The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-10-31

sther Bandirrs 7roisot to Settle
$4,000 Acre Tract

The idea of establishing colonies
where poor people may obtain homes
is spreading since Father Bandini
made such a success of his settle
ment at TOntittOwn, Ark II is to be
tried on much larger scale down in
Mexico. Down on the National Rail-
ways OF Mexico, fifty miles south of
FL Paso, in Northern Chihuahua, an
of the Orthodox Catholic
church is working out a solution or
the back to the soil problem, which
has been occupying social workers
for years.
At Candelaria, a way station on the
National lines Archbishop Joseph Re
ne Vilatte, head of the Orthodox or
Old Catholic church in America, is
establishing a colony where the pop
ulation of the foreign quarters of the
large cities of the United States and
the immigrants from foreign coun-
tries may find a home, ten acres OF
land and a chance to be something
more than a fruit peddler or a day
laborer. Through Archbishop Vilatte
the Orthodox church has purchased
$4,000 acres of land surrounding the
Candelaria settlement in Northern
Chihuahua, and there the archbishop
has established town, laid the cor
ner stone Tor an Orthodox church
and established school for the col
onists who are to settle the land and
cultivate the soil
Father Vilatte sailed from Europe
October | to arrange for the first pill
grimage of colonists from Europe for
the new settlement. Although he is
being backed in his venture by the
church of which he is at the head in
America, Father Vilatte does not in
tend to confne the colonization
scheme to the members of his church
but has invited the people of all cit
les and countries to come and settle
on the iand Artesian wells have
been sunk in different parts of the
district, and each rancher will have
ten-acre tract upon which he can
raise his crops and also an acre Of
ground in the town of Vilatteville,
where he will erect his home and live
as part of the community.
Archbishop Vilatte conceived the
idea of establishing his back to the
soil' colony while a social worker
among the foreign population of Chic
ago and at Green Bay, Wis, where he
was a missionary for seven years.
Seeing the natives of France, his own
| native home, working at the most
mental tasks when they had been ac-
| customed to cultivating the vineyards
of the French districts, Father Vilat-
te started on search for a tract of
land where these people and the mem
bers of the other foreign colonies
similarly located could be taken and
where they could till the soil and
earn their living under better condi-
lions than those Of the city tenement
districts.
The tract Of $4,000 acres was pur-
chased by the archbishop after he
had visited a number of places in the
West and Southwest. Because its
climate was similar TO that of the
warmer countries of Europe and be
cause Of the fertility of the soil, the
land was purchased in Northern Chi
huahua and operations started in
June. A well was sunk. the ground
cleared and temporary houses built
| Having been granted a leave OF -four
months. Father Vilatte moved to the
colony and was in charge of the worl
OF preparing for the settlement of tn,
immigrants who are expected TO al
rive from France, Italy and otheI
countries of Europe, aud also from
Chicago, New York and other larg,
American cities. While he is abroa,
Father Vilatte will visit the patriarch
Of the Orthodox church at Antioch
WHERE he will explain the COLOMBIA
ton plan to the head OF the churcl
and will ask for his assistance in Sc
curing colonists for the tract.
The plan of colonization is not Il
be a moneymaklng scheme, as TIT
land is to be sold IN plots Of ten an,
twenty acres TO the settlers at cost
and no one but actual settlers cal
purchase H. While an Orthodo
! church is to be established at Vilatte
vile, which is TO be the center OF tn
colony, religious and political tolera
ton will be one of the cardinal prir
ciples, and anyone will be welcome,
to the settlement. the only restrict
ion being that they buy a tract @
land ard settle and the laws of tn
| Republic of Mexico be obeyed.
| Archbishop Vilatte. who is at tn
head of the movement, is n native G
| France. having been born in Parii
l He is graduate of the University {
| Montreal and has been decorated b
the French and Belgian government
/ for his humanitarian work among Tn
natives of these countries In Amer
ca. He will have a residence at IN
colony and will be In charge OF IN