Too Much Prosperity

Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana . . . from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

Remembering this Song of Solomon, 800 German mystics journeyed west from Buffalo, N.Y. in 1855 to found a communistic settlement of farmers on a hill overlooking the Iowa River. They called it "Amana" (Faithfulness), and they thought that man could be faithful to God only if he were untroubled by wealth. Land was held in common; meals were eaten in community dining halls. Deeply religious but not ascetics, the Amanists lived well on their 26,000 acres of rich farmland, sold their surplus to the outside world. Their hickory-smoked Westphalian-style hams and ripe Schwartenmagen cheeses became famed throughout Iowa.

The New Order. But in 1932 the depression, plus the fact that too many drones had almost bankrupted the colony, frightened it out of its Christian communism. They voted to try capitalism, formed a stock corporation, and gave each member one share of voting common stock and shares of nonvoting stock in proportion to the number of years worked in the community. Members bought their homes from the society and installed private kitchens. They went to work for wages in one of the society's 50 businesses, e.g., the woolen mill, furniture factory, open-hearth bakery, or the new refrigerator plant founded by profit-minded young Amanist George C. Foerstner.

The new plant turned out household refrigerators and butcher's display cases, pioneered in freezers and air-conditioning equipment. By the end of World War II, Amana's leading line, a $500 home freezer, was being sold in nearly 5,000 retail outlets, backed by national advertising. By last year, the refrigerator plant, still run by Foerstner, employed 350 workers in the peak season (including non-Amanists), and grossed nearly $3,000,000. Such capitalistic prosperity proved too frightening to the 1,500 Amanists.

Nest Eggs. Last week, the society sold the refrigerator plant to Cedar Rapids Manufacturer Howard Hall and half a dozen associates, for $1,100,000 plus outstanding accounts receivable, bringing the total to about $1,750,000. Why? Storekeeper William H. Zuber summed it up: "Too many eggs in one basket." With 40-50% of its total income coming from refrigerator sales, Amana feared that it might go broke if the bottom dropped out of the refrigerator market. And the expense of keeping up with high-powered competition ($300,000 to tool up for a new line) seemed like too much of a gamble to frugal German farmers.

While older society members sighed over the seven precious acres of land which were sold with the plant, younger Amanists smiled over their common stock. Worth only $50 a share back in 1932, last week it was valued at $2,600.

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