XXXVI. The North American Phalanx

Three times he visited it; and the record of his last visit, which was written in the year of his death, 1854, and was probably the last of his literary labors, closes with an acknowledp;ement of the continuance and pros perity of the North American. We shall have to give several chapters to this important experiment. We will begin with a semi-official expose of its foundations.

45° AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. A History of the first nine years of the North American Phalanx, written by its practical chief, Mr. Charles Sears, at the request of Macdonald; dated December, 1852. "Prior to the spring of 1843, Mr. Albert Brisbane had been publishing, principally in the New York Tribune, a series of articles on the subject of social science. He had also published his larger work on Association, which was followed by his pamphlet containing a sum n1ary of the doctrines of a new form of society, and the outline of a project to found a practical Association, to be called the North American Phalanx. "There was nominally a central organization in the city of New York, and affiliated societies were invited to cooperate by subscribing the means of endowing the proposed Phalanx, and furnishing the persons. to engage personally in the enterprise. -It was proposed to raise about four hundred thous·and dollars, thus making the attempt with adequate means to establish the conditions of attractive industry.

It The essays and books above men tioned had a wide circulation, and many were captivated with the glowing pictures of a new life thus presented; others were attracted by the economies of the combined order which were· demonstrated; still others were inspired by the hopes of personal distinction in the brilliant career thus opened to their ambition; others again, were prof~undly impressed by Fourier's sublime annunciation of the general destinies of globes and humanities; that pro gressive development through careers, characterized all movement and all forms; that in all departments of creation, the law of the series ~as the method observed in distributing harmonies; consequently, that human so,.. ciety and human activity, to be in harmony with the NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. 45 1 universe of relations, can not be an exception to the great law of the series; consequently, that the existing order of civilization and the societies that preceded it are but phases in the growth of the race, and having subserved their n10re active pses, become bases of further developmen t.

" Among those who became interested in the idea of social progress, were a few persons in Albany, New York, who from reading and interchange of views, were induced to unite in an organization for the purpose of deliberately and methodically investigating the doc trines of a new social order as announced by Fourier, deeming these doctrines worthy of the most profound and serious consideration. " This body, after several preliminary meetings, for mally adopted rules of organization on the 6th of April, 1843, and the declaration of their objects is in the fol lowing words: 'We, the undersigned, for the purpose of investigating Fourier's theory of social reform as expounded by Albert Brisbane, and if deemed expedi ent, of cooperating with like organizations elsewhere, do associate, with the ulterior view of organizing and founding an industrial and commercial Phalanx.' "Proceeding in this direction, the body assumed the name of 'The Albany Branch of the North American Phalanx;' opened a correspondence with Messrs. Bris bane, Greeley, Godwin, Channing, Ripley and others; had lectures of criticism on existing institutions and in exposition of the doctrines of the proposed new order.

"During the summer practical measures 'were so matured, that a comlnission was appointed to explore the country, more particularly in the vicinity of New Yark and of Philadelphia, for a suitable domain upon which 452 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. to commence the foundation of new social institutions. Mr. Brisbane was the delegate on the part of the New York friends, and Mr. Allen Worden on the part of the Albany Branch. A site was selected in Monmouth County, New Jersey, about forty miles south of New York; and on the 12th day of August, 1843, pursuant to public notice, a convention was held in the Albany Exchange, at which the North American Phalanx was organized by adopting a constitution, and subscribing to a covenant to invest in the capital stock. " At this convention were delegates from New York, Catskill, Troy, Brook Farm Association, and the Albany Branch; and when the real work of paying money and elevating life to the effort of social organization was to be done, about a dozen subscribers were found equal to the work, ten of whom finally cooperated personally in the new life, with an aggregate subscription of eight thousand dollars. This by common consent was the absolute minimum of men and means; and, contrasted with the large expectations and clain1s originally stated, was indeed a great falling-off; but the few who had com mitted then1selves with entire faith to the movement, went forward, detern1ined to do what they could to make a worthy commencemerit, hoping that with their own families and such others as would from time to time be induced to cooperate, the germs of new institutions might fairly be planted.

