Evening star., 1934-09-02

| Part Of the land viii be for q kitchen
garden, part for an orcha 4 and part
for surplus crops. which alay be sold
within the locality through some CO.
operative ARRANGEMENT. Great care Is
being taken, both industrially and
agriculturally, to avoid unwise COM
petition. But this Is q section Of the
country which, because the inhabt-
tants have turned away from the land
to industry, is impoverished In its out
put Of food products.
Cows May be Kept.
Part Of the equipment of most Of
the farms is barn so that home
steaders may keep cows. Each cot
tage is equipped with modern plumb
ing, electric lights, coal stove, q fire.
place, q furnace. The first SO houses
are Of the ready-built variety because
conditions demanded that something
be completed as quickly as possible.
But there are i've types of houses, and
with a good many structural and
architectural changes there Is no ap-
pearance Of similarity.
A group Of communal buildings
forms the center Of the community.
The stone house on which we saw the
men working win be the library. Two
/ old barns are being converted into
workshops, one to be o carpenter's
shop for the men, the other to house
the looms where the women viii do
their weaving. An old church, bought
for 500 and made over, win contain
sl1owrooms where the things made in
school house will form another impor-
tant nucleus Of buildings. In connec-
ton with them viii be q lake and q
pool, Q gymnasium and Fairgrounds.
This viii be the social and recreational
center Of the community.
Miss Elsie Ripley Clapp, who has
carried out a successful experiment IN
rural education In Kentucky, viii have
an opportunity to work out program
of education very closely integrated
with the life of the community.
The Reedsville settlement win be
elf-governing, with an administration
/ patterned after the New England town
meeting plan. The same type OF CO.
operative industries which have been
developed in NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. BY
the women and furniture making by
the men-win be carried on.
Back Of the weaving, the furniture
making and the farming Is something
more than Just production. These are
means Of re-educating o people In
whom the light of hope had almost
died, In whom hatred was beginning
to smolder; means of restoring their
confidence and bringing them back
into the pattern of life. Gradually,
as the community takes root, 1t Is
expected that q number Of small In
dustries, especially those Of seasonal
output, viii locate in the vicinity.
Some OF the homesteaders VIII con-
tinue to work In the mines or IN
other nearby industries part OF the
time.
Big industrialists are making their
way to Reedsville to look over this
experiment. Some already have worked
out similar ventures, others have been
| thinking In this direction for long
time and are anxious to see how the
idea works. There win be only 125
| families In all In this experimental
community, but what happens to these
| 1875 families will affect the $50, 900
miners and their families in the five
counties of the upper Mcnongahela
| Valley. This will be the laboratory
Of q new type of living. What hap
pens In Reedsville may be the begin
ming Of the rehabilitation Of the whole
valley. And what happens. In this
valley can happen in many valleys.
Resources and Utilization.
Utilization Of the resources Of these
mountains has only begun. A look
at the map of this valley will show
that it Is iloneycombed and veined
| with Natures riches-coal, oil, gas.
In its streams are locked great stores
Of power. The region Is so lavishly
endowed that 1t was O temptation
to mems greed. In exploiting 1t they
lost sight Of the human values. Those
men who robbed the earth, them
selves the victims Of system of which
we were all part, lived at long
range-absentee landlords who felt
little sense of responsibility and
neighborliness for the men they en-
ployed. One looks at the surface Of
this earth and sees the scars that
are upon 1t, the human wreckage left
there for salvage. Those novels in
Scots Run, which has been the scene
Of so many bloody strike battles, are
the most hideous thing I have ever
seen in the way Of human habitation.
Yet they are part of the American
scene quite as much as Radio City
and the Century of Progress.
The farm that Is being used for
this experiment in rehabilitation once
belonged to Col. Fairfax, friend of
George Washington. on the grounds
still stands one Of the ancient slave
cabins Of the farm Of hand-hewn logs
powdery gray with time. It win be
kept there as Q relic Of an old system.
These men who have come as home
steaders Of this new community also
have been slaves-slaves Of another
system. Both belong to passing days.
II we can redeem this, one of
| the sorest spots on our map, and
win back the surface Of the earth, so
that it again bears fruit; If In this
valley, which has been given over
to greed, we can begin industries
which are conscious Of social as well
as material profits; II these people
| in whom hope almost died can find
themselves-then we shall have genu-
inely American experience in chang
ing bad situation, as opposed to
Russia's way or Hitler's way or Mus
solini's. 1t is not dictatorship; it is
| directed self-help I think the most
hopeful thing heard those who are
In charge Of this project say was,
well probably make many mistakes,
but we viii learn by them" az
That is democracy's way-slower,
more clumsy, maybe, than the meth
ods Of the dictator, but our American
way. Uncle Sam has long had ex-.
perimental stations for agriculture
and cattle, but In the subsistence
homesteads he Is establishing the FIRST
experiment with human lives.