Frederick Engels in evaluating the Utopian socialist wrote:
To all these Socialism is the expression of absolute truth, reason, and justice, and has only to be discerned to conquer all the world by virtue of its own power.[7]
Marxian socialism, on the other hand, is in direct contrast to the Utopian. He says:
From this time forward Socialism was no longer an accidental discovery of this or that ingenious brain, but the necessary outcome of the struggle between two historically developed classes--the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.[8]
Thus, it came about that the United States was fortunate in receiving whatever socialistic contributions it has received from the English and French Utopian socialism of reason rather than from the ruthless Marxian socialism of conflict which never has had any great influence in the United States.[9] All the colonies established by the followers of Fourier and Owen have disappeared. La Réunion, a French colony in Texas, furnishes a splendid opportunity to analyze the reasons for these failures.
[Illustration: Bust of Victor Considerant erected in his native village of Salins, France. From Maurice Commanget, _Victor Considerant, sa Vie, son Oeuvre_, 1929, Paris France.]
La Réunion, a French settlement in Texas, was the result of the efforts and teachings of three men: Albert Brisbane, Charles François Fourier, and Victor Prosper Considerant. These men were all middle-class and all were Utopian socialists. Both Brisbane and Considerant visited the colony but Fourier's contribution was confined to the promulgation of the ideas and theories which formed a basis of the colony.
Owenism in England and Fourierism in France grew out of the distaste of businessmen for business as it was conducted during the transition period between the dominance of the Mercantile System and the achievement of control of society by the new capitalistic groups. Both Owen and Fourier deserted what promised to be a fruitful and very successful business life in order to project their fantasia of reform. The origin of these doctrines of Utopian socialism in such an environment perhaps explains the non-violent principles insisted upon by both Owen and Fourier.
Fourierism may be better understood when it is realized that Lyon, the home of Fourier, was the most highly industrialized city in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century. There was constant strife between the owners and guild workers, oftentimes developing into open warfare. Poverty and fear of insecurity were general. Thus Fourier was able to observe and to compare capitalism with the co-operative nature of peasant efforts in the rich agricultural area surrounding the city.[1]