THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 



crowded centres get a footing in new countries, where 

 men may exert untrammcled energies, and move freely 

 in that atmosphere of social equality which is certain to 

 characterize new communities and likely to endure while 

 they continue small. 



In considering the net results of Greeley Colony, it is 

 important to note first that it has been thoroughly suc- 

 cessful. In this respect it presents a striking contrast to 

 the Fourier experiment, from which it may be said to 

 have descended. Each man prospered according to his 

 merit, and what the community undertook to do by 

 means of co-operation it accomplished. It cannot be said 

 that the latter principle was applied extensively. The 

 capital realized from the sale of property was so largely 

 absorbed in the construction of canals as to leave little 

 surplus for other industrial and commercial enterprises. 

 If one-half of this capital had been available for stores, 

 banks, and small industries, it is likely that much which 

 was necessarily left to private initiative would have been 

 undertaken by the colony. In that case we should find 

 broader lessons in co-operative effort than we do now. It 

 it is also important to note that the community owed its 

 prosperity to its high ideal and uncompromising public 

 spirit. There was here no common religious tie as in the 

 early New England colonies ; no shadow of persecution 

 such as that which bound the Mormon pioneers together 

 in an indissoluble brotherhood. The nearest approach 

 to this influence was the prohibition sentiment, and this 

 formed but a small part of the original plan. These colo- 

 nists were earnest men and women who had gone forth 

 to make homes where they could combine industrial in- 

 dependence with social equality and intellectual oppor- 



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