Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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OUR HON --A Department D Better RICHARD HAA The ed itor of this department d4( Members of Civic and Local'Impro interested in the improvement, prote life, What is being done in your tov for -home employment -' What is doi gent a;4 the beautifying of private Are youtr local merchants recei )Experiene, plans, suggestions a the editoi of this departnent and sc columns. The Lecal Handicap. ,The Prophet is without honor in his own ,euntry. So the village and small town a-rA without confidence in their own resvr.es. We get so familiar with the things about us that we re :apt to underrate their value. It is .ofton. necessary for a total stranger to co')_ g.ong and show.us the neglected .opportui,1jes that have been under our nose unseen for years. he writer wiile pursuing some In lustrial investigations had occasion to visit a thrifty little city in the South VeAt. It is an old town that has liter ally been forced to the front by the presswre of development and northern energy, The place has five railroads, a population of 30,000 and a number of modern buildivgs, % jl. the natives iOUSE AN~D BARN\ FOR Wat rtov have not yet fully- fenijzed the change-they still are doubtful and suspiciou~s. A'>out four years ago, be k fore the tide of immigration and capi ta! set in toward the Southwest, a stranger from the North drifted into this particular city. He was Just "looking around" with no special pur nose in view. A curbstone real estate broker had on his list a tract of bottom land, timbered, but worthless on ac A count of the annual floods. This laud he had hawked about the street for 75c per acre, but found no takers among the home speculators. The tract was "no good." It was offered to this stranger for $1.00 per acre. Would he look at it? Yes. He looked it over, examined every acre of it came back to town and handed over $10,000 for the worthless tract. Great was the joy of the natives wh' were liued up at the various bars, to drink to' the health of the "sucker." But the sucker returned in about a month with another capitalist from the North and sold this worthless tract for $30, X 000. But this was not all. Withm ninety days the second sucker brought a third and sold him the timber alone for $50,000 And then the local bankers and conservative capitalists Sicked themselves for not thinking of it For years people have been leaving Arkansas and Missouri-going west looking for opportunities. To-day strangers are taking their places and finding money on every bush. The new-coners are simply developing the resources which the natives failed to recognize.. This princip~e holds true of a ma jority of Individuals in every eom mnunity. We are too ne~tr to see the op)portunities at our feet. We pass them over and leave them for some one to pick up. The twentieth century for the Unlted States at least will be a time of con centration rather than expansion. A century of rural development and home-building. As has been indicated the people must get back to the land. and Industrial institutions to reach their best development must give the worker a chance for a home. The Value of a Good Garden. Many people fail to realize the great value of a thrifty, well-kept garden. Even an inferior one is much better than none. Vegetables are in dispensable to a family, so far as health is concerned, to say nothing of the money saved by not having to buy so much flour and so many gr-oceries. It would seem that every man should manage to obtain a piece of ground and see that it becomes well fertilized and enriched add then put under a thorough state of cultivation before trying to plant the seeds. It only costs a little to buy enough seeds for quite a good-sized garden. THE HOMECROFT nom st. Paulrceus. B way of affording a practical ol ject lesson in the "Homecroft" ide George H. Kaxwell has acquired fi acres of ground at Watertown. Mas -less th: n thirty minutes by ra: road or forty-five minutes by troll< from the center of Boston-whi< will be broken up into small "crofts for city workers. There, it is to1 presumed, will be illustrated, by d grees. all the different phases of be t e r m e n t which character'ze tl homecroft as compared with ti tenen'ent--house idea, in its aplict tion to $he life of the average AmeT can wage-earner: especially he who! weP'l~v stipend comes from worki IE TOWN. - -voted to Village ment. 1ILTON BYRD. sires to keep in touch with the active lemet Xssociations, and every one etion and upbuilding of rural village rn to encourage small industries and ng along the line of street improve lawns, roadways and public parke? ring the support of the local trade? nd photographs will be welcomed by far as possible given place in these f THE HOMCROFTERS' GILD, To Enable People to Live in Their Own Home and on a Piece of Their Own Land. CHANCE FOR FACTORY WORKERS "Every Child in a Garden and Every Mother 'n a Homecroft" is the Motto of the Organization-A Hun dred Children at Work in the First School Garden at Watertown, Mass. EDWARD T. HARTMAN Secretary Massachusetts Civic League. At Watertown, Massachusetts, there