COLONY PLANS AND INSTITUTIONS 



ing the capital of many owners so that they may accom- 

 plish collectively what could not be done as well, or at 

 all, individually. The advantages of this method are 

 now so generally recognized that it is unnecessary to 

 dwell upon them. It is important to remark, however, 

 that the expert ability which a corporation with large 

 capital can command, and the saving of waste which it 

 can effect by eliminating competition and doing things 

 upon a large scale, is as vital to a colony as to a railroad, 

 a gas company, or a group of sugar refineries. The prin- 

 ciple upon which aggregations of large capital are made 

 applies as well to aggregations of small capital. 



The colony capital should be handled by a local com- 

 pany owning the town-site, store, industries, and such 

 other properties as experience proves to be useful and 

 profitable to the community. In this company all of the 

 colonists would be equal stockholders at the beginning, 

 . and every safeguard should bo erected to make transfers 

 of stock as difficult as possible, since it is desired to pre- 

 serve equality of ownership in everything which is be- 

 yond the sphere of strictly individual control. So long 

 as the settlers are under obligations to the founding cap- 

 ital which will be until they have paid off their loans 

 the trustees of this capital will control the local company 

 and its operations, as also the labor and land. The man- 

 ner and advantages of this control are discussed in the 

 next chapter. 



We have, then, a community composed of a multitude 

 of small landed proprietors working for themselves, under 

 the direction of superior ability and experience, and equip- 

 ped with sufficient working capital for both their private 

 and public enterprises. It is an organized community, 



