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Reprinted from The Open Court of October, 1919.
FEB 2 1920
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ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD’S FARM.”
RECORD OF A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.
BY THEODORE SCHROEDER.
A-
N the old life of sin-in-the-flesh he had another name. Now he
lives in the spiritual rebirth. When the divinity within him came
to rule his life he was re-christened as Paul Blaudin Mnason. Some
hailed him the “New Christ” and others reviled him as the Anti-
christ. Scoffers called him “the Boss of the Angel-dancers.” At
least, he was the “spiritual” boss of the “Lord's Farm,” in Bergen
County, N. J. When I told him that I was going to write about
him under the title of “Anarchism at ‘the Lord's Farm,’” he almost
lost his “spiritual” poise, in protest against being identified with
anarchists. And yet, he lived the life of anarchism without pro-
fessing or even knowing its doctrines. When the more conscious
anarchists claimed him he hated them, probably because they pro-
fessed the doctrine without living the life. And yet, for twenty
years he, with others, worked out an experiment at living the life
of the anarchist-communist. Now I intend to tell the story of that
experiment and to point out some useful lessons to be learned
therefrom.
When this latter-day Paul first acknowledged the supreme
authority of the “divinity” within him, he felt always under a
strong compulsion to bear his testimony for “truth and right.”
Wherever he went, he sought opportunity to uphold both. He went
among those who advertised their liberality as well as those of
conspicuous orthodoxy. Everywhere he met with more or less of
violent hostility. The “liberals” denied him free speech because
he was a “nut.” The orthodox called the police or threw him out
of their places of worship, because “they could not bear the clearer
purer light” from this “son of God.” Once after a peculiarly hard
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590 THE OPEN COURT-
treatment, this new apostle of “truth and right” made a solemn
promise that if God ever permitted him to have a place of his own,
that then and there liberty would prevail. Later on, by virtue
of the “divinity within,” the latter-day Paul cured a very sick
maiden of an “incurable disease.” Through this miracle the way
was opened, “the Lord's Farm” was established, and there “Chris-
tian liberty” reigned supreme. At the Lord's Farm unconscious
anarchists, or conscious Christian communists, established Utopia,
a miniature edition of heaven upon earth. Here many of the
despised of the world found spiritual and economic regeneration.
Others found the Lord's Farm a way-station on the road to sui-
cide, or to the insane asylum. The fences along the road were torn .
down, and the doors and windows were always left unlocked in order
that all might have easy access to free grace and free board. Thus
they helped even the neighbor's hired man to get a comfortable
lodging after a Saturday night's debauch. It also helped doctri-
naire anarchists to put their theories to the test of practice.
Theory of the Lord's Farmers.
In the Kingdom of Heaven there could be no private property,
nor any privileges but the privilege of service. Paul refused a
deed to the Lord's Farm, because it implied too much ownership.
Even a mere formal lease from sister Blaudina was a bad compro-
mise between the godly ideal and the human way of doing things.
A lease was taken, however, but that did not give any one within
the sacred precincts greater liberty or authority than was enjoyed
by any of the rest. Blaudina was not the name her parents gave
her. By this new name she symbolized the fact that she had been
physically and spiritually reborn. The godless called her the “beau-
tiful little angel-dancer” of the Lord's Farm. §
No books of account were kept at the Lord's Farm. In the
Kingdom of God no record of material things could be preserved.
If the more precious jewels of spiritual salvation were forever
free to all, then of course, the lesser things of the material world
must be equally free. Upon this principle, rooted in universal love,
the Lord's Farm was conducted.
Persecution and Publicity.
Such lofty pretense at living the life of Christian liberty offends
no one so long as it is not translated into practice. But the pre-
vailing pharisaism will never forgive the combination of practice
with profession. To combine practice with profession is a constant
- 2
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 591
reproach to those who only pretend, and these are always resentful.
So friction arose between the Lord's Farmers and their materially-
minded, spiritually-pretentious neighbors. Reviling was followed
by persecution. Psychologically it is true that those who have in
their closet the most troublesome skeletons always have the strongest
urge to throw the first stone at their less fallible but erring neigh-
bors. Woodcliff Lake, N.J., may have been an exception. Anyway,
mobs cut Paul's hair and pulled out his whiskers. This was fol-
lowed by arrests for Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy; conspiracy
to defraud and running a disorderly house; kidnapping and raping
and almost everything else in the criminal code. Convictions were
actually secured against Paul for the blasphemy of allowing himself
to be adored as a Son of God. Practically all the other criminal
charges were dismissed, or resulted in acquittal. The Lord's Far-
mers thought that if God's Law is to prevail human laws must be
ignored and lawyers should not be employed in the defense of
God's own. Turn the other cheek was the rule. Only spiritual
victories were sought and in the godless tribunals of “justice”
these could be best obtained by means of non-resistance. “Direct
action” is the modern phrase, I believe. In some of these prosecu-
tions the indictment called Paul by the name of Mason T. Huntsman.