is being put under way what seems to be one of the most sane and practical N.N0 HOMC'OFT VlLILAGE n, Mass. solutions of many of the problems ^ modern city life ever attempted in this country. It is in line with the best enterprises for solving the questions of housing, sanitation, education and morals. As such it should command the attention and co-operation of all constructive social workers. The Homecrofters Gild offers garden work and craftsmanship as a subst* tute for the street corner, the cheap show and the saloon. And it offers in addition health, contentment and a substantial increase in income to the workers. The increase takes a practi cal form in the shape of health from work in the air, from fresh vegetables and fruits, from a clean environment and from absence of bad habits; from money saved from useless pastimes; from absence of doctors' bills and from a direct return in~ the way of com modities for use in the home or for sale. The founder and main supporter of the movement is Mr. George H. Max well. editor of Maxwells Talisman and founder of the National Irrigation Movement. As a student of social con ditions, Mr. Maxwell has conclded that college settlements and similar movements merely scratch the upper surface of the problem and fail utterly to get under it and crowd it out with a better condition. His creed is, "Every child in a garden, every mother in a homecroft, and individual, in dstrial independence for every worker in a home of his own on the land." MEA.NING OF HOMECROFT. The word "Homecroft" has been coined by Mr. Maxwell to fit the thing he has in mind. The Scotch word "croft" means a very small piece of land farmed intensively by its occu pant but not large enough to yield him a living and constitute him a farmer. The Hlomecrofter, therefore, under the conditions being developed, is a labor ing man, clerk, skilled artisan or what not, who supplements his regular in come by, and spends his spare time in. work on the land. His children may likewise be employed out of school hours and at other times when they would otherwise be on the street or forced into some one of the street trades to hellp maintain the home. For the children the advantages are ob vious. Healthy exercise in the opeu~ air for a purpose, fresh vegetables and other products, and occupation, are substituted for spasmodic exercise under bad conditions, stale vegetables or none at all, and the gang. It can be demonstrated that the ordinary factory wor'er on from one -half acre to an acre ,a land can earn actually more in the odd time given to his garden than he does from his regular work, taking it hour for hour. The other advantages are evident. THE GILDHALL AND SHOPS. As foundation for the Gild the Wilson estate at 143 Main St. Water VS. THE TENEMENT. - b- jsuch betterments, either alre.ad a, demonstrated or anticipated, ai bthese: . 1. Healthier houe surrounding: 1- air, sunlight, trees, fi vers; roo2 y for children to grow up without cor h tact with the contaminating it " fluences of crowded city streets an me tenements. e- 2. Diversity in employment an t- healthful recreation for the wage te earner himself, i'nd wholesome op ie portunity for his wAe and c .dre: r- to contribute to the family .in i- come, in the cultivation of an acre se more or less, of ground. This wou1 n enable him, especially, to keep hi town. has been purchased and con verted into a Gildliall and shops for handicraft work. The land around the house has practically all been appro priated to the use of a garden school and laid out in children's gardens. The director of the gardens is Miss Elizabeth S. Hill of Groton, who last year conducted the school gardens in Brookline and Groton. Over a hun dred children are already at work and many more, almost two hundred in all. have applied for space. It is an inter esting sight. and a poor commentary on our public school system. to see the wistful look of the children "not in it" as they watch the fortunate ones and inquire of the Instructors as to how long they will have to wait. Many children not connected with the I school watch the workers and play on the grounds, go that It has become a children's center for the town, The opening or the garde-n school has aroused an Interest among other pri vate organizations in the neighborhood and the Women's Club of Watertown has established another garden school. also under Miss Hill's supervision, as is still another opened by the Women's Social Science Club of Newton. whose garden is on Jackson Road near Non antum. On the outer boundry of the town.! the old Emerson Place has been p1ur chased and set aside as a gardein school for boys and even men who Ie sire to do practical work. The plots in this garden are large enough to permit of practical experiments and to even supply quite a quantity of vegetables. which each gardener is allowed to ap propriate to his own use. The only requirement is that each gardener pro vide his own tools and seed and pay sufficient attention to the instruction and to his work to keep his plot in fair condition and in harmony with the garden as a whole. There is in this garden plenty of space not taken and it