier than they are, buried in "the office" from "earliest
dawn to dewy eve," even if they did earn a little less,
and had less to spend in excitement.
But what do these men earn? Our statistics show
that when in work their average earnings do not exceed
$6 per week! which is literally less than laborers' wages.
It must also be remembered that this class (which is by
far the most numerous,) are more frequently out of
work than any other; owing to circumstances to which
we shall presently allude, they are to be had at any
time, and in any quantity, thus great numbers of them
are only "taken on for the job," and when the job is
completed they are discharged, to be out of work per-
haps longer than they were in. It will be at once per-
ceived that this precarious description of employ re-
duces their earnings to a miserable pittance indeed; it
deprives them of all the comforts and many of the neces-
saries of life, and renders life itself a mere existence,
hardly worth the struggle necessary to maintain it.
We believe it was chiefly to raise this lowest class
of our fellow-workmen, that this Union was formed;
and it was to expose the evils under which they labor,
and by bringing the light of public opinion to bear
upon them, to cause them to melt away before a more
liberal policy, that this Report was ordered and pre-
pared ; and we have no hesitation in saying, that if this
class of the working Printers will exert themselves in
this matter as they should do, great and permanent ben-
efits will inevitably ensue.
n6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Your Committee would here state, that from the best
returns which they have been able to procure, there is
an average of 300 men out of work, all the year round.
Another evil which presses heavily upon the work-
men, is, Bad and Irregular Pay. In this respect New
York is better than it has been, but there is still plenty
of room for improvement; and we feel convinced that
we have only to point out this evil and (in some cases)
it will be remedied. In the returns in the hands of
your Committee, the offices marked as "Bad Pay," that
is, offices in which the workmen are doubtful if they
will ever get their pay, are but few; but those marked
"Irregular," are quite too numerous. By "Irregular" we
distinguish those offices which have the means of pay-
ing in full every week, but preferring their own inter-
ests to those of their employees, "pay once a fortnight,"
and then pay only in part, and always in Country Bills.
A word or two on the "Good Pay," that is, those of-
fices which pay in full, every Saturday, and in Gold,
Silver and in good Bills which are taken in the way of
trade, whether City Bills or not. Most of the Daily
Papers, many of the Weeklies, and some few of the
Book and Job Offices, come under this head, and they
are now sufficiently numerous to make the "Irregular"
paying offices appear the more odious, and the men who
work in them the more discontented thereat.
The workingman generally knows by sad experience
that if he does not receive his money when it is due, he
must go for what he wants on credit, and he also knows
that when he gets things on credit he either gets worse
articles, or he pays more for them, than if he purchased
them for cash. This makes him discontented, he con-
siders himself wronged, and defrauded of his "hard
earned penny fee;" and it is ten to one if his employer
does not in the long run lose more by his workman's
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 117
concealed dissatisfaction than he has gained by the
wrongful use of his money.
There is another practice which prevails in some of-
fices, and to which, as it causes much dissatisfaction, we
think we should not be doing our duty if we did not
direct your attention; we allude to the unfair distribu-
tion of copy.
This Committee does not allege this as a general
thing; quite the reverse, but we have returns before us
which show that the practice is carried on in some of-
fices to an extent to which we can only apply the word
Disgraceful. Without going very far, we could point
out an office, in which all the Poetry, and work of like
character, is given to the two-thirders, the leaded mat-
ter to the hands on time, while the solid invariably falls
to the piece hands.
In other cases it assumes the shape of Favoritism, and
certain men who are noted for their amenity of man-
ners, and plasticity of sentiments, to the Foreman, al-
ways get the fat, while others, men who think civility is
preferable to servility, have to take the refuse.
These and a variety of minor grievances, react on the
employers in a way, which as they do not always feel
the effects immediately, they are too apt to overlook;
although they are sure to find it out (to their cost) in
the long run. We allude to the fact, that every now and
then one of their best and steadiest workmen, worn out
and disgusted by continual toil, and the scanty remuner-
ation he receives, makes a great effort, and getting to-
gether a few materials, he goes to work for himself.
Here, then, is another rival, another competitor for
"public patronage," and it is a long odds but he re-
pays the wrongs which he had received from his former
employer, by getting away some of his custom, by under-
bidding him.
n8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Many of these small employers, after using any and
every means to keep themselves afloat, (and injuring
the trade as much as they are able) , go down ; and either
return to the ranks, or leave the city to try elsewhere;
but there are more who keep up, and for many years
hang about the skirts of the trade, picking up stray jobs
here and there, taking them for any price they can get,
and occasionally entering into competition with the
larger employers, sometimes succeed in reducing his
prices, without in any way benefiting themselves.
All these evils might have been avoided by the em-
ployers pursuing a more liberal policy towards their
employees. There are few working men who would
risk the toil and cares of "an employer," and the prob-
able failure, and the loss which that failure necessarily
involves, if they were satisfied with their present situa-
tion. If employers would look this matter in the face,
and endeavor to make those who suit them satisfied with
their present situations, there would be less Printing
Offices, but more paying ones.
Having thus pointed out some of the most prominent
evils which afflict our trade, it may not be deemed inex-
pedient to point out some of the chief causes of them,
so that knowing the causes, we may be the better able
to apply an efficient remedy.
That the supply of any article always regulates the
price of that article, is an axiom seldom disputed; and
that this axiom applies to labor, as much as to anything
or marketable commodity, few will be disposed to deny.
Thus, when, there can be no dispute, that the present
low rate of wages is the natural consequence of the su-
perabundance of labor in the market, and your Com-
mittee are of the opinion that this superabundance of
labor is chiefly caused by the present wholesale system
of putting boys to the business, for we cannot call it ap-
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1 19
prenticing them, an indentured apprentice being almost
(if not quite) unknown in New York City.
Let us briefly state how boys are usually brought into
the business, and how the thing works: An employer
has taken a work at a very low rate, (to prevent some-
one else getting it at a fair rate,) and, to make it pay,
he must take on two or three extra boys. Very well-
some of the boys about the place are asked "How would
they like to work at case, and have all they can earn?"
California on a small scale rises on their enraptured
vision, and another hour sees them mounted on a type
box, with "stick" in hand, busily engaged in putting a
case in pi. The first six hours it is fine fun for them-
the next six days it is a perfect nuisance to them, and
they are a perfect nuisance to all around them -within
the first six months they become remarkably clever, and
after that it is doubtful whether the employer would
profit or lose by their running away.
The novelty of the thing is now over; it is all labor,
and they soon get discontented with the pittance they
receive, and hearing that others get more than they do,
they run away, there being nothing to prevent them,
and great facilities for travel. They soon get work at
one half or two thirds of their earnings, (this sort of
lads are sure of work from those selfish employers who
care not what means they use to accomplish their end,)
and after working a few years for a fraction of their
earnings, they are thrown out of employ to make room
for fresh victims of the cupidity of the employer.
This system is continually going on; boys going from
one office and from one part of the country to another,
are objects of no solicitude to anyone. The employer
says, "If they stay with me, good- 1 shall get so much
out of them; if they go away, I must get so many more
in place of them," The workman's only interest is
120 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
against them; it is not likely that he will take any pains
to make them good workmen, lest they should cut his
own throat hereafter; so the literally unfortunate boy
learns little or nothing during the time he is (supposed
to be) an apprentice, and unless he happens to have in-
tellect enough to learn the printing business in a hat
factory, he bids fair to be turned into the trade as a bad
workman, and thus, in another mode, inflict a fresh
and more permanent injury on the trade, as we shall see
hereafter.
No practical Printer will dispute the fact that there
are a great number of young men "just out of their
time," who know nothing beyond mere composition,
and have, in fact, to learn their trade when they are
journeymen. Your Committee have information of boys
having been put to a work when they first went to the
business, and never worked on any other until they were
out; they never made up a page, or imposed a form-
hardly corrected their own matter. When these young
men became (by the lapse of time) journeymen, what
were they fit for? Just what they are! the means of
cutting down the wages of better workmen than them-
selves, by giving mean employers the excuse, "Oh! we
can't afford to give more to such inferior workmen,"
and "Oh! we can't give more to one than to another, it
would cause such constant grumbling and dissatisfac-
tion in the office."
Beside these evils, which may be considered as in-
direct, the great number of boys taken into the trade
acts directly in keeping men out, and in bringing far
more men into the business than is necessary for the
work there is to do.
Let us give an illustration of each of these modes of
direct injury. One illustration shall serve for both.
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1 2 1
There is a large Office in this City which has been
established many years, and has turned out an immense
quantity of cheap and some very good works. The em-
ployers have made large fortunes by the assistance of the
industry and intellect of working men. They are re-
ligious men ; they are accounted honorable men, and the
friends of the working classes ; and we sincerely believe
they are so, where their interests and the interests of the
working classes do not clash. Nay more, we sincerely
believe that the principals of this establishment are more
the friends of the working man than some of their un-
derlings ; and that they are willing to do more for them
than those who have just left the ranks, we are willing
to admit. But what is the state of this office? Our
statistics show that there are 20 boys to 23 men em-
ployed in their composing department.
Now if we give 20 years as the average life of a
Printer after the expiration of his apprenticeship, and
five years as the average term which these boys serve,
we shall find that by the time the 23 men are removed
from "the struggle of life," there are 80 to replace them,
and although the printing business has increased great-
ly of late years, yet we have no right to expect that it
will ever increase in that ratio.
If we reckon that three of these lads do about two
men's work, then we also remember that these 20 boys
keep 14 men out of work all the time, and thus do a
double injury to the journeymen ; first, by keeping him
out of work at present, and second, by lessening his
chance of work for the future.
Your Committee cannot help thinking that if this
matter were fairly laid before this and other similar
establishments, the employers might be induced to make
a considerable change in this matter, more especially if
122 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
we could show (as we propose presently to do) that
boys are not so profitable to their employers as many of
them imagine.
Nor need employers fear that any restrictions which
they might make in their offices, would ever have the
effect of causing a scarcity of hands, or a difficulty in
procuring a sufficiency of men to do the work in any
emergency which might arise. There are always enough
boys brought into the trade by country offices, and the
holes and corners to which we before alluded, to amply
supply the cities, and a trifle over.
Before quitting this most important part of our sub-
ject, we would say a few words as to the profit derived
from boys' labor. Your Committee do sincerely believe
that if employers, who are conscientious men, could
really know the time that is lost by men, on time, in in-
structing them, (where they are instructed,) in correct-
ing their errors, in preventing and repairing their mis-
chief or neglect, and in making good their deficiencies ;
the injury done to, and frequently wanton waste of ma-
terials ; the room they occupy, and the very inconsider-
able amount of work done by them, when on time -they
would not inflict such a positive and serious injury on
their workmen for such a very trifling benefit to them-
selves.
There is another point of view in which the boy sys-
tem appears a positive loss to the large employers. It
is this: By their taking such a number of boys, they
sanction and uphold a system which injures them (in
proportion) as much as it does the journeymen; for let
them take as many boys as they will, the small employ-
ers will take more, (proportionately,) and let them pay
as little as they may, the small employer will pay less.
Our statistics show us that one of these small employers
(small in every respect) pays his boys one dollar per
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 123
week, while another rewards their overwork (hours
stolen from the season of their natural rest) with the
munificent sum of 6% cents per thousand!
Such offices as those we previously alluded to can
never compete with such holes and corners as these lat-
ter. They would be ashamed to offer such prices, and
ashamed to employ those who would take them.
Then why not unite with us to put down this infam-
ous system, a system alike injurious to all who wish to
act honestly, and receive a fair compensation for either
the capital employed or the labor bestowed? It is to
the interest of every printer to keep his profession a
little above starvation mark; and this can only be done
by using every means within his power to put down the
present system of reckless and desperate competition.
Another cause of the present low rate of pay is the
great number of bad and floating workmen with which
our city abounds. We have already pointed out how
some of these are brought into the trade, and how they
operate to reduce prices; but New York has not all this
evil to answer for; a great number of bad and floating
workmen come to this city from all parts of the Union,
and the World; and these latter form the very worst
kind of workmen, for as they generally come nearly desti-
tute of resources, and quite destitute of friends, and as
unfortunately they must eat and sleep somewhere, they
fall easy victims to those who are always on the look out
for such, and take anything that is offered them. These
extreme low prices then become "the established scale
of prices" in that office, and if any good and respectable
workman be forced, by adverse circumstances, to work
therein, he must also succumb, or be out of work when
he can least afford it.
But perhaps the chief cause of the present low rate of
remuneration, and all the other evils which affect our
124 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
trade, is the unaccountable apathy and indifference of
the workmen themselves. To describe it minutely would
be a work of supererogation; all must be aware of it-
most must feel it in themselves; and we might pass it
altogether if it were not for the hope that some might
be aroused sufficiently to awake to the necessity of speak-
ing out now, or forever after holding their peace.
In this hope your Committee would respectfully but
earnestly ask every journeyman printer, First, If the
statements in this Report are not strictly true? Second,
If the present state of things is desirable, or as it should
be? Third, If he expects that it will get better of itself,
or that employers will make it better for our especial
benefit? Fourth, If he has any right to expect that his
fellow workmen are to do all the work, that he may reap
the benefit without even putting forth his hand to help
or assist? Fifth, Or rather, if he is not determined that
from this moment he will devote all his best energies to
the regeneration of his once honored, and always honor-
able, (because in the highest degree useful) craft, and
strive to work out its salvation, without fear or trem-
bling, but with the fixed resolution to leave the trade at
least a little better than he found it?
If the Journeymen Printers will do this generally,
each one for himself, and quite irrespective of "What
are the others going to do?" our work will be easy, and
our triumph complete. Remember that the assistance
we ask is so small on your part, and so replete with bene-
fits to yourselves that it is directly to your interest to
render it. We recommend no Strike; on the contrary,
we deprecate all violent measures. Our weapons must
be Moral Suasion, and combined and vigorous Action,
by ourselves and for ourselves. If they wish good to
themselves, let them come up with us and help us.
Your Committee having thus pointed out the more
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 125
prominent grievances of the Trade, and what they con-
ceive to be the chief causes of them, will now endeavor
to indicate such remedies as appear best calculated to
eradicate them.
We will first speak of the immediate or present rem-
edies, and afterward of what we believe to be the only
ultimate and real remedy, for the evils which must al-
ways exist, to a greater or lesser extent, in the relations
of employer and employe.
First, a uniform Scale of Prices. The advantages of
the general adoption of such a Scale would be : To the
Journeymen it would secure a uniformity of payments,
which would render his earnings a matter of certainty
instead of doubt. Under such a Scale his remuneration
would depend on his own exertions instead of the office
in which he might happen to work, and it would pre-
vent that heart-burning and discontent which he cannot
help but feel when compelled to labor for less than he
has been acustomed to receive.
To the honorable Employer such a Scale would be of
still more value, as its tendency would be to destroy the
present system of competition, which not only cuts down
Journeymen's wages, but also Employers' profits. If
all were compelled to pay one uniform price for the
same kind of labor, all would be on an equal footing in
their attempts to get work; and their respective success
and profit would depend on their own energy, skill, and
business capabilities, rather than on their capability
of screwing down men to the lowest possible price, and
filling their offices with boys.
Second, by Reducing the Number of Apprentices.
This should be done by the mutual agreement of the em-
ployers and the men. The employers might get rid of
their worst boys, and employ good and efficient men
(who would earn their money) instead. Those boys
126 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
who are kept, should be bound by Indenture, or legal
instrument, which would compel them to serve a cer-
tain number of years at the business. They should be
placed, at the commencement of their time, under some
experienced workman, who should have some interest
in the proficiency of the Apprentice, and who would
then do his best to make him a good and capable work-
man, fit to go into any office.
Your Committee believe that such an arrangement as
the above would be advantageous -To the employer, by
giving him a few good steady Apprentices, on whom he
could depend while in his office, and of whom he would
not be ashamed when they went out of it. To the men,
by reducing the number of boys, and making those who
are to be their fellow workmen more fit to be so. And
to the Apprentices themselves it would be of incalcul-
able benefit; for instead of having to wander from of-
fice to office, picking up, here a little and there a little,
of that knowledge and information which is now always
given grudgingly, and as though it were a direct rob-
bery of the men, they would then be regularly bound to
some respectable employer, who would be bound to
teach them (or cause them to be taught) their trade.
They would be placed under the care and instruction
of some experienced workman, who would feel an in-
terest and take a pride in their welfare and proficiency.
They would be recognized by all who knew them as
having a right to work at the business; and when they
had completed their term of apprenticeship, they would
have their Indenture to serve as a certificate of their
right to work at the business wherever they might go.
Third, the Establishment of Chapels in the Offices.
The "Chapel" is the best and least objectionable mode
of regulating the internal affairs of the Office, and set-
tling disagreements between employers and men which
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 127
can possibly be devised. The "Chapel" is a meeting of
all the Journeymen (and the Apprentices in the last
year of their time), who elect one of their number as
"Father," who presides over their meetings, and (ex-
cept on extraordinary occasions), acts as their spokes-
man. The Chapel may meet at certain fixed times, or
may be called together in the office at any time, or in
any emergency, by the Father (or by two or three Jour-
neymen signifying their wish, or the necessity for a
Chapel,) to consider and settle any business which may
arise which concerns the men generally.
Employers who might object to the general body of
Printers legislating for "their offices," cannot reason-
ably object to their own workmen, (who are immediate-
ly concerned,) meeting together, and having a voice in
matters in which they have so great an interest.
To the men, too, it is of the greatest importance, for
it is well known that many things may be corrected and
satisfactorily adjusted, when it is known to be the wish
of all, which would be utterly neglected if mentioned
by one or two. As an illustration of this, your Commit-
tee are of the opinion that "Irregular Pay" might very
soon become "Good Pay," in most Offices, if the men
would unitedly lay the matter before the employer.
Unfair Distribution of Copy and Favoritism might
also be adjusted in the same way; and a number of other
grievances, which might prevail in certain Offices,
might thus be corrected by the men working in those
Offices, without going out of them.
The Chapel should also frame a set of rules for the
government of the men in the Office, for the prevention
of unfair conduct toward each other; and ordain a
Schedule of Fines, to be levied for the infraction of the
rules. Such fines to be appropriated as the Chapel
might direct. Such laws being made and enforced by
128 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the men themselves, and being for their own benefit and
comfort, would be more strictly observed than any
could be which were made by the Employer.
"The Chapel" is a very old institution, dating its ex-
istence from the first Printing Office established in Eng-
land, which was in a Chapel (from which it derives its
name) attached to Westminster Abbey. It is in uni-
versal use in all large towns and cities in Great Britain,
where it is of the greatest service in settling the internal
affairs of the Office, and its authority is seldom ques-
tioned or defied.
Chapels were in general use in New Orleans a few
years since, where they also exercised a most beneficial
influence on the trade, but owing to a variety of causes,
they have dwindled away considerably of late, and
prices have dwindled with them.
Fourth, the Efforts of this Union with the Employers.
Your Committee are decidedly of the opinion that many
of the grievances which the trade at present labors un-
der, might be removed or mitigated, by a respectful
and reasonable remonstrance to the Employers, made
through a Committee of this Union. Your Committee
in the course of its labors has found a disposition to
adopt any measures calculated to benefit the trade, quite
as general among the Employers as among the men.
Several have already expressed a readiness to pay any
Scale of Prices which the Trade may adopt, provided
its adoption be general ; and we are of opinion that if a
fair and reasonable Scale of Prices is adopted by this
Union, there are very few among the fair and honorable
Employers who will refuse to be governed by it.
Fifth, the Efforts of the Men. This, which should be
the first, we have placed last, for the simple reason that
we feel the greatest difficulty in knowing what to say
on this subject. To your Committee it appears strange,
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 129
nay, perfectly unnatural, that there should be any ne-
cessity to say anything to urge men to attend to their
own interests; and it is only by observing the short-
sighted view which working men generally take of their
own interests that we can account for the fact that men
will go early and stop late; that they will toil and work
themselves to death for others' interests; and yet will
not bestow an hour or two once in a fortnight for their
own ; they will be continually grumbling at what they
term wrongs, and yet will never make a single effort to
remove them.
If your Committee thought it necessary, or that it
would be conducive to the interests of the Trade, they
would here introduce a whole string of claptrap and
stereotyped maxims, with which "leaders" are wont to
amuse the people, such ,as, "Who would be free, them-
selves must strike the blow." "Union is strength," etc.,
but they do not; and they will simply observe to their
fellow-workmen, that if they want a thing done, they
must at least help to do it. If they want their wagon
out of the rut it is in at present, they must put their
shoulders to the wheel, for we are quite certain that it
is only those who help themselves who either are, or de-
serve to be helped.
Such are the means which your Committee recom-
mend for the present or temporary relief of our Craft.
The ultimate and only radical cure, we believe to be,
the Establishment of Joint Stock Printing Offices, or in
other words, Printing Offices owned and worked by
practical working-men -Offices in which all the men
who work in them shall have an immediate and pecun-
iary interest; Offices, in short, where every man shall
feel that he is working for himself, and not for another.
That such Offices can be established by the combined
efforts of workingmen, the workmen of France in a con-
1 30 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
siderable number of instances, and the workmen of Ger-
many, England and latterly of America, have proved:
and that they can be efficiently and profitably conducted,
might be positively asserted, (even if we had no exper-
ience to guide us,) from some simple and undeniable
facts -facts on which we would recommend all to pon-
der; namely, that all large establishments have to trust
to workingmen for the proper working of all the de-
partments; that nearly all large establishments were
originally small ones ; and, that the most successful and
best conducted Offices in this city, are conducted by
those who were originally workingmen!
If these propositions can be denied, our whole design
falls to the ground, our whole labor is vain, and work-
ingmen must be contented to be the slaves of capitalists
forever; but if it be true that workingmen can success-
fully conduct business for others, then we assert that
they can conduct it as successfully and even more profit-
ably for themselves. The question now arises, will they
do it? It is for themselves to answer.
It is for us now briefly to recapitulate the main points
of this Report, and close.
Thus, then, your Committee report that notwith-
standing the state of the Trade is much better now than
it usually is, there is a great and just cause of complaint
of-
The exceedingly low rate of pay; irregular and bad
pay; unfair distribution of Copy, and Favoritism; the
great number of boys ; bad and floating workmen ; the
apathy and indifference of the workmen.
And they recommend as Present Remedies: a uni-
form Scale of Prices; the reduction of the number of
Boys; the establishment of Chapels; the efforts of the
Union with the Employers ; the efforts of the men. For
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 131
an Ultimate Remedy: The establishment of Joint Stock
Printing Offices by the Workingmen.
And now regretting that this Report could not have
been rendered more complete in its statistics, and more
worthy of your acceptance in all its features, it is re-
spectfully submitted to you.
HENRY J. CRATE, EDWARD CUTTLE,
C. WALTER COLBURN, H. A. GUILD, W. L. STUBBS,
RICHARD CROOKER, WM. KILDARE.
May 1 8, 1850.
8. THE FACTORY SYSTEM
(a) A VISIT BY AN ASSOCIATIONIST
The Harbinger, Nov. 14, 1846, p. 366.
. . . We have lately visited the cities of Lowell
and Manchester, and have had an opportunity of exam-
ining the factory system more closely than before. We
had distrusted the accounts, which we had heard from
persons engaged in the Labor Reform, now beginning
to agitate New England; we could scarcely credit the
statements made in relation to the exhausting nature of
the labor in the mills, and to the manner in which the
young women, the operatives, lived in their boarding-
houses, six sleeping in a room, poorly ventilated.
We went through many of the mills, talked partic-
ularly to a large number of the operatives, and ate at
their boarding-houses, on purpose to ascertain by per-
sonal inspection the facts of the case. We assure our
readers that very little information is possessed, and no
correct judgments formed, by the public at large, of our
factory system, which is the first germ of the Industrial
or Commercial Feudalism, that is to spread over our
land. . .
In Lowell live between seven and eight thousand
young women, who are generally daughters of farmers
of the different States of New England ; some of them
are members of families that were rich the generation
before. . .
The operatives work thirteen hours a day in the sum-
mer time, and from daylight to dark in the winter. At
half past four in the morning the factory bell rings, and
at five the girls must be in the mills. A clerk, placed as
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 133
a watch, observes those who are a few minutes behind
the time, and effectual means are taken to stimulate to
punctuality. This is the morning commencement of the
industrial discipline- (should we not rather say indus-
trial tyranny?) which is established in these Associa-
tions of this moral and Christian community. At seven
the girls are allowed thirty minutes for breakfast, and
at noon thirty minutes more for dinner, except during
the first quarter of the year, when the time is extended
to forty-five minutes. But within this time they must
hurry to their boarding-houses and return to the factory,
and that through the hot sun, or the rain and cold. A
meal eaten under such circumstances must be quite un-
favorable to digestion and health, as any medical man
will inform us. At seven o'clock in the evening the fac-
tory bell sounds the close of the day's work.
Thus thirteen hours per day of close attention and
monotonous labor are exacted from the young women
in these manufactories. . . So fatigued -we should
say, exhausted and worn out, but we wish to speak of
the system in the simplest language -are numbers of the
girls, that they go to bed soon after their evening meal,
and endeavor by a comparatively long sleep to resusci-
tate their weakened frames for the toils of the coming
day. When Capital has got thirteen hours of labor
daily out of a being, it can get nothing more. It would
be a poor speculation in an industrial point of view to
own the operative; for the trouble and expense of pro-
viding for times of sickness and old age would more
than counterbalance the difference between the price of
wages and the expense of board and clothing. The far
greater number of fortunes, accumulated by the North
in comparison with the South, shows that hireling labor
is more profitable for Capital than slave labor.
Now let us examine the nature of the labor itself, and
I 3 4 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the conditions under which it is performed. Enter with
us into the large rooms, when the looms are at work.
The largest that we saw is in the Amoskeag Mills at
Manchester. It is four hundred feet long, and about
seventy broad; there are five hundred looms, and twen-
ty-one thousand spindles in it. The din and clatter of
these five hundred looms under full operation, struck us
on first entering as something frightful and infernal, for
it seemed such an atrocious violation of one of the facul-
ties of the human soul, the sense of hearing. After a
while we became somewhat inured to it, and by speak-
ing quite close to the ear of an operative and quite loud,
we could hold a conversation, and make the inquiries
we wished.
The girls attend upon an average three looms; many
attend four, but this requires a very active preson, and
the most unremitting care. However, a great many do
it. Attention to two is as much as should be demanded
of an operative. This gives us some idea of the applica-
tion required during the thirteen hours of daily labor.
The atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be
pure; on the contrary it is charged with cotton fila-
ments and dust, which, we were told, are very injurious
to the lungs. On entering the room, although the day
was warm, we remarked that the windows were down;
we asked the reason, and a young woman answered very
naively, and without seeming to be in the least aware
that this privation of fresh air was anything else than
perfectly natural, that "when the wind blew, the threads
did not work so well." After we had been in the room
for fifteen or twenty minutes, we found ourselves, as
did the persons who accompanied us, in quite a perspir-
ation, produced by a certain moisture which we ob-
served in the air, as well as by the heat. . .
The young women sleep upon an average six in a
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 135
room; three beds to a room. There is no privacy, no
retirement here; it is almost impossible to read or write
alone, as the parlor is full and so many sleep in the
same chamber. A young woman remarked to us, that
if she had a letter to write, she did it on the head of a
band-box, sitting on a trunk, as there was not space for
a table. So live and toil the young women of our
country in the boarding-houses and manufactories,
which the rich and influential of our land have built
for them.
The Editor of the Courier and Enquirer has often ac-
cused the Associationists of wishing to reduce men "to
herd together like beasts of the field." We would ask
him whether he does not find as much of what may be
called "herding together" in these modern industrial
Associations, established by men of his own kidney, as
he thinks would exist in one of the Industrial Pha-
lanxes, which we propose. . .
(b) FACTORY RULES
Handbook to Lowell (1848), p. 42-44.
REGULATIONS TO BE OBSERVED by all persons em-
ployed in the factories of the Hamilton Manufacturing
Company. The overseers are to be always in their
rooms at the starting of the mill, and not absent unneces-
sarily during working hours. They are to see that all
those employed in their rooms, are in their places in
due season, and keep a correct account of their time and
work. They may grant leave of absence to those em-
ployed under them, when they have spare hands to sup-
ply their places, and not otherwise, except in cases of
absolute necessity.
All persons in the employ of the Hamilton Manufac-
turing Company, are to observe the regulations of the
room where they are employed. They are not to be
136 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
absent from their work without the consent of the over-
seer, except in cases of sickness, and then they are to
send him word of the cause of their absence. They are
to board in one of the houses of the company and give
information at the counting room, where they board,
when they begin, or, whenever they change their board-
ing place; and are to observe the regulations of their
boarding-house.
Those intending to leave the employment of the com-
pany, are to give at least two weeks' notice thereof to
their overseer.
All persons entering into the employment of the com-
pany, are considered as engaged for twelve months, and
those who leave sooner, or do not comply with all these
regulations, will not be entitled to a regular discharge.
The company will not employ any one who is habit-
ually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or
known to be guilty of immorality.
A physician will attend once in every month at the
counting-room, to vaccinate all who may need it, free
of expense.
Any one who shall take from the mills or the yard,
any yarn, cloth or other article belonging to the com-
pany, will be considered guilty of stealing and be liable
to prosecution.
Payment will be made monthly, including board and
wages. The accounts will be made up to the last Satur-
day but one in every month, and paid in the course of
the following week.
These regulations are considered part of the contract,
with which all persons entering into the employment of
the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, engage to com-
ply. JOHN AVERY, Agent
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 137
(c) BOARDING-HOUSE RULES
Handbook to Lowell (1848), p. 45, 46.
REGULATIONS FOR THE BOARDING-HOUSES of the
Hamilton Manufacturing Company. The tenants of
the boarding-houses are not to board, or permit any
part of their houses to be occupied by any person, ex-
cept those in the employ of the company, without
special permission.
They will be considered answerable for any im-
proper conduct in their houses, and are not to permit
their boarders to have company at unseasonable hours.
The doors must be closed at ten o'clock in the even-
ing, and no person admitted after that time, without
some reasonable excuse.
The keepers of the boarding-houses must give an ac-
count of the number, names and employment of their
boarders, when required, and report the names of such
as are guilty of any improper conduct, or are not in the
regular habit of attending public worship.
The buildings, and yards about them, must be kept
clean and in good order; and if they are injured, other-
wise than from ordinary use, all necessary repairs will
be made, and charged to the occupant.
The sidewalks, also, in front of the houses, must be
kept clean, and free from snow, which must be removed
from them immediately after it has ceased falling; if
neglected, it will be removed by the company at the
expense of the tenant.
It is desirable that the families of those who live in
the houses, as well as the boarders, who have not had
the kine pox, should be vaccinated, which will be done
at the expense of the company, for such as wish it.
Some suitable chamber in the house must be reserved,
and appropriated for the use of the sick, so that others
I 3 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
may not be under the necessity of sleeping in the same
room. JOHN AVERT, Agent.
(d) BOARDING-HOUSE KEEPERS
Voice of Industry (Lowell, Mass.), Nov. 14, 1845, p. 3, col. 2; from the
Cabotville (Mass.,) Chronicle.
The following are some of the transactions from the
Cabotville Chronicle:
We, the people of Cabotville, who are the keepers of
boarding houses, on the lands belonging to the several
corporations, finding by two years experience, that we
were only not making anything, but actually run-
ning behind, fast, besides wearing out our beds and
household furniture, and having waited until our pa-
tience had become exhausted, and our credit in danger,
to see if those, who were receiving the benefit of our
sacrifice and also the benefit of that which is well cal-
culated to take care of the rich at the expense of the
consumer, would not consider us, and so far raise the
price of the board of the operatives, that we might by
good economy, and unwearied industry, obtain a com-
fortable living; but we at length come to the conclusion,
that if we obtained any help from that source, we must
ask for it. Accordingly on the 2^th of October last, we
presented to the Agents of the three corporations, a pe-
tition signed by some fifty of the Boarding House Keep-
ers, of which the following is a true copy:
To the President, Directors and Agents of the Manu-
facturing Companies in Cabotville:
We the undersigned, keepers of boarding houses, on
the lands of the corporations would respectfully repre-
sent that in the most favorable time and under the most
auspicious circumstances, that the price paid for board
was hardly sufficient to pay the first cost of provision,
rent, and wear and tear of furniture, to say nothing of
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 139
the unrecompensed toil which our wives and daughters
must endure; much more is true now, when all kinds of
produce provision and groceries have greatly advanced
in price, that the rate of board is utterly insufficient to
afford us a mere living, though we rise early and sit up
late, and eat the bread of extreme carefulness. We
therefore most respectfully, yet most earnestly ask you
so far to raise the price of board, that the keepers of your
boarding houses, with hard labor and parsimonious
economy, may live and not die.
Whereupon, on the first day of November inst., at 7
o'clock, p.m., a meeting was held at Ferry's Hall, by
the Petitioners, to take the subject matter of the Pe-
tition into consideration. James Ingalls was chosen
Moderator, and A. Alvord Secretary. After some de-
bate on the subject, by several members, it was voted to
choose a committee, of one from each corporation, to
confer with one or more of the Agents on the subject,
and ascertain what course they had taken in regard to
the subject of the petition, and report at a future meet-
ing.
Voted to adjourn the Meeting to Monday, Nov. 3, in
Ferry's Hall, at half past 7 o'clock, p.m.
Monday, Nov. 3. Met according to adjournment.
The committee reported that they had called on one of
the agents according to their mission, and ascertained
that the subject matter of the Petition had been laid be-
fore Mr. Mills of Boston, who decided that there was
no cause existing, whereby the price of board should
be advanced. After some remarks by several individ-
uals the committee presented the following Preamble
and Resolution, which being duly considered, were
unanimously adopted, as expressing the views of the
members present:
Whereas, finding that after having used all the
1 4 o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
means in our power to obtain our rights, by requests
and petitions, we are still neglected, we deem it due to
ourselves, to the community, to justice and humanity,
to express our feelings in relation to inequalities which
now exist in the community; that those of our fellow
beings who have not as yet been led astray by a vain
hope of bettering their condition by taking a factory
boarding house, may count the cost before they enlist,
and so avoid the lamentation which we have to make-
"The summer is ended and we are in debt." And also
to induce if possible, those who have it in their power
so far to order things in relation to our condition, as to
do honor to themselves, and justice to us, that we may,
by rigid economy, meet our lawful demands, and live
as men in the world.
Therefore, resolved, that by three, four, six and eight
years' experience, which we have had in keeping board-
ing houses in this village, we do know that it is imprac-
ticable and impossible to support ourselves unless we
resort to unjust measures, either of which would be the
height of injustice.
2. RESOLVED, that in our opinion the time has come
when the causes which produced the depression of
board is done away; that no reason exists why we should
not with other classes of our fellow men, experience the
benefit of the times, which is causing almost every other
class to rejoice.
3. RESOLVED, that we do still most respectfully request
those who have it in their power to control the price of
board on their corporations, to take into consideration,
and do us that justice which we have a right to expect
from men of magnanimity, enterprise and noble minds.
Voted to adjourn to Monday, the iyth inst., at 8
o'clock, p.m.
JAMES INGALLS, President -A. ALVORD, Sec'y.
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 141
(e) OBTAINING OPERATIVES
Voice of Industry, Jan. 2, 1846; quoted from the Cabotville Chronicle.
. . . We were not aware until within a few days,
of the modus operandi of the Factory powers in this
village, of forcing poor girls from their quiet homes,
to become their tools, and like the southern slaves, to
give up her life and liberty to the heartless tyrants and
task-masters. Observing a singular looking, "long, low,
black" wagon passing along the street, we made in-
quiries respecting it, and were informed that it was
what we term "a slaver." She makes regular trips to
the north of the state, cruising around in Vermont and
New Hampshire, with a "commander" whose heart
must be as black as his craft, who is paid a dollar a head,
for all he brings to the market, and more in proportion
to the distance- If they bring them from such a distance
that they cannot easily get back. This is done by "hoist-
ing false colors," and representing to the girls, that they
can tend more machinery than is possible, and that the
work is so very neat, and the wages such, that they can
dress in silks and spend half their time in reading.
Now, is this true? Let those girls who have been thus
deceived, answer.
Let us say a word in regard to the manner in which
they are stowed, in the wagon, which may find a similar-
ity only in the manner in which slaves are fastened in
the hold of a vessel. It is long, and the seats so close
that it must be very inconvenient. Is there any human-
ity in this? Philanthropists may talk of negro slavery,
but it would be well first to endeavor to emancipate the
slaves at home. Let us not stretch our ears to catch the
sound of the lash on the flesh of the oppressed black
while the oppressed in our very midst are crying out in
thunder tones, and calling upon us for assistance.
I 4 2 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(f) A LABOR VIEW OF RHODE ISLAND FACTORIES
Voice of Industry, Sept. 18, 1846. Letter from the Editor.
I have just closed a course of lectures in Blackstone,
a town set off from Mendon last winter, and containing
three factory villages. I had no idea of the extent of
factory operations on the brave little river from which
this town derived its name. All the way between Wor-
cester and Providence it is tugging at the wheels of
Corporations, and summons its thousands of operatives
to serve and slave under its despotism of machinery.
And I have seen no factory tyranny in Lowell, nor
anywhere else in New England, that would compare
with that existing on this river, especially in Rhode Is-
land. The Algerine revolution and the new constitu-
tion have destroyed what little freedom there once was
in this little State. By a provision in the constitution,
no foreigner is allowed to vote, unless he owns a hun-
dred and thirty-four dollars' worth of dirt! The result
of this rule is, to induce the manufacturer to turn off
the native citizens and employ foreigners in their stead.
As corporations have monopolized the waterfall, and
all the lands and houses surrounding them, there is but
little chance for a foreigner to become a voter. And if
the American citizen votes contrary to the will of his
employer, he very quietly tells him, "we want your tene-
ment;" and he, with his dependent family is driven into
the streets to beg, unless he is fortunate enough to get a
situation and employment in some other place.
I was informed by the Postmaster of Woonsocket,
that the character of the population in that village had
entirely changed since the adoption of the new constitu-
tion. So many persons, he remarked, have moved in
from other countries, that cannot write or read, that it
makes a difference in the income of the Post Office of
seven] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 143
some hundreds of dollars per year. And in conversa-
tion, in stage coaches and in the streets, you seemingly
hear more persons speak in a foreign accent, than in the
"Yankee tongue."
Besides, our system of "protection" contributes to in-
crease the number of foreign laborers. The tariff closes
the avenues for the sale of foreign labor; for example,
shut out French boots, and invites to our shores French
boot makers. It shuts out English texture, lessens the
demand for labor abroad, and brings to our country
English bones and sinews to be wrought up into Amer-
ican texture. Thus wages are reduced in Europe, and
by competition with foreign operatives in our own man-
ufactories, are cut down to nearly the same level at
home. The tariff enables a few manufacturers and
monopolists to get rich by the premium paid on Amer-
ican productions, by the producers themselves; but it
does not better, in the least, the condition of the Amer-
ican operative. It is a protection to capital and monop-
oly, but not to the laboring classes, whether native or
foreign.
These causes combined have brought into Rhode
Island a large foreign population. . . The manu-
facturers of Rhode Island seem to prefer foreign
laborers, not only because there is no prospect of their
exercising the right of suffrage, but because being stran-
gers and more dependent than native operatives, they
are more submissive under corporation tyranny. And
the factory despotism is therefore increasing here faster
than in any other portion of New England. . .
II
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION
INTRODUCTION
Association, Fourierism, Agrarianism, Socialism, and
Community System were names indiscriminately ap-
plied to the various movements for social reform which
agitated this country during the decade of the forties.
Socialism during the early forties meant the community
of property advocated by Robert Owen. Owen's re-
turn to this country, after an absence of fifteen years
was signalized by a number of "addresses" to the Amer-
ican people, which explain his meaning of Socialism.
The word Communism had not yet come into general
use. Later Socialism came to be applied to any scheme
of social organization other than the competitive. The
followers of Charles Fourier called themselves Asso-
ciationists. They objected to Fourierism, as their doc-
trines were termed by opponents, because not all that
Charles Fourier taught was acceptable to them. In
fact much of that Frenchman's philosophy was dis-
tasteful to his American disciples, and some of it they
confessed themselves unable to comprehend. They
espoused Fourier's system of industrial organization,
and this they called Association.
Fourierism in the United States took on an aspect
quite different from that which the movement assumed
in European countries. No sooner had the doctrine of
association become known to the American people
through the newspapers than they wanted to test it by
practical experiments. Fourier had waited many years
in vain, in Paris, for the capitalist to appear who would
furnish the means necessary to found an Association on
148 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
a sufficiently large scale to test his system. In the United
States, three years after Brisbane began to publish his
articles on association in the New York Tribune, some
twenty Associations had already been started. u For
this phase of the movement," said Brisbane, 24 "I was
quite unprepared, for I had contemplated years of pa-
tient, careful propagation before the means of a single
Association could be obtained. I felt it would require
a large amount of capital, and a thorough knowledge
of the science of organization, to ensure success. I felt,
too, my own practical incapacity in so great an under-
taking, and advised the most methodical preparation in
advance. But the different groups formed over the
country were impatient: the principles seemed to them
plain and easy, and in spite of remonstrance they
formed their little Associations."
The West Roxbury Community, founded by George
Ripley at the suggestion of Dr. Channing, became the
most famous of these Associations. At first a mere at-
tempt of a few kindred spirits to put a new conception
of Christianity into practice, it was later transformed
into the Brook Farm Phalanx and became the center
of the whole Association movement in the United
States. Its lecturers preached the doctrine throughout
the land. It sent delegates to working men's conven-
tions and took part in their movements for shorter hours
and Land Reform. It edited and published the Har-
binger, and it was the headquarters of the American
Union of Associationists.
