The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-12
REDDING'S
 GREAT PROJECT
Land Scheme Explained to Meeting of Prominent
 Residents.
Form of Contract Submitted Business Men Willing to Take the Position
 of Contractor.


 of those whose interest had been aroused in the big land scheme de- scribed in Saturdays Farmer was held Saturday evening at the academy building in the Center. About fifty, among whom were some of the town S 1 large land owners, attended A. C.. l Barnett was chairman. form of contract prepared by Attorney Twee- | dy of Danbury from the plan outlined 1 by Joseph Tomlinson, of Chicago, was l submitted and printed copies distrib- uted. MT. Tomlinson, who had come on from Chicago to attend the meet 1 ing, made a verbal statement briefly describing the scheme which he had previously elaborated in writing. He indulged in no rhapsodies but confined himself to hard, practical business ! talk. He said he had discussed the | matter with men of means who were accustomed to handling large enter prises, particularly in the real estate line, and they had expressed willing ness to engage in the enterprise as chief contractor, provided a sufficient percentage of the towns total acreage was placed at their disposal. The terms of the contract specifies 50 per cent. of the land owners and 50 per cent of the total area, but MT. TOmlinson thought less than this might be sufficient to en- list one or more of the financial back CTS whom he had in mind.
 The minimum, he said, must be from 5000 to 4,000 acres and even this area offered no specially alluring prospects 1 to the contractor, who must make a preliminary outlay of from $50,000 to $75,000 and pay over one quarter of all his receipts from land sales to the trustees charged with the expenditure of the income for the purpose of fur ther beautifying the landscape along artistic lines. "While,'' he continued, I have no doubt the parties I have in mind will come forward and undertake the enterprise provided the people of Bedding do their part, their failure to do so need not necessarily mean the failure of the enterprise. In the judg- ment of good business men it is a sound business proposition and if one prospective contractor declines to en- bark in the project your committee should look further in a search for those who will AS for the townspeo- pie owning land it seems a great op- portunity for them to eat their cake and still have it. The keynote of the scheme is exclusiveness and the idea foundation of some of the greatest for tunes built up in this country. The very fact that you erect barriers to the acquisition of home sites here by par ties other than those deemed to be de- sirable acquisitions to the community will operate as an incentive to bring people in. Your natural advantages are unsurpassed, the quality of the present population is right, and if the continuance of these conditions can be guaranteed, there should be no difficult ty in securing within the next five years 800 families of the kind any com munity woul>. be glad to secure"
 r nA1xy fa the committed which was read to the meeting, he endorses the scheme as en- tireIy feasible and practicable and says it promises to the residents financial and other benefits inmeasurably great CT than would come in the ordinary course of haphazard development. When the chairman asked for state ments from those present as to their willingness to designate areas of their holdings under the contract several at once made an assenting response. Oth- CTS said they wished to examine the contract before giving pledges. A com- mitSee consisting of MT. Barnett, J. l.. Blackman and w. c. Sanford was ap- pointed to receive the signed contracts and to canvass for land allotments in order that within a month or so defin- ite pledges as to the acreage guaran- teed under the plan might be tender ed to the prospective chief contractor. Later the chairman was empowered to increase this committee to eight and the meeting adjourned subject to his call.
 Among those attending the meeting were Arthur J. Todd. D. c. Sanford, J. L. Blackman, Benj. B. Banks, Edgar T. Field, w. H. Hagen, Marcus H. Burr, Louis c. Rumsey, Harry Kennell, George $. Banks, MT. Ostsen, H.. San ford Osborn, A. H: Sanford, George O. Sanford. Michael Flood. P. M. Brother ton, J. B. Sanford, John c. Read, liar ry Lounsbury, A. E. Bartram, E. J. Miller, Stephen Sanford Emory P. San- ford, Charles Ward, James E. Tread well, w. c. Sanford Albert A. Gorham, Dr. E. H. Smith, Milo Osborn and Hen- ry Duncan.