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„ OUR HOME TOWN. ■mm
A Department Devoted to Milage . 4, U^ r '
' Betterment t
Wjfc> T, RICHARD HAMILTON BYRD. * <|pi
The editor of thin department desire* to keep in touch with
the active oemlKr* of Civic and Local Improvement Annociatinner
and evrry one intcrcated in the improvement unit the protection of rural
village life.
What 1» heinx done In yonr town to encourage -mall induHtriea and
for home employment 'r What i* doing aleng the line of atreet improve
ment and the beautifying of private iawua and public park.'r
Are your local merchant* receiving the support of the local trade Y
Experience, plana and nuggeNtiona will he welcomed by the editor of
ttiia department und an fur aa poaaihle given place iu theae columns.
THE INHERE\DEST TOWN.
Make I ach Rural Center Dependent
Upon Itself and Its Own Resources.
There has lately developed a strong
Heniiuieiit looking to the improvement
of the home town -milking each
eommiiiiity, an much possible,
dependent Upon Itselt and its own
resources and those ol its sur
rounding country, and independ
ent of the great centres which are
constantly striving to secure a portion
of I lie local well llh. This local self
sufficiency may he fostereil by an In
dividual and co-operative determi
nation to bring the town up to its
highest possible plant* of comfort, gen
eral usd illness and beauty to its resi
dents. This may be described as a
movement for civic Improvement.
The accumulation of considerable
wealth in many American villages and
towns, during the last ten or twenty
yiiirs, the development of popular
education and the Increase of leisure,
has given an opportunity for the per
formance of public duties, sueli as
bad not seemed to e\lst to the young
man or-woman of the former gener
ation, Who. In the effort to seen re a
livelihood and establish a home bad
given little thought to the duties of
citizenship and soda! responsibilities.
It Is only within a comparatively
few years that, "nature study" lias
entered Into any of the public-school
work, or even miuninl training, while
there are many who yet think that
sueli Institutions ns gymnasiums,
baths, playgrounds, and even vacutlon
sellouts mid free lectures are unneces
sary time consumers for the young.
Nevertheless the general move lit
for a better education along rural lines
and for backyard and street Improve
meld, and the general betterment of
the village and town Is rapidly in
n-easing.
As mi Instance of this, eve i in such
u large city ns St. I.ottls, girls and
hoys are given practical Instruction iu
gardening, through the Junior School
of Ilortlcultui'c of the VI -oiirl
botanical Hardens. The children are
permitted to sell their own products
n decided stimulus to their c erts
—and iu this way many of tlie n earn
considerable pocket money for vacutlop
time. This school has been In oper
ation for a number of years and is of
great value to the citizens as well as
to the children of tin* city, the latter
of whom would otherwise know praetj
< ally nothing of nature as country
children know it.
liven In Texas the school garden
ami town Improvement Idea has made
headway, although there has been
greater difficulty iu obtaining popular
approval and support, possibly, than in
an> other section of the country, owing
to the fact, perhaps, that the Lone
Star State has vast areas of unoc
cupied laud, and to the fact that the
liiltueutia! majority lias been but a
short time removed from the cattle
CLASS IN LIVE STOCK JUDGING CATTLE AND I'LANT LIFB
m Waterford. I'a High School.
rang# business However, the more
eentr*llr.«*d portion of society has taken!
the matter up. ami It is stated that
the most public spirited ettliens of
tin towns and cities, together with the
progressive teaehers have made school
gardens and runtl «slneation a smvess
during the jiast two seasons and hhve
aroused such enthusiasm annum the
pupils, that wherever it has Ikhmi tried,
the school garden has lieoome a fixture.,
•Let your child plant his own car
den, gather his own harvest of fruit
and flowers, learn through his own
amall experience something of the
Influence of the sun. dew and rain,
and gain thereby a remote present!
tnent es the reciprocal energies ofj
nature and a reverent feeling for the
divine life and law expressed in,
nature. Hie child is a plant, a vege
table, and must live out of doors, or
tit arly so, as conditions will permit"
l roebel realised that health was the
basts and test of al! our energies, and j
that this was one of the tuorniug ■
stars oQ the new hygiene.
