i8253 The Economists 



also passed that way "on foot, with a bundle of 

 plants under which a peddler might groan." 



The New Harmony movement, based on demo- 

 cratic principles, soon failed — some said because 

 Owen refused to deed over all the property; but the 

 common opinion is that there were too many man- 

 agers and too few workers. Community of own- roo 

 ership goes only with community of spirit. No J''^^ 

 permanent association is possible where drones 

 and workers have equal access to the honey cells. 

 Several other parallel experiments have taught 

 the same lesson — Brook Farm at West Roxbury, 

 Bellamy in British Columbia, and the still more re- 

 cent Kaweah Community on the flanks of the Sierra 

 in California. 



The New Harmony property had been bought by Rap 

 Robert Owen from Johann Rapp, head of a celibate 

 German sect called "the Economists," a group which sVonV 

 later formed a large settlement in central Pennsyl- 

 vania named "Economy." Each of Rapp's ex- 

 periments was a financial success because a single 

 will dominated. They were, indeed, theocracies, with 

 a head ruling autocratically by supposedly divine 

 right. According to Rapp, an angel appeared at his 

 bedside every morning to direct what each member 

 should do that day. The University of Indiana 

 still preserves the New Harmony "Angel Stone" on 

 which the celestial emissary is said to have stood. 

 This is a block of sandstone marked with the very 

 plain print of two bare feet, woman's size, the 

 great toe being made to stand out to prove that 

 it had never been cramped by a shoe! In addition 

 to this evidence of Rapp's pious ingenuity, Owen 

 found under the fields various tunnels from which 



c 193 'y 



and the 

 Angel 



