The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-09-18
Bishop McGolrick of Duluth
and His Fertile Lands
For Colonization.
The City People Engaged in
Industrial Pursuits Are
BEING Interested.
Their Lot to Be Improved by
/ aking Up Homesteads
in a Rich Region.
Back to the land.

~ Back to the land.
Il This is the cry which is resoundlns
through the centers of American popu-
lation. 1t has been heard now tor ~
wears and more, and has been gaining
steadily in strength and persistency'
saws the Duluth News Tribune of Sept.
IL.
To the best thinkers the movement
to the country districts means the So
,,,,ion of one of the most serious prob
lens with which the economist has TO
deal 1t is generally believed that its
successful working out will make an
end of the rapidly forming class which
threatens to place American social con-
ditions on par with those Of Europe,
where humanity towers tier on tier
from the hopelessly poor to the hope
lessly rich, with all that this means OF
present bitterness and future chaos, de-
spair and national failure.
Bishop McGolrick's great colonial
ton scheme, project to settle thou
sands of city working families on the
fertile lands of Hubbard and Becker
counties, has brought the question
home to Duluth, and it has awakened
a responsive chord in the heart of the
toiler.
During the week the News Tribune
sought the opinion of 366 wage earners
regarding the bishops plan. Three
hundred and nine Of them were men
and 81 women, all of the latter I'M
married, workers in department stores
and restaurants The men, without an
exception, declared that the return to
the soil is the only possible solution
of urban overcrowding and its conse-
ouent poverty. Forty-two Of the girls
said they would prefer life in farm
er's home to the humble and often
harsh lot which awaits their class In
the city Fifteen young women would
not think Of going to the country.
The men were representatives Of the
entire industrial life Of the city. They
toll in the mills and on the docks, at
railroad construction and the train SER
vice, at logging and lake navigation,
clerking and working in factories, in
shops and on the streets. All admitted
that relief of the congestion Of the in
dustrial masses and their children, the
mastery Of the slum question and the
general future welfare of the race, are
in large manner wrapped up in the
success or failure of the plan proposed
by the bishop and similar undertake
ings. Each declared he would be will
/ ing to transfer his energies to the life
Z of the husbandman, If conditions
would permit and scores said that
they have already decided to take adj
vantage, next spring, of the chance to
secure farms
country were unanimous that they
would vastly prefer to start life as
+ the wives of farmers, with an assured
!, future, to casting their lot with toll
ers in cities, dependent upon changing
industrial conditions, the whims of
employers and the constantly recurring
ebb and flow OF a more or less artif1-
/ cial prosperity for their livelihood
These girls are eminently fitted to
4 make home life a success. They are
Il Of the class which takes the future into
account, they have learned the empti-
mess of city life for the poor, and
4 noted the hopelessness of INDECENT age
4 in large centers Of population Said
Il one:
give me farmer every time in
preference to the man who is out of
"a job three or four months in the
year. The latter may mean we'll enough
but good intentions 10 not buy shoes
4 or pay grocery bills. am one of the
children from home existing under
4 these conditions, and know what II
That is why started to work
y
want no more Of it in my family"
u Is who prefer life in the city
sprofessed to dread the loneliness of the
sscOdntry Sor were unwilling to give uu
the pleasures their. social relations at
ford the theater and the week end
sance. They are Of those who can
n ssspt sppreciate what everyone who has
IA the country knows-that the
u ISspSortun mites for clean. wholesome
4 asures and 4 large measure Of social
Setsvity arc greater on the farm than
( mi "a the lot 81 the overworkedi city
Il that to ths boy or girl from,
& II ood country home he conditions in
e II nm sare almost intolerable I'M
8hsir ifcfal star dards have been
alsd md s'iisa :iSs s....
XXX az fils,s coloni sation plan