Most strenuously he repudiated this name. In fact he was just as
anxious to disown the name, as were his relatives and namesakes
to have him do so. Some of these reside on Fifth Avenue, facing
Central Park in New York City.
Free newspaper advertising followed in abundance upon prose-
cution. Publicity brought all those whom the world calls “cranks,”
all those who have theories of superiority with which to explain
their status as the world’s misfits. The Jew and the Chinaman,
the Christian Scientist and the Papist, the Methodist and New
Thoughter, the Swami and Christian clergymen, spiritualists, theos-
ophists, atheists, anarchists, and socialists; all these came, prayed
or cursed, worshiped or persecuted, soothed or quarreled, according
to varying understanding and temperaments. They came and went
as they pleased. Some stayed for hours, some for days, and a few
stayed for years. During eighteen years the Lord's Farm fed three
thousand persons. Some were cleansed of body and some in soul.
Many were restored in self-respect and social usefulness. All this
was done without asking any questions or imposing any conditions.
Here all was free as the saving grace of God. From each according
to his ability, to each according to his needs, was the only rule that
each would impose upon himself, as soon as he saw the light.
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592 THE OPEN COURT.
A Daniel from Boston.
Among those who came was Daniel Haines. Daniel came from
Boston. An overdose of Boston culturine had unhinged Daniel's
reason, if we may express it in unspiritual language. Daniel came
in the role of him who has the right to sit in judgment and to try.
the faith of the elect. He surely and sorely tried the patience of
the elect, if not their faith. Daniel challenged even the righteousness
of Paul. The Holy Ghost in Daniel questioned the superior wisdom
of the divinity in Paul. Daniel of unhinged reason, went and un-
hinged also the doors so that the worldly ones outside might hear
the disputes within, which he provoked and which he hoped would
discredit the original inmates of the Lord's Farm, to his own credit.
Daniel shouted loud. Paul tried to hold his peace and his godly
supremacy. The quieter Paul became, the madder Daniel grew.
Soon Daniel grabbed Paul and put him three points down on the
floor. With the help of the spirit Paul rolled him over. But Paul
refused to use his physical advantage to administer a beating, and
instead the physical advantage was coined into a spiritual victory.
Daniel was released and asked what next he had to offer. That
ended the row. In youth Paul had learned that nothing was so
embarrassing to the obstreperous ones as not to oppose them.
But Daniel was controlled by a turbulent Bostonian spirit of
superiority that must yet vaunt itself by subordinating Paul who
seemed the natural leader. Again at dinner the disputatious spirit
of Daniel came to the surface. When Daniel could not dominate
Paul in matters of spiritual disputation, he could at least take it
out on the furniture. So Daniel proceeded to exhibit his spiritual
culture by picking up the dishes from which about fifteen people
had been fed, and one by one he hurled them to destruction on the
floor. The molasses pot and the gravy dish were included. No one
interfered. Paul got up and followed him around the table. When
Daniel grew weary of spirit or muscle, Paul advised him to finish
his work. There were yet too many dishes unbroken. “Go on.
Brother Daniel, finish your job if you feel like it, there are plenty
more dishes where these came from.” And Brother Daniel went
merrily on dashing and jingling dishes into pieces, until there were
no more dishes to jingle.
An Arrest.
Just when the last dish had gone to destruction, there came
some strangers to the house. They had a warrant for Paul and
4
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 593
various John Does and Jane Does for conspiracy to defraud Blau-
dina's father of the farm. All present were arrested. The omnipo-
tent representatives of law and order were amazed at the bushels
of broken utensils that confronted them. These worldly men did
not understand the things of the spirit and so assumed they had
interrupted a riot. They gathered up a lot of fragments of dishes
to use as evidence. These with broken and unbroken spirits were
hustled off to jail. Blaudina's father had caused the arrest of the
whole group including Blaudina's brother “Titus” and their mother.
Nothing came of the conspiracy charge. It existed only in the boozy
brain of the old man, stimulated by his necessities, his morbid sus-
picions and greedy relatives. After six months in jail all were dis-
missed as to the conspiracy charge.
But the evidence of disorderly conduct was absolutely con-
clusive. Such a sight as these officers beheld could be found only
in a “disorderly house.” Thus a new charge was made. Paul and
Phoebe and all the newly accused ones except Blaudina's mother
were found guilty. Paul and Phoebe were sentenced to State
Prison. The others appear to have been turned loose without sen-
tence or on suspended sentence. Yet they protested. They wanted
to share all the physical discomfiture and spiritual triumph of Paul
and Phoebe. As usual in such cases, the love of law and order
probably was a mere convenient pretense to be used in the vain
hope of lessening the influence of Paul and Phoebe, over Blaudina.
her mother and brother, so as to save the property for other rela-
tives. Daniel, probably the only real disturber of the peace, was
also released. He had not a sufficiently alluring disposition to
endanger possible future legatees. In such matters judges some-
times have a very human understanding of property values, greater
than their love of equality and liberty for such as Blaudina, or Paul
and Phoebe. The family boycotted Herman the Cobbler, who was
Blaudina's father in the flesh. He wearied of the sole supremacy
on the farm. Soon he begged forgiveness, and was taken back as
a soul in need of help. At times nothing is so distressing as to have
one's own way.
