Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-11-08
MODEL MANUFACTURING TOWN
OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR ELICIT

The election of Eben S. Draper to the office of lieu
tenant governor of Massachusetts serves to call attention
to the model factory town of H~opedale, where he resides,
and which his family may be said to own. Budget
Meakin, an English writer and lecturer on industrial
betterment, declares in one of his written works that
Hopedale is the best manufacturing settlement in the
United States.
1t illustrates what a public spirited individual or
family can do for the improvement of social conditions
The machine works owned by the Diapers employ some
5000 hands. Everything is done to make life pleasant
for these men. No women or children are employed in
the factory. The workers are well paid and there is no
necessity for the employment of women and children.
One of the most interesting features of this town is
the houses of the workers. These are two and onehalf
stories in height, covered with unstained shingles and sug.
gestive of the Queen Anne style of architecture. I'm
fenced lawns lie in front and grassy plots on the, side
and rear of the houses, while flowers and vines grow
about the verandas. A visitor viewing these model tene-
ments would fancy that, they were the residences of col
lege professors, lawyers or physicians rather than the
homes OF factory operatives. To encourage the operatives
to improve the surroundings, prizes are offered by the
Draper company every year to the aggregate amount OF
1915. The rent for these dwellings runs from S175 to
1892 a week, which is said to be a return of only three
per cent on the investment.
Besides these model houses there are $50 acres OF
park and six acres of playground. The roads are all
macadamized, while shade trees have been planted with
great liberality. There is also a beautiful memorial IL
brary and an imposing stone church.
The Draper family has spared no pains to make the
town attractive and the lives of their workers comfort
able. This may be what Mr.. Client calls "benevoient
Suoui9A bb al Nut pHlldulHIOplSlS VIII leJolCG III
the knowledge that 5000 workers are kept so comfortable
that life seems sweet to them. 1t is a blessed thing when
a man can say at the end of his days This is a grand
old earth, and have found it full of lovabIe men and
women" All honor, then, to the Draper family, that
they have been manufacturers, not only of cotton machin-
cry, but of optimism,
1t may be of interest, also, to say that this town Is
without a saloon. Every year the voters have an oppor-
tunity to institute one if they desire. But year after
year they vote. no license, and some years there is not
so much as a solitary vote for license. If the people wish
to drink they can have their drinkables at home, but 1t
is well known that Hopedale is distinguished for it's tenn
perance. This goes far to prove that excess in drinking
is largely due TO insufficient nutrition and dismal sur.
roundings. Life is so pleasant in Hopedale that it is not
necessary for men to fly to the artificial stimulation so
common in other places.
The town of Hopedale was founded many years ago
by the Rev. Adm Ballou as a communistic colony. George
Draper, the father of the present lieutenant governor
elect, was a member of this colony. The experiment
failed, as most of these experiments have failed, but the
noble ideal was never quite lost.