710.1 FZZ-f THE FAR.Vl CITIES CORP. OF AMERICA... CHARTER ■_ A - .J ^ ; i ■<5Pk','.r # V'. . . "■ ■'■li'e&vx Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/farmcitiescorporOOfarm UN" V Ct DIVISION OF ILLINOIS FROM THE CHARTER OF THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA “To establish a ‘Farm City,’’ typical of others, where families can cultivate the land profitably, and, at the same time, can enjoy the social, intellectual and economic advantages of community life, and to establish other communities rural, urban or suburban, and to develop, foster and control same in such manner as opportunity, wisdom and patriotism may suggest.” Xiibtar.p’ THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA Organized Under the Laws of the State of Delaware AUTHORIZED CAPITAL: 500 SHARES -$50,000 EXPERTS DR. F. H. NEWELL, Civil Engineer, Formerly Chief U. S. Reclamation Service JOHN NOLEN, City and Rural Planner THOMAS ADAMS, Town Planning Advisor, Dominion of Canada HUGH MacRAE, Founder of MacRae Agricultural Communities DR. J. A. BONSTEEL, Soil Expert ADVISORY COUNCIL MRS. F. L. ACKERMAN, 1 West 6ith Street, New York MARY AUSTIN, National Arts Club, New York RAY STANNARD BAKER, Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C. CHAS. S. BIRD, Jr., East Walpole, Mass. C. J. BLANCHARD, U. S. Reclamation Service, Washington, D. C. DR. E. C. BRANSON, Rural Social Science, Chapel Hill, N. C. PRES. KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD, Amer. Country Life Assn., Amherst, Mass. H. M. CHASE, Danville, Va. MRS. OLIVE D. CAMPBELL, Russell Sage Foun- dation, New York DAVID R. COKER, Hartsville, S. C. H. T. CORY, Berkley, Cal. EUGENE DAVENPORT, Former Dean and Direc- tor, 111. College of Agric., Urbana, 111. G. HOWARD DAVISON, American International Pubs., New York CHAS. DEARING, State Demonstration Farm, Willard, N. C. J. R. EDDY, Paradise, Lancaster Co., Pa. MRS. HENRY J. FAISON, Faison, N. C. MRS. HERBERT J. BROWNE, Balia Farm, West Chester, Pa. GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, 238 E. loth Street, New York MATTHEW HAI.E, Washington, D. C. ELLWOOD HENDRICK. Consulting Editor, Chera. and Met. Eng., New York ELON HUNTINGTON HOOKER, 25 Pine Street, New York HERBERT S. HOUSTON, New York MAJ. A. L. JAMES, 2324 19th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. WALTER A. JOHNSON, American International Pubs., New York MISS FRANCIS KELLOR, New York DR. B. W. KILGORE, Dept, of Agriculture, Raleigh, N. C. GERALD STANLEY LEE, Northampton, Mas.s. E. C. LINDEMAN, Greensboro, N. C. DR. ARTHUR D. LITTLE, Cambridge, Mass. REV. DUGALD MACFADYEN, Letchworth, Herts, England W. A. McGIRT, Wilmington, N. C. MRS. JANE McKIMMON, Raleigh, N. C. ELWOOD MEAD, Oakland, Cal. FRANK MEAD, OJai, Ventura County, California E. L. MORGAN, Am. Red. Cross, Washington, D. C. F. H. NEWELL, Washington, D. C. JOHN NOLEN, Harvard Sq., Cambridge, Mass. RAYxMOND H. OVESON, Boston, Mass. L. H. PARKER, Ed. World Agriculture, Amherst, Mass. HON. JOHN BARTON PAYNE, Washington, D. C. HON. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Milford, Pa. CLARENCE POE, Editor Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, N. C. GEO. E. ROBERTS, V.P., National City Bank of New York LAWSON SANDFORD, Yonkers, N. Y. DR. ALBERT SHAW, The Review of Reviews, New York MRS. S.\RAH MacD. SHERIDAN, 907 Fifth Ave., New York RAYMOND UNMHN, Hampstead, I.ondon, England CARL VROOMAN, Bloomington, 111. CHAS. 1 1. WHITAKER, Editor, Journal of the Amcr. Institute of Architects WM. L, WHITE, San Francisco, Cal. OFFICES 244 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK CITY FOREWORD It has long been recognized that if our civilization is to he preserved and developed rural life must he made more attractive. The problem has engaged the attention of thinking men and women for many years, and various attempts to find a satisfactory solution have been made. Commissions have made exhaustive investigations, reports and recommendations, yet few PRACTICAL MEASURES for the correction of the situation have been undertaken. The flow of population from rural communities to the cities has remained unchecked, and has reached such proportions as to constitute a very real menace to our national welfare. THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA The plan designed by John Nolen, City and Rural Planner, and Philip W. Foster, Associate, Cambridge, Mass., shown on the following page, indicates the proposed development of a 10,000 acre tract. This plan shows the possibilities of treatment of the tract in North Carolina covered in the report of Thomas Adams, elsewhere referred to, and under consideration as the site for the first Farm City. The corporation, how- ever, is not committed to this or any other particular property. The purpose of the Farm City is to provide, in a healthful location and in an agreeable environment, means whereby owners of small farms may, by the practice of scientifically directed, intensified and diversified agriculture, supply themselves with a good living and profitable occupation. The introduc- tion of the community center and the industrial section will bring into the farm life the social and economic advantages that are usually associated only with life in the larger cities. This plan carried to success will be the incentive for similar communities located throughout the United States, PURPOSE OF ORGANIZATION The purpose of the Farm Cities Corjioration is to help safeguard the national welfare of the United States by making actual working-demonstrations of attractive and remunerative country life. It is believed that this purpose can be accomplished by the establishment, under certain conditions, of communities which shall be essentially agricultural in nature, but which shall also contain certain industries supplemental to agricultural activities. These communities are referred to as “Farm Cities.” PRINCIPLES TO GOVERN ESTABLISHMENT The following principles will govern the establishment of “Farm Cities” by this organization: (a) The choice of a healthful location suitable for the development of a system of intensified and diversified agriculture which will enable owners of small farms while raising their own food supplies to con- duct profitable farming operations in an agreeable environment . (b) The establishment of industries supplemental to agriculture to such an extent and under such conditions as to provide for a well-bal- anced and economic life without rendering the “Farm City" less attractive or less healthful for the inhabitants. (c) The development and scientific management of the “Farm City" in such a manner as to insure the economic success of the inhabitants, and at the same time to provide the fullest opportunities for intel- lectual development and social intercourse. (d) The provision of ample capital for carrying out the project. The weakening element of philanthropy will be eliminated by providing for a fair return on the developing capital. At the same time, the interests of the community will be protected by providing that all revenue of the developing corporation above fixed percentage on invested capital shall be devoted to the welfare of the community . (e) The ultimate transfer to the inhabitants of the “Farm City" for a fair consideration, of all rights held by the developing corporation. This transfer will not be made until the success of the “Farm City" becomes assured, and it becomes evident that its further develop- ment can be safely entrusted to the community. (/) After the success of the first “Farm City" is assured, it is the in- tention of the corporation to give nation-wide scope to its plans by the establishment of similar “Farm Cities" throughout the country. With this in view, the corporation purposes to choose a truly repre- sentative group of directors and advisors and to secure the ser- vices of the best experts available. FORM OF ORGANIZATION A “pioneer company” with an authorized capital of $50,000 has been in- corporated. The name of this company is “The Farm Cities Corporation of America.” The ultimate object of this “pioneer company” is the organization of a larger company for the actual establishment and development of the first “Farm City.” This larger company will be referred to as the “ultimate company.” [ s ] THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA PIONEER COMPANY TO BE TAKEN OVER BY AN ULTIMATE COMPANY The “pioneer company” will expend such amounts as may be necessary for making preliminary