The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-15

From an economic standpoint the plant and the home are differently aHected by the suburban movement Removal from the city center. to- the facturer other gains besides space in when to secure the most efficient plant arrangement. Indeed, the high CT return which may be gotten from the land in the city center is often expected to pay g. large part of the cost of erecting the new plant. But moves out into specially prepared suburb, the cheap land soon begins to rise in value. The question now aris- es whether this increase of land ac- crues to the company, to the house holders, or-as in the English Letch- worth-to the community.
 In Gary the land company subsi- diary of the steel corporation, explains that fn the subdivision which it devel- oped. the purpose has been tG sell land and houses to employees at prices scarcely more than the original cost of the land plus improvements and in terest charges. Tn the five years of Gary's existence, the land company has only once advanced it's prices. This presents a pleasing contrast to the booming operations of some real es tate speculators who are to be found in other subdivisions of Gary and in the general run of satellite cities
 Home ownership. which the Gary policy promotes, may often be very doubtful advantage to the working
 
 community is dependent upon the per manency of the Community, and this is dependent upon the existence, stabil- ity and growth of the industrial plant. In the satellite city in mining town the home owner is often at the mercy of the vicissitudes of a single industry.
 One of the most serious issues creat- ed by the isolation of satellite com munities is bound up in the natural desire of the plant control to have at h9 m a force 1arpR Q71nTrh completely man the plant when run ming at it's greatest capacity. There can be doubt that the employers appreciate that home ownership tends to anchor the workman in the com nlrnity. Rare is the plant that is all ways working at it's greatest capacity. handled by temporarily drawing upon the surplus of labor which is usually to be found in the big city nearby If, however, the extent to which the plant is worked varies from 90 per cent ca pacity up to the maximum, grave problem confronts the population of the general secretary of the Associat- ed Charities of Omaha the average family handled by the branch office at South Omaha is less hopeful and hard CT to put on it's feet than the aver age family handled in Omaha proper An inquiry at the South Omaha branch office revealed the fact that in ter1nittent work has much to do with this.
 It is important to know whether in these towns of their own creation the industr interests seek to dominate the local government. Will people assert themselves as citizens when their interest runs counter to those whom they look for a Livelihood? On the other hand, in these towns the in dustriaI power can be more clearly singled out than in the complex met ropolitan center, and Professor Ely, ip making study of Pullman in 1885 but four years after the towns be- ginning-found that already a feeling had arisen that it was a praise-Worthy thing to 'fbeat the company" Friction and antagonisms between towns-peo- pie and the industrial control are in deed to be found in many of our pres ent satellite cities.
 The industrial exodus, in which Pull man early played the role now taken by Gary, is, in it's individual parts, consciously directed movement. It therefore presents repeated opportun ities for shaping the civic and social conditions under which large groups of working people are to live for de- cades to come Like the foundlings which were dropped in the turn-cra- dles of the old time orphanages, these young communities which industry is leaving at the door-steps of our cit ies are no longer things apart and by themselves. For better or worse, they come to share in the common lot.