Evening star., 1934-04-27
SOC|A[|ST|C FARM
|SG|VEN j. s. HELP
$50 Men, Paid in Work
Hours, Hope to Live With
out Charity.
Snecial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CLINTON, Iowa, April 27 (NANA).
Uncle Sam has bet $4,000 on an
experiment of socialism and hard
headed common sense.
With this money. furnished by the
Federal Emergency Relief Admins
tration, the United Producers of
America at Clinton are going to find
out for themselves a few things about
socialism and industrial democracy.
In the process, $50 or more unem-
ployed men hope to find way to live
without charity.
May Establish Plants.
With Federal funds, the United
Producers hope to expand operations
begun last year 1t is planned to
rent 122-acre farm and perhaps to
purchase equipment for a canning
plant and a small garment-m making
factory
A year ago last January, a half
dozen men sat around the stove in a
little candy store, smoked their pipes
and talked about the depression.
Because Charles M. Hostrup was
one of the pipe smokers, the CONVEX
head-shakings.
Hostrup, 63, came to Clinton 40
years ago from Denmark A cabinet
maker by trade. he made enough
money in the furniture business to
send four capitaistic- minded children
through college and to retire him.
self on a modest income
Read About Economics.
Business, however, did not inter-
fere with an active curiosity. Charles
Hostrup, reading in four languages,
soon found lot of interesting things
had been said about social and eco
nomic questions.
The upshot was that Hostrup was
heard to say things that to some ears
sounded pretty radical At one
time, years ago. Hostrup was candi-
date for mayor at Clinton on the
Socialist ticket.
knowing Charles Hostrup, the group
OF friends who sat around the stove
year ago last January expressed no
viewing with alarm at his idea for
"self-help cooperative" Hostrup
himself claims no originality for it.
Project Gains Momentum.
Clintons "self-help cooperative"
began modestly. but gained momen-
tum rapidly. Last year approximately |
$50 members farmed "a acres of land |
rented with labor, and raised 600 !
bushels of potatoes. besides corn
squash, peas, tomatoes, apples onions, |
beans, cucumberS, carrots, beetS and |
turnips.
The membership includes truck |
drivers, boiler makers, cement work. |
ers. tool makers, service station at |
tendants, statesmen, locomotive en-
gineers, accountants, blacksmiths, |
bridge workers, cabinet makers, me- |
chanics, painters, plumbers and pro- |
fessional men.
A group of cooperative industries !
was organized in vacant building |
donated for the purpose. Here a |
blacksmith shop, harness shop, a |
filling station, soap factory and |
general work rooms were established |
Paid in Work Hours.
The men are paid in work-hours |
No money changes hands. After a |
man has worked five hours, he is |
given a slip on which credit for. five |
hours work is noted. With that, he
may purchase any goods available at |
the common store house.
Produce and goods produced by the |
cooperative are evaluated in work. |
hours instead Of by dollars and cents |
All of the produce raised is sold" |
to the members. In the non-agricul-
tural industries the men trade labor !
for produce or goods of outsiders.
Difficulty being encountered in get |
ting members who would give honest |
work-hours, rule was adopted that |
put all prospective members on a |
months trial Many were rejected.
The motto. He who eats must |
work." has been the greatest factor |
in limiting membership.
With $4,000 of Federal money in |
his pocket, Hostrup sees great posi- |
bilities for the experiment this year. |
tCopyright. 1894, by the North American |
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.)