St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-30
HOMES FOR TOILERS.
Wage-W0rkers Inaugurate a
Movement to Stop Pay
ing Rents.
They Will Buy q Tract and
Build a Village OF
Their Own.
Many Months and Much Money
Required to Investigate
Cory's Court.

Cory's Court.
An Ill-Fated LaboreP Falls
Full Fifty Feet to
His Death.
Scarcely ten days have elapsed since
the initiatory steps were taken towards
the organization OF a cooperative So
ciety among the workingmen for the
purpose of securing cheap and comfort
able homes. These initiatory steps
were the general discussion OF the sub
ject in shop and factory, and the invita-
ton to ali workingmen to subscribe to a
paper i'll which they approved of SOME
plan of cooperation for the securing of
homes, and pledged their support to the
formation of society the details OF
which were to be decided upon when
the organization had been effected. The
planmet with such general approval and
the SignerS were so numerous. that the
first meeting of those favOring the
scheme was called last evening at Iiaber
hall, 10 East Seventh street. The at
tendance was composed of delegates
from the shops, the stores and the fac
tories of the city. At $50 the hall was
we'll flied with representatives of the
stonecutters, printers. plasterers,
wholesale and retail clerks, railroad
employees, cigarmakerS and taiiors. In
the gathering there were several lead
ing labor men and one OF two ministers.
DR.. S. q. Smith, of the Peoples
church, was made chairman OF the
meeting, and Charles IL. Stevens secre-
tary. DR.. Smith in his opening remarks
gave q very brief outline of the growth
OF the idea which had brought such a
large number of workingmen out. He
believed that he mad taken the
first step towards such an or
ganiZation as they desired, for
two years ago he had advocated
it in the press. He said that he had the
fullest faith in the principle of co-opera.
tien-co-operatien in stores and in
hemes. Ee was in favor of both. He
believed that the scheme was feasible.
and that all that was needed to make
the plan grand success was to secure
a sufficient number of men to go into it.
Charles FL. Stevens spoke OF the manner
in which the meeting had been called,
and following general discussion was
opened on cooperative schemes in gen
eral. So far as could be determined at
at this stage OF the organization MT.
Stevens represented the plan OF organi-
Zation desired by the organization to be
as follows: That the first object is to
homes, and that the plan of getting
them is not to be considered
as much as the results obtained.
Officers should be appointed by
the society, and those should look
up desirable tract Of land and report
to the members. If this selection met
with general approval the land should
then be purchased and each man hold
property to the amount of shares he had
purchased. He was in favor of not lin
iting the amount OF stock man should
hold, but others differed a little on this
point. Upon these cheap lots the work
ingmen should erect their cottages,
even securing the material for them
from the organization at Wholesale
prices. Thus man could pay for his
house and lot in very snail payments
and the residents would have a suburb
composed entirely of Workingmen, but
work iHgmen who owned their homes.
This had been the general plan which
he had advocated, and iii his visiting
LOGO workiagmen he declared that he
had found but one who was opposed to
such plan, and he was a real estate
dealer.
Dr.. Smith followed with further re-
marks in the way of illustrating his
plan. "By forming such a village" he
said, ''the werkingman is benefited as
the value of lots increases. and net the
capitalist. WHAT'S it that makes these
real estate men, who plat towns, rich?
1t is the increase in value of their prop
erty made by your improvements. As
your land becomes valuable every work
ingman is benefited and he becomes
capitalist. Now, the dots i'll our pre-
posed town would ali be appraised. and
"a man that had stock amounting to $500
would have a $500 lot. / am not in
favor of selling any lots for business
houses, but you can determine whether
YOU will have absolute cooperation,
which is cooperation in homes and in
stores, or cooperation as far as selling
homes. would not fix the value of
homes"
Many of the workingmen freely ex-
pressed their opinion. MIR. Shaw be-
lieved if they were in earnest they
would succeed. Mr.. Ward said that if
there was anything he was interested in
it was home. He had been trying to
secure lot for some years, but the re-
turns were too slow. He found that it
was impossible for a workingman to
get a home unless he had good supply
of cash. He had examined property in
New Canada, but found that he could
not get in the city before 10 O'clock in
the morning and not get home ia the
evening until s O'Clock. Mr.. A. ii.
Hooper was in favor of buying a tract
of land as soon as the first nStallmentS
had been paid. AL believed that their
organization should he different from
the usual style of building socie-
ties. James Burns was pres
ent and advocated the advan
tages Of a man owning home,
Philip Corcoran favored simply COOP
Grafton in homes. He believed cooper
alton failed where there was a lack of
confidence. III. P. Hall gave encour-
aging words. he believed that none
should be in it who were spectators. I
The outcome of all this discussion
was motion, which was adopted. for
the appointment of a committee whose
duty it should be to formulate agconSti-
tuition and adopt by-laws, which should
he presented for adoption at a meeting
OF the workingmen to be called by the
president of the meeting, DIR. S. q.
Smith. This committee was disappointed,
and included the president and secre-
tary from each craft. The committees
DIR. S. G. Smith, Charles iH. Stevens;
MI. Shaw, printer; Alex Gray, printer;
A. III. Hooper, wholesale clerk; M. j.