The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-09-02
AND EMIGRA-
TION.
A New Experiment i'm Emigra-
ton that Attracts the at
tentiOn of the Entire
Union.
New York Herald.

1 =
Mr. Thomas Hughes and some of his
associates in his new enterprise is fit
ted to attract wide attention, both
here and in Great Britain. Even in
its minor aspect as an attempt at or
ganized emigration from the Old
World to the New it is of considerable
interest. There have, indeed, been a
few similar attempts by small relig-
ious bodies, but they have not been
started with anything like the capital,
prestige, social eclat and elaborate
system of preparations of this interest
ing experiment.
The company which Mr.. Hughes
represents has a capital of $3.50, 600,
and among its patrons and stockhold-
ers are many persons of high distinc>
ton in England. including some men,
bers of the nobility. 1t is not land
speculation nor is it purely philan-
throphic. 1t must not be confounded
with any of the various cooperative
movements which have been so much
discussed, for its aims.are entirely dis
tinct from the purposes Ct those orr
CARNATIONS. 1t is an organization
suigeneris, and must oe judged ON
its own merits and not by comparison.
Mr. Hughes company has purchas-
ed IL large tract of land in Eastern Ten
nessee, little south of the Kentucky
line, in a region of remarkable beau>
ty, salubrity, agricultural and miner
al resources. The purchase comprises
four hundred thousand acres located
in four contiguous counties. 1t is on
the picturesque plateau of the Cum
berland river, lying OIL the new Gin
cinnati Southern Railroad, whose
southern terminus III the rising city of
Chattanooga.
When the tract is settled its near
est market will be Chattanooga, but
its principal though more distant mar
ket will he Cincinnati. Great care
has been taken in the selection of the
site, which,is preferred to many others
which have been examined in the
West and South. The region abounds
in valuable timber. limestone and
clay. A hotel has been erected since
March; roads have beer surveyed and
laid; nurseries of fruit trees have been
planttd; facilities for building have
been prepared by the construction of
saw-nill and Lrick kiln. On the
14th of September there will be a for
NAL opening of the colony, at which
Mr. Hughes is to make an address,
setting forth in detail the objects of
the enterprise and the nature of its or
ganization. Even in the midst OF q
heated Presidential canvass the pro-
ceedings OH that occasion will be look
ed to with great interest and be widely
reported by the public press.
The purpose of this noteworthy en-
terprise, as thus far imperfectly ex-
| planned by Mr. Hughes. is to establish
pleasant and civilized homes for mid
die class people who prefer an agricul-
tural life and fiud no career open to
them as tenant farmers in England.
What is sought for the new colony is
body of picked emigrants who shrink
| from the rough society of miscellane-
GUS new settlements, and have capital
enough to make modest start in a
community which will possess from
the beginning the most important ad-
vsntagcs of civilized life-schools,
churches and cultivated social inter-
course. Our country is wide and lib
eral enough to admit of such experi>
ments. Let them turn out as they
may. they cannot fail to be instruc-
tive.
1t does not yet appear in what man.
ner the company which POUNDS this
Tennessee colony is to dispose of its
lands. 1t will make great differ
ence whether they give titles in fee
simple or only grant leases for a term
of years. 1t is only by the latter
method that there can be any guaran-
tee for the stability of the colony in
| its intended original character. II
each settler should be the sabsolute
owner of his. farm he will have per-
| feet tight of transfer under state laws,
and can sell it at his pleasure to per.
son who might be an undesirable mem
Der of the community. But ii the
company retains the fee simple of the
soil and lets it out to tenants, it may
carry out its purposes for several gen.
erations.
We trust that this will be an expe'
riment from which something useful
can he learned, and OH 10 other princi
pIe of land tenure could it be so in
structive as by system of leases with
rights of renewal by desirable ten
ants. It would aid materially in solv'
ing difficult and dangerous questions
which threaten the domestic peace OF
the British Islands. Questions be-
tween tenants and landlords are be-
ginning to rise in ugly forms in Eng
land itself. In Ireland they are 8
standing source of disturbance-tht
terror and despair of statesmen. i
/, will be in the power of Mr.. Hughes
Tennessee land company to establish 4
a perfectly just system of tenant righ
whose peace and satisfactory working
may suggest the true basis of land re
, form in Great Britain. If it be asked
why land owners in in America shoult
5 undertake to solve problems for th'
, old country the answer is simple.