soil and topographic surveys, securing options on 'a tract, to be selected by the directors, of about 10,000 acres of fertile land suit- able for the development, and for such other necessary and legitimate expenses as may be incident to the organization of the “ultimate company.” The capital stock of the “pioneer company” is divided into shares of $100 each and will be fully paid and non-asscssable. Upon the organization of the “ultimate company,” it will take over the “pioneer company,” and the stock of the “pioneer company” will be exchanged for an equal amount of the stock of the “ultimate company.” The capital stock of the “ultimate company” will be ap- proximately $1,000,000, or such amount as the directors of the “pioneer company” may consider necessary for carrying out the purposes of the organization. Dividends, cumulative from time of payment of subscriptions to stock, will be limited to seven per cent. PLANS. After the organization of the “ultimate company” is complete, the follow- ing steps are proposed, subject to the action of the directors: (а) COMPLETION OF PURCHASE of the land. (б) IMPROVEMENT of the tract by doing necessary clearing, drain- ing, road-building, etc., in order to put it into good condition for (c) SUBDIVISION into small farms for sale to carefully selected indi- viduals who will live on the land and cultivate it. (d) CREATION OF TRAINING FARM and center of agricultuural co-operation in conjunction with Federal and State agencies, whose support of the project is assured. {e) DEVELOPMENT OF A TOWN CENTER, with the establishment of essential industries and the provision of educational and social facilities. (f) SALE OF FARMS AND TOWN LOTS binder such restrictions as will enable the Farm Cities Corporation to control the develop- ment of the community in such a way as to safeguard its best in- terests. (g) MANAGEMENT OF THE '‘FARM CITY" for such a length of time as to assure its success. “The development of the best country life in the United States is . . . largely a question of guidance.” — From report of the Country Life Commission to President Roosevelt, January 23, 1909. VIEWS UPON THE FARM CITY PROJECT At a large dinner given at the Biltmore Hotel in Nera York City, February 3, 1922, the purposes of the Farm Cities Corpora- tion of America were fully discussed by authorities best qualified by experience to give those present a clear view of th€ problems in- volved and of the practical steps to be taken toward solution. No public report of the proceedings was made and, for the first time, the essentials of the views there expressed are here dis- closed. THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA MR. GEORGE E, ROBERTS, Vice-President of the National City Bank of New York, who presided, briefly reviewed the changes during the past century which have resulted in the disappearance of cheap, easily obtained and cultivated lands in the United States. “Now,” said Mr. Roberts, “the twentieth century has come and the social problems of which Macaulay gave warning are face to face with us. Of course, there is great opportunity in this country 3 'et for increasing the production of food, there are millions of acres yet to be brought under cultivation, but the cheap, easily accessible, readily cultivated lands are gone. The lands that remain require a considerable expenditure of labor, of capital, to bring them under cultivation. They are not so easily occupied, and the question of bringing them under cultivation, of getting people upon them and of locating them under such conditions that they will be prosperous and contented and living in a wholesome state of society is a pressing one. To my mind it is one of the great problems of the time to get these remaining lands into use and producing the foodstuffs that our population will need. It is one of the vital questions in which the prosperity of this country is involved.” DR. ALBERT SHAW, Editor of the Review of Reviews, said in part: “If we do not by definite intention proceed to develop the country as we are now developing and improving our towns, then our civilization is going to decline, because our conditions in the country are growing relatively worse, while our conditions in the cities are becoming standardized. “An individual cannot go out from the city now and take up land and proceed to farm, as the pioneers did. We have now to proceed in the country as we did in the city, by finding associational ways of producing community life. You have to reconstruct the country by providing for the rural communities those same satis- factions of life that are freely available for people in towns. “The country has to be made over by the employment of capital, and the use of well-considered plans. Communities must be laid out; people must be helped to settle on the land. Their agri- cultural operations must be associated. Markets must be found. There will be co-operation, but there will still be individual owner- ship. There will remain personal and private and family initiative; [ 7 1 but in the country, as now in the towns, there will be collectivism of a practical and sensible kind. There will be central schools, all kinds of agencies for pleasure and instruction, as there will be for a reliable and safe economic life.” DR. F. H. NEWELL, Consulting Engineer, U. S. Reclamation Service Washington, who organized the U. S. Reclamation Service, its first engineer leading authority upon land development and colonization said : “More and more of our people are being forced from the country into the city and with corresponding threat to the stability of our institutions. This condition has long been recognized, but the duty and opportunity for remedying the ill effects have not been fully appreciated. Here, however, in this group of far-seeing citizens there is a tangible evidence that conviction is leading to action, and that it is possible as well as desirable to begin to rectify some of the bad conditions of which we are only too well aware. “President Harding in his address to Congress on December 6, 1921, states: 'The base of the 'pyramid of civilization xvhich rests upon the soil is shrinking through the drift of population from farm to city. For a generation we have expressed more or less concern about this tendency. Economists have warned and statesmen have deplored. We thought for a time that modern conveniences and the more intimate contact would halt the movement but it has gone steadily on. Perhaps only grim necessity will correct it but we ought to find a less drastic remedy.' “It is up to us here and now, without waiting for ‘grim neces- sity’, to begin to plan and show by practical demonstration that this drift of population can be stayed, in part at least. While it is im- portant that a national policy be adopted, such as will bring into play all of the forces. National, State, and corporate, which acting together will produce the largest result, yet it is not necessary or desirable for this or any other group of thinking citizens to delay for the more ponderous movement of great political bodies. “We can advance the cause and show results which will have value not merely in any one locality, but which will stimulate useful activity all over the country and will serve as a demonstration or model for larger and larger undertakings. “It is not necessary to dwell upon the fact full of danger that the number of self-supporting small farm homes is diminishing rela- tive to the increase of population, nor is it essential to emphasize the fact that such homes form the backbone of our civilization. From them have come the men who have been leaders not only in the Na- tional and State affairs, but also in industry and in the Government’s defense. “All are aware that the Constitution of the United States, and the institutions which have grown up around it, presuppose that a considerable part of the voters are home-owning taxpayers. We may also question whether these free institutions can continue when the great majority of voters are no longer owners of a home, but are nomadic wage earners living in apartments and getting a living FARM CITY DESIGNED AS EXAMPLE FOR WHOLE COUNTRY TO FOLLOW from more or less occasional employment by great corporations. Why should these people worry as regards the taxes or expenditures ? The landlord or the employer pays the bill ! The ordinary voter is not directly concerned as to the effect of any new scheme of taxation or of expenditure. “Such a man, however, if allowed to remain in the country, by being given an opportunity to acquire a small piece of land on which he can make a living, becomes, as has been said, the greatest stabilizing influence and the man upon whom our institutions rest. Edward Everett Hale has best expressed this in his question ‘Whoever heard of a man shouldering his musket to fight for his boarding- house. “The time, long ago pointed out by Macaulay, has now ar- rived when ‘The boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land’ has been taken up. Now our institutions, as he predicted, are being brought to the test. ‘Distress everywhere makes the laborer mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators.’ “The movement proposed, namely, of bringing about condi- tions such that the country-minded man and his wife can remain in the country and secure a foothold on the soil, is not necessarily a purely philanthropic nor altruistic undertaking. It can and should be joined to a properly balanced profit-making system. Philanthropy alone cannot permanently succeed in such an undertaking. For continued success there must be a proper sharing of benefits by all concerned, and while the homeseeker secures an opportunity to obtain a self-supporting farm home, at the same time the man or organiza- tion who makes this possible can and should receive an adequate reward for the efforts and expenditures which have brought about this happy result. There is no reason why one group of persons should benefit at the expense of the other. Stability and continuity of this work is insured only by a fair division of profits. “This undertalcing — to make available the idle or waste lands which have a fertile soil — is by no means an experiment. Innumer- able efforts have been made in every part of the United States, and helpful examples of what to do and what to avoid are afforded in every direction. The new feature, if it can be so called, is the fact that the present enterprise starts out with the intention of making use of this experience and in combining it in a safer form in such way as to bring about a higher degree of assurance of success, and, particularly, of equity in the distribution of the benefits. “As a rule, most of the efforts at reclamation and settlement of land fall into either one of two groups. On the one hand, have been those which are purely philanthropic and which have been suc- cessful to a certain degree, but have not been continued because the investments have not been returned, and there was no more money to be had. “On the other hand, is a great group of purely speculative enterprises where lands have been reclaimed and sold under such con- ditions that the purchasers have felt that they have been robbed. As a consequence, new settlers, men who are eagerly seeking a home, are suspicious, and most of the enterprises intended to be purely [ 9 ] THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA PllOBLKM OF ESTAB- LISHING HOMES ON THE LAND IS OF NATIONAL IMPORT- ANCE money-making in charactei* have failed because of the slowness with which the settlers have been willing to take the risk of buying the land, lletween these extremes it is possible to steer a safe course if the dangers on each side are carefully ascertained and plotted on our map. “Dr. Albert Shaw has well stated the problem before us — that of making history by intention or perhaps of making geography by intention. Our intention is to study the condition of success and failure, keeping our eye on the goal to be reached and avoiding the rocks upon which have been shipwrecked so many undertakings. “The results to be attained, not only in the specific problem in hand, but in laying out the course which may be followed safely by others, is of such national importance that we can well afford to devote the best efforts of our lives to these undei’takings in the full belief that there will be no achievement of the present century which will do more to enable peoples and communities to live in peace and prosperity than the establishment and maintenance of homes on the land.” A PRELIMINARY PLAN FOR A TYPICAL FARM CITY Mr. John Nolen of Cambridge, Mass., authority and expert in town and city planning, has already begun a careful study of the planning problems of The Farm Cities Corporation. He and his associate, Mr. Philip W. Foster, have worked out a preliminary plan for a typical Farm City as it would be actually developed if located on property that has been under consideration. This plan is reproduced on page 4 of this pamphlet. “What should the motive be, the real motive?” Mr. Nolen asked at the Biltmore meeting. “The only motive that can move effectively in a big enterprise like the ‘Farm City' project is one of financial profit, mainly that; but combined with it high ideals of service dealing with fundamental problems. We need to shift merely the point of view with regard to doing this, as has been said by Major James, — not to be philanthropic, but to get better W'a 3 ^s and different ways of making money ; secondly', to turn from products like chewing gum or the safety razor or some new and perhaps ingenious automobile accessory, for all of which there is ample capital, to solving some of these great problems. It is not those things that our civilization needs, it is food and homes and recreation, and do you know of any enterprise that strikes at the heax’t of food and homes and recreation and wealth and the soundness of our civilization like the solving of the problems of the country combined with the satisfaction which people now crave and which is made quite evident that they feel can be found only in the city? So we have this device — invention — what- ever I may call it, of the ‘Farm City.’ “Bertrand Russell said there arc only two things that block our progress: One the mastery and application of science — and w'e have that and have it to spare — the other social, political, civic and economic organization, — and there we are still lamentably weak. “The problem here is to set going machinery that will make that kind of organization possible. It has been our privilege — of [ 10 ] Mr. Foster, who is associated with me, and myself — to present a study of this ‘Farm City’ project, — and there it is, that diagram.” (See page 4.) GERALD STANLEY LEE, whose “Air Line to Liberty” and other con- tributions of inspiration helped so powerfully toward a high morale in the war, sees in the plans of The Farm Cities Corporation the means of dramatizing to the country great new possibilities of rural life. “When the country-minded people know that things are so con- trived at last by engineers and others that they can have country life and all the advantages of city life together — can have the cows and hens for the family — all the simple, lovable, sincere straightfor- ward and elemental things and can have the city things besides, all those who are so minded are going to flock to the country,” said Mr. Lee. “The idea has merely got to be dramatized on a sufficiently large scale to make a unit and then that unit can be endlessly multiplied. “The essential idea has already been tried out by Mr. MacRae. What is wanted now is to do the thing on a larger scale so that it can attract the attention of the whole country and can repeat itself over and over again. “What is wanted for our civilization now is to have some people come along and present to us a conception of country life that people can enjoy together — present to us a farm city — that is to say a community which has all the traits and attributes of the city and yet one in which the people are working on farms. “When someone — as we are doing now — proceeds to dramatize country life as it might be, people are going to live it. “What the country dramatizes to most people now is solitude, wide spaces, and silence, the crowing of the cock, the lowing of the cow and the homely separated things. And when our women of today come to the farms of this scattered and lonely kind and begin bring- ing their children up on them, they find themselves thinking of other things besides. They find themselves thinking in the terms of social desire and ambition and hope. “What this enterprise is going to be able to do is to make civilization again appeal to people close to the ground and make our people when they think of life, not think of the roar and darkness of the subway and the hurry and the smoke, but of the sky above us, the green grass growing around us and of children playing in the door- yard — playing with the things children were born to delight in and to love.” MAJOR A. L. JAMES, who was a member of Pershing’s General Staff in France, sketched the details of The Farm Cities Corporation plans. He is one of the Army men who see the country’s need of service in peace no less than in war. In part he said : — “In a nutshell our problem is that of making agricultural life economically profitable and socially satisfying. “There are many partial solutions. The one here proposed is very simple. Its aim is that just stated: to make farming a better [ 11 ] THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA SETTLER IS PRO- TECTED FROM EXPLOIT- ATION THROUGH LIMITATION OF DIVIDENDS paying proposition and to provide satisfactory social conditions. Its chief virtue lies in the fact that instead of continuing to talk about what rural communities might be, we propose to make actual working models of properly planned and organized farming communities. We believe that these models will be worth infinitely more than all the talk about what might be. It is believed that the time for mere talk has passed, and the time for action has come. “What we propose is the establishment of what Mr. Gerald Stanley Lee has termed a ‘Farm City.’ This, as the name implies, will be a community that combines the advantages of both country and town; where inliabltants will have the independence of those who gain their living by tilling the soil, and all the social advantages that are the result of efficient community organization, such as exists now only in the cities. In other words we desire, as far as is possible, to combine the good features of town and country and eliminate the bad features of both. “Permit me to sketch briefly how this project could be carried out. “First there must be the provision of ample capital for finan- cing the undertaking. Aiid it should he distinctly understood that this is a sound business proposition — it is self-supporting. It is the belief of all those xvho are interested in it that it must be self-support- ing; that there must be a fair return on the developing capital. Without going into details, I may say in passing that the financial plans provide for such a return, but the settler is protected from exploitation through a provision that all revenue of the developing corporation above such a fair return shall go back into the com- munity in the form of improvements. “The necessary capital having been provided, the next step is the selection of a suitable tract of land for the development. The selection of a location for the first ‘Farm City’ is of tremendous importance. The location should be such as to give the highest probability of making it a big success — it should be where the task would be easiest. Naturally, some mistakes will be made and we want as big factors of safety as possible. After the first ‘Farm City’ has become a success we can tackle more and more difficult localities, benefittlng by what we learn as we go along. “The experts say that the size of the tract should be not less than 8,000 acres, but, of course, that depends on the locality chosen. The land should be cheap, fertile and readily brought under cultiva- tion. It should be in a locality that is healthful ; where the climate is suitable for the development of an intensive type of agriculture; and not too far removed from the great consuming centers along the Atlantic Seaboard. I recently asked the head of a great railway system how far away from New York such a development might be. His reply was : ‘The ideal location would be twenty-four hours south of New York by fast freight. Such a location would give farmers the benefits of high prices for early products, combined with the advantage of placing such products on the New York markets the second morning after shij)ment.’ He was, of course, referring to garden truck, which plays a large part in intensive agriculture. [ 12 ] “Having selected and purchased a suitable tract of land, the best experts in the world should survey the tract and plan an entire community. The principles of such planning have been established, but the actual plans should be worked out by men of the highest ability, who have the vision of what such communities might be. “Near the centre of the tract there would be a town-site, or community centre. This would be laid out in such a way as to pro- vide for the establishment of desirable industries, educational and social institutions, amusement facilities, homes and the numerous other things that will readily come to your minds. “The farming tracts that would lie around the community centre would vary in size directly in proportion to their distance from such a center. In other words, in the zone immediately surrounding the town the tracts would be very small, and in the successive zones would gradually increase in size. This kind of layout permits the maximum concentration of families in a given area, with the many consequent advantages ; provides for various types of agriculture in the different zones ; and reduces transportation costs to a minimum. The many additional advantages are too evident to be discussed in detail. “Having comprehensive, far sighted plans, the Corporation would proceed to the actual work of development. This would include improvement of a part of the tract by doing the necessary clearing, draining, road-building, etc., preparing a portion of the farm for immediate use by bringing the fields into condition for planting, and by building a certain number of attractive and inexpensive homes and farm buildings ; making a beginning on the town centre by pro- viding some of the essential buildings there; providing a training farm and centre of agricultural co-operation. In short, the Farm City would be put into condition for receiving the first settlers, and the farms of these settlers would be in such condition as to enable them to start farming at once. This would eliminate the discouraging pioneering period, that is both unnecessary and economically wasteful. “While these developments are being made, the process of selecting settlers will have begun. I often am asked : ‘Where will you get the settlers.^’ The answer is: From all sections of the country. Contrary to the general impression, there are many thousands of families who are anxious to get a start on the soil. The Interior Department has on file thousands of applications for farms on the great irrigation projects — applications far beyond the lands avail- able in those projects. Our problem is not to attract settlers hut to select them. And thei’e is where we have a great advantage over the government — in being able to select. In making that selection we shall endeavor to get settlers of the type who will make good. No settler would be accepted unless he believes in co-operation and agrees to join the co-operative association. “Farms will be sold on long term payments. Experience in land settlement has shown that the settler should make a substantial cash payment, and that payment of the balance should be arranged on such reasonable terms that the money can be earned from farming [ 13 ] THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA “BETTER FARMING, BETTER BUvSINESS, AND BETTER LIVING ON THE FARM.” — Roourvplt. operations. In this matter we shall follow the most approved and enlightened practice. After farmers are located on the land they will be given expert advice and guidance, not only in raising crops, but in the organiza- tion and management of efficient co-operative associations for buying and selling. Sanitation and health will be looked to by a central organization. Provision will be made for educational and recrea- tional facilities. “The town center will develop as the farms are occupied, and there will follow, to such an extent as seems desirable, the establish- ment of industries that will be complementary to agriculture. The first of these will probably be creameries, canneries and the like, and there is, of course, a long list of other industries suitable for such communities. ''The project for th^ establishment of a Farm City is an enlightened effort to make a real contribution to our civilization. It is founded on correct principles; it can be successfully carried out. If we make a success of one such community, we shall be pointing the xvay to a great volume of capital whose owners would like to have their wealth earning a fair retiirn while engaged in a development that is for the good of all. The result would he the