" Accordingly in the lllonth of September, 1843, a few families took possession of the domain, occupying to over-fullness the two farm-houses on the place, and C01l1 menced building a temporary house, forty feet by eighty, of two stories, for the accommodation of those who were to CaIne the following spring.

NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. 453 "During the year I 844 the population numbered about ninety persons, including at one period nearly forty children under .the age of sixteen years. Crops were planted,· teams and implements purchased, the building of shops and mills was commenced, measures of business and organization were discussed, the con struction of social doctrines debated, personal claims canvassed, and thus the business. of life was going on at full tide; and now also commenced the real development of character. "Hitherto there had been no settled science of society. Fourier, the man of profound insight, an nounced the law of progress and indicated the new forms that society would take. People accepted the new ideas gladly, and would as gladly institute new forms; but there was a lack of well-defined views on the precise work to be done. Besides, eelucation tended strongly to confil m in most minds the force of existing institutions, and after attaining to middle age, and even before this period, the character usually becomes quite fixed; so that to break up habitudes, relinquish preju dices, sunder ties, and to adopt new modes of action, accept of modified results, and re-adjust themselves to new relations, was a difficult, and to the many, almost impossible work, as is proved by the fact that, of the thirty or forty similar attempts at associated life within the past ten years in this country, only the North Amer ican Phalanx now [[ 852J remains. Nor did this Asso ciation escape the inevitable consequences of bringing together a body of grown-up people with their families, many of whom came reluctantly, and whose characters were forn1ed under other influences.

"Personal difficulties occurred as a matter of course, 454 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. but these were commonly overruled by a healthy senti ment of self-respect. Parties also began to form, but they were not fully developed until the first annual settlement and distribution of profits was attempted. Then, however, they took a variety of forms according to the interest or ambition of the partisans; though two principal views characterized the more permanent and clearly defined party divisions; one party contending for authority, enforced with stringent rules and final appeal to the dictation of the chief officer; the other party standing out for organization and distribution of authority. The former would centralize power and make administration despotic, claiming that thus only could order be maintained; the latter claimed that to do this, would be merely to repeat the institutions of civilization; that Association thus controlled would be devoid of corporate life, would be dependent upon indi viduals, and quite artificial; whereas what we wanted was a wholly different order, viz., the enfranchisement of the individual; order through the natural method of the series; institutions that would be instinct with the life that is organic, from the sum of the series, down to the last subdivision of the group. The strife to main tain these several views was long and vigorous; and it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that our days were spent in labor and our nights in legislation, for the first five years of our associative life. The question at issue was vital. It was whether the infant Association should or should not have new institutions; whether it should be Civilizee or Phalansterian; whether it should be a mere joint-stock corporation such as had been before, or whether the new form of industrial organi zation indicated by Fourier should be initiated. In the NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. 455 contest between the two principles of civilized joint stock Association, and of the Phalansterian or Serial organization, the latter ultimately prevailed; and in this triumph of the idea of the natural organic forms of society through the method of the series, we see dis tinctly the development of the germ of the Phalanx.

For when we have a true principle evolved, however insignificant the development may be, the results, although limited by the smallness of the development, will nevertheless be right in kind. It is perhaps im portant, to the end that the results of our experience be rightly comprehended, to indicate the essential features of the order of society that is to succeed present dis order, and wherein it differs from other social forms. H A fundamental feature is, that we deny the bald atheism that asserts human nature to be a melancholy failure and unworthy of respect or trust, and therefore to be treated as an alien and convict. On the contrary, we hold that, instead of chains, man requires freedom; instead of checks, he requires development; instead of artificial order through coercion, he requires the Divine harmony that comes through counterpoise. Hence society is bound by its own highest interests, by the obligation it owes to its every member, to make organic provision for the entire circle of human wants, for the entire range of hunlan activity; so that the indi,\ridual shall be emancipated from the servitude of nature, from personal domination, froln social tyrannies; and that thus fully enfranchised and guaranteed by the whole force of society, into all freedoms and the endowment of all rights pertaining to manhood, he may fulfill his own destiny, in accordance with the laws written in his own organization.

AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. "In the Phalanx, then, we have. in the sphere of pro duction, the relation of employer and employed stricken out of the category of relations, not merely as in the simple joint-stock corporations, by substituting for the individual employer the still more despotic and irresis tible corporate employer; but by everyone becoming his own employer, doing that \tvhich he is best-qualified by endowment to do, receiving for his labor precisely his share of the product, as nearly as it can be deter mined while there is no scientific unit of value. "In the sphere of circulation or currency, we have a representative of all the wealth produced, so that every one shall have issued to him for all his production, the abstract or protean form of value, which is convertible into every other form of value; in COlumerce or ex changes, reducing this from a speculation as now, to a function; employing only the necessary. force to make distributions; and exchangi!1g products or values on the basis of cost, " In the sphere of social relations, we have freedom to form ties according to affinities of character.

"In the sphere of education, we establish the natural method, not through the exaltation into professorships of this, that or other notable persons, but through a body of institutions reposing upon industry, and having or ganic vitality. COlnmencing with the nursery, we make, through the living corporation, through adequately en dowed institutions that fail not, provision for the entire life of the child, from the cradle upward-; initiating him step by step, not into nominal, ostensible education apart from his life, but into the real business of life, the actual'production and distribution of wealth, the science of accounts and the administration of affairs; and proNORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. 457 viding that, through uses, the science that lies back of uses shall be acquired; so theory and practice, the appli cation of· science to the pursuits of life shall, through daily usc, become as familiar as the mother tongue; and thus 'place our children at maturity in the ranks of man hood-and womanhood, competent to all the duties and activities of life, that they may be qualified by endow ment to perform.

"In the sphere of administration, we have a graduated hierarchy of orders, from the simple chief of a group, or supervisor of a single function, up to the unitary admin istration of the globe. "In the sphere of religion, we. have religious life as contrasted with the profession of a religious faith. The intellect requires to be satisfied as well as the affections, and is so with the scientific and therefore universal for mula, that the religious element in man is the passion of unity; that is, that all the po\vers of the soul shall attain to trne equilibrium, and act normally in accord ance with Divine law, so that human life in all its powers and activities shall be in harmonious relations with nature, with itself, and with the supreme center of life. "Of course we speak of the success of an idea, and only expect realization through gradual development. It is obvious also· that such realization can be attained only through organizatiort;, because, unaided, the indi vidual makes but scanty conquests over nature, and but feeble opposition to social usurpations.

U The principle, then, of the Serial Organization being established, the whole future course of the Association, in respect to its merely industrial institutions, was plain, viz.: to develop and mature .the serial form.

458 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. " Not that the old questions did not arise subse quently; on the contrary on the admission of new members from time to time, they did arise and have discussion anew; but the contest had been virtually decided. The Association had pronounced with such emphasis in favor of the organization of labor upon the basis of cooperative efforts, joint-stock property, and unity of interests, that those holding adverse views gradually withdrew; and the harmony of the Associ ation was never afterward in serious jeopardy. "During the later as well as earlier years of our asso ciated life, the question of preference of modes of real ization came under discussion in the Phalansterian school, one party advocating the measure of obtaining large means, and so fully endowing the Phalanx with all the external conditions of attractive industry, and then introducing gradually a body of select associates. The North American Phalanx, as represented in the conven tions of the school, held t9 the view that new social in stitutions, new forms into which the life of a people shall flow, can not be determined by merely external conditions and the elaboration of a theory of life and organization, but are matters of growth.

"Our view is that the true Divine growth of the social, a,s of the individual man, is the progressive devel opment of a germ; and while we would not in the slightest degree oppose a scientific organization upon a large scale, it is our preference to pursue a more pro gressive mode, to make a more immediately practical and controllable attempt. "The call of to-day we understand to be for evidence, First: Of the possibility of harmony in Association; Second: That by associated effort, and the control of NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. 459 machinery, the laborer may command the means, not only of comfort and the necessaries of life, but also of education and refinement; Third: that the nature of the relations we would establish are essentially those of religious justice. "The possibility of establishing true social relations, increased production, and the elnbodiment of the re ligious sentiment, are, if we read the signs aright, the points upon which the question of Association now hinges in the public mind.

