Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-12-03


1 \ which a flag on tall staff is
Tapping in the November breeze,
and looks sadly across the sere bottom
land below to the faraWay, lavender
slopes of the mountains.
Down in the alder swamp by the
creekside scores of men are at work.
Trucks and eXcavating machinery
plough brown gashes in the mud as they
back and slide around each other. The
acrid smoke of burning bushes fills the
air.
1t is a fine old farmhouse before
which the flag is floating-built in the
ornate style of the turn of the century
with towers and fancy windows. Now
the front rooms are filled with desks
and architects drawing tables. STEM
ographerS are taking dictation. A long
line of unkempt men is waiting before
desk in the front hall.
The grey little old lady signs.
Years of Beauty.
1T looks so ugly now and it used
to be SO beautiful she says, pointing
at the scene below Thirty years
we've worked here. my husband and I.
I guess we've earned rest. It's all
so ugly-but We all appreciate what
it's meant for
She returns to the kitchen, where she
is doing her last few days of active
work" to cook dinner for the office
force.
There is Just suggestion of pride
mingled with the sadness in her voice
She is going away and with her is
going the old order of things here on
the high lakeland of the West Viz
GINA mountains. The big mountain
farm upon which she and her husband
labored so long in the days Of their
youth and strength has been selected
as the scene of a Fundamental social
experiment by the President of the
United States. The architects installed
in her parlor. the workmen chopping
and burning the swamp, are creating
new chapter in the history Of a
Nation and, perhaps. of world The
old lady is looking down upon crucial
battle in a bloodless revolution.
Wages Plus Food.
This is the Arthur farm, selected for
the first settlement project of the Sub
sistence Homestead Division of the De-
partment of the Interior. A swamp is
being drained. roads are under construc-
ton and model homes are being put
up-the greatest progress made to date
is the digging Of the cellars-for l25
families. It is to be mixed Industrial
agricultural community. Every man
will have factory job for which he
will receive wages. In addition he
will have at least five acres Of fertile
soil for his oWr-upCn which to raise
large part of his livelihood.
1t constitutes the embodiment of an
ideal of social regeneration which has
long been in the mind and heart of the
President of the United States-a Sys-
TEN of society where for the individual
will be combined the benefits of indus
try and the independence of the land.
The plan would bring industry back to
the regenerating touch of Mother Earth.
The directors of the project, who have
transformed the old lady's parlor and
living rooms into something resembling
the G. H @. of combat division on the
eve of battle, have no precedent to guide
them in the JOB they have undertaken.
The plan changes from day to day 1t
constantly is being reformed in con-
formity with new experience.
Lines Shift as in cattle.
A big architects plan. like a battle
map, hangs on the wall. 1t is only ten
tative. they say The lines will be shifted
as the fortunes of battle shift. The idea
is to create a model community for 125
families, mostly from the mines in the
mountains near Reedsyille. Each FAM
lily will have a house and at least hve
acres of land. 1t will be village OF
small farms. The houses will differ IN
structure, the farms will differ in con-
tour. The homes will be arranged in
little groups of four or five over the
LOCO acres of hillside and bottomland
Every effort is being made to get away
from the ugly geometrical regularity Of
the mining villages which are like ugly
black toadstools ON the fair face of the
mountains
The men will enter these homes under
much the canle arrangement as that by
which the hcmesteaders settled the
West It is a new kind of mestead-
ing They themselves are down there IN
the swamp helping to dig the cellars OF
their houses.
The old lady looks and wonders ever
this unfolding of the new age in the
valley below her.
How much more. if he could see it,
old Col. John Fairfax would wonder
the great Shareholder. the landed gen.
tleman, who sleeps in his little syca-
more grove on the hillside above the
house A long, long way the world has
moved in these mountains since they