The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-25
IN
 COOPERATION

erary Man, Has Outlined
 ], Plans for an Agricultural
 Colony in North Carolina. | Ry William J. Hoggson)
 | (Elxclusive Service The Survey Press | Bureau.)
 Dr. Frederick Van Eeden, the most prominent scientific and literary man
 in Holland, whose experiments in so-
 ciaI problems have been much dis cussed in papers and magazines dur-
 ing the last few years, has launched another venture in cooperation. In
 two recent visits to this country pr.
 Van Eeden lectured and wrote about cooperation, and he now proposes a cooperative agricultural colony in North Carolina, the first department ef an organization to be known as the Cooperative Company of America
 Frederick Van Eeden was born at l Haarlem, Holland, in 1860, the son of a bulb grower and botanist of consid- erable reputation.
 l He was graduated from the Univer- | sity of Amsterdan1 in 1883, studied medicine and became practicing phy- S1ctan in Amsterdam. Later in the l same city he established with Dr. Van Renterghem, a regular clinic, where for thirteen years. hypnotic suggestion was successfully applied, not as a cure-all but as a. powerful aid in the treatment of disease.
 Van Eeden's literary activities have been remarkable. As a poet dramat- fst, novelist and essayist, he has haen leader in Dutch literature. His dramas have been produced in Berlin as we'll as his own country, and two of his books. The Deeps of Deliver ance and The Guest, have been pub lished in English Other works are now being translated.
 It is. however. in the line of social experiment that Dr. Van Eeden has become most famous. In, 1889 he bought land near Amsterdam and founded a colony which he called Wal den. Here he offered equality of op- portunity and individual freedom. but freedom limited by common interest.
 The divergent views of the various elements gathered together and their unwillfngness to submit to sane man. agement and competent leadership, proved to be the rock on which the wreck of the enterprise was accom- plished. The bitter lesson learned, the community reorganized and began again and dozen other cooperative centers were established on it's model, all bound together in union for the common ownership of the soil.''
 In 1903 several thousand families were made destitute in Amsterdam by the failure of a railroad strike and Dr. Van Eeden was appointed the head of a committee of relief for the unem- ployed. Believing that cooperation instead of charity should be the me- dium, he established cooperative stores and factories, and gave employ ment instead of distributing aims. The plan was successful. It aimed at purity of goods, standard prices, gave liberal salaries to employees and rebates to purchasers, retaining a cer- tain percentage of the net profits to be used in the extension of the busi- ness
 The growth of the scheme was so rapid that the difficulty in finding managers, the inexperience of the em- ployes and their unfamiliarity with the duties assigned them, was opposed to all business rules for safe development and growth. There were over 10000 members connected with the enter prise within a year and it was proved conclusively that while philanthropy might be run on business lines, bus mess such as Dr. Van Eeden started could not be safely managed and run purely as a philanthropy.
 The result might have been foreseen by anyone with a business training and when the crash came after pub lie confidence had been lost, Dr. Van Eeden shouIdered the responsibility, paid the debts which amounted to over $100,00 and impoverished himself. This enterprise which was called The Union, is now on it's feet again and has branches in several cities.
 Dr. Van Eeden has interested an advisory board of New York business and literary men in the new North Carolina project. / The active man. agement will be in the hands of con- petent managing director. Numbers of plans have been proposed hereto f0v.n inc off ing land and advice, but pr. Van Eeden's is the first effort in co-opera- tion that strives to make combina- tion of capital and labor, sthe ultimate benefits of which shall revert to the workers on the land. It is an effort to make the farmer his own landlord, and give him SO satisfactory a return for his labor through cooperation that the temptation to migrate to the city will be removed. It will tend to re- lieve the congestion Of the cities, all though at first only settlers of known ability and those who prove after in vestigation to be fitted to make a success of truck-farn1ing will be ad- mitted.
 It is proposed to raise the necessary (s10O,O00) by offering first mort gage bonds at five per cent, and the land and the improvements on the land as security The stock of the com pany will be divided into common and
 
 the latter for prospective customers. ! Tenants may be eligible as stockhold- CTS only on recommendation of the general manager and acceptance by the board of trustees. They may then acquire stock representing ownership in the company, by purchase, or have stock set aside for them, to be paid out of the earnings.
 The entire details are not yet de- cided on, but the idea is that if the | company furnishes land. houses, seed and implements, the settler shall put up a certain amount of money toward his maintenance, farm supplies and as an evidence of good faith. He will cultivate his land, his crops will be marketed, and the proceeds less a cer- tain percentage, will be placed to his credit. This percentage will be held by the company for a sinking fund for future extensions, or for carrying 1 along the colonists over a possible crop failure.
 The financial plan on which it is ex- pected to base the new corporation is as follows: There will be two kinds of
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