"The Cleveland administration had left the
country flat. And folks, in desperation, were trying this and that. A
group who came from the Eastern states, by train and some by team--
Began a self-supporting plan. It seemed a wondrous dream. My pa had
tried out politics, and gotten a rotten deal-- He said, "Let's try
the Colony. It promises a meal."
From the Poem...
"Do You Remember Equality?"
Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward--2000-1887, published
in 1887, was the most widely read piece of utopian fiction of its
time. By 1900, only Uncle Tom's Cabin had sold more copies
(Collins 58). Bellamy's work has become the most popular utopian
novel in American literature. As described by the author's main
character in the text, Julian West, a 30 year old Bostonian who falls
asleep in 1887 and is reawakened in the year 2000, future society is
one in which the competitive and conflictual nature of capitalism has
been overcome and all members of the culture live in economic
security and social harmony. Although Bellamy's novel claims to be
fiction, it is really little more than a tract outlining a new kind
of socialist political order. Bellamy's vision was powerful, but it
owes a large debt to the work of another author, Lawrence Gronlund,
who in 1884 published The Cooperative Commonwealth In Its
Outlines: An Exposition of Modern Socialism. This text and
Looking Backward came to be the basis for one of the most
concerted efforts to create in practice a socialist utopia--the
Equality Colony, founded in Washington state in 1897 by the political
order known as the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth
(BCC).
BCC was formed in 1895 by Norman Wallace Lermond, an activist from
Maine, in response to other communitarian organizations and movements
(like the Nationalist movement) which were loosely affiliated with
socialist ideas. BCC's three main objectives were stated in its
constitution:
1) to educate people in the principles of socialism
2) to unite all Socialists in one fraternal organization
3) to establish cooperative colonies and industries, and so far as is
possible,
concentrate these colonies and industries in one State until said
State is socialized
(LewarneUtopias 58)
The larger goal, of course, was to encourage
socialism on a nationwide scale. BCC was a small organization
boasting only three chapters in 1895 (Quint 283). However, Lermond
worked very hard at promoting the Brotherhood's philosophy and by
1898 he claimed over 3500 members and $70,000.00 in donations to
begin the colony (Lewarne "Equality" 138).
With the donated money, BCC acquired 600 acres on Puget Sound in
Washington State and in November, 1897 fifteen settlers founded the
colony called "Equality," named after Bellamy's last novel. The first
year of colony existence was devoted to immediate
practicalities--clearing the heavily wooded land and building
shelters. However, by the following year BCC had put out a call to
all socialists to come and join the colony. By the fall of 1898, over
300 people were living at Equality, coming mostly from Maine, New
Hampshire, Ohio, and California (Oved 262). As the colony began to
grow, members began to put Gronlund's social philosophy into
action.
The First Colonists and Homes at Equality
One of the first efforts was the implementation of economic
philosophy. The colony sustained itself by working with the greatest
natural resources of the area--timber, fish and fruit trees. However,
members also produced furniture, blacksmithing products, clothing and
a unique kind of coffee made from grain (Lewarne "Equality" 141).
These products were the collective property of the colonists and were
sold in the communally owned stores on the colony site and to outside
sources. Any goods not available internally were purchased from
outside communities with colony funds raised by the sale of lumber
(Oved 265). Men and women were paid weekly in "colony scrip" and
spent this for their necessities at the colony stores. After the
initial difficult work of building shelters and clearing the land,
the community began to prosper economically and was able to provide a
stable standard of living for its members for several
years.
However, this economic success would not have been
possible without the attitude of cooperation which permeated the
other social activities in the colony. While fathers and mothers
labored during the day, young children were cared for by "nurses" and
school-age children attended the colony school founded early in 1898.
The school taught traditional subjects with a socialist approach
based on Gronlund's philosophy of non-competition. Also associated
with the school were youth activities focused specifically on
socialist doctrine. Debates, discussions of socialist philosophy, as
well as musical events were held at the school and an extensive
library of socialist literature was available there for all colony
members (Oved 266).
Although the school was an important component of the colony, the
center of social activity was the communal dining hall. Three times
per day colony members shared meals and the responsibility for
preparing them. However, the dining hall became much more than a
place to eat--it was representative of the spirit of democracy in the
colony. As a social center it was often the site of the colony's
weekly government meetings. The government was called the General
Assembly--a group headed by a president and a board of directors who
were the elected representatives of various colony "departments" such
as lumbering, milling, and education (Lewarne "Equality" 142).