While the Brook Farm Phalanx attracted the great-
est amount of attention because of the prominence of its
members, the two Associations which were best suited
to test the doctrines of Fourier were the Wisconsin and
the North American Phalanxes. The former was com-
24 Brisbane, R. Albert Brisbane: a Mental Biography (Boston, 1893), 212.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 149
posed of western pioneers, men who had pushed their
way into the wild Territory, and had succeeded; for
they had acquired property which they put into the
Association. They were less interested, however, in
proving the truth of Fourier's philosophy, than they
were concerned in profiting by the economies which
Association promised. On the other hand, the mem-
bers of the North American Phalanx, though less prac-
tical, were more likely to give Fourier a fair test. This
Phalanx lasted twice as long as the Wisconsin Associa-
tion ; and toward the latter part of its existence it count-
ed among its members many who had seen several com-
munities fail and yet had not lost their enthusiasm.
Nevertheless, in this as well as in the more western com-
munity do we find that one of the most important causes
of its failure was that the members took their capital
out of the Association and invested in other undertak-
ings which were more profitable. To the capitalist,
therefore, Association seemed to offer no advantage.
To the laborer Associations promised steady work,
an assured living, and wages that increased with the
disagreeableness of the work. But here, too, there
seemed to be no advantage. Skilled labor was able to
make more outside and was unwilling to enter the com-
munities. Inside there was also dissatisfaction with the
scheme of distribution as between capital and labor.
From most of the Associations came the complaint that
labor was not getting an adequate return. From the
Wisconsin Phalanx came the testimony that Fourier's
system of distribution was the cause of its failure.
When the Phalanx was ready to disband, those who
still had faith in community life and wanted to remain
issued a statement in which Fourier's allotment to cap-
ital (three-twelfths of the product) was declared to be
unwarranted and unjust. An essential principle of
150 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
Association, that capital had a right to a share in the
product, was thus condemned by men who had started
out to prove its success. The experience of the Wiscon-
sin Phalanx also showed that poverty might exist in
Association. The statement mentioned recommended
that a system of guarantees (insurance) was necessary
to prevent some members from becoming destitute.
With regard to the question of repugnant labor, how-
ever, the Associationists can not be said to have failed.
Their communities divided labor into three classes:
necessary, useful, and agreeable -paying the highest
wages for the least agreeable work, and the lowest
wages for the most agreeable. With this division there
seems to have been no dissatisfaction, although positive
evidence of its success is still lacking.
In the field of propaganda, the Associationists had
started out with the idea of a comprehensive social re-
organization. All the other movements for reform, in
politics, in industry and in religion, they had looked
upon as partial and as dealing with effects only.
Our Evils are Social, not Political,
And a Social Reform only can Eradicate them.
As the agitation went on, however, the Association-
ists began to pay more attention to particular remedies
for particular evils. One by one they adopted and ad-
vocated the measures of the land reformers, the organ-
ized workingmen, and the political reformers. The
Association leaders took up these movements, their en-
ergies went into them, and in the last general conven-
tion of Associationists (1850) we find them strongly en-
dorsing these reforms and making but a feeble plea for
keeping intact the American Union of Associationists.
REFERENCES
BALLOU, A. History of the Hopedale Community (Lowell, 1897).
BRISBANE, A. Social Destiny of Man (Philadelphia, 1840).
BRISBANE, R. Albert Brisbane: a Mental Biography (Boston, 1893).
CODMAN, J.T. Brook Farm (Boston, 1894).
EVANS, F.W. Autobiography of a Shaker (Mt. Lebanon, 1869).
FROTHINGHAM, O.B. Transcendentalism in New England (New
York, 1876).
George Ripley (New York, 1883).
Memoir of William Henry Channing (New York, 1886).
GODWIN, P. Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier
(New York, 1844).
GREELEY, H. Recollections of a Busy Life (New York, 1868).
HILLQUIT, M. History of Socialism in the United States (New
York, 1903).
HINDS, W.A. American Communities (Chicago, 1902).
LOCKWOOD, G. B. The New Harmony Movement (New York,
1905).
NORDHOFF, C. The Communistic Societies of the United States
(New York, 1875).
NOYES, J. H. History of American Socialisms (Philadelphia, 1870).
PARTON, J. The Life of Horace Greeley (Boston, 1872).
PODMORE, F. Robert Owen (London, 1906), 2 vols.
SEMLER, H. Geschichte des Socialismus und Communismus in Nord-
amerika (Leipzig, 1880).
SWIFT, L. Brook Farm (New York, 1900).
i. ROBERT OWEN
(a) "A RATIONAL STATE OF SOCIETY"
New York Daily Tribune', quoted in The Ne^w Moral World*, Nov. 16,
1844, p. 161.
The Empires of Great Britain and America are, com-
pared with other nations, in an advanced position, to
commence gradually, and without any disorder to the
old interests of society, the greatest change that has yet
occurred for the permanent benefit of the human race.
It is uncertain whether the United States or Great
Britain will first commence this change, or whether the
population of both Empires will agree to begin and
progress together.
The change is no less than from an irrational system
of all human affairs, based on the most palpable notions
of error, to the rational system for conducting the whole
business of life, based on demonstrable laws of nature.
The system of error produces and reproduces contin-
ually evil and misery under every change that has yet
been tried; the second, or rational system, will make
man a new or regenerated being, and create altogether
another state of society in which ignorance, division,
vice, and misery will, after two or three generations,
gradually cease and become in practice unknown.
But to effect this revolution in the condition of hu-
manity, in peace, with order, without the conflict of in-
dividuals, classes, sects, parties, countries, or colours,
will appear, at first, impossible. This apparent impos-
sibility has often been urged when any great beneficial
change of minor importance has been proposed to be
* The New Moral World was Owen's magazine published in London.
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 153
introduced; therefore, the objection is not of much
weight, and can have little or no influence with those
who have acquired a knowledge of the erroneous im-
aginary notions on which old society has been construct-
ed and of the principles of nature on which alone a
rational system of society can be erected. It is neces-
sary, before this subject can be understood, that the im-
aginary erroneous notions whence the old system has
emanated, and the laws of nature on which the rational
system is to be raised, should be made plain to every
capacity, in order that these errors and truths may be
always present to our minds to direct our judgments
upon all occurrences as they arise. The importance of
being thoroughly versed and always familiar with these
fundamental errors of the old world and the divine laws
of truth on which to found the new or regenerated
world, cannot be too strongly expressed or too strongly
urged upon all of every age and degree. Because all
that is now essentially necessary to effect this all-to-be-
desired change, is that the population of the world
should abandon the three fundamental erroneous im-
aginations of our early ancestors, and the necessary
practices thence ensuing, and adopt the three opposite
laws of nature, and introduce practical arrangements
in accordance with those laws.
The three errors arising from the crude imaginations
of our early ancestors are,
i st. The supposition that we form ourselves individ-
ually, and in consequence that we are responsible for
the individual qualities of humanity which we possess.
ad. That we are so formed as to be competent to be-
lieve or disbelieve, as we please, and are responsible for
our belief; and that there is merit and demerit in hav-
ing some peculiar belief and opinions.
3d. That we can love, be indifferent or hate who and
154 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
what we like, that we are responsible for these feelings,
and that we ought to love and hate according to the
opinions of others.
While the three great fundamental laws of nature are,
i st. That no individual could form any of his nat-
ural qualities, and cannot therefore be made responsible
for them.
ad. That no individual can believe or disbelieve
otherwise than according to the convictions made on
his mind, and these convictions depend upon evidence
which no one can create or reject.
3d. That no individual can love or hate at his pleas-
ure, but must love that which is agreeable and dislike
that which is disagreeable to him, and there can be no
merit or demerit in these natural and unavoidable in-
stincts.
That which the population of the world cannot yet
comprehend is, how these three hitherto unsuspected
errors can be the sole cause of the sin and misery of the
world, and the three now apparently simple truths,
when they shall be introduced into practice, should pro-
duce a new state of society in which there shall be no
sin and misery, but in which all shall gradually become
by comparison with the present, excellent and happy.
The explanation of these more than ancient miracles
or modern discoveries and inventions shall be explained
in the next paper.* ROBERT OWEN.
Victoria, Capt. Morgan, Sept. 6, 1844.
* The explanation appears in his addresses. - ED.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 155
(b) RELIGION AND MARRIAGE
New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 24., 1844, p. i. "Address of Robert
Owen to the People of the United States."
A GREAT MENTAL, MORAL AND PRACTICAL REVOLU-
TION TO BE EFFECTED IN PEACE, AND MOST BENE-
FICIALLY FOR RICH AND POOR.
AMERICANS! I have come to you a missionary from
the other side of the Atlantic, to endeavor to effect, in
peace, for the permanent advantage of all, in every
country, the greatest revolution ever yet made in human
society.
The general excitement and misery of the mass in
nations demand it, and the signs of the times indicate
its approach.
But you will naturally enquire, who is it that is bold
enough to undertake this task and what are his preten-
sions? He is an old man, in his 74th year, who has read
and studied the various writings of the human race for
five hours a day on an average for twenty years ; who
has been a man of extensive practice in the great de-
partment of life for more than half a century; who has
traveled, seen, and heard much ; who has been for many
years visited by parties in search of knowledge from all
parts of the civilized world, and who has had but one
object during his life, that is, to discover the cause or
causes of human error and misery, and to find the rem-
edy for both. But this old man, because to effect this
object, he has been obliged in good faith to oppose all
prejudices of the human race, has been more abused,
vilified, and his sentiments and views more falsified, by
the public press, than almost any other individual on
either side of the Atlantic; and especially has he been
misrepresented on some of the most interesting and im-
156 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
portant subjects, having reference to the permanent hap-
piness of our race through all future ages. . .
The impression made upon the mind of this old man,
respecting religion is, that upon this subject the world
has been in error from the beginning, but that it is a
natural and unalienable right in man to have the most
unlimited religious liberty, provided he does not inter-
fere with the liberty of others. That all that is really
known on the subject of theology from the beginning
of history is, that of necessity, there is an eternal un-
created power which accomplishes whatever has been,
is, or may be done throughout the universe, and that
civilized nations, so called, have agreed to call that
great first uncreated power, God, to which term there
can be no rational objection. But what God is, no man
knows; it is a mystery past human penetration to find
out; and the quarrels among the human race on the
subject of this power, on theology, or religion, are proof
how far the nations of the earth are yet from being ra-
tional in their thoughts or conduct. "Can man by
searching find out God?" "Or can he do any good to
God?" "Can he glorify infinite incomprehensible pow-
er?" "Can he do anything contrary to the laws of that
power?" Is it not madness in men then to differ and
quarrel and fight and massacre each other on account
of particular imbibed notions respecting the supposed
will of a power altogether incomprehensible to man?
Evidently the first step to rationality, in the human race,
will be to abandon all angry, uncharitable, and unkind
feelings for each other, on account of their opinions and
feelings, respecting the supposed will of a power utterly
incomprehensible to the human race.
Until this effect shall be accomplished, no solid
foundation can be laid for the attainment of permanent
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 157
peace, progressive prosperity and happiness among
mankind ; and this first and most important step can be
alone gained, by all agreeing to allow all in the spirit
of charity the utmost religious liberty in speech, writ-
ing and action, so long as the same liberty in others shall
not be diminished or in any manner interfered with.
I therefore give to all others, and claim for myself,
the most ample religious freedom, and the foundation
stone of all true, efficient, and rational liberty of man-
kind, and without which any form of government,
whatever it may be called, is a despotism.
Upon the subject of marriage, it is necessary to be
equally explicit. The object of human society is to in-
crease the happiness of each individual to the greatest
extent practicable -that is, consistent with the greatest
happiness of the whole; and the external laws of hu-
manity are, in connection with the association of the
sexes, that man must like that which is most agreeable
to him and dislike that which is most disagreeable to
him. All human laws of marriage should be based
upon these divine or natural laws, and no parties, for
the benefit of all, should be compelled to associate as
husband and wife after the natural affections and sym-
pathies of their nature have been so far separated that
no probability remains of effecting a reunion of them.
And until an advanced state of society can be attained,
and superior arrangements can be formed, in a more
perfect state of rational association, the following were
the form, and ceremony, and mode of marriage, and
divorce, given by the writer to the world at a most nu-
merous public meeting in London, held for that pur-
pose on the first of May, 1838, and unanimously ap-
proved:
Many persons grossly mistake the views which I rec-
158 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ommend of the subject of the union of the sexes. My
object is to remove the causes of the immense and most
melancholy and deplorable amounts of sexual crime
and misery, and consequent physical and mental disease,
which now exists. It is Nature's laws, now disregard-
ed, which require to be discovered and implicitly
obeyed- there being none other which can produce
health, virtue, and happiness.
In the present absence of real knowledge derived
from experience, and with the exciting, irregular, and
misdirected feelings of the population of the world,
created by a false education, I propose that the union
and disunion of the sexes should take place under the
following regulations : Persons having an affection for
each other, and being desirous to form a union, shall
first announce such intention publicly in our Sunday
assemblies. If the intention remains at the end of three
months, the parties living in the mean time singly as
before, make a second public declaration, in a similar
manner, which declaration being registered and wit-
nessed, and entered into the book of the rational society,
will constitute their rational marriage.
In the new world about to be introduced, marriages
will be solely formed to promote the happiness of the
sexes, and if this end be not attained, the object of the
union will be defeated. Should the parties, therefore,
after the termination of twelve months, at the soonest,
discover that their dispositions and habits are unsuited
to each other, and that there is little or no prospect of
happiness being derived from their union, they are to
make a public declaration, as before, to that effect, after
which they return home and live together six months
longer, at the termination of which, if they still find
their qualities discordant, and both agree to make a
similar second declaration, both of which being only
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 159
registered and witnessed, will constitute their legal sep-
aration.
The above cases apply only when both parties unite in
the last declaration. Should one alone come forward
upon the last declaration, and the other object to separa-
tion, they would be required to live together another
six months, to try if their feelings and habits could be
made to accord so as to promote their happiness. But
at the end of the second six months, if the objecting
party shall remain of the same mind, the separation is
then to be final, and the parties may, without diminu-
tion of public opinion, form new unions more suited
to their dispositions.
As all children in this new rational state of society
will be trained and educated under the superintend-
ence and care of the Society, the separation of the
parents will not produce any change in the condition
of the rising generation.
Under these arrangements, there can be no doubt a
much more virtuous and happy state of society will be
enjoyed than any which has existed, at any time, in any
part of the world.
These are arrangements now recommended to those
who commence communities to form a rational state of
society.
Unless they adopt this mode of forming their mar-
riages, it is not probable that married persons can live
long in such associations without many difficulties aris-
ing.
No parties, without actual experience, can imagine
the advantages that arise from children being trained
and educated from birth in these new associations, by
those especially educated to educate, and who possess
the most faculty for this important purpose, instead of
children being brought up under the innumerable dis-
160 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
advantages of family arrangements, and strong animal
maternal affections, by which more than justice is
sought for our own, and less for others.
The Missionary, in all his proceedings, is desirous
that equal justice should be done to all of the human
race -that each should be well educated, physically,
mentally, morally, and practically, which education is
necessary to the well-being and happiness of all; and
also, that each should be well and efficiently employed
and occupied through life, not only to produce a fair
share of the wealth and knowledge which society re-
quires from each, but to keep them in the best state of
health, bodily and mentally. ROBERT OWEN,
nth September, 1844.
(c) IMMEDIATE MEASURES
New Moral World, Nov. 2, 1844, p. 146, quoted from New York Herald,
Sept. 21, 1844.
AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE UNITED
STATES OF NORTH AMERICA
AMERICANS: I left your country, the fourth and last
time, in the year 1830, having made the three previous
visits between that period and 1824. During these vis-
its, I had much important communication with your
then governments and with the ex-Presidents John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Mon-
roe, John Quincy Adams, General Jackson and his Sec-
retary of State, Messrs. Van Buren and Cabinet; with
Messrs. Henry Clay, Calhoun, Poinsett, Judge Mar-
shall, and all the Judges of the Supreme Court; and
with most of the leading statesmen of that period.
A short time after my return to Europe, Achille
Murat, nephew of the Emperor Napoleon, published
a book of travels in the United States, in which work he
stated that I was busily engaged in Europe lecturing
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 161
against the American Government. It was then three
years after this book was published, before I heard of
it, and it was then too late to notice it. In the mean
time, I was not a little surprised with the changed con-
duct of these statesmen, whom I afterwards met in
London and on the continent of Europe: but, when I
afterwards heard of this, to say the least of it, thought-
less and most untrue paragraph of young Murat's, the
cause became obvious, and the mystery solved. Nothing
could have been more untrue or contrary to my feelings
respecting all the members of the government under
the administration of President Monroe, John Quincy
Adams, and General Jackson; for these gentlemen, and
the other statesmen previously mentioned, treated me
with a confidence, truthfulness, kindness, and hospital-
ity, such as I must always remember with a pleasure
not easily to be expressed. It exceeded everything I
could anticipate in conduct to a stranger visiting them
unaccredited.
These statesmen must, indeed, have been much sur-
prised to have read such a paragraph, which could
have been inserted only upon a mere random rumour,
which at all times, respecting public men, is of most
uncertain origin; for one and all of these statesmen had,
during all my intercourse with them, evinced, without
the slightest deviation, the most confidential, straight-
forward, and honest conduct; such as enabled me, by
the extraordinary confidence which they placed in me,
to effect an entire change in the spirit of diplomacy,
between Great Britain and the United States, in the
year 1830.
The facts were these : Knowing, as I then did, the ex-
tent of the misunderstanding, and the hostile corre-
spondence which had, for some years previously, taken
place between the two governments, and the adverse
1 62 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
spirit with which it was conducted, I was surprised,
and greatly pleased, to discover, from my intercourse,
first with Mr. Van Buren, as Secretary of State, and
President Jackson, on the one side of the Atlantic, and
the Earl of Aberdeen on the other, that these parties
could be induced so willingly to accede to the proposals
which I first broached to Mr. Poinsett, when Minister
in Mexico, afterward to Mr. Van Buren and General
Jackson at Washington, and then to Lord Aberdeen in
London -to abandon this spirit and hostile attitude,
and agree to adjust, and finally settle, in a just manner
and amicable spirit, every point of difference then ex-
isting between the two countries, with a determination
to meet each other honestly and fairly half way. This
was immediately done between the ministers of the re-
spective governments, and the best feeling continued
to prevail between them for several years afterwards.
One of the chief objects of my present visit to the
United States, is to discover the means by which these
feelings may be renewed and perpetuated advantageous-
ly for both countries, and to make such facts known
as will convince the governments and people of the
United States and Great Britain, that it is yet their par-
amount interest to become and remain cordially united,
and to assist each other in promoting the extension of the
arts and sciences and of every useful knowledge. . .
[Repetition of the "three great fundamental laws" as
stated above.]
To effect this change in this manner, it is necessary
that the following measures should be speedily intro-
duced into practice, in every county, as the progress of
civilization to overcome these prejudices by govern-
ment and people will, without violence or disorder,
admit. They may be immediately adopted in the
United States:
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 163
i st. Perfect liberty of mind to write, speak, and pub-
lish, whatever appears true, upon all subjects, civil arid
religious.
2nd. Perfect religious liberty to worship the Great
Creating Power of the Universe, or God, in any man-
ner, or any form, according to the conscience of each
individual.
3rd. That no one shall be in any manner molested or
injured, on account of his conscientious belief or wor-
ship, so long as the individual shall not interfere with,
or injure his neighbor.
4th. That every child, from birth, shall be trained
and educated -physically, mentally, morally, and prac-
tically -in the best manner known to make him the
most valuable member of society, and the most happy
being through life, that his original organization will
admit.
5th. That all, according to age and capacity, shall be
well occupied and employed, physically and mentally,
through life.
6th. That mechanism and chemistry shall be sub-
stituted for laborious, disagreeable, and unhealthy man-
ual labour, to the greatest extent known in these sources,
or to which new inventions and discoveries may lead,
until all of the human race shall be well, and only pleas-
antly occupied, physically and mentally, through life.
7th. Perfect liberty of ingress and egress in and out
of all countries.
8th. Free trade on all things, with all the world.
9th. That scientific arrangements shall be made as
soon as practicable, to produce, generally, the greatest
amount of the most valuable wealth, in the shortest
time, with the least waste of capital, and the most pleas-
ure to the producers, and that this wealth shall be dis-
tributed in the best manner for all the consumers.
1 64 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
loth. That the circulating medium, as long as any
shall be required, shall possess the three following qual-
ities: ist. Capacity of being increased, and only in-
creased as exchangeable wealth increases, and. To
diminish as exchangeable wealth diminishes. 3rd. To
be itself exchangeable in its value.
i ith. That individual competition, and national wars,
shall cease, and all individual and national differences
shall be submitted to arbitration, and finally and
promptly decided by the arbitrators.
1 2th. That all the inferior external circumstances
of man's creation, shall be peaceably and gradually
changed for the most superior that the knowledge and
means of society united can decide and execute.
ROBERT OWEN.
(d) "TO THE CAPITALISTS"
New York Daily Tribune, April 2, 1845, p. 2, col. 4.
To THE CAPITALISTS AND MEN OF EXTENSIVE PRAC-
TICAL EXPERIENCE IN NEW YORK
Your position is, at this period, owing to a singular
combination of fortunate circumstances, one the most
to be desired for the attainment of great individual and
national objects.
The funds of the one, directed to be practically ap-
plied by the experience of the other, could ensure, with-
out risk, larger returns for Capital than can be obtained
by any other investment of it, without great risk, in any
other direction in these States or in Europe.
The expenditure of the Capital in the way to be pro-
posed would, by the mode of its application, double its
value in four or five years and give most advantageous
occupation to operatives of every description, create a
demand for all kinds of materials and ensure beneficial
employment for the unemployed females.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 165
In fact, place the continually increasing prosperity
of these states on a solid foundation and prevent the
recurrence of what is technically called "bad times"
ever being again known.
Had the capitalists and men of business in extensive
operations been trained to understand their own inter-
ests and the interests of their country and of society gen-
erally, the late disasters which produced such over-
whelming distress throughout the commercial world,
arising solely from artificial causes, could never have
occurred.
You desire to be independent of pecuniary circum-
stances, and to enjoy the advantages of wealth to the
greatest extent when wisely expended.
The time has arrived when you may accomplish
these objects without risk, first for yourselves and chil-
dren through succeeding generations, and secondly for
the population of these States, as they shall be trained
through the means to be proposed, to make a judicious
and proper use of these advantages.
The mode to accomplish these most desirable objects
will be to form joint stock companies with unlimited
amount of capital -for any amount may be immediate-
ly advantageously employed -to form new superior
establishments for producing and distributing wealth,
for educating the children of the persons to be em-
ployed so that they shall acquire from their infancy a
sound, practical .and active character, both physical and
mental, under a new combination of greatly improved
external circumstances, by which these establishments
will, after paying a liberal interest for the capital dur-
ing the intermediate time, always repay the capital by
a sinking fund annually appropriated for that purpose,
and will be easily governed on such principles as will be
highly beneficial to the capitalists and operatives.
1 66 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
These establishments will enable the capitalists and
men of extensive practical experience to solve without
difficulty the Great Problem of the Age, that is, how
to apply the enormous and ever-growing new scientific
powers for producing wealth, beneficially for the entire
population, instead of allowing them to continue, as
heretofore, most injuriously to create enormous riches
for the few and to impoverish the many, driving them
toward a desperation that will ultimately, if not untime-
ly prevented by this measure, involve the over-wealthy
in utter destruction.
It is my intention to make this -now the most im-
portant subject that can engage the attention of all par-
ties, rich and poor, capitalists and operatives -so plain
in the lectures which I have agreed to deliver in the
Minerva Rooms, 406 Broadway, on Wednesday, Thurs-
day and Friday evenings of this week, at half past 7
o'clock, as will make the subject far better understood
than the gross misrepresentations of the ill-informed
have permitted it to be up to this period. My great de-
sire is, without regard to class, party, sect or present
condition, permanently to benefit all. ROBERT OWEN.
March 31, 1845.
(e) OWEN'S LETTERS TO ENGLAND /
(i) Reform in the United States.
New Moral World, Dec. 6, 1844, p. 185.
. . . If the climate of this place [New Harmony]
was equal to our climate -which I believe to be the
most favourable for physical and mental vigour in the
wo rid -it would be now a most desirable site and neigh-
borhood to commence new world proceedings; but, as
it is not, I could not recommend any with British-
formed constitutions to run the risk of the change of
climate. The more northern parts of these States are
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 167
better adapted for the constitutions of our countrymen
and women than so far to the south as this place. Those,
however, who are here, or who may come and find the
climate to agree with them, may make this town and
neighborhood a very beautiful residence, as it possesses
as fine a site for a Community as can be found in any
part of the United States. It is truly a magnificent
country, with a due proportion of land, wood, .and
water, in a desirable combination. On my way from
Pittsburgh down the Ohio river by steam-boats, I lec-
tured in one of them by solicitation of the passengers
twice, and in another boat once, just before I landed
at Mount Vernon. When near to Wheeling, a large
town on the Ohio, I visited, by particular request of
the leading Fourierites in New York, the Ohio Pha-
lanx, lately commenced as one of their numerous asso-
ciations in these States, and although they have some
fundamental errors which, after a certain period in
their progress, they will feel a necessity to alter, yet are
they in some respects well suited to commence the new
system of Associations. They are in many ways much
less repulsive to the prejudices of the old world, and
many of the members have comparatively superior hab-
its, and better knowledge of the feelings and manners
of the old world, than some who commence, or who
desire to commence, the more perfect system of Com-
munities. There are now in these States a considerable
number of associations (Fourierites) and of commun-
ities (Rationalists), who are beginning operations in
several of the States, particularly in Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, New York, Massachusetts, and one in Wisconsin,
if not more. These are all, more or less, very crude at-
tempts; but they will all be useful, and lead by degrees
to such as I have described in the "Development"
which I published a few years since. . . On Sunday
1 68 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
next I lecture here, and shall do so several times before
I leave with Robert Dale for the City of Washington,
where we intend to arrive about the opening of the
next session of Congress. I could not have come to this
country at a more fortunate crisis: the public mind is
undergoing a great change, and when the present pres-
idential contest shall terminate, it will be in a most
favourable position, as it now appears to me, to listen
with some attention to common sense, and, for a time
at least, to discard exciting politics. There is here, as
with you, a strong undercurrent opposed to the existing
organization of society, from the discovery that it is in-
competent to effect the permanent well-being and hap-
piness of the human race; but I hope it will be kept
under until it shall acquire wisdom to make a change
for a natural or rational organization of society, and to
effect the change by foresight and wisdom, instead of
by hasty, forced-on violence and disorder. . .
/ (2) Owen's Mission.
New Moral World, Dec. 13, 1844, p. 193.
. . . The people of this country are now in the
midst of political excitement bordering, in many cases,
upon insanity and madness ; but before December comes
in, the disease will have considerably abated by the
elections for the members of Congress, the State Gov-
ernors, and the President of the United States, being
over for the present: yet, this time next year, other
political elections for members of Congress and other
offices will again occur; and so on, year after year,
keeping the whole country in one eternal turmoil of all
the inferior passions in constant excitement, wasting
the time, faculties, and feelings of the people to no
other purpose than to maintain an imaginary state of
liberty, while, in fact, with the word in the mouth of
everyone, the substance is little understood and no-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 169
where enjoyed. There is more mental slavery in this
country at this moment than there is in England; not
arising from the constitution of the States' government
so much as from the system of society, to which, in
many respects, that constitution is opposed ; and in con-
sequence, public opinion being created more by the old
established system of society than by the new constitu-
tion, there is a constant conflict between them, which
prevents the inhabitants of this country from enjoying
its wonderful -almost illimitable -capabilities of pros-
perity, power, and happiness.
These States possess the means to place all their in-
habitants, now and for centuries to come, including all
the immigrants that may come from Europe, in a con-
dition of high permanent independence. I have to
make this evident to the leaders of the political, re-
ligious, professional, and commercial parties on this
side of the water; and in this task I shall have great
preliminary aid from the leading Fourierites in New
York city, and in other parts of the Union. They have
already battered the old system in many parts most
effectually, by the writings of several of their very tal-
ented members. They are yet wedded to their groups,
and series, and mysticisms about some religion : and it
is well that many of them are so conscientiously; for
those who yet cannot give up the notion of private
property, and who have some notions of some religion,
and individual receipts for capital, skill, labour, will
join them, when, from their early prejudices upon
these matters, they would not listen to us. We are too
far in advance towards the whole truth for these minds,
though educated and disinterested, to come at once to
us; but let them begin in their own way, and they will
gradually, in good time, discover error from truth, and
they will, ere long, come in with the multitude, and
1 70 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
learn the right way to ensure equality of education and
condition for all. . .
(3) Fourierism.
New Moral World, Jan. n, 1845, p. 225.
. . . We have just learned here, that the demo-
cratic party throughout the United States have suc-
ceeded in electing their candidate for president for the
next four years. This will have an influence favour-
able to the producers of wealth, who have been hitherto,
all over the world, so unwisely oppressed by the non-
producers. It is made still more evident by the result
of this extended and most strongly-contested election,
that the time approaches when a more equitable ar-
rangement of society between producers and non-pro-
ducers of wealth must arise, for the permanent benefit
of all parties in every country; but I am more con-
firmed in my old opinions, by all I have seen since my
return to these States, that a partial change, or mixture
of two systems based on opposing principles, one true
and the other false, can never be effected to be perma-
nent and beneficial.
The Fourierite system is such an attempt. It is ad-
vocated and supported by good and talented men and
women, but deficient in a knowledge of society or of
human nature. They are, however, doing great good,
by exposing the utter worthlessness of the present sys-
tem of society, and they form a safe step for many from
the old towards the new state of society. I am very
desirous that the professed disciples of the Rational
System, both in Europe and in these States, should
treat these friends to association as friends, and in ac-
cordance with the unlimited charity and forbearance
which necessarily emanate from a full and correct
knowledge of rational principles, and without the con-
stant application of which to practice, no one can with
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 171
truth call himself or herself a disciple of the Rational
System of society.
After I shall have been some days in Washington,
and seen the leaders of parties, I will write again, and
inform you what appears to me practicable to effect in
this new and in many respects most extraordinary
country, a country now in a position, if the leading
minds in the States composing it had sufficient wisdom
and experience to direct its resources aright, to build
up the most extended, powerful, intelligent, and happy
empire that has yet existed; and to build up this em-
pire, without violence or conquest, most beneficially
for all other nations. Its resources for power and high
permanent prosperity are exhaustless, and require but
steady practical measures to bring them speedily into
action.
With best wishes for the speedy success of our meas-
ures in the old country, I remain, yours faithfully,
ROBERT OWEN.
New Harmony, Indiana, Nov. 17, 1844.
(4) Robert Dale Owen.
Letter from Mr. Owen to Mr. J. E. Smith, Harmony Hall, from the
New Moral World, Feb. 22, 1845, p. 273.
My son and I came together from New Harmony,
in Indiana, to this city, and a long, tedious, and dan-
gerous journey it was. Many lives were lost in steam-
boats at the time we were travelling, in similar vessels,
and we might, but for an accident, have been in one of
them; as it was, we escaped: but life here is held very
cheap, and great risks are run often from want of com-
mon care in conductors of vessels and vehicles, and also
in the passengers.
During the journey several members of Congress
joined us, and we had much conversation about our
new system, and I was several times, whilst on the
1 72 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
steam-boats, requested to lecture to the passengers,
which, when requested, I never refused, as these lec-
tures tended to extend a knowledge of our views, and to
make them better known even in the "extreme west," by
which is here meant west of the Alleghany Mountains,
away over to the Rocky Mountains, and to the Pacific
Ocean.
My eldest son, Robert Dale Owen, is a member of
the House of Representatives of Congress, and is con-
sidered a leading member among the Democratic party,
to which he has always adhered ; and last session made
some speeches which his party praise very much: he
stands well in the general estimation of the members,
which is so far an aid to my views here. I have been
very busy ever since my arrival in this city, transmit-
ting my publications, letters, papers, &c., over all parts
of the Union, and have now many hundred on the table
waiting, which I am preparing to send away, so soon
as my son, who enables me to send them free, can find
time to post them : but I have not time to say more, hav-
ing much to say, but which must be deferred until an-
other opportunity.
My love to one and all of you, and wishing you a
continued increase to your happiness, I remain, your
affectionate Father, ROBERT OWEN.
Washington City, 28th December, 1844.
(f) WORLD'S CONVENTION
(i) Owen's Suggestion.
New York Herald, May 26, 1845, p. i.
ADDRESS BY ROBERT OWEN, ON LEAVING THE UNITED
STATES FOR EUROPE, JUNE i, 1845
AMERICANS: After an absence of fifteen years I have
again spent nine months in your States, and nearly four
months of that period in the city of Washington, dur-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 173
ing the last session of Congress. I have seen in my
travels through New England and the middle States,
and presume the same has occurred in the south and
west, a great increase to your cities -to your population,
and in the extended cultivation of the soil. I have also as-
certained that your means to increase wealth and power,
for good or evil, are illimitable for many hundreds or
thousands of years, and you could now beneficially ab-
sorb into your Union the present population of Europe.
You have also progressed in a most extraordinary
manner in new discoveries in science, and in mechan-
ical inventions, to render manual labor of diminished
value, and to open the path to a new state of things,
which will make labor of little or no commercial val-
ue, or unsaleable, for the rightful support of the in-
dustrious.
In proportion as your scientific power to create
wealth has increased, individual competition has in-
creased ignorant selfishness, vice, crime and misery
among the masses, so as to make all parties blind to
their present position of high capabilities and to their
interests as individuals and members of society.
Your statesmen are occupied in unprofitable and
nationally injurious politics.
Your politicians in petty local party contests, useless
for the attainment of great results.
Your capitalists and extensive merchants are over-
whelmed in speculations, hazardous to themselves, and
of little comparative benefit to their country or to the
world. There is no foresight, wisdom, or order -no
permanent, prosperous future in any of their proceed-
ings.
Your traders, wholesale and retail, are wasting, most
injuriously, much of the capital, talent and industry of
your country, and at the same time keeping the mind
174 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
and morals of the Union upon a low level, most dis-
advantageous to every class.
Your most industrious classes are kept unnecessarily
in toil, ignorance, and consequent degradation.
Senseless superstitions pervade the land without a
particle of real charity being created between any of
the classes, sects or parties, possessing any one of these
monster obstacles to human progress, for any who have
been made to differ from them; and religion is per-
verted to worldly purposes.
Your prisons and punishments increase, and the ne-
cessity for more, while the present state of things con-
tinues, will daily become stronger.
You have already, to a great extent, throughout the
Union, ignorance, poverty, division and misery. And
yet, as the causes of these evils have been discovered,
they may be now easily removed. . .
But how can this change be speedily effected? It is
now ascertained that public opinion governs the world.
This change then may be effected by speedily creating
a new public opinion in its favor.
But how is this new public opinion to be created?
The answer is obvious. All great improvements com-
mence with one or a few, and these, by judicious meas-
ures, interest more and more, until a sufficient number
unite to accomplish the object. There is an admirable
spirit abroad anxiously looking out for the right com-
mencement of this change and bold truths announced
in the pure spirit of chanty will now accomplish that
object. Let then the proper measures to create this
public opinion be now adopted, and let all good men of
every class, sect, party and state unite for this Godlike
purpose.
To this end let a Convention be called of delegates
from every State and territory in the Union, to consider
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 175
what practical measures can be immediately carried
into execution to apply the enormous means to secure
prosperity for all the people of these States, that they
may become an example to the world of what, with
sound judgment, in peace, with order and with the
least injury and the most benefit to every one, from the
highest to the lowest, may be done.
But what is every one's business is no one's in par-
ticular, and is too often neglected by all. I, therefore,
feeling a deep interest in the immediate improvement
of our race, recommend such Convention to be called
the "World's Convention," to consider what measures
of a practical character can be adopted to ensure the
immediate benefit of every class, without violence, con-
test or competition, and especially what can be done to
well educate and employ the uneducated and unem-
ployed, to fit them for the superior state of society, to
create which, for all the means are now so superabund-
ant, not only in these States, but wherever men need to
live; or it may be called "The World's Convention" to
emancipate the human race from ignorance, poverty,
division, sin and misery.
The chief business of my life has been, so far, to pre-
pare all classes, from the highest to the lowest, for this
great change in the condition of humanity in this
world, and thus, in the best manner to prepare it for all
future changes, whatever they may be, after we shall
have done all in our power to ensure knowledge, good-
ness and happiness in our present mode of existence.
I live but to put into activity the means to accom-
plish this change for my suffering fellow men ; and to
see in progress the necessary measures to effect this ob-
ject I leave your country on the first of June for Europe,
intending to return here about the middle of September.
Being of no class, or sect, or party in any country,
176 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
but a sincere friend to all, and being most desirous to
abolish all party distinctions, I recommend that the
"World's Convention," previously mentioned, be held
in the city of New York, to commence on the first day
of October next, and to continue until the great and
good work of establishing equal and just rights among
men and insuring the progressive improvement and
happiness of all, shall be well understood.
It will be found, on full investigation, that there is
but one interest amongst all of the human race, and
that is, that each one should be the best taught from
birth, the best employed through life, and that the in-
ferior circumstances of man's creation should be re-
placed from around all by those only of a superior and
permanent character, whether the animate or inani-
mate, for as these are, so will man become.
These measures have no individual interest or object
in view; it is, therefore, earnestly requested, for the
good of humanity, that the press will advocate the call
and object of this Convention, and prepare the minds
of the public for the great and glorious results which
may, by these measures, be speedily obtained for all of
every class in every country. ROBERT OWEN.
New York, 24th May, 1845.
(2) The Call.
New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 25, 1845, p. i.
Address to the Inhabitants of the United States, and
to the Population of the Western Hemisphere, how-
ever now divided by Language, and Opponent Inter-
ests. . . You will, through this knowledge, compre-
hend how decidedly it is for the interest of all upon this
continent, that they should be members of the strongest
government upon it; that there should be no discord or
weak governments; that as soon as practicable, there
should be but one general federative government, one
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 177
language, one code of laws, one circulating medium,
one system of commerce, and no restrictions between
one district and another, from north to south, and from
east to west, and thus, that there should be but one in-
terest through its whole extent. That this government
should be based on nature's unchanging laws, be feder-
ative in its outline, but self-governing in its smallest
federate division, and these divisions so formed as that
each individual within them, shall be well cared for,
from birth to death, in order that no one shall be at any
time overlooked ; but that all, young, middle aged, and
old, shall have full justice done to them physically,
mentally, morally and practically, according to their
natural capacities; and as man has been, is, and ever
must be, the creature of the good or evil circumstances
under which he is formed, before his birth, and by
which he is afterward surrounded through life, especial
care must be taken to first remove the existing inferior
and evil circumstances which now, more or less, affect
all previous to, and which surround all from birth to
death; and second to replace those circumstances whose
influence are of an inferior and evil character, by those
decidedly superior and good. . . To make this all
important subject generally understood, for the per-
manent benefit of all, a convention to be called the
"World's Convention," is hereby called in the city of
New- York, the chief city of the United States, now con-
stituting the most powerful government on the Western
Hemisphere, and already an experienced organized fed-
erative government, therefore forming the most advan-
tageous nucleus for the commencement, in the New
World, of an entirely new system for the benefit of all,
upon the principles of equal rights and of self-govern-
ment, the fundamental principles upon which the
American Government was based by its far-seeing
I 7 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
founders. This Convention is now called to create an
opportunity to make the fact known to all, that the
means now exist in great superfluity to effect this glori-
ous change for humanity over the world, but especially
over the whole of this continent, and to consider and dis-
cuss, in a friendly manner, the best mode by which, in the
shortest time, and with the least evil to all, these means
may be applied to accomplish this change in practice.
All having these unexclusive and God-like objects in
view, and more especially those who have had extensive
experience, are invited, in the spirit of universal charity
and kindness, to attend this, the World's Convention,
to commence at 10 o'clock, on Wednesday, ist October.
The place of holding the Convention will be advertised
in a few days. ROBERT OWEN.
(3) Reforms to be Accomplished.
New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 27, 1845, p. 2, col. 2. Advertisement.
The World's Convention will be held in Clinton
Hall, and commence its proceedings at 10 o'clock on
Wednesday morning, October ist, when all who are in-
terested in the improvement of the condition of society,
irrespective of any of the exciting injurious divisions,
which prevent union and destroy the germs of charity,
are invited to attend, to assist in the adoption of meas-
ures that will enable the public, in a short time, to ap-
ply its abundant materials and powers to ensure per-
manent prosperity and progressive happiness to the
entire population of these States.
It is full time that the inhabitants of America should
be no longer deceived and held in bondage by mere
words, forms and ceremonies, meaning nothing that is
substantial or that can ever improve the condition of the
millions, or even those who are trained to use the word
and practice the forms and ceremonies.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 179
To secure permanent progressive prosperity and hap-
piness for all will, now, by one bold and god-like effort,
be speedily effected.
To accomplish this object, a full supply of wealth
and a superior character for all are alone required.
The means to attain both universally have been discov-
ered through the late progress of inventions and im-
provements in the arts and sciences; and these means
may be now united into one grand practical science, as
fixed and certain in its operations as any of the fixed
sciences. Of this statement let none doubt until they
have honestly applied their minds to the investigation
of the principles and plans to be proposed; and as such
result will be most advantageous for all, let no one in-
trude his mere ignorant local prejudices as an obstacle
to the attainment of this great permanent good for all,
but let every one endeavor to repress, on this occasion,
his own prejudices of locality and the prejudices of
others; for it is these early imbibed prejudices alone
that now stand between man and a high degree of phys-
ical and mental excellence, and progressive happiness
in proportion as this excellence shall be attained.
But let none suppose that they are not prejudiced.
The people of all nations over the world are locally
prejudiced -in their sectarian dissentions, in their laws,
governments and customs, in their classifications and
partizan notions. The Jews, the Chinese, the Hindoos,
the Mahomedans, the Pagans, and the Christians,
through their endless sectarian divisions, are one and
all strongly locally prejudiced. Each nation is locally
prejudiced against all other nations -each race against
all other races -each class against every other class -
and, to some extent, each one against every other even
in the same locality. These local prejudices prevent
i8o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Union and destroy Charity, and without Union and
Chanty, there can be no permanent prosperity, excel-
lence or happiness.
All local prejudices emanate alone from ignorance.
To remove this ignorance, there must be an entire
change in the circumstances by which it is hourly per-
petuated.
