Word: amanas
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...there were times when it did indeed seem like more of a spectacular than a golf match. The cameras picked up the golfers at the 13th tee in each of the two rounds, at one point kept the trio waiting for ten minutes while the sponsors (Zenith, Amana home freezers) got in their plugs. Technicians drummed distractions on the TV towers, and former P.G.A. Champ Bob Rosburg, who was announcing the show, often told the players what club to use on a shot. Said Nicklaus: "I heard Rosburg say I'd probably use a five iron on the 16th...
Communist Curtain. Amana's ex-peasants practiced a non-Marxist communism, holding all property in common because possessions foster false pride. Bearded church elders dictated every man's job, had the women cook for all in big communal kitchens, punished any show of vanity, such as wearing "world clothes" rather than modest calico...
Soon after World War I, outside influences began to creep behind Amana's calico curtain. Young people wanted more than the eighth-grade education allowed by the elders. Secret radios were heard in defiance of a church ban, bicycles appeared, and one man even drove a car home. Worst of all, young Amanas began drifting away, seeking work and a richer, livelier life in the cities. "Human nature simply asserted itself," Dr. Henry G. Moershel, 58, Amana's longtime president, explained last week. "People were getting their keep whether they worked or not, and many were starting little...
...Experiment. Faced with a breakdown of the discipline that made its communism work, Amana voted in 1932 to try capitalism. Land and shops were organized under a worker-owned corporation, which paid wages according to skill (up to $2 an hour now), sold the communal homes to members, let each family choose its own food, source of income, way of life. The new corporation, despite the Depression, promptly raised production of farm products, furniture and handmade textiles (1958 sales: $10 million). Profits replaced red ink the first year, rose to levels ($268,000 in 1958) that provided plow-back capital...
Though old Amana colonists view with sadness the passing of stern piety, they have no regrets for having forsaken communism-for Amana learned years ago the bitter lesson that other millions are learning today. "Communism," says Leader Moershel, "wasn't practical...