Warren considered "Utopia" a successful demonstration of all he had been asserting since his defection from Owenite socialism. In view of his later disappointments, this Ohio village is without doubt the outstanding example of decentralist social and economic principles in actual operating situations. His last visit, in the winter of 1855-56, was the occasion for an enthusiastic report to the public concerning its perseverance. "Utopia" by this time consisted of some forty buildings, about half of which were devoted to industrial purposes. Optimism radiated in the estimate of the accomplishments there:21
...my visit to that little germ of Equitable society, now eight and a half years old, has given me higher hopes and expectations than I had before dared to entertain. It is not the display that the little group of buildings make to the eye... but knowing the means by which these...had been acquired, and seeing that there the subject of Equity has had eight years and six months deep study and practical trial, and that from the beginning.... the subject had lost nothing with those who first took hold of it... but had gained ... from year to year in there highest judgment and affectionate regard.
The major energies of Warren and his associates had swung to the East by this time, however, where the more pretentious but less successful "Modern Times" was entering a critical period of its varying fortunes. Thus at the time of the report of the success at "Utopia" was being made, the Ohio group was already becoming less and less prominent in the eyes of the other individualists, and practically disappeared from the thoughts and literature of the articulate individualist anarchist propaganda in a later generation.
The impact of the Civil War and cheap lands westward had serious consequences for the little adventure in mutualism, as well as the prevailing policy of modesty with reference to publicity, which had a discouraging effect upon recruitment of additional settlers and potential converts.22
It is true that the experimental nature of "Utopia" precluded indiscriminate outside participation in its activities, a matter brought about by continual fear of widespread censure by moralists for harboring persons whose behavior might have been considered excessively unconventional.23 In view of the apprehension of the general conservative mind, especially concerning divergence in matter of thought and action of sexual nature, the policy of allowing the first settlers to choose subsequent permanent residents was undoubtedly a wise one.
As late as 1875 a few of the original settlers still occupied portions of the area, which by now had become known as Smith's Landing. Occasional reports indicated that some of the business transactions by the residents continued to be done on the labor exchange principle and that despite the serious depression then prevailing in the nation at large, labor notes on corn continued to be honored with little fluctuation from the first estimates made almost thirty years before.24 "Utopia" in the more correct sense, however, had ceased being of significance in American social life at least a decade before. When approached form the point of view of Josiah Warren, who conceived the venture as a proving ground for principles and not as an attempt to revolutionize American civilization, it was a qualified success. In a reminiscence made eight months before his death he declared that he experiment "worked to our satisfaction."25 It is in this matter of intention that the anarchist community differed from allied contemporary so-called "utopian" schemes; permanent survival at no time constituted a basic objective, at least as far as the settlements in question were concerned.
Warren nevertheless experienced a disappointment which was common among the reformers of mid-nineteenth century America. The faith in mere demonstration as a force sufficiently compelling to attract numerous followers can be found throughout the varied hues of the movement, accompanied by almost universal eventual rejection or unconcern. Warren's fond hope of numerous imitations of "Utopia" likewise foundered but not until the experiences of community life had been extended by the promise and dampened by the factionalism at "Modern Times".
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1.The word "socialism" meant many things to different persons in the mid-nineteenth century as it has continued to do in our own time. Albert Brisbane on of the great intellectuals of the Fourierites group, evinced considerable admiration for the French anarchist Proudhon, at one time declaring that he was the beginner of "modern Socialism". Redilia Brisbane, Albert Brisbane, 292,294. The continuing expansion of the definition of socialism in the present time can be seen for example in James Burnham, The Manergerial Revolution (New York, 1941), Chapter IX, XIV, and XV, the Lawerance Dennis, The Dynamics of War and Revolution (New York, 1940), xx-xxxi. See Introduction, Note 1.
2.From the point of view of anarchists, the significance of Considerant as a propagandist is the socialist cause has been singularly overlooked. See especially Chapter X, "The Origin of the 'Manifesto of the Communist Party,''' in W. Tcherkesoff, Pages of Socialist History (New York, 1902), 55-66, for an interesting comparison of the Marxian document with Considerant's Principes du Socialisme: Manifeste de la Democratie au Dixneuvieme Siecle, first published in Paris in 1843. Tcherkesoff here presents the anarchist case in accusing Marx and Engels of extensive plagiarism form Considerant. Using the parallels text method, Tcherdesoff finds Marx guilty of paraphrasing numerous passages and retaining the form and titles of a number of the same chapters. An interesting interpretation Considreant-Marx matter can be found in
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