THE COLONY-BUILDERS. 



A PRACTICAL COLONY PLAN FOR TODAY. 



BY WILLIAM E SMYTHEL 



I should say that the five essential points for a practicable colony 

 plan to meet the conditions of today would be as follows: 



First. The colony should be organized, rather than a matter of 

 individual settlement. 



Second. There should be a common or community fund, avail- 

 able for certain important purposes which are beyond the sphere of 

 individual action. 



Third. The unit of the community should be the individual 

 family, living on its own small farm and succeeding according to its 

 own ability, industry, and thrift. 



Fourth. There should be an intelligent plan of production 

 thoughtfully mapped out in advance and adapted to the climate and 

 and market of the locality chosen for development. 



Fifth. There should be a well-defined scheme of social life, to 

 meet the needs of educated people who require some degree of refine- 

 ment and reasonable satisfaction for that social instinct which is as 

 much a part of human nature as the appetite for three meals a day. 



It is the object of this paper to set out as briefly as possible the 

 main features of a colony plan. A subsequent article will undertake 

 to justify these features by drawing upon the experience of various 

 western communities, which have met with marked success. 



IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATION. 



In the two previous articles we have noted the strong economic 

 tendency toward the organization of all lines of trade, production and 

 transportation. If there were no peculiar reasons why the colony of 

 today should take the form of an organized community, these great 

 facts of current economics would furnish a sufficient excuse. It is the 

 day of organized capital and organized energies. The producer must 

 be likewise organized, or become the helpless victim of the various 

 forces with which he must come in contact. But there are other rea- 

 sons why those who undertake to reclaim the desert lands of the 

 West, and to put the home and the field where the sage-brush has 

 been, should be formed into companies, with plans and leaders and 

 capital, in order to make the best use of their opportunities. 



Settlers in arid regions find a common bond in the irrigation canal. 

 A system of water supply cannot be handled by a single settler. It is 



