It Was a Chance to Start a New Life in Depression, 1933

(Continued from Page 14)
members in ignorance by publish-
ing in English; an opposition paper,
the Yiddish "Voice of Sunrise" was
immediately set up. Minor as the
issue seems, the Yiddish-vs.-English
Battle was symptomatic of a deep
resentment.
At the end of May 1934, the
population stood at 79 families
—150 adult workers, 13 high
school children and 43 younger
children. To teach the young-
sters, including those of hired
help, there were six teachers.
The average age in the commu-
nity was 28, and despite the first
injunction against members over
age 45, there were several men over
60 allowed to enter. Membership
fees were desperately needed.
* . *
*
Making the farm pay was no easy
task. Its main crops were pepper-
mint (with a distillery to make
peppermint oil) and sugar beets.
Vegetables were grown primarily
for farm use, and there were poul-
try and dairy sections that pros-
pered for a time, as well as sheep,
some horses and cattle. Small par-
cels of land for sugar beets and
corn were rented out to sharecrop-
pers.
The gross income of the farm
remained fairly constant at $50,000
a year—"barely enough to cover
the overhead (taxes, insurance, in-
terest) and provide for the costs
of running the farm," Cohen writes.
This income should have been

-

doubled, but there was too much

drought (the plague of the na-
tion in 1934), then too much

rain, too low prices, too many
"army worms," too many fires.

In spring of 1934, pride blew
away with the top soil, and Sunrise
leaders appealed to the govern-
ment.
A certain Dr. William Haber,
known today as the dean of the
liberal arts college at the Univer-
sity of Michigan but then as the
state director of the Emergency
Relief Administration, took pity on
the colonists.
"When we left Lansing, we had
a check for $10,000," Cohen said.

It was a loan for six months, but
it would be renewed, with no in-
terest charged.
Haber was dealing in the mil-
lions of dollars, supervising the
distribution of public_ relief funds;
to the Sunrise members $10,000
"was a new lease on life." The loan
meant they could pay off debts,
establish credit with neighboring
merchants.
But it was only putting off the
inevitable.
"It was the lack of working
capital to develop such paying ac-
tivities as dairying, poultry raising
and food processing that consti-
tuted our first great handicap at
this stage in the community's
development," Cohen writes.
The lack of privacy in housing
remained another critical area, as
did the constant friction over lead-
ership, which finally prompted

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Yoine—and eventually Cohen—to
leave.
(In 1935, the form of govern-
ment they hit upon was five direc-
tor to supervise agriculture, indus-
try, labor, commodities and social
needs, plus four officers represent-
ing the community as a whole.)

Organization of labor was a
problem, too. Ideally, each man
would do the work for which he
was best suited, but when there
is more work of one type than
there are willing workers, some-
thing's bound to give.

It was eventually agreed that
each male would contribute 275
days of work a year and each wom-
an 225 days. Those who contributed
more would be paid accordingly.
Perhaps it would have worked,
all things being equal, but the ,
grumblings had already turned in-
to roars. Segregation of children
from their parents became a source
of dispute. Some members would I
go home to Detroit "for a few
days," an action highly resented
by the others. A system of fines I
was devised for those who stayed
away.
"Thus," Cohen writes, "against
our wishes and our better judg-
ment, we were constantly driven
into accepting rules which were
based on some form of coercion."
To be fair, it should be men-
tioned that the U.S. economic pic-
ture was improving, and suddenly
a collective colony didn't sound as
attractive as it once did. Anyway,
it was obvious that the original
aims of Sunrise would never be
realized.
Not that good didn't come out
of the community. There were mar-
riages. Several children were born
there. Besides ,_a school, there was
a library, an orchestra, choir, news-
papers (one too many?) and dis-
cussions.

Give Mom
omething
from
France,
Italy,
Switzerland
India and
Turkey.

C

It was when the discussions
deteriorated into arguments by
irreconcilable factions that the
end threatened. For Cohen the
experiment was over in 1938. He
left, disillusioned. For the oth-
ers it came in June, 1939, when
the farm was put up for sale, and
in February 1940, when it was
bought.

The last colonist was gone by
April 9, 1940. A few tried to con-
tinue in Virginia, but failed im-
mediately.
All members, present and with-
drawn, were paid back their loans,
each with a slight loss of $115.63.
- No one ailment killed Sunrise.
Cohen thought a lack of recogni-
tion and appreciation were a "main
source of unhappiness and discour-
agement." But he also condemned
"the evil of negligence that af-
fected every phase of community
activity."
He admitted "we were in too
much of a hurry to get the plan
working," and the original goals
were too easily forgotten when
finances dwindled.
' No matter, he laments, "The
pioneering days are gone, and they
will never return to an indus-
trialized society. We were too in-
experienced . . ."
Some former colonists agree.
Mrs. Louis Groden of Mendota Ave.
for example, recalls that she and
her husband took up the experi-
ment with little knowledge of farm-
ing. "But we were sincere. My hus-
band drove a truck, but I liked
working with the earth. Sometimes
I cooked for 300. It was an inter-
esting life, a beautiful thing. If I
were young . . ."
The Grodens' children were
young. Two of their four lived at
Sunrise for three years. One of
them, Mrs. Leo Yelensky says, "We
could have made it work. We young
people, some of us who married
while we were there, were hoping
the government would let us stay
on homesteads.
"I remember some of the fights
the older people had; they seemed
horrible to us then. Yet we chil-
dren had a great time. Now it's
a dream, but for us, it was the
happiest time of our lives."

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,

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, May 6, 1966-15