offers a unique and valuable oppor tunity for any one desiring such work. The garden is supervised by a young man with practical experience in market gardening. WEAVE BEAUTIFUL THINGS. The weaving department, the only handicraft department as yet de veloped in the Gild. is supervised by Miss J. A. Turner, formerly with the experiment station for the blind- in Cambridge. Miss Turner. assisted by her sister, h1as several looms alreadyv in working order and instruction has been taken up. The aim of the work in weaving, as it will be in other home craft work, is not to have a weav ing establishment for the production of goods, but to conduct 'a school in weaving and design where women in the eommunity may learn to do work which may be carried on in their homes, This, as in the case of the croft work, will enable them to oCCupy spare time, which would be otherwise wasted or improperly spent, in con genial, healthy and remunerative em ployment. It is hoped and believed that such work will enable many women who have to supplement their income to do it in their homes and not be forced into factories and other un satisfactor'y conditions. A systen will be developed whereby looms will be supplied by aind the product sold through the Gild. By this naethod ex penses will be kept at a mnimmum and the highest profits accrue to the workers. HOME LANDS IN SMALL PARCELS. The more far-reaching and substan tial feature of the movement is the aeciuisition and subdivision of land into small tracts for actual croft purpose as outlined above. This close ly resembles the schemes developed in Hitchin, Port Sunlight, Bournville and Looking Across Trat, Showing Growth of Barley Raised This Year. Irrigation Canal Furnishing Water for Tract. SCENES IN OUTSKIRTS OF PHOE~ FIRST ARIZONA elsewhere in England. It will not be1 out of place to outline the Boiurnlvie plan which is identical in miamy re spects and has been carried out to an| assured success. This model villagre was started in 1879 when Messrs. Cad bury Bros. removed their works from them to thb ratorry or shop. 3. Reliable occupation ar i~ sup port for the wage-ear .er himself, in. ease of a temporary loss of his regu y lar' employment. An acre of ground,1 e intensively cultivated and irrigated, will support a family. , 4. Opportunity to set up, in the' ahomecroft, little handicrafts for the -products of which there is a constant, -demand; such as special lines of iweavine', knittin'. rugmakinsr, catb inetmaking. basket weaving, turning iin wood or bone. instrament making, <manufacturers of leather, gloves, -etc., etc. The distribution of power1 i from electric wires, or the use of lit-' - te gasoline engines, in village of'a , homecrofters, may demonstrate thati< I the concentration of thousands ofp: s workers in great factories is not, . ,iat+ral- n a gret many lines of in-t Birmingham to a point four miles from the city and erected twenty-four houses for the workmen. Mr. George Cadbury, from long observation and experience. concluded that the only practical way to solve the problem was to take the factory worker out on the land where he might pursue the na tural and healthy recreation of garden ing. Says Mr. W. Alexander Harvey in his book on Bournville. "It was im possible for working men to be healthy and have healthy children, when after being confined all day in factories they spent their evenings in an institute. Nlub room or public-house. If it were necessary for their health. as it un doubtedly was, that they should get View in Oreha rd, Showlg Trlley Line b X Which Boston I eachd. 0n Forty-five Miutes. LANDS AT WATERTOWN, MAS .. FOR HOMECR( fresh air. it was equally to the advant age of their moral life that they should be brought into contact with nature. There was an advantage, too. In bring ing the workingman on to the land. for instead of his losing money in the 'amusements usually sought in the towns. he saved it in his garden prod uee-a great consideration where the poorer class of workman was con cerned." And again. "The cultivation of the soil is certainly the best anti dote to sedentary occupation of those working in large towns. A primitive instinct is induged, the full value of which seems hardly yet to have been realized. Many believe, indeed, that with its encouragement the abuse of the social club and the public-house will be materially lessened, and one of the greatest social evils of the time disappear. (The experience of Bourn ville certainly gives support to this conclusion, for nearly every house holder there spends his leisure in gard ening, and there is not a single licensed house in the village.)'' SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A HOUSE. The houses of Bourn-ville were built with special reference to cheapness. artistic development, sanitation and convenience. At a cost of from $700 X. ARIZONA. SHIOWNG SITE FOR ~IOMECROF7T VILLAGE. to 82500O each a1 much higher g'rade of home tha n the w orkers had been ac customued to was~ prov ided. Rents rnge from 4s. Gd. to 12s. per week. not includuig rates: and the deauth rate ot nineteen per thousandi in Birming ham has been reduced to six and nine custry, a necessity for the -ttainment of the best results. 