Daniel Takes a Horse.
On the return from prison all were again united in Christian
love at the Lord's Farm. Daniel was known in the spiritual rebirth
as “Silas the Pure.” Even he was there and great spiritual joy
prevailed among the elect. However, “Silas the Pure” remained
disputatious and restless. One time he hitched up the best horse
5
594 THE OPEN COURT.
to the best phaeton, and announced that he and Brother Samuel
had decided to leave the Lord's Farm for good and ever. When
asked if he intended to take the horse, he said, “Yes, everything is
free here and I am going to exercise my freedom by taking the
horse and phaeton.” No one protested then. Down the road aways
Daniel and Samuel stood up in the phaeton and waved their last
farewell. The assembled residents of the Lord's Farm waved
back a farewell with shouts of “Amen I Praise the Lord.” Silas
might gain a horse and phaeton but what profiteth that if thereby
he lost his own soul? The spiritual victory would still be with the
Lord's Farmers.
Only one person became excited about the loss of the horse
and phaeton. Sister Elizabeth, a new-comer, protested vigorously.
“Are you not going after the horse?” she demanded of Paul.
“No 1 No!” said Paul. “If the Lord wants me to have that horse
or another He will provide it. I will never go after that horse till
I am led by the spirit.” The Lord's people sold fruit at a neigh-
boring village. A few days later word came from there that some
farmer had taken in the horse and phaeton which was ambling
driverless up the road. In due time both were returned to the
Lord's Farm, and under the Lord's guidance, of course. “The Lord
giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Charles and Louis.
Charles Hammond the infidel came to the farm out of curiosity,
only to see the “modern Christ.” Curiosity became interest, and he
remained to work with the Lord's own. Charles always remained
an opponent of Christianity, good-naturedly cursing all theology and
gods. But Charles liked the Christian freedom. Like the rest he
allowed his hair and beard to grow and soon the blatant infidel
became a reproduction of the idealized youthful physical Jesus.
Charles had a practical streak in him and was the best worker that
ever came to the farm. Communism must be proven a success, he
thought.
Louis Anderson had been commanded by God to give up his
small store and all other work, to preach the Gospel. But the Lord
did not provide well. In his hour of need Louis also turned to
the Lord's Farm. Here the Lord provided food but the Lord still
prohibited him from working. When not eating or expounding
the Scripture he slept. This lazyness riled the hard-working infidel.
It was outrageously unjust that he as an infidel should help to
support this lazy sky-pilot in idleness, even though he pretended to
6
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 595
be commanded by the voice of God. Charles took the matter up
with Paul and demanded that this pious drone be ejected from the
Lord's beehive. Paul was firm in his negation of such a course.
If it was the voice of God to Louis, then Louis must obey. If
. Louis was moved to sleep all afternoon, that was a matter only
between Louis and his God and not for the conscience of Charles
to pass judgment upon. On the Lord's Farm complete freedom in
God must prevail and Louis could not be put out. If Charles
wished to spend his time sleeping he was equally free to do so.
This sanctimonious non-resistance so irritated Charles that he struck
Paul a hard blow in the face. Never ruffled, Paul quickly said:
“Have you finished, Brother Charles? If not, don't stop. Strike
on.” But Charles was done and ashamed. Remorse was the reward
of the assault. Paul had gained another spiritual victory over sin
and selfishness. Viciousness brings its own penalties, as virtue
brings its own reward: so mused Paul.
The Hoboes Came Also.
The Christian neighbors who constantly felt insulted by the
life of these over-Christly people soon acted as if in an unconscious
conspiracy to direct to the Lord's Farm all the “weary Willies” in
need of food and shelter: none of these ever received a hand-out
at the door. That would be making aristocratic distinctions, dis-
tasteful to the Lord. Without examining them as to vermin or
morals all were given a seat at the common table. One “weary
Willy” thought he had found a final haven of rest. He could not
possibly get enough sleep before breakfast time, and wished to
have a breakfast served to him in mid-forenoon. That also was
a part of Christian liberty, but those who served also had a liberty
to serve in their own way. One morning Paul took a tray loaded
with a bounteous breakfast up to George's bed. “Good morning,
George,” said Paul. “I’m delighted to see that your eyes are open.
