Chapter XXXVI: The North American Phalanx

This was the test-experiment on which Fourierism practically staked its all in this country. Brisbane was busy in its beginnings; Greeley was Vice-President and stockholder. Its ambitious name and its location near New York City helped to set it apart as the model Phalanx. It was managed with great ability, and on the whole was more successful both in business and duration, than any other Fourier Association. It not only saw all the Phalanxes die around it, but it outlasted the _Harbinger_ that blew the trumpet for them; and fought on, after the battle was given up. Indeed it outlived our friend Macdonald, the 'Old Mortality' of Socialism. 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 acknowledgement of the continuance and prosperity 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.

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 summary 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 co-operate 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 thousand dollars,
thus making the attempt with adequate means to establish the
conditions of attractive industry.

"The essays and books above mentioned 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
profoundly impressed by Fourier's sublime annunciation of the
general destinies of globes and humanities; that progressive
development through careers, characterized all movement and all
forms; that in all departments of creation, the law of the
series was the method observed in distributing harmonies;
consequently, that human society and human activity, to be in
harmony with the 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
more active uses, become bases of further development.

"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 doctrines 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, formally adopted
rules of organization on the 6th of April, 1843, and the
declaration of their objects is in the following words: 'We, the
undersigned, for the purpose of investigating Fourier's theory
of social reform as expounded by Albert Brisbane, and if deemed
expedient, of co-operating 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. Brisbane, 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
commission was appointed to explore the country, more
particularly in the vicinity of New York and of Philadelphia,
for a suitable domain upon which 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 co-operated
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 claims originally stated, was indeed a great
falling-off; but the few who had committed themselves with
entire faith to the movement, went forward, determined to do
what they could to make a worthy commencement, hoping that with
their own families and such others as would from time to time be
induced to co-operate, the germs of new institutions might
fairly be planted.

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

"During the year 1844 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
construction 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, announced 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, education tended strongly to confirm 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 prejudices, 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 American Phalanx
now [1852] remains. Nor did this Association 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 formed under other influences.

"Personal difficulties occurred as a matter of course, but
these were commonly overruled by a healthy sentiment 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 individuals, 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 maintain 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 organization
indicated by Fourier should be initiated. In the 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 distinctly 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 important, 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 disorder, and wherein it differs from other
social forms.

"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 human activity;
so that the individual shall be emancipated from the servitude
of nature, from personal domination, from 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.

"In the Phalanx, then, we have, in the sphere of production, 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 irresistible corporate employer; but by
every one becoming his own employer, doing that which he is best
qualified by endowment to do, receiving for his labor precisely
his share of the product, as nearly as it can be determined
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 commerce or exchanges, reducing this from a
speculation as now, to a function; employing only the necessary
force to make distributions; and exchanging 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 organic vitality. Commencing
with the nursery, we make, through the living corporation,
through adequately endowed 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
providing that, through uses, the science that lies back of uses
shall be acquired; so theory and practice, the application of
science to the pursuits of life shall, through daily use, become
as familiar as the mother tongue; and thus place our children at
maturity in the ranks of manhood and womanhood, competent to all
the duties and activities of life, that they may be qualified by
endowment 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 administration 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 formula, that the religious
element in man is the passion of unity; that is, that all the
powers of the soul shall attain to true equilibrium, and act
normally in accordance 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 organization;
because, unaided, the individual makes but scanty conquests over
nature, and but feeble opposition to social usurpations.

"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.

"Not that the old questions did not arise subsequently; 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
co-operative efforts, joint-stock property, and unity of
interests, that those holding adverse views gradually withdrew;
and the harmony of the Association was never afterward in
serious jeopardy.