" Because, First: Man's capacity for these relations is doubted; Because, Second: Production is an essential and permanent condition of life, and nleans of progress ; Because, Third: It is apprehended that the religious element is not sufficiently regarded and provided for in Association. " Demonstrate that capacity, prove that men by their own efforts may command all the means of life, show in institutions the truly religious nature of the movelnent and the relations that are to obtain, and the public will be gained to the idea of Association. "Another question still has been pressed upon us offensively by the advocates of existing institutions, as though their life were pure and their institutions pe feet, while no terms of opprobrium could sufficiently charac terize the depravity of the Socialists; and this que tion is that of the marriage relation. Upon this quest"on a form of society that is so notoriously rotten as exi ting civilization is, a society that has marriage and pro titu tion as complementary facts of its relations of the sexes, a society which establishes professorships of abortion, which methodizes infanticide, which outlaws woman, might at least assume the show of modesty, might treat AMERICAN SOCIALISMS.

with common candor any and all who are seeking the Divine law of marriage. Instead, therefore, of recog nizing its right to defame us, we put that society upon its defense, and say to it, Come out of your infidelities, and your crimes, and your pretenses; seek out the law of righteousness, and deal justly with woman. Never theless this is a question in which we, in common with others, have a profound interest; it is a question which has by no means escaped consideration among us, and we perhaps owe it to ourselves to state our position. "What the true law of relationship of the sexes is, we as a body do not pretend to determine. Here, as elsewhere, individual opinion is free; but there are cer tain conditions, as we think, clearly indicated, which are necessary to the proper consideration of the question; and our view is that it is one that must be determned mainly by woman herself When she shall be fully enfranchised, fully endowed with her rights, so that she shall no longer be dependent on marriage for position, no longer be regarded as a pensioner, but as a constitu ent of the State; in a single phrase, when society shall, independently of other considerations than that of in herent right, assure to woman social position and pecuniary independence, so that she can legislate on a footing of equality, then she may announce the law of the sexual relations. But this can only occur in organized society; society in which there is a complete circle of fraternal institutions that have public ac ceptance; can only occur when· science enters the domain of human society, and determines relations, as it now does in astronomy or physic.

"We therefore say to civilization, You have no ade quate solution of this problem that is convulsing you, NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. and in which every form of private and public protest against the actual condition is expressing itself. Be sides this we claim what can not be claimed for any similar number of people in civilization, viz.r that we have been here over ni.ne years, with an average pop ulation of nearly one hundred persons of both sexes and all ages, and, judged by the existing standard of morals, we are above reproach on this question. "Thus we have proceeded, disposing of our primary legislation, demonstrating to general acceptance the rectitude of our awards and distributions of profit, deter mining. questions of social doctrine, perfecting methods of order, and developing our industry, with a fair measure of success. In this latter respect the following statistics will indicate partially the progress we have made.

"We commenced in 1843, as before mentioned, with a dozen subscribers, and an aggregate subscription of $ 8,000. On the 30th of November, 1844, upon our first settlement, our property amounted in round numbers to " 28,000; of which we owed in capital stock and bal ances due members, say, $ 18,000. The remainder was debt incurred in purchasing the land, $ 9,000; imple ments, etc., $ 1,000; total, $ 10,000. "Our population at this period, including members and applicants, was nearly as follo\vs: Men, thirty-two; women, nineteen; children of both sexes under sixteen years, twenty-six; making an aggregate of seventy seven. At one period thereafter our numbers were reduced to about sixty-five persons. "On the 30th of November, 1852, our property was estimated at $ 80,000, held as follows: capital stock and balances of account due members, say, "62,800; perAMERICAN SOCIALISMS. manent debt, $ 12,103; floating debt, $ 5,097; total, $ 80,000. Dividing this sum by 673, the number of acres, the entire cost of our property is $ r 19 per acre.

