THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



249 



HON. CHRISTIAN YEGEN, 

 Of Montana. 



None of the features of the new colony 



Organiz- thus far enumerated are really new. 



log 



Industry. The Mormons have practiced the prin- 

 ciple of agricultural independence and 

 prospered amazingly. The Greeley colonists have re- 

 alized the best possibilities of the surplus crop and 

 of a high type of civic institutions. In Southern Cal- 

 ifornia the proprietors of small irrigated farms have 

 shown us about the best that can be done in the way 

 of beautifying homes and their surroundings. It is 

 hoped that the new colony will combine these various 

 features more effectively than has ever been done 

 before and improve upon them to a considerable de- 

 gree, but there is one feature in which the new plans 

 are apparently original. It is a feature of the high- 

 est consequence, and one which, if successfully car- 

 ried out, and copied elsewhere, will contribute vastly 

 to prosperity in the arid regions. It is proposed to 

 put a price on the lands of the colony which will real- 

 ize a net profit of about $50,000 above the cost of or- 

 ganizing and advertising, laying out the village site, 

 making roads, lateral ditches and other necessary 

 improvements. This can be done without raising the 

 price per acre above the average of the best land in 

 the arid region. This surplus of $50,000, which would 

 ordinarily go to the account of profits, will in this in- 

 stance be devoted to the erection of an attractive 



public building with a good library, and then to the 

 erection and equipment of several small industrial 

 plants, as for instance a creamery and a canning fac- 

 tory. This will furnish a profitable outlet for the sur- 

 plus products of the farm. All our arid States are 

 now importing dairy, poultry and pork products as 

 well as canned goods and many other household ne- 

 cessities. The raw material of all these necessities 

 is produced on the farms, but the people have failed 

 to organize industry, that this material might be man- 

 ufactured, and then they have failed to organize mar- 

 kets for their profitable sale. It is hoped to demon- 

 strate how this can be done through the organization 

 of colonies, the capital being furnished by the set- 

 tlers themselves, by means of paying a little higher 

 price for their land. These industrial plants, like the 

 public library, parks, roads and other public prop- 

 erty, will belong to the colony, the purchaser of each 

 farm acquiring a certain amount of the capital stock, 

 but there will be no attempt at cooperative manage- 

 ment. The plants will be leased to individuals of ex- 

 perience in their several branches, and they must op- 

 erate them entirely upon their own capital. The fact 

 that they can get a completely equipped plant at a 

 moderate rental on a long lease, that the production of 

 the raw material they require is guaranteed by the 

 presence of the colonists, and that ample home mar- 



HENRY W. ROWLEY, 

 Of Montana. 



