one or two streams running through it; with water obtainable at from
fifteen to thirty feet every where, and perfectly healthy. Mr. Landis
took possession in August, 1861, and at once began to develop the land
according to his own ideas. He laid out, first, the town site of
Vineland, in the centre of the tract; next had the adjacent plain
surveyed, and laid out into tracts of ten, twenty, and fifty acres; laid
out and opened roads, so as to make these small parcels accessible; and
then he began to advertise for settlers.
His offer was to sell the land, lying within thirty-four miles of
Philadelphia by railroad, in tracts of from ten to forty or sixty acres,
at twenty-five dollars per acre, guaranteeing a clear title, and giving
reasonable credit, but requiring the purchasers to make certain
improvements within a year after buying. These consisted of a
house--which need not be costly--the clearing of some acres of ground,
and the planting of shade-trees along the road-side, and sowing a strip
of this road-side with some kind of grass. It was also stipulated that
if the owner, in after-years, neglected his road-side adornment, it
should be kept in order by the town at his cost.
Mr. Landis had procured the passage of a law prohibiting the straying of
cattle within the limits of the township in which his estate lay; and
consequently the new settlers were not obliged to build fences. This was
an immense saving to the people, who came in mostly with small means.
Vineland has to-day between eleven thousand and twelve thousand people;
it has about one hundred and eighty miles of roads; and it is probable
that the "no fence" regulation, as it is called, has saved the
inhabitants at least a million and a half of dollars.
He prevented in the beginning, with the most solicitous care, the
establishment of bar-rooms or dram-shops on the tract; the Legislature
gave permission to the people of the township, by an annual vote, to
decide whether the sale of liquor at retail should be allowed or
forbidden, and they have constantly forbidden it, to their immense
advantage.
He endeavored as soon as possible to establish factories in the village,
and succeeded so well in this that there has long been a local market
for a part of the products of the place.
He founded and encouraged library, horticultural, and other societies,
helped in the building of churches, and paid particular attention to
obtaining for the people facilities for marketing their products
advantageously.
In all these concerns he sought the advantage of the settlers on his
lands, knowing that their prosperity would make him also prosperous.
But one other part of his plan appears to me to have been of
extraordinary importance, though usually it is not mentioned in
descriptions of Vineland. Mr. Landis established the price of his own
uncultivated lands at twenty-five dollars per acre. At that price he
sold to the first settler; and that price he did not increase for many
years. Any one could, within two or three years, buy wild land on the
Vineland tract at twenty-five dollars per acre. This means that he did
not speculate upon the improvements of the settlers. He gave to them the
advantage of their labors. It resulted that many poor men bought,
cleared, and planted places in Vineland on purpose to sell them, certain
that they could, if they wished, buy more land at the same price of
twenty-five dollars per acre which they originally paid.
In my judgment, this feature of the Vineland enterprise, more than any
other, changed it from a merely selfish speculation to one of a higher
order, in which the settlers, to a large extent, have a common interest
with the proprietor of the land. He might have done all the rest--might
have laid out roads, proclaimed a "no fence" law, prevented the
establishment of dram-shops, helped on educational and other
enterprises--and still, had he raised the price of his wild lands as the
settlers increased, he would have been a mere land speculator, and I
doubt if his scheme would have obtained more than a very moderate and
short-lived success. But the undertaking to sell his wild land always at
the one fixed price, not only gave later comers an advantage which
attracted them with a constantly increasing force, but it gave the
poorer settlers an occupation from which many of them gained
handsomely--the improvement of places to sell to new-comers with
capital. The result showed Mr. Landis's wisdom. Improved property,
cleared and planted in fruit, has always borne a high price in Vineland,
and has almost always had a ready sale, but there has never been any
feverish land speculation there.
In twelve years the founder of Vineland was able to collect upon his
tract--which had not a single inhabitant in 1861--about eleven thousand
people. Most of these have improved their condition in life materially
by settling there. Many of them came without sufficient capital, and no
doubt suffered from want in the early days of their Vineland life. But
if they persevered, two or three years of effort made them comfortable.
Meantime they had, what our American farmers have not in general, easy
access to good schools for their children, to churches and an
intelligent society, and the possibility of good laws regarding the sale
of liquor.
Vineland was settled largely by New England people. They are more
restless and changeable than the Germans of Anaheim: less easily
contented with mere comfort. The New-Englander seems to me to like
change, often, for its own sake; the German too frequently goes to the
other extreme, and so greatly abhors change that he does without
conveniences which he might well afford. Anaheim and Vineland differ in
these respects, as the character of their inhabitants differs. But in
both, no one can doubt that the people have been greatly benefited by
the colonizing experiment; that they not merely live better, but have a
higher standard of thinking as well, and are thus better citizens than
they would have been had they remained in their original employments and
abodes.
