The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-04-06
Total ..........1,679,O 900 1, 472,OOO

One of the most interesting things,
and one of the strangeSt, in connection
with the present "back-to-the-land
movement, is that the Jews are taking
a leading and active part in it. They
are taking to farming in repidly in
creasing numbers, and they are dis
playing the same system, planning
and organization which they have
brought to department stores and
other commercial activities.
According to the 1882 report of the
Jewish Agriculture Society, there are
today 100000 Jews obtaining their
sustenance, in whole or in part, from
farms. At the end of the last fiscal
year the societies loan department
had granted more than 10000 loans
scattered over forty States and total
ing $6,750,000. Several successful
Jewish farm settlements have been
established throughout the country.
The latest plan in the establishment of
"agro-industrial" farms, which ap-
pears to be a practical application of
what Henry Ford has long been rec
ommending. The society furnishes
truck gardens, within committing dis
tance, to city workers. These men,
usually getting small wages, are thus
enabled to grow most of their own liv-
ing and raise their families in the
open, healthy country. In New York,
headquarters of the society, for in
stance, tract of land was bought
thirty-two miles from the city and di-
vided into five-acre poultry and truck
farms. A selected group of workers
settled on them and Gabriel Davidson,
secretary of the society, says they
have made a good start.
The accomplishment of the Jewish
society is especially interesting in the
light of the efforts made and advoca-
ted in many places to put large num-
bers of idle needy on small farms and
truck gardens. Colonization schemes
or cooperative enterprise are clearly
indicated as the best method for a
poor fellow with a willingness to work
but without either capital or expert
ence could hardly make start all
alone. In a colony, or cooperative So
ciety, members can confer, exchange
opinions, swap help, aid each other
and get assistance from without, and
have a social life that buoys the spir-
its and keeps up the morale of the new
surroundings and activities. Many
agencies which have been helping the
needy, both private and public, have
begun to consider, or to experiment
with, this method of helping the help
less to help themselves.
When General Glassford, police
chief was in Washington he suggested
that something of the sort be done for
the thousands of men in the "bOnus
army" The Governor Of Florida sent
word that much good land was avail
able in that State, and that the men
would be welcome if they could come
without being a burden on the COM
munities in which they settled. August
Hecksher, capitalist and philanthro-
pist, writing in the New York Times
recently, declared that Florida has
millions of acres available for coloni-
cation; that he knew of one property
of 10000 acres which had been COM
pared in fertility with the valley of
the Nile, which could be made ready
Immediately for planting, and which
could be leased for rs cents an acre.
Comparable places, he added, could be
found in other States.
It is said that large colonies of