I have taken the privilege of bringing you your breakfast. You
know I like you to be comfortable and happy, and I want to save
you the work of coming downstairs. Now, George, please remain in
bed as long as nature will allow. We are here to wait upon you
and make you happy if lying in bed can make you so. Now be
happy, George.” After that George was never known to remain in
bed until the breakfast hour, and from that time on he did a fair
share of the farm work. -
At other times Paul would make a sly insinuation that if the
Lord wanted certain work to be done he would provide four, six.
7
596 T HE OPEN COURT.
or eight hands to do it. This mere suggestion would produce the
desired result while Paul was on the road selling fruit. Similar
tactics were used on others. The lazy ones were commanded not
to work so long as it was possible to be happy in idleness. Then
they began to work. Not from books, but from the bitter ex-
perience of youth, Paul had learned some lessons of psychology.
He knew how to play on the rebellious spirit. By commanding
these rebellious children to be antisocial, they could be induced to
be very social. The remedy for the abuses of freedom is more
freedom. Thus Paul without commanding yet dominated all.
The Garden of Eden. -
For a short time Mary Jane was also an important addition
to the farm. She had met some of the Lord's Farm folks who
had visited Scranton. There Mary Jane was a leader in the Chris-
tian Alliance. But soon this was abandoned for a trip to the
Lord's Farm to find a new resting-place for the body and the
spirit. Mary Jane, however, was still human and fleshly. The old
Eve-spirit was still strong in her. Thus she was sometimes prompted
to pursue Adam in the person of Paul, and according. to the tradi-
tional manner of original Eve. But Paul had renounced all things
of the flesh, and fled to a secluded den or spent his hours of sleep in
the granary so that he might not serve as a temptation to Mary
Jane. Of course, Paul had been so thoroughly reborn, and had so
completely outgrown the limitations that hamper us mere humans,
that nothing really tempted him. He withdrew for the sole sake
of Mary Jane and for her soul. Perhaps in time Mary Jane would
also become more spiritually minded, and then it would be no
longer necessary to flee from her for her own good.
Soon, however, there came to the farm another spirit more like
that of Mary Jane. Granville B. had been reborn, and in his im-
perious boldness there could be no sin or shame. Modesty is always
but the shield of sin, the mask for self-reproach. The pure in heart
can have neither. Furthermore Granville had so thoroughly sub-
ordinated the old Adam to the will of the divinity that reigned
within him, that divinity which was his very self, that he could not
sin. Whatever his perfect soul desired by the very fact of its being
his desire became pure, no matter how sinful it might be in others
or in the eyes of worldly humans. He had abolished all fleshly
qualities that make for sin. He was a pure spirit, incapable of sins
of the flesh, even though to unspiritual vision his conduct should
seem to be fleshly.
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 597
Mary Jane and Granville soon discovered that they were of
the same spirit. They were restored to the primitive purity of
Adam and Eve before the Fall. The Lord's Farm was the place for
reestablishing that Garden of Eden in all its primitive splendor and
sinlessness. Here Mary Jane and Granville would set up the King-
dom of God on earth in which they would reign in the simple
naturalness of their spiritual purity.
So Granville, being in a place of freedom from human restraint,
wore the clothes of Paul and took Paul’s seat at the head of the
table. And Paul with his characteristic non-resistance proved his
spiritual superiority by the meekness of his own submission. He
bowed the head so as to conquer in the spirit. Granville and Mary
Jane thought that now the time had arrived for the perfect ones
to prove by their shamelessness that they were above sin. If the
Kingdom of Heaven was ever to be established as in the original
Garden of Eden, then the time was at hand for abolishing clothing
and fig-leaves, the badges of sin and shame so conspicuously worn
by the unregenerate. This was a place of spiritual freedom and
to the spiritual all things are spiritual. It was not in the heart of
Paul to restrain these courageous souls in the exercise of Adam's
liberty. However, from an excessive delicacy of consideration for
the weakness of the unregenerate souls of the outside world, Mary
Jane and Granville reserved most of their exhibitionist tendencies
for themselves, and for a few choice spirits within the sacred pre-
cincts of the Lord's Farmhouse. Granville soon grew tired and re-
turned to Philadelphia to establish his own kingdom and to leaye
Paul free to resume the head of the table and of the household.
Another spiritual victory had been gained by Paul through non-
resistance. But the unregenerate insist that these two were not
the only Adamites who took up their abode at the farm, and some
“shocking” yarns are told about it.
Willson from England.
The fame of the Lord's Farm spread far and wide through
persecution and the sensational newspapers. Thus came also an
Englishman whom we will call Billy Willson. Brother Willson,
too, was an imperious spirit, who recognized a large chunk of the
infinite God to be within his own cosmos, and he proposed to act
the part of omnipotence at the Lord's Farm. He came resolved
in advance to dispute and to destroy all authority on the Lord's
Farm except his own and to compel recognition of his own om-
miscient self as the sole ruler by divine right, first of the Lord's
9
598 THE OPEN COURT.
Farm and then of the whole world. As if in proof of omnipotence
he brought a son, a son that had been immaculately conceived from
a virgin, at least so he said.
