Part 2 (1/2)
The civil or temporal government of the Amana communists consists of thirteen trustees, chosen annually by the male members of the society.
The president of the society is chosen by the trustees.
This body manages the finances, and carries on the temporalities generally, but it acts only with the unanimous consent of its members.
The trustees live in different villages, but exercise no special authority, as I understand, as individuals. The foremen and elders in each village carry on the work and keep the accounts. Each village keeps its own books and manages its own affairs; but all accounts are finally sent to the head-quarters at Amana, where they are inspected, and the balance of profit or loss is discovered. It is supposed that the labor of each village produces a profit; but whether it does or not makes no difference in the supplies of the people, who receive every thing alike, as all property is held in common. All accounts are balanced once a year, and thus the productiveness of every industry is ascertained.
The elders are a numerous body, not necessarily old men, but presumably men of deep piety and spirituality. They are named or appointed by inspiration, and preside at religious a.s.semblies.
In every village four or five of the older and more experienced elders meet each morning to advise together on business. This council acts, as I understand, upon reports of those younger elders who are foremen and have charge of different affairs. These in turn meet for a few minutes every evening, and arrange for the next day's work.
Women are never members of these councils, nor do they hold, as far as I could discover, any temporal or spiritual authority, with the single exception of their present spiritual head, who is a woman of eighty years. Moreover, if a young man should marry out of the society, and his wife should desire to become a member, the husband is expelled for a year--at the end of which time both may make application to come in, if they wish.
They have contrived a very simple and ingenious plan for supplying their members with clothing and other articles aside from food. To each adult male an annual allowance is made of from forty to one hundred dollars, according as his position and labor necessitates more or less clothing.
For each adult female the allowance is from twenty-five to thirty dollars, and from five to ten dollars for each child.
All that they need is kept in store in each village, and is sold to the members at cost and expenses. When any one requires an article of clothing, he goes to the store and selects the cloth, for which he is charged in a book he brings with him; he then goes to the tailor, who makes the garment, and charges him on the book an established price. If he needs shoes, or a hat, or tobacco, or a watch, every thing is in the same way charged. As I sat in one of the shops, I noticed women coming in to make purchases, often bringing children with them, and each had her little book in which due entry was made. ”Whatever we do not use, is so much saved against next year; or we may give it away if we like,” one explained to me; and added that during the war, when the society contributed between eighteen and twenty thousand dollars to various benevolent purposes, much of this was given by individual members out of the savings on their year's account.
Almost every man has a watch, but they keep a strict rule over vanities of apparel, and do not allow the young girls to buy or wear ear-rings or breastpins.
The young and unmarried people, if they have no parents, are divided around among the families.
They have not many labor-saving contrivances; though of course the eating in common is both economical and labor-saving. There is in each village a general wash-house, where the clothing of the unmarried people is washed, but each family does its own was.h.i.+ng.
They have no libraries; and most of their reading is in the Bible and in their own ”inspired” records, which, as I shall show further on, are quite voluminous. A few newspapers are taken, and each calling among them receives the journal which treats of its own specialty. In general they aim to withdraw themselves as much as possible from the world, and take little interest in public affairs. During the war they voted; ”but we do not now, for we do not like the turn politics have taken”--which seemed to me a curious reason for refusing to vote.
Their members came originally from many parts of Germany and Switzerland; they have also a few ”Pennsylvania Dutch.” They have much trouble with applicants who desire to join the society; and receive, the secretary told me, sometimes dozens of letters in a month from persons of whom they know nothing; and not a few of whom, it seems, write, not to ask permission to join, but to say that they are coming on at once.
There have been cases where a man wrote to say that he had sold all his possessions, and was then on the way, with his family, to join the a.s.sociation. As they claim to be not an industrial, but a religious community, they receive new members with great care, and only after thorough investigation of motives and religious faith; and these random applications are very annoying to them. Most of their new members they receive from Germany, accepting them after proper correspondence, and under the instructions of ”inspiration.” Where they believe them worthy they do not inquire about their means; and a fund is annually set apart by the trustees to pay the pa.s.sage of poor families whom they have determined to take in. Usually a neophyte enters on probation for two years, signing an obligation to labor faithfully, to conduct himself according to the society's regulations, and to demand no wages.
If at the close of his probation he appears to be a proper person, he is admitted to full members.h.i.+p; and if he has property, he is then expected to put this into the common stock; signing also the const.i.tution, which provides that on leaving he shall have his contribution returned, but without interest.
There are cases, however, where a new-comer is at once admitted to full members.h.i.+p. This is where ”inspiration” directs such breach of the general rule, on the ground that the applicant is already a fit person.
Most of their members came from the Lutheran Church; but they have also Catholics, and I believe several Jews.
They employ about two hundred hired hands, mostly in agricultural labors; and these are all Germans, many of whom have families. For these they supply houses, and give them sometimes the privilege of raising a few cattle on their land.
They are excellent farmers, and keep fine stock, which they care for with German thoroughness; stall-feeding in the winter.
The members do not work hard. One of the foremen told me that three hired hands would do as much as five or six of the members. Partly this comes no doubt from the interruption to steady labor caused by their frequent religious meetings; but I have found it generally true that the members of communistic societies take life easy.
The people are of varying degrees of intelligence; but most of them belong to the peasant cla.s.s of Germany, and were originally farmers, weavers, or mechanics. They are quiet, a little stolid, and very well satisfied with their life. Here, as in other communistic societies, the brains seem to come easily to the top. The leading men with whom I conversed appeared to me to be thoroughly trained business men in the German fas.h.i.+on; men of education, too, and a good deal of intelligence.
The present secretary told me that he had been during all his early life a merchant in Germany; and he had the grave and somewhat precise air of an honest German merchant of the old style--prudent, with a heavy sense of responsibility, a little rigid, and yet kindly.
At the little inn I talked with a number of the rank and file, and noticed in them great satisfaction with their method of life. They were, on the surface, the commoner kind of German laborers; but they had evidently thought pretty thoroughly upon the subject of communal living; and knew how to display to me what appeared to them its advantages in their society: the absolute equality of all men--”as G.o.d made us;” the security for their families; the abundance of food; and the independence of a master.
It seems to me that these advantages are dearer to the Germans than to almost any other nation, and hence they work more harmoniously in communistic experiments. I think I noticed at Amana, and elsewhere among the German communistic societies, a satisfaction in their lives, a pride in the equality which the communal system secures, and also in the conscious surrender of the individual will to the general good, which is not so clearly and satisfactorily felt among other nationalities.
Moreover, the German peasant is fortunate in his tastes, which are frugal and well fitted for community living. He has not a great sense of or desire for beauty of surroundings; he likes substantial living, but cares nothing for elegance. His comforts are not, like the American's, of a costly kind.