The causes of all local prejudices are known, and,
under the guidance of the spirits of Charity and Kind-
ness, may now be removed, and all of them, without
violence or ill will, abandoned.
Those, therefore, who attend the "World's Conven-
tion," will be of little use to it unless they come pre-
pared to abandon all that can there be proved to be in-
jurious local prejudices, and now formidable obstacles
to the introduction of universal charity, mental liberty
and kindness. And without these virtues, it will be for-
ever useless and vain to expect prosperity, excellence
and happiness in society, in this or in any other part of
the world.
These virtues can be attained and secured in practice
only by- 1. The absence of local prejudices; 2. A uni-
versal good practical education, freed from local preju-
dices, to ensure a superior character; 3. Regular, sys-
tematic, beneficial employment, to ensure a surplus of
wealth for all; 4. A scientific arrangement of external
circumstances to compose societies, which shall exclude
local prejudices, and include superior education and
employments ; 5. Local government, without force or
fraud, which shall be so constructed that each one,
under its direction, shall be well cared for and justly
treated.
All this may now be accomplished by the World's
Convention. Education, employment, no local preju-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 181
dices, and a local government that will well care for all
and act justly to each, on the principle of universal
charity and kindness -with these the future happiness
of the world will be permanently secured. A friend to
all, ROBERT OWEN.
No. 1 1 Fifth-avenue, New- York.
(4) Proceedings.
New York Daily Tribune, Oct i, 1845, p. 2.
The first meeting of the World's Convention (as it
is termed) was held this morning in the Lecture Room
of Clinton Hall. It commenced at 10 a.m. and closed
at i o'clock. The room was very nearly filled by about
300 persons, and there were about 40 individuals in the
gallery. Among those in the lower part of the room
were 25 or 30 very well dressed and very well-looking
women. Many of the men had a meagre and melan-
choly cast of countenance, a sort of "let's-all-be-unhap-
py-together" style of face, but the majority had a high-
ly intelligent and intellectual expression.
The meeting was called to order by the appointment
of Mr. Collins as President pro tern, and Mr. Ryckman
of Mass, as Secretary pro tern. A Committee of seven,
Messrs. Owen, Collins, Davies, Hooper, Bovay, a Mr.
Smith and another were sent out to draw up a list of
officers, rules, &c. In the mean time a gentleman whose
name was not given, said that he was opposed to Mr.
Owen on very many points -that we are all social be-
ings -that the whole human family are socialists -that
all are laboring in communities, but they are upheld by
blind and bitter prejudices, and the productive part of
the community are embittered one against the other by a
few crafty individuals who produce nothing but strife
and mischief. His speech was cut short by the return
of the Committee, who reported as officers :
1 82 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
Robert Owen, President; Vice Presidents- Albert
Brisbane, John A. Collins, L. W. Ryckman; Secreta-
ries -A. E. Bovay, David Hoyt, S. Seller.
Mr. Brisbane declined because he was opposed to
Mr. Owen's system, and he didn't accept it in any way
or shape.
Mr. Ryckman would not serve unless this was thor-
oughly a World's Convention, where all kinds of views
might be given and discussed as broad as the globe -all
sorts of political propositions, Christian propositions,
associated propositions, temperance propositions, and
all kinds, might be entertained.
Mr. Collins would not act unless all the elements of
good views were united in a concrete whole, so as to
have a power equal to the power we are opposing- it
must be universal and not local.
It was then admitted that in this Convention every
man and woman should have a right to get up and ad-
vance any proposition for the benefit of the human race.
Finally all the gentlemen named consented to serve and
were chosen by the meeting except Mr. Brisbane, whose
place was supplied by Mr. Peebles.
[The Convention continued eight days. Plans for a
reorganization of society were presented by Robert
Owen, Lewis W. Ryckman, Clinton Roosevelt, John
Finch, Alvan E. Bovay, and George H. Evans. Toward
the end of the sessions the Associationists and the land
reformers withdrew. The Convention adjourned, pass-
ing resolutions endorsing Robert Owen's plan and pro-
posing the formation of joint stock companies to carry
it out. Clinton Roosevelt's plan was also approved and
arrangements were proposed for holding an annual
World's Convention. These proposals were never car-
ried out.]
GEORGE HENRY EVANS
FREDERICK W. EVANS
(By permission of Messrs. Charles H. Kerr
and Company)
WILHELM WEITLING
ALVAN EARL BOVAY
2. LOCAL FOURIER SOCIETIES
(a) FOURIER ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK
New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1842, p. x.
We would inform our friends in the country, who
may not be aware of the fact, that the friends of Asso-
ciation in the City have founded a Society bearing the
above name, the object of which is to aid the propaga-
tion of the principles and doctrines of Association.
The Society has a large Lecture Hall in the most cen-
tral part of the City, capable of containing five or six
hundred persons, where Lectures are delivered once or
twice a week.
No responsibility is incurred by becoming a member
of the Fourier Association; no onerous conditions are
imposed, except the payment of the sum of six cents per
week, the object of which is to pay the rent of the Lec-
ture Hall, and a few incidental expenses. If any of our
friends in the Country wish to become members of the
Society here, they can do so by informing us by letter
or otherwise. Where there are several persons in a
place who believe in Association, we would advise
them to form a Society in their own town or city, and
connect it with the Society here ; the Societies can then
communicate with each other, and carry out measures
of general interest with much more promptness and en-
ergy than if no regular organizations of the kind existed.
If a chain of Societies could be established in some of
the towns and cities throughout the country, all con-
necting closely with the head Society at New- York, it
would be a powerful means of propagating the Cause,
and of enabling the friends of Association in all parts
1 8 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of the United States to act with Concert and Unity.
We particularly recommend this suggestion to our
friends. As Societies are formed, let them open com-
munications immediately with the Society at New-
York.
We also call upon the friends of the Cause in this
City, who may not have joined the Society here, to do
so and aid in the slightly onerous way which is required
of them towards defraying the expenses of our Lecture
Hall and Lectures. A regular meeting of the Society
will take place on Tuesday evening next at our Hall,
411 Broadway, when an opportunity will be afforded
them of doing so.
(b) SOUTHPORT (WISCONSIN) FOURIER CLUB
The New York Phalanx, Feb. 5, 1844, p. 70.
A meeting of the friends of "Association", as dis-
covered and illustrated by the late Charles Fourier,
was convened at the Village Hall, in Southport, W.T.,
on Monday evening, Dec. n. S. Fish, Esq. was called
to the Chair, and C. Clement, appointed Secretary.
The following Preamble and Resolutions were submit-
ted and adopted. . .
We believe, that the new social organization as dis-
covered and illustrated by the late Charles Fourier, is
well adapted to remove most of the causes of crime
and misery which now exist, and to confer innumerable
benefits upon mankind. Therefore it is,
RESOLVED, ist. That we associate ourselves together
to be known as the Fourier Club.
and. That we unite our efforts and our means for the
procuring and disseminating a full and general know-
ledge of Fourier's principles of Social Science through-
out our new and flourishing territory.
3rd. That we will meet once in each week for the
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 187
purpose of hearing lectures upon, and discussing the
principles of this science.
4th. That in no portion of our country is concert of
action and associated strength more necessary than in
the north-west, from the fact that capital is deficient
and the demand for it great, which gives to the unprin-
cipled the power of extorting to the fullest extent
which miserly avarice will allow. . .
Finally, that when we contrast the present condition
of man as viewed in his isolated household, his unavoid-
ably useless expenditures, his unpaid labor, his wasted
and unemployed time, his uneducated children, and his
thousand unsatisfied wants, with that better state which
common sense teaches, will flow from a unity of inter-
ests with combined wealth and knowledge, and effort,
we feel it a duty we owe to ourselves, to our children,
and the community at large, to lose no time in testing
its benefits practically, in order that we can better and
sooner recommend it to the world.
The meeting adjourned until Friday evening next,
when a lecture will be delivered by Dr. Parnell, on the
subject of Association.
C. CLEMENT, Secretary- S. FlSH, President.
3. ASSOCIATIONISTS' CONVENTION
The Phalanx, April 20, 1844, pp. 103-106.
Pursuant to a call previously published in the
Phalanx and other papers, the friends of Asso-
ciation assembled in General Convention on Thurs-
day morning, the 4th of April, 1844, at Clinton Hall,
in the City of New York. The hour of meeting was 10
o'clock, soon after which the Convention was called to
order, and Mr. Parke Godwin was appointed Chair-
man, and Mr. O. Macdaniel, Secretary pro tempore.
The Secretary then read the Call of the Convention
and recorded the names of such Delegates and persons
present as, under the terms of the Call, could take part
in the proceedings of the Convention. Delegates were
present from Maine, Massachusetts, Western New
York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The following gen-
tlemen were appointed a Committee to nominate Of-
ficers of the Convention, viz.: Alonzo M. Watson,
Watertown, N.Y. ; John Allen, Hallowell, Me.;
Charles A. Dana, Brookfarm, Mass.; Solyman Brown,
City of New York; Albert Brisbane, do. The Nom-
inating Committee, after a short absence, reported the
following gentlemen as Officers of the Convention:
President- George Ripley; Vice Presidents- A. Bris-
bane, Horace Greeley, Parke Godwin, Alonzo M. Wat-
son, Charles A. Dana, A. B. Smolniker; Secretaries-
Osborne Macdaniel, D. S. Oliphant; Committee on
the Roll and Finance -John Allen, Nathan Comstock,
Jr., James P. Decker.
The Convention having been organized by the ap-
pointment of its Officers, the following gentlemen were
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 189
named by the President as a Business Committee:
Horace Greeley, George Ripley, Albert Brisbane,
Parke Godwin, James Kay, John Allen, Alonzo M.
Watson, Charles A. Dana, Lewis W. Ryckman, Wm.
H. Channing, Solyman Brown, Osborne Macdaniel.
Before proceeding to business the Secretary read let-
ters addressed to the Convention by a number of So-
cieties and individuals in different parts of the United
States, expressive of the deep interest felt in the delib-
erations of the Convention, and their devotion to the
great cause of Association and Universal Unity. . .
When the reading of the letters was finished, the
Business Committee retired to draft resolutions to sub-
mit to the Convention, and after a brief absence W. H.
Channing introduced the Preamble and first and sec-
ond of the series of resolutions which follow, with sub-
stantially the following remarks :
Mr. President and gentlemen of the Convention -It
would be doing injustice to this occasion, not to open
our discussions of the Principles of Social Reorganiza-
tion, by an expression of feelings with which we
have come up, from far and near, to this assembly. It
is but giving voice to what is working in the hearts of
those now present, and of thousands whose sympathies
are at this moment with us over our whole land, to say,
this is a Religious Meeting. Our end is to do God's
will, not our own; to obey the command of Providence,
not to follow the leadings of human fancies. We stand
to-day as we believe amid the dawn of a New Era of
Humanity; and as from a Pisgah look down upon a
Promised Land. Let us do so with gratitude and hu-
mility. "Other men have labored and we have en-
tered into their labors." We are the heirs to-day of
prophets, and martyrs and heroes. Behind us are the
ages of war and division; before us the ages of union
1 9 o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
and peace. Shame on us! if we do not prize the legacy
of hope and opportunity, which the host of the faithful
have bequeathed.
Among the benefactors of the Human Race, there
stands One, so pre-eminent, that he seems alone to mer-
it, the name of Re-former. And when we ask, what
was the power, by which this Son of Man, and Son of
God, recreated, as it were, Humanity; the answer
comes, this living power was in the Unity of his Prin-
ciple -the Universality of its Application, and the
Peacefulness of its Practice. His principle was Love;
its application Justice; its practice brotherly co-opera-
tion. In the devotedness and disinterestedness of the
Prophet of Nazareth was the birth of Association -
Association is Christianity, carried into every relation
and detail of human life.
When in contrast with the sublime promise of the
Gospel of Love, we seek an explanation of the social
outrages which, after eighteen centuries, still disgrace
Christendom, girdling all lands with battlements of
bones, darkening them with prisons, hospitals and poor
houses, and making commerce, which should be bounti-
ful of good, and of good only, to savage nations too
often but the transfer of civilized vices; do we not in-
stantly see, that these atrocious wrongs are owing to the
fact, that nominal Christians have not dared, do not
dare, to trust God, Humanity, and their own hearts?
They have substituted selfish policy for Divine Order,
and expediency for justice; they have preferred force
to peace, and worldly cunning to the simple wisdom of
mutual kindness. Feeble hope in Providence, disbe-
lief in the power of Good to subdue evil -faithlessness
to professed principles of Brotherhood are the causes
of Christian ( !) War, and Fraud and Poverty.
But thanks to the Infinite Father, we cannot be blind
WILLIAM H. CHANNING
(By permission of Messrs. Hougfiton, Miffiin and Company}
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 193
to the signs of promise all around us. Not in vain have
been the efforts of Modern Europe and of this country,
to secure the Free possession of Human Rights, and
thereby the full performance of Human Duties. The
Union of Freemen is the ideal of existing society. The
Spirit of Reform, everywhere triumphant assures us,
that the Divine Life of Love animates this generation.
And all Reforms concentrate in Association; in the ef-
fort to establish households of United Families, one in
all interests, where all may live for each, and each for
all. Brethren! they have told us, that the age of chiv-
alry, and romance and heroic endeavor was passed.
Before the men of this day is opening a career of peace-
ful conquest and noble usefulness, of reverence and loy-
alty, of liberty and joy, in contrast with which the de-
structive deeds and so called glorious triumphs of by
gone times grow dim.
With what purity from selfish purposes, with what
calm, sound judgment, with what courage and manly
firmness, does it become Associationists to enter upon
this boundless field of Conservative Reform which
Providence has opened. . .
RESOLVED, ist. That we feel it to be our great privi-
lege to live in an age which Providence now summons
to establish relations of thorough, mutual kindness be-
tween man and man -within each community between
its families -within each nation between its commun-
ities, and among the various nations which are members
of the Human Race, and that we desire to express due
gratitude by devoted service in this sublime cause of
Religion, Humanity, and Universal Good.
RESOLVED, ad. That the Justice which Love com-
mands includes -
I. A reverent welcome to every child born by the
Providence of God into this terrestrial world.
I 9 4 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
II. The highest culture of its physical, intellectual
and moral powers under healthy, wise and holy influ-
ences.
III. Free opportunity and encouragement of every
Man, Woman, Child, to exercise their peculiar powers
for their own improvement, the welfare of their breth-
ren, and the Glory of God.
IV. The exactest possible Recompense for all modes
and degrees of usefulness.
V. Social position in accordance with Character,
Intelligence and Energy.
VI. Access to all Social, Literary, Artistic and Re-
ligious privileges and enjoyments of the community of
which they are members.
VII. Assured support in infirmity, and means and aid
to Reform in wrong-doing.
VIII. Liberty in Conscience, Speech and Action to
obey the Will of God, limited only by the sympathy,
advice and example of Fellow Beings.
RESOLVED, 3d. That Association will practically se-
cure these Rights which the Justice of Love commands
for every Man, Woman, Child, for the following
among many reasons :
I. By its system of Joint Stock Ownership it recon-
ciles the Individual with the Collective Interest, and
thus makes the community the guardian of each of its
members, and stimulates each member to devotedness
for the general good.
II. By its Guaranty of adequate Support, which it
insures to every individual, it removes debasing anxiety
and sordid care, and gives a generous impulse to the
freest and fullest expansion of all energies.
III. By its Organization of the Seven great branches
of human activity or Industry, viz: Domestic Econ-
omy, Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, Educa-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 195
tion, Science, Art, according to the law of Groups and
Series ; by its arrangements of Combined and Social in
place of Incoherent and Isolated Labor; by the oppor-
tunity it affords for varied and exhilarating, instead of
monotonous and drudging employment; by minute di-
vision instead of complexity in every avocation; and
finally by the prospect offered of assured recompense
and certain gain, it makes Industry attractive.
IV. By its division of Profits according, ist. To the
amount of Labor, Skill and Capital employed: ad. Ac-
cording to the character of Necessity, Usefulness and
Agreeableness of work, it administers just and precise
recompense to every Series, Group and Member.
V. By the pecuniary independence, which it estab-
lishes, through its economies and modes of distribution,
for every individual, it gives rise to just and courteous
relations, based upon qualities of mind and heart, in
place of distinctions resting on accidental circum-
stances; and thus substitutes for jealous competitions,
respectful co-operation -for capricious partialities, true
loyalty- and for private selfishness, public spirit.
VI. By the constant presence of fellow-beings, ani-
mated by like interests, in all places of work, study and
recreation, it surrounds every one by a Public Con-
science-warding off temptations, advising in difficulty,
supporting in weakness, redeeming from wrong; and
thus substitutes sympathy for constraint, and encour-
agement for penalty.
VII. By making it the evident interest of the Com-
munity, and of its Series, Groups and Individuals, that
the highest powers of body, mind and heart, should be
fully developed in every member, it converts society
into a School of Mutual Educators.
VIII. By this general spirit of physical, intellec-
tual and moral culture; by the libraries, scientific col-
196 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
lections, facilities for study and refinement which it
accumulates; and by the opportunity constantly offered
of blending application with principles, and experi-
ment with theory, it secures systematic and symmetric
growth of the whole nature throughout the whole of
life.
IX. By this Integral culture of both sexes from child-
hood through youth; by opportunities of complete ac-
quaintance; by freedom from mercenary motives; by
constant co-operation ; by security from mean anxieties ;
by prevention of secret and illicit connections by the
presence of Childhood; by the co-equality secured in
all respects to Woman -it purifies, elevates, and sancti-
fies Marriage, and thus ennobles all other relations;
which must be determined by the character of this most
central and holy of human relations.
X. By thus dignifying Labor, Thought, Affection, it
makes the whole of life Religious, every place an Altar,
every day Holy, every deed Worship ; and thus amidst
increasing joy and beauty, and constant love for the
Neighbor, raises all to devoted love of the Heavenly
Father.
XL Lastly, By establishing relations of Love within
each separate Community, it removes the causes of dis-
sension between different Communities, and prepares
the way for spreading among all Nations in deed and
in truth, Glory to God, Universal Peace, and Good-
will to Men.
RESOLVED, 4th. That regarding Association not as an
invention of human ingenuity, but as a discovery of the
divine order of society, we solemnly protest against re-
tarding this Providential and Humane movement by
premature, rash and fragmentary undertakings; and
foreseeing, as we do, that success in these enterprises
requires disinterestedness, sagacity, and perseverance,
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 197
we appeal to the friends of our Race with the request,
that they do not attempt to establish Association, until
I. They have secured the co-operation of a sufficient
number of men and women of congenial tempers, de-
voted from generous impulse and conviction to this
cause of God and Man; until
II. They have maturely deliberated upon and dis-
tinctly comprehended the laws of Order and the ar-
rangements which Justice prescribes; until
III. They have actually at their command such
ample capital as to preserve them from anxieties and
risks ;
For only where these conditions are fulfilled can
there be realized that Attractive industry, and abund-
ant Wealth and Beauty, which are the foundations upon
which the higher Social and Religious Harmonies must
be reared. Only thus can Associations be successfully
established. But we rejoice in the assurance, that when
once established, they will act with ever increasing
power, thoroughly to redeem the tens of thousands op-
pressed by want and temptation, from their present
miseries -miseries, which no Superficial Charities but
only Radical Justice can relieve or cure.
RESOLVED, 5th. That in view of the vastness of the
change proposed by Association; the ignorance in re-
gard to it which still so generally prevails; the unfit-
ness for its relationships and duties which false or de-
fective Education has rendered so nearly universal ; the
infidelity, if not hostility, of the great mass of those who
possess Capital or Wealth; the necessarily inadequate
pecuniary resources of the pioneer Associations already
commenced; and the certainty that much waste, both of
efforts and means, must attend the commencement of
changes so mighty, we earnestly advise the Friends of
Association every where, to proceed with circumspec-
I 9 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
tion and deliberation in all practical movements, and,
wherever circumstances shall not imperatively dictate
a different course, to concentrate their energies and ef-
forts on the experiments already commenced in prefer-
ence to undertaking new enterprises.
RESOLVED, 6th. That the Name, which in this first
Annual Convention of the Friends of Association based
upon the Truths of Social Science discovered by
Charles Fourier, we adopt for ourselves, recommend to
those who throughout our country would co-operate
with us, and by which we desire to be always publicly
designated, is, The Associationists of the United States
of America. We do not call ourselves Fourierists, for
the two following reasons: ist. Charles Fourier often
and earnestly protested in advance against giving the
name of any individual man to the Social Science,
which he humbly believed to be, and reverently taught
as a discovery of Eternal Laws of Divine Justice, estab-
lished and made known by the Creator, ad. While we
honor the magnanimity, consummate ability and de-
votedness of this good and wise man, and gratefully ac-
knowledge our belief that he has been the means, under
Providence, of giving to his fellow men a clue which
may lead us out from our actual Scientific and Social
labyrinth, yet we do not receive all the parts of his
theories, which in the publications of the Fourier school
are denominated "Conjectural"- because Fourier gives
them as speculations -because we do not in all respects
understand his meaning -and because there are parts
which individually we reject; and we hold ourselves
not only free, but in duty bound, to seek and obey
Truth, wherever revealed, in the Word of God, the
Reason of Humanity and the Order of Nature.
RESOLVED, yth. That with a solemn sense of our re-
sponsibilities as advocates of the cause of Universal Un-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 199
ity, with an earnest desire to secure consistent co-opera-
tion among the Associations of the United States, and
to prevent in the outset all possibility of those disunions
among Associations, which waste the resources and par-
alyze the energies of existing Society, we hereby de-
clare that, in our opinion, the time has arrived, when
it becomes the imperative duty of the several Associa-
tions in our country, which are based upon the truths
of Social Science as announced by Fourier, to take
measures for the immediate formation of a Union of
Associations; whose objects, among others, should be:
I. A complete Organization of Industry in each and
all such Associations.
II. The establishment of a system of Integral Edu-
cation.
III. The securing of harmonious co-operation in all
respects between the Associations.
IV. The using as far as practicable, for the benefit
of all, the peculiar advantages which each one possesses
of soil, location, climate, &c.
V. The adoption of a uniform system of Finance,
and such Business relations as may make the property of
individuals most available for the purposes of Asso-
ciation.
And, as these objects can be most successfully at-
tained by the adoption of Articles of Confederation, we
recommend to all existing Associations :
i st. Carefully and thoroughly to consider what ar-
rangements and provisions will be necessary to secure
these ends.
2d. To select from among their members such per-
sons as are best fitted to correspond upon the subject
with other Associations.
3d. To appoint and empower Delegates to attend a
meeting which shall be held at some place, hereafter
200 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
appointed by the Executive Committee, on the first
Monday of October, 1844, for the purpose of deliber-
ating upon the above mentioned Union.
RESOLVED, 8th. That accepting as "Associationists"
do, the Law of Groups and Series as the Divinely ap-
pointed order on which the organization of Human
Societies, should rest not merely of our land and time,
but of all lands and times; and believing that the true
organization of Society in every Nation is the most
sure and direct mode of uniting all Nations in the Com-
bined Order, we wish in this first National Convention
to manifest our desire of concerted action with our Fel-
low Associationists in Europe. For this end we hereby
appoint Albert Brisbane, Representative from this
Body, to confer with them, as to the best modes of mu-
tual co-operation. And we assure our brethren in Eu-
rope that the disinterestedness, ability and perseverance
with which our Representative has devoted himself to
the promulgation of the Doctrine of Association in the
United States entitle him to their most cordial confi-
dence. Through him we extend to them with joy and
trust the Right Hand of Fellowship ; and may Heaven
soon bless all Nations with a Compact of Perpetual
Peace.
RESOLVED, 9th. That this Convention adjourns to
meet again, in the City of New York, at such time next
Spring, as the Executive Committee may designate.
And meanwhile, for the purpose of giving efficiency to
the means of diffusing what we believe to be Truth and
Glad Tidings of Love throughout our Land, we do
hereby appoint: Horace Greeley, Parke Godwin, Will-
iam H. Channing, Albert Brisbane, Osborne Macdan-
iel, Charles J. Hempel, Frederick Grain, James P.
Decker, D. S. Oliphant, Rufus Dawes, Edward Giles,
Pierro Maroncelli, City of New York; Solyman Brown,
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 20 1
Leraysville Phalanx, Bradford county, Pa.; George
Ripley, Brook Farm Association, West Roxbury, Mass. ;
Alonzo M. Watson, Jefferson county Industrial Asso-
ciation, N.Y.; E. P. Grant, Ohio Phalanx, Belmont
county, Ohio ; John White, Cincinnati Phalanx, Cincin-
nati, Ohio; Nathan Starks, North American Phalanx,
Monmouth county, N.J.-as an Executive Committee,
during the recess of this Convention, whose duties shall
be-
ist. To edit the Phalanx as the organ of the Associa-
tionists of the United States.
and. To receive, record, and diffuse information in
regard to existing Associations and others which may
be organized within the year.
3rd. To communicate all possible intelligence to
those who in any part of the country may wish to unite
practically with any Associations.
4th. To arrange a system of concerted action with
Associationists throughout the United States, for the
thorough and systematic diffusion of Social Science,
and a knowledge of the practical details of Association.
5th. To attend to any business which Associations
may empower them to transact.
6th. To carry into effect the objects of this Conven-
tion as set forth in the preceding resolutions, and the
accompanying Address to the people of the United
States. . .
[P. 113] On the first day a Delegation of English
Socialists, from a society in this city, presented itself.
The two gentlemen composing the delegation, claimed
seats as members of the Convention. The call of the
Convention was read, and they were asked if they could
unite with the Convention according to the terms of the
call, as "friends of Association based on the principles
of Charles Fourier." This they said they could not do,
202 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
as they differed with the partisans of Fourier in funda-
mental principles, and particularly in regard to Re-
ligion and Property. They held to Community of
Property, and did not accept our views of a Providen-
tial and Divine Social Order. They were informed that
the objects of the Convention were of a special and
business character, and that a controversy and discussion
of principles could not be entered into. Seats as mem-
bers of the Convention were therefore denied; but they
were allowed freely to express their opinions, and treat-
ed with the utmost courtesy, without reply.
4 . AMERICAN UNION OF ASSOCIA-
TIONISTS
The Harbinger, Feb. 10, 1849, p. 120. Constitution of the Union.
I. The name of this Society shall be the American
Union of Associationists. All members of Affiliated
Unions, who are regular contributors to the funds of
the Affiliated Union to which they belong, are the mem-
bers of the American Union, and as such, may partici-
pate in the deliberations of the Annual Convention, but
are not entitled to vote, unless they shall be delegates to
such Convention. No local Union shall be recognized
as Affiliated, which does not make an annual payment
of at least twelve dollars, to the Treasurer of the Amer-
ican Union.
II. Its purpose shall be the establishment of an order
of Society based on a system of joint-stock property;
co-operative labor; association of families; equitable
distribution of profits; mutual guarantees; honors
according to usefulness; integral education; unity of
interests: which system we believe to be in accord-
ance with the Laws of Divine Providence, and the
Destiny of Man.
III. Its Method of operation shall be the appoint-
ment of agents, the sending out of lecturers, the issuing
of publications, and the formation of a Series of Affili-
ated Societies, which shall be auxiliary to the parent
Society, in holding meetings, collecting funds, and in
every way diffusing the Principles of Association, and
preparing for their practical application.
The funds of the Union shall consist of a Rent Fund,
to be composed of the stated weekly contributions from
204 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Affiliated Unions, and a Permanent Fund, to be com-
posed of such contributions as may be made for the pur-
pose, the principal of which shall be regularly invested
by Trustees appointed by the Executive Committee,
until otherwise appropriated by a two-thirds vote of
the Union, at a regular meeting, and the interest in the
meantime to be devoted to the expense of propagation,
under the direction of the Executive Committee.
IV. An Annual Convention of this Society shall be
held at such time and place as may be designated by
the Executive Committee. The said Convention shall
be composed of officers of the Affiliated Unions, not ex-
ceeding four from each Union, and three other dele-
gates elected at large from each Union, provided, that
in case any delegate is unable to attend the Convention,
the delegation of the Affiliated Union to which he be-
longs, may choose a substitute. At each Annual Con-
vention, the Officers of the Society shall be chosen for
the ensuing year.
V. The Officers of this Society shall be a President,
Vice President, Foreign Corresponding Secretary, Do-
mestic Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary,
Treasurer, and Seven Directors. The Presidents of the
various Unions shall be, ex officio, Vice Presidents of
the American Union. The Executive Committee shall
be composed of the Officers of the American Union, any
seven of whom shall constitute a quorum at regular
meetings, to be held during the first week of each month,
by order of the President; and this Committee shall be
responsible for the general management of the Union ;
and shall have power to fill occasional vacancies in the
offices of the Union.
VI. This Constitution may be amended at any Anni-
versary Meeting, by a vote of two-thirds of the mem-
bers present.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 205
OFFICERS: Horace Greeley, President ; George Rip-
ley, Domestic Cor. Secretary ; Parke Godwin, Foreign
Cor. Secretary ; Edward Giles, Recording Secretary ;
Edmund Tweedy, Treasurer] Marcus Spring, Charles
A. Dana, O. Macdaniel, New York; Alexander Harri-
son, James Sellers, Jr., Philadelphia; W. S. Channing,
J. S. Dwight, Boston -Directors.
AFFILIATED UNIONS. Boston -William H. Chan-
ning, President ; J. Butterfield, Vice President ; Anna
Q. T. Parsons, Cor. Secretary ; J. Botume, Jr., Record-
ing Secretary] Calvin Brown, Treasurer] J. Walcott,
Calvin Brown, Caroline Hildreth, Directors. Organ-
ized, November, 1846. Members 58-37 males, 21 fe-
males.
Philadelphia- James Kay, President] Hannah L.
Stickey, Vice President] James Sellers, Jr., Corre-
sponding Secretary] Samuel Sartam,L/&r<m#w; Henri-
ette A. Hadry, Recording Secretary] William Elder,
Chief of the Group of Indoctrination] A. W. Harri-
son, Treasurer] Paschal Coggins, Chief of the Group of
Practical Affairs] Sara Elder, Chief of the Group of
Social Culture. Organized, April 7, 1847. Members
56. 35 Males, 21 Females.
Providence, R.I.- Joseph J. Cooke, President] P. W.
Ferris, Vice President] John L. Clarke, Secretary]
Stephen Webster, Treasurer. Organized i6th April,
1847. Members 30.
AFFILIATED UNIONS AND TREASURERS: Lowell,
Mass., Wm. T. G. Pierce; New Bedford, Mass., Chas.
H. Coffin; Springfield, Mass., G. W. Swazey; New-
buryport, Mass., Rev. E. A. Eaton; Amesbury, Mass.,
Rev. S. C. Hewitt; Mattapoisett, Mass., J. D. Sturte-
vant; Nantucket, Mass., ; Bangor, Maine, Mary
Poor; Pittsford, Vt, Dr. J. S. Ewing; Clarendon, Vt,
C. Woodhouse; Brandon, Vt, G. W. Walker; Middle-
206 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
bury, Vt, ; New York, N.Y., J. T. White; Al-
bany, N.Y., Tappan Townsend; Westmorland, N.Y.,
; Utica, N.Y., ; Kings Ferry, N.Y., - ;
Pittsburgh, Pa., James Nichols; Wheeling, Va., Wm.
McDiarmid; Cincinnati, Ohio, J. B. Russell; Ceresco,
Fond du Lac Co., Wis., W. Chase.
5. RELATION TO OTHER REFORMS
(a) ABOLITION
(i) The Phalanx on Slavery.
The Phalanx, Nov. 4, 1843, pp. 17-19.
. . . This great question must be met and solved,
but it may be done peaceably by the exercise of reason,
and for the benefit of all classes, both the slave-holder
and the slave, or it may be done violently by appealing
to passion, in a spirit of fanaticism and headlong fury
which will be destructive to the interests of all. It
must be solved by science. A thorough and complete
extinction of slavery can only be effected upon just
and scientific principles.
But it is in vain to suppose that slavery can be toler-
ated as a permanent institution, that it can continue for-
ever, as may perhaps be desired by some who would
confiscate the future to false conservatism and mistaken
individual interests. It is opposed both to the spirit of
Democracy, and to the spirit of Christianity, which
after centuries of struggles are bearing down all old
oppressive institutions to realize practically in human
societies the great fundamental principles upon which
they are based, the universal Brotherhood and Unity of
the human race, and universal Liberty, Equality and
Happiness among mankind, of which as yet they have
had but such a faint glimmering in the future, and
have possessed so little. . .
But whilst we predict this great result, let us hasten
to state that the institution of Slavery should not be at-
tacked violently, as it is by the Abolition party, which
seems to think that nothing else is false in our social or-
208 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ganization, and that slavery is the only social evil to be
extirpated. This one-sided view, with the dangerous
rashness to which one-sided and partial considerations
of social questions generally give rise, will, if persisted
in, inevitably lead to violence and revolution, and be-
side producing fatal consequences, will terminate in
most meagre and inadequate results. The rights of the
master may be spoliated, and the slave freed from per-
sonal bondage by insurrection and violence, but with-
out a wise provision for an altered condition, the change
would only bring servitude and oppression in another
and more aggravated form.
A reform in the institution of Slavery in this and all
other countries, must proceed hand in hand with a great
and radical Social Reform, and chattel slavery like all
other kinds of servitude, should be extinguished grad-
ually as the false relations and unnatural conditions
connected with Industry, which originate and maintain
it, are corrected and abolished.
The primary cause of Slavery is repugnant and dis-
honorable industry. So long as Labor is allowed to re-
main in its present repugnant, degrading and ill-requit-
ed condition, slavery and servitude under various forms
will continue to exist. We must go to the root of the
Evil ; we must extirpate the cause before we attempt to
destroy the effect. . .
In attempting so great a reform as that of Slavery,
which is of such vast national importance, and affects
so many interests, the first steps to be taken are to ex-
amine carefully and analyze the various kinds of slav-
ery and servitude existing on 'the earth -search for and
ascertain the fundamental causes of their existence and
then proceed to the discussion and adoption of the
wisest and the best, the most prudent and peaceable
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 209
means of eradicating the causes. The effects will dis-
appear of themselves as the causes are removed.
The whole Industry of the South -particularly agri-
culture-is dependent upon slave-labor. Hence the
question is so important. If you abolish slavery sudden-
ly, and without any preparatory measures to establish
in its stead a better system of Industry, which will guar-
anty a continued prosecution of labor, you derange and
paralyze production and produce a state of things in
which the slaves are worse off than before, and suffer
more than at present. No other system of Labor, no
other Organization of Industry than that of Hired La-
bor, or Labor for Wages, is known by any party, (of
reformers or politicians who have heretofore agitated
the question of slavery,) and as we before mentioned,
this system is but little better than slavery itself viewed
in any light, and worse than slavery as a permanent in-
stitution, and would, therefore, be a wretched substi-
tution. Before attempting to abolish slavery in the
South, then, a new system of Industry must be discov-
ered and provided. . .
Consistently with the spirit of the age, with its nar-
row and one-sided views and partial reforms, Southern
slavery, a single branch only of universal slavery, has
been attacked. This is the error of men who have
thought chattel slavery to be the greatest of social evils
because the manner of the wrong was most apparent,
and not understanding the primary cause of slavery,
or knowing the true remedy, have blindly hurried into
a crusade as impolitic as dangerous, as ineffectual as
unjust, against this single branch growing out of the
great tap-root of social evil, which they leave untouched
to throw out its upas shoots in some other form. They
wage a war against slavery and slave-holders, but with-
2 1 o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
out provision for the slaves or indemnification for the
masters. But although the Abolitionists are wrong-
headed and fanatical, they should not be despised or
denounced as mad visionaries; they are earnest and
many of them, no doubt, sincere men, and they are based
on the great principles of Democracy and Christianity,
the principles of Equality and Brotherhood, which be-
ing true and divine are destined to triumph over all
obstacles, and eventually become practically realized
on Earth. Instead of mere opposition and denuncia-
tion, the leaders of Society, statesmen and divines,
should examine this great question of Slavery and learn
how the system may be safely changed and replaced by
a better one. The Industry of a nation is the founda-
tion on which it rests, and cannot be violently interfered
with without producing the worst results, unsettling
the whole fabric of society, or possibly destroying it en-
tirely. The Industry of the South must, therefore, be
protected, and to do this must be a primary considera-
tion in any project for freeing the slaves. Freedom
would be no boon to the slave without education, and
this also must be provided for before slavery can be
abolished. The right of property is a sacred right
which must be recognized, and before destroying the
institution of slavery, means must be found for secur-
ing full and acceptable indemnification to the owner.
These are the problems to be solved in connection with
the question of slavery, and it is the duty of statesmen,
especially, to study them and find solutions for them.
It is a false position for our countrymen to put them-
selves in, to oppose and condemn abolition only, without
endeavoring to effect the object aimed at in a peaceful
and satisfactory manner to all parties. Mere opposition
will give rise to a conflict which may end in a dissolu-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 211
tion of the Union and the most frightful political and
social convulsions. . .
(2) Horace Greeley to the Anti-Slavery Convention.
New York Daily Tribune, June 20, 1845, p. i ; quoted from the Cin-
cinnati Morning Herald.
New- York, June 3d, 1845.
Dear Sir: I received, weeks since, your letter invit-
ing me to be present at a General Convention of oppon-
ents of Human Slavery, irrespective of past differences
and party organizations. I have delayed till the last
moment my answer, hoping I might this season indulge
a long-cherished desire and purpose by visiting your
section and city, in which case I should certainly have
attended your Convention. Being now reluctantly com-
pelled to forego or indefinitely postpone that visit, I
have no recourse but to acknowledge your courtesy in
a letter.
In saying that I should have attended your Conven-
tion had I been able to visit Cincinnati this month, I
would by no means be understood as implying that I
would have claimed to share in its deliberations; still less
that I should have been likely to unite in the course of
action to which these deliberations will probably tend.
Whether there "can true reconcilement grow" between
those opponents of Slavery whom the late Presidential
Election arrayed against each other in desperate conflict,
I do not venture to predict. Most surely, that large
portion of them with whom I acted and still act, have
been confirmed in our previous convictions of duty by
the result of that election, and by the momentous con-
sequences which it has drawn after it. Not merely
with regard to this question of Slavery, but to all ques-
tions, I have by that result been warned against pledg-
ing myself to any special and isolated Reform in such
manner as to interfere with and fetter my freedom and
2 1 2 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ability to act decisively and effectively upon more gen-
eral and immediately practical considerations of Na-
tional interest and Human well-being. You and yours r
I understand, have been confirmed in an opposite con-
viction. Time must decide on which side is the right.
But while I cannot hope that I should have been able
to unite with you upon any definitive course of action
to be henceforth pursued by all opponents of Slavery,
irrespective of past or present differences, I should have
gladly met you, conferred with you, compared opin-
ions, and agreed to act together so far as joint action is
not forbidden by conflicting opinions. Animated by
this spirit, I shall venture to set before you, and ask the
Convention to consider, some views which I deem es-
sential as bearing on the present condition and ultimate
success of the Anti-Slavery movement.
What is Slavery? You will probably answer: "The
legal subjection of one human being to the will and
power of another." But this definition appears to me
inaccurate on both sides -too broad, and at the same
time, too narrow. It is too broad, in that it includes the
subjection founded in the parental and similar relations;
too narrow, in that it excludes the subjection founded
in other necessities not less stringent than those imposed
by statute. We must seek some truer definition.
I understand by Slavery, that condition in which one
human being exists mainly as a convenience for other
human beings -in which the time, the exertions, the fac-
ulties of a part of the Human Family are made to sub-
serve, not their own development physical, intellectual
and moral, but the comfort, advantage or caprices of
others. In short, wherever service is rendered from one
human being to another, on a footing of one-sided and
not of mutual obligation- when the relation between the
servant and the served is one not of affection and recip-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 213
rocal good offices, but of authority, social ascendency
and power over subsistence on the one hand, and of ne-
cessity, servility and degradation on the other -there,
in my view, is Slavery.
You will readily understand, therefore, that, if I
regard your enterprise^with less absorbing interest than
you do, it is not that I deem Slavery a less but a greater
evil. If I am less troubled concerning the Slavery prev-
alent in Charleston or New-Orleans, it is because I see
so much Slavery in New- York, which appears to claim
my first efforts. I rejoice in believing that there is less
of it in your several communities and neighborhoods;
but that it does exist there I am compelled to believe.
In esteeming it my duty to preach Reform first to my
own neighbors and kindred, I would by no means at-
tempt to censure those whose consciences prescribe a
different course. Still less would I undertake to say
that the Slavery of the South is not more hideous in
kind and degree than that which prevails at the North.
The fact that it is more flagrant and palpable renders
opposition to it comparatively easy and its speedy down-
fall certain. But how can I devote myself to a crusade
against distant servitude, when I discern its essence per-
vading my immediate community and neighborhood?
nay, when I have not yet succeeded in banishing it even
from my own humble household? Wherever may lie
the sphere of duty of others, is not mine obviously here?
Let me restate what I conceive to be essential char-
acteristics of Human Slavery:
1. Wherever certain human beings devote their time
and thoughts mainly to obeying and serving other hu-
man beings, and this not because they choose to do so
but because they must, there (I think) is Slavery.
2. Wherever human beings exist in such relations
that a part, because of the position they occupy and the
214 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
functions they perform, are generally considered an in-
ferior class to those who perform other functions, or
none, there (I think) is Slavery.
3. Wherever the ownership of the soil is so engrossed
by a small part of the community, that the far larger
number are compelled to pay whatever the few may
see fit to exact for the privilege of occupying and cul-
tivating the earth, there is something very like Slavery.
(I rejoice that this state of things does not, as yet, exist
in our country.)
4. Wherever opportunity to Labor is obtained with
difficulty, and is so deficient that the employing class
may virtually prescribe their own terms and pay the
Laborer only such share as they choose of the product,
there is a very strong tendency to Slavery.
5. Wherever it is deemed more reputable to live
without Labor than by Labor, so that a gentleman
would be rather ashamed of his descent from a black-
smith than from an idler or mere pleasure-seeker, there
is a community not very far from Slavery. And
6. Wherever one human being deems it honorable
and right to have other human beings mainly devoted to
his or her convenience or comfort, and thus to live, di-
verting the labor of these persons from all productive
or general usefulness to his or her own special uses,
while he or she is rendering or has rendered no corre-
sponding service to the cause of human well-being,
there exists the spirit which originated and still sustains
Human Slavery.