Somehow Paul failed to see the superior divinity in or of
Willson, and so did not voluntarily abdicate. Thereupon Willson
attempted to prove his own superiority by terrible tongue-lashings
in which he used blasphemous expressions to denounce Paul as
everything that was vile and execrable. On such occasions Paul
would smile blandly and say: “That's fine, Brother Willson. But
why can't you tell me something new about myself?” Thus, all
the sting was taken out of Willson's reproaches, and he was made
to feel his inferiority in the very effort to rise above it. He would
go away, but after months would come back and repeat the experi-
ment and experience. Sometimes these outbreaks were provoked
by Willson's boasting of his miraculous cures. Always Paul had
one just a little more wonderful and often the witnesses were present
to corroborate. Paul quotes Jesus: “Agree with your adversary and
he will flee.”
The free publicity given to the communistic aspect of the Lord's
Farm served as a lure for irreligious socialists and anarchist-
doctrinaires. These came with their rule of thumb to prove to
Paul that he was not consistent with Marx, Bakunin, or Tucker,
or some one else. Paul knew nothing of these strange unscriptural
doctrines, and he cared less. He was concerned only with living
the divine life. He would tell these critics that they were only
intellectual garbage cans peddling the dead and decaying material
of other minds; fooling themselves by thinking that this rotten
doctrine-stuff could upset the ways and work of God, or that God
could or would descend to the ways of men. Others he would
advise to hang a piece of crape on their nose in memory of their
dead brains. His was a life, not a theory, but a life, moving, living,
and having its being as the immanent God. However, Paul's most
eloquent and spiritual sermon was his material performance. That
he gave all credit to the inner spiritual voice did not keep some
of these atheistic radicals from joining the Lord's Farm colony
to rehabilitate themselves, physically and economically. Perhaps
they even absorbed something else that Paul would call spirituality.
At least, he hoped that they did absorb a little spirituality.
Holy Shouters Came Also.
The fame of the Lord's Farm had gone to the Far West and
supplied a new ambition to a couple of Holy Rollers. These started
* 10
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 599
a wearying journey to New York City. Here they were joined
by a few kindred spirits. Together these five traveled on foot to
the Lord's Farm. Now spiritual joy was unbounded, and in this
place of liberty its vocal expression was unrestrained. The holy
shouters had at last been led by the Lord to a land of plenty, and
they exhibited their gratitude to God by constantly shouting and
singing his praises. Only physical exhaustion could restrain either
the volume or the duration of their pious vociferations. And yet
none of the godly ones would interfere with the mysterious divine
influence that could produce such joy. Here the joys of conscience
must remain unimpeded.
But all were not godly. Among the inmates at the farm was
a woman with a past who still hoped for a future. She had come
to be cured of locomotor-ataxia. She had only been there a short
time and had not yet been able to cast out enough of the old evil
spirit to make the disease depart. For this the Holy Shouters
reproached her and kept her awake day and night by their audible
manifestations of the spirit of God. The sick and weary Alice Page,
the unconverted Alice Page, had not the infinite patience of an
indwelling God. Therefore she was annoyed by the unnecessary
noises. Therefore, too, she was reproached by the hyper-holy
shouting jumpers. It served her right to be kept awake all night
if she would remain sick simply for obstinacy; simply because she
would not give herself wholly to God. There was a bit of romance
behind the presence of Alice Page at the Lord's Farm. In the old
world of sin and Satan, Alice and he whom the world now knows
as Paul had been very intimate friends, and now Paul Blaudin
Mnason found her in need of bodily and spiritual regeneration.
As she had ministered to him in the world of sin, so now he would
minister to her in the world of spiritual love. But Alice was sorely
grieved by these impertinent pious jumpers.
In this Alice Page was not alone. The unspiritual.neighbors
also objected to having their slumbers disturbed even by those who
thought they were singing and shouting praises to God. One of
the unregenerate ones was a lawyer named Randolph Perkins. His
patience having come to an end he went to the farm and demanded
peace and quiet. Paul told him that was a place of gospel liberty
and himself without authority to interfere even with noisy out-
pourings of conscientious worshipers. Then Paul was long and
vainly importuned to give his consent to interference with liberty
on the Lord's Farm. Finally he said, “Here all are free, you are
free to do as you please, even as they are free.” Here was a new
11
600 THE OPEN COURT.
interpretation of the rule that the abuses of liberty are to be remedied
by more liberty.
Perkins now appealed to Alice Page, the poor, sick, unregen-
erate Alice Page. Was she, too, suffering from loss of sleep? Did
she want the turbulent ones removed? She did. Poor worldly-
minded soul! That was enough authority for Perkins. He ejected
them, and the toe of his shoe in speedy upward motion helped to
lighten the weight and assist the flight. Paul looked sympathetically
at Alice and offered no interference. On the Lord's Farm all had
their liberty, even Perkins. Mary Israel, one of the ejects, sent
back the Lord's damnation, but the farm was free.
