The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-07-07

We copy from the Chicago Times
Herald, of June 81, 1897. an article
which will be read with great interest
by all our subscribers. yHE REPRE-
SENTATIVE does not vouch for the
correctness of the theories involved, Or
guarantee the success OF the experiment,
but we feel that our readers will be
glad to know what is going on in the
world in this direction. We are sorry
we cannot reproduce the illustrations
which accompany the article in the
Times-H Herald
RUSKIN, Tenn, June 21.--President
| Dodson and 213 oolonists have estab-
lished at this point commonwealth
of workingmen. They came here to
build an institution. that should prove
tEey had found the key to the solution
OF all trouble between capital and pow
erty. They had a plan which sounded
like story Of Utopia. They voted to
put their theory into practce-to see
whether community of absolute equal
1ty could live-to test the idea that It
Is practical for the laborer to hold his
own property, to owl the wealth that
he produces AID to get the Profit Of his
toll
This community has reached the
stage where it refuses to call itself an
experiment. 1t has seventy-four heads
of families-men from the under side
of life-and the statement they have
filed with the secretary of state under
the laws of Tennessee swears to the
fact that in three years the devotion and
determination of sixty mechanics and
farmers have increased their join: hold
ing from nothing to 100000.
ONE GREAT FAMILY.
This settlement lives rs one great
family. 1t has government of it's own
by the people. 1t has its own sy ystem
of mOney-a system in which the stand
ard of value is an hours labor. 1t pays
the wife as much as 1t does the hus-
band, promises to support the widow
as it supported the man, agrees to edu-
cate the children, promises pension for
the aged, supplies a perpetual home
and maintenance for it's citizens so long
as they or their descendants shall prove
honest at heart and willing to SOW,
spin and reap for the common good 1t
pays no more to the president than it
does to the hostler, rates the talent Of
the man who teaches clay molding no
higher than the skill Of the man who
knows the month for planting beans
hour for hour.
The founders have reached the time
when they are seeking investigation.
They challenge the industrial world to
select sixty families of common people
who have the contentment and prosper
ity Of Ruskin. They sit on their front
porches and look down the valley Of
Yellow Creek over 2S4 acres of as fertile
soil as the sun ever shone upon. They
know that back of the perpendicular
marble cliff there are 221 other acres
in corn, wheat and oats. They can
hitch up one of the herd of community
horses to ne of the community wag-
ons and in half an hour stand in the
center of 1,00O-acre tract of virgin for
est-the site of their stock farm. They
own it all-each as much as the other,
and they own it for all their lives and
the lives of their children. The laborer
in Ruskin has become the landlord.
Ruskin men think that the courage
they have demonstrated in this move
ment is the same stuff that the pilgrims
had when they landed on the Atlantic
coast. 1t has been no life of ease and
luxury, rather the life of the pioneer