The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-04-10
COOPERATIVE EDUCATION.

COOPERATIVE EDUCATION.
Collective Production to Result in Col
eetive Leisure. Pleasure and Edncation.
From s Il. Comings. of St. Joseph.
Mich, am in receipt of a prospectus
of a cooperative university and colony
combined, which has been incorporated
with some eminent reformers among
its trustees and promoters The pur-
pose is to study. teach and practice the
new political economy of cooperation
In q scientific and practical manner.
From the Coming Nation, of Ruskin
colony fame, clip as follows:
''Ruskin builds not for self alone,
but for the race and the future. Striv-
just economic relations, securing the
full enjoyment of the product of labor
to those who create it, it reaches out
and puts itself in touch with the world
movement for better social conditions.
Intimately connected with and of vital
importance to the ultimate triumph
and permanency of the new order of
things we advocate. is the matter OF
education in the new ethics upon which
the improved order must be based.
We have all seen how wealth in
these days tramples on worth, fixes
limit line to honest thinking and turns
the courageous and progressive mind
from the doors of its universities. If
the people quietly submit to the in
science of the predatory rich, when the
issues at stake SO vitality affect the
preservation of liberty and OF civiliza-
ton, the end to be feared is near. 1t
must not be; the intellect and con-
science of this nation must be aroused
and quickened, that the end may be,
DOT what the appropriations of social
wealth want, but what the creators of
wealth are entitled to have. 10 do
this effectively an institution is neces-
sary where students, actuated by the
new social motive.may be equipped for
intellectual battle with the emissaries
of capitalism; an institution where the
new economy, setting man above
money, worth above wealth, progress
above party and growth above greed,
may be taught, and those who teach 1T
be free from the lust of avarice and the
poverty of time-serving. Ruskin will
signalize its removal to a new and bet
ter site by taking the first step to-
wards foun ding college for the new
and better order, to be known as
Ruskin College Of the New Economy.
For this purpose 25 acres. comprising
one of the most eligible building sites
on the land, with a commanding view
of the valley, will be donated by the
association. We shall at once put our
selves in communication with friends
throughout the country for the pur-
pose of taking counsel with them as to
the selection of seven trustees from
the eastern, middle, southern, west
ern. southwestern, northwestern and
pacific divisions of the country. These
trustees will be chosen by the mem bers
of the Ruskin association. and upon be-
ing notified of their acceptance of the
trust the land will be decided to
them and their successors for
ever. They will have power
to perpetuate the governing body,
subject only to the condition that the
institution may never be diverted
from the original purpose for which it
was founded-which will in due time
be clearly defined-nor close its doors
against any new light or new thinker
that may come into the world. To
make an institution of this kind po-
tential for good in these days, when
all honest minds agree that partyism,
superseding patriotism, has brought
our country to most unhappy and de-
plorable condition, should be an aim
in life worthy of all great-hearted,
humanity-loving men and women who
are able, with means at their disposal,
to give the cause of educational reform
an uplift and a permanent abiding
place"
In the course of the letter transmit
the college, Mr. Comings says: IF the
omy is correct that, with modern
methods, people can supply all their
needs by laboring four or five hours,
then memb of university colony
may labor just about enough for
healthful exercise to produce what
they need, say four to six hours per
day. and have all the rest of life for
! self-improvement What possibilities
of culture and attainment does not
this suggest? Instead of lives of al
most unremitting and laborious toll
and anxiety, a whole life of reading,
study and mental growth; and what a
difference in moral nature produced by
an environment of mutual helpful
| ness, where each is for all and all for
each instead of the present system of
industrial anarchy wherein each is
for himself and destruction for the
last"
may have more to say about this
cooperative educational plan in the
near future. In the meantime, all de-
string further information should adj
dress S 81. Comings, St Joseph, Mich.
or the Ruskin Colony, Tennessee City,
Tenn. There can be no doubt of the
practicable of the plan. nor can
there be any question as to its useful
ness and desira bilitv.