"During the later as well as earlier years of our associated
life, the question of preference of modes of realization 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 conventions of the school, held to the view that new social
institutions, 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, as of
the individual man, is the progressive development 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 progressive 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 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 embodiment of the religious
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 means 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 movement 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 perfect, while no terms of
opprobrium could sufficiently characterize the depravity of the
Socialists; and this question is that of the marriage relation.
Upon this question a form of society that is so notoriously
rotten as existing civilization is, a society that has marriage
and prostitution 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 with common
candor any and all who are seeking the Divine law of marriage.
Instead, therefore, of recognizing 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.
Nevertheless 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 certain 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 determined 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 constituent of the
State; in a single phrase, when society shall, independently of
other considerations than that of inherent 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 acceptance; 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 adequate solution
of this problem that is convulsing you, and in which every form
of private and public protest against the actual condition is
expressing itself. Besides this we claim what can not be claimed
for any similar number of people in civilization, viz., that we
have been here over nine years, with an average population 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, determining 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 balances due members, say, $18,000. The
remainder was debt incurred in purchasing the land, $9,000;
implements, etc., $1,000; total, $10,000.

"Our population at this period, including members and
applicants, was nearly as follows: 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; permanent 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 $119 per
acre.

"At this period our population of members and applicants 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 persons, 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
make the following 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 05.1 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 05.6 per cent.

1848. 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 month.
of capital 05.52 per cent.

1851. Earnings of labor 14.59 per month.
of capital 04.84 per cent.

"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 excepting subsequent increased revenue,
they having been valued at cost. Also that our labors were
mainly agricultural until within the last three years, when
milling was successfully introduced. We have, it is true,
carried on various mechanical branches for our own purposes,
such as building, smith-work, tin-work, shoe-making, etc.; but
for purposes of revenue, we have not to much extent succeeded in
introducing mechanical branches of industry.

"Furthermore, we divide our profits upon the following 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 smaller rate
is allowed.

"Thus observing this general formula in our classification 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 means, 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 widely 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 more, 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. 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 strenuous
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 determined, 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, we meet the universal demand of this day with
institutions which guarantee the rights of labor and the
products thereof, of education, and a home, and social culture.
This is not a mere declaration of abstract rights that we 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, private rights 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 Association, upon the principle of unity of
interests; so reconciling the hitherto hostile 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
character of labor, and the servile relation of employer and
employed. And 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 method 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 industry; that is, we secure the means of converting
any and every form of product or fruit of labor at the cost
thereof, into any other form also at cost. For all our labor is
paid for in a domestic currency. In other words, when value is
produced, a representative of that value is issued to the
producer; and only so far as there is the production 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 currency; thus we have in practical
operation, what Proudhon 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.

"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, we 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 carry on 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 co-operation; who can
appreciate the labor, the conditions of life, the worth 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 foregoing
statement are expressed by the position of their signatures
affixed below:

_Aye._

H.T. Stone, Eugenia Thomson, E.L. Holmes,
Lucius Eaton, Leemon Stockwell, Gertrude Sears,
Alcander Longley, R.N. Stockwell, E.A. Angell,
Herman Schetter, A.P. French, J. Bucklin,
W.A. French, Nathaniel H. Colson, L.E. Bucklin,
John Ash, Jr., John French, Edwin D. Sayre,
John H. Steel, Mary E.F. Grey, O.S. Holmes,
Phebe T. Drew, Althea Sears, John V. Sears,
John Gray, H. Bell Munday, P. French,
Robert J. Smith, Caroline M. Hathaway, M.A. Martin,
J.R. Vanderburgh, Anna E. Hathaway, L. French,
James Renshaw, Anne Guillauden, Z. King, Jr.,
J.G. Drew, L. Munday, D.H. King,
S. Martin, Chloe Sears, A.J. Lanotte,
Joseph T. French, James Renshaw, Jr., W.K. Prentice,
N.H. Stockwell, Emile Guillauden, Jr., Julia Bucklin,
Chas. G. French, Ellen M. Stockwell, ---- Maynet.

_Nay._

"Geo. Perry believes that difficulty arises from the
selfishness, class-interest and personal ambition, of Class
No. 1 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 difficulty
is in the Institution and not in the members."