158 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



term of years on the building-and-loan-association plan. 

 Advances will be made for building material, for ma- 

 chinery, for tools, for live stock, and so on, by a Finance 

 Credit Committee of which General George H. Wood is 

 chairman. Part-time employment and the sale or ex- 

 change of any surplus products will enable the homestead- 

 ers to repay the loans and keep intact the revolving fund 

 with which additional homesteads may be established. 



"One feature of the plan shows the foresight with which 

 the whole project is being launched. In order to prevent 

 the possibility of speculation in land either at present or 

 at some future time, perpetual leaseholds are to be substi- 

 tuted for the usual deeds to land. Thus all the advantages 

 which flow from individual use and individual ownership 

 of the homesteads will be retained, while injustices to the 

 community flowing from the withholding of the land 

 allotted to any homesteader from use will be prevented. 

 The taxes levied upon the whole unit are to be appor- 

 tioned among the leaseholders in accordance with the value 

 of the piece of land leased to them. 



"The outstanding fact about these homesteads is that 

 they are designed not only for family gardening but for 

 family weaving and sewing and family activities in all the 

 crafts which have been neglected for so many years. The 

 loomroom and the workshop, with all their opportunities 

 for self-expression and creative education, are once again 

 to become part of the American scene. They are being 

 brought back to the home in Dayton to fulfil the same 

 functions that they fulfilled in the early American home 

 to furnish economic independence, security, and self-suffi- 

 ciency. The tools and machines which will be used, how- 