I might multiply these illustrations indefinitely, but
I dare not so to trespass on your patience. Rather al-
low me to apply the principles here evolved in illustra-
tion of what I deem the duties and policy of Abolition-
ists in reference to their cause. And here I would
advise :
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 215
1. Oppose Slavery in all its forms. Be at least as
careful not to be a slaveholder as not to vote for one.
Be as tenacious that your own wives, children, hired
men and women, tenants, &c., enjoy the blessings of ra-
tional Liberty, as the slaves of South Carolina.
2. Be at least as ardent in opposing the near as the
distant forms of Oppression. It was by beginning at
home that Charity was enabled to perform such long
journeys, even before the construction of railroads.
And it does seem clear to my mind that if the advocates
of Emancipation would unite in well-directed, per-
sistent efforts to improve the condition of the blacks in
their own States and neighborhoods respectively, they
could hardly fail to advance their cause more rapidly
and surely than by any other course. Suppose, for ex-
ample, they were to resolve in each State to devote
their political energies in the first place to a removal of
the shameful, atrocious civil disabilities and degrada-
tions under which the African race now generally labor,
and to this end were to vote systematically for such can-
didates, whom their votes could probably elect, (if such
there were) as were known to favor the removal of
those disabilities: would not their success be sure and
speedy? But
3. Look well to the Moral and Social condition of
the Blacks in the Free States. Here is the refuge of
the conscientious slaveholder. He declines emanci-
pating, because he cannot perceive that emancipation
has thus far conduced to the benefit of the liberated.
If the mass of the blacks are to remain ignorant, desti-
tute, unprincipled, degraded, (as he is told the Free
Blacks are) he thinks it better that his should remain
Slaves.
I know that the degradation of the Blacks is exag-
gerated. I know that so much of it as exists is mainly
2 1 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
owing to their past and present wrongs. But I feel also
that the process of overcoming this debasement must be
slow and dubious, while its causes continue to exist. I
entreat, therefore, that those who have the ear of these
children of Africa and of their philanthropic friends,
shall consider the propriety of providing for them cities
of refuge, townships -communities, I would say- where-
in they may dwell apart from the mass of our people,
in a social atmosphere of their own, not poisoned by the
universal conviction of their inferiority, at least until
they shall have had a chance to show whether they are
or are not necessarily idle, thriftless, vicious, and con-
tent with degradation. I most earnestly believe the
popular assumptions on these points erroneous; I ask
that the Blacks have a fair chance to prove them so. A
single township in each Free State mainly peopled by
them, with churches, schools, seminaries for scientific
and classical education, and all social influences un-
tainted by the sense of African humiliation, would do
more (if successful, as I doubt not) to pave the way
for Universal Freedom, than reams of angry vitupera-
tion against slaveholders. These are in good part men
of integrity and conscience; they see the wrong almost
as clearly as you do: it is the right which they should
see and cannot: will you enable them to see it? Yours,
respectfully, HORACE GREELEY.
V 3) Compensation to Slave Owners.
The Harbinger, June 5, 1847, p. 407; quoted from the Planters' Banner
(Franklin, La.).
LECTURE ON ASSOCIATION. The subject of Property
suggested a few words upon the subject of Slavery, as
involving one form of property in the South, and in-
vested rights. Upon this question, Mr. Macdaniel de-
sired to define the position of Associationists. They re-
garded it as a question of political or social economy as
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 217
well as a question of a moral nature. It involved the con-
sideration of property and the guiding law of Associa-
tion is to respect all established or vested rights in so-
ciety and never to do them violence by rash or unjust
measures. In carrying out the universal reform of so-
ciety then, there will be no robbery committed upon
the master to liberate the slave; means will be found to
compensate the master for any loss he may sustain
through the abolition of slavery. Considered in a moral
point of view, Associationists looked upon Slavery as a
great evil, an opinion concurred in by every intelligent
and liberal-minded slave-holder the lecturer had ever
conversed with on the subject. They condemned it as
an evil of vast magnitude and deplored its existence, but
Associationists were philosophers as well as philan-
thropists- they were not simplists, who took but a single
and one-sided view of a question; they were compound
reasoners, who considered it on all sides and in all its
bearings and they did not confine their view to slav-
ery as an evil to be got rid of. They looked abroad upon
the face of society, throughout the whole world, and
they saw that Negro slavery in the South, was one only
of many forms of slavery that existed on the earth ; that
it was but one manifestation of the immense mass of evil
which overwhelmed mankind. Consequently they did
not contemplate the removal of this one evil alone and
direct their exertions wholly against it; they wished to
abolish all evil and all forms of slavery. They consid-
ered the White Slavery of the North in many respects
worse than the black Slavery of the South. It was more
heartless and had less direct sympathy with its victims.
The laboring classes under the Wages system were sub-
jected to calamities more dreadful than those suffered
by personal slaves, as exhibited among the operatives of
England, Ireland and other countries of Europe. The
2 1 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [VoL
same results would every where grow out of the Wages
system among the free white laborers of the North as
well as those of monarchical countries. Government
was no protection to the laboring classes ; Capital would
in the course of time bring Labor into a state of com-
plete subjection and nominal slavery, quite as oppressive
as real slavery; Association would abolish slavery
under all forms throughout the world!
(4) Anti-Slavery Standard on Association.
National Anti-Slavery Standard, Oct 14, 1847, p. 78.
. . . Are we asked then why we do not devote
ourselves to universal reform? Were it not a question
asked so often, we should deem that it could only be
put foolishly or without sincerity. But we answer -be-
cause, before we can settle the relations of man to so-
ciety, we must know who and what is man. This is the
problem, which, in our day and our country, notwith-
standing its boasted theory, demands a solution. Till it
is solved, there can be no such thing as universal re-
form. Here is the work of Anti-Slavery, and this, by
the blessing of God, it means to accomplish.
And herein is the difference between the movement
for Association and Anti-Slavery : the former is a de-
mand for social re-organization, because the present
system is one of anarchy, injustice, divided and opposite
interests, and immense suffering. It is, nevertheless,
the natural growth of the past, and is to be superseded,
if at all, by a better growth, induced by experiment.
Anti-Slavery, on the other hand, is the assertion of the
first right of man -the right to himself. Here is a right
established by the immutable law of God, and acknow-
ledged by a universal instinct in every human being.
No man is deprived of himself without knowing it, feel-
ing the wrong, and in some sort protesting against it.
In being robbed of himself, he is robbed of all his
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 219
rights. In being made a chattel, he is made nothing.
No argument, and no theory is needed here. We assert
only a self-evident truth. No sensible man -if the term,
in such a connection, is not a paradox -ever defends
Slavery, as in itself right, upon any other ground than
that the negro is not a man. In confessing him to be a
man, "a suspicion would follow," says Montesquieu,
"that we are not Christians."
Anti-Slavery then underlies all other reforms, for it
asserts the natural equality of all men, without regard
to colour or condition. Until this principle is recognized
as practically true, there can be no universal reform.
There can be even no partial reform -we mean no per-
fect social organization among a part of the commun-
ity- in a nation that holds one-sixth of its people in
bondage; for the evils of Slavery are not confined to
the slave; they permeate the relations of every individ-
ual in the land. The first work of the reformer, then,
among us, is to establish universally the right of man
to himself. . . It is no extravagant supposition that
Slavery and Association may exist together. Slave-
holders may resort to social re-organization for their
own benefit, in which their slaves shall be no more con-
sidered than their horses or cattle. . .
(5) Wendell Phillips on Labor.
The Liberator, July 9, 1847.
One of the best speeches we heard in Boston, during the Anniver-
sary week, was made by Wendell Phillips before the Anti-Slavery
Society, against a proposition to abstain from the products of slave la-
bor. He declared that, in his opinion, the great question of Labor,
when it shall fully come up, will be found paramount to all others,
and that the rights of the peasants of Ireland, the operatives of New
England, and the laborers of South America, will not be lost sight
of in sympathy for the Southern slave. Mr. Phillips is on the high
road to the principles of integral social reform. May he and all other
philanthropists be brought to perceive that Slavery, War, Poverty
220 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
and Oppression, are inseparable from the system of Civilization - the
system of antagonistic interests; that the only effectual remedy is the
introduction of a higher system, the system of union of interests and
union of industry.
The notice which has been taken of the above para-
graph from the Harbinger, leads me to correct the
erroneous impression it conveys. I do not recollect mak-
ing any such assertion as that above stated. The resolu-
tion under discussion, at the time referred to, spoke of
the "unrequited products" of the coerced toil of the
slave. In commenting upon this expression, I said, that
if it was our duty to abstain from all the products of un-
requited labor, the principle would apply to many cases
beside that of the slave, and shut us out from the use of
many articles in the market, indeed most of the manu-
factured ones. I instanced the coal mines of England -
the mines of other countries -and the manufactures of
cotton, woollen, linen and silk. From the remarks of
the Harbinger, some may suppose that I placed the La-
borer of the North and the Slave on the same level, and
talked perhaps of "white slavery," of "wages slavery,"
&c. I did no such thing -I dissent entirely from those
doctrines. Except in a few crowded cities and a few
manufacturing towns, I believe the terms "wages slav-
ery" and "white slavery" would be utterly unintelli-
gible to an audience of laboring people, as applied to
themselves. There are two prominent points which dis-
tinguish the laborers in this country from the slaves.
First, the laborers, as a class, are neither wronged nor
oppressed: and secondly, if they were, they possess
ample power to defend themselves, by the exercise of
their own acknowledged rights. Does legislation bear
hard upon them? Their votes can alter it. Does cap-
ital wrong them? Economy will make them capital-
ists. Does the crowded competition of cities reduce
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 221
their wages? They have only to stay at home, devoted
to other pursuits, and soon diminished supply will bring
the remedy. In the old world, absurd and unjust in-
stitutions injure all classes, and, of course, oppress first
and most cruelly that class, the weakest, whose only
wealth is its labor. Here, from the same cause, the im-
perfections which still cling to our social and political
arrangements bear hardest on the laborer. A wiser use
of the public lands, a better system of taxation, disuse
of war and of costly military preparation, and more
than all, the recognition of the rights of women, about
which we hear next to nothing from these self-styled
friends of labor, will help all classes much. But to
economy, self-denial, temperance, education, and moral
and religious character, the laboring class, and every
other class in this country, must owe its elevation and
improvement. Without these, political and social
changes are vain and futile. With them, all, except
the equality of women, sink into comparative insig-
nificance. Many of the errors on this point seem to me
to proceed from looking at American questions through
European spectacles, and transplanting the eloquent
complaints against capital and monopoly, which are
well-grounded and well applied there, to a state of so-
ciety here, where they have little meaning or applica-
tion, and serve only for party watch-words. W. P.
(6) Ripley's Criticism.
The Harbinger, July 17, 1847, P- 93-
. . . We are sorry that Mr. Phillips has no better
method to propose of elevating the laborer in this coun-
try, than the preaching of "economy, self-denial, tem-
perance, education, and moral and religious character."
It is a poor consolation to tell the haggard operative in
our factories, or the watch-worn sailor in the forecastle,
that he can escape the wrongs of capital by becoming
222 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
a capitalist himself. This may give relief to individ-
uals who have craft and skill sufficient to apply the
rule; but the class remains with just as many victims to
bear the intolerable burdens which a false organization
of society impose upon them. It is idle to talk of the
laborer, on the lowest round of the social ladder, about
getting to the top of it by the observance of morality.
If he has a human heart in his bosom, it is not so much
to reach the top that he wants, as to do away the infernal
system by which a lower order of society is doomed to
toil and slave their lives out for a comparatively small
portion of the favorites of fortune. . .
(b) OWENISM- COMMUNISM
(i) An Owenite questions Brisbane.
Herald of the New Moral World (New York), Feb. 4, 1841.
. . . We should like to put a few questions to the
Future [Brisbane's proposed journal].
1. Will not competition exist with many of its pres-
ent evils under the associated reform proposed in the
above paper?
2. Will there not be competition in the ranks of The-
ologians, and the manifestation of the bitterness of sec-
tarianism?
3. Will there not be dissatisfaction among the peo-
ple, consequently unhappiness, inasmuch as some will
be able to command splendid equipages, livery ser-
vants, and princely mansions, while others being com-
paratively poor, and not being able to curb their animal
propensities, will seek by strife, chicanery, and fraud,
to be equal, if not superior to their fellows?
4. Will there not be inducements left for forgery and
other deceptive measures?
5. Will the people by this association be led to a
knowledge of the real nature of man, and if not, will
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 223
they know how to govern him in the best possible way,
so as to make him moral, virtuous, and happy?
6. Will there not be prisons, dungeons, inflictions or
physical punishment for those who are supposed to cre-
ate their own wills, form their own faith, and control
their own actions, and the circumstances by which they
are surrounded?
7. If these things are left unsettled, is there any guar-
antee that avarice and fraud will not break out and
oppress the weak and break up the association?
8. Will not the proposed association, like the present
competitive arrangements of Society, give undue and
unnatural influence to capital, and consequently be op-
pressive to the poor, but industrious, producer?
9. After the poor have laboured for the proposed
Association, till old age afflicts them, what is then to
become of them? Will they go begging and live on
alms?
We maintain that our principles being the result of
matters of fact, and not fiction, reality and not vision,
demonstration and not theory, settles these all import-
ant questions on such a base as not to be shaken by the
scrutiny of the philosopher, the penetration of the di-
vine, nor the talent of the eloquent.
(2) Owen on Fourierism.
The Phalanx, Dec. 9, 1844.
New Harmony, Indiana, 25th October, 1844.
[P. 296] My dear Sir: I have read with great in-
terest almost all the numbers of the Phalanx which you
gave me, and the remainder I will read so soon as time
will permit. The result of what I have read, has been
to increase my respect and affection for Fourier and his
disciples, and to wish the latter speedy and full success,
to the extent that the discoveries of the former will lead
when advocated by so much talent and disinterestedness
224 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
as appears in these papers. The system impressed on
the mind of Fourier and pursued by his disciples, is an
excellent transition system from the extreme of irration-
ality toward a rational condition of the human mind
and of society; and the disciples of this transition sys-
tem are better prepared for pioneers, to lead many out
of the old system, than those persons generally who
have hitherto professed to be members of the full ration-
al system -a system which so far has been little under-
stood by them or the public. Hitherto there has been
no efficient preparation made in the general mind of
what is called the civilized part of the world, to com-
prehend the full rational system of society. There have
been no individuals trained through a sufficiently ex-
tended practice in all the natural departments of so-
ciety, to enable them to analyze it into its original ele-
ments, and to put them again together in accordance
with their utility, in their due proportions, and in uni-
son with the eternal laws of human nature. Fourier
had the conception; but from his want of practical
knowledge in the various departments of life -from his
misconception of the powers of society acquired within
the last century- from his inexperience of the feelings
and emotions created by the present system of society,
in the various classes of which it has been composed -
and his want of depth in penetrating to the real causes
of the misery of mankind, arising from the inexperience
stated, and thus deriving his notions from an enlarged
and over-heated imagination instead of unchanging
facts or the divine laws of humanity, he was unequal to
devise a "Science of society" based on eternal laws, and
simple and consistent throughout all its parts, and equal
to the eternal wants and progress of the human race.
Yet Fourier had qualities of mind and desires for the
happiness of man, exclusive of creed and clime, which
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 225
place him greatly in advance of all former reformers;
and he is well entitled to be regarded by his disciples
with the feelings which they entertain for him.
After reading Fourier's writings as translated in the
Phalanx, and the writings of his very talented disciples,
the impressions formerly made on my mind respecting
the science of human nature and the science of society
remain unchanged, except that these writings have
made them, if possible, more clear and distinct, as con-
firming them in every particular. But Fourierism
must precede Rationality. The step from the extreme
of irrationality in principle and practice, to full ration-
ality in both, is too long a stride for the present race of
men to make at once, and the intermediate step is laying
beautifully and I trust effectually by Fourier's dis-
ciples. But to produce universal peace, cordial affec-
tion, one interest, and permanent happiness among man-
kind, all the religions of the world and all desire for
private property, or inequality of education or condi-
tion, must cease. Until then justice, virtue, and happi-
ness will remain unknown. If I mistake not the signs
of the times, even this period is not very far off. . .
ROBERT OWEN.
(3) Kriege* criticizes Association.
Volks Tribun (New York), Sept. 26, 1846, p. i.
. . . Von den verschiedenen Systemen des Sozial-
ismus und Kommunismus haben die Systeme Fourier's
und Owen's die meiste Verbreitung gefunden. Sowohl
die Fourieristen als die Owenisten waren fur die Pro-
paganda ihrer Lehren ausserst thatig und sind es zum
Theil noch. Nach der Natur der Sache fand Fourier
mehr Anhang unter den Wohlhabenden, den soge-
* Herman Kriege was a member of the " Communist League" of Brussels
of which Marx, Engels, and Weitling were prominent leaders. He was ex-
pelled from this league because his Volks Tribun advocated the demands
of the National Reformers.- ED.
226 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
nannten Leuten von Bildung, Owen mehr unter den Ar-
beitern, den einfach kindlichen Gemuthern. In polit-
ischer Beziehung sind die Fourieristen meistens Whigs,
die Owenisten meistens Demokraten. Fourier's System
ist eben durch und durch kaufmannisch, es beruht auf
einem Geschaftscalcul, und behandelt Arbeit, Kap-
ital und Talent als gleich berechtigte Associe's, die
den Ertrag unter sich zu theilen haben. Kein Wunder
also, dass es unter den Whigs, den Kaufleuten, den Kap-
italisten seine vorziiglichsten Bekenner zahlt,-waren
die Spekulanten gescheidt, sie bedachten sich keinen
Augenblick, auf solch ein Geschaft einzugehen,-es
ware das der sicherste Weg, die Abhangigkeit der Ar-
beiter zu einer Herzenssache, zu einer Angelegenheit
ihres personlichen Interesses zu machen. Dass die
heutigen Gesellschaftsverhaltnisse nicht lange mehr
fortbestehen konnen, davon iiberzeugt der gebildete
Kapitalist sich leicht, die Durchfiihrung des Fourier-
istischen Systems konnte ihm daher nur hochst er-
wiinscht sein, da sie seinen Privilegien den Stempel der
Ewigkeit aufdriicken und sein "Eigenthum" aller Ge-
fahr enthoben wiirde, seinen Werth zu verlieren oder
einmal vom Volke auf einen alteren Besitztitel hin con-
fiscirt zu werden. Nach den Vorstellungen der Fou-
rieristen wiirde der dazu abgerichtete Arbeiter in ihren
Phalansteren aus Neigung thun, was er in der heutigen
Gesellschaft thut, um sich gegen den Hunger zu wehr-
en. Es wiirde gewissermassen seine Religion werden,
den Kapitalisten reich zu machen. Dafiir soil denn
aber auch alles so eingerichtet werden, dass der Ar-
beiter immer reichlich zu essen hatte, gut wohnte, gut
gekleidet wiirde, noch besser vielleicht als der Sklav
im Siiden. Aber die liberalen Herren verrechnen sich
in einem: der Mensch, der einmal etwas von Freiheit
geschmeckt hat, lasst sich auch durch die idealsten
|WC "
/ v ^%^>^^il^
;^* * ?] EsssSSSSaS*
^\J^ ; ! r '.:.: ->
^ ^
'M ! -;.J ' ' '.' <, *<
til "6 ..-"
>^1
/^V ^ --^'S
.- //'/ ^^^ ! HH^^i^^H^?
K
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 229
Speisen und Wohlgeriiche nicht in die Sklaverei zu-
ruckbringen, er verhungert lieber, als dass er sich wie
ein Ochs an die Krippe binden lasst. Er bedarf vor
allem des Bewusstseins, dass er unter seines Gleich-
en ist, und besitzt nicht Wiener Materialismus genug,
urn es sich an den Tischen seiner privilegirten Herren
wohl schmecken lassen zu konnen. Und wenn es daher
auch den Fourieristen ganz gleichgiiltig ist, ob sie unter
der Protection monarchischer, konstitutioneller oder
republikanischer Regierungen ihre Phalanstere auf-
bauen, so ist es dagegen auch dem armsten republikan-
ischen Proletarier durchaus nicht gleichgiiltig, ob ihm
1/3 seines Rechtes wird, oder das ganze. Das Fourier-
istische System ist ein sehr feiner Versuch, die Be-
durfnisse und Leidenschaften des Menschen durchNah-
rung in Harmonie zu bringen, aber der Mensch ist
keine Maschine, die man mathematisch vermessen kann
und richten und stellen, wie man will. Das hochste
Bedurfniss des freien Menschen, sein Bedurfniss nach
Gleichheit findet im Fourierismus keine Beachtung. . .
[Translation of the above.]
Among the various systems of socialism and commun-
ism, those of Fourier and Owen have found the greatest
number of advocates. The adherents of Fourier, as
well as those of Owen, have been very active in propa-
gating their teachings, and are in part still. According
to the nature of the case, Fourier found more support
among the well-to-do, the so-called people of culture,
Owen more among the working men, the simple child-
ish souls. In a political sense, the Fourierites are most-
ly Whigs, the Owenites mostly Democrates. Fourier's
system is out and out commercial, it rests on a business
basis, and treats labor, capital, and talent as partners,
who are entitled to share the profits equally. No won-
der, then, that this system finds its most active adher-
230 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
ents among the Whigs, merchants, and capitalists. Were
the speculators wise, they would not hesitate for a mo-
ment entering upon such a business -this would be the
surest way to make the dependence of the working man
a matter of their personal interest and concern. That
the present social conditions can not continue much
longer, the educated capitalist is well convinced. The
carrying out of the Fourier system could be a decided
desideratum for him, since it gives to his vested rights
the stamp of eternity, and his "property" would be re-
lieved from all danger of losing its value or of being
confiscated by people with an older title deed. Ac-
cording to the notions of the Fourierites, the working
man in their Phalanx would do from inclination what,
in his present work, he does to keep himself from
hunger. It would become in a sense his religion to
make the capitalist rich. For that end, everything
should be so arranged that the working man would be
well fed, well housed, well dressed, perhaps even better
than the slave in the south. But the liberal gentlemen
miscalculate in one thing: man, who has once tasted
freedom, will not be bribed into slavery by the most
tempting means of living. He would rather starve, than
let himself be bound like an ox to the manger. He
needs, above all things, the consciousness that he is
among his equals, and he does not possess enough ma-
terialism to be able to enjoy himself at the table of his
privileged masters. And if, therefore, the Fourierites
are wholly indifferent whether they erect their Phalanx
under the protection of monarchical, constitutional, or
republican government, it is, on the other hand, not a
matter of indifference to the poorest republican prole-
tarian, whether he gets one third of his rights or the
whole. The Fourier system is a very fine attempt to
bring the needs and desires of mankind into harmony
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 231
by means of food, but mankind is no machine, which
can be measured and directed and placed by mathemat-
ical computation, as one will. The greatest need of
mankind, his need of equality, finds no consideration
in Fourierism.
(c) THE WORKING MEN'S MOVEMENTS
(i) The Strike for Wages.
The Phalanx, Nov. 4, 1843, p. 30.
There has been a very general "turn-out" in all the
Atlantic cities among the working classes. In every
trade almost there has been a strike for higher wages,
and generally the demands of the workmen have been
complied with by the "masters." The reaction in the
commercial world has stimulated business a little,
which has increased slightly the demand for labor, and
as the population of this country has not yet become
dense and excessive, the working classes by the subver-
sive means of counter-coalitions to those which exist
under our present false system of Industry and Com-
merce-leagues of wealth and industrial monopoly -
are enabled to obtain a small advance of wages. But
how trifling and pitiful an amount of benefit, after all,
they receive, by such means, even when and for the time
they do succeed; and how miserably inadequate to meet
their wants and satisfy their rights, are such beggarly
additions to their wages. Will not the working classes,
the intelligent producers of this country, see what a
miserable shift and expedient to better their condition
is a "strike for wages?" Will they not see how uncer-
tain the tenure by which they hold the little advantage
they gain by it? Will they not see how degrading the
position which forces them to appeal to and beg con-
cessions of employers? Will they not see this and a
thousand other evils connected with a false system of
232 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
industry, and learn that the only remedy is a union
among themselves to produce for themselves, to asso-
ciate, and combine, and owning the land on which they
live and the tools and machinery with which they work,
enjoy the products of their own labor? We hope so,
and then ,all such "civilized" false association, will be
unnecessary. . .
(z) The Ten Hour System.
The Phalanx, May 18, 1844, p. 139.
. . . The agitation of the subject of a reduction
of the time of labor in factories is not, however, con-
fined to England; in this country, the evils of the fac-
tory system in the exaction of an undue portion of the
time of the laborer -twelve, fourteen, and even sixteen
and eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, and in the
excessive toil imposed on young children, have been se-
verely felt. In a general way the subject has occupied
the attention of politicians, from time to time, as elec-
tions were pending, and a vast deal of demagogism has
been expended on it; but latterly it has been specially
considered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and
now in New England great feeling is manifested to-
wards it in some of the manufacturing towns. An as-
sociation of mechanics has been formed at Fall River,
Massachusetts, for the special purpose of reducing the
duration of labor to ten hours per day, and to effect this
object, has started a spirited little sheet called the Me-
chanic. We wish, however, that we could impress upon
our countrymen the degrading littleness and insuffi-
ciency of this attempt at a compromise of their rights,
for it is neither more nor less than a demeaning com-
promise and dastardly sacrifice of their rights, for them
to make terms which only modifies the condition but
does not change the terms of dependence on masters.
In wretched England, where the laborer is indeed a
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 233
poor, degraded, helpless being, it is well that any ameli-
oration can be obtained; but here, where the laboring
classes are intelligent and generally possess the ability
to do full justice to themselves, it does appear to us to
be excessively weak and trifling, if not disgraceful, for
them to talk about a reform which at the most can re-
lieve them temporarily of a few hours' oppressive toil-
can convert them from twelve and fourteen to ten hour
slaves -but cannot elevate them to the dignity of true
independence! What a farce is boasted American free-
dom, if free-men are reduced to such beggarly shifts!
Do they not see that they exhibit the badge of slavery
in the very effort to mitigate its oppression? Free-men
would not talk about terms which involve only a ques-
tion of time of subjection to the authority and will of
another- they would consult and act for their own good
in all things without let or hindrance!
(3) The New England Working Men's Association, and the "Brook
Farm Friends."
Voice of Industry, June 12, 1845, p. 3.
We cannot refrain from saying a few words respect-
ing modes, measures, and means, in carrying on our
warfare, which has given rise to some apparent conflic-
tions and differences in our ranks. Our friends at
"Brook Farm," and some others, are in favor of intro-
ducing strong measures, while others doubtless equally
interested are not prepared for such entirely new and
decided steps. For our own part, we see no good reason,
why this should create disunion in the N. England
workingmen's Association. There are many belonging
to this Association, who are willing to adopt individual-
ly the measures proposed by our Fourier friends, but
are unwilling to adopt them as a N. England Associa-
tion. The reason is very obvious -we then should cut
ourselves loose from many good and honest working-
234 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
men, who are willing to go with us as fast as they can
see and understand. Now let us rightly understand
each other, and keep in view the great object we wish to
attain; and all disunion among our true friends, will
vanish. Let the Associations, throughout the various
towns act as primary schools, for the reception of pupils
who are receiving the first rudiments in this labor re-
form. Let these several primary schools act in conjunc-
tion with the high school or N. England Association,
where we can all meet, receive, and impart still higher
lessons in our reform. In this way let our system of ed-
ucation, in harmony go on, from our town Associations,
to the N. England Association -and from thence to the
"Industrial Congress;" and while we through this grad-
ual process educate the working community for a better
state of society -while we are agitating the various
speedy and partial ameliorations; beginning at the in-
cipient stages of our glorious reform, taking servitude's
victims, and pointing them on to a brighter day; let our
friends of social science and philosophy continue to per-
fect their system of human elevation, and receive all
who are prepared for so high a stand. Brothers, there
exists no sound reason for disunion; our cause is one;
our aim one; our principles are harmonious. Then let
us labor together in our various capacities, like true
friends and Christians, until the noble structure of free
labor and "equal rights" shall be reared; and the vic-
tims of avarice and unjust degrading toil redeemed,
and reinstated into their native manhood.
(4) Cooperation the Outcome.
The Harbinger , Dec. 16, 1848, p. 50. From Third Quarterly Report of
the Group of Practical Affairs of the Philadelphia Union of Asso-
ciationists, read Nov. 14*, 1848.
. . . The subject of guaranties, which was re-
ferred to this Group for final action, has engaged much
attention. In advance of the Report of the Committee
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 235
charged with the duty of drafting a constitution, it may
be stated that the plan in contemplation differs consid-
erably from the one originally proposed. The marked
success of the Workingmen's Protective Unions in the
Eastern States, has induced the Committee to recom-
mend an effort of the kind in Philadelphia, modified,
however, so as to embrace other important objects. In
years past, the working population of Massachusetts
and other of the Eastern States, have made various at-
tempts by means of strikes, mass conventions and Ten
Hour Laws, to better the circumstances of their condi-
tion, but until now they have been in vain. They have
now struck a blow in a different direction. By means
of their Protective Unions, they bid fair to accumulate
an enormous capital, while, at the same time, the ex-
pense of living is reduced to each member, to an amount
equal to the interest on a thousand dollars a year. .
The moral effect of an enterprise like that on the
members themselves, and on the community around
them, cannot be mistaken. It will lead to other import-
ant steps toward true Association, and will compel the
middle men to examine more closely the ism which
threatens to reduce the amount of their luxuries. Al-
ready do these Protective Unions, through their Central
Commercial Agency in Boston, begin to exercise an in-
fluence on the markets, and if their members continue
to increase, they will soon be enabled to buy and sell on
their own terms. Twenty thousand persons are now
connected with those Unions. An attempt will be made
to introduce a system of labor exchange among them,
and to confine, as far as possible, their dealings within
themselves.
Whatever may be its ultimate effect on the condition
of the laboring population, the Protective Union cer-
tainly produces immediate results of the most positive
236 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
character. It will abolish the present retail system;
which, again, will react upon the value of real estate,
and strike a blow at commercial monopolies. In the
island of Nantucket, all the retail stores have been com-
pelled to close their doors, two of the Protective Union
stores being found sufficient to supply the market, and
at greatly reduced rates.
A measure which involves such important conse-
quences to the industrial and moneyed interests, cannot
fail of creating a profound impression wherever it is
introduced, and if only for the moral which it incul-
cates, is worthy of adoption in the shop-ridden city of
Philadelphia.
The tendency to Association is of daily development
both in Europe and America. Since Franklin suggest-
ed mutual insurance against fire, companies for that and
similar objects have increased very rapidly, but at every
step capital has sought to engross to itself all the gains.
The latest attempt of this kind is seen in the Health In-
surance Companies, a branch of insurance hitherto held
by Beneficial Societies exclusively, the profits of which,
always large, are used for the common benefit of the
members. It will be the duty of this Union to resist
every such encroachment by all the means in its power.
A plan of popular banking is now in extensive appli-
cation in this city and neighborhood, which it may be
useful to refer to in this connection. A few years ago,
a number of individuals residing in Frankford in this
county, organized themselves into what they termed a
Building Association, their object being merely, by
small savings united together and loaned at interest to
each other, to provide dwelling-houses for themselves
and families. The stock of the Association was divided
into 500 shares, payable in monthly instalments of one
dollar each. No one member was entitled to own more
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 237
than ten shares of the stock, and the Association was to
continue in operation until each share was worth $200.
The affairs of the Association were managed by a board
of directors, elected annually, who loaned the funds out,
on bond or mortgage to the highest bidder among the
members, no member however, being privileged to bor-
row more than $200 for each share of stock owned by
him. The loans were usually appropriated to the pur-
chase of a dwelling, but might have been diverted to
any other purpose. Twenty-five per cent premium was
sometimes obtained for loans, and while it enriched the
coffers of the Association, it was advantageous to the
borrower, as he was a party entitled to and receiving a
share of the profits. After the Association had fulfilled
its object it was dissolved.
This is believed to have been the origin of the Build-
ing Associations which are now in successful operation
in this city. A slight modification of the plan adopted
by them, would constitute them Banks of the People,
possessing all the advantages and powers of existing cor-
porate institutions, with none of their evils, and it is to
be hoped that the subject will be considered in connec-
tion with the proposed Protective Union. With the
Banking feature superadded, the Union would be
armed with a two-edged sword, which no amount of
conservative do-nothingism could resist.
(d) THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848
The Harbinger, May 13, 1848, pp. 12, 13.
Resolutions adopted by the American Union of Associationists at its
second annual convention.
RESOLVED, that it is our earnest hope that in the Na-
tional Assembly of France the Associationists will hold
the balance of power between the Conservatives seek-
ing Constitutional Monarchy and the Radicals seeking
a levelling Communism; for then will the peace of Eu-
238 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
rope be assured by the associative doctrine of the Bro-
therhood of Nations, and a civil war between classes
give place to co-operative efforts among the capitalists
and the working men, to secure unity of interests in a
justly organized commonwealth; and that we hereby
offer our cordial tribute of respect, and our heartfelt
wishes of success to our Associative Brethren of France
and Europe.
RESOLVED, that in this era of falling dynasties and up-
rising multitudes, of shattered privileges and extrava-
gant claims for equality, it becomes all constitutionalists,
jurists, lovers of order, on the one hand, and all seekers
for emancipation, justice to the people and the rule of
public opinion on the other, to study the principles and
plans of Associationists, wherein "Legitimacy" and
"Liberty," the stability of law and the opportunity of
reform are reconciliated by an organization of all social
functions, which ensures the harmonious growth of
man, collectively and individually.
RESOLVED, that the journalists who confound the
Associationists desiring just distributions of functions,
property and honors, with the Communists seeking the
destruction of all distinctions, are guilty of an ignorance
scarcely to be pardoned in those who profess to be the
enlighteners of the public mind, or of a moral duplicity
which unfits them utterly to be the guides of the public
conscience; and that we hereby pronounce all who class
the "Fourierists," calmly uttering their hopeful watch-
word of "The Fraternity of Nations and Classes," with
the "Terrorists" wildly shouting their war cry of "away
with government, with property, with peace," to be
slanderers of the only men who propose a practical
means of reconciling liberty and law.
RESOLVED, that at a period when the heavens of
Christendom are opened, and civilized order is being
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 239
swept away as by a deluge, the Associationists rejoice
with serene confidence that the ark of Social Science
floats safe upon the flood; and that with prophetic as-
surance we already welcome the harbinger who brings
us the olive leaf of a peaceful future, and stand upon
the mountain tops of a regenerated world. We call
upon our fellow Associationists -as in faith they see the
bow of promise spanning the retiring clouds of revolu-
tion to unite in grateful adoration of their Heavenly
Father, who has given us his covenant that seed time and
harvest shall never fail, and to offer up their whole lives
in the acceptable worship of a beneficent work. . .
RESOLVED, that we rejoice in the assertion of a great
political principle by the Provisional Government of
France, in the establishment of a Department of In-
dustry; and that we hereby authorize and direct Exec-
utive Committee to address a memorial to Congress, in
the name of the American Union of Associationists, and
to be subscribed by its officers, calling for the establish-
ment of a Bureau of Industry under the National Gov-
ernment of the United States. And we do also advise
and request the affiliated Unions to address similar
memorials to the Legislature of the respective States in
which such Unions are located.
6. THE PRACTICE OF ASSOCIATION 25
(a) THE BEGINNING
New York Daily Tribune, May 3, 1842, p. i.
We are in constant receipt of letters, inquiring when
a first Association will be commenced, and where it will
be located. The first question, we cannot answer, but
we hope, and with some confidence, that if our doctrine
spreads as rapidly as it has done since the Tribune has
been open to us, that we may be able to commence oper-
ations next spring. A first Association should be com-
menced near a large city, which would offer a good
market for its fruits, vegetables, poultry, and other
lighter products -the cultivation and care of which are
so attractive, and adapted to the women and children.
There are other reasons why the vicinity of a large city
would offer facilities, which would be very necessary
in the beginning; we will explain them fully later. If
the organizing of the first Association were entrusted to
us, which it probably would have to be, we should wish
it located near the city of New York.
(b) ORGANIZING A PHALANX
The Phalanx, April i, 1844, p. 98.
The Convention for the purpose of organizing an In-
dustrial Association on the plan of the late Charles
Fourier, met [February 22] in pursuance to public no-
tice previously given, in the lecture room of the Uni-
versalist Church, in Walnut Street, and proceeded to
25 No attempt is made in this section to give complete documentary ac-
counts of the phalanxes. This has already been done by J. H. Noyes in his
History of American Socialisms. A few documents not hitherto published, are
here reproduced.- ED.
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 241
business, by appointing Dr. William Price, President,
and John White and Wm. McDiarmid, Secretaries.
The Circular and Address, setting forth the objects
of the Convention, were then read by the President.
Dr. J. Radcliffe, of Dayton, presented a resolution
from the friends of Association in that place, express-
ing their approbation of the movement contemplated
by the Convention.
On motion, the Catalogue of names of those who had
already enrolled themselves as friends of the cause of
Association and ready to co-operate in the formation of
a Phalanx, was read.
A letter from Horace Greeley, Albert Brisbane, and
O. Macdaniel, of New York City; and one from Wm.
H. Channing, Editor of the Present, also of New York,
were read before the Convention.
On motion, resolved, that Doctor Radcliffe, Wade
Loofbourrow, Esq., D. K. Meader, W. Kirkup and J.
W. Smith, be a committee to prepare the business for
the afternoon session.
Mr. Loofbourrow, of Washington, Fayette county,
then addressed the Convention, in which he made some
very appropriate and thrilling remarks on the means
furnished in Association for the elevation of the state
and condition of woman, and concluded with a beauti-
ful and happy reference to, and brief illustration of
Fourier's "Theory of the Passions."
Three o'clock, p.m. The Committee appointed to
prepare business for the convention, reported the fol-
lowing resolutions:
i. RESOLVED, that an Association, upon the principles
advocated by the late Charles Fourier, as published in
this country by A. Brisbane, in his "Concise Exposition
of the Doctrine of Association," be now established; to
242 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
be located at such a point as may be deemed most eli-
gible, and adapted to the views contemplated by this
meeting, which are, the amelioration of the condition
of Man.
2. RESOLVED, that a committee of twenty be appoint-
ed to receive additional subscriptions of stock for this
Association.
3. RESOLVED, that a committee of nine be appointed
to seek out a suitable site for the Domain ; and that said
committee report the result of its examinations to a fu-
ture meeting of this convention.
Seven o'clock, p.m. The discussion of the first reso-
lution was resumed. This question being put, it was
adopted unanimously.
The 2d resolution was then taken up, and, after some
discussion, was laid on the table, to make way for the
reading of a Constitution for a Phalanx framed by the
Cincinnati Fourier Association.
On motion, the Constitution was referred to Mr.
Loofbourrow, for revision, to be reported at a future
meeting of the Convention. The 2d resolution was
again taken up, more fully discussed and adopted.
Friday, Feb. 23, 9 o'clock a.m. The Convention pro-
ceeded to appoint the committees provided for in the 2d
and 3d Resolutions, as follows:
Committee to receive additional Subscriptions of
Stock -Wade Loofbourrow, Esq., Washington, Fayette
Co.; B. F. Steward, Higginsport, O.; Dr. J. Radcliffe,
Dayton, O.; J. H. Hill, Cambridge City, la.; J. Whip-
po, Dublin, Wayne Co., la. ; J. B. Rogers, Dayton, O. ;
J. B. Farmer, Cleves, O. ; Benj. F. Williams, Edward
Collins, Wm. Kirkup, H. Ferdinand, Benj. Urner, C.
B. Dyer, E. Green, Cincinnati; Mason Seward, Mason,
Warren Co., O. ; Jos. Wheldon, Clark Co., O. ; Wm.
ALBERT BRISBANE
(By permission of the Arena Publishing Company)
OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 245
Price, Daniel Prescott, Chas. W. Carlton, Jon. Wood-
ruff, Cincinnati.
Committee to examine a site for the Domain -T. Ken-
worthy, B. F. Steward, Wade Loofbourrow, Dr. J.
Radcliffe, Benjamin F. Williams, Harvey Lull, B. G.
Childs, C. D. Dana, Edward Collins.
On motion, resolved, that the letter of Messrs. Bris-
bane, Greeley, Macdaniel, and that of Mr. Wm. H.
Channing, be read and discussed at the meeting of the
Convention this evening at 7 o'clock, and, that the citi-
zens generally be invited to attend.
Seven o'clock, p.m. A large number of ladies and
gentlemen (considering the short notice that was giv-
en,) attended for the purpose of hearing discussions of
the new science of Association. After reading the min-
utes of the Convention, the letters from our New York
friends were read -when Dr. Radcliffe took the floor,
and, using the letter of Mr. Channing as a text, he gave
a most fervent and animated exposition as to the man-
ner in which Associative Unity would solve the several
problems laid down in that letter. He awakened the
most earnest attention of the audience, by declaring
that Association was not a mere scheme, like that of
Owen's community or a Shaker society, but that it was
a science -a stupendous science, far reaching, and as-
cending to the Most High unfolding the laws of Divine
order which reign throughout the Universe, and, at the
same time descending and embracing the most lowly,
the most humble things of creation. He confessed, that
he, like all his associates, was but a novitiate in this
grand science; and encouraged the audience to believe,
that all who were so disposed were in possession of fac-
ulties and powers to apprehend and understand its
truths; that, while it is so comprehensive as to embrace
246 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
all things throughout the Universe, yet, it is so divinely
simple, as to be applicable to even the social and do-
mestic relations of man. And can this be surprising,
when we reflect on the unity of Divine order? Nay, it
must be, that the same laws of attraction and repulsion
which hold in their respective orbits the vast number of
Globes which compose the material Universe, and cause
them to move in such harmony as to produce what is
called "the music of the spheres"- it must be, that they
make one by correspondence with those of passional
attraction and repulsion, which form and preserve the
harmony of angelic societies of the blessed in heaven,
and which, when understood and obeyed by men on
earth, will produce the harmony of heaven in human
society.
