The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-27
HUME FORD
IN THE EAST
Continued from Page One.)

years ago, when L was a cub on the
Chicago Daily News and associate ed
itor of the Irrigation Age, William E.
Smythe, the prophet of irrigated lands.
came to town. George Girling. Rev
John Rusk, Edward Everett Hale and
myself put our shoulders to the wheel
and organized the Homeseekers' Assa-
citation, and promptly launched a new
magazine to set forth the beauties of
Smythe's ideas of cooperative settle
ments. Needless to say, I also used
the press We held big mass meetings
and sent out our first colony to Idaho.
There we planted our New Plymouth
so named in honor of Hale-and it was
and is big success. And | will tell
why.
A Vote an Acre.
1t was cooperative without DESTROY
ing individuality. Each colonist couid
| own from ten to forty acres; no more.
Each acre gave him vote in the af-
fairs of the colony. Each colonist was
given an acre in the town, laid out in
the center of the property. On this
he could build, and raise his garden
truck. The acre lots surrounded the
| public park, in the center of which
stood the townhall, theater, school
house, church building. Here the men
met to vote on the establishment of
creamery, or the sending of an agent
to Chicago to create a market for
their produce. The women met for
church work, and the children for
study. There was community of in
terests that acted as binding cement,
and, more important than all else, each
colonist wished to have a better-look-
ing house than that of his neighbor. so
that houses instead of shacks were
built, and the gardens were beautified,
and the colonists acquired homes they
did not care to leave behind them. So
successful was the experiment that it
was repeated in other Western States,
and Smythe, father of the modern ir-
rigation movement, became famous.
The Century and other serious maya
zines clamored for his copy, book pub
fishers besieged him, and he was able
to call all the governors of the West
ern States together-and get them to-
gether for annual irrigation conven-
lions. Smythe is still an active man,
and [ am. reaching out for him to get
him to Hawaii next summer, when L
hope that our Homeseekers Associa-
ton will hold its convention in Ho-
nolulu. There are governors of States
on our board of directors now, and
many are the encouraging letters they
write concerning the little colonies we
| have placed upon the lands far from
the great cities; and, strange to relate,
it is often the ex-city man that makes
the biggest success as q small farmer
A Hawaiian Example.
Ten years ago, when 1 first turned
my face toward Honolulu, there was
one aboard ship who had just taken a
colony of Americans over to Oahu to
place them. in possession Of small areas
of sugar lands-it was cooperative
| experiment. [ could spend but one
| day in Honolulu then, but for years I
| kept barking back to that little colony
| in Hawaii, and when | could again
voyage westward I secured an order
| from Appleton S Magazine for the
story of the little cooperative colony
on Eva plantation, SO | arranged to
stop over for a week in Honolulu to
visit the colony. / haven't found it
yet, but | expect the same man who
tried to plant it, to join hands with
| the Homeseekers' Association, and
| we IL carry out the dream of his life
| and make Hawaii more than ever a
little paradise for all who viii till the
soil, even if they are as fair as the
| angels.
I shall return to Chicago to help out
on that Hawaii number of the maya
zine and to take part in public meet
| ings at the Homeseekers Auditorium,
where DR.. Rusk, Girling and myself,
| with others who want an excuse to To-
cate in Hawaii, may organize an ex-
cursion, to look over the ground
There will be very low rates to the
Coast during the period of the
Seattle Exposition, and it is in
| tended to take advantage of these, and
low rates by chartered steamer, SO as
to offer Chicago something to offset
/ the rail excursions to Havana, Cuba,
via Florida and Keywest railway. The
railways issue booklets showing daily
and weekly rate at every hotel and
clearinghouse in Florida and Cuba
| Chicago can send an excursion to Ha-