The Fall. -
Just once the Boss Lord's Farmer fell from his pedestal of
spiritual exaltation. Just once the old repressed Adam asserted it-
self and Paul forgot his non-resistant attitude. This caused his
undoing. Among the children of the colony was a boy, the legally
adopted son of Titus. Titus liked to compel others to work, in-
cluding this boy. Sometimes he chastised him for laziness. This
stirred the old Adam in Paul. Once when Titus struck the boy,
the old suppressed “evil' temper” in Paul compelled him to use a
club on Titus. Blaudina had died. Titus, her brother, was now
the legal owner of the farm. Paul had always been a mere lessee.
This quarrel between Paul and Titus gave the relatives of the latter
a leverage to separate these two and so oust Paul from the farm.
That end was thus accomplished. The old passions which had only
been submerged and not outgrown, thus reasserted themselves, and
terminated the colony of the Lord's Farmers.
In the fuller record of nearly twenty years, during which the
Lord's Farm existed, there is a valuable unplanned social experi-
ment. I wish to add some general comment to express and to em-
phasize the lesson that I see in it.
An Interpretation.
In Paul B. Mnason we see a man living the anarchist ideal.
The Lord's Farmers followed his example but with a lesser degree
of devotion and lesser consistency with the ideal. None of these re-
ligionists had any conscious anarchic theories. Neither had they
any theories of social evolution or of the behavior of human energy
operating in social relations. Their conduct was primitive and in-
stinctive; that is, an impulsive effort to usher in the millennium.
This impulsive reaction, precisely because it was emotional and
12
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 601
blind, found a formulation in terms of the “divine life,” the self-
imposed “law of love.”
At another stage of development, where there is greater con-
sciousness of personal desires and of social relations, and where
the other aspect of an emotional conflict is being acted upon, the
same impulse to play the role of omnipotence finds expression in
moral codes, to be (for our benefit) imposed on others, by legalized
or unlegalized violence. This is the state of mental development
found among the short-time accessfons to the colony and among
the neighbors of the Lord's Farm and perhaps of most of society in
general. The level of their desires and intelligence is evidenced by
the efforts to exploit the more devoted Lord's Farmers from within
the group. From their neighbors this same primitive state is shown
by the many physical punishments visited upon the pious com-
munists by lawless mobs and by those more orderly and lawful
processes expressive of equally great ignorance and emotional con-
flict.
There is another level of development, with a much larger
understanding of the relations and behavior among things, of which
I will speak later. An experiment at living the anarchist ideal
among a people who have reached that other stage of development
remains yet to be tried. Perhaps this will become a reality in some
future century when we have had more democracy in education and
more education for democratization, as distinguished from an un-
enlightened emotional approval of mere political forms or of a
static concept of democracy.
The head of the Lord's Farm worked for others and suffered
from those whom he wished to help. He suffered economically
and physically and found his compensations in the feeling that he
was living the “divine life” far above the level of the unregenerate
crowd. He felt himself the superior because he was living the life
of love, and thus ushering in the establishment of the Kingdom of
Heaven, the reign of love upon the earth. His compensation, like
his superiority, was but fantasmal, largely unrelated to objective
realities. His suffering was very real, because in his feelings and
ideals he was too thoroughly dissociated from his environment to
insure a comfortable adjustment.
He suffered much in his intercourse with general society in
so far as his understanding of the relations and behavior of the
human animal was not above the level of the “unregenerate bar.
barians” by whom he was surrounded. He succeeded in dealing
efficiently with individuals in so far as his intuitive insight into
13
602 THE OPEN COURT.
human nature was more penetrating than theirs. He held no con-
scious theories as to either. He achieved a partial triumph in over-
coming most of the violent opposition of hostile neighbors, by his
heroic though blind emotional devotion to his self-appointed task
of spending his life in labors of love.
More Mature Service.
There is another kind of “self-sacrificing” labor of “love” that
isn't self-sacrificing nor a labor of love at all, except when mis-
judged by conventional standards. Those who are living this un-
conventional life do not really sacrifice nor love, according to the con-
ventional meaning of these words. They simply give intelligent
cooperation toward the democratization of the human desires, as the
peaceful means to the ultimate democratization of everything else.
Those engaged therein avoid the pains suffered by Paul Blaudin
Mnason, because they do not invite nor challenge martyrdom, or
encourage exploitation, either of themselves or of others. Being
more conscious of the behavior of human animals in social rela-
tions, such persons seek to educate the physically mature children
so as to minimize that infantile desire for dependence upon society,
as formerly they depended upon the mother or the nursing bottle.
