Historic Failures of Applied Socialism (Excerpt)
Apropos of our Thanksgiving column recounting the failure of the Mayflower pilgrims to enact the vain conceit of Plato to hold all property in common, we may eye this partial list of similar failures, and note not a single corresponding counterexample anywhere in all the annals of any tribe, tongue, people or nation.
The text below is quoted from Historic Failures in Applied Socialism by Hon. Daniel J. Ryan (1921).
The words below are his
- A Catalogue of Failures
Over fifty years ago, John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of The Oneida Community, wrote a History of American Socialisms from which I have excerpted freely the facts that follow. Says he, “Though they may be faulty in some details, we are confident that the general idea they give of the attempts and experiences of American Socialists, will not be far from the truth.”
He gives the experiments of the Owen epoch as follows:
- Blue Spring Community; Indiana; no particulars, except that it lasted “but a short time. “
- Co-operative Society; Pennsylvania; no particulars.
- Coxsackie Community; New York; capital “small”; “very much in debt”; duration between one and two years.
- Forrestville Community; Indiana; “over 60 members”; 325 acres of land; duration more than a year.
- Franklin Community; New York; no particulars.
- Haverstraw Community; New York; about 80 members; 120 acres; debt $ 12,000; duration five months.
- Kendal Community; Ohio; 200 members; 200 acres; duration about two years.
- New Harmony; Indiana; 900 members; 30,000 acres, worth $ 150,000; duration nearly three years.
- Nashoba, Tennessee; 15 members; 2,000 acres; duration about three years.
- Yellow Springs Community; Ohio; 75 to 100 families; duration three months.
The experiments of the Fourier epoch are as follows:
- Alphadelphia Phalanx; Michigan; 400 or 500 families; 2, 814 acres; duration two years and nine months.
- Brook Farm; Massachusetts; 115 members; 200 acres; duration five years.
- Brooke’s Experiment; Ohio; few members; no further particulars.
- Bureau County Phalanx; Illinois; small; no particulars.
- Clarkson Industrial Association; New York; 420 members, 2, 000 acres; duration from six to nine months.
- Clermont Phalanx; Ohio; 120 members; 900 acres; debt $19,000; duration two years or more.
- Columbian Phalanx; Ohio; no particulars.
- Garden Grove; Iowa; no particulars.
- Goose Pond Community; Pennsylvania; 60 members; duration a few months.
- Grand Prairie Community; Ohio; no particulars.
- Hopedale; Massachusetts; 200 members; 500 acres; duration not stated, but commonly reported to be seventeen or eighteen years.
- Integral Phalanx; Illinois; 30 families; 508 acres; dura tion seventeen months.
- Jefferson Co. Industrial Association; New York; 400 members; 1, 200 acres of land; duration a few months.
- Lagrange Phalanx; Indiana; 1,000 acres; no further particulars.
- Leraysville Phalanx; Pennsylvania; 40 members; 300 acres; duration eight months.
- Marlboro Association; Ohio; 24 members; had “load of debt”; duration nearly four years.
- McKean Co. Association; Pennsylvania; 30, 000 acres; no further particulars.
- Moorhouse Union; New York; 120 acres; duration ” a few months.”
- North American Phalanx; New Jersey; 112 members; 673 acres; debt $ 17, 000; duration twelve years.
- Northhampton Association; Massachusetts; 130 members; 500 acres of land; debt $ 40, 000; duration four years.
- Ohio Phalanx; 100 members, 2, 200 acres; deeply in debt; duration ten months.
- One-Mind Community; Pennsylvania; 800 acres; duration one year.
- Ontario Phalanx; New York; brief duration.
- Prairie Home Community; Ohio; 500 acres; debt broke it up; duration one year.
- Raritan Bay Union; New Jersey; few members; 268 acres.
- Sangamon Phalanx; Illinois; no particulars.
- Skaneatles Community; New York; 150 members; 354 acres; debt $ 10,000; duration two and one – half years.
- Social Reform Unity; Pennsylvania; 20 members; 2, 000 acres; debt $ 2, 400; duration about ten months.
- Sodus Bay Phalanx; New York; 300 members; 1,400 acres; duration a “short time. “
- Spring Farm Association; Wisconsin; 10 families; duration three years.
- Sylvania Association; Pennsylvania; 145 members; 2, 394 acres; debt $ 7,900; duration nearly three years.
- Trumbull Phalanx; Ohio; 1, 500 acres; duration two and one – half years.
- Washtenaw Phalanx; Michigan; no particulars.
- Wisconsin Phalanx; 32 families; 1,800 acres; duration six years.
A recapitulation of the foregoing shows this: that the communities established by the Owen group of socialists were as follows:
In Indiana 3; in New York 3; in Ohio 2; in Pennsylvania 1; in Tennessee 1.
The Fourier groups were located as follows:
In Ohio 8; in New York 6; in Pennsylvania 6; in Massa chusetts 3; in Illinois 3; in New Jersey 2; in Michigan 2; in Wisconsin 3; in Indiana 1; in Iowa 1.
The two groups combined were distributed as follows:
Ten in Ohio; nine in New York; seven in Pennsylvania; four in Indiana; three in Massachusetts; three in Illinois; two in New Jersey; two in Michigan; two in Wisconsin; one each in Tennessee and Iowa.
None of these associations lasted very long; and most of them died before they were two years old.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
