Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-14
LAND QUESTION VIEWS
SCOTCHMEN ADDRESSED ON
SMALL HOLDINGS.
Special Cahlegram to The Star.

GLASGOW, July 13.-Joseph Fels Of
Philadelphia Is an American who has been
attracting no little attention in Scotland
recently At the invitation of Lord Provost
Bisland. chairman of the Glasgow distress
committee, he recently made an address on
the work of the VaCan Lots Association of
Philadelphia. the Hollesley Bay Labor
Colony OF Suffolk. and on his own expert
ment in small holdings at Maylands, Es-
sex.
In his address Mr.. Fels said that land
the basis not only of human life. but
OF human welfare. and that this being the
case 1t had always appeared to him an
anomaly that there should be little land
occupied by so many people; in other
words. that even IN Great Britain three
quarters OF the land should be practically
uncultlvated To his mind that accounted
for a great many of the questions In re-
lation to the problems of the unemployed.
1t accounted for their poverty and 1t ac-
counted for a great deal OF the crime. for
crime was often the result of poverty.
He considered the land question to be the
solution of the unemployed question. and
he believed that unless they could bring the
unemployed men and women to the unem-
ployed and unused lands they would con-
tinue to have poverty. and that the prob
lens in relation to poverty would grow
more and more acute. When a single man
could own in Scotland about million and
"A quarter a million and q half acres or
land upon which comparatively few people
could make their living. he thought IT time
for somebody to wake up. He said that he
had been introduced by the chairman as an
American millionaire. who had. made many
experiments in connection with the utllizd-
ton of lands. and that it happened that he
had been fortunate enough to make some
money out of his experiments which had
been conducted with eye to proving
that the scientific treatment of land would
greatly help to bring about higher civil
izatiun-
For Farm Training Colonies.
He said that he did not believe that a
benefcent ruler had ever intended that one
half of the people should starve while one
fifth of the people should own all of the
good things. He said that he was not a
socialist. But he was interested in things
like farm training colonies. He believed
those colonies should be in q measure col
leges of the best kind to train men to Gull
tivate the land. He did not believe with
the socialists that they We're going to bring
in Utopia by Matchmaking things until
they got the land question settled. and un-
til 1t settled, and settled right, he did
not believe that there would be "a better
ment of existing conditions. His whole eff
fort. he continued. was in the direction of
pointing the way in a small measure to-
ward what could be done even with a small
piece of land. He proposed to deal with
farm colonies and small holdings from
purely business point of view.
This was a point OF view which made the
question an international well ma
tional one. He said that he believed that
If they had near Glasgow a good, solid bit
OF land on which they could put. under in
telligent and experienced management.
their neutrality-suspicious. married men
with families-and these men were train
ed i'll a sensible way to cultivate the land,
and were afterward placed small hold
iugS they would rpgpuerafe those to
large extent. The sun shone here once in
while Uaughter), and it did not matter
much after all whether they had real
good land or not They could cover the
ground with twelve inches of manure. and
top of that have few inches of we'll
worked earth to hold the vegetables. and
they would be independent of the earth I'M
derneath.
Started Model Farm
Mr. Fels spoke at length of the Holes
ley Bay Labor Colony. Speaking of his ex-
pertinent at MaylanIs, Essex he said he
had taken $50 acres of clay lands and had
started a model farm-a good dairy and
market garden farm. There was a nursery
for growing trees and plants for small hold
ers. and in addition there was a French
garden, worked exactly as were the French
gardens in the vicinity of Paris On the
farm twenty-one small holdings were in
active operation today. Two of the men
the holdings had been trained at the
Hollesley Bay Labor Colony. One was a
.bootmaker," one a harness maker, one a
coaehman. and there were three or four
machinists. OF the twenty-one men there
We're only three who had had previous
actual experience in dealing with the lands
commercially. The +. sidents had a good
five-room house and goot set of outbuld-
ings. This small holding enterprise had
been started by him to show to the men
who owned land that the division of it
into holdings of from three to five acres
could be made to pay, and If twenty-one
men and their families could make a living
on five acres of land each. why could not
81 coo or 210,0OO make a living in the same
way?
W. +. Anderson, in moving vote of
thanks to the speaker, said that he was
pleased to announce that the distress COM
mittee about to conclude. if 1t could
get the necessary sanction, the purchase
of an estate of coo acres. 800 acres of which
could be used for market gardening and
fruit culture. and 300 acres for moorland
where they could utilize the refuse of the
city of Glasgow in bringing it back to cul-
tivation and afforestation.
Mr.. Fels is American manufacturer.
done more toward bringing about an era
OF small proprietors than any resident of
Great Britain.