Mankind would be one family or group of families, if the principles of Jesus could be imparted to the human race. But the robber races that occupy this globe at present are intensely hostile in feeling to that life of Christian love which is commanded in the books which they honor with their lips.

The so-called civilized races of to-day are as intensely barbarian at heart, notwithstanding the superficial varnish of literary civilization, as the hordes of Attila and Genghis Khan. Witness the attitude of Germany and France (the great exemplars of literary civilization), each eagerly preparing for a deadly conflict.

Yet in all ages there have been those whom nature has qualified for a better life, who wish to live in harmony, and turn with weariness and disgust from the present forms of avaricious strife, rivalry, and fraud. If the best of these could be gathered in one community, a better state of society could be organized.

Horace Greeley sympathized with such movements, and about forty years ago gave much space in the Tribune to the illustration of this subject. Although the co-operative principles of Fourier, then widely discussed, have not resulted in any great success in community life in the United States, it can also be said that experiments have not shown the doctrines of Fourier to be impracticable. The best thinkers have not lost their faith, and the example of M. Godin at Guise in France, with a population of 1,800 in the Social Palace enjoying the very Utopia of happy and prosperous co-operative life, is a splendid demonstration of what is possible, and a standing rebuke to the churches of civilized nations which have not even noticed this grand demonstration of the possibilities of humanity.

The grandest and most hopeful co-operative scheme yet proposed is that of Mr. Albert K. Owen, entitled the “Credit Foncier of Sinaloa,” which has been established at the harbor of Topolobampo, in the state of Sinaloa, on the western coast of Mexico, where a large and liberal grant has been obtained from the Mexican government for the Credit Foncier Company, chartered by the state of Colorado, Mr. Owen being chairman of the Board of Directors. Its headquarters were at rooms 7 and 8, 32 Nassau Street, New York, and the members of the community are already gathered in considerable numbers at Topolobampo. The Credit Foncier of Jan. 11 reports over 4,800 persons enlisted for the colony, and over sixteen thousand shares of stock sold.

This is not a unitary community, in which the individuality of the members is lost, but a co-operative corporation, owning its lands as a society, and abolishing at once the primary evils of land monopoly and a false financial system. As stated by Mr. E. Howland, “the community is responsible for the health, usefulness, individuality, and security of each member, and at the same time each will feel secure in his social and individual rights in the existence of the collective ownership and management for public utilities and conveniences, instead of the disorganized chaos in which to-day we live.”

A system of distribution will be adopted, doing away with the immense cost of trade as at present conducted. The laborer will be protected against misfortune by a system of insurance and a pension in old age. Employment and opportunity will be provided for all, and education provided for all children. It is upon this education that the ultimate success of the society must depend, for it is impossible to organize a perfect society of those whose characters have been moulded by the present antagonistic condition of society. All grand ideals must look to the future for their realization. That such realization may occur in the Sinaloa colony is indicated by the following quotation from the exposition of the Credit Foncier by Mr. Howland.“As we shall have to, at least during this generation depend upon the colonization of persons who have been subject to the influences of society as it is, we would only say, that the new truths concerning moral education contained in ‘The New Education’ by Mr. J. R. Buchanan, have been carefully examined by the writer of this, and its most important lessons shall be applied in the organization of our schools; for the power of love can be unquestionably applied, not only as a cure for the evils produced inevitably by the system of competition, but also as a miraculous agent in aiding the progress of society to an inconceivably higher plane of human life.”

The newspaper in exposition of the society entitled, “The Credit Foncier of Sinaloa,” published at $1 a year, at Hammonton, New Jersey, will be issued hereafter at Topolobampo, Mexico. A report descriptive of the site of the colony and the surrounding country (price six cents) and a map of the colony’s site (price ten cents) may be obtained by addressing the editor, E. Howland, at Topolobampo, Mexico.

While the Journal is going through the press, the colonists are gathering in large numbers, and by our next issue we may have some account of the commencement of this noble enterprise.

Its founder, Mr. A. K. Owen, is a gentleman of great energy and enterprise, guided by noble principles, a skilful surveyor and engineer. About fourteen years ago he made extensive exploration in Mexico, especially on its Pacific Coast, discovered and reported Topolobampo Bay, and introduced the scheme of the Norfolk & Topolobampo Railroad, which he urged upon the attention of Congress, winning the approbation of committees, but finally defeated by the great railroad corporations. He took an active part in Mexican affairs, forming gigantic plans for the public welfare, by a syndicate at the head of which was Gen. Torbert, which were defeated by a shipwreck in which Gen. Torbert was lost, and himself narrowly escaped death. He then organized with the co-operation of Gen. Grant, Gen. Butler, and other distinguished men, the “Texas, Topolobampo & Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company,” and obtained a concession of 2,000 miles of railroad and a subsidy of $16,000,000. Hon. Wm. Windom was president, and Mr. Owen chief engineer. In 1873 he located a hundred miles of the road from Topolobampo eastwardly, and two years ago the construction commenced. Thus in the midst of a life of great activity and experience in engineering, finance, politics, reform, and travel, Mr. Owen, as a practical and skilful manager of great undertakings, inspired by a strong democratic philanthropy, has laid the plan of a co-operative colony on the basis of liberal concessions from the Mexican government, and opened a field in which his democratic ideas of human rights, of land, labor, finance, hygiene, freedom, and general reform, can have full scope.

Mr. Owen’s ideas and plans are stated in a book of two hundred pages, published by Jno. W. Lovell, 14 Vesey Street, New York, and sent by mail for thirty cents. It is not a systematic treatise, but a miscellaneous collection of documents which give a good deal of information.

The Topolobampo scheme is one requiring great skill and executive ability in the directors, as well as a harmonious and energetic spirit in the colonists. The climate, soil, and opportunities are no doubt the best that have ever been accorded to a scheme of co-operation, and when its success has been realized, it may be accounted the most important social event of the century, for it will be the dawn of peace to a warring world, the promise of harmony between all the restless and convulsive elements of civilized society.