There was the most profound attention of the audi-
ence during the whole of this excellent speech, and a
favorable impression must have been made on the minds
of many who for the first time had heard of the Social
Destiny of man.
The following resolution was then read and unani-
mously adopted :
RESOLVED, that this Convention take great pleasure
in expressing their deep sense of obligation to the ad-
vocates of the new social science in the East, and espe-
cially to the editors of New York Tribune, the Phalanx,
and the Present, for the earnest zeal and efficiency with
which they devote themselves to the propagation of the
truly glad tidings of great joy in relation to the Social
Destiny of Man.
Mr. B. F. Williams then addressed the meeting in a
short but ardent speech, which called forth the plaudits
of the meeting. He was followed by some remarks
from the Secretary, Mr. J. White, when,
On motion of Mr. Urner, it was
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 247
RESOLVED, that the proceedings of this Convention,
together with the letters of Messrs. Brisbane and Chan-
ning, be published in all the city papers favorable to
the cause of Social Reform, in which we are engaged.
The Convention then adjourned, to meet again on
Thursday, the i4th of March next; which meeting, all
friends from the country are especially invited to at-
tend. WM. PRICE, President.
JOHN WHITE, WM. MCDIARMID, Secretaries.
SECOND CONVENTION OF THE FRIENDS OF ASSOCIATION
AT CINCINNATI
A second Convention was held at Cincinnati, pursu-
ant to adjournment, on March 141)1. We have space
but for the following short extract, which will show
the general result of the Convention, and the fine spirit
that animated its members.
The consideration of the Constitution occupied nearly the whole
time of the three days' sitting of the Convention. There was much
discussion, with calm deliberation; and a patient and respectful hear-
ing was given to all suggestions, embracing a variety of opinions of
every shade and color. A unity of purpose pervaded the entire as-
sembly, and was manifest throughout the whole debate; which mani-
festation of unity gives new strength and vigor to our hopes, and
inspires us with the fullest confidence, that even though some of the
manifold details of this, our fundamental law, may not be the wisest
and best that could be adopted, yet, that all errors will find a sure
corrective, in that spirit of union, which, we humbly hope, has de-
scended, and is now descending to the earth, to bless, and beautify,
and harmonize the immortal passions, and thence the present and
eternal interests of man.
A Constitution was adopted, in the main similar to
that of the North American Phalanx, Officers elected
for a temporary organization, and Stock Books opened
for an Association, called the Cincinnati Phalanx, to
be located near the City of Cincinnati, on the Free
248 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
States side of the Ohio River; and a Committee ap-
pointed to select a suitable Domain.
Officers of the Cincinnati Phalanx: President -Vf&fa
Loofbourrow; Council-Dr. William Price, Benj. G.
Childs, James H. Hill, Charles B. Dyer, William Kirk-
up, J. B. Rogers.
(c) ASSOCIATIONS IN WESTERN NEW YORK
(i) Meeting of the American Industrial Union.
The Phalanx, June 15, 1844, p. 176.
The Council of this Confederation convened pursu-
ant to adjournment, at the Domain of the Bloomfield
Union Association, on the i5th of May. There were
present- Benjamin Walton, Jefferson Co. Industrial
Association; E. A. Stillman, Bloomfield Union Asso-
ciation ; Lemuel Stansbury, 26 Sodus Bay Phalanx; David
M. Smith, Rush Industrial Association; Samuel W.
Lyman, Ontario Union; Victor B. Mix, Western N.Y.
Industrial Association; the President, A. M. Watson
in the Chair.
The following communication was received from the
President, showing the situation and prospects of the
several parties to the Confederacy.
GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL: In conformity to
the Constitution of this Confederacy, I herewith com-
municate to you the situation of the several parties to
the compact.
My other engagements and the illness of my family
have, up to this time, prevented me from making any-
thing more than a running visit to the several Associa-
tions, and I shall have to refer you to the reports which
the several Councillors may be prepared to make, for
a particular description of the affairs of the respective
institutions.
26 In the place of Ira French, resigned.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 249
The oldest Association in this compact, the Jefferson
County Industrial, has made its first annual statement,
by which it appears that Capital in that Institution will
receive a fraction over six per cent interest. Owing to
inattention to the principles of Association, and a de-
fective and incomplete organization of Industry into
Groups and Series, as well as to the fact that in the com-
mencement much time is lost, Labor in this Institution
fails to obtain its fair remuneration. Another circum-
stance which has operated to the disadvantage of Labor
is, that no allowance has been made in its favor, in the
annual settlement, for Working Dresses. These facts
are conclusive, to my mind, that the disadvantages of
improper or inadequate organization in all Institutions,
will be even more injurious to Labor than to Capital.
This Institution commenced operations without the
investment of much, if any, cash capital, and they now
are somewhat embarrassed for want of such means. A
subscription to their stock of two thousand dollars in
cash, or a loan of that amount for a reasonable time, for
which good security could be given, would, in my opin-
ion, place them in a situation to carry on a very profit-
able business the ensuing year. If this obstacle can be
surmounted, I know of no Institution of better promise
than this. This would seem to be but a small matter,
but when the fact is considered that they are located in
the midst of a community which sympathises but little
in the movement while many exert themselves to in-
crease the embarrassment by decrying their responsibil L
ity, it will readily be seen that their situation is unen-
viable. Their responsibility when compared with that
of most business concerns in the country, is more real
than that of a majority of business men who are consid-
ered perfectly solvent. Considering the difficulties and
250 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
embarrassments through which they have already strug-
gled, I have strong confidence in their ultimate success.
The whole number of members will not vary much, at
this time, from 150. They have reduced, by sale, their
lands to about 800 acres, and I refer you to the annual
report for further information as to their liabilities.
The next Association to commence practical opera-
tions, was the Western New York Industrial. This In-
stitution began operations about the first of February
last, on a tract of some 1460 acres of land, at the mouth
of Sandy Creek, in Monroe county, three hundred
acres of which was under improvement. The managers
acted on the idea of securing to its stock real and per-
sonal property of almost all descriptions, and in this I
think their management was judicious. In admitting
resident members, they have made the mistake which all
have made, or are in danger of making, viz : the collect-
ing on their respective domains more members than can
be profitably employed at first. This Institution is labor-
ing under serious disadvantages from this fact at pres-
ent. Their pecuniary affairs are in a safe and prosperous
condition, if I am correctly informed. Their outstand-
ing liabilities, not specially provided for, amount to
about $16,000; and the real and personal property al-
ready secured to their stock, other than the land com-
prising their domain, amounts to $17,000. The whole
number of members now on the domain is 350, many of
whom they are at present unable to employ with ad-
vantage.
The Bloomfield Union Association commenced op-
erations about the i5th of March last, on a domain of
about 500 acres, mostly improved land, situated one
mile east of Honeoye Falls, in the counties of Monroe,
Livingston and Ontario. The Institution is indebted
on account of the purchase, about $11,000, and of their
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 251
subscriptions there has been actually paid in about
$35,000.
The whole number of resident members now on their
domain is 148, and there have been admitted, subject to
notice, a large additional number of members, who will
add very considerably to their capital stock; but, I am
informed that it is their settled determination to allow
members to move on the domain only as they are en-
abled to find permanent employment for them. I think
they may well congratulate themselves upon their fu-
ture prospects.
The Sodus Bay Phalanx commenced operations about
the first of April last, on a tract of 1400 acres, at Sodus
Bay, formerly known as the Shaker Tract. This loca-
tion is a desirable one, particularly in a commercial
point of view, as is also that of the Western New- York
Industrial, both being on Lake Ontario; and the harbor
at Sodus Bay is at this time one of the safest and best.
Three hundred acres of the land is now under a good
state of cultivation. The whole tract has cost the As-
sociation $35,000, most of which is an outstanding debt
against the Institution. There has been more than suffi-
cient stock secured to the Phalanx to cover the pur-
chase, but they are in danger of serious embarrassments,
from the fact of so great a rush of members to the do-
main, before branches of industry can be established, or
proper accommodation for the residence of families
prepared. There are now upon the domain about 260
resident members. I believe all Associations will find
it for their interest to secure to their stock all the real
and personal property possible; and I think this Institu-
tion will find it peculiarly so in their case. From the
location, fertility of soil, the general intelligence and
determination of the members, I think they may safely
calculate upon success.
252 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
The Ontario Union commenced operations about two
weeks since, in Hopewell, Ontario county, five miles
from Canandaigua, and upon the line of the Western
Railroad, on the outlet of Canandaigua Lake. They
have purchased the mills and farm formerly owned by
Judge Bates, consisting of 150 acres of land, a flouring
mill with five run of Burr Stones and sawmill, at
$16,000. They have secured, by subscription, about 138
acres of land in the immediate vicinity, which they are
now working. To meet their liabilities for the original
purchase, I am informed they have already a subscrip-
tion which they believe can be relied on, amounting to
over $40,000. They have now upon the domain about
75 members. This Institution has been able already to
commence such branches of Industry as will produce an
immediate return, and, as a consequence, will avoid the
necessity of living upon their capital. There is danger
that their enthusiasm will get the better of their judg-
ment in admitting members too fast.
The Rush Industrial Association has not yet com-
menced practical operations, and I refer you to their
representative for information in regard to their pros-
pects.
For a statement of the particular branches of Indus-
try pursued in each Society, you are referred to the re-
ports presented by your respective members.
The subjects to which I would call the particular at-
tention of your Board at this time are:
i st. The devising some uniform mode of keeping
time accounts in Associations.
2d. The adoption of a system for the regulation of
Groups and Series.
3d. To recommend some course to be pursued to pre-
vent the several parties to this compact from accumulat-
ing too large a population on their respective domains,
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 253
before adequate branches of Industry are organized for
their employment.
4th. To recommend some plan for the organization
of an Educational Department.
5th. To recommend some system by which the real
and personal property subscribed to the stock of Asso-
ciations can be made available.
6th. To adopt an uniform system by which members
shall draw supplies upon the time credited on the books
of the Association.
yth. To advise what course should be pursued by the
several parties to this compact, with reference to the
Convention proposed to be held on the first Monday of
October next.
Your particular attention is called to the communica-
tion of T. C. Leland. Of the merits of the case you are
better informed than myself. I think the matter should
be presented to the different Associations without delay,
and I have no doubt of the disposition to do him ample
justice.
It is my intention to remove my family to the city of
Rochester in the course of the coming summer, and, if
the Institutions composing this Confederacy shall deem
it a matter of sufficient importance, devote my time ex-
clusively to the interests of the Confederation. But if,
upon consultation, the different Institutions shall be of
the opinion that it will be incurring an unnecessary ex-
pense, I will, upon being so advised, resign the office I
now hold, having accomplished the great object I had
in view, by the establishment of an unitary movement,
on the part of the Institutions in Western New- York;
and I shall retire from the field of action with the satis-
faction of believing that the last three months have been
better employed than any other portion of my life. On
this subject I desire the Associations to speak frankly,
254 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
my only object in presenting it at all being to prevent
any surprise. My resolution is settled, and my future
energies dedicated to the cause of Association. Yet it
shall not be said of me, with truth, that my activity has
resulted in the establishment of a sinecure to be enjoyed
by myself. I have no feeling of a personal nature in-
volved in this question. A. M. WATSON.
The communication, above referred to, from T. C.
Leland, was received, exhibiting the pecuniary embar-
rassments occasioned by his public advocacy of the
cause of Industrial Reform.
The several councillors reported the following
branches of Industry as being already established in
their respective Associations, viz:
Jefferson County Industrial -Agriculture, and the
following mechanical trades, viz: boot and shoemak-
ing, saddle and harnessmaking, carpenter and joiner
work, planing machine, turning, tailoring, blacksmith-
ing, masonry, stone cutting, coopering, stone-quarrying,
brickmaking, burning lime, and sawing lumber.
Bloomfield Union Association -Agriculture, boot and
shoemaking, tailoring, hatting, blacksmithing, quar-
rying stone, burning lime, masonry, millinery and
dressmaking, woollen manufacturing, waggonmaking,
sawing lumber, custom grinding, lathe sawing, mer-
chandising, carpenter and joiner work.
Sodus Bay Phalanx -Agriculture, carpenter and
joiner work, shoemaking, tailoring, blacksmithing, ma-
sonry, sawing lumber, brickmaking, coal burning, fish-
ing.
Ontario Union -Agriculture, custom grinding, saw-
ing lumber, blacksmithing, edge-toolmaking, iron and
wood turning and finishing, carpenter and joiner work,
quarrying stone, millinery and dressmaking.
Western N.Y. Industrial Association -Agriculture,
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 255
carpenter and joiner work, custom grinding, sawing
lumber, turning shop, blacksmithing, shinglemaking,
printing, edge-toolmaking, dairy business, coal burn-
ing, and merchandising.
On motion, Messrs. Lyman, Stillman, Smith and
Mix, were appointed a committee to whom was re-
ferred the President's Communication and accompany-
ing documents.
Thursday, May 16. The Council met pursuant to
adjournment, the President in the chair. The commit-
tee reported an order of business which was approved.
The Council proceeded to a consideration of the
means of giving an efficient organization to the several
Associations forming the Confederacy, and the best
mode to promote their mutual prosperity.
RESOLVED, that it be recommended to the several In-
stitutions composing this Confederacy to adopt, as far
as possible, the practice of mutual exchanges between
each other, and that they should immediately take such
measures as will enable them to become the commercial
agents of the producing classes in the sections of the
country where the Associations are respectively located.
CLASSIFICATION OF INDUSTRY
RESOLVED, in the opinion of the Council, one of the
first steps towards Organization should be an arrange-
ment of the different branches of Agricultural, Me-
chanical and Domestic work in the Classes of Necessity,
Usefulness, and Attractiveness. The exact category in
which an occupation shall be placed, will be influenced,
more or less, by local circumstances, and is, at best,
somewhat conjectural. It will be indicated, however,
with certainty, by observation and experience. In the
meantime, the Council take the liberty to express an
opinion, that to the Class of Necessity belong, among
256 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
others, the following, viz: ditching, masonry, work in
woollen and cotton factories, quarrying stone, brick-
making, burning lime and coal, getting out manure,
baking, washing, ironing, cooking, tanning and currier
business, night sawing and other night work, black-
smithing, care of children and the sick, care of dairy,
flouring, hauling seine, casting, chopping wood and
cutting timber.
CLASS OF USEFULNESS. All mechanical trades not
mentioned in the Class of necessity, agriculture, school
teaching, bookkeeping, time of directors while in ses-
sion, other officers acting in an official capacity, en-
gineering, surveying and mapping, storekeeping, gar-
dening, rearing silk worms, care of stock, horticulture,
teaching music, housekeepers (not cooks), teaming.
CLASS OF ATTRACTIVENESS. Cultivation of flowers,
cultivation of fruit, portrait and landscape painting,
vine dressing, poulterers, care of bees, embellishing
public grounds.
GROUPS AND SERIES. The Council recommend to
the different Associations the following plan for the or-
ganization of Groups and Series, viz:
i st. Ascertain, for example, the whole number of
members who will attach themselves, or at any time
take part in the agricultural line. From this number,
organize as many groups as the business of the line will
admit of.
ad. We recommend the numbers 30, 24, 18, as the
maximum rank of the classes of Necessity, Usefulness
and Attractiveness.
The Series should then be numbered in the order in
which they are formed, and the Groups in the same
manner, beginning i, 2, 3, &c., for each Series.
Mechanical Series can be organized, embracing all
the different trades employed by the Association in the
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 257
same manner, and if the Groups cannot be filled up at
once with adults, we would recommend to the Institu-
tions to fill them sufficiently for the purpose of organ-
ization with apprentices.
Each Group should have a Foreman, whose business
it should be to keep correct accounts of time, superin-
tend and direct the performance of work, and maintain
an oversight of working dresses, &c.
There should be one individual elected as Superin-
tendent of the Series, whose business it should be to
confer with the Farming Committee of the Board, and
inform the different Foremen of Groups of the work to
be done, and inspect the same afterwards.
The Council is thoroughly satisfied that all the Labor
of an Association should be performed by Groups and
Series, and although the Combined Order cannot be
fully established at once, the adoption of this arrange-
ment will avoid incoherence, and be calculated to im-
press on each member a sense of his personal responsi-
bility.
TIME AND RANK. The Time, Rank, and Occupa-
tion should be noted daily, and oftener, if a change of
employment is made. The sum of the products of the
daily time of each individual as multiplied by his daily
rank, should be carried to the Time Ledger, weekly or
monthly to his or her credit. Each of the several
amounts, whether performed in the classes of Neces-
sity, Usefulness, or Attractiveness, will thus be made
to bear an equal proportion to the value of the services
rendered.
The rank as well as the number of hours of each in-
dividual should, in our opinion, be kept daily, and the
aggregate of the several products obtained by multiply-
ing the daily time by the daily rank of each individual,
should be carried to the Time Ledger as before re-
258 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
marked. The check list or roll of the Foreman, should
be filed in the office of the Secretary, and the return
should be conclusive and final, all mistakes or matters
of difference being corrected or settled by the Group
before the account is rendered.
We recommend, both as consistent with the Indus-
trial System we adopt, as more economical to the Asso-
ciation, and as a matter of abstract justice, that the cap-
ital of the several Associations be at the expense of
furnishing to the several Groups their working dresses, to
be used only while the members are actually employed
in the business of the Group to which they belong: and
that the standard of furnishing supplies to individuals,
in addition to working dresses, board and house rent,
be at the rate of one dollar for sixty hours labor in
the highest rank of the class of Necessity. Where in-
dividuals rank in either class below the maximum in
the class of Necessity, the amount payable will be re-
duced in a similar proportion.
NUMBER OF RESIDENT MEMBERS IN THE INCIPIENT
Stage. Resolved, that in view of the disadvantages
which all Institutions encounter in the first attempts at
organization, there is danger of admitting too great a
number of individuals to resident membership before
branches of Industry can be adequately organized and
established, and that in our opinion great injustice will
be done to the cause as well as to the Institutions them-
selves, by the adoption of such a course: that the true
interests of the Associations, require that all persons
who cannot be profitably employed, or who have not
complied with the conditions on which they were ad-
mitted, should be immediately settled with and advised
to withdraw.
PRIMARY EDUCATION. Resolved, that a Board of
Science should be organized in each Association, com-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 259
posed of at least three members, whose duty it shall be
to organize an Educational Department, by arranging
and classifying the children according to their respec-
tive ages or sex, into Groups and Series; to select proper
instructors for each class; to prepare a system of exer-
cises that shall afford the teachers and children em-
ployment in some industrial avocation during a portion
of each day, the remainder to be devoted to proper and
healthful recreations.
MISCELLANEOUS. Resolved, that we respectfully
suggest that the Executive Committee, appointed at the
late U.S. Convention, held in the city of New- York, in
April last, select the City of Rochester as the place
where the Convention should be held, recommended in
the yth Resolution of their proceedings; that if this
suggestion should not accord with the wishes of our
friends engaged in practical operations, we name the
City of Boston as our second choice.
RESOLVED, that the President be requested to corre-
spond with the Associations in the United States, on
the subject of the Confederacy.
RESOLVED, that the application of T. C. Leland be
laid before the several Associations composing this
Union, for such immediate action as may seem to them
just.
Samuel W. Lyman, of the Ontario Union, was chosen
Chairman pro tern., in the place of Ira French, re-
signed.
RESOLVED, that the proceedings of the Council be
published in the Phalanx and in the Social Reformer.
The Council adjourned to meet on the first Monday
of January, 1845, at the Domain of the Ontario Union,
Hopewell, Ontario Co., N.Y.
A. M. WATSON, Pres.-E. A. STILLMAN, Sec.
260 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(2) The Clarkson Association.
The Phalanx, July 27, 1844, p. 222.
Batavia, July loth, 1844. I have just returned from
a visit to Clarkson Association, partly made on account
of my general sympathy with all Associationists, and
partly to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the many
rumors which have been so industriously circulated by
those who are inimical or indifferent to the success of
our cause. I am convinced, from all that I have seen
and heard during my stay on the domain, that our
friends have been grossly slandered. True they have
passed through many and great trials, have been beset
by enemies without and foes within ; but they are now,
I am happy to say, in a fair way, with proper exercise
of vigilance and perseverance, to see their experiment
crowned with success.
The original founders of this association, no doubt
actuated by good motives, but lacking discretion, held
out such a brilliant prospect of comfort and pleasure
in the very infancy of the movement, that hundreds,
without any correct appreciation of the difficulties to be
undergone by a pioneer band, rushed upon the ground,
expecting at once to realise the heaven they so ardently
desired, and which the eloquent words of the lecturers
had warranted them to hope for. Thus, ignorant of
Association, possessed, for the most part, of little capi-
tal, without adequate shelter from the inclemency of
the weather, or even a sufficient store of the most com-
mon articles of food, without plan, and I had almost
said without purpose, save to fly from the ills they had
already experienced in civilization, they assembled to-
gether such elements of discord, as naturally in a short
time led to their dissolution. The real friends of As-
sociation, those who were determined to adhere to the
cause under all circumstances, saw that it would be
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 261
useless to resist the clamors of the selfish and the dis-
affected, and in order to bring good out of evil, con-
sented to the request of a number of the stockholders to
dissolve the society, and wind up their affairs. It was
resolved, however, in a private meeting, to form forth-
with a new organization, under better auspices, inas-
much as by being relieved from the influence of the idle
and the disaffected, and being freed from the responsi-
bility of a large debt for lands which could be of no
immediate profit to them, and being under the guid-
ance of a new and efficient corps of officers, in whose
judgment and practical experience they had great con-
fidence, they still hoped by perseverance to win the re-
ward of associative industry. They have adopted a new
constitution, (a copy of which I send you) and under
whose government they have labored for the last fort-
night; they are settling the accounts of the disaffected
and are sending them away as fast as they can find means
to satisfy their demands, and they hope in a short time,
to have no one upon the ground who is not of one heart
and one mind with regard to the end of their labors,
and who is not willing to make great sacrifices to carry
out the doctrines of Jesus Christ as illustrated by
Charles Fourier, in all their labors and intercourse with
each other. The formation of industrial groups and
series is fast being made ; they ardently seek for all the
information they can obtain, and rather distrust their
own judgment in deference to the opinions of the great
founder of the system. An application has been made
to unite with the Union of Associations formed in this
State, and they recognize the importance and are de-
termined to co-operate in all the important measures
which this Union contemplates.
They have now about 250 members on the premises,
and do not wish at present any accession to their num-
262 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
bers. Their accommodations are only such as would
content an ardent disciple of Fourier. They live sim-
ply, but seem to enjoy contentment and health. Of the
landed property they only retain about 600 acres, most-
ly cleared land, and timber which is convenient to their
sawmills, and they have lately added to the cleared
lands an excellent tract of about 200 acres, for which
they have made part payment. I see no reason to be-
lieve that Clarkson will not, under the auspices of their
present organization, realize eventually the fondest
hopes of her zealous members, and the most ardent
wishes of every friend of industrial and moral reform.
Poor as must have been the enjoyment of their first
hasty and inconsiderate organization, I am told that
those who left the society during their troubles, now
wish to come back. They find, they say, more pleasure
was to be felt in the poverty and hardship of Associa-
tion in its imperfect state, than in the miserable antag-
onism they are compelled to suffer in civilization.
The experience of the past has been highly useful. I
doubt not that they will avoid hereafter with strictest
care, the sources of evil from which they have so deeply
suffered. I hope to be able to visit them again some
time this summer, when I am confident I shall have the
satisfaction of sending you good tidings of the pros-
perity of our friends at Clarkson. D. S. O.
P.S. The following tables exhibit the mode of
keeping the account of a Group at the Clarkson Do-
main. The total number of Hours that each individual
has been employed during the w r eek, is multiplied by
the Degree in the Scale of Rank, which gives an equa-
tion of Rank and Time of the whole group. At Clark-
son, for every thousand of the quotient, each member
is allowed to draw on his account for necessaries to the
value of seventy-five cents:
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 263
SERIES OF TAILORESSES - GROUP NO. i.
1844
- MAXIMUM RANK 25
Total Hrs.&
Rank
Mo.
Tue.
We.
Thu.
Fri.
Sat.
hours
Rank
20
M. Weed
6
10
3
5
24
480
25
J. Peabody
10
10
IO
12
IO
IO
62
1550
2O
S. Clark
IO
IO
IO
IO
8
48
9 60
25
E. Clark
2
10
IO
Sick
22
550
18
H. Lee
6
4
10
6
4
4
34
612
15
J. Folsom
3
3
2
6
5
3
22
330
12
Eliza Mann
4
4
2
2
6
4
22
244
The above is a true account of the time and rank of
the whole Group, working under my direction for the
past week. JULIA PEABODY, Foreman.
Ent'd on the books of the Ass'n, by
WM. SEAVER, Clerk.
Clarkson Domain, July 6th, 1844.
SERIES OF WORKERS IN WOOD - GROUP NO. 2. MAXIMUM
RANK 30
1844
Total
Hrs.&
Rank
Mo.
Tue.
We.
Thu.
Fri.
Sat.
hours
Rank
24
Chas. Odell
IO
9
IO
IO
8
9
56
1344
30
John Allen
IO
IO
2
6
10
8
46
1380
20
James Smith
Sick
3
3
60
30
Wm. Allen
10
12
10
10
10
10
62
i860
30
Jas Griffith
10
10
10
10
10
10
60
I800
The above is a true account of the time and rank of
the whole Group, working under my direction for the
past week. JAMES GRIFFITH, Foreman.
Entered on the books of the Association, by
WM. SEAVER, Clerk.
Clarkson Domain, July 6th, 1844.
(d) WISCONSIN PHALANX
Spirit of the Age> Dec. 8, 1849, PP- 362-365.
At a meeting of many of the Members of the Wiscon-
sin Phalanx, and persons holding stock in the Phalanx,
assembled on the Domain, at Ceresco, Nov. 13, 1849, the
following Address to the friends of Reform and Asso-
264 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
elation, reported by a Committee appointed at a former
meeting, was unanimously adopted and directed to be
signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the meeting,
and published in papers friendly to the cause.- ED. of
Spirit of the Age.
ADDRESS to the Friends of Reform and Association:
The Members of the Wisconsin Phalanx, who retain
the hope of Associative Life, are desirous to commun-
icate to the public, a knowledge of the present condition
of the Phalanx, and of the causes which have produced
it; and to invite the co-operation of friends in an at-
tempt to reconstruct an industrial and social organiza-
tion on the Domain, on principles practically better
adapted to a commencement in Association.
The Wisconsin Phalanx was incorporated February,
1845. The original members were chiefly from South-
port, Wisconsin ; they possessed no experience in asso-
ciative life, and had derived their ideas of the theory
of Association, principally from the pamphlets and
newspaper writings of the school of Fourier. By a
clause in the charter of the Phalanx, the increase in the
annual appraisal of all the property, real and personal
of the Phalanx, exceeding the cost, was to be yearly
divided or credited one fourth to stock, and the re-
maining three fourths to labor, in such manner as the
by-laws should provide.
The Domain of the Phalanx contains about one thou-
sand, eight hundred acres of prime land, prairie, oak-
openings, groves and meadows, in Ceresco township and
vicinity, Fond-du-lac County. This region of country,
is not exceeded by any part of the whole State, for beau-
ty of scenery, healthfulness of situation, and fertility of
soil. No ague of local origin, has ever been known
here, and not one adult male member of the Society,
since the institution of the Phalanx, has deceased. Five
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 265
women have died on the Domain, during the entire ex-
istence of the Society; but before their coming to Ce-
resco, they were all afflicted with the diseases, which
proved fatal to them. Several infants and small chil-
dren, have died from complaints incidental to that pe-
riod of life ; the cause, no doubt, would be found in a
want of correct knowledge and physiological treatment
in regard to infants and young children; a lack of
knowledge certainly not greater here than elsewhere.
We are confident that no region in the whole North-
west, can be found more remarkable for continued good
health, than Ceresco, and the adjacent country.
There is a good water power on the Domain, the
property of the Phalanx; and we have in operation a
Grist Mill and a Saw Mill, the former of which is kept
constantly employed. A new and commodious build-
ing, intended for a Protective Union Store, has been
erected at the private cost of some of the members, and
is nearly sufficiently completed for the commencement
of business. There is a good stone school house; a
blacksmith shop with three fires in full employment;
and buildings for the dwelling of members, one a long
new frame house, conveniently and pleasantly arranged,
several of the rooms of which are now completed and
occupied, and all might be finished within a short time,
and at no great expense. Another row of frame houses,
not so convenient nor strong in construction, as that just
referred to, was put up at the first founding of the So-
ciety; and in this latter range of buildings, the greater
part of the members yet reside. There is also another
row of frame buildings, with a cupola and a bell, a
kitchen, a bakery, a large dining room and apartments
serving for the accommodation of strangers and trav-
elers. In addition, there is a substantial stone dwelling,
sufficiently large for two families, living on the princi-
266 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
pies of Associative life. The most of these buildings
have been constructed with a view to a unitary mode of
life; they were designed for temporary use in a trans-
itional state of society and would principally be service-
able for the accommodation of a combined or friendly
company, until more suitable and comfortable dwell-
ings were erected. They would contain altogether
about thirty-five families, with the usual average num-
ber of persons to a family.
The Domain is situated ten miles from the Fox Riv-
er, a stream forming a collecting link in the great pro-
posed communication by rivers, lakes and canals from
Lake Michigan to the River Mississippi. The inter-
mediate ground is exceedingly well adapted for good
roads, being a rolling prairie and oak-openings, without
marsh. The whole of this part of Wisconsin is fast fill-
ing up, with a hardy, industrious and enterprising pop-
ulation. The constant influx of new settlers, while it
enhances greatly the rise of real estate in these parts,
affords a present market for all our productions. Per-
sons occupying this Domain, can at once engage in
profitable agricultural and other employments, with
the full certainty also, that each year will greatly add
to the value of the premises. About four hundred acres
of ground are broken and under fence; and there is a
nursery containing nearly one hundred thousand young
apple trees, with some peach and pear trees. These
trees are now private property, having been sold to
some of the members on their own account; but their
existence on the domain, as it affords a convenient op-
portunity for the supply of trees for orchards, we con-
sider an advantage. Most excellent drinking water is
had in unfailing supplies by sinking wells from ten to
thirty feet; and if the attempt were made, no doubt
Artesian wells could be had on the Domain. Lime
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 267
stone, a clay suitable for brick, and a gray sand-stone,
of a superior quality for building, can be had in any
quantity on our own premises. The summers of Wis-
consin are delightful; the autumns serene and beauti-
ful; the winters cold and healthful, and not so severe
as persons who have never resided here would imagine;
for although the thermometer in winter indicates a low
temperature, yet the air is dry, and on this account, the
cold is not so sensibly felt. The springs are generally
backward; but at the beginning of summer vegetation
is as forward here, as in the southern parts of New
York; for vegetable growth in this soil and climate,
when it commences, proceeds with great rapidity. Wis-
consin is a sure and abundant grain state, and yields
also, large crops of melons and summer fruits. Its fa-
vorable situation for commerce, by the Lakes and the
Mississippi, its rich ores, the salubrity of its climate,
its highly productive soil, its intelligent, hardy and
industrious population, its wise and liberal legislation,
will cause it to rank second to no State in the North-
west.
It may be asked why under all these advantages of
location and healthfulness, and without the incum-
brance of any debt, the Wisconsin Phalanx is about to
dissolve; why this appeal for the co-operation of friends
to aid the members in the reconstruction of a Society on
the Domain? We will answer as briefly as possible,
being desirous to make a candid statement, so however
as not to swell our address beyond the limits of a news-
paper publication.
Our charter contains a radical error. It is not just
nor expedient to credit stock yearly with one-fourth of
the net increase, in the annual appraisement of the
property. The original members acted to the best of
their judgment at the time, in the organization, but
268 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
sufficient knowledge, neither theoretic nor practical,
was possessed by them. We do not mention this to
their discredit. The subject was new, and had been
untried. Even had the members been better informed
than they were in regard to the theory of the Association,
which they wished to adopt, it must be now evident that
the social organization of any people, should be the
embodiment of their inward or mental and moral prep-
aration ; and must change and advance with the mind.
A correct practical social life cannot be laid down fully
by ,a philosopher in his closet; it must grow up and be
developed in actual forms, as working people combined,
feel the wants of their situation, and as these wants sug-
gest remedies. We do not mean to imply any reflection
against the value of science and theory, and the aid of
the researches of great and philosophic minds. Very
far from it. But we mean that no theory or science can
supply the want of experience; and in both theory and
practical knowledge, the members of the Phalanx were
deficient.
We are now firmly of opinion that no dividend what-
ever in the nature of interest, should be allowed to cap-
ital. Brotherhood and usury cannot co-exist. Their
tendencies are opposite and hostile. One or the other
must finally sink under the antagonism. Besides, fam-
ilies uniting in industrial co-operation, should include
in their compact the principle of mutual guaranteeism,
so that no deserving brother or sister may suffer from
want caused by sickness or other causality. The con-
stitution of the Wisconsin Phalanx includes no such
principle of guaranteeism, but it includes an extrava-
gant form of usury, awarding to capital yearly, the one
fourth part of the increase in the annual appraisement
of all property, real and personal, of the Phalanx, ex-
ceeding the cost and the last appraisement. When it is
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 269
considered that the labor of the Phalanx consisted
chiefly in building, and in agricultural occupations, not
requiring a great outlay of capital in machinery, it is
manifest that this feature of injustice in the charter,
would eventually, if not corrected, prove fatal, by run-
ning the property into the hands of a few, and those not
always the most industrious and deserving.
At the end of the first year of the Phalanx, a re-ap-
praisement was made of the real estate of the Phalanx;
and the lands obtained from government, at the usual
cost of one dollar and twenty five cents an acre, were
then valued at three dollars. It is needless to remark
that this appraisal operated for the advantage of the
large stockholders, in the ratio of their stock; but we
have no thought that any person was actuated by an
unworthy motive in causing it to be done. The act was
generally considered to be in strict justice, in conform-
ity with the charter, and to be promotive, also, of the
best interests of the society, in order that the public
might perceive the rapidly increasing value of the do-
main, and that persons, with sufficient pecuniary means
to aid in improvements and extended industrial opera-
tions, might be encouraged to apply for membership.
At the same time, as the Phalanx was not in possession
of capital to construct buildings for new-comers, it was
deemed necessary to inform the public, that applicants
for membership would be expected to subscribe to the
stock of the institution. This announcement, whether
justly or not, created an impression abroad that the
Phalanx was averse to the admission of new members,
however worthy in moral character and industry, un-
less they were possessed also of money; and a prejudice
arising from this cause, together with the advantages
already enumerated as enjoyed by capital, promoted an
injurious jealousy between labor and capital. Besides
270 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
this, there was a real difficulty, in the imperfect organ-
ization of the Society, in adjusting the rates of dividend
or compensation between the agricultural and the me-
chanical groups. The Mechanics, who were in the
minority, were not satisfied with the rates of dividend
awarded to them. Most of them ceased to work for
the Phalanx, and hired themselves out in the neighbor-
hood, or at distant places, where they obtained, as they
supposed, much better terms. Members became dis-
heartened, and several withdrew; persons with capital
perceiving the want of harmonious action in the So-
ciety, did not apply for membership ; and without
capital applicants were not admitted. Some of the mem-
bers who remained on the domain, and who were influ-
ential from their business talents or the stock which they
held, either because they lost confidence in the stability
of the Phalanx, or because they wished to make money
more largely and rapidly than they could in association
engaged in enterprises on their own account, in land
speculations and in merchandizing; and even the pro-
ducts of the Phalanx, by a mistaken policy in the coun-
cils of the Society, were sold to members at prices
influenced by the Mexican war and the European fam-
ine, thus throwing a burden very difficult to be borne,
upon the shoulders of the members with large families
and small stock, to whom the dividends were low, but
the charges against them, for the support of their fami-
lies, high.
While jealousies and discontents were thus increas-
ing, from causes connected with the wrong organization
of the Phalanx, (and we must add also from the want
of sufficient moral training and experience in all the
members) a new source of dismemberment arose from
circumstances, which, had the Society been rightfully
constructed at the outset, and had the members possess-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 27 1
ed a spirit of brotherhood, would have served to draw
still more closely the bands of fraternal union. When
the Wisconsin Phalanx settled at Ceresco, the whole of
this region of country was unpeopled. Now, thriving
farms are located all around us, and flourishing towns
are built up in our vicinity. Our own location, with
its water powers, its quarries, excellent drinking water,
its known health, and its situation in regard to a vast
extent of most fertile country, is unquestionably, a very
eligible place for the construction of a town; and the
lands of the Phalanx, before valued at three dollars an
acre, would now be appraised at not less than twelve;
and if a town were actually located here, the valuation
of the premises, for building lots, and out lots, would
be immensely greater. Those members, in whom the
spirit of speculation exists, might now be glad to have
a division of the domain, in the hope to advance their
fortunes by individual enterprises in land transactions.
We have briefly stated the principal causes which
have led to our present unfavorable condition. We
have no hope to succeed, as an Association, without a
re-construction of the Society on a basis more favorable
to brotherhood and equality, and better suited to the
merely transitional preparation of all men in respect to
social life. Brought up under the sinister antagonisms
of civilization, no man, or at most, not many persons
are yet fitted for the higher conditions of Association.
We must reach those higher forms of social life grad-
ually. The Wisconsin Phalanx, owing to the disagree-
ments which we have mentioned, has already individ-
ualized personal property, and the fruit trees in the
nursery of the Phalanx. No part of the domain can be
sold, without an Act of the Legislature of the State.
An application, it is presumed, will be made for the
passage of such an Act, some time the ensuing winter.
272 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
But many of us still cling to the desire for, and the hope
of an Associative life; and under a just organization
of a Society, several of the members, who have already
withdrawn, would return. We propose that a village
shall be laid out on the domain; that members of the
Association shall have their own separate building lots,
combining, however, according to their own pleasure,
with others, in dwellings, or living apart as they choose,
and uniting in industrial operations ; that the Protective
Union store shall be opened and conducted in connec-
tion with the Grist Mill, which should be held jointly
by the Association, thus affording a cement for a more
closer co-operation between the residents of the place,
as their minds may be matured for a higher social life;
that mutual guarantees shall exist against casualties, to
be adjusted in conformity with the principles of hu-
manity and brotherhood; that the children of all shall
be educated, and that capital advanced, shall be re-
placed, but without usury; and with an initial organ-
ization of this kind, adapted to the present imperfect
state of the public mind in social science, we hope to
grow up to a more true form of Association, as exper-
ience and increasing knowledge and moral training
shall lead the way. We are happy to state that Ceresco
notwithstanding the impediments to our success as a
Phalanx, enjoys an entire freedom from litigation and
from intemperance; neither has the peace of the place
ever been disturbed by unruly or violent behavior. Per-
sons who have resided here, become much attached to
the spot.
The total stock of the Phalanx may be estimated at
about twenty-five thousand dollars ; nearly twenty thou-
sand dollars of this sum might be required to pay off
non-resident stockholders, and others who would not
be willing to unite in an arrangement on the plan we
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 273
have mentioned. Not more however than about ten
thousand dollars would be needed by the first of Feb-
ruary next, to buy out the shares of members making
their preparations to withdraw; and the extinguishment
of their rights would supersede the necessity of an ap-
plication to the Legislature for an Act repealing the
Charter, until affairs could be placed on a better foot-
ing for a settlement. As there is now a general incor-
poration law in Wisconsin, the continuance of the pres-
ent, or the grant of a new Charter by the State is not
desirable, except that by the premature repeal of the
Act of incorporation, the domain might pass into the
hands of individuals, by purchase, who would hold it
for speculation as a Town site. The domain is worth
far more than the largest sum which we have named ;
and there can be no hazard in the purchase of the stock
at par. Are there not friends of the cause, sufficient in
numbers and in pecuniary ability to buy the stock of
the non-resident and going members, that by an ar-
rangement on the principles above suggested, this loca-
tion so highly favorable for the purpose, may be
preserved for, and consecrated to Humanity and brother-
hood. If not, it must and will pass into the hands of
speculators and monopolists; and several fortunes will
be realized by it.
Those friendly to our design, will perceive the ne-
cessity of making a prompt reply. Letters addressed
postpaid to Stephen Bates, Ceresco, P.O., Wisconsin,
will be attended to, and early information given upon
such points as friends may desire to have more fully
set forth. W. CHASE, Chairman.
STEPHEN BATES, Sect'y.
Ceresco, Wis., Nov. 13, 1849.
274 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(e) TRUMBULL PHALANX
The Harbinger ; Feb. 20, 1847, pp. 175, 176.
