New-York tribune., 1903-02-10
pounded. on a value of $3.50. Payments would
he as follows:

Totals $685. 90 $3.50 slfe5 oo
1t will be seen from the above that at the end
OF eleven years the benefciaries of this phil
anthropy would be the owners of their
farms, of approximately fifty acres cach and
would have repaid every penny advanced to
Them while the assumed philanthropist would
have received interest his investment at the
rate of per cent year
In support of this project 1t said that a
majority OF the immigrants landing at Castle
Garden have had agricultural experience in their
native lands, and merely require opportunity
in this country. together with the supervision
of a competent agriculturist, who could direct
their efforts along profitable channels and sup
ply, for a time, the overseeing under which
most of them havefbeen accustomed to work at
home.
While individuals in such a community might
prove 10 be neerdo-wells, with proper selection
such should be few and their places could be
promptly filed with more thrifty individuals
soon as their lack of enterprise detected by
the manager. In the determination of the
benefciaries for such an enterprise it would be
necessary to select the families carefully, and
it is urged by some that it might be well not
to pay the transportation of the settlers to the
location of the settlement, individuals with
proper enterprise could raise the required
amount, which would not be more than SO
to the individual, and probably would not ex-
ceed S15.
In a settlement Of the size proposed it would
be entirely feasible for certain individuals skilled
in some particular trade to exchange their labor
with others. and thus local blacksmith shop,
Wheelwright'S shop, etc, could be provided, and
employment would be furnished for practically
every member of the community capable Of
working.
This proposition has been submitted to certain
political economists in Washington and all
press the utmost approval of its provisions:
They are unanimous in the proposition that all
wealth in its final analysis is composed of land,
using the term in its politico-economc and
broad sense and mems labor in some form.
This being so, the closer labor can be brought
in touch with land the greater the possibility
of its becoming productive factor and adding
to the wealth of the country. Notwithstanding
the improved methods of farming and the COM
plcation of some systems, it still remains as
whole the simplest form of production and is
therefore best adapted for the transformation
of the idle and impoverished immigrant into
reasonably prosperous producer.
Sociologists find in the scheme many merits,
among them the spirit Of independence and self
reliance bred in the human species by the owner
ship of home and the material which he, by
the application Of his labor transforms into act
ual concrete wealth 1t is pointed out that in the
early history of the United States the most I'M
pOrtant factor in Transforming heterogeneous
immigration which settled the country into
homogeneous nation the settlement on pro-
ductiVe land where each individual became a
landholder and Immediately thereon possessed
a substantial interest in the welfare of the coun
try. Instead of associating exclusively with
others of the same nationality the benefciaries
sentatives Of all nations and would be compelled
to find market for their products in towns and
villages where knowledge Of English would
prove essential, thus furnishing an incentive for
the requirement Of the language of their
adopted country. These same students OF his
tory hold that the most casual examination or
the history of this country will reveal the fact
that agricultural life has invariably operated to
the advancement of good and intelligent ctl-
zenship and many Of the sturdiest and most re-
markable -aracters in American public life
have been recruited from the farms of the ma
ton.
In locating the scene of the proposed philan-
thropy in the South due regard has been had for
the many advantages which that part of the
country offers, notably the absence of long, cold
winters, rendering expensive houses and barns
unnecessary, the cheapness of fuel, the long
growing season, enabling the up-to-date agri-
culturist to produce two crops each year, and
sometimes three. In most parts of the South
standing timber can be purchased for an almost
nominal price, and any energetic man can pay
for all the fuel, fence posts, etc. which he would
require with his labor
As compared with many of the enterprises
which philanthropsts have heretofore under
taken for the benefit of their fellow men. that
outlined here is pronounced to be infinitely su-
perior. BY the investment of a sum no larger
than that which on several occasions has been
invested in libraries, but a portion OF the
amount devoted to the pursuit of abstruse sci
ences the founding of universities, which can
prove beneficial only to class already in a
position to help itself to or less extent,
a class helpless would be benefited to an
extraordinary degree. say those who have
studied the scheme from all its aspects a
quarter of a million dollars would remove from
penury and want and place in independence. in
physically and morally healthy surroundings
and on the high road TO wealth, not less than
two hundred families, and the original fund
would be continuously increasing. 1t is further
pointed out by the authors of this idea that it
would not be necessary for the promoter to wait
for eleven years before he embarked on a repeti-
ton of the project Within not to exceed seven
years from the founding of the colony It would
be easy to place the mortgages on the property
in the hands Of some trust company, and utilize
the funds for the founding Of colony.
Every person to whom the scheme here out
lined has been submitted has expressed unQuali-
fed approval and the hope that The Tribune
would be able to enlist the interest Of some phi
lanthropist willing and able 10 give it a taIr
trial.