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CHAPTER XLV

COMMUNISM

Compulsion versus freedom. The schemes for the improve ment of social conditions fall into two general classes: first, those which rely upon the compulsory power either of a benevolent despot or of the mass over the individual; and, second, those which rely upon voluntary work by individuals under the principle of free contract. Among those which rely upon the authority of the mass or group over the individual, communism is the most extreme. It is sometimes called coöperation, but it is compulsory coöperation as distinguished from voluntary coöperation. The compulsion is made complete by the fact that the community, or the group, owns all the property and the individual owns none. All the processes of production and distribution are carried on by the community as a whole rather than by individual initiative and voluntary agreements among individuals.

Meaning of communism. Communism may therefore be defined as a type of social organization in which all wealth, including both producers' goods and consumers' goods, is owned and controlled by the community. It differs from socialism in that the latter proposes that the community shall own and operate only producers' goods, leaving the consumers' goods to be owned and enjoyed by individuals. A completely communistic society, for example, would own the dwelling houses and even the food and clothing, but would distribute these to the individual members very much as they are now distributed within the small group which we call the family. From a certain point of view we might say that the ideal family of to-day is a small communistic group in which all property is held in

common and enjoyed in common rather than separately by the individual members of the family.

Relation to anarchism. Theoretically, communism would be at the opposite end of the scale from anarchism, which is an absence of all government, at least the absence of all compulsory government. In actual fact, however, it is not always easy to distinguish between a communist and an anarchist. As a matter of fact, there is a considerable group of individuals who call themselves communist-anarchists; that is, they are opposed to any kind of government which resembles those with which we are now acquainted. They would substitute small communistic groups, each one working more or less independently of the others, and make such voluntary arrangements for exchange of products as they might find to their mutual advantage. In so far as they would oppose all compulsion, they would be called anarchists; in so far as they would have all wealth owned in common, at least within small groups, they would be called communists. Unless, however, the small group could exercise some compulsory control over the property of the group, it would be anarchism rather than commu-nism. If the group did exercise orderly control over its own property to the exclusion of individuals and of rival groups, it would be compelled to exercise compulsion and would therefore, to that extent, cease to be anarchistic and become purely communistic.

Utopias. Naturally enough, communism has never been tried on a large scale. It has been advocated by many philosophers, both ancient and modern. Many pictures have been drawn of ideal societies in which communism was the outstanding feature. Plato, in his "Republic," pictured such an ideal commonwealth; not only was all wealth to be held in common, but wives and children likewise. Defective children, or children who seemed likely to be a burden rather than a help to the State, were to be disposed of in early infancy. Sir Thomas More, in his "Utopia," presented another picture of an ideal

society based upon communism. In order to give an impression of reality he pictured some travelers in South America who had discovered a new country, in which communism prevailed. Francis Bacon gave us a somewhat fragmentary picture of his ideal of society in his "New Atlantis." Tommaso Campanella, in "The City of the Sun," and various other writers, have kept alive the ideal of a communistic society. In more recent times we have such books as News from Nowhere," by William Morris, "The Coöperative Commonwealth in its Outlines," by Laurence Gronlund, and "Looking Backward," by Edward Bellamy. This is a list of distinguished writers, and their books make attractive reading. They show pretty clearly how persistently the world has dreamed of social conditions in which there should be no rivalry of interests, no quarreling and bickerings over questions of property, of mine and thine.

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It is not very difficult to show where these pictures are defective and how impractical such schemes of social organization are. The world at large, or at least a great majority of the people of the world, has put very little confidence in these proposals; but probably no generation has been without a certain number of spirits who have retained their belief in those peculiar ideals of justice and economy which these Utopian works have set forth.

Experiments. The primitive Christians. Nor have actual experiments been wanting. The primitive Christian Church is frequently referred to as an example of communism. One or two passages in The Acts of the Apostles indicate that the first Christians, at least, maintained a communistic fund for the maintenance of impecunious members. For a short time. they appear to have put practically all of their possessions into a common fund. It will also be noticed that they not only put their possessions into a common fund, but they stopped working and remained together in one place, awaiting the second coming of the Lord. This makes it appear as though

communism were not with them an ideal scheme of social organization but merely a convenient arrangement by means of which they could live while preparing for the end of the world and their sudden translation to heaven.

The Spartans. The Spartan commonwealth is likewise referred to frequently as a communistic society. According to the account given in Plutarch's "Life of Lycurgus," there were many communistic features about the life of the Spartans. It appears to have been the communism of a military camp, however, for the Spartans themselves were only a small clan, or caste, ruling over a much larger population of subject people. In order that they might be strong in a military sense, and hold the masses of the people in subjection, they organized themselves very much as a military camp has always been organized. There was no communism whatever for the mass of the people. It extended only to the small aristocratic and ruling class called Spartans.

The monasteries. Most of the monasteries of the Middle Ages were organized on a communistic basis. They also practiced celibacy, showing that they did not regard communism as the ideal basis of a continuing human society. The whole monastic life was organized for the purpose of promoting spirituality rather than for the purpose of reforming human society.

The Taborites. Certain extreme sects among the early Protestants attempted some kind of communistic life without celibacy, but never made much of a success. Conspicuous among these were the Taborites, an extreme faction of the followers of John Huss, the Bohemian reformer. They withdrew from the city of Prague and started a community on a hill to which they gave the name Mount Tabor. They hence became known as the Taborites. So long as they were thoroughly united by their religious sentiments they worked very successfully, not only in productive industry but even in war, for the great Austrian Empire sent army after army against

them. They defeated the imperial armies because of the superiority of their organization. But eventually dissensions arose among them; they were divided and overthrown, and their community was broken up.

American experiments. America has been a fruitful field for the trying out of all sorts of experiments. Many of the first colonists came here because they were inspired by religious sentiments. They founded colonies where their religious ideas could flourish. This continent presented a virgin field where people with peculiar ideals of religious organization or of social economy could come and put their ideals to the test.

The outline on the following page gives a rough classification of the more important of these experiments. There were many not included in this list, which were either unimportant as to numbers or so short-lived as to make them unworthy of mention. It will be noticed that the long-lived communities were all religious in their nature. Of the nonreligious communities only one, namely, the Icarians, lasted a single generation, whereas several of the religious communities have lasted half a century, and one group of communities, namely, the Shakers, has several colonies that have survived for more than a century.

Religious communities. Most of the religious communities, it will be noticed, are of foreign origin, and most of these are of German origin. The Shakers are placed among those of American origin. As a religious sect the Shakers originated in England, but they made their experiments in communism in this country. They have established numerous colonies from Maine to Kentucky. They are celibates, and therefore could have no continuing existence unless they continued to make converts. This they have failed to do in recent years, and consequently the Shaker communities are dying out as the old people drop away.

The Perfectionists originated in Vermont under the leadership of Mr. John Humphrey Noyes. They afterwards moved

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