COMMUNIA, IOWA
sheet showed receipts totaling $5,666, which included $1,408
from five members of the original colony who were still in resi
dence, $2,600 from monthly dues of the Arbeiterbund, and con
tributions from various cities.
Six months later, Schmidt, as a more neutral person, prepared
an inventory for the Arbeiterbund at Weitling's direction. By that
time, the Bund had invested $7,881.62, of which $4,000 had come
directly from its treasury and the rest from 17 individual mem
bers in amounts ranging from $25, contributed by Mathias Krieg,
to $620 paid in by Peter Arnold. Total assets of the colony were
listed at $10,958.95, and the books of the colony showed a tidy
balance. The value of buildings and livestock had increased by
$600 each in six months; there was $1,200 on hand in cash, and ac
counts receivable amounted to $339. A "library" of seventy-five
books was appraised at ten dollars.
In compiling his figures Schmidt valued land under cultivation
or fenced in at $6.00 an acre, and wild land at $1.50, and allowed
a small depreciation for buildings. His inventory did not include
personal possessions, such as clothing, bedding and tools which
members had brought with them to the colony. A report on food
consumption, covering the six months' period from July to the
end of the year, showed an average cost per person of six and two-
thirds cents a day. Based on this rather favorable statement, a new
appeal for funds was promptly issued, although in September,
1852, it was necessary to announce in Die Republik der Arbeiter
that no additional candidates could be accepted for the present
because all available living quarters were occupied. Prospective
colonizers were warned to check with headquarters in New York
before undertaking the long journey to Iowa.
Nature proved bountiful in 1852 in Iowa, and the harvest of
the colony was good. "Female caprice," gossip, and the "whims
and vices" that men carry with them into every corner of the
world still produced some disagreements but after six weeks in the
colony Weitling could honestly say that he preferred to live there.
One member of the community wrote enthusiastically, "We live
barré
(Barré)
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