We are happy to present the following "Report of
the Productions and Improvements of the Trumbull
Phalanx for 1846," which we have received from the
Secretary of that Association. It will be perceived that
our friends bear their testimony to the pleasure and
advantage of the Associative life, even in the rude and
imperfect forms which are all that at present can be
realized. We have never pretended that the little at-
tempts at Association, now in progress, are able to il-
lustrate the character and effects of the Combined Or-
der: they are little more than spontaneous gatherings of
friends, inspired with a sincere zeal for an improved
order of society, full of faith in God, in Humanity, and
in the Future, but generally without adequate science,
without capital, without the material facilities, which
are essential to a complete realization of a true Social
Order. But in the humblest degree of Associated life
of which we have had any experience, there is an in-
terest, a charm, a consciousness of approaching at least,
the true way, which cannot be felt in the proudest
abodes of Civilization. The moral tone, the sincere,
elevated affections, the freedom from the clutch-all
system, which prevails in common society, bind the
heart to life in Association ; and hence we rejoice in all
the evidence of prosperity which we receive from time
to time, in the infant Associations that are now strug-
gling for existence, while we wait in hope for the day
when a Model Phalanx shall combine the strength of
friends that is now scattered, and exhibit to the world
a splendid demonstration of the truth of our principles.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 275
REPORT OF THE PRODUCTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS OF THE
TRUMBULL PHALANX, FOR 1846
Power Looms . . . . . $ 75.00
Repairs on Factory and Upper Works . . 132.00
Production of Upper Saw Mill . . . 360.00
do. Lower " " . . 627.00
do. Grist Mill . . . . 441.86
do. Tannery and Shoe Shop . . 1,236.08
do. Clothing Works . . . 150.00
do. Carding " 360.00
do. Blacksmith Shop . . . 49.00
do. Hat Shop . . . . 112.00
do. Wagon Shop . . . 116.00
do. Bowl Machine . . . 33.00
Money received for school teaching of Members . 63 . oo
90 tons of Hay ..... 360.00
20 do. Corn Fodder . . . 80.00
400 bushels of Wheat .... 250.00
300 do. Oats . . . . 54.00
100 do. Rye . . . . 37. oo
loo do. Buckwheat . . . 33-33
2800 do. Corn .... 933.00
200 do. Potatoes . . . . 50.00
200 do. English Turnips . . . 25.00
625 do. Ruta Baga . . . 78.13
250 do. Beans .... 187.00
137 do. Onions .... 85.63
50 cords of Tan Bark . . . . 100.00
2 acres of Broom Corn . . . 25.00
6 barrels of Vinegar . . . . 18.00
54 do. Cider . . . . 54.00
300 grafted Apple Trees . . . . 75. oo
250 Peach Trees . . . . . 87.50
Erecting buildings, putting up fences, cutting cord-wood,
putting in crops, gain on cattle, hogs, &c., and general
improvement of the Domain . . . 2,240.00
$9,119.63'
* $8,547-53- -
276 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
CONTRA
Loss by use of Wagons and Harnesses . . $ 48.00
do. do. Farming Tools . . . 12.00
do. do. Saw Mills . . . . 25.00
do. do. in going to law and hunting thieves . 45 . oo
Interest on Stock at six per cent . . . 1,192.49
do. Debt ..... 515.09
Taxes . . . . . . 82.05
Incidental Expenses . . . . 601 . 14
$2,520.77
Leaving $6,698.86 [$6,026.76] to be divided among
those who have produced this amount. The time
wrought by each having been kept, a dividend of sev-
enty-seven cents is declared for ten hours' labor.
B. ROBBINS, Preset.
The Election having been held agreeably to the re-
quirements of the act of Incorporation, on the last Mon-
day in December, the following Officers were chosen:
Moses Sackett, President] Benj. Robbins, Vice Preset
and Treas'r; P. Boynton, Auditor' Wm. F. Madden,
Secretary ; N. C. Meeker, Cor. Sec'y ; William M. Cox,
E. M. Eggleston, John Madden, William Weaky, P.
Boynton, A. Church, B. Robbins, Industrial Council.
It is proper to state that having tried the combined
Household system, or General Boarding House, we
have abandoned it entirely, and retreated to the separate
Household. This we are forced to do for want of
sufficient means to give variety and attraction to the
common table, and there is now universal satisfaction
with the present arrangement. Without doubt the time
will come when the Combined system will be found
preferable in economy, ease and attraction; but we have
been taught by dear experience, that without sufficient
wealth, edifices, machinery and knowledge of such es-
tablishments, it were far, far better not to attempt any-
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 277
thing of the kind, but to take every thing in its own
order, the simple and easy first, and not endeavor to
secure what can only be the result of years. A Board-
ing House, however, is continued by a suitable family
for the accommodation of the young men. It was found,
last year, to have cost forty-seven cents per week, for
men, for women and children less.
The above report for the year gives an idea of what
we have been doing, and what materials we are accum-
ulating for our future operations, and we can but say
in addition that we are harmoniously united, living
plain, common-sense lives, and are persuaded that our
continued prosperity, that is, on the whole, is a cheering
indication that we have nothing to fear in the future
but our own unfaithfulness. N. C. MEEKER, Cor. Sec'y-
Trumbull Phalanx, Braceville, Ohio, Dec. 26, 1846.
(f) COLUMBIAN PHALANX
New York Weekly Herald, March 15, 1845, p. 86.
Dear John Allen : Again I will try to give you some
idea of my whereabouts, and what I have seen. . . I
have visited the Columbian Association, seven miles
above Zanesville, on the Muskingum. The site of the
Ohio Phalanx was beautiful, but it cannot be compared
with the Columbian. Though it is winter, and the trees
bare, and a slight covering of snow on the ground, yet
it is the fairest spot I ever looked upon or dreamed of.
There are 2700 acres, including a beautiful island
formed by the branching of the Muskingum. The
timber, of which there is a large quantity, is very much
finer than is usual in this region. They say they could
pay for the place by carrying on coopering for a few
years. They have suitable timber also for boat build-
ing. There are large quantities of bituminous coal,
limestone, and iron ore on the domain. They have also
278 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
a beautiful stone that will polish like dark colored mar-
ble. They have a quarry of grindstones too -indeed it
is very difficult for Northern persons to imagine the
riches of this region. They have steam-boat navigation
from the Ohio to the Erie Canal at Dresden. They
have paid about $10,000 on the land, the cost of which
was $55,000. The natural riches of the place, coal,
timber, lime, iron, &c., with the crops, would enable
them to pay for their place, with the greatest ease, if
they had a united band upon the ground. They have
one field of wheat now, containing 137 acres. They
have about 150 members, though they are not all on the
ground, on account of accommodations. They have
thirty log buildings about twenty feet square. They
have the frame of a building erected one hundred feet
in length and forty in breadth -two stories high. Their
land lies both sides of the Muskingum. They are, as
a whole, hardly in the alphabet of social science. A
few of them look to a unitary edifice -I think about
fifteen of them have some idea of Fourierism. Some
friends of Association went with me from Zanesville,
and gave me a favorable introduction. I walked over
a large part of the Domain. One good man said to
me, " I wish you would tell the New England people
to come out here and join us -we should certainly suc-
ceed if they would." . . The people gradually gath-
ered together, and I preached Association and Graham-
ism to them in earnest. I believe I saw only one man
who did not consume quantities of tobacco, and just now
enormous quantities on account of a quarrel they were
engaged in, which made them "very nervous." This
quarrel involves the very foundations of Association,
and so I shall give you a little history of it as I under-
stood it. The founder of this Phalanx, Mr. A. B. Camp-
bell, had become obnoxious to those members who were
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 279
not imbued with any principle of association on account
of his heretical notions. I can give you but little ac-
count of him, from personal observation, as I only saw
him about two hours. I however laid my hand upon
his head, asked him a good many questions, and heard
the statements of both sides respecting him. He seems
to have great intellectual power, with limited educa-
tion. He was formerly a Methodist minister. He has
studied what writings he could come at on Association
in English, evidently with great attention. He first
lectured through this region, and gathered some friends
and contracted for this place. Pious people who had
an idea that they could make money by uniting, ad-
vanced what of the purchasing money has been paid.
Other people of similar character wished to join, but
Mr. Campbell had made himself very obnoxious by his
lectures, in which he had criticized the religion of the
day in rather the style of come-outism. He had also
spoken of civilized marriages very disrespectfully, and
moreover he worked on Sunday. One of the principal
members of the side opposed to him said to me, "Camp-
bell is the wickedest man in the world -he has spoken
against the Bible, he has spoken against marriage, he
has worked on Sunday, he has taken in members with-
out property, he has said he would as lief have a black
man join as a white man." In view of all these offences,
(or rather in view of their consequence, which was that
several persons who wished to join and put in money,
would not do it whilst the head of the Association spoke
against marriage, and worked on Sunday,) the majority
of the members of the Columbian Phalanx voted to
expel Mr. Campbell. The day of my arrival on the
Domain, he had left. They had no rule in their Con-
stitution by which they could expel him, and no definite
charge against him, except that he had attended a dance
28o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
in the village, in a house which some persons thought
was not respectable. He was expelled -driven away
in mid-winter without a penny, or a peck of corn, with
a wife and five children. I think he had been working
for them with head or hand, about two years. About
dozen or fifteen, who have some idea of the principles
of Association, adhered to Mr. Campbell, or as they
said, to the right. The present leader who takes Mr.
Campbell's place, is a sceptic, but quite an energetic
man. His impiety has not yet been objected to by the
members -probably will not be till it is found unprofit-
able. Day before I left, the Fourier portion of the
phalanx came to Zanesville, and held a conversation
with me respecting their difficulties and the hopes of
Association generally. There were a dozen earnest
young men who came, and Mr. Campbell was with
them. I asked Mr. C. many questions. He is a Four-
ierist as far as he has gone, though his feelings are nega-
tive with regard to the sacred scriptures, I think, owing
entirely to his present excoriation by the professed be-
lievers in the Bible. His friends, by his advice, will do
all in their power to save their place. If they cannot,
they will be valuable help to some association farther
removed from chaos than this. I found that his ideas
with regard to marriage had been entirely misunder-
stood by those, to whom all things are right that are ac-
cording to law. The question of the relation of the
sexes in Association is a momentous one; and though
our friends may wish to evade or avoid it, fearing they
shall be misunderstood, or that odium will attach to
them if they speak out their thoughts -it must be
met. . . Truly yours, MARY S. GOVE.
seven] O WENISM AND ASSOCIATION 2 8 1
(g) INTEGRAL PHALANX
New York Weekly Tribune, July 4, 1846, p. 6.
From a private letter just received, we glean the fol-
lowing account of the first attempt to realize Industrial
Association in the Prairie State:
Home of the Integral Phalanx, Lick Creek, Sangamon
Co., 111., June nth, 1846.
. . . I will now give a short sketch of ourselves:
Since the first effort here, under the name of the Sanga-
mon Association, we have aimed to make no "blow,"
but to preserve the even tenor of our way, with one eye
fixed upon a scientific development of Association as
the great ultimatum of our desires. In pecuniary af-
fairs we have pursued a safe plan. Our members are
honest, industrious and moral ; 23 of them being mem-
bers of the Campbellite Baptists, 7 of the Methodist,
and 9 of the Swedenborgian or New Church, 51 (in-
cluding children) are not members of any church. Our
members are from every State in the Union.
We have now 555 acres of Iand~4i2 in cultivation-
250 in Corn, 30 in Wheat, 25 in Oats, 15 in Garden
and vegetables, the balance in Meadow and for Fall
Wheat-our crops all look well-our corn crop is 75
per cent better than that of the farmers around us. We
have 80 feet of frame building up and occupied by 5
families, some dozen isolated frames and cabins scat-
tered about the Domain occupied by families. The
lumber for a frame two story building is sawed. We
will have fruit this season to make us comfortable;
milk between 30 and 40 cows, have 18 work horses,
besides young horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. But with
all these advantages, added to as rich a soil and healthy
a climate as is to be found in the States, yet we do not
say our ultimate success is sure. Success has thus far
282 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
crowned our efforts, and we can now see no reason why
we may not succeed to the extent of our desires, but at
the same time shall not blaze forth to the world that
"our permanency as an Association is no longer a matter
of doubt" and tomorrow publish our downfall. Suc-
cess with us is sure so long as we perform our duty to
God and man. Yours, A. W. S.
(h) CAUSES OF FAILURE
Spirit of the Age, Oct. 27, 1849, pp. 260, 261. Letter of W. Chase.*
. . . Recent correspondence from here [Wiscon-
sin Phalanx] to different newspapers has shown our
convulsions and warned our friends of our approach-
ing change, and to some extent raised a shout of joy in
those who hate and despise every effort for social re-
form, but it is of no importance; ours is not a failure
but a triumph of principles, and may if you choose be
made a practical realization of the true life. But you
must not expect too much in too short a time, which is
the greatest of our failings.
My object in this article is not to theorize but to give
you our latitude and longitude bearings, &c.
The property of the Phalanx consists in about 1800
acres of land, a small grist mill, a saw mill, several
blocks of buildings, shops, &c., all of which is valued
and held in joint stock at about $25,000 without the
personal property. This stock is at present held under
a charter or act of incorporation, which will be repealed
that the property may be individualized for the follow-
ing reasons, mainly: ist, because more than half of the
stock is in the hands of non-residents, much of which
has been bought and sold in various bartering and
speculative operations and is in the hands of those who
* Chase was the leading spirit in the Wisconsin Phalanx, and was with it
from the beginning to the end. He served it as president, as secretary, and
in other official positions. ED.
seven] OWENISM AND ASSOCIATION 283
buy and sell to get gain and have no sympathy with
reforms, and, because the stockholders know the prop-
erty is actually worth and will fetch more in small
parcels and for speculative purposes than the amount
of stock. 3d, because some of those who are still here
as well as many who are not here, seek individual wealth
as a primary object, are anxious to get their share of the
property out of the stock that they may use it in various
ways to secure the rise of real estate which is very rapid
in this section of the country, or in realizing twenty-five
or fifty per cent interest, which is not uncommon here
in land trades, especially where the settlers are very
anxious to secure homes for their families on new land
which must be bought by the occupants or lost. 4th,
because some of the most talented members and those
who have been the most ardent in the advocacy of social
reform, have kept their property out of the joint stock
and constantly used it for speculating in lands, merchan-
dise, and various ways, often taking advantage of the
necessities of their brethren who had all their means
in the common fund, and not at all times available,
thereby destroying confidence in one another and foster-
ing a spirit of speculation which is totally opposed to
human brotherhood. 5th, because the government has
recently purchased a large tract of land of the Indians
on the north side of Fox River, ten miles from us, and
thereby opened a fine opportunity for the hardy pioneer
to seek out a fine location and secure it at some remote
period for government price. This threw considerable
of our stock into the market and carried off several of
our families, and will several more who have been in
the habit of changing their homes every few years for
life, and cannot cease for the sake of living in associa-
tive co-operation. 6th, because our system and charter
contains a fundamental error in securing one fourth of
284 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
the products of labor to capital or stock as usury, there-
by bringing the souls and bodies of men and women in
competition with dollars and cents, and establishing
and fostering a spirit of speculation very detrimental
to true progress in social reform, and because this can-
not be changed except by individualizing and re-uniting
on a new basis, which if done here will be without any
dividend to capital ; for this is the unanimous sentiment
here of all except the speculating reformers. 7th, be-
cause we are now under ,a special law which is not as
well adapted to our use as the present general law of the
State which is now amply sufficient for co-operative
societies. . .
The society is free from debt, its property unencum-
bered, with no pecuniary difficulties nor many others
except those above referred to.
There is and ever has been too much apathy on the
subject of moral, social and intellectual education and
development among the members, and rather a pre-
dominance of the physical and external over the mental
character, and yet no place in the State or perhaps in
the whole west can equal this for morality -not a drunk-
ard in the town -no ardent spirits sold -never a law-
suit, never a quarrel -but men strive to get rich even
by speculating out of the necessities of one another, this
they do every where, but here some call it a heinous
sin to do it among those brethren who profess to be gov-
erned by the doctrines of Christ in the every day life. . .
Ill
LAND REFORM
REFERENCES
DONALDSON, T. The Public Domain (Washington, 1884).
ELY, R.T. The Labor Movement in America (New York, 1886),
41-43-
EVANS, F.W. Autobiography of a Shaker (Mt. Lebanon, 1869),
1-41.
FROTHINGHAM, O.B. Gerrit Smith, a Biography (New York,
1878).
MASQUERIER, L. Sociology; or, the Reconstruction of Society, Gov-
ernment, and Property (New York, 1877).
MEYER, R.H. Heimstatten und andere Wirthschaftsgesetze der
Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, u.s.w. (Berlin, 1883), 366-407.
SERING, M. Die landwirthschaftliche Konkurrenz Nordamerikas in
Gegenwart und Zukunft (Leipzig, 1887), 155-168.
SMITH, T.C. The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest
(New York, 1897).
i. THEORY AND PROPAGANDA
(a) GEORGE HENRY EVANS
(x) By an Associationist.
The Harbinger, Dec. 9, 1848, p. 46.
We doubt whether one half of our readers have ever
heard of the name of George Evans, or if they have,
whether they have bestowed more than a passing notice
upon it, as they would upon other names which we
meet with in the newspapers. Yet George is a person
who deserves more than a transient glance, because he
is one of the most modest, untirable and sincere friends
of Humanity that we know. For many years now he
has devoted himself, body and soul, to the cause of the
workingmen, and in good report as well as ill report,
has been faithful to his convictions of right. He is the
editor of the paper called Young America, and not only
its editor, but its proprietor, and almost its sole printer.
His whole life has been given up to the vindication of
the principles of the National Reformers, which he has
sustained with the same determined and good-natured
zeal, under all circumstances, adverse or propitious.
With some of his opinions, it is true, we do not agree ;
we think that he now and then, estimates his own special
reforms far above their relative importance ; but at the
same time we know his patience, his perseverance, his
honesty, and his general ability. There are men cer-
tainly of more splendid powers, men of larger and more
varied acquirements, men of a more striking and mag-
netic energy, but we know of few who have carried out
a great thought with so much firmness of will, joined
to so much kindness and liberality of sentiment. George
LAND REFORM 289
is not a great man, as this world goes ; he is not by any
means a good man, as the church would have it; yet in
our own simple and eccentric way of estimating man,
we'll be bound that he is quite as respectable as he would
be, were he both great and good. He seems to be true,
to be well-disposed, and to be uncompromising, which
is enough.
(2) By a Disciple.
From Lewis Masquerier's Sociology; or the Reconstruction of Society,
Government, and Property (New York, 1877).
[Pp. 94-102] . . . His mode of agitation was
to pledge the support of the anti-monopolists to such
candidates as would advocate their measures, and if they
declined, a land reform ticket was nominated and voted
for by his friends, with the view of holding the balance
of power. After pursuing this policy for five years,
the principles of the reform party began to be adopted
into political platforms, and at last resulted in the
present homestead law, granting the quarters in the al-
ternate sections of the public lands to actual settlers af-
ter an occupancy of five years. . .
He was a brother to Elder Frederick W. Evans, a
prominent leader in the Shaker Society at Mount Leb-
anon, and upon the subject of inspiration, revelation,
heavenly guidance, and the necessity of opposing Na-
ture's laws he differed widely from his brother in the
view the latter adopted. Frederick looks to heaven and
the spirits of departed friends for guidance and in-
struction, while George Henry Evans looked to Nature
and Reason only and to their recognized laws. . .
The writer of this sketch, when enlisting under
Evans' banner, entertained the communistic views of
Owen, and it was not until this paper was in circulation
before I perceived the concentration and originality of
his ideas. I had joined through the feeling of helping
290 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
any cause that promised to relieve the burdens of man-
kind. . .
Evans perceived clearly that the land reform prin-
ciple required an organization into townships through-
out a nation. He proposed to have them laid off in
six miles squares, as the United States government now
surveys its land into townships of that dimension. He
also proposed central villages in each township. I fur-
nished him with a plan wherein I laid off his mile
square in the centre into lots, varying in size from a
park in the centre, and fronting upon streets running
with the cardinal points. . .
And it is Evans who has shown that the same right
and title to the ownership of a home for every human
being, would also preserve all from want, crime, and
misery. But to apply the true principles of rights in
practice, he proposed township democracies, where all
could meet in proper person and vote directly for law
and judicature, without the intervention of officers, as
well as to have the power of self-employment upon their
own homesteads without that of landlords. To reach
this regeneration of the right to soil, government and of
all society, he agitated with the aid of a few others,
with the press and public speaking, three preparatory
sliding measures, the freedom of the public lands to
actual settlers only, homestead exemption, and the lim-
itation of the quantity owned of all other lands. These
were urged until the big parties adopted them in their
platforms, when the present homestead law was enacted
by the withdrawing of the delegation of the slave-hold-
ing power. . .
It is inscribed on his tomb that he was born in Brom-
yard, Herefordshire, England, March 25, 1805, and
died in Granville, N.J., February 2, 1856, in his fifty-
first year. The great object of his life was to secure
seven] LAND REFORM 291
homes for all by abolishing the monopoly of them. As
editor of the Man, the Radical, the Working Man's
Advocate, the People's Rights, and Young America, he
triumphantly vindicated the right of every human be-
ing to a share of the soil, as essential to the welfare and
permanence of a landed democracy. . .
EQUAL HOMESTEAD. [Pp. 56-61] . . . As each
person's natural wants and producing powers are so
nearly equal, they entitle all to an equal share of the
soil, appurtenant elements, and the whole product of
their labor. The equivalent qualities in which the ele-
ments of matter combine, are still employed by Nature
in combining and proportioning rights to wants. With-
out this principle of equivalence or equality in quantity,
Nature would not have been able to have kept her in-
dividuals from an indistinguishable chaos. She em-
ploys it in precise ratios, not only in combining sub-
stances, but in the proportions of the regular bodies, in
architecture, colors, musical sounds, etc. The equal-
ness, then, of each one's natural wants for light, warmth,
air, water, food, clothing, and shelter, is the true found-
ation and necessity for an equal share of home-
stead. . . The true measure for the size of an equal
homestead must be determined by what the natural
wants require for a family support, and as much as
each can cultivate with proper recreation. Where
population is sparse, each family might be allotted one
hundred and sixty acres, then be quartered into forty
acres, and again quartered down to the minimum of ten
acre homesteads, as an increase of heirs, etc., demands.
And when the earth can feed no more, the laws of phy-
siology will have to keep the race at a stand. . .
INALIENABLE HOMESTEAD. But as natural wants are
not only equal, but are also continued through life, they
become the true foundation, also, of inalienable home-
292 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
stead. As the principle, too, of time or duration is very
different from that of magnitude or quantity, it be-
comes a distinct constituent of a thorough right and is
equally essential to its existence. The limitation or
equalness then, of each one's natural right to a share
of the soil, will become alienated or destroyed without
the application of the guaranteeing principle of in-
alienation, perpetuity or imprescription, that attaches
it to the person throughout life. The principle of
equal homesteads alone would run into the abuse of
allowing a man to alienate his homestead to a landless
man, and thereby make himself landless. But it must
be made a felony to withhold a home from any person,
or for any to part with it, except in exchange for an-
other. The homestead, then must not be exchanged
for money or other moveables, which will waste or
evaporate through improvidence. Land must be ex-
changed only for land, and products for products. The
homestead, then, which embraces the improvements as
well as the soil, must never be subject to any liability
to alienate for any consideration whatever, such as that
of sale, debt, tax, mortgage, primogeniture, etc. The
exchange of homesteads is only proper for the neces-
sary freedom of emigration. No one, then, must ever
be found without a homestead. . . While the great
body of the people have been holding their small pos-
sessions by the alienating laws of monopoly, or of their
transitory ownership, the glaring fact and precedent
has been blazing in their faces, that the royalty and no-
bility of the world have preserved their families and
titles, their thrones and estates, from alienation, by
exempting them from sale, debt, tax, mortgage, etc. . .
This homestead exemption applied by the aristocracy
of the Old World to their homesteads and sovereignty,
must also be applied to those of the whole people. . .
seven] LAND REFORM 293
INDIVIDUAL HOMESTEAD. Though homesteads may
be equalized by the principle of equality or limitation,
though they may be guaranteed by the principle of in-
alienation from debt, sale, or any other mode of alien-
ation, yet if they are not still further fortified by the
cooperation of the principle of individuality or separ-
ateness, they will still be liable to alienation by the op-
posite evil principle of commixture or communism.
The fact that society is not a concreted, but a dis-
creted mass of beings -separated into individuals -is
enough upon the face of it to make it self-evident that
property must be owned separately by individuals, and
not in communized bodies, as the true principle. Na-
ture throughout all her domain seems to keep all her
bodies separate and distinct from each other, while pre-
serving resembling kinships and intimate connections
with the surrounding world. Without this the world
would only be a chaos of confused and indistinguishable
mass of objects, and this would be the case with wants
and rights in communism.
(b) "TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES"
Working Man's Advocate, July 6, 1844.
The National Reform Union of the City of New
York, although in existence only a few weeks, has at-
tained a perfect Organization. They have held up-
wards of twenty public meetings -established a news-
paper for the purpose of expounding their principles
and recording their proceedings -and have fixed a
Head Quarters at the corner of Chatham and Mulberry
streets-where they meet every Thursday Evening.
This has been done by a limited number of working
men. They do not comprise among them a single name
of high note in public affairs. They do not enroll in
their ranks a single man of wealth. Their expenses,
294 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
though considerable, have been all paid by themselves -
and they now print Twenty Thousand copies of the fol-
lowing document, for the purpose of effectually plac-
ing before their fellow citizens the great, and truly
National object for which they contend.
On the 1 3th of March last, at a public meeting of
workingmen, a committee was appointed to inquire
into the causes which produce in this Republic a de-
pression of labor, and a social degradation of the labor-
er, very similar to that which prevails under the detest-
able governments of Europe.
At the next public meeting of the workingmen that
Committee submitted the following Report, which was
adopted unanimously nearly in its present form. Read
it working men, you that would escape the fate that
overwhelms your brother men in Europe. If your
wives, your children, your hearthstones are dear to you-
if your own independence, and the liberty of the Re-
public are of any value in your eyes -give this docu-
ment an attentive perusal. Even if you feel no spark of
patriotism within you-fif your daily toil, and your
hopeless condition, have sunk your mind from its hu-
man dignity -have broken your spirit, as they have bent
your frame -still read. Read, even, for curiosity. Read
to learn what men think who will not bow to the insol-
ence of wealth -who will not give up the country to a
counterfeit aristocracy -a wretched imitation of the vile
"Nobility" of Europe.- ED. of the Working Man's Ad-
vocate.
REPORT. Having made due inquiry into the facts,
the Committee are satisfied that there is a much larger
number of laboring people congregated in the seaboard
towns, than can find constant and profitable employ-
ment. Your committee do not think it necessary to
enter into statistical details in order to prove a fact that
seven] LAND REFORM 295
is not disputed by anybody. The result of this over-
supply of labor is a competition among the laborers,
tending to reduce wages, even where employment is
obtained, to a scale greatly below what is necessary for
the comfortable subsistence of the working man, and
the education of his family. It appears to your Com-
mittee, that as long as the supply of labor exceeds the
demand, the natural laws which regulate prices, will
render it very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to
permanently improve the condition of the working peo-
pie.
Our inquiries, therefore, were naturally directed to
ascertain how far existing causes are likely to affect the
supply and demand, of labor- whether those causes tend
to lessen, or to increase the evil under which the work-
ing classes are now suffering.
As tending to lessen the evil, we find an increasing
home consumption of articles produced by mechanical
skill-we also anticipate an increase, to some extent at
least, of our export market. But we believe that this
additional demand is by no means likely to keep pace
with our accumulating powers of production. First
we find in our cities, and Factory Stations, an increasing
population, the great majority of whom depend for a
subsistence on Mechanical labor; and secondly we find
the new born power of machinery throwing itself into
the labor-market, with the most astounding effects -
withering up all human competition with a sudden de-
cisiveness that leaves no hope for the future. Indeed,
if we judge of the next half century by the half century
just past, there will be, by the end of that time, little
mechanical labor performed by human hands.
We find, on consulting authentic data, that machin-
ery has taken almost entire possession of the manufac-
ture of cloth. That it is making steady -we might say
296 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
rapid -advance upon all branches of iron manufacture.
That the newly invented machine saws, working in
curves as well as straight lines -the planing and groov-
ing machine, and the tenon and mortice machine, clearly
admonish us that its empire is destined to extend itself
over all our manufactures of wood. That while some
of our handicrafts are already extinct, there is not one
of them but has foretasted the overwhelming competi-
tion of this occult power. We can clearly perceive that
while the laws of population tend to steadily increase
the supply of mechanical labor- so does the improve-
ment of machinery tend to, not merely lessen, but al-
most annihilate the demand.
This result -this triumph of machine labor, and ulti-
mate prostration of human labor, cannot in the opinion
of your committee, be averted. We may wrestle with
the monster, as the toilers of England wrestle, till
myriads of us perish in the unequal strife. But your
Committee are of the opinion that all this will be only
so much strife, and so much suffering, wasted in vain.
As well might we interfere with the career of the heav-
enly bodies, or attempt to alter any of Nature's fixed
laws, as hope to arrest the onward march of science and
machinery.
The question then recurs -the momentous question:
"Where lies our remedy? How shall we escape from
an evil which it is impossible to avert?"
This question admits of an answer at once simple, sat-
isfactory, and conclusive. Nature is not unjust. The
Power who called forth those mechanical forces did
not call them forth for our destruction. Our refuge
is upon the soil, in all its freshness and fertility- our
heritage is on the Public Domain, in all its boundless
wealth and infinite variety. This heritage once secured
to us, the evil we complain of will become our greatest
seven] LAND REFORM 297
good. Machinery, from the formidable rival, will sink
into the obedient instrument of our will -the master
shall become our servant -the tyrant shall become our
slave.
If we were circumstanced like the inhabitants of Eu-
rope, there would seem to be little hope of getting the
laboring population out of the difficulties, and distress,
in which they are at present involved. There, every
field, of God's inheritance to man, is fenced in, and
appropriated by the Aristocracy. There, the working
man has nothing to fall back upon. There, in the beau-
tiful language of the Poet-
If to the Common's fenceless limits strayed,
He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade,
Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,
And even the bare worn Common is denied.
There, the laboring classes have no resource, except
to sell the labor of their bodies for whatever price it will
bring- live upon that pittance as long as it will sustain
them alive: and when it fails sink into their last earthly
refuge -the grave.
But in this Republic, all that the Creator designed
for man's use, is ours -belongs, not to the Aristocracy,
but to the People. The deep and interminable forest;
the fertile and boundless prairie; the rich and inex-
haustible mine -all -all belong to the People, or are
held by the Government in trust for them. Here, in-
deed, is the natural and healthful field for man's labor.
Let him apply to his Mother Earth, and she will not
refuse to give him employment -neither will she with-
hold from him in due season the fulness of his reward.
We are the inhabitants of a country which for boundless
extent of territory, fertility of soil, and exhaustless re-
sources of mineral wealth, stands unequalled by any
nation, either of ancient or modern times. We live un-
298 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [VoL
der a Constitution, so just and so equal, that it may well
lay claim to a divine origin. As a People we are second
to none, in enterprize, industry, and skill. Thus it is
clear, that we are in possession of all the elements of
individual and national prosperity. And, yet, we al-
low those elements to lie dormant, that labor which
ought to be employed in calling forth the fruitfulness
of Nature, is to be found seeking employment in the
barren lanes of a city, of course, seeking it in vain.
Have we not boundless territories of unsettled, almost
unexplored, lands? 27 Were not those lands created for
the express purpose of furnishing us with food, and
clothing, and happy homesteads? Have not those lands
been redeemed from the British Crown by the priceless
blood that flowed in our Revolution? Have they not
been redeemed from the aboriginal tribes by monies
paid into the Treasury by the productive classes of the
whole United States? Are they not ours, therefore, by
every just right, natural and acquired? And if so, on
what principle should they be withheld from us, their
rightful owners? Already have we paid for them twice
over; wherefore should we be required to pay for them
again? In taking this position we do not stand quite
alone. President Jackson, in his message of 1832, holds
out the following advice to the American people. It
is worthy of serious attention :
It seems to me to be our true policy that the public lands shall
cease, as soon as practicable, to be a source of revenue, and that they
be sold to settlers in limited parcels, at a price barely sufficient to
reimburse to the United States the expense of the present system, and
the cost arising under our Indian compacts. To put an end forever
to all partial and interested legislation on this subject, and to afford
to every American citizen of enterprise, the opportunity of securing
27 About 1400 millions of acres, or nearly twenty-five times the extent of
the British Islands.
seven] LAND REFORM 299
an independent freehold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon
the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands.
Your Committee does not recognize the authority of
Congress to shut out from those lands such citizens as
may not have money to pay another ransom for them.
Still less do we admit their authority to sell the Public
Domain, to men who require it only as an engine to lay
our children under tribute to their children to all suc-
ceeding time. We regard the Public Lands as a Cap-
ital Stock, which belongs, not to us only, but also to
posterity. The profits of that stock are ours, and the
profits only. The moment congress, or any other pow-
er, attempts to alienate the stock itself to speculators,
that moment do they attempt a cruel, and cowardly,
fraud upon posterity, against which, as citizens and as
honest men, we enter our most solemn protest. It is
enough for us to eat our own bread -what right have
we to sit down and consume the bread of our children?
The evil of permitting speculators to monopolize the
public lands, is already severely felt in all the new states.
When the Emigrant reaches the remote borders of civil-
ization he naturally desires to stop there, and fix his
home within the pale of civilized society. But the
lands lying for many miles around belong to the specu-
lator, and the unfortunate Emigrant must either pay an
exorbitant price, which he is generally unable to do,
or move off into the desert, and trust himself to the
mercy of the wild Indian far beyond the aid of civilized
man.
But what is this evil compared with the distress and
misery that is in store for our children should we per-
mit the evil of land monopoly to take firm root in this
Republic? Go to Europe. Mark the toil, the rags,
the hunger, and the despair which is the sole inheritance
300 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of its countless millions, while a few thousands run into
the opposite extreme of luxury, excess, and guilt un-
speakable. Look at this horrible state of things, and
whilst you do so, remember that the same fate awaits
our own Republic, if we permit a Landed Aristocracy
to grow up among us.
Look even to our own Republic, and our own State.
The two great counties of Albany and Rensselaer, are
held by a couple of "Patroons" who impose upon their
Tenants burthens, and indignities, now obsolete even
in Europe. Mines they must not dig in their lands -
mills, or machinery, they must not construct on their
waterfalls. For every quarter section, they must pay
a rent equivalent to the produce of ten acres of culti-
vated land -this yearly, and every year. If they sell a
farm or even bequeath it to their children, the Patroon
demands one fourth the entire value of it every time it
is so transferred. The "tenant" is obliged to do "ser-
vice" with a horse and wagon for his "lord"- nay he is
even enjoined to bring in four fat fowls and deposit
them in the Patroon's larder, once in every year. Amer-
ican spirit has already risen up against these outrageous
conditions, and it is, even now, threatening civil discord
in the State! Such, and so disastrous, will be the future
page of our history if we permit the public Lands to
go into the grasp of insolent Monopolists.
Your Committee have perused, with much satisfac-
tion a Report made, a few days ago by the Committee
on Public Lands -and which Report is now under the
consideration of Congress. We solicit your marked
attention to the following extract from that most im-
portant document.
In short your Committee think it should be an important, if not a
controlling consideration with the Government, to legislate so as to
change the floating population (to be found to a greater or less extent
seven] LAND REFORM 301
in all parts of the country) into a permanent, well organized, and
orderly community ; for, as has been well remarked by a distinguished
Senator, "Tenantry is unfavorable to freedom;" it lays the founda-
tion for separate orders in society ; annihilates the love of country, and
weakens the spirit of independence. The Tenant has, in fact, no
country, no hearth, no domestic altar, no household god. The Free-
holder, on the contrary, is the natural support of a free government
and it should be the policy of Republics to multiply their Freehold-
ers, as it is the policy of monarchies to multiply Tenants. We
are a Republic, and we wish to continue so then multiply the class
of freeholders - pass the Public Lands cheaply and easily into the
hands of the people. Sell for a reasonable price to those who are
able to pay, and give without price to those who are not.
The first great object, then, is to assert and establish
the right of the people to the soil ; to be used by them in
their own day, and transmitted -an inalienable heri-
tage -to their posterity. The principles of justice, and
the voice of expediency, or rather of necessity, 28 demand
that this fundamental principle shall be established as
the paramount law, with the least possible delay.
That once effected, let an outlet be formed that will
carry off our superabundant labor to the salubrious and
fertile West. In those regions thousands, and tens of
thousands, who are now languishing in hopeless pover-
ty, will find a certain and a speedy independence. The
labor market will be thus eased of the present distressing
competition; and those who remain, as well as those
who emigrate, will have the opportunity of realizing a
comfortable living.
That such would be the effect, complete and imme-
diate, your Committee entertain not the slightest doubt.
But they are well aware that it will require much ener-
gy, and perseverance, on the part of the working people,
28 Machinery and pauperism are marching hand in hand. Thirty years
ago the number of paupers in the whole United States was estimated at 29,166,
or i in 300. The pauperism of New York city amounts now to 51,600 or i
in every 7 of the population! Where will this evil end? Will we get rid
of it by erecting a Workhouse here, and a Prison there?
3 02 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
to bring about the change which we have ventured to
recommend. We know you to possess the energy of
character-we are satisfied of your perseverance, for
both have been severely tested in your every day pur-
suits. But what we dread is, that your Committee is
not equal to the task of rousing your energies -of lay-
ing before you, in its vast magnitude, the change that
it is in the power of the working people to accomplish.
At present the Workingman toils on through the pe-
riod of a dreary existence, content if he can secure
enough of the common necessaries of life. He leaves
behind him a family with no heritage but his own -no
means to live, but by hiring out their bodies to be work-
ed for the benefit of others.
Time rolls on -and in the lapse of a few ages all
those boundless fields which now invite us to their
bosom, become the settled property of individuals. Our
descendants wish to raise themselves from the condition
of hirelings, but they wish it in vain. They cannot ap-
proach a field on which the Capitalist has not set his
mark, and each succeeding age their condition becomes
more and more hopeless. They read the history of
their country; they learn that there was a time when
their fathers could have preserved those domains, and
transmitted them, free and unincumbered, to their chil-
dren. When our posterity look back to the opportunity
that we are now losing, they will not bless our memory
if we leave them nothing but a heritage of toil and
dependence.
On the contrary, if by one bold step we fix ourselves
upon the soil, our descendants will be in possession of
an independence that cannot fail so long as God hangs
his bow in the clouds, and glads the earth with his re-
turning seasons.
Your Committee is of the opinion, that the day is not
seven] LAND REFORM 303
far distant when the Steam Engine will be applied suc-
cessfully to the cultivation of the soil, the gathering
of crops, and preparing them for use and market. At
present all improvements in power machinery are di-
rected towards the perfection of Navigation and Man-
ufactures, those ends once accomplished, inventive gen-
ius will immediately set about applying machinery to
the cultivation of the soil. It is reasonable to suppose
that it will be as successful in the latter field as it has
been in the former -and if so, the toil and drudgery of
the farmer's life will be exchanged for the superintend-
ence of a power capable of performing more work in a
day than could be performed under the old systems by
weeks of painful manual toil. 29
We might here, again, expatiate upon the revolution
which the Steam Engine has already produced, in the
demand for human labor -a revolution that is going
on, and will not end till very little manual toil will be
required in any branch of industry. We might show
that, as this revolution progresses, the condition of the
hired laborer must grow worse, and worse till the Hu-
man Machine is driven wholly out of the market. We
29 Indeed we find that Science has already entered the field of Agriculture.
Already are steam ploughs in profitable employment, even in the British
Islands where manual labor can be had for almost nothing. Already is a
machine at work on our Southern plantations that can in cultivating sugar,
perform the work of 40 negroes - already do we observe that several patents
have been taken out at Washington, for machines to be used in cutting down
and gathering in of field crops. The Threshing Machine is now in universal
use: and doubtless every other description of machine that may be requisite
in agriculture will soon follow in its train. And further the Commissioner
of Patents informs us that: By a machine drawn by oxen, drains of 14 inches
deep, and 28 wide, can be excavated at a cost of 3 cants per rod. Drains
of any requisite depth can be made at a proportionate expense. Wheat grow~
ers in France have doubled the product within the last 25 years, by the aid
of Chemistry. They have also found the means of feeding on a given quan-
tity of food, twice the number of cattle which it supported formerly. Taos
wheat (of New Mexico) is of excellent quality and produces seven heads, in-
stead of one.
3 o 4 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
might dwell upon the suffering that must fall to the lot
of men who vainly struggle to compete with a monster
having "nerves of iron, and animated by a pulse of
steam." But we will not dwell upon the prospective
disadvantages, that await the hired laborer, and the
prospective benefits that lie before the man who fixes
himself upon the soil. Let us confine ourselves to the
present time-let us take things as they now exist-let
us compare the hired laborer with the farm settler, who
has only been one year on the soil. One toiling inces-
santly for a slender subsistence, and not secure of even
that. The other toiling hard, to be sure, but surround-
ed by waving fields, blossoming orchards, and all the
health and innocence of a rural life -everything that
belongs to him growing better, and better every year-
his hopes rising and brightening beyond his present
labors and difficulties -compare that man, indeed, with
the recipient of a daily pittance, in return for his daily
toil. Unable to call anything of value his own; with-
out hope, without assurance that even his present wretch-
ed subsistence will be continued to him. Surely, even
in the first year of his settlement, the condition of the
farmer will be found vastly superior to that of the mere
hired workman, and each succeeding year will add
greatly to the difference of their respective conditions.
But it may be said that all we have here laid down is
sufficiently obvious to everybody. We believe that it
is so, and we anticipate you in saying that the real ques-
tion of difficulty is, how to achieve those rights, and
realize those advantages, which every individual ac-
knowledges to exist.
Your Committee can perceive but one way of ac-
complishing those objects, and that is by combination -
by a determined and brotherly union of all citizens who
believe the principles set forth to be just, in themselves,
seven] LAND REFORM 305
and necessary to the public welfare. We propose,
therefore, that such Union be organized at once. It
is our opinion that all citizens who desire to join the
ranks of the National Reformers shall have an oppor-
tunity of doing so without delay. Having recommend-
ed this step, it becomes our duty to submit for your
adoption a Constitution, which may serve for present
organization. After mature and anxious deliberation
on the matter, we are unanimously of opinion that noth-
ing can be effected without putting the National Re-
form Test to every candidate for legislative office, State
and National. Any man who would oppose the meas-
ure of justice for which we contend is not a Republican
at all -he is a Monarchist, in soul, and we should treat
him as such at the Ballot Box.
The labor of your committee ends here, but we can-
not close without expressing our belief, that, if the
working men lead the way, manfully, in this reform,
they will be immediately joined by a great majority of
the non-producing classes. Various motives of a per-
sonal nature will induce them to join us -not to say a
word about that patriotism and love of justice which,
we trust, belong alike to every class in this Republican
Community. Signed:
THOMAS A. DEVYR, GEORGE H. EVANS, JOHN COM-
MERFORD, CHARLES P. GARDNER, DANIEL FOSTER, E. S.
MANNING, JOHN WINDT, ROBERT BEATTIE, JR., JAMES
MAXWELL, MIKE WALSH, D. WITTER, W. L. MACKEN-
ZIE, JAMES A. PYNE, LEWIS MASQUERIER.
(c) "VOTE YOURSELF A FARM"
True Workingman, Jan. 24, 1846. The following was distributed as a
circular or handbill in large quantities.