5. A growth of co-operation, which will give to the homecroft settle nent all the advantages of the ci ; in schools. libraries, hospitals, enter tainment halls, water supply. electr'.. lights. improved roads, etc.; while he cultivation of each separate acre :r "croft" will be facilitated by the :o-oerative ownership of the numer mm eesive -nier's of farm ma hinerv now to be foutnd on the best~ 'r-e farmas. bunt which could not be' uforred by the individual crofter.I 6. The fostering of a sturdy, inrie endent individualism, to hich' iothing contributes so muc as th~e1 >wnrship of a home and a conscious-j iess that one can "make a living" 1 -egardless of any boss. ncurre.ntly mwh suc betterments1 tenths per thousand in Bournville. The garden features in Bouruville are planned with much care, provision in most cases being made for some lawn, towers. vegetables and fruits. To return to the Homecrofters Gild, there is one distinctive advantage in Mr. Maxwell's -plan, in that he aims to attach to each home eno- g. land to make it a feature and not merely an incident in the life of the worker. and he has added the crafts work for wo men and for men in the winter. ile already has under way plans for an experimental group of four houses under one roof, to be placed at the centre of a square so as to secure the greatest economy of space and place A Sunny Slope for .Berrie .and 'Wege ,tables. , THAT WIL BE SUBDIVIDED )FT VIL1AGE. the worker in direct contact with his land. These :plans are being prepared by Mr. Allen W. Jackson, the archi tect. Something over fifty acres of land have already been purchased for subdi vision, and improvement. This will be sold to workingmen for homes for -prac tically what it cost in large tracts. plus the cuot of division and improvement. A special plan is to sell homes to in dustrious working men on a long time, on the monthly instalment plan. at a rate which will be no more than is usually paid in rent, but which will create a sinking fund that will pay the purchase price and in the mean time carry what will amount to an in surance policy covering the amount of the purchase price remaining due. so that if the purchaser should die the property would go to his family with out further payment. FOLLOWS SUCCESSFUL ENGLISH PLAN. The movement Is not intended to b~e an isolated one as the shops and gardens are open to any one who will use them in the right way. Mr. Max well feels that isolation has been the cause -of failure in such attempts and that the people of the community must themselves become a part of such a movement if it Is to succeed. Here again the scheme resemlyles that of Bournville. There, though practically all the houses have been built by the maniagement. only forty-one and two tenths per .cent. .of the aceupants work in the viflage. Eighteen and six-tenths per ,cent. work in villages within a mile and -forty and two-tenths per cent. work in Birmingham. Fifty and seven-tenths -per cent. .of them are em -poyved .at indoor avork in factories, thirteen and three-tenths per .cent. are clerks and triivellers, and thirty-six per cent. are skilled workers and pro fessional men. By this arrangement a norinal commuaity life is main tained. The Homecroft Gild is being developed along the same lines. OVERCOMING PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. The Gild is not making the mistake of trying to make farmers pure and simle out of city workers. Such a :ard and fast line between city and country will always lead to failure. Mr. Maxwell says: "Give the city worker a ahome in the sub~urbs, where he can have a garden and a poultry yard, and where -his children can have sunshine and -fresh air without stint, and you have largely done away with the terrible evils that are cursing the denizens of .the congested quarters of our great cities--physical degeneracy tuberculosis, and social, moral, and political dangers too numerous to be enumerated." Henry WV. Grady de scribed the antithesis when he said. "The citizen standing in the doorway of his home-contented on this tifres hold-his family gathered about his hearthstone-while t~he evening of , well-spent day closes in scenes and sounds that are dearest-he shall save the republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted.' The Homecroft Gild has other plan in immediate contemplation. Near n the condition of the wage-earn1ere the general carrying out of the homle croft idea would relieve the con estion of population in cities, and reatly assist in their development long those lines which are o much etter than mere bigness. A hun ~red thousand or a million people iving on small tracts of land, wi 'in n hour's ride of a city would make lar more business for the city, of ~very desirable kind, than the same umber closely packed in tenements. The "homecroft" experiment not 0 be limited to the settlement fost bred by M~r. Maxwell near Boston. 