Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-19
HELPING THE NEEDY.
A Municipal Farm Colony for the Poor
Of Cleveland.

From the World Today
The city of Cleveland has undertaken
municipal experiment which, If successful.
will have much to do with revolutioniztng
its general attitude toward the treatment of
the criminal. dependent and defective
classes. Eight hundred and fifty acres of
land have been purchased, which, with an
adjoining $50 acres recently bought for
cemetery purposes, makes a total area of
LOO acres, or two square miles. This vast
tract of land, ten miles from the public
square. will furnish advantageous locations
for the various institutions which the mu-
nicipality finds necessary and useful in its
department of charities and correction. 1t
will be known as the Cleveland Farm Col
cry.
The administration building will be locat-
ed on the summit of a ridge which ira
verses the center of the tract, from which
is an extended view over the farm aad
many miles beyond. Located distant from
one another will be the house of correctioa,
the detention hospital. a tuberculosis sani-
larium, a general hospital for convaiescens
and chronic cases, a hospital for the treat
ment of the drink and drug habits, a home
for aged poor, a home for cripples and a
home for wayward girls. municipal hos
pital car with beds and attendant nurses
will be run over the suburban line from the
city to the different hospitals on the farm.
Special cars will also be employed for the
other departments of the colony.
The infirmary or home for aged and de-
feetive poor will be one of the first insti-
tutions to be removed to the new site.
While there will be larger wards for the
more helpless, far possible, the resi-
dents will be grouped in cottages Here
separate groups will be made according to
nationality and congenial tastes. Husbands
and wives will occupy a part of cottage
by themselves. Each cottage, or when de-
sirable, each Individual will be given a
small plot of ground for cultivation. Here
will be located not monumental inStitu-
ton, but village of unfortunates, with
homelike surroundings, sufficient activity to
foster feeling of independence, some room
for individual whms and caprces. and all
in the midst of the free open country, flow
ers, trees and gardens. To the residents of
the other institutions will be given freedom
from city temptations, the privilege of out
door life and of regaining the normal phys
ical conditions which are important factors
in the overcoming of vice, crime and dis
ease.
Because of mental and bodily defects,
many Of these people have been crowded
out of the ranks of the regular strenuous
industries in shops and factories. With
every industrial depression larger number
of them are forced into the ranks of the
criminal and dependent classes. Unlike the
crowded factories, the land always fur
nishes opportunities for the weak and We
fective to do some work according TO their
abilities. The men past their prime, the
crippled, the feeble minded. who can give
only a partial fragmentary days labor, will
here have fair chance to use their limited
talents. In two square miles Of land with
It's wooded hills, rolling meadows and plow-
ed fields, with its walks, drives and gardens.
with its cottages, shops and barns, with It's
cattle, sheep and fowl this farm colony will
offer larger opportunities for useful, hap
pier lives for the weak, unfortunate and
poor of great city.