So they promote the elimination of one factor of the impulse to
exploitation. Likewise, they seek to educate the “educated” toward
a stage above that of the emotional conflict, which on its submerged
side is simply the fear-psychology of the infant. In the conscious
effort, at compensatory over-preparation against an empty nursing
bottle or a “dry” mother, we see the psychology of the millionaire
and generally of the woefully efficient exploiters. To overcome
their own infantile fears of famine they must reassure themselves
of unending plenty by the process of unnecessary accumulation,
and the indulgence in ostentatious waste. If their subconscious
fears are great enough the protective desire will be morbidly cal-
loused to the suffering of all who stand in the way. Thus came in all
ages the more brutal efforts at the suppression of every emanci-
pating movement for or from the exploited classes. So also have
come the past persecutions of almost every efficient agitator for the
further democratization of labor, of education, and of welfare.
Thus, from society's infantile fears and the compensatory in-
fantile urge toward omnipotence, which was controlling its domi-
nant members, it has been inevitable that every important step
toward more democracy could only be achieved in bloody strife.
Even after the bloodiest of wars all of us are not yet prepared to
14
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 603
yield peaceably our personal or national aristocratic advantage, in
conscious willing readjustment to the natural processes that make
for the democratization of welfare. -
The Lord's Farmers sought to democratize welfare on the
instinctive level of their own emotional conflicts. So far as lay in
their power they attempted to democratize physical welfare. Yet
in their characters they remained essentially aristocrats, playing
the high and mighty role of philanthropists, who intellectualized
their aristocratic feeling of superiority by the claim of being spirit-
ually regenerated humans, having thus become the children of God.
The grown-up children who constitute the bulk of our present
society resented this challenge to their vanity and found abundant
plausible “reasons” for avenging the insult to their own childish
conceits. The Lord's Farmers tried to prove their superiority by
philanthropic endeavor. The unregenerated society all around them
proved their contrary claim of “moral” and “spiritual” superiority
by means of physical violence.
This opposition of force and rage, of petty imposition and
prison bars only symbolized in miniature the psychology of all
the wars for achieving aristocratic eminence or slave-emancipation.
Always the effort has been made of resisting and seeking emancipa-
tion through organized force, legalized brutality, and political forms.
Never yet have we even seriously thought of democracy in educa-
tion, or of education for democratization. In this matter the world
war just over can be seen as but the most destructive consequence
of a conflict between groups, largely yet unconsciously dominated
by a lust for national aristocratic distinction and its satisfying
consciousness of power. By physical combat others are proven
“inferior.” Then because “inferior” the conqueror is “morally”
justified in exploiting them in exchange for some “culture” or
other. There, as with the Lord's Farmers, moral sentimentalism,
exaggeration, falsehood, and force are and were the instruments to
attain a dominance. Most of this was, and is continually being
done on the level of old archaic aristocratic desires and methods.
No matter how they formulated their objects, the unexpressed and
usually unavowed quality of it was essentially that of primitive
aristocracy, even when its victims are least conscious thereof.
A Dream of the Future.
Let us try to imagine the kind of a society which might come
into being through actual democracy in education, and education
for actual and continuous democratization of education, of labor,
15
604 THE OPEN COURT.
and of welfare. That would involve the outgrowing of all desire
to get the consciousness of power through physical force, economic
might, or ostentatious waste; or by a control over the life and death
of others, either by means of war or by the legalized power to
starve those who decline to do our will, or to submit to our ex-
ploitation, on our own terms. Then it would be such facts of life
by which we would measure democracy, and not by the theoretic
democracy of political forms through which an actual aristocratic
privilege may be maintained. So humanity may be developed to a
desire to serve, somewhat like unto that of the “Boss of the Angel-
dancers” at the Lord's Farm. But still it would be unlike that,
because based on a larger understanding of the relations and be- .
havior among things and humans, and not conditioned on the con-
flicts of unsolved emotional problems.
By such highly developed persons, service would also be the
dominant impulse of life. But it would be service on a basis of
democratized labor, not as philanthropists to beggars. Service being
rendered on a more democratic basis, if there should be any submission
to being exploited by the unfortunate, it would not be accompanied
by any feeling of the spiritual superiority of the philanthropist, or
the feeling of inferiority of the beneficiary. It would be conditioned
by so much of conscious desire for the democratization of welfare
as to preclude the slightest exaltation or humiliation. There would
be no need to develop democratic independence of feeling. The
ultimate goal of democracy must include the democratization of
all essentials of efficient living, education, labor, and welfare.