reshaping of miral life in a way that would bring happiness and independence to countless thousands, and would give to our institu- tions a stability that would render us immune to fantastic theories that bring destruction in their wake. “I want each one of you to realize that this is not the problem of any particular class, nor is the proposed solution the pet scheme of any particular group. It is a national problem and the solution should be of national scope. It is your problem and mine, and if we believe in the proposed solution it becomes our duty actively to assist in making it successful.” In 1908 the late William K. Vanderbilt is credited with having observed: — “There are too many people in the United States trying to live off the other fellow. The day will come when most of us must become producers.” [ H ] “HAS ANYBODY DEMONSTRATED THAT IT CAN BE DONE?” In its leaclin^^ cclitoi'ial in the issue of July 15, 1922, Collier’s, The National Weekly, discussing the Farm City project of The Farm Cities Corpora- tion of America, remarks : — “We all need to know about demonstrations like the one de- scribed by Miss Tarhell in this issue. The 'principle is not limited in its application to dirt farmers and ten acres. Indeed, there is a larger and even more important MacRae project now forming. It is to be known as the Farm City." The demonstration referred to is described b}' Miss Ida M. Tarbell in a special article written after a study of the MacRae colonies in North Carolina. The article contains the answer to the question above. Collier’s has courteously permitted the Farm Cities Corporation to reprint Miss Tarbell’s article. It demonstrates in dramatic fashion that what the corpora- tion proposes to do has been and can be done, for not only the experience and ability which has made a success of these colonies is to be a part of the equipment of The Farm Cities Corporation of America, but that which has helped to success the great national reclamation colonies in the West, and the best brains, experience and talent anywhere to be found is definitely alligned with it. The story of the “demonstration,” as told by Miss Tarbell, is reprinted as a separate folder accompanying this pamphlet. BASIS AND ORIGIN OF PRESENT PROJECT Care has been taken in this statement of the plans and purposes of The Farm Cities Corporation of America not to limit or bind present or future direc- tors of the corporation in their action, but, in order that they might have as complete a foundation of facts at hand as possible, the best experts have already been called upon to examine and report upon a particular, concrete project. The possibilities of the successful execution of a “Farm City” project on a tract of 10,000 acres located in Pender County, North Carolina, near the suc- cessful communities described by Miss Tarbell in Collier’s, were examined. These are the subject of a report, detailed and complete, made recently by Thomas Adams, Town Planning Expert and Consultant of the Canadian Gov- ernment’s Commission of Conservation, in which ai’e included the conclusions of investigations made by John Nolen, of Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. A. J. Bonsteel and J. R. Eddy, soil experts; Dr. W. T. Rankin, State Health Officer of North Carolina; Professor Stiles, of the U. S. Public Health Service; Martin G. Smith, Veterinary Inspector of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry; Dr. Charles Dearing, in charge of U. S. experiments at the State farm at Willard, N. C., and others. This report is too voluminous to include in these pages, but is available for those desiring to study it. The report covers a description of the characteristics and historical features of the region ; its climatic and health conditions ; soils and cropping conditions ; transportation of products to market ; expert advice and training of settlers; need for providing stable conditions of settlement; educa- tion, water supply, underlying clays, marl and limestone; success of settlers in the region; facilities for tourists; plans and surveys and recommendations upon methods of organization and financing. THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA [ 15 ] THE FARM CITIES CORPORATION OF AMERICA A sentence or two from Mr. Adams’ conclusions is sufficient to indicate the character of these experts’ analyses of the project. He says: “A great opportunity exists in Pender County for carrying out a land development project of national importance. The natural conditions are entirely favorable — soil, climate, land values, access- ibility to market, etc. . . . With a properly organized project hav- ing behind it sufficient capital and expert advice and good manage- ment by men who believe in co-operative effort plus individual re- sponsibility, and with the selection of suitable lands at current values, I cannot conceive that the results would be otherwise than completely successful — both as an investment for those who promote the project and as a paying enterprise for settlers.^’ ROOSEVELT’S WARNING “I warn my countrymen that the great progress made in city life is not a full measure of our civilization; for our civilization rests at bottom on the wholesomeness, the attractiveness, and the com- pleteness, as well as the prosperity, of life in the country. The men and women on the farms stand for what is fundamentally best and most needed in our American life. Upon the development of country life rests ultimately our ability, by methods of farming requiring the highest intelligence, to continue to feed and clothe the hungry nations ; to supply the city with fresh blood, clean bodies, and clear brains that can endure the terrific strain of modern life; we need the development of men in the open country, who will be in the future, as in the past, the stay and strength of the nation in time of war, and its guiding and controlling spirit in time of peace.” — From President Roosevelt’s letter to Congress transmitting the report of the Country Life Commission, February 9, 1909. [ 16 ] Fro 111 The Farm Cities Corporation of America Will Your Home Be Happy as Theirs? } lliistraiiou from Collier's by Jack Flanaoan Reprinted from Collier The National Weekly^ issue of July 15, 1922, through the courtesy and with the kind permission of the publishers. By Ida M. Tarbell T hree slight and widely sepa-ated personal experiences are respon- sible for this article. The first was ten years ago. I was visiting a great steel plant, a beautiful plant with real grass and real vines in its yards. On a bench beside a green plot sat a huge Czech worker — a twelve-hour-a-day man — resting from his turn at the furnace, his head in his hand. “Too hot, faint?” I asked. He looked up scornfully, and then, sensing a real concern, pointed to the grass. “I seek for farm.” “But why not? There’s land for all in this country.” “I not know where, how.” Two years later an expert woman ac- countant, with a handsome salary, turned on me fiercely when I spoke of her success. “Success! This shut-in life! I was born for the land. I could make it give up, but where can I get it with roads, a market, neighbors, decent credit? With- out them it’s too uncertain. There are others to consider. But me — I am sick for the land.” The third was last November — Armistice Day, in Washington. The day brought out hundreds of veterans, among them the dis- Concerning the Author In the issue in which this article appeared, an editorial page contained the following comment : “M iss Tarbell’s name appears on many of the recent lists of the twelve most distinguished women of America. Her Life of Lincoln was placed hy Charles A. Dana among the ten indispensable hooks for Americans. A great historian said her ‘History of the Standard Oil Company’ was the only work of its kind corroborated hy the find- ings of the Supreme Court. As historian, magazine writer, and lec- turer, all Miss Tarbell does is infused with unusual human un- derstanding.” ahled, out for a little freedom. Alone I went into a restaurant. A pale lad in olive drab — an eye gone — sat at a table. I did as I would have done in 1917 or 1918: asked to join him. The ice broken, he did as he would have done then: told me of himself. “Me for the land.” he said. “My trade takes two eyes. 1 could run a little farm — hens, cow, garden, bees. Why don’t they come across w'ith something a man like me can look at? I can't pioneer. 