The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington. D. C
COLONIZATION AFTER THE WAR

& Washington, D. c
COLONIZATION AFTER THE WAR
Washington, D. c., April 2S.-Vn-
lagos populated by wounded and con-
va1escent soldiers and their families,
together with the necessary medical
attendants, may be feature of the
British postwar reconstruction pro-
gram. A plan for the establishment of
such villages is now being considered.
This is one of a number of coloni-
zation plans for taking care of re-
turned soldiers, which have been
formed in this country and abroad,
and this movement toward the found
ing of new communities is certainly
one of the most interesting and typi-
cal movements which has come out Of
the war. 1t shows how the ideas of
men have changed in few decades
Following other wars, the assumption
seems to have been that if the soldier
any disabilities he might have suf-
fered, he could safely be left to find
his place in society. Today the idea
seems to be prevalent all over the
civilized world that a place must be
found for him.
More than that, these numerous
plans for the founding of special COM
munities amount to an admission that
the place which is given the soldier
must be a better place than that
| which he occupied before the war;
| otherwise, there would be no need to
| found special communities or colonies.
| In other words, this colonization
| movement is an acknowledgment that
industrial and social conditions in the
principal countries of the world are
| faulty, and that these men wEo return
! from war to take up life anew should
do so under more favorable conditions.
These English villages for wounded
and convalescent soldiers are intended
i to offer men homes where they will
govern themselves, live with their
| families, and undergo prolonged
training which will fit them to earn
their livings. In addition to this, the
villages are to form the nuclei of per-
manent communities which will be es-
tablished on a new basis of healthful-
ness and social welfare. The commit
| tee which has charge of the plan CO.
/ gently argues that men who are set
| tied in cottages with their families will
be far better satisfied to follow long
courses of training than would men
in hospitals, and that recovery under
pleasant rural living conditions will
be more rapid.
| The plan is not to use towns which
are already built, but to build new
ones in healthful locations and con-
1 venient to transportation lines. An
area of one square mile is considered
adequate for the founding of a village
lof 1000 disabled men. This will at
ford enough land for perhaps two
| thirds of the number to study agri-
culture, while the rest will learn vari-
Gus handicrafts. 1t is expected that
manently settled on this area, the rest
passing out into various occupations
for which they had been trained.
|
of this plan does not contemplate the
Il establishment of factories in these
? towns An article on the subject in
the London Lancet, which is quoted
by the Monthly Review of our own
labor department says:
There is growing reaction against
the universal recourse to the factory
system, with its specialization of labor
speeding up, and lack of personal re-
latlonShipS. There is in many quar-
tiers a desire to return to a modified
form of the old craft guilds, in which
\ man may learn to create articles fol-
use OF a high standard, and himself
become master craftsman, not Who'll
ly spending his life in performfne
some mechanical and deadening pro.
cess The workshops of the proposed
settlements must aim at high condi-
tons of work, whereby articles arr
. We'll and heartily made, and to affair
this it seems desirable that the pro
ducers shall have some share and in.
terest in the things which they have
produced, associated, as far as posi-.
Bile. in self governing workshops"
This states the problem well enough
but the solution seems too simple ~Cel
tainly the trouble with the factory sys
tenn is that the workman has no own
ershlp either in what he produces o.
the means of production, and that h,
performs only few mechanical proc
: esses. But how these new handicraf
E guilds are successfully to compel,
2 with the factories is another question
Another advantage claimed for III,
plan is that it will not separate tn,
. various types of disability. such a.
e men suffering from shell shock, thos,
that have undergone amputa ton, M
!, those that are recovering from di
y sease, but will handle them all to
s gether. In this way, the depressfn,
: erect of the hospital wards, in which
great numbers of men suffering from
the same disabilities are gathered, will
n be avoided.
!. These villages are not to be unde
military discipline, but are to be self
n governing communities
e The plan certainly seems to hav
viewpoint, and if carried out will b.
an interesting social experiment.
Somewhat the same thing has al
ready been done in Canada where
e great estate is being used for teachin,
O convalescent soldiers agriculture an,
a various trades.
In this country, plans for the car
e OF wounded soldiers are just beginnin
l. to be worked out. The army medica
corps and the federal bureau TO
vocational education are. preparin
hospitals and studying methods of re
d Mobilization. Both of these organiza
d lions are closely following the Britis
!, and Canadian experiences, and vii
doubtless make a study of this coloni
n ration plan.
? The movement toward the foundin
~ of new communities in order to restor
the soldier to civil life under the mos