"At this period our population of members and appli cants is as follows: men, forty-eight; women, thirty seven; adults, eighty-five; children under sixteen years, twenty-seven; making an aggregate of one hundred and twelve. "Dividing the sum of property by this number, we have an average investment for each man, woman and child, of over $ 700, or for each family of five per sons, say, $3,600. Dividing the sum of our permanent debt by the number of our population, the average to each person is, say, " 107. "For the purpose of comparing the pecuniary results of our industry to the individual, with like pursuits elsewhere, we nlake the follo'wing exhibition: In the year 1844 the average earnings of adults, besides their board, was three dollars and eighty cents a month, and the dividend for the use of capital was 4.7 per cent. 1845. Earnings of labor was $ 8.21 per month. of capital Q5. I per cent 1846. Earnings of labor 2.73 per month.

of capital 04.4 per cent. 1847. Earnings of labor 12.02 per month. of capital °5.6 per cent. r848. Earnings of labor 14 10 per month of capital 05.7 per cent 1849. Earnings of labor 13.58 per month. of capital 05.6 per cent. 1850. Earnings of labor 13.58 per lnonth. of capital 05.52 per cent. 1851. Earnings of labor 14.59 per month. of capital 04. 84 per cent.

NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. " It is to be noted that when we took possession of our domain, the land was in a reduced condition; and upon our improvements we have made no profit except ing subsequent increased revenue, they having been valued at cost. Also that our labors were mainly agricultural until within the last three years, when nlilling was successfully introduced. We have, it is true, carried on various mechanical branches for our own purposes, such as building, slnith-work, tin-work, shoemaking, etc.; but for purposes of revenue, we have not to much extent succeeded in introducing mechanical branches of industry. "Furthermore, we divide bur profits upon the follow ing general principles: For labors that are necessary, but repulsive or exhausting, we award the highest rates; for such as are useful, but less repugnant or taxing, a relatively smaller award is made; and for the more agreeable pursuits, a 'still slnaller rate is allo\ved.

"Thus observing this general formula in our classifi cation of labor, viz.: the necessary, the useful, and the agreeable; and also awarding to the individual, first, for his labor, secondly, for the talent displayed in the use of nleans, or in adaptation of means to ends, wise administration, etc., and thirdly, for the use of his capital; it will be perceived that we make our award upon a \videly different basis from the current method. We have a theory of awards, a scientific reason for our classification of labor and our awards to individuals; and one of the consequences is that women earn Ulore, relatively, among us than in existing society. "In matters of education we have hitherto done little else than keep, as we might, the common district school, introducing, however, improved methods of instruction.

AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. Other interests have pressed upon US; other questions clamored for solution. We were to determine whether or not we· could associate in all the labors of life; and if yea, then whether we could sufficiently command the material means of life, until we should have established institutions that would supersede the necessity of stren uous personal effort. It will be understood that this work has been sufficiently arduous, and consequently that our children, being too feeble in point of numbers to assert their rights, have been pushed aside." Here follows a labored disquisition on the possibilities of serial education, which we omit, as the substance of it can be found in the standard expositions of Fourierism. "If now we are asked, what questions we have detennined, what results we may fairly claim to have accomplished through our nine years of associated· life and efforts at organization, we may answer in brief, that so far as the members of this body are concerned, \ve meet the universal demand of this day with institutions which guarantee the rights of labor and the products thereof, of education, and a hon1e, and social culture.

This is not a mere declaration of abstract rights that \ve claim to make, but we establish our members in the possession and enjoyment of these rights; and we venture to claim that, so far as the comforts of home, pri vate righ ts and social privileges are concerned, our actual life is greatly in advance of that of any mixed population under the institutions of existing civilization, either in town or country. We claim, so far as with our small number we could do, to have organized labor through voluntary .A.ssociation, upon the principle of unity of interests; so reconciling the hitherto hostile· NORTH •AMERICAN PHALANX. parties of laborer and capitalist; so settling the world old, world-wide quarrel, growing out of antagonistic interests among men; that is, we have organized the production and distribution of wealth in agricultural and domestic labor, and in some branches of mechanics and manufactures, and thus have abolished the servile char acter of labor, and the servile relation of employer and employed. A.nd it is precisely in the point where failure was most confidently predicted, viz., in domestic labor, that we have most fully succeeded, because mainly, as we suppose, in the larger numbers attached to this industry we had the conditions of carrying out more fully the serial n1ethod of organization.