1 did my jtart of that in France. Ain't nobody going to help us to land like they promised when we was fightin’ for ’em?” You know, as I did, that there are tens of thousands of other peojtle like them trai)ped in shops and factories ami offices. You come to jump at any proof that it is possible for them to have tl’.eir heart’s de- sire: get land to tame or redeem on such terms that they can enjoy plenty and con- tent as they make their con(|uest. But is there any such i)roof? Has anybody demonstiated that it can he done? That is, has anybody set up the princi])les for colonization as they have been set for making steel and building bridges, worked out methods which make it as nearly fool- proof and swindle-proof as human under- takings can be made? We have such a demonstration on the Atlantic Coast. 1 had supposed, until I went to see it, that it should be classed as an experiment — and I wanted some- thing sure — but the ct)lonies of Hugh Mac- Kae in New Hanover and Pender Counties, Will Your Home Be Happy as Theirs? North Carolina, are no longer an experi- ment. They are one of the completest and most far-reaching demonstrations that the country has as yet seen of how to settle land so that your original settler will get something besides doubt, pain, atid failure out of it. MacKae seems to have begun life land- minded and always to have had an appre- ciation of what people call “dirt farming” - something that has an essence in it that usually eludes the “gentleman farmer.” As he grew up he could not get it out of his blood. School did not do it. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was graduated, could not do it. Indeed, while a student there, the possi- bility when he went back home — home being Wilmington, N. C. — of doing some- thing to develop the vast acreage of swamp and timber land that spread north, south, and west from the town had strong hold of his mind. The matter with Wilmington, people said, was that it had no “back country.” But couldn’t you make one? The land was there — couldn’t you redeem it, settle it? He went so far as to formu- late a plan of colonization, but nobody would consider it. A boy’s folly! A few years later and he was free to follow his “folly.” He was responsib'e for varied interests in and around Wilmington, but bis mind still dwelt on the rescue of the vast surrounding acreage. He re- ceived no encouragement. It was not a land for white men, he was told. Its air was sick with malaria. Hugh MacRae pondered, and finally, when the citv’s power plant came under his management, he flouted superstition and ran a trolley line straight into the condemned area, in- viting settlers to follow! He was not unconscious that his “folly” might in truth be just that. Was tins malaria, that had ke])l Wilmington within its city limits for all these decades, “in the air,” as they said; or was it. as the scientists said, carried by moscpiitoes? He wa'ched his street-car motormen and con- ductors. If it was in the air. then they would take it. He saw them growing rosy under the outdoor life. It was the mos- quito. If the land he wanteil used was drained, the houses where people lived screenerl, there would be no danger. He went at it. To-day Wilmington is fringed with miles of beautifu' suburbs — the chil- dren of Hugh MacKae’s folly. The Idea People Laughe.'l At B ut his mind was on a still larger thing than helping town iieojile to pleasanter homes, a bit of land of their own. He wanted to see those savanna lands and forests converted into farms, productive farms, filled with thriv- ing, haiijiy peoiile peoiile who otherwise would have little or no chance. He had proved they con'd be made hea'thy. But how about the soil? Its yield for genera- tions had been “tar, iiitch, and tur|)entine.” Few saw on its line sandy loams a (it (ilace for farming. Farmers ncded “black” soil. As for the savannas and swamiis — they were just places to be avoided, dreaded. H(^ set to studying it. He saw in the scattered, unconnected jiatidies that white and negro farmers still kejit iq) wondiTfiil growths of vegetables, of strawberries. If they could do it on a little .scattered patch, couldn’t it be done on big patches? People laughed at the idea. He went to experts in soil for their verdict. It was dazzling. This condemned tract, they told him, lay in the most fertile belt on the Atlantic Coast — the winter garden for the North- eastern .States. Its soils were of the famous Norfolk and Portsmouth fine sandy loam series. It had from 233 to 2.50 “growing days” — that is. days without frost that kills; a rainfall of fifty-five inches, well distributed through the year; pure water to be had everywhere for the digging, or within reach of the driven pump. What would grow on this soil? All sorts of garden truck — strawberries, lettuce, asparagus. Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, peas, beans; and. as well, corn, cotton, tobacco, peanuts. It was possible, so said the soil experts, for an industrious person to raise seven crops a year on this outcast land. Testing con- firmed all they said. He could certify this soil. Hugh MacRae had established the fiist principle of successful colonization — prov- ing what the land will yield. If this prin- ciple had been followed in this country', it would have prevented tens of thousands of heartbreaking tragedies. Lands have been, and are to-day, sold to the credu’ous and hopeful which never .satisfy one of the claims made for them. And the settler has no redress. Everything else he buys has at least a sort of certification — not so the land. Do you know men who invested their all in Florida Everglades, to find when they and their families reached t!:eir ]nir- chase that it lay under the yvater? Do you know men who journeyed across the plains to a “home” to find no water above ground nor any below nearer than a thousand feet? For one who has forced fortune from a swindler’s gold hrick a score have lost heart, moved on, left their bones in their tracks. The certification of the land, holding the seller responsible if it is not what he pretended it to be, is the first step in restoring confidence to the millions who both want, and fear, to own land. But your land may do all that the seller promises, and still do you no good if you have no a'l-the-year-roiind read and no steady market. Transiiortation and mar- kets must be assured as the land is assured. Hugh MacRae knew that he could fii'lill these further essentia's. He had trans- iiortation cutting straight through the heart of this lerrilory, a railroad whose management harl developed the highest efficiency in handling perishab'e products. Its management was only too eager to liidp. This railroad went to great markets mar- kets organized to lake prodirts smdi as might be produced on these soils, at prices reasonably certain to be fair,» On this basis he began culling swamp and savanna into len acre tracts, idearing and draining a bit of eaili. He wanted his setth'rs at the start to have a parcid ready to till, enough at least for a season’s food. He probably was led to this coloniza- tion principle by bis own common sense. Let one ask himself how he would feel confronted by an unbroken tract — no tree cut. no drain run. MacRae’s rule seems to have been this: Avoid discouraging your settler when he arrives. And then he started out to find his people. “You can’t find them. They are not in North Carolina,” the doubters said. “That may be true, but I mean to bring them to her.” “Those that come will have no money,” said the doubters. “I don’t expect them to have much.” said Hugh MacRae. “I shall give them long-time credit. This is not specu’ation or exploitation that I am undertaking. It is business — biLsiness for the good of all concerned, and business means credit.” It Takes a Family to Make a Home H e knew the people he wanted first. They must love the land — love it well enough to be willing to sacri- fice. to possess it. They must be people wbo knew bow to coax its riches from it, patient with its vagaries, studious of its needs — “dirt farmers,” willing to use their hands. They must be people of integrity, sincerity. He would sell to no one who did not look on his purchase as a future home, no one who wanted to hold the tract for specu’ation. He had a long search, and at last went abroad for them. In other lanils, he ar- gued, were men who would understand, men who having no chance of proprietor- ship at home might take it if offered to them in a new country. They w'ould bring farming lore of their own, bred into their bono — invaluable to them, because