Communists Turned Capitalists

MANNERS & MORALS

In seven handsome villages near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some 1,400 members of one of the nation's strangest sects sat down last week to sausages, hams, homemade cheeses, beer and wine. The Amana Society was celebrating the 100th anniversary of its charter in Iowa, and the neat homes, the television sets, the modern appliances and the new cars all testified to prosperity--a prosperity that Amana has enjoyed since it rejected communism and turned with all its zeal to capitalism nearly 30 years ago.

Like the Hutterites and other German pietist sects, the Amanas came to the U.S. from the Rhineland to escape state and established-church persecution for their beliefs, soon followed their prophet-leaders out to till 18,000 acres (since increased to 25,000) of rich Iowa prairie; they set up blanket mills and furniture shops, quarried sandstone and dug red clay for bricks to build austere homes and churches.

Communist Curtain. Amana's ex-peasants practiced a non-Marxist communism, holding all property in common because possessions foster false pride. Bearded church elders dictated every man's job, had the women cook for all in big communal kitchens, punished any show of vanity, such as wearing "world clothes" rather than modest calico.

Soon after World War I, outside influences began to creep behind Amana's calico curtain. Young people wanted more than the eighth-grade education allowed by the elders. Secret radios were heard in defiance of a church ban, bicycles appeared, and one man even drove a car home. Worst of all, young Amanas began drifting away, seeking work and a richer, livelier life in the cities. "Human nature simply asserted itself," Dr. Henry G. Moershel, 58, Amana's longtime president, explained last week. "People were getting their keep whether they worked or not, and many were starting little businesses on the side."

New Experiment. Faced with a breakdown of the discipline that made its communism work, Amana voted in 1932 to try capitalism. Land and shops were organized under a worker-owned corporation, which paid wages according to skill (up to $2 an hour now), sold the communal homes to members, let each family choose its own food, source of income, way of life. The new corporation, despite the Depression, promptly raised production of farm products, furniture and handmade textiles (1958 sales: $10 million). Profits replaced red ink the first year, rose to levels ($268,000 in 1958) that provided plow-back capital and paid dividends. Mechanic George Foerstner, who designed the colony's beer coolers, began making refrigerators and home freezers, and bought radio-TV time to sell the wares. By 1950, when his business got big enough to need more capital, he got Iowa financiers to pay Amana $1,750,000 for the plant. The money helped boost Amana Society's original $50 stock to its present value: $3,600 a share.

Though old Amana colonists view with sadness the passing of stern piety, they have no regrets for having forsaken communism--for Amana learned years ago the bitter lesson that other millions are learning today. "Communism," says Leader Moershel, "wasn't practical."

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