Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-09-13
THE SINCLAIR UTOPIA.

Council Bluff Nonpareil.-"The New
York Home Colony" is the title given
the socialistic scheme by Upton
Sinclair, who has come out of "the jun
gle" and elaborated solution of the
servant problem and cure-all for the
domestic ills that modern home life is
heir to. The committee on plan and
scope" after grave elaboration and
the expense of much gray matter at
figuring has issued in circular form
the definite announcement that 1t Is
time to do something or anything on
some plan or other. The committee
states positively" that "some sort of
cooperative home will grow out Of this
work." and all there remains now to
do is the insignificant task of working
out the details. and candidates for
membership in this assured Utopia are
invited to send in answers to long
list of questions as to what they think,
or don't think on what they should, or
should not, do.
When these valuable data are col
lected, the next step Is to hand over
the little sum of $1,000 which consti-
tutes the little membership fee and the
committee will proceed to select and
purchase site within, say, an hour of
New York, and build a hotel or some
thing or other, and receive members
and their families before winter sets
in. How this is to be done and done in
SO brief time does not seem to bother
the projectors.
Figures have been carefully juggled
hHyH rvy .t,sb IL, ~, 80 f11I
this by an architect and that by a
hotel man, and so on-so they cannot
be wrong and they prove conclusively
that the thing can be accomplished
when the money is paid in. But the
matter of money need not deter any
enthusiastic seeker after the desidera-
tum of domestic happiness He or she
may offer to work in lieu of cash in
hand, and az there are to be no social
distinctions, nothing can or will be
considered degrading" employment.
The chambermaid and the silk clad
matron, the janitor and the nabob-all
will sit out on the front veranda after
the tolls Of the summer day and watch
the younger element disport them
selves in the surf. and in winter the
barber and Wall street broker will hob
mob together in the billiard room. All
will be equals and the words Servant"
and domestic" will be expurgated
from the vocabulary.
The committee assures its prospec-
tive members that all it's estimates are
arrived at only after considerable in
vestigation," drawn up with care"
and with the Assistance Of experts"
and everything will be lovely. To be-
gin with everything in the way of food
supplies except that of milk will be
purchased In the open market. "Under
no circumstances" the committee
says, SHOULD the source of milk sup
ply be entrusted to profit-mal1ing en-
terprise." This is wise. 1t Is for the
children's sake. Further on behalf of
the children, there is to be "chil-
dren's colony" where the Spartan
method of rearing children away from
their parents is to be followed with
certain notifications due to modern
ideas.
Just what the society really pro
poses to do can be cleaned only by in.
| ference for the greater part, for, as
the circular announces, the colony will
be "a product of evolution rather than
Of creation" The projectors seem a
good deal at sea themselves, with a
vague idea that by cooperation they
can reduce the expenses and remove
the annoyances inevitably connected
with the modern system of household
economics. The figures given place the
yearly cost of living and all expenses
connected with the colony at $2S3.3a
for each adult. In the kindergarten
department Of the children's colony
where children between the ages of 8
/ and are to be cared for, the cost is
placed at s279.6O per child. In the
school establishment which Is to take
over all children between z and IA, the
cost is placed at $29S.63 per youth
Later the colony will establish coop
erative farm and supply its own pro
ducts which will materially decrease
the per capita cost, which, by the way
Is the actual source Of revenue for the
maintenance of the colony.
For fear that there will be a mac
rush for membership and the popula
ton Of the home colony become con
gested it is noted that the number Of
members is to be limited, the present
finit being 100 families. Greai