The Washington herald., 1915-01-30

exploitation of land in a way
that from the point OF view of the single-taxers,
betrays short-sighted policy. There are ldealsts
in San Diego, however, and they are not all to be
included among those migratory laborers that
make up the I. w. w. Some of them are highly
successful Some Of them millionaires. For
NOWADAYS it should be borne in mind, to be a
millionaire does not mean perfectly safe inocula-
ton from the new humanitarian ideas.
One of those idealists is f. w. Scripps, the
owner of many newspapers published throughout
the country, an old gentleman who lives as
IlanGed proprietor in beautiful San Diego suburb
Several wears ago it occurred to him that under
present conditions, there was way OF dealing
with the problem of unearned increment from
land Outside San Diego stood vast tracts OF
public land that would be valuable when the city
grew I'D. As the growth of the city would make
the value why shouldn't the city get the value?
The solution would lie in tying the land up for a
long term Of years and making the most OF all its
natural advantages. The scheme presented to
the people, and it received popular sanction. So
the next generation will profit by this act of fore
sight, and the pueblo lands are conspicuous among
the other properties Of San Diego on account OF
their peculiarly democratic character.
There is another reason why they are interest
Iinp-perhaps a reason more important. San Diego
has the good fortune to have for its city forester
4 voung man with progressive IDEAS Max Watson.
On the pueblo lands Watson decided to use the
floating laborcrs that each winter sought San
Diego, also drawn by the climate. When | heard
OF what was doing | expressed desire to make
his acquaintance The result that one after
noon l found myself speeding with Watson in
machine through country that looked out on
bay as blue as the Mediterranean.
Max Watson looked hardly more than boy.
But his talk showed that he was man clear
through, and that he had done good deal of
thinking He didn't call himself radical, and he
had no patience with any kind Of people afflicted
with the habit of complaining all the time or
whining; but he nevertheless expressed some very
unconventional views. Just before meeting him l
had heard of the determined efforts of the local
authorities to keep the penniless rovers out OF
San Diego by heading them off in Sorrento and
forcing them to turn the other way. / had also
heard that some of them were breaking in by
making their way over the mills, and that others
had been smuggled in.
Watson expressed a tolerant feeling for those
outcasts In his opinion, they weren't really dif-
ferent from other people. What they most needed
was food and fresh air and shelter and chance
to take bath and to get work and perhaps
little human sympathy. When he started in to
clean I'D those pueblo lands it occurred TO him
that he'd like to do something for men of that
kind Ono trouble was that he had very little
money to spend on them. But little would be
good deal more than they had, and, besides money,
he could give them the encouragement they needed
and help to put them in shape to go back to nor
NAL living So gradually he took in a few men
and fixed them up in tents and turned them out
in the fields to clean up the underground and to
do easy farming and gardening. The largest num-
Der he had had there so far was about thirty-hve.
He was working on a small scale, but he was
doing something worth while. Did he ever have
trouble with the men? Oh none to speak of. On
the whole they were very well behaved. Now
and then. of course there would be fight and
occasionally someone would wander to the nearest
town and get drunk. But, almost without excep-
ton. they were pretty good fellows.
When at last we reached the pueblo lands we
looked across what indeed a lovely stretch OF
country. a noble inheritance for the San Diegsns
of a quarter of a century hence. The machine
stopped at a one-storied house. newly built, and
CHEEKY youth greeted at the door. That house
represented growth into permanence from those
transient tents. 1t had several sleeping rooms,
including dining-room and kitchen. Nearby
stood another house, or rather a shack, which was
used wholly for bedrooms.
We presently left the machine and wandered
about, meeting groups of young men and ocea-
sionaiIy an older man. They all looked healthy,
and they were evidently well cared for. Watson
explained that he preferred to take the young TEL
lows They were easier to get at. The old ones
who had been wandering for years. and dissipating
it was hard to do much with. But now and then
an old fellow would get in and stay perhaps tor
months The first thing that was done for them
was to give them good bath. Bathing and work
and food and air did the rest after natures way
of curing Watson did not want to make too
much of his work. He knew it was only start
What he hoped for was the maintaining of big
groups of derelcts and prisoners along those lines
The world, he declared, was surely moving IN this
direction Last summer he made tour of the
country, studying the farm colonies for prisoners
and for the other down-and-outs of society-the
paupers and the feeble-minded and the insane.
Already several cities had made big strides in this
work So far Cleveland was the leader. The pub
lie spirit there was wonderful. 1t came straight
from the inspiration of Tom Johnson. What was
the use Of keeping men rotting in iais. when they
could be at work on the land. actually doing some
thing and getting health into their bodies and
nindsi