THE A GRICUL TUKA L HIGH SCHOOL
Successful txamples Described by
Lrosby of Department of Agricul
ture of Local improvement
i hrough Rural Lducation
In the new Year Book of the De
partment of Agriculture, Just issued,
is it description by l>. .1. Crosby, of the
office of Experiment Stations, which
shows, in u number of Instances, what
splendid results are being attained
through the introduction of common
sense agricultural studies In some of
the country village schools, ami bow
they directly affect and benefit tla-ir
home towns. There Is what appears
to be, an almost ideal Pennsylvania
village high school, .which the writer
visited. lie describes what be saw:
In Erie County, l*a., surrounded by
a good general farming and dairy
country, is the village of Waterford,
on the outskirts m) which is the site of
Port le Boeuf, of French und India
war fame. At Waterford the first
school In Krle County was establish I
in IHOO, and here as far hack as 1822
was erected a stone academy build
ing, which Is used to-day as the main
part id' tlie high-school building. The
township of Waterford lias a popula
tion of 1.1(10 and about one luu. re
side In the borough of Will erf -d. 'IT*
borough lias its own elementary
school, but the high school is support
ed and controlled jointly by the bor
ough and township.
This high school, with- its three
teachers and three courses of study
(language, scientific, and agricultural!,
has an enrollment of Nil pupils, and 35
of these are iu the agricultural course.
This course Includes agriculture, five
hours a week for four years. The
work of tin* first year is devoted to a
study of plant life —germination, plant
growth, plant food, reproduction, prop
agation, transplanting, pruning, and
use of plants; the second year to a i
study of field, orchard, and garden
crops; the third year tp*domestic ani
mals, dairying, and soil physics, a 1
the fourth year to the chemistry of
soils and of plant and animat life.
Text hooks are used in the class
rooms; a small library of agricultural
reference hooks, reports und bulletins
of this Department and experiment
stations, and agricultural papers con
tributed by the publishers is in almost
constant use, and lectures on agricul
tural subjects are given before the
class and before the whole school by
the instructor in agriculture, who is
an agricultural college graduate. But
the feature of instruction which
chiefly distinguishes tills agricultural
course from the ordinary high school
course is the prominence given to tin*
laboratory work and the outdoor priu*-
ticum. For the laboratory work there
is no elaborate apparatus. The pupils
make much of tlieir own apparatus,
furnish their own reagent bottles, and.
moreover use them. In the plant-life
course tin* pupils study not elaborate
and carefully prepared drawings, but
the plants themselves with reference
, to their life history and economic uses.
For the outdoor praettcuiu the
i school Is unfortunate in having
! neither land nor domestic animals nor
fowls, and yet it has a wealth of illus
trative material all around it Every
good farm Within a radius of 3 or -I
miles, nearly every barn and poultry
yard itt the village, the butcher shops,
and the farm implement stores furnish
costly illustrative material and extend
vastly the teaching force of the big!
school. The farmers and owners of
good live stock either bring theh ani
mals to the door of the school house
to be studied by the class In agricul
ture or allow the class to go to their
barns and fields for this purpose. It
! is xakl to lie a rare thing for a good
■ horse to come to the village and get
away without l»elng examined by the
| high school class In animal husbandry.