"In distributing the profits of industry we have adopted a law of equitable proportion, so that when the facts are presented, we have initiated the measure of attaining to practical justice, or in the formula of Fourier, 'equitable distribution of profits.' We claim also that we guarantee the sale of the products of indus try; that is, we secure the means of converting any and every form of product or fruit of labor at the cost there of, into any other form also at cost. For all our labor is paid for in a domestic currency. In other words, \vhen value is produced, a representative of that value is issued to the producer; and only so far as there is the produc tion of value, is there any issue of the representative of value; so that property and currency are always equal, and thus we solve the problem of banking and cur rency; thus we have in practical operation, what Proud hon vainly attempted to introduce into France; what Kellogg proposed to introduce under governmental sanction in this country; what Warren proposes to accomplish by his labor notes and exchanges at cost.

AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. "We might state other facts, but let this suffice for the present; and we will only say in conclusion, that when the organization of our educational series shall be completed, as we hope to see it, \ve shall thus have established as a body a measurably complete circle of fraternal institutions, in which social and private rights are guaranteed; we shall then fairly have closed the first cycle of our societary life and efforts, fairly have laid the germs of living institutions, of the corporations which have perpetual life, which gather all knowledges, which husband all experiences, and into the keeping of which we commit all material interests, and which only need a healthy development to change without injustice, to absorb without violence, the discords of existing society, and to unfold, as naturally as the chrysalis unfolds into a form of beauty, a new and higher order of human society.

"To carryon this work we need additional means to endow our agricultural, our educational, our milling and other interests, and to build additional tenements; and above all we need additional numbers of people who are willing to work for an idea; men and women who are competent to establish or conduct successfully some branch of profitable industry; who understand the social movement; who will come among us with worthy motives, and with settled purpose of fraternal cooperation; who can appreciate the labor, the con di~ions of life, the \vorth of the institutions we have and propose to have, in contrast with the chances of private gain accompanied by the prevailing disorder, the denial of right, and the ever-increasing oppressions of existing civilization. "The views of members and applicants upon the NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX. foregoing statement are expressed by the position of their signatures affixed below: Aye.

H. T. Stone, Eugenia Tholnson, Lucius Eaton, Leemon Stockwell, Alcander Longley, R. N. Stockwell, Herman Schetter, A. P. French, W. .A:. French, Nathaniel H. Colson, John Ash, J r , John French, John H. Steel, Mary E. F. Grey, Phebe T. Drew, Althea Sears, John Gray, H. Bell Munday, Robert J. Smith, Caroline M. Hathaway, J. R. Vanderburgh, Anna E. Hathaway, James Renshaw, Anne Guillauden, J. G. Drew, L. Munday, S. Martin, Chloe Sears, Joseph T. French, James Renshaw,Jr., N. H. Stockwell, Elnile Guillauden, Jr., C has. G. French, Ellen M. Stockwell, E. L. Holmes, Gertrude Sears, E. A. Angell, J. Bucklin, L. E. Bucklin, Edwin D. Sayre, O. S. Holmes, J ohnV. Sears, P. French, M. A. Martin, L. French, Z. King, Jr., D. H. King, A. J. Lanotte, W. K. Prentice, Julia Bucklin, -- Maynet. Nay. "Geo. Perry believes that difficulty arises from the selfish ness, class-interest and personal ambition, of Class No. I and 2; also, last and not least, absence of uniformity of attractions.

" J. R. Coleman endorses the above sentiments. James Warren, do. H. N. Coleman, do. "M. Hammond has very reluctantly concluded that the diffi culty is in the Institution and not in the members."