Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXII.





NEW YORK, SATÜRDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1878.





No. 551.





PiUilished Weekly by





TERMS.
ONE YE.'I.R, in advance....$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  AV.   SWEET.

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway





COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM.

The philosophy of history teaches that the
events of great cycles crystallize naturally about
soine controling f ocal principle, and that all great
epochs have distinctive and determinate charac¬
teristics. This broad induction is intended to
cover ar.d be applicable to the whole domain of
civilized history. And yet in this country, agita¬
tions and their conconiitant events present a suc¬
cession so coutinuous and unremitting, that the
historical critic must be sorely puzzied to analyze
and assort them. Agitations that threaten to
strike terror into the effete and tottering govern-
meuts of Europe appeai- as parts of the natural
Order of events and are regarded as exhibi-
tious of commendable and wholesome states of
feeliug in the rai'ified and stimulating atmosphere
of our young and vigorous republic. The repres¬
sive measures of old govemments not only excite
friction but inteusify it; while the absolute free¬
dom of debate and the uuqualified independence of
opiuion which are enjoyed in this country render
repressive measures uuuecessary and agitations
themselves harmless.

If we were classifying the epochs of our own
history, it would certainly be proper to desiguate
the present one as an epoch of social and industrial
agitation, as the preceding was oue of political
and goverumental changes.

Iu the absence of foreign wars or causes of war
aud of any startling or interesting topic of domes¬
tic politics, the present agitation of labor and hu-
manitarian doctriues fm-nishes a safe and needed
escape valve for the surplus intellectual and emo¬
tional forces of the country. The social warfare
that is now being waged is so laAvful, proper and
beneficent, that it chaUenges the attention and
con.^ideration of thoughtful and humane persons.
In its skeleton outlines it presents nothing more
than a revival or continuance of the ancient strife
between labor and capital—that vexatious and
unsettled controversy which either does not or
will not admit of any satisfactory couclu-
sion. These twin factoi-s of the world's civili¬
zation, so reciprocally dependent and yet so antag-
onistic, need the compulsion of some special mag-
natism to adjust their respeetive relations, in
Order that potential aud impressive forces like
these may be bound together in harmonious and
accordant action.

Lifting the question of tha day öut of the arena
of politics, non-partizan disputants seem to array
themselves onthe side of two apparently opposite
doctrines, which for convenience we have chosen
to call the doctrine of Communism and tbe doc¬
trine of Capitalism.

Without pretending to discuss these topics ex-
haustively, we simply propose to take the real





estate view of their significance and relationship,
and try to deteriuiue which one accords the more
consistcnly aud obviously with the reasonable in¬
terests aud purposes of real estate ownerehip.

Communism.—The tenets bound up in this single
doctrine, ordinarily embraced under this title,
are too numerous to admit of separate discussion.
In its most remote signification, it maj' be taken
to iniply the bare enunciation of the principle of
Integration, a blending of the individuals of a
community into a common mass or unit, and it
may be made to represent the familiär and be¬
nign idea of co-operation, the voluntary and
mutual association of individuals for a common
purpose or pursuit. These notions, and mauy
kindred ones %vhich have been eugrafted on the
trunk of Communism, and made to form natural
branches of the leading principle, are as old as
the authentic history of man. The fascination
that lurks about these ideas may be attributed in
part to their very antiquity, to the sanction
which traditionconfors upon them, tothe prestige
which they have carried down through the cen¬
turies. Ferhaps the tinge of religiousness with
which they are more or less imbued may further
account for their power to captivate the Imagina¬
tion, and win the allegiauce of men. This pecu¬
liar association of the communistic idea can
hardly be dwelt upon in a purely commercial
view of the subject, although church history
affords many striking aud perfect types of this
principle.

Whatever value the idea of Communism may
possess, it lacks the quality of novelty in
this country, because, from the foundation of the
government, we have had scattered colonies of
enthusiasts who have been zealously practicing
this doctrine in all its moods andinfiections, rang¬
ing from ascetic moralism to repulsive licentious-
ness. These organizations afford the opportunity
for persons who are interested to study the prae¬
tical workings of the system, and if moved to do
so to identify themselves personally with some of
its developments.