However, all men and women over eighteen were allowed to participate
in the weekly town meetings and to vote on issues affecting colony
life. Dealing with all issues big and small, the colony's government
was described by one observer as "the freest and most democratic
organization that ever existed in the United States" (142). Although
Gronlund's utopian vision was the dissolution of all government and
the natural ascension of the "State," Equality's early government
structure was certainly in line with this philosophy and had the
colony survived, it may have aspired to this ideal.
The Dining Room At Equality Colony
Colony life was fairly stable through the first few years. Both
economically and socially Equality was a success. Although no formal
religion ever prospered, Gronlund's vision of a kind of "spirituality
of human connection" seemed to prevail. However, about two years into
the project problems began to arise between the colony and BCC and
among colony members. Each of these conflicts is important to the
downfall of Equality.
From its beginning, the colony had been run primarily by people on site. However, BCC was still very interested in the political potential of Equality. As previously mentioned, the larger plan was to socialize the state of Washington and eventually the entire nation. As the colony began to establish itself, BCC became increasingly interested in developing other colonies. By late 1898, the Brotherhood wanted to begin this project and to run candidates for public office in an attempt to keep up the plan to socialize the state. In the same year, BCC moved its offices from Maine to the colony site to further these goals. However, Equality settlers felt that the colony was not yet well enough established economically to give up the financial support of BCC or to help support the development of other colonies. Lermond was persistent in his plan. However, the time spent doing this work took away from fund raising and by the middle of 1899 BCC membership had declined significantly from 3500 to fewer than 300 (Lewarne "Equality" 142). It became increasingly clear within the next year that although many Equality members still supported socialism, they had abandoned the plan to socialize the state and were much more focused on the success of their own collective.
Although there was still a commitment to a
socialist lifestyle within the borders of Equality, there were also
internal struggles which began around the time of the BCC
disagreement. Not surprisingly, most of the conflicts involved
economics. Local private fishing and timber industries were booming
and began to offer better wages than colony supported industry. As
economic opportunity blossomed in Washington State, many of the
families at Equality began to leave in search of better jobs. By
1903, there were only 38 people left at the original site (142).
Clearly, at this point the remaining settlers were simply attempting
to survive economically. As one historian of the colony admits, by
this time, Equality more closely "resembled almost any small rurally
isolated town in the western United States" than a radical experiment
in utopian socialism (144).
In 1905, the colony had a brief revival when a group of alleged
"anarchists, spiritualists and free lovers" arrived and briefly took
over the government structure (145). Based on the ideas of Austrian
economist Theodor Hertzka, the group reorganized the colony into
competitive economic units. However, conflict with the established
settlers led to this group's downfall as well. By early 1907, without
the financial support of BCC, Equality was in serious financial
difficulty. Unpaid taxes and debt to outside suppliers forced the
dissolution of the colony and of BCC. On June 17, 1907, a local judge
officially dissolved the colony (Lewarne Utopias 111). The
land was sold, the debts were paid and the leftover monies were
divided among the remaining colonists.
The colony's failure can be attributed most directly to the
abandonment of Gronlund's vision. In the introduction to The
Cooperative Commonwealth he argues that
what I try to do in this book is to take you by the arm, lead you
to a new point of view, and if you are not near-sighted, nor wear
colored spectacles, nor biased by your interest, you will surely
come to the same convictions (3)
Ironically, it was exactly the colony member's
"colored spectacles" and "bias of interest" in competition and
greater economic profit outside the community which lead to the
disintegration of the collective. The "near-sighted" focus on
individual material wealth, what Gronlund argued was a dominant
element of the "nature" against which people must fight, overcame the
more utopian vision of communal prosperity and social harmony.
Despite its failure, Equality was an important attempt at utopian
communitarian living and likely one of the most successful of its
time. In fact, some previous experiments had far less philosophical
grounding than did Equality and lasted for far fewer years. Its
failure in no way diminished the amount or significance of debate in
ensuing years and to the present about a socialist or more broadly
communitarian utopian vision.
Return to 1890s America: A Chronology.
Contributed by Wayne D. Sneath, American Culture Studies "1890s" course, Spring, 1996