they had grown up with it. They would co- operate naturally because they were of the same race and came together. These co- operating groups would buy, sell, build together. Among the first to come were the CTreeks. They came alone, with.cut wife or child — eager for t'’e adventure. The .settlement they formed was named Marathon. It proved a failure for them. “Man cannot live alone." The Greeks could not live without families. They gave up the venture. But of this experience, greeted by the “I told you so” of the doubters, Hugb MacRae added another to his principles of colonization. Golonizalion, he could write down now. is a lamily piadthnn — social and economic. Making a home on raw land by those ol lilth', or perhaps mnc'i, capital lavpiires a lamily. The tasks retpiire a combination of skill and varying ages: a man with strong hands and head; a wciman with a woman’s courage and a housewife’s .arts; ehildren, many of them, for errands and chores and taking on the heavier labor ns they grow strong and the father anil mother grow weak; the grand- father and griindmolher for |)oullry and gardening. .Slopping recently before a (lonris'iing len acre farm owned by one id the older settlers, and asking how things were going with him. 1 was told with joy that the grandfather had come from Belgium to live with them, that he had taken over the garden. It was such a help. He was only Will Your liorae Be Happy as Theirs? seventy-six! (Tlie garden looked as if he were thirty.) Everywhere we went the great news told us hy the older colonists was of new relatives that had arrived — a sister, an aunt, a cousin. More hands meant more crops, more easement for all, more gayety. Henceforth it was families only Mr. MacRae sought. He sought them in Italy, in Holland; and they came as fully certi- fied as the land they came to. But this was not what Hugh MacRae was seeking — groups of foreigners, how- ever prosperous. He wanted to make citi- zens, American citizens, for North Caro- lina. “Folly!” the onlookers cried. “It can’t be done.” And yet it was done, though not by calculation, as everything so far had been done. It was the news of the prosperity of the first families that did it, for they were prospering. The promptness with which the land had re- sponded to the care and affection they brought to it would never have followed had it not been that friendly scientific di- rection was one of the principles in Hugh MacRae’s scheme of colonization. In the case of these eastern North Caro- lina colonies, there went a’ong an expert’s counsel, steering along a safe and opening road the settler that would take it. Little wonder that the land-wise Italians and Dutch with this help prospered. They soon were vying with one another to in- crease the tillable acreage on their ten- acre plots. The first season convinced them that it was not going to require more than five or six years to own their own land. “In tree more year I owna all dis,” an Italian boy said. He had left his plow in the furrow to explain what he had done, was doing, and hoped to do. In his pride and confidence he broke forth with this jubilant exclamation; “In tree year I owna all dis.” While the normal time to complete their proprietorship was only from four to six years, there are stories of exceptions which take your breath away. Think of three thousand dollars from an acre of lettuce! It happens. One skilled farmer buying on credit a piece of cleared land came in ninety days and paid in full for his tract, 13,000. Lettuce. But let me emphasize — these are the exceptions. They only go to show what the land can do. The news spread — spread into cities and industrial centers. One Sunday last May, making the rounds of the settlements, I stopped before a trim cottage, gayly painted, set in roses and shrubbery: a good barn to the rear; a big yard of Rhode Island Reds to the side; a Ford at the door; five acres, at least, of lettuce; strawberries, potatoes, to right and left, the whole backed by tall, long-leaved pines. A smiling Pole of perhaps thirty ran out, eager to tell Mr. MacRae that he was clearing two more acres this year — a happy man if ever I saw one. A miracle had happened to him, who had come on a rumor of what had been done in these parts, attacking an untouched tract, be- cause cheaper. “Other fellows begin farm- ing with a plow,” he said; “I begin with an ax.” He took various odd jobs until he had cleared his first piece, and now, after six years, is a proprietor — land all clear, a bank account, a family, happiness. A little farther on lay five acres of as perfect crops as ever one saw. This man, they told me, walked into the Wilmington office one day without a dollar. He wanted land: would work. “We gave him the land and found him a job at a dollar a day. He hung over that land from the start like a lover over his lady, and it gives him its best. Possibly he is worth twenty thousand dollars now, after about seven years. ‘That’s all right,’ he says, when we joke him about getting rich, “I would rather do this than anything else in the world, if there was not a dollar in it,’ and I believe that is true.” A little later, at Castle Hayne, was a Hollander, who had come there from a Paterson factory, where he had been threatened with tuberculosis. He came to Wilmington with little capital and a fam- ily; took his ten acres. It is all in crops now — in crops with artificial irrigation and cheesecloth screens for extra early plant- ings, machinery of the best, a tidy home, health for himself. Above his interest in his crops (he had strawberries that would pack forty-five to the basket!) was his interest in “the best thing we’ve done in the colony so far,” and that was a co- operative house for grading cucumbers — a practice which they have found sub- stantially increases the value of all crops. These men are samples of those that the spreading news brought — the best of settlers. But, more than t! at, it was their coming that Americanized the colonies. Up to this time each group had clung to its own tongue, its own customs — even its own costumes. Now they began to vie with one another in American ways. They would speak only English to one another. To do as the Americans did was a boast. To-day all the settlements are American. Six Settlements . in Thirty Miles W HILE all this was going on Hugh MacRae was slowly training the col- onists to another great principle — diversified crops. A single crop, however profitable one year, may mean ruin an- other. A man takes 13.000 from a small area of lettuce and the next season puts his entire acreage into lettuce; so do his neighbors. They “break” the market. Everybody loses. There are such things as crop failures, and if you have but one crop all is lost. “Diversify, diversify,” he began to preach. “The South has been ruined by cotton and tobacco. She must learn to raise what she eats — keep cows, poultry, and bees.” In 1915 a great blow to the colony of St. Helena backed up his theory. The Italians who settled it had seen at the start that they had a fine soil and climate for grapes. They made vines the base of their business. The fruit paid handsomely un- til the Volstead Act came, cutting the foundations from under them, as they be- lieved. Under the disappointment some left the colony — too early, for experience is now proving that the market for grapes will probably be as great as it ever was. A new base was needed at St. Helena, and Hugh MacRae had one ready to sug- gest — the dairy. “Another of his follies,” men said, when he talked of dairies on this land— Vnq pasture; nothing but rank native grasses: cannot get a balanced stock ration.” But hd had been experimenting. If the colonists were to he permanently healthy, they must have stock. To have stock they must have pasture. He had been going about with his eye on the ground for some years. One day he found a tiny patch of white clover. White clover was not recognized as having value in the coastal region of North Carolina; but here it was! If it could thrive on a small patch, why not on a big one? He tried it, and succeeded. How about other clovers — the Japanese clover, the burr clover? He found they all grew if you planted the seed. Then there was the carpet grass. He began to p'ant it “on the worst soil in the world” — sour, half the year under water, sandy — but it took after drainage, and stayed, transforming the field. He began to extend it into pastures, planting it with one and another kind of clover. To-day, when you