The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-07-06

! Cul lISy MI JAWS lOuIu Oul
band which was pouring sweat into
its burrows from sun-up till evening.
! One or two such people did come to
the places to be told by Mr.. Little
field briefly: This is not a sex pro-
position 1t is a business pro-
position. They saw their mistake
and went. Next the neighbors learn
ed that the Socialist radishes were
slightly better than their own and
brought higher prices; that these
folks, who called one another Com
rade" were not only peaceable but
could make an acre do things to daz-
zle wizards; that they had the
goods, and, which was more, were
selling them. They then ceased to be
interested in what the colony believed,
so concerned were they with what the
colony was doing. They stopped
chattering about rites and orgies and
began to ask about crops and prices.
Littlefield had turned the trick Bigo
try is no match for business.
And to think that not four years
ago this gray man with the bloom of
weather on his skin, with bronzed
forearms which an athletic boy might
envy, was rugged up in a black coat
and white tie behind a pulpit telling
people what they ought to do Today
he is telling them how to make corn
grow, and the rest of it, religion,
right-living, manhood-what they
ought to do-comes of itself. He
does not say that he has found the
only way. But there is not a particle
of doubt that he has found one way.
Let me be careful not to give the
idea that this is one-man show. Adj
mration for the founders insight and
boldness may convey that notion.
What he has done has been to prove
that a man with family can. by
joining with 80 others who can scrape
up $25, break with the town and the
factory; that he can free himself and
stay free, live the way he was meant
to live, and bring up his children
where they can see a few of the beau
tiful things God made. and not only
the ugly things which have been
made by man.
The Norwood farm is not yet occu-
pied save by five or six. The others
are at farm No l, learning They
will start a long way ahead of the
first 40, thanks to the experience and
anxieties of those pioneers.
WATCHING WITH INTEREST.
Out in Dedham, neighbors of Eel
lowship Farm a good many bankers
and brokers have their bedrooms
some of them very costly bedrooms.
1t is not strange that many of these
gentlemen did not take kindly, at
first, to the tents and shanties which
began to adorn the acres at Fellow
ship Farms, which certainly are not
yet beautiful to the eye of the flesh
But if the brokers and bankers did
not have the eye of the spirit, they
had business instinct which told
them that this reformed and sun
burned minister had found way out
something which might some day
make a difference in dividends. They
are watching now with interest, if
not with respect. The place is more
to them than shanty-town.
If there is any doubt whether
Littlefield means business and of
whether he has a true sense of val
ues, give ear to the following: When
the men out in Milwaukee discovered
that he had made a go of it, he was
offered the use of $4,000 by private
citizen to come on there and start
things. And the Socialist city gov
eminent was understood to stand
ready TO vote another big appropria-
ton for establishing such farms in
the suburbs. Mr.. Littlefeld thought
it over. Then he told them it was
more important for him to stay and
see this experiment through and make
sure thing of 1t, than to swing those
gaudy thousands which would prob
ably, in the end, be snatched out of
his hands and turned into a real es-
tate boom. That is to say he knew
the real thing when he had it, and
had manhood enough to stick to il
when tempted by that vain and ever
lasting American idol of Bigness. He
had insight enough to see that he
could accomplish more by proving
his point on this little Westwood farm
than by singing noisy projects in
Milwaukee He stuck to his last, like
a good shoemaker. The difference is
the same as that between a master
piece painted on a canvas eight inch
es by IL and a drop-scene of a
theatre; excellence Is Independent of
bulk
AS MANY FARMS AS POSSIBLE.
All the same, he has learned enc
thing which could be made to help
new farms considerably. One thous-
and dollars starts a farm. If he
could find people who want FIVE per