UNREST AMONG THE COLONISTS 91 



of money to Russia to bring their families over, and 

 to invest some on their farms, it is easy to realize that 

 of their earnings they could save nothing. By helping 

 them to improve their farms we shall the sooner free 

 them from our wardship. After all, they are our 

 wards!" 



But, in their refusal to pay their interest to the 

 Fund my husband could not and would not take sides 

 with them, and a hard struggle began. 



In the simplicity of character which was his, he 

 could show strength when it was demanded. He knew 

 that he stood for the right and that it would prevail 

 in the end. He felt that the farmers were, for the time 

 being, blinded to the truth. 



The fight thus begun lasted over a year. The 

 farmers demanded the deeds for their lands, which 

 they had refused to pay for, making the claim that 

 Baron de Hirsch had intended the farms as gifts, 

 not loans. (Baron de Hirsch had died shortly before 

 the dispute began. ) 



My husband tried to make the farmers understand 

 that their plan would take the form of charity dis- 

 pensed to them, but they could not see it in that way. 

 The meddler, before mentioned, who had originally 

 come to Woodbine as a worker in the pay of the Com- 

 mittee, began to play on their lower instincts. His 

 scheming, like that of all his kind, was underhanded 

 and trouble soon developed of an alarming nature. The 

 farmers stopped working their land, and meeting se- 