Thus only can we insure the voluntary assumption of democratic
responsibility which the psychologically mature ones impose upon
themselves, and which the mentally childlike who are vested with
power, impose upon others. The service must not be personal nor
personally reciprocal, but cooperative in the promotion of the gen-
eral welfare, so general that the individual beneficiary is never rec-
ognized as its beneficiary, This can only be achieved through ob-
sessing, yet understanding devotion to the promotion of all aspects
of democratization. --
The Lord's Farmers suffered because the fortunate classes
acknowledge no responsibility toward the mutuality of service and
of protection, for the benefit of those who were in fact promoting the
democratization of welfare. When, to a distressing degree, the un-
fortunate classes are conspicuously denied the substance of demo-
cratic welfare, and education, they are equally incapable of making
an intelligent acknowlegment of the responsibility which is sup-
16
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 605
posedly imposed by the maintenance of democratic forms. There-
fore, many of these could not “live the life” even when professing
it. In the name of liberty, they too, must exploit or rob the philan-
thropic unconscious anarchists at the Lord's Farm. The middle
class threw most of the bricks, and they hurt much. The middle
class is always too near to aristocratic grandeur. Therefore, it
cannot accept the resignation of despair, nor be content with having
its aristocratic ambitions only one fourth satisfied. So it lives in
a world of emotional conflicts. On the one hand are delusions of
aristocratic grandeur, the intensified fantasies of wish-fulfilling
hopes. On the other side is a half-conscious anxiety arising in
part from the imminent danger of being compelled to disillusion-
ment and to economic disaster, again involving the infantile fear-
psychology. So it is that the middle class, individually dominated
by conflicting emotions, will in a crisis be divided against itself.
Through this lack of coherence or class-consciousness, the middle
class tends to become the storm-center in all conflicts for demo-
cratization. After all, the Lord's Farmers quite unconsciously
were aristocratically-minded middle-class reformers, or rather phi-
lanthropists. Just as the Lord's Farmers were ultimately defeated
and crushed out as a social factor, so the middle class of Russia is
now equally in danger of extinction as a class, if not as individuals.
The aristocrats can largely flee from proletarian dominance, but
not so their middle-class unconscious imitators. These must fight
it out for their measure of the aristocratic ideal, or they must
themselves become wood-cutters and water-carriers. Such are the
forces that blindly make for the democratization of education, of
labor, and of welfare.
Methods with Social Problems.
The Czar's Russian bureaucracy sought to prevent revolution
and democratization by physical force. A Bolshevist revolution is
the result. The bureaucrats were too ignorant of the psychology
of repression as it works in the repressed. German Junkers sought
to prevent democratization and wars by developing and using a
physical force so superior as to preclude war by making hopeless
all the opposition to Teuton prowess. The world war, the German
defeat, and the German revolution were the result. The Junkers,
too, were ignorant of the psychology of repression, as that was
working at home and abroad. In their equally blind and instinctive
unconscious way, the Lord's Farmers thought to force democrati-
zation of welfare upon an unprepared world, one not yet men-
17
606 THE OPEN COURT.
tally attuned to such a degree of democracy. Their desires were
too far ahead of their time, and as in the case of European aristo-
crats their understanding of human behavior was very inadequate.
Because of this, they were excessively exploited and martyrized,
without making any lasting contribution to the triumph of their
dominant desires, that is, of democracy, of liberty, or of their
concept of religion.
Amid an outward false show of excessive independence they
were enslaved by an intense conflict between aristocratic desires
and the slave-virtue of excessive humility. In consequence of these
conflicts, they suffered great martyrdom at the hands of their
equally primitive and more antisocial neighbors. From this little
experiment and the similar but larger one now going on in Russia,
we may perhaps be permitted to infer that it is as fatal to force
democratization upon the feudal-minded masses of the middle-
classes as it is futile to use violence against the proletariat, as a
means to retard the natural processes of democratization.
*
The Remedy.
One other method remains to be tried. Perhaps an orderly
and willing submission to the natural law of democratization is
the best means to universal peace. When we have sufficient under-
standing of the relations and behavior' of humans, maybe we will
begin with a retrospective study of our evolution in democratiza-
tion. If so, we may conclude that the trend of that evolution is
toward the ever more complete democratization of education, of
labor, and of welfare. When we see that, and combine with that
an intelligent willingness to adjust to this natural law, we will con-
sciously accelerate such democratization, as fast as the people's de-
sires and mental processes can be attuned thereto. Then we will
achieve freedom from revolutions by violence, through restraining
our aristocratic and autocratic tendency to use either organized
or legalized violence to retard or promote democratization.
Thus, perhaps, war can be made impossible by being first made
unnecessary, and so universally discredited. Even a class war is
useless if we are as a whole unafraid of more democracy and in-
telligent enough to make that mutually understood all around. The
remedy for the evils of democracy is more intelligent and more
complete democracy; that is, more intelligent adjustment to the
natural processes of the democratization of labor, of education,
and of welfare. The use of violence to retard further democrati-
zation has made violent revolutions the only efficient means to attain
18
ANARCHISM AND “THE LORD's FARM.” 607
democratic progress. When we democratize education and free-
dom of speech and press, and so become unafraid of the demo-
cratization of labor and welfare, no sane man can be persuaded
that revolution by violence can serve him any purpose.
19