Are you an American citizen? Then you are a joint-
owner of the public lands. Why not take enough of
306 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
your property to provide yourself a home? Why not
vote yourself a farm?
Remember poor Richard's saying: "Now I have a
sheep and a cow, every one bids me 'good morrow/ "
If a man have a house and a home of his own, though
it be a thousand miles off, he is well received in other
people's houses; while the homeless wretch is turned
away. The bare right to a farm, though you should
never go near it, would save you from many an insult.
Therefore, Vote yourself a farm.
Are you a party follower? Then you have long
enough employed your vote to benefit scheming office-
seekers; use it for once to benefit yourself -Vote your-
self a farm.
Are you tired of slavery -of drudging for others -of
poverty and its attendant miseries? Then, Vote your-
self a farm.
Are you endowed with reason? Then you must know
that your right to life hereby includes the right to a
place to live in -the right to a home. Assert this right,
so long denied mankind by feudal robbers and their
attorneys. Vote yourself a farm.
Are you a believer in the scriptures? Then assert
that the land is the Lord's, because He made it. Re-
sist then the blasphemers who exact money for His
work, even as you would resist them should they claim
to be worshipped for His holiness. Emancipate the
poor from the necessity of encouraging such blas-
phemy-Vote the freedom of the public lands.
Are you a man? Then assert the sacred rights of
man -especially your right to stand upon God's earth,
and to till it for your own profit. Vote yourself a
farm.
Would you free your country, and the sons of toil
everywhere, from the heartless, irresponsible mastery
seven] LAND REFORM 307
of the aristocracy of avarice? Would you disarm this
aristocracy of its chief weapon, the fearful power of
banishment from God's earth? Then join with your
neighbors to form a true American party, having for
its guidance the principles of the American revolution,
and whose chief measures shall be-i. To limit the
quantity of land that any one man may henceforth
monopolize or inherit; and 2. To make the public
lands free to actual settlers only, each having the right
to sell his improvements to any man not possessed of
other land. These great measures once carried, wealth
would become a changed social element; it would then
consist of the accumulated products of human labor, in-
stead of a hoggish monoply of the products of God's
labor; and the antagonism of capital and labor would
forever cease. Capital could no longer grasp the lar-
gest share of the laborer's earnings, as a reward for not
doing him all the injury the laws of the feudal aris-
tocracy authorize, viz: the denial of all stock to work
upon and all place to live in. To derive any profit from
the laborer, it must first give him work; for it could
no longer wax fat by levying a dead tax upon his exist-
ence. The hoary iniquities of Norman land pirates
would cease to pass current as American law. Capital,
with its power for good undiminished, would lose the
power to oppress; and a new era would dawn upon the
earth, and rejoice the souls of a thousand generations.
Therefore forget not to Vote yourself a farm.
(d) ORGANIZED LABOR -SHOEMAKERS
Working Man's Advocate, June 29, 1844.
On Wednesday evening, June 26, 1844, a meeting of
the Journeymen Cordwainers of the City of New York
was held at the Fourteenth Ward Hotel, corner of
Grand and Elizabeth streets, to take into consideration
3 o8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the best mode for relieving the working classes. Mr.
David Kilmer was called to the Chair, and Daniel Wit-
ter appointed Secretary. The meeting was then ad-
dressed by Mr. Beeny on the subject of the freedom of
the Public Lands. Mr. Evans then, by request, ad-
dressed the meeting at some length, on the same subject.
Mr. John White next addressed the meeting, and made
some very appropriate remarks to induce the working
classes to elect Working Men to represent them in our
Legislative Halls, if we ever wanted any thing from
the hands of Congress. Mr. Evans then made some re-
marks in explanation of the plan proposed by the Na-
tional Reform Association, and the meeting was briefly
addressed by Mr. Kohler, President of the Ladies'
Branch, and by the Chairman and Secretary. The fol-
lowing resolutions were then offered by Mr. Beeny,
and adopted.
RESOLUTIONS. Whereas it has become fully evident
to every man disposed to reflection, that useful labor
not only does not receive its just reward in this Repub-
lic, but that its compensation is gradually growing less;
and whereas it is plain that this state of things cannot
continue without endangering if not overthrowing, the
valuable institutions that have been dearly purchased;
it has therefore become the imperative duty of every
lover of humanity and of freedom to investigate the
causes of the fast increasing degradation of useful labor.
RESOLVED, that as it is a duty, deduced no less from
the laws of Nature than from Divine authority, that
every man should earn his living by useful labor, that
system of society must be wrong that enables some to
live in affluence without performing their share, while
others are performing more than a double share and
hardly obtaining a competence, and others still are pre-
seven] LAND REFORM 309
vented from obtaining a living by industry though anx-
ious and willing to do so.
RESOLVED, that in view of the rapid progress of ma-
chinery, in superseding manual labor, it is the duty of
the laborer to ascertain whether arrangements cannot
be made by which machinery may be made to work for
instead of against him.
RESOLVED, that, as machinery throws manual labor
upon the market, the article necessarily cheapens, and
it becomes necessary for the laborer to perform more
work to procure the means of existence; this still further
cheapens the article, (labor) and the only limit to the
operation is the extent of human endurance. This, we
may say, is almost the case now with all trades which,
like our own, live by piece work.
RESOLVED, that it is a fatal error for those trades that
live by day labor, to suppose that they are not affected
by the oppression of those who live by piece work; for
the latter will naturally put their sons to the trades that
are doing best; the result of which is that they are over-
stocked, and their wages liable to continual reduction
by the numbers unemployed, and ready to step into their
shoes in case of a strike.
RESOLVED, therefore, that we see the absolute neces-
sity of a Union of Trades, to devise means, if any there
be, to render Labor independent of, if not master over,
Machinery, and to enable the Laborer to obtain a fair
average of the fruits of production, in return for a fair
average of the labor of production.
RESOLVED, that we recommend a National Conven-
tion of the Trades, to consider this subject, and, in the
mean time, commend to the consideration of our Craft,
and of our brother Working Men throughout the Un-
ion, the measure of the National Reform Association,
3 io AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
to make the Public Lands of the States and of the
United States free to Actual Settlers in limited quanti-
ties, enabling every man to become an Independent
Landholder; a measure which, as it seems to us, would
go far towards restoring to Labor its Rights.
RESOLVED, that we approve of the sentiments con-
tained in the Circular of the Mechanics of Fall River,
calling a New Engand Convention, and will co-operate
with them to the extent of our ability; and that we
recommend the appointment of delegates to said Con-
vention.
On motion by Mr. Beeny, resolved that we adjourn
to meet again this night four weeks.
DAVID KILMER, Ch'n.- HENRY WITTER, Sec'y-
(e) ATTITUDE OF GERMANS
Young America, Nov. 8, 1845, P- 2 > c l- I -
At a large and respectable meeting of Germans, in-
habitants of the city of New York, held on Friday even-
ing, 3ist October, at Franklin Hall, Mr. H. Arends
was called to the Chair, Mr. Mandelslohe was chosen
Vice-president, and Mr. Frolich appointed Secretary.
The following resolutions were unanimously passed:
RESOLVED, we declare solemnly before the face of the
world that we have no country but the earth, and that
all men have an equal right to live upon it.
RESOLVED, we call ourselves Americans, and have no
other interests than those of the American people, be-
cause America is the asylum of the oppressed every-
where, and because the interest of the American people
is the interest of the whole human race.
RESOLVED, we care not for party names and profes-
sions, but will sustain whatever furthers the great cause
of humanity.
seven] LAND REFORM 311
RESOLVED, we recognize in the National Reformers
our fellow-laborers in the cause of progress, as pioneers
of a better future, as the advocates of the cause of the
oppressed children of Industry, and as the only true
democracy of the land.
RESOLVED, we let not ourselves be led astray by the
clamorous outcries of selfish interests, and pledge our-
selves with joy to sustain the following proclamation
of the National Reformers :
That all men are created equal; that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
among which are the Right to Life and Liberty; to the
use of such a portion of the earth, and the other ele-
ments, as shall be sufficient to provide them with the
means of subsistence and comfort; to education and
paternal protection from society.
RESOLVED, in accordance herewith we engage our-
selves individually and collectively to co-operate with
all our strength with our co-workers, the National Re-
formers, to bring before the whole American People
those simple principles, and thus to aid in carrying out
gloriously this new reform.
A Committee of seven were chosen to make prepara-
tions for a second meeting in two weeks from the same
day following. At the close of the meeting the two
following additional resolutions were unanimously
passed:
RESOLVED, that the officers of this meeting are re-
quested to prepare an address to the Editors of all the
German papers in the United States, in which they will
be earnestly called upon to examine seriously and adopt
the principles of evident justice proclaimed by the Na-
tional Reformers.
RESOLVED, that in our opinion any paper that has not
3 1 2 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the courage to proclaim the right of man to the soil-
the first and most sacred of all rights -loses all claim to
be called a democratic paper.
(f) THE PLEDGE
(1) In 1844.
Working Man's Advocate, April 6, 1844.
We, whose names are annexed, desirous of restoring
to man his Natural Right to Land, do solemnly agree,
that we will not vote for any man, for any legislative
office, who will not pledge himself, in writing, to use
all the influence of his station, if elected, to prevent all
further traffic in the Public Lands of the States and of
the United States, and to cause them to be laid out in
Farms and Lots for the free and exclusive use of actual
settlers.
(2) In 1848.
Young America, Sept. 23, 1848.
We whose names are annexed desirous of restoring
to man his Natural Right to Land, do solemnly agree,
that we will not vote for any man for the Presidency
or Congress who will not pledge himself in writing to
use all the influence of his station, if elected, to prevent
all further traffic in the Public Lands of the States and
of the United States, and to cause them to be laid out
in Farms and Lots for the free and exclusive use of
actual settlers ; or for any man for the Governorship or
the Legislature who will not so pledge himself to the
Freedom of the Public Lands, to a Limitation of the
quantity of land to be obtained by any individual here-
after in this State, to the exemption of the Homestead
from any future debt or mortgage, and to a limitation
to ten of the hours of daily labor on public works or in
establishments chartered by law.
seven] LAND REFORM 313
(g) PROPOSED BILLS
(i) For Congress.
Young America, Sept. 23, 1848.
FREEDOM OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. An act to estab-
lish the equal right to the use of the Land and its natural
products; to afford a refuge to the landless population
of the United States; to secure Homesteads to individ-
uals, families, and associations; to provide for the in-
crease of population ; to make Labor the master instead
of the slave of Capital ; and to perpetuate the Republic.
Section i. Be it enacted, &c., that the lands of the
United States shall no longer be sold.
Section 2. That the Public Lands shall henceforth
be surveyed into townships of six miles square, sub-
divided into farm lots of a quarter section of 160 acres
each, except one section in each township which shall
be surveyed into village lots in sufficient quantity for
the farms, and a Public Park for Town Hall, groves,
and other public buildings or ornaments.
Section 3. That where there may be no natural ob-
struction the (Village shall be laid out in the centre sec-
tion of the township, unless there be natural advantages
in some other location to warrant a departure from the
general rule.
Section 4. That there shall be Public Roads between
the townships six rods wide and also roads of equal
width diagonally through each township, except when
the village location or natural obstructions may render
partial variations necessary.
Section 5. That any landless native of the United
States, male or female, or any other adult landless per-
son who will legally testify, that he or she has taken
the necessary steps to become a citizen, and intends to
be so as soon as possible, may, on payment of Five Dol-
314 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
lars to cover expenses of survey and registration at the
land office in the district, enter one farm or village lot,
of any surveyed and not previously entered, except such
as may be settled at the time this act shall become a law,
and possess the same by actual residence; provided, that
in case of marriage, where both parties may be in pos-
session of public lots, the settlement right of one or
other must be disposed of within a year or forfeited to
the United States; and provided further, that the pur-
chase or possession of other land shall be a forfeiture
of the right of possession of a public lot to the United
States.
Section 6. That each legal settler on a public lot shall
have a right at all times to dispose of his or her right of
possession, but if a married male only with the consent
of his wife, by deed legally executed, to any landless
person qualified as herein before provided, who shall
then stand in the same relation to the United States as
the previous settler.
Section 7. That the right of possession of a public lot
may be heired or willed as may other property under
the laws of the State or Territory in which the lot may
be situated; excepting always, that it can pass into the
hands of none but a landless person.
Section 8. That any number of persons qualified as
aforesaid may hold their portions of land in common;
provided the Association shall have no power to eject
a member except in accordance with a written agree-
ment, duly authenticated previous to his or her settle-
ment.
Section 9. That any settler proved guilty of destroy-
ing trees, either in person or by proxy, on any public
lot other than his or her own possession, shall forfeit
the possession to the town in which such offence may
have been committed, if settled, or to the nearest settled
seven] LAND REFORM 315
township, which shall then as soon as possible dispose
of the same to a person holding no other land.
Section 10. That as soon as forty lots in a township
may be legally settled, the people of the township, in
their corporate capacity, shall have power to regulate
or take possession of water mill sites or other natural
facilities for the use of water power, on compensating
the settlers of the lots containing such advantage for
their improvements thereof, as may be agreed upon by
arbitrators mutually chosen, or by a jury selected out
of the township.
Section n. That Mines discovered on public lots
may be worked by the settlers, the town, the county, or
the state, the superior organization always having the
right to take possession on paying for the uncompen-
sated improvements at a valuation agreed upon mutual-
ly, by arbitration, or by an impartial jury.
Section 12. That as soon as any State or Territory
containing public lands shall provide by law that no
one shall thereafter acquire over 160 acres of farm land
or two city or village lots within its borders, that State
or Territory shall be entitled to the jurisdiction of all
unsurveyed public lands within its limits, to survey and
settle the same under the regulations herein provided,
or such other regulations for the security of an equal
right to the soil and its natural products as Congress
may from time to time make.
Section 13. That all actual settlers with pre-emp-
tion rights at the time this act shall become a law, if
possessed of no other land, shall be entitled to the pos-
session of the lots upon which they have settled, on
making proof of settlement at the land office.
Section 14. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent
with the provisions of the act be hereby repealed.
3 1 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
(2) For the States.
'Young America, Sept. 23, 1848.
LAND LIMITATION AND HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION.
The people of the State of , represented in Sen-
ate and Assembly, do enact as follows :
Section i. After the Fourth of July, 184-, no indi-
vidual shall become possessor of more than One Hun-
dred and Sixty acres of Agricultural Land, or, in lieu
thereof, of more than two Lots of one Acre each, or of
more than one dwelling house and one building for
trade, or business, in this State, nor of any portion of
land whatever, except for the purpose of his or her
actual use and residence as a citizen of the State.
Section 2. The heir or heirs of any landholder pos-
sessing more than he, she, or they would be entitled to
hold in accordance with the preceding section, or their
legal representatives, shall be allowed one year to dis-
pose of the surplus, after choosing their portions in a
compact form to be sanctioned by officers to whom the
necessary authority shall be delegated by the people at
their annual town meetings. (An additional act or
section would be necessary to provide that, in case of a
neglect or refusal of heirs or their legal representa-
tives so to dispose of surplus land, then the said town
officers shall apportion Homesteads to the heirs, sell
the surplus, and pay over the proceeds to the heirs or
their guardians, and to direct the time and manner of
sale.)
Section 3. From and after the passage of this act,
the Homestead of every freeholder, to the extent of one
hundred and sixty acres of farm land, or two city or
village lots, not to exceed one acre each, nor to contain
more than one dwelling house and one building for
trade or business, shall not be mortgaged or sold for any
debt thereafter contracted, or alienated for any other
seven] LAND REFORM 317
cause than a debt previously contracted, except by free
consent of such freeholder at the time of sale and of
the wife as well as the husband where such relation
may exist.
Section 4. Any will conveying more than one hun-
dred and sixty acres of farm and to one individual, in-
cluding what he or she may previously possess, or lots
and houses exceeding the limits prescribed in the pre-
ceding sections, shall be invalid, and the possession
shall be disposed of as provided by the intestate laws
in accordance with the limitations prescribed by this
act.
Section 5. Associations of families may hold land in
common, for actual residence and subsistence, under a
general act of incorporation, provided that they shall
not hold, at any time, more than would be their share
were the land equally divided in the State, nor in any
case more than an average of fifty acres to each adult
person in the Association. . .
(h) MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS
(i) To the Congress of the United States.
Form of petition from the Working Man's Advocate, Nov. 30, 1844.
The undersigned Citizens of New York respectfully
represent that, in their opinion, the system of Land
Traffic imported to this country from Europe is wrong
in principle; that it is fast debasing us to the condition
of a nation of dependant tenants, of which condition
a rapid increase of inequality, misery, pauperism, vice,
and crime are the necessary consequences; and that,
therefore now, in the infancy of the Republic, we
should take effectual measures to eradicate the evil,
and establish a principle more in accordance with our
republican theory, as laid down in the Declaration of
Independence; to which end we propose that the Gen-
3 1 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
eral Government shall no longer traffic, or permit traf-
fic, in the Public Lands yet in its possession, and that
they shall be laid out in Farms and Lots for the free
use of such citizens (not possessed of other land) as
will occupy them, allowing the settler the right to dis-
pose of his possession to any one not possessed of other
land ; and that the jurisdiction of the Public Lands be
transferred to States only on condition that such a dis-
position should be made of them.
Your memorialists offer the following reasons for
such a disposition of the lands as they propose:
1. It would increase the number of freeholders and
decrease the anti-republican dependence of those who
might not become freeholders; exactly reversing the
state of things now in progress.
2. As the drain of the population would gradually
be to where the land was free, the price of all land held
for traffic would gradually decrease, till, ultimately,
the land-holders would see greater advantages in an
Agrarian plan that would make every man a freehold-
er, than in the system of land-selling, under which their
children might become dependent tenants.
3. City populations would diminish gradually till
every inhabitant could be the owner of a comfortable
habitation; and the country population would be more
compactly settled, making less roads and bridges neces-
sary, and giving greater facilities of education.
4. There need be no Standing Army, for there would
soon be a chain of Townships along the frontiers, set-
tled by independent freemen, willing and able to pro-
tect the country.
5. The danger of Indian aggressions would be ma-
terially lessened if our people only took possession of
land enough for their use.
6. The strongest motive to encroachments by Whites
seven] LAND REFORM 319
on the rights of the Indians would be done away with
by prohibiting speculation in land.
7. The ambition, avarice, or enterprise that would,
under the present system, add acre to acre, would be
directed, more usefully, to the improvement of those
to which each man's possession was limited.
8. There would be no Repudiation of State Debts,
for, let people settle the land compactly, and they could,
and would, make all desirable improvements without
going into debt.
9. National prosperity and the prosperity of the
masses would be coincident, here again reversing the
present order of things, of which England is a notable
example.
10. Great facilities would be afforded to test the
various plans of Association, which now engage the
attention of so large a proportion of our citizens, and
which have been found to work so well, so far as the
accumulation of wealth and the prevention of crime
and pauperism are concerned, in the case of those long-
est established, for instance, the Zoarites, Rappites,
and Shakers.
11. The now increasing evil of office-seeking would
be diminished, both by doing away with the necessity
of many offices now in existence, and by enabling men
to obtain a comfortable existence without degrading
themselves to become office beggars. Cincinnatus and
Washington could with difficulty be prevailed upon to
take office, because they knew there was more real en-
joyment in the cultivation of their own homesteads.
12. It would, in a great measure, do away the now
necessary evil of laws and lawyers, as there could be no
disputes about rents, mortgages, or land titles, and
morality would be promoted by the encouragement and
protection of industry.
320 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
13. As the people of England are now fast turning
their attention to the recovery of their long-lost right
to the soil, it would give them encouragement in their
object, and enable them the sooner to furnish happy
homes for the thousands who otherwise would come
among us as exiles from their native land.
14. The principle of an Equal Right to the Soil once
established, would be the recognition of a truth that has
been lost sight of by civilization, and which, in our
opinion, would tend powerfully to realize the glorious
aspirations of philanthropists, universal peace and uni-
versal freedom.
New York, 1844.
(2) A Voice from Congress.
Working Man's Advocate, June 8, 1844.
Washington, May 29, 1844.
Dear Sir- Each man can only do a certain amount of
good in this world. In attempting too much, he often
fails in that which he might actually accomplish. In
all the questions which came before Congress, I have
taken, and supported to the best of my ability, that side
which I considered to be in accordance with just prin-
ciples of human rights. If, so far as I have gone, I
have gone right, that is something; even if it should be
thought I have not gone far enough.
That some disposition of the soil, other than that
which our present laws provide, will ultimately be
made, I do not doubt; in what precise form, I do not
pretend to decide. There is a bill now in our House
much reducing the present rates of Government Land;
it will receive my support. And I do not think, at the
present moment, that in practice, a greater innovation
can succeed. I see, however, with pleasure, these great
subjects fully and unshrinkingly discussed; and am
seven] LAND REFORM 321
much indebted to Mr. Evans for sending me his paper,
which is ably conducted. I am, dear sir,
Sincerely yours, .
. . . The great importance of this letter, as we
see it, consists in the following points:
i st. The writer's conviction "that some other dis-
position of the soil will ultimately be made," than that
which now prevails.
2nd. The intimation that Congress are now deliber-
ating upon a bill making, as they consider, concessions
to the spirit of "innovation."
3rd. The pleasure of the writer to see the subject of
Land Monopoly "unshrinkingly discussed."
. . . The assertion, with which it commences, that
a man, by attempting to do too much good in the way
of reform, often fails in that which he might accom-
plish, is a truth; but what does it amount to? Some
forty years ago, a till then obscure individual at New-
castle-upon-Tyne, England, named Thomas Spence,
asserted that the land of England belonged to the peo-
ple of England and not to a chosen few ; and he actual-
ly attempted to carry this doctrine into practice by
giving the people the rents; but the aristocratic few,
who held the land, and who had the power, took alarm,
and suppressed the meetings of the Spenceans by Acts
of Parliament! Spence, of course, failed in his object;
and there is no question that, if, instead of making
speeches, writing pamphlets and books, and getting up
a society, in favor of restoring to the people the right to
land; if, instead of this, he had turned his attention to
making buttons, a man of his genius, perseverance and
industry, might have succeeded in producing a very
good article, which the government would not have
prohibited; thus Spence failed in what he attempted,
322 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
and did not do the good that he might have done. But
let us look a little further to consequences: Spence
had sown his seed, though it did not germinate. We
often hear of the vegetation of seed accidentally brought
to the surface after being buried for years below the
influence of solar heat. So it was with the seed sown
by Spence. One, at least, of Spence's publications
found its way to America, and, in all probability, led
to the movement of the Working Men of New York,
in 1829, of which the present movement is a second
edition, "revised and corrected." And not alone in
America have the seeds sown by Spence begun to ger-
minate. For several years past in England have there
appeared symptoms of a revival of Spence's principles,
though perhaps the men now professing them may not
perceive the chain of circumstances connecting their
opinions with those of the bold reformer; and now we
see principles identical with those of Spence, openly
and fearlessly promulgated by an O'Brien and an
O'Connor, without hindrance by acts of Parliament.
This comes of "attempting too much." . .
The first duty of the legislator is to ascertain what are
Natural Rights? The second, to see if the Constitution,
under which he is called upon to act, is in accordance
with Natural Rights; and if he finds no defect here, his
third duty is to make such laws as will protect every in-
dividual in the enjoyment of his Natural Rights, this
being the true object of that association of the people
called government. But if he finds the Constitution de-
fective, his first object should be to get it amended, and,
in the mean time, to refrain from making laws in ac-
cordance with such parts of it as violate or authorize a
violation of Natural Rights.
Apply these principles to the case before us. The
legislator, we will suppose, has ascertained what Natural
seven] LAND REFORM 323
Rights are, and he finds that the most important of
these, the right to land enough to live upon, is not se-
cured to his constituents; this is a wrong of the State
Constitutions, a wrong inherited from the British mon-
archy; but it so happens, that the government, of which
he forms a part, possesses the constitutional means to rem-
edy the evil. They have a vast amount of land under
their control. Hitherto, the General Government, as
well as the State Governments, have legalized traffic in
the land; have bought and sold men's Natural Rights.
By depriving a portion of the people of their right to
the soil, they have forced them, in some cases, into other
occupations, than that which they would have chosen,
the cultivation of the soil, thus causing an undue pro-
portion of particular employments. The interests thus
forced into existence have then sought and obtained pro-
tection, at the expense of the rest. The question now
comes up, shall this protection, this tax upon the many
for the benefit of the few, be continued? What is the duty
of the legislator in this case? To argue the abstract right
of Free Trade, which can only be put in practice by
setting adrift upon other men's land, to beg employ-
ment, the laborers he has forced into factories? or, first
to secure him the right to labor independently on his
own land? If he should pursue the first course, though
he might be doing "something," would he not do much
more by pursuing the latter? We might enlarge here
upon that moral heroism that dares in a just cause to
take the lead of public sentiment, and run the risk of
consequences to self, and show how seldom the conse-
quences are fatal to him who is "bold enough to be hon-
est and honest enough to be bold;" but our space com-
pels us to come to a more important point in the letter.
The writer says -
There is a bill now in our House, much reducing the rates of gov-
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
ernment land ; it shall receive my support. And I do not think, at the
present moment, that a greater innovation can succeed.
This extract is all-important The member appears
to think, and probably the authors of the bill are of the
same opinion, that to reduce the rates of government
land would be a concession to the new movement. It
would not be so ; and we are confident that not a man
prominently engaged in this cause would consider it
so. On the contrary, they will loudly protest against
it. Let it be distinctly understood, that we want no re-
duction in the price of the lands. We want them free;
free to the use of every man, but not free to monopoly
by any. Our principle is that use of the earth, a portion
sufficiently to live upon, is man's natural right. This
principle admitted, it is then the business of the govern-
ment to decide how much is necessary for a man to live
upon, secure to all, on coming of age, the right to an
equal quantity, and provide that no one shall possess
more than the quantity designated.
Now it will be seen that to reduce the price of the
lands, without restricting the quantity to be held, is only
inviting monopoly! and therefore we protest against it.
The National Reform Association would prefer that
the Lands should be sold at ten dollars an acre, with a
restriction of the quantity to be held by an individual,
rather than that they should be reduced to twenty-five
cents, or even to nothing at all, without such restriction.
They who think that the mere object of getting posses-
sion of 1 60 acres of land, as an article of merchandise,
is the motive of the pioneers in this movement, have a
very contracted notion of our object, as they will see by
the preceding remarks. . .
2. RELATION TO OTHER REFORMS
(a) ASSOCIATION
(x) Evans's attack.
Working Man's Advocate, April 20, 1844.
. . . The process by which they propose to arrest
the increasing degradation of labor, and to make at-
tractive and healthful what is now irksome and killing,
is, according to their own showing, a very tedious and
uncertain one. To use a homely simile, it appears to be
"a saving at the spiggot and letting out at the bung
hole." An error at the bottom of our present incoher-
ent, unjust, and debasing system, we believe, as did their
great master, Fourier, to be property in land. We be-
lieve this to be the great error of our present system;
and, if so, by acting on the plan of the Fourierites at
their recent convention; that is, by keeping the funda-
mental error entirely out of view, what are they doing?
Suppose that the precise plan of Fourier is the ultimate
destiny of man, and suppose that they have overcome
all the obstacles of which they speak; suppose that they
do succeed in establishing Fourier Associations; while
they are redeeming three square miles of territory will
not thousands of square miles now in a state of nature
become populated on the plan of society of which
they as well as so many others now so clearly see the bad
effects? Or, rather, would not this be the result, if all
reformers were to act on the principle that "our evils
are social, not political."
We believe that the one great error of our system is
political, and that, like men who understand their busi-
ness, we should begin by removing that error. That
326 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
error removed, we believe, with our correspondent, that
Association to every desirable extent would follow.
Families would remain united to the third and fourth
generations, and perhaps unite with other families. In-
dustry, instead of being debased and degraded, would
become attractive and agreeable. There would be no
want of employment, and no fear of want. Every man
would be enabled to get a living by the sweat of his
brow, and no one would be enabled to live without fol-
lowing some useful employment. Rents and mortgages
would be unknown, but every man, of every occupation,
would live, or might live, in his own house, on his own
premises. These are a few of the many desirable re-
sults that might be brought about, in thousands of town-
ships, on the lands now held by the public, if we arrest
the political error of selling the lands, and allow them
to be settled by those now deprived of their birthright.
There is one feature of Association that our corre-
spondent objects to that we look upon in a different
light: the public table. This, in Association, would not
be the eating house system; but, according to our view,
something widely different. In the one case, you are
among strangers, for whom you have no affinity or sym-
pathy. In the other among friends, acquaintances and
relatives, whose happiness it is your pleasure and inter-
est to promote. And the economy of domestic drudgery
which the Association, or large family arrangement,
promises to woman, we can not but look upon as a con-
summation most devoutedly to be wished for.
There are other positive advantages of Fourierism
that we can appreciate, and it has the negative good
quality of depicting in the most true and glowing col-
ors the evils of our present social system; but there are
features of it that we can not yet understand, and there
seven] LAND REFORM 327
are others that we can understand of which we dis-
approve.
On the whole, we regard Fourierism, under its pres-
ent modification, as a scheme to renovate society, to be
an impracticability. Good may and we believe will
come of it, but to a very limited extent; but, generally
speaking, the rich will not engage in it, and the poor
can not. Every true Fourierite, therefore, while doing
all that he deems proper to put in practice his favorite
theory, should keep constantly in view, the more radical
remedy for present evils, the freedom of the public
lands.
(2) MacdaniePs Reply.
The Phalanx, Aug. 10, 1844, p. 229.
. . . We must settle, first, what are the natural
rights of man? second, what are the acquired rights of
man? third, how shall his natural and acquired rights
be equitably and amicably adjusted? fourth, what is
Capital? fifth, what are the true relations of Capital
and Labor, and how shall their rights be reconciled to
their mutual satisfaction? ... It appears to us
that they who advocate merely an agrarian division of
the Land, overlook all of the most essential points in
these questions, and cherishing with single-eyed ten-
acity one answer only to the question, What are the nat-
ural rights of man? they lose sight of all others, and
compromise cardinal principles. The answer is, Man
has a right to the Soil. But, then, the answer is com-
pound in its nature, and not simple, as our agrarian
friends state it. The right of Man to the soil being ad-
mitted, the answer they give is, that every Man has a
right to a "portion" of it, and upon this answer they
build their whole scheme of an agrarian division. . .
The right itself in principle is a "natural" one, but it
328 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
does not follow that the way in which one may propose
to secure it is a natural one. Therefore, when our
friends ask if we "recognize the natural right of every
laborer to a portion of the soil," we tell them that they
are guilty of an illogical assumption. . . Man
possesses the right to the use of the soil, or as it is ex-
pressed by our School, the right to the Usufruct of the
Earth, and he cannot be deprived of this right on which
his subsistence depends. . . We do not recognize
the right of any man to a "portion," inasmuch as this is
not a "natural" right. . . As a member of the race,
entitled to the Usufruct of the Earth, I ask, Who shall
say which is my "portion"? I must reside on and culti-
vate my "portion" to entitle me to its use, who then
shall assign to me the spot upon the face of the Earth
which I shall occupy? These questions have many
bearings, but they bring to mind immediately another
natural right, which it is necessary to provide for. . .
This is the right to travel ! . . .
We are not in favor of giving "a portion of the soil
to the laborer to labor upon." We think there is a bet-
ter way of obtaining and securing his natural right to
the soil. We regard all his rights and his higher na-
ture, now smothered and trampled in the dust, as igno-
miniously as any of his fundamental rights. We would
elevate him above the condition of a mere "laborer" to
that of true manhood, and make him a whole man, con-
scious of his own divinely derived dignity, a being not
merely the possessor of "a portion of the land," but a
Free-man, King of the whole Earth !
The second question addressed to us by the People's
Rights, is more readily disposed of: "And if acknow-
ledging the natural right (to a "portion" of the land)
is it (the Phalanx] in favor of preventing the further
sale and monopoly of the yet unappropriated soil (the
seven] LAND REFORM 329
public lands,) in violation of that right?" . . . We
cannot perceive how the laboring population, even of
this country, to any great extent, will be benefitted by
such a "distribution of the public lands," as the agrarian
scheme proposes. The possession of land by the laborer
is not sufficient to insure him abundance and comfort.
Thousands and tens of thousands are already in posses-
sion of more land than they can use, who are very far
from being in an enviable situation. It is a notorious
fact of the present day, and, apparently, a strange a-
nomaly, that men grow poor on the best land. . . If it
is said that besides this, we have the plan of the divid-
ed and subdivided township, which gives to every man
his "portion," then we ask you, Whence do you get your
plan? Is it your own plan, or is it a plan derived from
a higher source, and sanctioned by a higher authority
than your own? Is it, in short, the plan of Divine Wis-
dom, based on the laws of Eternal Order? . . . Un-
less the Government or Capitalists undertake the direc-
tion of colonization, and provide the working classes
with all that is necessary as an outfit, as well as with the
land, they cannot avail themselves of what is deemed
a "natural right." It is very certain neither the Gov-
ernment nor Capitalists will do this. If it is not neces-
sary that they should, then neither is it necessary for
the government to give away its public lands, in order
that our agrarian friends may realize their project.
There are millions of fertile acres in this and other
countries, which they can have for the settlement of
them, "without money and without price."
Our friends are deceived in another respect; they de-
rive their ideas from a country where the circumstances
do not agree with our own. The idea that "the root of
the evil" is in a monopoly of the land, comes from Eng-
land. There bloated monopoly has indeed most effec-
330 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [VoL
tually shut out the laborer from the soil, and there the
cry of the English Chartists, who are of the same class
as the men here who are advocating the agrarian doc-
trine, is, rightly enough, to the Land! to the Land!
The cry is not applicable here, at least in the sense in
which it is there uttered. "The root of the evil" is, in-
deed, the same in both countries, and the cure is the
same for both. It is necessary to go upon the Land, not,
however, on the principle of "division," but on the
principle of Unity. On the principle of united inter-
ests, and a joint-stock property in the land, which will
secure to every individual his or her natural right of
Usufruct of the soil, the Township must be organized,
and the people spread over the face of the Earth. In-
dustry must be rendered attractive by the application of
the Divine Law of the "Series" to its methods, so that
Labor shall no longer be a "curse" and a burthen to be
avoided, or even regulated by a "ten hour" or any other
short time system, but a blessing, which will be to man
the source of the most exalted happiness.
We might enlarge upon the pernicious principle of
"antagonism," which is the ruling principle of our
agrarian friends, and betrays itself in their third ques-
tion, when they ask whether we "consider that Labor
has a right to stand upon its own ground, and make its
own terms with Capital?" This not only shows great
ignorance of our principles, but also of the "rights of
Labor," which are not to be found or considered as an-
tagonists of those of Capital, making "terms" with it,
but as adjuncts and colleagues, reconciled, united, and
going hand in hand in all things. . . As a question
of state policy, the agrarian project of a distribution of
the public lands, may attract politicians, as it may a
certain class of the working-men, from its show of
justice; and if our friends have eyes to see, they will
seven] LAND REFORM 331
perceive that this affords an explanation in great part
of that interest manifested in some quarters in their
cause, which they mistake for cheering signs of interest
in their ultimate object. Politicians of the present day
are as far from desiring to free the laborer from the
evils he endures, as the agrarian plan is from affording
the means to do it. Look to yourselves, not to politi-
cians, look to the plan of God, and not your own!
(3) Evans's Rejoinder.
Working Man's Advocate.
[August 31, 1844] ... As the Phalanx antici-
pated, he has not satisfied us that our "notions," on the
Right to Land, notions the result of fifteen years' ser-
ious attention to the subject, are "delusions;" and, con-
sequently, we are still wedded, if the Phalanx fancies
the borrowed phrase, to our "one idea." Before we pro-
ceed, however, we may be allowed, in our own way, to
state what our "one idea" is. It is this: That all men
have Equal Rights "to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness ;" that the right to life includes the right to
the use of the elements or materials of Nature, from
which all life must be sustained; and that the rights to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inseparably
connected with the right to the use of the materials of
Nature. This is our "one idea," as well as we can con-
dense it at the present moment; and, as a result of it, we
hold, that, as among us men do not possess their equal
right to the use of the earth, which is the main element
necessary to sustain life, neither those who possess the
right nor those who are deprived of it can enjoy happi-
ness till the right is universally possessed, for individual
happiness cannot exist in contact with misery, which is
the result of injustice or ignorance.
Among the questions to be settled, before we can
come to a decision on this subject, the Phalanx says the
332 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
first is, "What are the natural rights of Man?" This
we have answered. Second. "What are the acquired
rights of man?" The answer to this, we apprehend,
involves the difference between Agrarianism and Four-
ierism as represented by the Phalanx. We say that the
acquired rights of man are his rights to what his in-
dustry has produced to him without encroachment on
any other man's rights. To give an illustration, sup-
pose fifty men to be cast on an island capable of sustain-
ing the whole, and that they agree to divide the island
among them. Whatever each man produces or gathers
from his portion he has acquired a right to; but if
thirty, or any other number, have taken possession of
all the soil, and made dependants of the rest, they have
"acquired" no right to anything, and the whole produce
of the soil, no matter whether produced by the land-
holders or by their dependants, belongs of right equally
to all, supposing all to have labored; and, even if ap-
portioned equally to all, cannot do justice to the land-
less, who have been deprived of their right to the pur-
suit of happiness, up to the period of the apportionment.
Third. "How shall his natural and acquired rights
be equitably and amicably adjusted?" If a man has
acquired "rights" (property) by the forced use of an-
other man's rights, there is no equitable mode of ad-
justment, as we have shown ; but there may be an am-
icable one, based as nearly as practicable on equity, by
a restoration of the equal natural right and an equal
share of the property.
Fourth. "What is Capital?" It is the accumulated
produce of Labor.
Fifth. "What are the true relations of Capital and
Labor, and how shall their rights be reconciled to their
mutual satisfaction?" The true relations of capital and
labor, we think, may be easily stated. As capital is the
seven] LAND REFORM 333
produce of labor, it belongs to the producer; that is, if
he have not encroached on any man's natural right in
producing it. If a man have produced enough by his
own labor and his own means in ten years to support
him twenty, he has a right to live the second ten years
without labor, if so disposed. But if capital has been
accumulated by some who have used the labor of others
in the accumulation, these others being forced to the
work by a deprivation of their natural right to labor for
themselves, of right the produce belongs to the pro-
ducers, though ten thousand statutes should say it be-
longed to those who had unjust control over the ma-
terials of Nature which were the equal right of all.
Capital, therefore, in its true relation, should always
be the representative of voluntary labor; or, in other
words, should always be found in possession of those
who have produced it, or who have received it by vol-
untary exchange from others (in possession of all their
natural rights) who did produce it.
There are two ways in which a man may be right-
fully in possession of capital, or accumulated labor.
One, by gift from his ancestors or cotemporaries, (pro-
vided, of course, that the donors have not obtained it by
involuntary labor of others;) the second, by his own
labor. If any man is in possession of capital, which is
not the result of his own labor, or the gift of another
who has not acquired it by his own or the voluntary
labor of another, (and voluntary labor, keep in mind,
is the labor of a man in possession of all his natural
rights,) that capital is not his, but belongs to those
whose servitude produced it.
Such, it seems to us, are the "true relations of Capital
and Labor;" and if we are right, our Phalanx friend
will see that the "true relations" are entirely reversed
in present society; that those who have labored the least
334 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
possess most of the products of labor, or capital ; and
hence our "one idea," that, to place Labor and Capital
in their "true relations," we must begin by abolishing
Slavery or involuntary labor of every description, which
can only be done by restoring to man his Natural Right
to the Soil, and all his other natural rights, of whatever
name or nature.
Now what does Fourierism propose to do? To re-
store Capital to its rightful owners? No. To prevent
its use to extort more capital from the laborer without
equivalent? Oh, no. To give the laborer a right to
get his own living on the soil of his birth, and to accum-
ulate capital for himself, independent of existing cap-
ital? Certainly not: the soil of his birth belongs to the
Capitalist. Well, then, at least, you will allow the
laborer to go into the primeval forest and begin a "Re-
organization of Industry" based on Equal Rights? De-
cidedly not. All that Fourierism will agree to is, that
the Landless shall unite with those who have got pos-
session of their accumulated labor, on condition that
this labor, or capital, shall have the power of re-pro-
duction without the labor of the possessor, or in other
words, that a Capitalist class (having its origin in in-
justice) shall, to all eternity, live without labor on the
toil of the industrious. And, worst of all, this Capital-
ist class may, according to the new ground taken by the
Phalanx, invest their savings (savings earned without
labor) in the purchase and monopoly of what Fourierism
admits (inconsistently as we see it) to be the Equal
Right of all, the Land; and not only the land that is al-
ready monopolized, but that which is yet in a state of
nature! Thus a Capitalist, if his capital consist in land,
may invest it in Association stock, say at $50 an acre,
and supposing the Association to be successful, he may
with his profits (without labor) buy, annually, as many
seven] LAND REFORM 335
acres of our Public Land as he originally held, as long
as his useful life lasts; which Public Land he or his
heirs may again dispose of to future Associations, and
so on, ad infinitum. 30
. . . In claiming the right of every man to a por-
tion of the earth, the Phalanx has misunderstood us to
contend that every man should have his separate por-
tion. This is not our position. We contend that, as in
the Savage state, as it is termed, a man might live by
himself or with the horde, so, in the civilized or agri-
cultural state, a man should be at liberty to occupy his
separate portion, or unite with others enjoying their
land in common; but that, under no circumstances,
should a man be deprived of his right to use the land
either in one way or the other. . .
[September 7, 1844] "Man possesses the right to
the use of the soil, or, as it is expressed by our school,
the right to the Usufruct of the Earth, and he cannot
be deprived of this right on which his subsistence de-
pends," says the Phalanx', and it escaped our notice in
our first article, that our friend had so clearly and fully
asserted our doctrine. Jefferson, also, in some part of
his writings, (not now at hand,) asserts the right in al-
most the same terms as the Phalanx. Then, if man can-
not be deprived of his right to the use of the earth, why
should the government yearly deprive thousands of
this right by selling the earth to a few? This, says the
Phalanx, "becomes a mere question of State policy."