The limited and negative success of these iso-
lated experiments must be accepted as the popu¬
lär Amgrican judgment upon their value, and as
a sure augury of their future capabilities, at least
as far as this country is concei-ned. It is less of
a problem ho%v these ideas have crept into the
country or why they should be periodically agi¬
tated, than that they should be able to attract ihe
serious attention of the press and people, and so
assume an unwonted and undue importance.
The free hospitality which is extended by our
government to the Citizens of all other countries
renders the Union not only the ref uge of the op¬
pressed, but the chosen land of the restless and
visionary of all climes. An indisputable advan¬
tage possessed by this country in dealing with
these social problems, an advantage which has
the force without the odium of proscription, lies
in this very fact that many of the leading and
most seductive social and industrial theories are
indigenous, native and to the maonr born, and al¬
ready bave public and praetical illustratlons in va¬
rious seetions of the cotmtry. This condition, com-
biued witb perfect liberty of the Citizen and abso¬
lute toleration of opinion, deprives the new agita¬
tion of its f angs, and limits tbe field of its action.
However wildly and enthusiastictüly the dovotees





of these doctrines may preach them, and how¬
ever rauch such preaching may disturb the thrifty
and well-to-do classes, the supposition is self-
contradictiug and self-subversive that anj- large
majoritj' of American Citizens Avould addict
themselves to, or cherish, or tolerate the practices
of social and industrial Communism. Such doc¬
trines are the very autipodes of the liue of
American thought and of the principle of Amer¬
ican action; industrial Communism being as im-
practicable under our system as social Commun¬
ism would be offensive.

Casting aside, as unworthy of serious consiflera-
tion, the possibüity of anj- general adoption of
the extreme doctrines of Communism, we are led
to inquire what value there may be in the appli¬
cation of the milder tj-pes of the communistic
idea. Even in this young countrj-, co-operations,
in the form of corporate institutions, trade organ¬
izations and benevolent societies can boast in
many ca.ses of ancient pedigree. That form of
capital which is most zealously iuveighed against
by a certain class of agitators—incorporated cap¬
ital—is after all nothing more than an apt illus¬
tration of the CO operative or communistic prin¬
ciple—the aggregating of the wealth of individ¬
uals for the production of a common benefit.
The abuses of this form of Organization deserve
criticism more than the mere form itself ; and
these should be subjected to strict legislative con-
rol. The republican form of government, whether
federal, State or municipal is so far communistic
iu theory and practice as to compel and allow- the
sacrifice of individual righ'.s for the benefit of
the whole community. Certainly no more signal
exemplification of the communistic principle need
be sought after than the power which is possessed
by our city government to levy taxes almost
solely upon tho small number of Citizens who
happen to own real estate, and to apportion the
proceeds of these taxes among sinecure salarj--
men,and to wastefully scatter them in the pro¬
jection of elaborate and unnecessar j' public works,
The Communists have only to possess themselves
of govermental oßices in order to exp'ore the
füllest capacity of their doctrines, to bless or to
curse themselves and others.

This populär and captivating theorj- is also füll
of Strange paradoxes and contradictions. Iu the
best organized type of communistic society which
this countrj' presents, namely in the society of
Shakers, so far from there being a populär gov¬
ernment partieipated in by all the members. there
is a real hierarchy or oligarchj-; and, generally,
the shrewdest and most capable member is the
real leader and dictator. While affecting to
decry the value of Avealth, they are notoriously
known to possess the most inordinate greed for
money and a conspicuous propensity for hoarding
it; and while denying the right or propriety of
individual possession of property, and while call¬
ing upon the Legislature to limit the capacity of
individuals to possess it, they represent in them¬
selves an ownership of immense tracts of valuable
land to which they are constantly seeking to make
additions, suad with which they are rarely known
to part. Accustomed to exalt the merit of labor
and to dedaim against tbe inefficiency of capital,
they- illustrate, in their business establishments,
the higb order of thrift which is attainable by an
'ntelligent combination of capital and labor.