COMMUNIA, IOWA 261
for the flour mill had corroded in the open air; and that, after three
months' delay, the teamsters had not yet hauled the millstones
from the river front. Delays in transportation between New York
and Iowa necessitated buying supplies in Dubuque at considerable
loss.
It appears from the colony's records that workers were credited
for board and room at a ratio of five to one between labor and the
value of goods which they purchased. Wages for the various
trades were fixed by majority vote and for women and children
in a fashion that defied all reason. Thirty-seven workdays were
charged for the construction of a temporary stable consisting of
nothing but raw fence posts overlaid with straw. Carpenters were
allowed $1.00 for an eight-hour day and the builders of the mill
$1.25, whereas farm labor received less for a ten-hour day. Though
a pound of flour cost two and one-half cents, bread was sold at
less than cost and eggs at ten cents a dozen. Weitling thereupon
decided to sell eggs to the highest bidder and raised the price of
chickens from twelve to fifteen cents. Hats which cost $2.40 were
sold for $1.00 and $1.50 at the colony store. An order to stop the
free distribution of whisky led to violent protests. Though the
corn and hay crops had not been leased to individual members
and therefore presumably still belonged to the Bund, the colonists
had to be paid for harvesting them. Weitling quite rightly pointed
out that the colony could not expect the outside members of the
Arbeiterbund to meet its deficits while the members living in the
colony voted themselves an unreasonably advantageous scale of
costs and wages.
One woman in the colony had been allowed $14 a month, and
a man $22 a month, in addition to board and lodging, for operating
the common kitchen, and Weitling discovered that making beds
and feeding the twenty-eight unmarried members of the com
munity was costing the colony $70 a month. Room rents for
families varied from fifty cents to $1.00 a month in the ordinary
dwellings and amounted to $2.25 in the brick house. According to
this rate, the return was $154.80 a year instead of the $375 which