"This question we need not discuss." Indeed ! It seems
to us that even if our views were "fallacious," as to the
equal right of man to the soil either in separate lots or
in common, and admitting Fourierism to be true in all
30 The Ohio Phalanx have leased 2,300 acres of land, for a thousand years,
at $2,400 the first year,, $2,700 the second, $3,000 the third, $3,300 the fourth,
$3,600 the fifth, and $3, 968 for every year thereafter.
336 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
its parts, there is gross inconsistency in the perfect non-
chalance with which the Phalanx talks of the traffic in
the public lands as "a question merely of State policy."
We should have expected such an assertion only from
the most shallow brained party politicians, who never
had any idea that men have any natural rights.
The Phalanx does not recognize the right of man to
the use of a portion of the soil, because the natural right
is to the common use of it. But when men chose to cul-
tivate the earth instead of hunting and fishing for a sub-
sistence, had they not a right, either to cultivate in com-
mon, or to divide it in such a way as to secure the equal
right to all? We assert that they had this right, at any
rate before Fourierism was discovered, whatever may
be the case now.
The Phalanx is puzzled to know how the individual
would know where to find his portion of land on the
Agrarian plan. This has been often explained, and
would occur to most minds without explanation. The
government would lay out a Township or a State, and
each individual, on coming of age, would take his
choice of the vacant lots or farms, no one being allowed
to take or hold more than one under any circumstances,
but any number (wishing to join in Association) might
take them in common. What difficulty would there be
in this? And as to the necessity of any arrangement be-
ing perpetual, we cannot see it. As long as there is land
enough in the United States for the whole population
of the earth, and land enough on the globe for a thou-
sand times its population, we should think it would be
enough to agree upon an apportionment that would
probably last for a thousand years, leaving the people at
the end of that period to make a new arrangement, if
necessary, in accordance with the principle of equal
right which we propose to establish. . .
seven] LAND REFORM 337
The "right to Travel," under the agrarian plan,
would be much more open to the mass than now, but
less so to the few. Or rather, the right would be equal-
ly open to all, as in the savage state, each one being de-
pendent on his own exertions under equal advantages
for the means ; contrary to the present system, by which
the few monopolize the means of the many. Nor can
we see how this right would be restricted any more
under the agrarian than under the Fourier plan. We
would by no means restrict a man from changing his
residence, or from travelling as much as he could. But
it is not our purpose to advocate Agrarianism as an-
tagonistic to Fourierism. We believe in the progress
of man, and there is much that we like about Associa-
tion, as described by Mr. Brisbane; but if we were full
converts to the entire doctrine, we cannot see that we
could be any less in favor of abolishing the unnatural
traffic in the soil, especially by the government. To
stop that traffic would establish a great principle, which
we all agree upon, and which would enable men, with-
out the risk of beggary, to test any scheme of Associa-
tion. . .
We come, again, to a trifling objection. The Phalanx
does not perceive how an agrarian apportionment of
the public lands could benefit the laboring population
to any great extent. "Thousands and tens of thousands
are already in possession of more land than they can
use, who are far from being in an enviable situation."
And why? Perhaps from the very fact of their being
in possession of "more than they can use," while their
landless customers are driven into cities. "It is a notor-
ious fact of the present day, and, apparently, a strange
anomaly, that men grow poor on the best land," and
yet men grow rich on the produce of the land who
never cultivate it! How? by monopolizing the labor
338 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
of the landless, which they could not do on the agrarian
plan, every man being a landholder. A mechanic pays
a landlord $100, or one-third of his earnings, in a city,
for the use of a piece of God's earth to live upon, which
$100, on the agrarian plan, would be divided between
the mechanic and the farmer, each living on his own
premises. And not only this, but both the mechanic
and the farmer are compelled to work twice or three
times the number of hours for the bare means of exist-
ence that would be necessary if the Father of Monop-
olies was floored. . .
"But," says the Phalanx, "where do you get your
plan?" "Is it the plan of Divine Wisdom," and so
forth. We get our principle in natural justice, and our
"plan," (which of course, is subject to any modification
that does not violate the principle) we get by the exer-
cise of the faculties with which Divine Wisdom has en-
dowed us. Can Fourierism show us any better evidence
of Divine authority? . . .
But the landless cannot avail themselves of the public
lands, unless they are provided with "all that is neces-
sary as an outfit," and this "it is very certain that neither
the Government nor Capitalists will furnish," argues
the Phalanx. Two assertions, both erroneous. What
authority has the Phalanx to speak for "the Govern-
ment"? How does it ascertain that the State Govern-
ment would not decide to compensate the landless man,
in part, for the deprivation of his right to land in the
State, by assisting him to remove to the public land of
the State or of the United States? How does it know
that our City Government might not, as a matter of
financial policy, (to say nothing of right,) decide that
it was better to take part of the $300,000 a year now paid
for the support of pauperism to remove the poor to the
land?
seven] LAND REFORM 339
But, supposing (for a moment only) that the Govern-
ment would not do anything in the matter; and, in fact,
what the Government would do or might do after mak-
ing the land free has never influenced our advocacy of
the measure ; suppose, then, that the poor must rely on
their own resources to get on the land: is it nothing to
have free access to a farm instead of paying a speculator
five or ten dollars an acre for it, as must be done to get
land near a market? Or if a man settles on government
land, is it nothing, after he has commenced operations,
to prevent speculators from buying around him and
scattering the population so that they can neither have
roads, schools, mills, nor markets? Is it nothing to have
land on such a tenure (the only rightful one) that you
cannot be deprived of it by "Capitalists"? Would these
advantages not lessen the difficulty of the poor man's
escape? Do not some get on the land now, even under
all disadvantages, and could not more go, if the expense
of a farm was $00 instead of $200 or $500? Would not
wages rise as the surplus went off, and thus increase the
facilities of others to go? Could not the various Trade
Societies, when laborers were too numerous, expend
their means to place the surplus on the land instead of
supporting them in "strikes" and "turnouts"? And,
lastly, would not all land held for speculation diminish
in price if the public lands were free; till, finally, all
men would see the folly and injustice of the traffic in
land, and hit upon some plan for abolishing it?
The Phalanx is mistaken in saying that "the idea
that the root of the evil is in a monopoly of the land
comes from the Chartists of England," so far as the
present movement is concerned. The subject was agi-
tated here years before the Charter was thought of;
but the Chartists, seeing, as clearly as we do, that the
340 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
land monopoly is the "root of the evil," re-echoed our
cry "To the Land!" . . .
(4) Land, Labor, Capital, and Education.
Working Man's Advocate, Dec. 28, 1844.
The following extract of a letter from a gentleman
(formerly a clergyman) who takes a leading part in one
of the most promising Fourier Associations has been
furnished me for publication.
. . . Our creed is a very plain one, and if every working man
in America would adopt it as his practical rule, society would be
regenerated. It runs thus. The right to labor is the first of all
natural rights. If man has a natural right to labor, he has four other
rights which that involves; namely, I, the use of land to labor on;
2, utensils to labor with; 3, education, to enable him to labor wisely;
and, 4, the enjoyment of the products of his own labor. If these
are natural rights society is bound to guarantee them to every human
being. The social organization which fails of this is false and
corrupt.
The earth, moreover, is lent, in joint tenantry to the children of
men. Its usufruct belongs to each successive generation. This prin-
ciple carried out, would prevent a monopoly of the land for private
benefit. No individual should claim exclusive proprietorship in it,
and the use of it should be secured to organized bodies of men who
will cultivate it to the best advantage. No man would rejoice more
than myself to see these principles applied to the broad and beautiful
domains of the West. Be assured, then, that you have my hearty
sympathy in your movement for the promotion of human rights. I
trust you will not rest short of the highest aim, namely, the complete
abolition of the present distinctions of caste that prevail in our
American democratic society. The laboring classes should consist
of all human beings; and they, and they alone, are entitled to all the
benefits which labor produces. Every man, woman, and child should
be a laborer, a capitalist, and an educated, accomplished, free, and
happy human being at once.
Although the above contains noble sentiments and
most important truths, it requires, I think, a few words
of comment. The statement of Natural Rights appears
somewhat objectionable. "The right to labor" seems an
indefinite expression, the intended meaning of which
seven] LAND REFORM 341
is better expressed by "The right to land." If the right
to land is possessed, the right to labor independently is
secured. And it does not seem proper to include among
Natural Rights, Utensils to labor with and Education.
The quantity and quality of these might vary materially
according to habit, fancy, and climate. One might want
no utensils but his bow to labor with for his subsistence,
and no education but the skilful use of that instrument.
Others, in other climates, might desire steam engines
and all other mechanical and scientific powers; and
though it may be well and desirable that the use of these
should be secured to all as well as the right to the soil,
it is not proper to call them natural rights. Natural
Rights are uniform, unchangeable, and unalienable.
The right of soil, too, as well as all other natural
rights, should not only be secured to "organized bodies
of men," but to individuals, and not only to those who
would "cultivate to the best advantage," but to all,
whether they choose to cultivate it or not. The natural
tendency of things under a guarantee of equal rights,
would be improved cultivation and association, but
government should simply secure rights, and leave the
rest to the people.
(5) Freedom and Organization.
The Harbinger, Nov. 27, 1847, p. 28.
THE NATIONAL REFORMERS. The editor of that spir-
ited and sincere journal, Young America, says that the
difference between it and the Harbinger is, that the for-
mer thinks Labor must be free before it can be organ-
ized, and the latter thinks it must be organized before it
can be free.
This is certainly a very broad difference, and if there
be no misunderstanding of the terms used, a fundamental
and irreparable difference. But we apprehend that
Young America does not use the term free labor in pre-
342 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
cisely the sense that we do. If it means simply that
labor must have a free access to the soil before it can at-
tain a perfect organization, we agree with it heartily;
but if it means that a true organization cannot be begun
until the soil is entirely redeemed, then we hold it to be
mistaken. Further than that, we think that if the whole
Soil were made free to whoever would cultivate it to-
morrow, it would be of little avail to the laboring class-
es until they had organized some mode for its harmon-
ious cultivation. Does Young America suppose that a
free soil could be settled, tilled, distributed, without
recurrence to some general law of settlement, &c.?
Certainy not: but what then would their law be but a
principle of organization? It might be an imperfect
organization, but still an organization.
We repeat, therefore, that labor cannot be free, under
any circumstances, until it is organized. Nothing in
the Universe can be free on any other condition. Or-
ganization, or the regular and harmonic distribution
of parts, is indispensable to the free action of those
parts. Without it all is chaos and confusion. Suppose
every atom in the Universe were allowed to move just
where it pleased, would there not be universal disorder,
and how can there be real freedom where there is dis-
order? Could that be called a free state where there
was a perfect absence of all government, or what free-
dom has an individual in a time of anarchy? Why
scarcely so much as in the completest despotism!
The same is true in regard to Industry. The doc-
trines of the modern political economy do not lead to
freedom of trade-though they boast of it -but to the an-
archy and dependence of trade ! Trade or commerce, in
all its branches, is a state of constant and unsparing war.
It is a perpetual battle between capitalist and laborer,
laborer and laborer, and machinery and laborer. There
seven] LAND REFORM 343
is scarcely more freedom in it than the drop of water
has in a tempestuous sea. To be free, industry must
cease to be competitive and incoherent, and become con-
current and united. What a body we should have if
each member set up business on its own hook, without
regard to the other members! Well, how is it with the
body of Labor?
(6) Land Monopoly and Communities.
Young America, Feb. 28, 1846.
TO THE EDITOR OF Young America: . . I write
from the Union Association, which, amidst the crash of
similar institutions, in this part of the country, still holds
its own, and is gradually assuming a position of un-
questionable prosperity. Each institution was crippled
in the start, a time, when, if ever, they needed the free
use of their limbs, by being bound hand and foot to
capitalists, and the consideration of their indebtedness
was mainly the land. . . From tolerable opportun-
ities of knowing, I do not hesitate to assert, that nearly
every failure of Association in the United States has
arisen from the pressure of Land Monopoly. It has
needed the painful experience of the last few years to
acquire that lesson. Two years ago, when your doc-
trine became known here through the medium of the
Working Man's Advocate, a file of which was in pos-
session of one of our members, it produced no sensation
except, perhaps, of commiseration that your efforts
should be wasted on so impracticable an undertaking,
when the whole unbounded field of Association lay be-
fore you. It was not then perceived that the rock you
were so benevolently striving to remove, would be that
on which the struggling bark would founder. With
perhaps one exception, we are now unitedly for the
Free Soil Movement. We believe it to be an indis-
pensable preliminary to the general establishment of
344 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
Associations, and a movement better calculated to se-
cure their universal prevalence than efforts apparently
more direct.
(b) OWEN'S COMMUNISM
(i) Evans's Criticism.
Working Man's Advocate, July 20, 1844.
. . . The letter [by Mr. Owen], on the forma-
tion of communities, appears calculated for the merid-
ian of England, and attempt to harmonize the conflict-
ing interests of the different classes of that unhappy
country. According to our view, the attempt is futile.
It has taken ages to produce the vast disparity of con-
dition and acquirements among the people of England,
and that disparity, we think, must be removed by an
intermediate process, an eradication of the cause that
has produced it, before the people can be brought to
harmonize in community. The cause of that disparity
of condition, it can be hardly necessary for us to say, is
the Monopoly of the Soil ; and it seems to us a pity that
Mr. Owen's well-intentioned efforts have not been di-
rected to the abolition of that Monopoly, rather than
to the fruitless appeals to the wisdom and justice of
those who have profited by it. Where, in all history,
has any class of men been known, voluntarily, to part
with power or property, however wrongfully possessed
of it?
That some form of Association would be conducive
to the happiness of man, we are not prepared to deny:
a union of interests, and association to a considerable
extent, have existed in many, if not all cases, where the
soil has been recognized as the property of the whole
people: but that any form of Association, either that of
Fourier, or that proposed by Mr. Owen, can be adopted
by the masses, without a restoration of the right to land,
seven] LAND REFORM 345
we consider impracticable; because the rich will not
voluntarily give up the land, and the poor cannot buy
it. The friends of Association are nearly all poor; a
few of them may get possession of the land ; but if they
succeed in establishing a community, by increasing
products, they will cheapen labor, and thus render it
more difficult for the remainder to get possession of the
soil. It is the duty, therefore, as well as the interest, of
every friend of Association, to make a restoration of the
right to land the groundwork of their plan, which, with-
out this, must, like any common partnership, be a com-
bination to advance their own interests, without due re-
gard to the general good.
It is an awful thing to contemplate, that, although all
who are acquainted with, and favorable to the prin-
ciples of Association, should be able to establish them-
selves in community, yet that the mass of the producing
classes must continue in rapidly accumulating degrada-
tion and misery. . .
(2) Owen's Reply.
The New Moral World (London), Aug. 31, 1844.
. . . The objections to the policy of Mr. Owen,
urged by our transatlantic contemporary, seem to us,
however, to be based upon want of information as to the
constitution of English society, and of the kind of pub-
lic mind which has to be operated on by the Social Re-
former; nor does the conclusion at which it arrives ap-
pear to be borne out by its own premises. It is true that
it has taken ages to produce the disparity of condition
which now exists among our population, and that an in-
termediate process may be requisite to the realization of
a community of interests, but we do not think that a cru-
sade against the "monopoly of the soil," is that "inter-
mediate process." If Socialists find it sufficiently uphill
346 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
work to secure a hearing for their plans, when these
not only make no attack upon the rights of the proprie-
tors of land, but absolutely propose to make these lands
more valuable by the introduction of improved modes
of culture, and the more equitable distribution of the
population over the surface of the country -their diffi-
culties would, we think, be materially enhanced were
they to adopt the "intermediate process" of the Work-
ing Man's Advocate. The fate of Spence, and of Eng-
lish Agrarianism sufficiently show what the issue of
any such attempt would be. If we are not mistaken,
the Act of Parliament expressly passed for the purpose
of putting down the Spenceans, yet remains in full
force on the Statute Book.
There is, perhaps, no sentiment so deeply, strongly,
and generally implanted in the popular mind of this
country, as respect for the "rights of property." The
manifestation of the slightest disposition to trench upon
these "rights," has ever been the signal for the most
violent, unscrupulous, and determined efforts to put
down the party evincing such a disposition; nor when
the matter is considered carefully, is this to be wondered
at? Private property constitutes, at present, the gi;eat
bond of civilization -its security and protection, there-
fore, is one of the primary duties of government, and
will continue to be so until a better cement for society
has been found, and its superiority made so evident,
that the national will shall declare in its favour. Any-
thing short of this would only lead to a repetition of
those struggles between the Haves and the Have-nots,
which have distinguished the past history of mankind,
and the termination of which is the great object of Rob-
ert Owen and the Rational Society.
Assuredly the descendants of the Norman conquer-
seven] LAND REFORM 347
ors of England, or the more modern possessors of the
soil, whose title deeds rest not upon feudal services, but
the gold which they or their forefathers gave in ex-
change for their broad lands, are not likely to be rea-
soned into the giving up of their possessions and their
accompanying privileges by any abstract argument or
essay, however demonstrative or eloquent it may be.
Of all the hopeless tasks that ever were undertaken, we
should consider the task of persuading these parties into
such relinquishment, the most forlorn. It would be,
not an "intermediate," but an interminable process.
Robert Owen and the Rationalists of England have em-
barked in no such Quixotic enterprise. They do not
ask any class of society to abandon existing institutions
or privileges, until they see better provided for them,
and are led to adopt the latter from a conviction of their
superiority for all the great purposes of life. . .
The "intermediate process" of the Rational Society, in
its working out of the problem -How to harmonize the
interests of all classes, and re-construct society on uni-
tary instead of divisional principles -is to do so by in-
flicting no injury on any class, and by doing what all
classes are at present educated to consider justice. For
this reason it is, that instead of preaching against the
monopoly of the soil, it is content to purchase, or rent,
the necessary land for the formation of the nucleii of a
new Social organization, under the full belief that it is
only necessary to exhibit, in practice, the advantages
which that organization will confer on all parties, in
order, not merely to neutralize opposition, but to cre-
ate the strongest incentive to its general introduction.
This brings us to the second leading objection of our
contemporary -namely, that the form of association,
proposed by Mr. Owen, is impracticable for the masses,
34 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
without a restoration of their abstract right to land, and
that a partial realization of it by a few of its advocates,
will act injuriously upon the laborers in outer society.
We demur entirely to the proposition, because, in the
first place, as already shown, the realization of Robert
Owen's ideal, in an actual community, would immedi-
ately attract capital, skill, and industry to this new
channel for their employment, and contribute to the
spread of the popular opinion in its favour, which must
precede its general adoption; and in the second, be-
cause every abstraction from the over-crowded labour
market, to furnish industry for these self-supporting
colonies, would relieve that market from the pressure
arising from that redundancy of labour, as compared
with the demand for it under existing arrangements for
producing and distributing wealth, which constitutes
the true cause of the constant deterioration of the indus-
trial classes. No other outlet, from a steady, continu-
ous descent, on the sliding scale, of low and lower
wages, want, pauperism, or suicide, offers itself to
them -at least in this country. It may be different in
America. There the people have yet, millions upon
millions of uncultivated, unowned, or only partially
settled, but fertile acres to have recourse to; and for
them the struggle against the monopoly of the soil,
which constitutes the foundation of that system of error
and inequality, force and fraud by which the world has
heretofore been ruled, may be as justifiable, in prac-
tical policy, as it is clear in abstract argument. If the
movement be conducted by men of clear heads, as well
as of warm hearts; if it be kept clear of those vitupera-
tions against individuals and classes, which are the bane
of all popular movements, and only repel from their
support all who might be truly useful to them ; it may,
aided by the popular political constitution of the United
seven] LAND REFORM 349
States, and their peculiar territorial circumstances
become an efficient means for the regeneration of socie-
ty in America. But for us, who have to effect that object
in Britain, a different course is clearly marked out. We
must be constructive, not destructive, and open the path
to the full enjoyment of the rights of humanity, by an
inviolable respect for the claims of classes and individ-
uals. Nor is this merely politic -it is right. The in-
dividuals and classes, composing society, are the crea-
tures of the social institutions amidst which they have
come into existence. They neither formed their own
organizations nor the institutions which, acting upon
them, have combined to form their matured characters
with all their consequent thoughts, feelings, and actions.
In the endeavour to form a new and better state of so-
ciety, this cardinal truth should be constantly kept in
view. It would purify the mind from all narrow and
selfish antagonism, and by embuing it with a catholic
and fraternal feeling for all our fellow-beings, enable
the reformer to achieve, through Love, lovely and lov-
ing results. . .
(c) COOPERATION
Working Man's Advocate, Nov. 23, 1844.
I regret exceedingly to see that our Eastern editorial
friends, particularly the Boston Laborer, are directing
their energies to the establishment of Trade Associa-
tions. It is true, that a resolution in favor of such As-
sociations passed at the Boston Convention unanimous-
ly, without discussion, and with a strong feeling of
approbation. I was sorry to see this ; but I did not oppose
the resolution, first, because the time of the Convention
was precious ; secondly, because I had taken a somewhat
active part on other questions; and thirdly, because I
did not much expect that it would be allowed to take
350 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the precedence of more important measures. The La-
borer^ however, for the last week or two, has made the
subject of Associations its leading measure, and ex-
presses the opinion, that "the actual carrying into effect
some plan of Association is the only source from which
we are to expect a remedy." . . Not only do I think
that trade associations are not the only remedy for the
oppressions of the working men, but I doubt whether
they would be a remedy at all. They have been tried
repeatedly, and almost universally failed, except when
they have degenerated into mere partnerships. And
why? Simply because associations of landless men can
no more keep up the price of their labor than can
individuals. They must put their labor in the mar-
ket, when hunger pinches, and sell it for what it will
bring. . . Making our public lands free would
gradually but effectually remedy the evil, with or with-
out association, and without serious inconvenience to
the interests built upon the unrighteous usurpation of
the soil on the first settlement of the country; and, as
this measure cannot be effected without union, though
easily with it, I beg again to call the attention of our
eastern brethren to the Pledge of the National Reform
Association, which is intended as a bond of union ade-
quate to the object. . . I trust that no working
man's paper will say that the plundered poor have no
means of preventing a perpetuation of the system which
robs them of two-thirds of their labor, except by the
formation of trade associations, at least till the Agra-
rian proposition has been duly considered and reject-
ed. . . Associations break up. Banks break up. All
things break up that are the creation of human hands;
but it is not often that the land breaks up : that, there-
fore, seems to be the surest dependence for all who ex-
pect to live on the produce of it. E.
seven] LAND REFORM 351
(d) ABOLITION
(i) Wm. Lloyd Garrison.
The Liberator (Boston), March 19, 1847.
When we see a class of professed reformers, magni-
fying mole-hills into mountains, and reducing moun-
tains to the size of mole-hills -straining at gnats, and
swallowing camels -gravely affirming that small evils
are the greatest of all evils and that unmitigated and all-
devouring oppression is far more tolerable than toil-worn
freedom -we are constrained either to impeach their in-
telligence or suspect their honesty; and, whether grossly
ignorant, or perversely knavish, we can place no con-
fidence in their principles or measures. Such a class
exists in New York, and has for its organ a paper called
Young America. In this paper, we observe a constant
disposition to sneer at the anti-slavery enterprise, and
to represent the condition of the white laboring classes
generally, as far more deplorable than that of the south-
ern slaves! For instance, in a late number, this lan-
guage is held: "Those well-meaning but mistaken
enthusiasts, who have so zealously striven in this country
to substitute Wages for Chattel slavery, will be enlight-
ened in spite of their prejudices, and made fully sensi-
ble of the short-comings of their plans." Again, "the
Wages and Tenant system" is declared to be "so much
more heinous than the Chattel system of the South, as
almost to defy comparison 1" Who can believe that the
author of that stuff, if he is not stark, staring mad, sin-
cerely credits what he utters? To say that it is worse
for a man to be free, than to be a slave -worse to work
for whom he pleases, when he pleases, and where he
pleases, than to be compelled to toil under the lash
of a slave-driver -worse to make his own contracts,
and to receive the amount of wages he has stipulated
352 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
for, than to be seized and worked without any remun-
eration-worse to be regarded as a poor laboring man,
than as a marketable commodity -worse to encounter
the vicissitudes of a state of personal freedom, than to
endure the horrors of chattel slavery -worse to stand
equal with all others in the eye of the law, than to be
doomed by law to all conceivable outrages, without the
possibility of redress-worse to pay wages than to pay
none; to make declarations like these is to insult the
understanding of every sane man, and to destroy all
confidence in the man who is not ashamed to be their
author. As the publisher of Young America is him-
self an employer, does he mean to say that he is a vil-
lain, because he pays stipulated wages to those whom
he employs? Is he worse than a southern man-stealer?
And because there are those in his office, whom he em-
ploys on contract, does he mean to say that they are
therefore in a condition more lamentable than that of
the plundered slave population? Out upon such folly!
Young America raises a loud outcry against "land
monopoly." This monopoly is undeniably wicked and
disastrous : the sooner it is broken up, the better. But
what hope, nay, what possibility is there, that, in a
nation where it is reputable to steal men, the right of
every man to a just portion of the soil will be conceded
and enjoyed? It is absurd for that paper to say, "The
shortest way to abolish slavery, of every form, is by pre-
venting any one man from owning two men's portions
of the earth." This equalization can never take place,
so long as one man is allowed the power of owning two
or five hundred men. The deliverance of the slave
must necessarily precede the redemption of the land.
(2) Gerrit Smith.
Evans to Gerrit Smith. Working Man's Advocate, July 6, 1844.
Sir- 1 am informed that you are one of the largest
seven] LAND REFORM 353
landholders of this State, and, at the same time, one of
the warmest advocates of the abolition of Negro Slav-
ery. I am told, further, that you are a very good and
benevolent man, and that you carry your opposition
to negro slavery so far as to hold out-door meetings,
on Sundays, at which to promulgate your views.
You, of course, are not aware that there is an incon-
sistency in your conduct, or you could not be the honest
man that you are represented to be. You will, there-
fore, be much surprised to be told, as I am constrained
to tell you, that you are one of the largest Slaveholders
in the United States. . . Man has a right on the
earth, or he would not be found here. He has a right
to exist. He cannot exist without the fruits of the
earth: he has a right, therefore, to the fruits of the
earth, spontaneous or cultivated. He must gather these
fruits as Nature presents them to his hands, or he must
assist Nature in their production, and then gather the
product. In either case, the use of the earth is neces-
sary to his existence, and, being necessary, it is his right.
What is one man's right, is another man's right; there-
fore, to ascertain what another man's right is, you have
only to ascertain what your own is. If you have a right
to the use of land to live upon, every other man has the
same right, and if any man is deprived of this right, he
is deprived of his liberty, and consequently is a slave to
those who possess the land. He must labor, not so
much as he thinks necessary to his own existence and
happiness, but as much as those who possess the land
choose to say. He must go and come at their bidding.
If they choose to live without labor at all, they can do
so, and he must perform an extra share of labor to
support them. If they choose to revel in luxury, he
must help to furnish the means. If they choose to riot
in vice, he must administer to their depraved appetite.
354 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
They have got the land, and can dictate the terms on
which he shall be allowed a share of its products. They
may pretend to allow him to go where he pleases; but
he cannot go far without eating, and they can say on
what terms he shall eat. They may even allow him a
voice in making the laws; but if they prohibit him
from making laws to interfere with their land tenures,
is he not effectually their slave? Although he may
change his master, do not the masters know that, as when
a drop of water is displaced, the vacuum is immediately
supplied.
Slavery, then, consists in being subject to the will of a
master, or a master class, by a deprivation of natural
rights.
Now, to come to the point. You, sir, it is said, pos-
sess large tracts of land; how many acres I am not in-
formed; but one who has a high opinion of your integ-
rity of character, tells me that he has travelled a half a
day in a straight line over land that you claim as yours.
I will suppose, for illustration, that you possess fifty
thousand acres. . . I have no doubt, although you
must begin to see my drift, that it will startle you to be
told that you hold fifty thousand slaves, and hold them,
too, in a worse state of ignorance, degradation, misery,
and vice, than any fifty thousand you could pick out in
a Southern State!
Is it necessary for me to explain? Fifty thousand
persons might support themselves on fifty thousand
acres of land. Fifty thousand persons received support
(partial or entire) from the public in this city during
the last year, by what is called public charity, but which
should be called public partial retributive justice. Many
of these fifty thousand persons have been brought into
existence in this city, (which is property of a few gen-
tlemen) just as a bird is brought into existence in a
seven] LAND REFORM 355
cage, just as sheep are brought into existence in a fold,
or cattle on a farm. The bird may by chance make its
escape, but it will often return to its cage, not knowing
how to seek its natural food. The sheep or cattle may
break their enclosures; but they must return to closer
confinement. So it is with the human beings whom the
regulations of the landlord master-class have brought
into existence on land which they claim as their prop-
erty. They are the landlord's slaves, to all intents and
purposes; and you sir, I am sorry to say it, are one of
the greatest Slaveholders in this country! . . I do
not ask you sir, to give up your fifty thousand acres of
land, provided you have so much more than your ne-
cessities require, to fifty thousand destitute inhabitants
of the cities, and to furnish, from the wealth you have
acquired by the possession of this land, the means to
remove them to it, to instruct them in the use of it, and
to compensate them, as far as it would be possible now
to compensate them, for the deprivations to which they
have, up to this time, been subject, for want of their
rightful inheritance; I do not ask you to do all this, not
because it would not be right for you to do it, but be-
cause I know it would be asking too much of human
nature. I might as well ask the Carolina Slaveholder
to restore his slaves their right to the soil, and to com-
pensate them, as far as possible, for their past depriva-
tions. All I ask of you is, seeing, as I trust you now
do, that white as well as black slavery is wrong, that you
lend your aid to prevent the further extension of the
evil; to prevent any further sale of the land that is now
unappropriated as private property; that you take the
mote out of your own eye, before you attempt to pluck
that out of your neighbors.
You will perceive, I trust, by the time you have read
thus far, that the great error has consisted in buying and
356 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
selling land, or allowing any individual to hold more
than was necessary for his existence, and that the rem-
edy for the evils caused by this error is, to cease traffick-
ing in the soil. There are vast tracts of land yet un-
sold ; and if all good men will unite to make these lands
free to the landless, on a plan that will enable every
man to become a landholder and continue so through
life, things would gradually come right as respects
white slavery.
I believe, sir, that I have said nothing that would
lead you to infer, that I am in favor of any form of
slavery; but lest you might have misunderstood me, I
wish you distinctly to understand, that I am opposed
to slavery in every form, the slavery of might and the
slavery of want; the slavery of the lash and the slavery
of poverty; the slavery of the mind and the slavery of
the body. But I think it most proper to begin our
abolition efforts with that form of slavery that is near-
est home. Having accomplished this, we could with
much more effect, it seems to me, turn our attention to
that at a distance.
I was formerly, like yourself, sir, a very warm advo-
cate of the abolition of slavery. This was before I saw
that there was white slavery. Since I saw this, I have
materially changed my views as to the means of abol-
ishing negro slavery. I now see, clearly, I think, that
to give the landless black the privilege of changing
masters now possessed by the landless white, would
hardly be a benefit to him in exchange for his surety
of support in sickness and old age, although he is in a
favorable climate. If the southern form of slavery
existed at the north, I should say the black would be a
great loser by such a change.
seven] LAND REFORM 357
Gerrit Smith's reply. Working Man's Advocate, July 20, 1844.
... I believe that the General Government would
do well to give fifty or a hundred acres of land to the
actual occupant; and that this would be better than to
charge even the very moderate price proposed by Gen-
eral Jackson. It is also my belief -one I have cherished
for years -that the individual owners of large tracts
of farming land should divide them into lots of, say,
forty or fifty acres, and then give away the lots to such
of their poor brethren as wish to reside on them. In
many cases, however, these tracts have descended to
their owners, charged with heavy debts: and in many
cases, too, these debts have been greatly increased by
liabilities for friends, and in other foolish and sinful
ways. These debts must, of course, be paid, before
the owners can have either a legal or moral right to
give away the land.
I judge from your unfavorable opinions of me, that
you will be apt to suppose, that, in what I have just
said, I have intended to express but abstract principles;
and that I have no idea of applying them to my "fifty
thousand acres" of which you speak. In reply to such
supposition, I will say, in the words of William Leg-
gett, the abolitionist: "Convince me that a principle
is right in the abstract, and I will reduce it to practice,
if I can."
You were right in supposing that I would not "throw
down your letter in anger." If I ever indulged myself
in the brutality of anger, there is nothing in your letter
to invite to such indulgence. But, there are some things
in it to make me sorry. I am sorry that, knowing very
little of my opinions, circumstances, and relations, you
should rashly pronounce me a slaveholder: and I am
unspeakably more sorry, that you should justify the
enslavement of your colored brother. You will deny
358 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
that you justify it. Nevertheless, you do justify it,
when you say that poverty is as bad as slavery -nay, is
even identical with it. Were you, and your wife, and
children, bought and sold and torn asunder, by South-
ern masters, and urged to your daily tasks by the South-
ern lash; and were I to answer the appeals in your
behalf with the cold-hearted and truthless remark, that
your condition is no worse than that of the Northern
poor man, you would, most properly, accuse me of jus-
tifying your enslavement.
The enterprise, in which you are engaged, is per-
haps, in all points, justifiable. I, nevertheless, appre-
hend, that in its present hands, it will prove a failure.
This apprehension proceeds from the disposition to
trample on law and shed blood, and on the want of
regard for man -for simple manhood -betrayed in this
No. of the Working Man's Advocate. . .
Evans's Rejoinder to Gerrit Smith. Working Man's Advocate, July 27,
1844-
. . . After saying that the owners of large tracts
of land ought to divide them among their poorer breth-
ren, you add, "In many cases, however, these tracts have
descended to their owners, charged with heavy debts,
greatly increased by liabilities for friends, and in other
foolish and sinful ways. These debts must, of course,
be paid, before the owners can have either a legal or
moral right to give away the land."
This I admit; but, sir, there is a question behind this.
A man may have no right to give away that which in
fact is not his if it is mortgaged to another. The wrong
was in the mortgaging. No man had ever a right to
more land than was necessary for his subsistence, or an
equivalent portion with every other man: consequently
no man ever had a right to give or take a mortgage on
land. But this has been done in ignorance of that prin-
seven] LAND REFORM 359
ciple. The citizen, on coming of age, is told, on claim-
ing his birthright of the land not necessary to the exist-
ence of others, "We, or our fathers, have contracted
debts, for the payment of which we have pledged this
land." Is that any answer to him? Certainly not.
He replies, very properly, "The land was yours to use
in your day and generation, and what you could not use
belonged to others. It belongs alike to this and all
future generations, equally, and you have the same right
to transfer it all to one man as to any number of men
less than the whole."
"Wrongs," said an eminent political writer, "cannot
have a legal descent;" and, though the land may have
been bartered and mortgaged for a thousand years, till
a few are in possession of it as in England, whenever
the people choose to reclaim their equal right to the
soil, they have a perfect right to do so. The possessors
of land may have no right to give what they have no
rightful title to; but the people have a right to take
what belongs to them.
But, while asserting their natural right to the soil of
their birth, although appropriated as the private prop-
erty of the few, the National Reform Association, see-
ing the difficulties that would arise from the conflict
of conventional with natural rights; seeing, also, that
the adjustment of this question would involve the right
to property accumulated by means of a false title to the
land; and seeing that a vast quantity of land yet re-
mains unappropriated as private property, do not pro-
pose to interfere with the conventional rights of those
who claim private property in the soil; but merely that
no further false appropriation of the land shall take
place, and that those who are born landless shall be
allowed to use of the vacant land a portion sufficient for
their maintenance. This is what we propose, and all
360 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
we propose; and can there be any thing more moderate
or more reasonable? . . .
My object was to show you, that a man cannot be
free, as he ought to be, while living on land claimed by
other men, without the right to the use of land for his
own subsistence. This seems quite clear to me, and yet
I can easily imagine why it is not yet clear to you. You
have, probably, always lived on land that you consid-
ered yours, without the fear of want. I have been
very differently situated. You have not known what
it was to be behind hand with your rent, notwithstand-
ing your utmost exertions to meet the demand: I have.
You have not known what it was to have the officers
of the law seize upon your little stock of household
goods, and threaten to sell them if the rent was not paid
by a certain time : I have. You have not known what
it was, under such circumstances, to be compelled to
submit to the sacrifice, or, with almost equal repug-
nance to your feelings, borrow of your friend to satisfy
the claim. You have not known what it was to want
bread for your family after having been drained of
your last cent by the landlord: I have. These things
occurred many years ago, but the impressions they made
are still vivid on my mind, and frequently recur when
I see others similarly situated; and I beg you to bear
in mind that thousands in the cities are continually tor-
tured by the same agonizing system. This is an evil of
the first magnitude, about which the black slave knows
nothing; and this can afford you but a faint idea of the
miseries of a city tenantry, which the black has never
dreamed of. This, however, may lead you to under-
stand why I have contended that the landless white is
in a state of slavery quite as galling as that of the black.
I know that families cannot be separated by force among
seven] LAND REFORM 361
the whites, as they are among the blacks, and I say
this is an abuse that ought to be speedily abated at the
South ; but does not the white poor man suffer even in
this respect almost as much as the black? See how
families are separated even under the present system;
not, indeed, by brute force, but, with equal effect, by
the lash of want.
I am decidedly of opinion, sir, that there is more real
suffering among the landless whites of the north, than
among the blacks of the south ; and if the question was,
whether the landholders of the United States should
have control of labor for ever under the northern or
the southern system of slavery, I would hold up my
hands for the latter; but does it follow, that because
I see greater slavery here than at the south, and would
first abolish slavery here, that, therefore, I justify negro
slavery? I think not. . .
We have made "the experiment" of speaking out
against slavery. We believe the black has as good a
right to be free as the white; that "all men are created
equal"; and I have frequently asserted this right, in
print, years ago. I believe that all men have equal
natural and political rights; and I harbor no prejudice
against color; still, there is a prejudice against color,
which it would take ages to remove; and for their sakes,
and not from any prejudice of my own, did I suggest,
that, if the public lands were made free, a portion
should be set apart for their voluntary settlement. Al-
though I know thousands of whites who contend that
the blacks have equal political rights, I have yet to be
acquainted with one who would like to be placed on
terms of social equality with them. There is a general
repugnance against this, which arises from the igno-
rance engendered by the long continued oppression of
362 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
the colored race ; and this repugnance can only be over-
come, if it can be overcome at all, by the improvement
that would follow their political emancipation. . .
I think you err in wishing to transfer the black from
the one form of slavery to the other and worse one.
What particular means you propose to abolish slavery,
I am not informed of; but suppose that you had the
power, tomorrow, to place the black laborers of the
south in the same position as the white laborers of the
north; as "cash produces more labor than the lash,"
is it not probable that the slaveholders would get as
much labor performed by two-thirds or three-fourths
of the number of their laborers as they now do by the
whole? If we may judge from the effects of the cash
or wages system here, (which, for instance, compels a
poor seamstress to make three pair of light pantaloons
a day for twenty-four cents, and this is in a city where
rent is a dollar a week!) such would inevitably be the
result at the south. Then what would become of the
surplus? Is it not probable that some of it would find
its way to the North, where there is already so great a
surplus that the working men are frequently striking
against a reduction of their wages? The condition of
the labouring classes everywhere would be made worse
by such a change; the few would, still easier than at
present, amass wealth out of the proceeds of their toil,
and the wealth thus amassed would be expended in a
still further monopoly of the soil. . .
Evans to Gerrit Smith. Working Man's Advocate, Aug. 17, 1844.
. . . The main difference between us now is, if I
understand you, not about the objects to be obtained;
but about the order and means of attaining them. There
is yet another difference, however. You do not yet
see that there is white slavery: you call it poverty. I
seven] LAND REFORM 363
must still, until further enlightened, maintain that the
landless poor man is a slave ; if not quite so degraded
a slave as the black, still so near it that the difference
is hardly worth talking about. The one is a slave to a
single master; the other to a master-class. The one has
not the power of changing his taskmaster, but he is
assured a support in sickness and old age; the other may
change his taskmaster, but has no security for sickness
and old age. The one labors under the fear of the
whip ; the other under the fear of want. The one may
labor, for aught that we know, from sunrise to sunset;
the other is frequently obliged to do more than that.
The one is sometimes forcibly separated from his fam-
ily, and his family from one another; the other is fre-
quently, by force of poverty, compelled to submit to
the same deprivations. I am not drawing this parallel
to extenuate black slavery; far from it. I probably
consider it as heinous as you do. My object is to show
you that there are white slaves as well as black ones,
and if I do not convince you, it will be for the want of
the powers of language. I do not assert that poverty
makes a man a slave ; for a man might be poor, and yet
be independent, if he had his land to work upon, from
which he could not be ejected. The man who has no
land and therefore must work for others, is the slave,
whether he has one master or the choice of many. . .
I wish, sir, that you could see the true position of the
free blacks in New York; the servants in cellars, for
instance, whose highest ambition it is to imitate the
follies and foibles of their masters and mistresses; then
again, those who reside in the back streets and alleys,
living, no one can tell how, in dirt, depravity, and ig-
norance; seeing, perhaps, that something is wrong in
the system to which they are attached, but knowing of
no better remedy than to help themselves to what they
364 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.
conveniently can of the wealth they see around them.
If you could see these poor wretches in their dirty,
crowded, comfortless dwellings, you would involuntar-
ily exclaim that they would be better off even on a
southern plantation. But they ought to be on their own
plantation. 31 . .
31 See Life of Gerrit Smith, by O. B. Frothingham, 102-112, for the account
of Smith's gift of land to landless men. Evans was a member of the com-
mittee appointed by Smith to select the donees. - ED,
cd
H
I
a
<3
CD!
I
h>!
*i
CQ 1
Oi
fk
^
i
-P
3
5 JJ
3 a
University of Toronto
Library
DO NOT
REMOVE
THE
CARD
FROM
THIS
POCKET
Acme Library Card Pocket
Under Pat. ''Ref. Inde* File"
Made by LIBRARY BUREAU