'he idea combines with its sugges ons of social betterments the prob bility of very satisfactory returns > the owners of vacant lands, near ities, who may be disposed to ex .riment with it. Pioenix. Arizona. a farm of one hun dred and sixty acres has been turned into a homecroft village. The land is especially adapted to raising vege ta'les and is under one of the best water-rights in the region. Five-acre tracts are here given to each worker. The new government reservoir on sait River and driven wells on the property, insure a permanent supply of water for irrigation and therefore unfailing crops. These undertakings, while practical and constructive in every sense, are ilnended rather as models to show what can be done in any community in the coutry. .Tapan, with sixty seven per cent. of her total population working in part or entirely on the land, has become a land of gardens where hopeless poverty is almost unknown and where tuberculosis is a negligable quantity. America can take care of its hopeless thousands in the same way. first by putting hope into theni and then by putting them where they may attain it. It is to the promoters of our great industries that we must look for help in great part, but public sentiment and syl)athIy will move the promoters and reach the problem. The Homecrofters Gild promises a start which ought to weld together the country and the city into one inde structible whole and, supplemented by proper charity administration and sane vagrancy laws, remove entirely the possibility even of a "submerged tenth." Parking for the Town. The town parks, or the town or village square are the lungs of its citizens. If the town is growing, it is none too soon to start a movement to provide for the securing of ample town park ing. The land is increasing; when the town has doubled and has become a small city, it will not he so easy to secure sites, readily accessible to the people, without paying an exorbitant price. .Secure .rst the 9ud; it is not important that a- large amount of moneyv should be at once expended upon its beautification, possibly it needs but little, since :nature ,may have made it more beautiful than can man. It is not necessary :that it should be transformed into carpet betds of tiowers and trimly kept lawns. If it affords sunlight and a green relWe of grass and trees for the eye, it becomes a civilizer and an .equalizer, for the poor as well as the wealthy, a resting ulace where a man may forget, for the time, some of his struggles and his anxieties in .a contemplation of wVit God has made. The park should be kept. in fact, as natural as is consistent with its use as such. It is never too .early, however, to secure its site, with a view to the building up of the community, when land values will necessarily increase. Distribution of Immigrants the Solution. If there were only some practicable way of distributing immigration -more equally among all the ports -of 'the country the congestion and segra gation phases of this -problem would be nearer solution. It can 'be -accom plished in but a small degree, since it will only be done if answering an economic demand, as in the case of the Galveston-Bremen service. Wise and well organized .effort to induce immigrants to pass -through the large ports by finding and insuring them employment in the interior and iy in forming them of opportunities .else where, will do much to improve con ditions. The self-interest of states, many of which maintain immigration agencies, might also' he brought more generally into play to attract the in dustrious and ambitious new corners to their farms and anler towns. Improving School Grounds. In Rochester, N. T., the school authorities grade and sod the school yards. while the shrubbery and other planting is by private effort in con junction with the school children. Ample land is furnished for decorativ-e playground purploses, and most exemp lary results have been obtained. 'Wherever anywere in this counmtry there is Any One who has the Spirit of True Patriotism and Genuine Love of' Humanity .in his or her heart. "The Coming People" By CHARLU S .D)OLE should be the first book to be -rad There is a multitude of thinking people who see the dangers the future holds for our country unless we reach a wise solution of the tremendous social problems that confront us. The spirit in which we should approach the consideration of these problems is set forth in this remarkable book in a way that must he an inspiration to every truly hu mane and patriotic heart. -Let the spirit of common sense and opti misptand fundamer-tal economic and phil *osorphical truth that pervades this book be taken as thie underlying motive of the mcovement, and the Creed and Platform of Ithe Hemcecrofters as the practical plan to werk to. and the rest of the great social questions are certain to be rightly solved *by application to them of the sound and ihumane principles that will guide the action of our people upon all great national qucs f One copy of "The Coming People" post- - age prepaid will be mailed to any ad dress in the United States for twenty-five cents. One e py of both "The Coming Peopic'" and "The First Book of the Homecrofters"* and "Staxwell's Talisman" monthly for the rest of the year 1000 will be mailed to any address in the Urnitcd States for fifty cents. Remit in postage stamps to The Home crofer. 1-43 Main street, Watertown, 3Mass.