POSTLUDE 157 



cient as were the pioneers of a hundred years ago. Trades 

 and crafts will be permitted to develop toward specializa- 

 tion as far as the members desire, but there will be no 

 emphasis on specialization as a good in itself. Large-scale 

 farming operations may be carried on by the group as a 

 unit, just as the city units are now producing clothes, 

 bread, and other goods. 



"The plans presented for the first Homestead Unit look 

 toward the building of permanent and beautiful homes. 

 The house walls will probably be made of rammed earth. 

 Cellars and garrets will be avoided and the construction 

 will be along lines developed by Ernest Flagg for beautiful 

 and inexpensive small homes. The homesteaders will com- 

 mute between the homesteads and their homes in Dayton 

 while building the first wing of their house. As soon as 

 these wings are completed, they will move in and begin 

 to garden, to make their own furniture in their own work- 

 shops, to weave cloth on their own looms, and to make 

 their own clothes on their own sewing machines. Elec- 

 tricity will be available not only for light but for power. 

 Machinery will be used to reduce drudgery to a minimum. 

 The crushing tax burden of elaborate water and sewerage 

 systems will be avoided by the use of individual automatic 

 pumps and individual septic tanks. 



"Ambitious as this venture may sound from the stand- 

 point of capital required, the financial basis on which the 

 project has been planned by the responsible group of Day- 

 ton citizens who are backing it is entirely sound. The funds 

 to purchase the land and to build and equip the homesteads 

 the labor being supplied by the members of each unit 

 are to be lent to the units and to the homesteaders for a long 