The writer was fortunate in Ivirig
the guest of the school one day last
i October and In having an opportunity
i to listen to some of the recitations in
I agriculture A class of 14 boys andl
ti girls were studying animal Industry. H
i
It bad been organized only three or |
i four weeks, and yet the Interest man
ifested and the readiness with which
| the boys and girls described the beef
! type, the dairy type, and various,
j breeds of cattle, the mu: <>n anil wool
types of sheep, the principal breeds of
| draft horses, and some of the stand
lard-bred roadsters and trotters, were
indeed surprising. At the close of the
recitation the class was taken to a
barn in the village w ere -> vera fine
roadsters were owned. The owner wa>
not at home, but the teacher had
standing permission to take t. horses
from the barn in order that the class
might examine them. A fine llamlde
lonian mare was led Into the yard and
examined critically by the pupils and
criticised by them, the different points
being brought out by skillful question
ing on the part of the teat
Fom this place the class went to a
livery barn where a spit Tdid black
I’ereheron stallion was stabled for the
day. A member of the class had dis
covered the horse as he was -eing
driven in from another town 11 miles
away, and following the driver to the
barn had got permission for the class
to examine him. When the livery
barn was reached the driver brought
Ids stallion out into the street, put
him through his paces, and helped the
teacher in calling attention to bis good
points and the contrasts between t '«*
draft type and the roadster type of
horses, and allowed us to take several
photographs. It was an instructive
lesson not only for the members
of the agricultural class, but for
the score or more of farmers
and townsmen who collected around
the livery stable. In much the
same way tin* local butcher is the in
structor in the high school. The class
studying the beef type of cattle, or
the mutton slieep, or the different
classes of swine is taken to the butch
er shop and given a demonstration
lesson on cuts and their relative val
ues, which of the breeds are apt to
produce the better cuts, which the
better quality, unc so on.
Thus this little village high school,
though it pays only $2,230 a year in
WATERFOUD HIGH SCHOOL CLASS .THnOTNO A HAMBLETONIAN MARE
salaries and only $.'570 for other ex-f
peases, has a faculty made up of nu-1
luerous specialists and an equipment!
in illustrative material such as few
technical high schools could afford.
And the pupils are being trained In
the “elements of failure and success,"
not only on “all the farms of the
neighborhood.” but In the village
shops and markets. This is training
for efficiency. It is training for cul
ture. for breadth of view, and for
sympathy with all that goes to make
up the life of the community.
Homecraft and Cruft.
The “homocroft” idea, referred to by
George 11. Maxwell in his address be
fore the Biennial Convention of the
General Federation of Women's Clubs,
is closely allied to the “home arts and
crafts” propaganda, in which so many,
in and out of the federation, are Inter
ested. The bouiecroftor. owning his
home and a little patch of ground—an
acre ot two. more or less—is of all
persons the one most likely to he inter
ested in home crafts —little Hues of
manufacture, which, added to the pro
duce of his ground, may afford a sun
port to his family, either constantly or
as a substitute for wage-earning em
ployment when some great shop or
factory may be suspended. Aided,
perhaps, by a little gas engine or elec
tric motor, he may have a choice of an
infinite variety of crafts, in which he
and his family may profitably engage.
Here is a combination which seems to
offer relief from the demoralizing and
devitalizing conditions of our present
factory system: also a mode of multi
plying the number of those citizens,
independent of both landlord and em
ployer. who art* the backbone of
American democracy. Give us the
homocroftor and the craftsman in one!
Keep I'ulities Out.
Every public-minded citizen should
make it known that he is absolutely
opposed to partisan, political control
in the management of public parks,
roadside improvement, playgrounds
and like town betterments. Nothing
can be more detrimental to such de
velopment than the interference of
liolitics. l'arty responsibility, as a
remedy for municipal mismanagement,
has beeu prove* a “delusion and a
snare.” Such methods have raised to
important places bigoted. Incompetent
and sometimes dishonest men. wuo. by
reason of their weaknesses or mis
management. have disgraced what
should be honorable and respeet<*d
positions. Our citizens should insist
absolutely that no political consider
ations be allowed to interfer with
park affairs, and should visit with
marked censure and disapproval all
city officials who prostitute their trusts
for mere political gain.
Fresh Air I'luygrounds.
American cities are far behind
European cities in making provision
for public parks, especially in pro
viding for the instruction and amuse
ment of children in them. In modem
municipal equipment in Europe, much
provision is made for the instruction
and amusement of children, and in
most modernized European cities large 1
sums of money have been expended in
> nrocuring open spaces for them in dis
j tricts of congested population
OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME.
PERNICIOUS PHIL OSOPH Y 01 JOHN
J. INGALLS’ FAMOUS POEM.-
UU\Y HOME OPPORTUNI
TIES HAVE REES
OVERLOOKER.
Solution of the Labor Question to be
tounu in the L»cvelopmenl ol Home
inuusti ies.
