Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-01-16
COLONIES FOR WORK.
European Countries Provide Means -
AID the Unemployed.

-df0 T~0t ONAitNilCS F-iONtQG mCdn6 ID
AID the Unemployed.
A bulletin dealing with reports on
the problem of the unemployed in
various European countries has been
issued by the Bureau of Manufactures.
Washington 1t tells particularly or
the establishment Ct several labor col
onies. The bulletin says
The largest experiments in this
line were made in the Netherlands,
northeast of the Zuyder Zee, where
three colonies have been establisho~.
They were first suggested just after
the battle of Waterloo, thousands of
families having been reduced to pow
erty by war Philanthropic persons
secured tracts of land on which such
families were domiciled and encourag-
ed to work the soil. This experiment
proved SO successful that the State
urged the society operating it to take
charge of beggars, foundlings, and or
phans. Separate colonies were found
ed for them; but this experiment uid
not succeed, and these colonies were
taken over by the State
Germany has several labor colon
les. Luherheim, not far from the
Dutch frontier, is considered t-a best.
1t was founded about twenty years
ago, on poor land costing $40 per acre.
The colonists are employed during the
farming season in cultivating the
land; in the winter, many are hired
by neighboring land owners for vari-
Gus purposes. Stock is also raised IL
this colony, the sale of which makes
considerable revenue.
Belgium has three labor colonies,
situated on sandy plain about thirty
miles from Antwerp. They have con-
verified wilderness into farms, wood
lands, and gardens. One of the colon
les is for the aged, imbecile, and in
firm, another for persons whose pow.
erty has come from circumstances be-
yond their control; the other for able
bodied beggas, Migrants, and Grim
inals. The population of the three
colonies is over 5000. The colonists
work not only at agriculture, but in
flour, brick, soap, pearl button, beer,
leather and other factories.
Progress is being made in Eng
land along similar lines. The move
ment was begun ten years ago by the
Christian Union for Social Service,
the leading spirit of which society was
Congregational minister of Noting
ham, though clergymen and Bishops
of the Established Church are among
it's officers. Two colonies were estab-
lished-one at Crook, in Westmore.
land, the other at Lingaeld, in Surrey.
''Lingield, the larger colony, has a
farm of $50 acres and accommodations
at present for about sixty men. In adj
dition, this colony extends it's 'benefi-
cent work to epileptic children, for
100 of whom it has accommodations,
including a school. The reports rem
dered show that all the epileptic chill
dren are either improved or their con-
dition ameliorated, while some are
entirely cured, though true epilepsy is
generally supposed to be incurable.
The men at Lingfeld work at var
ious trades, at market gardening, and
at farming Fifty or sixty are receiv-
ed and leave each year. The latest
published report shows that, in the
preceding year, of "a men who left
Lingfeld, we're dismissed, 2 were
sent to lunatic asylums, were re-
turned to those who sent them to the
coIonSp II absconded, went in search
OF work, went to situations in Can
ada, and Is went to situations in this
country. This indicates the general
yearly average.
"Of about 500 men passing through
the colony since it's foundation, about
80 per cent. have been rehabilitated
and put into the direct way of earning
their living. These men come, in
some cases, voluntarily to the colony,
others are sent by charitable and re-
ligious societies, others by municipal
guardians of the poor, and some are
professional tramps. The latter are
not encouraged, but in a few cases
they have apparently been redeemed.
Some of these men were drunkards,
some respondent bankrupts, others
PHYSICAL wrecks-in all instances
broken ana destitute, with no outlook
in life and burden to others.
Not one among the hundreds sent
to Lingfeld was at the same time So
Der, healthy, skillful, young, and in
dustrious. Guardians of the poor, in
particular make it a rule to send only
their apparently hopeless cases. To
give health, hope and employment to
one-third of such wrecks of humanity
is certainly a gratifying record. ne
lapses are to be expected, but so far
none are publicly reported.