make the round of the colonies with Hugh MacRae you are continually being stopped in the most un- likely places, walked across fields — he wants to show you “the finest pasture in the South.” He wants to show a perfect stand of seed, the seed of burr clover, white clover, Japanese clover. And yet he is not satisfied. He is all the tirne watching for some new grass. He has shown me what grasses and clovers mean to men and women hard up against a difficult situation, what they meant to these Italians, afraid of the Volstead Act. They are now turning parts of their farms into as good pastures as the world ever saw, and the beauty of it is that it is ten- months-a-year pasture. That is, such is the climate that it is only necessary to feed for two months, and such is the tem- perature that this does not have to be done under cover. In this episode you have perhaps the most important principles of permanent colonization after the first — healthy certi- fied land. There must be a continuous source of sound counsel, a source the col- onist has learned to trust: somebody who never fools or tricks him, somebody “who knows what he is talking about,” who has proved the thing he says is so and can “show” you; somebody who foresees and warns you, talks common sense; somebody who in disaster has an immediate resource. All of this Hugh MacRae has been to these settlers from the start. Thus they have grown in numbers, in prosperity, and in solidity. To-day there are six settlements within thirty miles of Wilmington. The size of their individual holdings — usually ten acres — makes the members of each group neighbors. You may not be able to “call across,” but you can usually signal! The school, the church, the community house are within walking distance. “It’s Dogged That Does It” I N the growing season they come to- gether almost daily at the shipping points — the side tracks where the re- frigerator cars await them. As you drive out from Wilmington late in the day you meet them coming and going; trucks, Will Your Home Be Happy as Theirs? motors, wagons, carts, mule teams, horses, Americans, Italians, S'avs, Dutch, Poles — even an occasional Chinaman. Cosmo- politan as you ever saw and yet so in- tensely, determinedly American. Their carry-alls are i)iled high with crates and baskets, much of it graded produce. Mere they linger, their output packed and re- ceipted for -linger to discuss prices, the reason of this man's superior sweet po- tatoes, romaine, strawberries, new experi- ments, new plans. Proudly they discuss the growing opportunities and advantages their labor and thrift are bringing them. For people like these the railroad can afford special conveniences, and does; Wilmington can afford to take electricity to them, and has it on the way; the State can afford to give them good highways, and is doing so (a section of North Caro- lina's magnificent $50,000,000 project for giving all her people hard roads ) . The shipping point buzzes every night with news of these things, and it stimu- lates them to undertakings. Tired men go home refreshed. They belong to a grow- ing thing. One of the heartening features of the development is the powerful example the colonies have been to old settlers. There are now splendid farmers in eastern North Carolina, hut scattered among the pines and swamps have long lived families of blacks and whites, some of them scratch- ing a meager existence from a soil which they did not fully appreciate. They were isolated, and sometimes poorly nourished and so set down as shiftless. But here have come people, dirt farmers like them- selves, people from across the sea, from great cities, leaving high wages, the movies, the street cars; and, where they have been keeping poor, are growing rich. It is hard to keep shiftless in face of these colonists! Miraculous things are happening to many of them, transformations. But of course this is the joy and profit of a demonstra- tion. It puts tools into uncertain hands, knowledge into unfurnished heads, faith into unbelieving hearts. This is what Hugh MacRae has done down in New Hanover and Pender Counties, North Carolina. Do not imagine it has been as easy as it may sound as 1 tell it. It is thirty years since the idea was horn — born of Mac- Rae's great love for his native Slate and a great desire to do his part in the world towa-d making more people happy, secure, useful. “It's dogged that does it,” and Hugh MacRae's dogged and intelligent per- sistency has put colonization in these States on a scientific basis. If those who would open land — the Federal Government, the State, the individual — will follow his principles and practices, there will come a time when the landsick steel worker, the successful but disappointed woman and the disabled veteran need not fear to follow their bent. It's a far-reaching thing this man, so faithful to his dreams and his follies, has given us. The City in the Country NOTE — Under this caption Collier’s leading editorial of the issue of July 15, 1922, referred to a new enter- prise of senii-puhlic nature, now being organised. The editorial follows. I T is not strange that observant youth, looking on the costs of taming the land, should shirk the task and seek labor less toilsome, more social, more quickly responsive. Nor does it well become those of us who have before them run away from the land to urge them back to it. But their deser- tion and ours is weakening the taproot of the nation. We all need to know about demonstrations like the one described by Aliss Tarbell in this issue. The principle is not limited in its application to dirt farmers and ten acres. Indeed, there is a larger and even more important MacRae project now form- ing. It is to be known as the Farm City. Two or three hundred farms of twenty acres each will be laid out on a tract in eastern North Carolina. These farms will lie sold to selected jteople — country- minded men and women of some money and culti- vation, who are weary of office or the schoolroom, anxious for an independent farm home, but not will- ing to cut themselves off from the society of their kind. They are jteople who want not only certified land, but certified neighbors. Adjoining these farms it is jtroposed that there be creameries, canneries, machine repair shops, basket and crate-making factories, pine distilleries (you can get enough resin from the pine stum|)s on the land you clear to pay for ujtrooting the stumjtsl), storage houses, grading houses for vegetables and fruits, d'his Farm City will be etptijtited to take care of what it grows and to supply many of its own essential wants. d'here will also be a training farm ; an agricultural station for local co-operative experiments: a com- munity center with a pleasant inn, sh()|)s, a library, schools. ])lace.s of amusement. The plan is to be financed and managed from the start for the benefit of the settlers. The profit of those who provide the initial capital will be strictly limited, and democratic principles of man- agement will be applied as rapidly as the settlement gets on its feet. The Farm City will be developed with the knowl- edge and experience of the best men we have : Dr. F. H. Newell, the former chief of the United States Reclamation Service: John Nolen, the leader of the movement for city and rural planning; Thomas Adams, the adviser of the Dominion of Canada in its town planning: Dr. j. A. Bonsteel, the soil expert. From such a ])lan may grow a city that will ful- fill the vision of Samuel Rauck, the farseeing librarian of Grand Rapids; The ideal city of the future will he the city where every man will l)e willing to have every other man in the city as his next-door neighhor — willing because every other man will he worthy — worthy in intelligence, in healthfidness, in cleanliness, and in character. Too many of tis are occtipied in making things that among a jteople more discriminating, keener for qtiality, wotild never be made. Millions more are caught in otir foolishly intricate system of dis- tribtition and trading, and in the often demoralizing web of sjteculation. lutr the man, woman, yotith, or girl who feels this, and sighs for self-reliant, indeitendeiit living, for making a job instead of taking one, producing instead of maniittilaling production — colonies and farm cities built on the MacRae plan ofier a new world of opporttinity. Detailed information about the Farm City projeet will he sent upon rec/uest to The barm Cities Corporation ot Aineriea 244 Madison Avenue, Nt'w York (lily