Many a beautiful thing is pernicious
in its effect. There is no telling how
many men have given up a good light
ing chance and have literally laid
down in harness because they’ had ab
sorbed from John J. Ingalls’ i>oeui
OPPORTUNITY the idea that they
had had their chance, and that for
them at least opportunity would not
return. Here is the poem:
“Master of human destinies am I.
Fame, love and fortune on my foot
steps wait.
C'ities and fields I walk. I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote. And pass
ing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or
late
1 knock unbidden once at every
gate.
If sleeping wake; if feasting rise
before
I turn away; it is the hour of fate.
And those who follow me reach every
state
Mortals desire and conquer every,
every foe
Save death; but those who doubt or
hesitate.
Condemned to failure, penury and
woe,
Seek me in vain, and uselessly im
plore;
I answer not. and I return no more."
A beautiful poem—yes, but pernic
ious as is the theory of fate or the
twin tenet of predestination. If oppor
tunity comes but once, where is the
use of,striving :t
President James of the University
of Illinois during the recent commence-
[ ment exercises took occasion to refer
to the philosophy of Ingalls’ famous
[ poem. “It is false and misleading.”
said Mr. James. “It is not a single op
portunity which comes to a man; It Is
a train. It is a never-ending proces
sion, some small, some large, growing
perhaps more small and more insignifi
cant as the years flow on, but ever
and always opportunities too numer
ous, too great, and too large for us to
utilize fully.”
This is good, healthful optimism.
There never was a time when opportu
nities of all shapes, sizes and colors
bobbed up on every corner as they do
to-day And they are not confined to
any particular country or locality.
They are waiting everywhere. Under
the rapidly changing industrial and
economical conditions they are spring
ing up in odd and out-of-tlie-way
pluees. Old settlements—old villages,
moss-grown and for years silent as
the cemetery that clings to their
skirts, a-e finding new youth in the
revival of occupations and simple in
dustries which twenty years ago were
deemed impossible. The abandoned
farms of New England—The farms
that were left tenantless because it
was thought that the only opportun
ities for success were to be found in
the West—are receiving new leases of
life.
PENDULUM IS SWINGING BACK.
For a full half century the American
people have been money-mad. Every
thing lias been sacrificed to the one
idea of accumulation. The dollar sign
became the sole badge of honor, and a
man's success was measured not by
what he made of himself, not by what
lie accomplished for Ids fellows or the
world at large, but by the size of his
pile.
This standard of success has wari>*
ed the Imagination of the whole peo
ple. The merchant and professional
man bend every energy to the pil
ing up of gold bricks. And the farmer,
not to be outdone, lies awake nights
thinking how he may get more land,
lie has now more than he can till,
but the land lust has seized him and
home comforts and a quiet life are sold
in the market in order that the line
fetiee may be removed
This ,has been the condition for
many years, and it requires careful
observation to detect any change. But
a reaction has set in. The pendulum is
swinging back. A growing sentiment
in favor of a moderate success, a quiet
life and borne surroundings is appar
ent With this comes a desire to get
back to original principles; to abandon
the cities and seek the healthful life
of the farm and the village.
The growth of our cities has l»een
abnormal—the direct result of ab
normal transportation conditions. “To
Mm that hath shall be riven, and to
him that bath not even that which he
hath shall be taken away.” has been
the working poliov of modern com
mercial transportation companies.
The small town has been sacrificed to
the city. This was the natural resntt
of competition. In centers where
numerous railroads meet, low rates
are given to both the in-going and out
going freight but there is but
one road, the traffic is taxed all that It
will bear. This condition has had aj
(Ooatwuol <*i column (v
BE A HOMECROFTER
Learn by Doing. Work Together.
Give every IVLan a Chance.
THE SLOUAN OF THE HOMECROFTERS IS
“learn by Doing—Work Together—Give Every Man a Chance."
“ Every Child in u Garden—Every Mother in u Horneerolt, and Indi.
viduul, Industrial Independence for Every Worker in a
Home of his Own on the Laud."
"A little croft we owned a plot of corn,
A garden stored with peas and mint and thyme.
And flowers for posies, oft on Sunday morn,
IPlucked while the church hells rang their earliest chimes.”
