The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-10-31
MILLIONAIRE Tits
TOWN IS A UTOPIA
Everyone Has !, Pr.ttyLit cottage
and There Are No Social
Distinctions.
-
ne LIVES AMONG HIS EMPLOYEES
Abandon. HI. splendid Mansion in Chi.
LIVES AMONG HIS EMPLOYEES
Absndons HIS Splendid Mansion In Chi.
osgo to Live with AIS Worknen-
says IT'S Not Philanthropy, Hut
Plain Common senss.

B1nghamton, N. Y, special: Joseph,
%. Tilt, Chicago's millionaire shoe manu-
facturer, has left q princely mansion on
the lake front to dwell with his wife and
daughter in a modest little cottage at
Endicott, nine miles from here.
Far removed from the social splendors
amid which he and his family nave moved
and lived, Mr.. Tilt seeks to place himself
on a level with his own workingmen.
They are his next-door %neighbors.
Some Of them reside In better houses
than does their millionaire employer ana
his family.
Many OF them will be able to live more
comfortably on their wages than Mr.. and
Mrs. Tilt and their daughter possibly can
on the appropriation he has set aside for
maintaining his household.
AS everybody In Endicott is to consider
himself on a plane neither higher nor
lower than that Of his %neighbors, Million
aire Tilt proposes to cultivate the ac-
quaintance of his fellow-townsmen, no
matter how humble. In this way he ex-
pects to bring about a condition of af-
fairs which will make IIndicott a model
town and a twentieth century Utopia.
Town but Six Months Old.
Less han six months ago Endicott did
not exist. The site was q rolling table
land, with a farmhouse, a barn, or a fence
here and there. Mr.. Tilt saw the place
while looking around for an available To-
cation for his new shoe factory and tan
merry. He liked 1t, enlisted the services Of
George r. Johnson of B~inghamton, N.
r., and HI. b. Endicott of Boston, and the
deal for the land was closed very
promptly.
Then Mr.. Tilt realized that the oppor-
tunity had arrived for carrying into effect
Q plan tending towards utilitarianism on a
large scale.
He would make Endicott an ideal
Utopia.
Liberty Of thought n action would be
the foundation OF the project.
Pleasant homes, beautiful parks, broad.
paved streets, handsome theaters. con-
slant employment and all the advantages
Of the big city, coupled with the privil-
eyes of the country We're to be found at
Endicott,
Varying social elevations were to be en-
tirely eliminated. The millionaire shoe
manufacturer was to consider himself not
3ne whit better than his next door neigh
Dor who feeds the boilers In the power
shouse.
Has sps.s ss.ooo,ooo.
All this has been done. Over 5000, 900
has been spent on the new town already
I'm building q shoe factory and tannery
Employing 12.500 hands, laying out streets
ind sewers. parks and ~boulevards and
erecting ar electric light and sanitary
plant.
Pretty little cottages have been erected
by hundreds along the broad thorough
fares, and they are being occupied as fast
ms they can be completed. Each cottage
liz surrounded by a nice plot Of ground,
presenting q striking contrast to the over
crowded tenement quarters In Chicago or
New York, where rents are just as high
as at Endicott.
The shoe factory wheels began turning
for the first time on October /, and the big
works are already running very smoothly.
HITLER Millionaire Tilt has come. tenn
porarily abandoning his splendid home at
No. 543 Evanston avenue. Chicago. to live
among his workingmen as one OF them.
He will act here as superintendent of the
shoe factory.
During working hours MI. Tilt is all
business. But after the whistles blow in,
the evening and the men return home, he
and his vito are to be seen making social
calls among their %neighbors. And while
Mrs. Tilt adrnires the babies n talks
to the mothers. the millionaire shoe man
ufacturer talks to his men about their
town, Its municipal program n Its fu-
trre.
Not : PhiiahsAropist.
He wishes 1t distisstively understood
that no phllanthropic motives prompted
him to take this unusual course. He be-,
,ieves sthat In helping his employees to
build up O town agreeable to live nnd
work In he 10 putting 30 much In his own
pocket. sSs
q am not a ~philanthroplst.. he has
stated very emphatically. .Just put me
DOWN ~ q plain, c-ommon-bense business
n
Enaicstt's rapid progress seems to point
eonylusively to the correctness of Mil