Hi: This William A. Hinds was a dedicated communist in a form different from the Russian version. I found this online and am sending to the Hinds-L archives. Regards Nan 71532.734@compuserve.com =================================== Found at: http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/collections/w/WilliamAHindsAmericanCommunitie sCollection/ The William A. Hinds American Communities Collection BY MARK F. WEIMER . [Reprinted from the Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, Vol XXII, No. 1, Spring 1987] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Men will not be content to live every man for himself. In work, in art, in study, in trade-in all life, indeed-the children of God, called by a Savior's voice, will wish to live in the common cause. They will live for the common wealth, -this is the modem phrase. They will bear each other's burdens,-this is the phrase of Paul. They will live in the life of Love. - EDWARD EVERETT HALE. William A. Hinds lived for more than sixty years in the Oneida Community. His choice of this quotation for the title page of the 1908 edition of his American Communities well expressed his own commitment to communistic and cooperative living. Born in 1833 and apprenticed to John Humphrey Noyes' brother-in-law, John Miller, at age fourteen in Putney, Vermont, Hinds became a part of the Perfectionist Putney Community in its earliest years. He remained associated with the Oneida Community, the successor community, through its entire existence as a communistic society. When the Community was reorganized as a joint-stock company in 1881, Hinds was chosen to be a member of the first board of directors. He afterwards filled the offices of secretary and treasurer, and president of Oneida Community Ltd., a position he held from 1903 until his death in 1910. A member of the Oneida Community, Hinds played a prominent role as contributor to and editor of the Oneida Circular, as frequent superintendent of the Community's principal industries, and, throughout, as a leading member of the governing committees. At the advanced (for that time) age of thirty-four, he entered the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale and graduated with honors in 1870. A lifelong disciple of John Humphrey Noyes, Hinds was said to have committed to memory, on a wager for one dollar, the whole of Noyes' argument for "Salvation from Sin in this World", as printed on about forty octavo pages. His remarkable energy, inquisitiveness, and memory were cited often by his contemporaries. The study of the history of American communistic societies was largely initiated in the Oneida Community as a result of Noyes' interest in communicating with other groups through the exchange of visitors and by the publication of reports in the Community's newspapers. In 1870 Noyes published his History of American Socialisms (Philadelphia: Lippincott), a survey of forty-seven communities deriving from the researches of A. J. MacDonald. MacDonald's manuscripts,1 the result of extensive travel to communities and correspondence with founders and members of numerous groups between 1842 and 1854, had passed into Noyes' hands and provided him with rich primary sources for his study. Journalist Charles Nordhoff issued in 1875 his Communistic Societies of the United States (New York: Harper & Brothers). That work was based on the author's visits to communities and offered a more current and somewhat more detached view of communal societies than Noyes' work. Nordhoff was generally sympathetic toward these communal undertakings, seeing in them alternatives to the labor-oriented socialism that was gaining strength in his native Germany. The year after the appearance of Nordhoff's work, Hinds was dispatched by the Oneida Community to visit many of the same communistic and socialistic societies and report his findings in the American Socialist, the Community's last serial publication. These findings were collected in 1878 and issued under the title American Communities (Oneida: Office of the American Socialist). Hinds' work was not intended to compete with the work of Noyes and Nordhoff; rather, he suggested that "thousands who might be glad to acquaint them-selves with the results of practical Communism in this country cannot afford to purchase these large and comparatively expensive works" and that the availability of his book would possibly stimulate demand for those more comprehensive studies. While not broadly distributed, Hinds' work was, nonetheless, well received. Following the breakup of the Oneida Community, Hinds devoted his energies toward the business concerns of Oneida Community Ltd. However, he remained committed to the principles of communistic living and was most active in developing community organizations and structures to supplant those lost by the dissolution of the old Community. He also continued to gather information to revise and expand American Communities. Using the structured survey approach of a twentieth-century social scientist, Hinds contacted as many colonies as he could identify to bring his work "down to date". Fortunately, a copy of this questionnaire survives in the Collection and is presented below. While most of the respondents were not systematic in providing answers to each question, the document is both revealing of Hinds' own orientation and special interests and suggestive of the type of material that he received in reply. American Communities Questionnaire 1. Name of the communistic or cooperative society described. 2. When and where was this society started? 3. How many members are there of each sex; also how many children under 15 years of age? 4. What was the nature of the site chosen? 5. What property does the society own, and what is its valuation? 6. Is the society in debt? If so, to what extent? 7. Has the society received help from outside sources? 8. Is the society incorporated? 9. What are the requirements for admission into the society? 10. What nationalities are represented in the society? 11. What are the industries of the society? 12. What are the hours of work? 13. Do they employ outside help? 14. What are the regulations respecting the distribution of the products? 15. What comprises the executive head of the community, and what is the form of government? 16. Do all members, male and female, have equal rights and privileges? 17. What are the rules of discipline? 18. Is the society on a religious basis? If so, what is the form of their belief? 19. If they are not on a religious basis, what is their attitude toward religion? 20. What is their attitude toward the relation of the sexes? 21. Has the society met with any losses, either from dishonesty in management, or from any other causes? 22. Can I obtain a copy of the constitution or of any other document which will help me to understand the principles of the society? 23. If the society has disbanded, please state as fully as possible the reasons for the action. Was there disagreement, or lack of funds? 24. Further remarks may be made on the other side of this sheet. In 1902 Hinds published a new edition (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr), which he again expanded as the "second revision" in 1908. These extensions of his work, based on the results of his correspondence and survey of communities, enlarged its coverage to more than 140 communistic enterprises and secured its place as an authoritative primary source for information on American communistic societies before 1908. Other surveys have been prepared in this century carrying on the tradition established through the seminal work of Mac-Donald, Noyes, Nordhoff, and Hinds.2 In 1982 the Oneida Community Historical Committee transferred to the Syracuse University Libraries the extant records of the Oneida Community including thirteen archival boxes of original research files developed by William Hinds for the revised editions of his American Communities. These files include his correspondence with individuals and communities, together with those documents which he received in connection with his questionnaire. A list of communities for which there is material is appended. This collection is an important and largely untapped resource available to those interested in the history of nineteenth-century communistic societies in America. (Nan ommited that names of the communities because it makes this message too long. But, there was an astonishing amount of them.) Use the URL above to view their names. -------- 1. A. J. MacDonald, "Communities in the United States", Manuscript collection in Beinecke Library, Yale University (microfilm copy in the George Arents Research Library) . 2. From the important survey and census literature can be mentioned: Alexander Kent, "Cooperative Communities in the United States", Bulletin of the Department of Isihor 35 (July 1901): 563-646; F. A. Bushee, "Communistic Societies in the United States", Political Science Quarterly 20 (December 1905): 625-64; Ralph Albertson, "A Survey of Mutualistic Communities in America", Iowa journal of History and Politics 3 (October 1936): 375-444; and Robert S. Fogarry, Dictionary of American Communal and Utopian History (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980). Mark F. Weimer is Rare Book Librarian in the George Arents Research Library for Special Collections at Syracuse University, and Editor of the Oneida Community Papers