Wordsworth.
"The Citizen standing in the doorway of his home —contented on his threshold, his family
Fathered about his hearthstone, while the evening of a well spent day closes in scenes and
sounds that are dearest he shall save the Republic when the drum-tap is futile and the
barracks are exhausted .'-Henry H . UraJy.
EDUCATION [[INI HOMECROFTS
OPPORTUNITY filll COOPERATION
fflggjl
THE FIRST BOOK £ HOMECROFTERS
HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED AND AMONG ITS CONTENTS ARE
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES OF ABSORBING INTEREST
The Brotherhood of Man
Charity that is Everlasting
The Secret of Nippon’s Power
Lesson of a Great Calamity
The Sign of a Thought
Copies Os “THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HOMECROFTERS”
con be obtained by sendinC twelve two-cent stamps with your
name and address (carefully and plainly written) to to The Home
crofter’ Clld of the Talisman, 143 Main St., Watertown, Mass.
This book is the first of a Series operation the Platform of the Talis
that will Chronicle the Progress of the man. The following is taken there-
HOMECROFT MOVEMENT
and inform all who wish to co-operate
with it how they may do so through
the formation of local Homecrofters’
Circles, Clubs or Gilds to promote
Town and Village Betterment, stimu
late borne civic pride and loyalty to
home institutions, industries and trade,
improve methods and facilities of edu
cation in the local public schools, and
create new opportunities “At Home”
that will go far to check the drift of
trade and population to the cities.
The first Gild of the Homecrofters
has been established at Watertown,
Massachusetts. The Gildhall, Shops
and Gardens are located at 143 Main
Street, where the Garden School is
now fully organized and over one
hundred children are at work in the
Gardens. The departments for train
ing in Homecraft and Village Indus
tries are being installed. The Weavers
are already at work at the looms.
It is not designed to build here an
isolated institution, but to make a
model which can be duplicated in any
town or village in the country.
There is New Hope and Inspiration
for every Worker who wants a Home
of his own on the Land in the
CREED AND PLATFORM OF THE
HOMECROFTERS’ which is as fol
lows:
“Peace has her victories no less re
nowned than war.”
EDUCATION
CO-OPERATION
OPPORTUNITY
HOMECROFTS
We believe that the Patriotic Slogan
of the Whole People of this Nation
should be “Every Child in a Garden—
Every Mother in a Homecraft —and In
di\ idual Industrial Independence for
Every Worker in a Home of his Own
on the Land,” and that until he owns
such a Home, the concentrated purpose
and chief inspiration to labor in the life
of every wage worker should be his
determination to “Get an Acre and
Live on it.”
We believe that the Slums and
Tenements and Congested Centers of
population in the Cities are a savagely
deteriorating social, moral and polit
ical influence, and that a great public
movement should be organized, and
the whole power of the nation and
tlie states exerted for the betterment
of all the conditions of Rural Life, and
to create and upbuild Centers of So
cial and Civic Life in Country and
Suburban Towns and Villages, where
Trade and Industry can be so firmly
anchored that they cannot be drawn
, into the Commercial Maelstrom that
is now steadily sucking Industry and
Humanity into the Vertex of the
Great Cities.
We believe that every Citizen in
| this Country has an inherent and
, Fundamental Right to an Education
which will train him to Earn a Liv
ing, and, if need be, to get bis living
, straight from Mother Earth; and that
he has the same right to the Opportun
ity to have the Work to Do which will
, afford him that living, and to earn not
only r. cor'ortable livelihood, but
enough more to enable him to he a
Ilomecrofter and to have a Home of
his Own, with ground around it
sufficient to yield him and his family
a Living from the Land as the reward
for his own labor.
We believe that the Public Domain
is the most precious heritage of the
people, and the surest safeguard the
nation has against Social Uniest. Dis
turbance or Upheaval, and that the
Cause of Humanity and the Preserva
tion of Social Stability and of our Free
Institutions demand that the absorp
tion of the public lands into specula
tive private ownership, without settle
ment, be forthwith stopped; and that
the nation should create opportunities
for Homecrofters by building irriga
tion and drainage works to reclaim
land as fast as it Is needed to give
every man who wants a Home on the
Land a chance to get it.
We believe that, as a Nation, we
should be less absorbed with Making
! Money, and should pay more heed to
raising up and training Men who will
be Law-Abiding Citizens; that the wel
fare of our Workers is of more con
sequence than the mere accumulation
of Wealth: and that Stability of Na
tional Character and of Social and
Business Conditions is of greater im
portance to the people of this country
as a whole than any other one ques-
I tion that is now before them: and we
I believe that the only way to Preserve
such Stability, and to Permanently
! Maintain our National Prosperity, is
to carry Into immediate effect < and
- L1 i tit* -
from:
EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT \\n
HOMES ON THE LAND. ‘
That children shall be taught
gardening and homecraft in the public
schools, and that Homecraft and
Garden Training Schools shall be
established by county, municipal,
state, and national governments,
where every boy and every man out
of work who wants employment where
he can gain that knowledge, can learn
how to make a home and till the soil
and get his living straight from the
ground, and where every boy would
be taught that his first aim in life
should be to get a borne of his own
on the land.
BUILD HOMECROFTS AS NATION
AL SAFEGUARDS.
That the New Zealand system of
Land Taxation and Land Purchase
and Subdivision, and Advances to Set- 1
tiers Act, shall be adopted in this
country, to the end that land shall be
subdivided into small holdings in the
hands of those who will till it for a
livelihood, and labor find occupation
in the creation of homecrafts, which
will be perpetual safeguards against
the political evils and social discontent
resulting from the overgrowth of
cities and the sufferings of unem
ployed wage-earners.
PROTECTION FOR THE AMER
ICAN HOMECROFT.
That Rural Settlement shall be
encouraged and the principle of Pro
tection for the American Wageworker
and his Home applied directly to the
Home by the Exemption from Taxa
tion of all improvements upon, and
also of all personal property, not ex
ceeding $2.5()0 In value, used on and
in connection with, every Homecraft
or Rural Homestead of not more than '
ten acres in extent, which the owner
occupies as a permanent home and
cultivates with his own labor and so
provides therefrom all or part of the
support for a family.
ENLARGEMENT OF AREA AVAIL
ABLE FOR HOMEMAKING.
That the National Government,
as part of a comprehensive nation
al policy of internal improvements
for river control and regulation,
and for the enlargement to the
utmost possible extent of the
area of the country available for agri
culture and Homes on the Land, and
for the protection of those Homes from
either flood or drouth, shall build not
only levees and revetments where
needed, and drainage works for the
reclamation of swamp and overflowed
lands, but shall also preserve existing
forests, reforest denuded areas, plant
new forests, and build the great reser
voirs and other engineering works
necessary to safeguard against over
flow and save for beneficial use the
flood waters that now run to waste.
OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME. *
tendency to draw the manufacturing
interests into the great transportation
centers, the tide has flowed stronglj
toward the city and the small town
Las had a hard struggle to retain its
ov n.
In this respect, however, the pendu
lum is swinging back also. The con
ditions surrounding the workmen in
the cities, the lack of home life and
the presence of accumulated vice, have
demonstrated to the satisfaction of
every one that we will never reach our
highest industrial success until the
average workman is placed where he
can, have fresh air, a family, and a
home for that family. The small town,
everything else being equal, is the \
place for industries. A man with a
home, and who spends his evenings
with his family beautifying that
home, is not only a better citizen, but
he is worth infinitely more to his em
ployer than his brother laborer who
has no interest other than that he
finds with his saloon companions and
in ward politics.
When the reformers have settled the
industrial labor questions they will not
be calling for less hours of work, but
a distribution of the hours of work.
Six hours in the factory or the mine
and the balance at home working on
an acre of ground may be made a
solution of the whole question between
labor and capital. Any man with a
home and one acre of the earth s sur
face that he can call his own, and
with employment at fair wages during
five or six hours of the day. need never
fear want for himself or bis fami
Under such conditions his family ca.i --
be reared and educated and live unde
the advantages of a wholesome sock:
atmosphere,
•