Some of the striking practical and moral results of the Vineland plan of
colonization were set forth by Mr. Landis in a speech before the
Legislature of New Jersey last year; and the following extracts from
this address are of interest in this place. He said:
"When I first projected the colony, in 1861, what is now Vineland lay
before me an unbroken wilderness. Nothing was to be heard but the song
of birds to break the silence, which at times was oppressive. It was
necessary that the fifty square miles of territory should be suddenly,
thoroughly, and permanently improved. The land was in good part to be
paid for out of the proceeds of sale. One hundred and seventy miles of
public roads and other improvements were to be made, and the
improvements were to be such as to insure the prosperity of the colonist
in future years, as my outlay was in the early start of the settlement,
and my returns were not to be realized for years to come. If the
settlement should not be prosperous in these years to come, I could
never realize my reward, and besides, ruin, involving character and
fortune, stared me in the face. It was by no temporary efforts or
expedients that I could succeed, but by fixing upon certain principles,
calculated to be creative, healthful, and permanent in their
influences--principles which, while they benefited each colonist day by
day, would have a growing influence in developing the prosperity of the
colony. What were these principles?
"1. That no land should be sold to speculators who would not improve,
but only to persons who would agree to improve in a specified time, and
also to plant shade-trees in front of their places, and seed the
road-sides to grass for purposes of public utility and ornamentation.
"2. That no man should be compelled to erect fences, that his neighbor's
cattle might roam at large; but that the old and shiftless and wasteful
system should be done away with.
"3. That the public sale of intoxicating drinks should be prohibited,
and that this prohibition should be obtained by leaving it to a vote of
the people.
"By the first principle, the continual improvement of the land was
secured. Employment was furnished to laborers at remunerative prices.
The value of the land was increased by the mutual effort of the
colonists. The value of my land was also enhanced, and it was made more
and more marketable.
"By the second principle, a vast and constant expense was saved--greater
than the cost and annual interest upon all the railroads of the United
States. Stock was improved, the cultivation of root crops was
encouraged, and the economizing of fertilizers.
"By the third principle, the money, the health, and the industry of the
people were conserved, that they might all be devoted to the work before
them.
"I am in candor compelled to say that I did not introduce the
local-option principle into Vineland from any motives of philanthropy. I
am not a temperance man in the total-abstinence sense. I introduced the
principle because in cool, abstract thought I conceived it to be of
vital importance to the success of my colony. If in this thought I had
seen that liquor made men more industrious, more skillful, more
economical, and more aesthetic in their tastes, I certainly should then
have made liquor-selling one of the main principles of my project."
* * * * *
"The question then came up as to how I could give such direction to
public opinion as would regulate this difficulty. Many persons had the
idea that no place could prosper without taverns--that to attract
business and strangers taverns were necessary. I could not accomplish my
object by the influence of total-abstinence men, as they were too few in
numbers in proportion to the whole community. I had long perceived that
there was no such thing as reaching the result by the moral influence
brought to bear on single individuals--that to benefit an entire
community, the law or regulation would have to extend to the entire
community. In examining the evil, I found also that the moderate use of
liquor was not the difficulty to contend against, but it was the
immoderate use of it.
"The question, then, was to bring the reform to bear upon what led to
the immoderate use of it. I found that few or none ever became
intoxicated in their own families, in the presence of their wives and
children, but that the drunkards were made in the taverns and saloons.
After this conclusion was reached, the way appeared clear. It was not
necessary to make a temperance man of each individual--it was not
necessary to abridge the right or privilege that people might desire to
have of keeping liquor in their own houses, but to get their consent to
prevent the public sale of it by the small--that people in bartering
would not be subject to the custom of drinking--that they would not have
the opportunity of drinking in bar-rooms, away from all home restraint
or influence; in short, I believed that if the public sale of liquor was
stopped either in taverns or beer saloons, the knife would reach the
root of the evil. The next thing to do was to deal with settlers
personally as they bought land, and to counsel with them as to the best
thing to be done. In conversation with them I never treated it as a
moral question--I explained to them that I was not a total-abstinence
man myself, but that on account of the liability of liquor to abuse when
placed in seductive forms at every street corner, and as is the usual
custom that followed our barbarous law that it incited to crime, and
made men unfortunate who would otherwise succeed; that most of the
settlers had little money to begin with, sums varying from two hundred
to one thousand dollars, which, if added to a man's labor, would be
enough in many cases to obtain him a home, but which taken to the tavern
would melt away like snow before a spring sun; that new places were
liable to have this abuse to a more terrible extent than old places, as
men were removed from the restraints of old associations, and in the
midst of the excitement of forming new acquaintances; and that it was a
notorious fact that liquor-drinking did not add to the inclination for
physical labor. I then asked them--for the sake of their sons, brothers,
friends--to help establish the new system, as I believed it to be the
foundation-stone of our future prosperity.
"To these self-evident facts they would almost all accede. Many of them
had witnessed the result of liquor-selling in the new settlements of the
Far West, and were anxious to escape from it. The Local-Option Law of
Vineland was not established, therefore, by temperance men or
total-abstinence men only, but by the citizens generally, upon broad
social and public principles. It has since been maintained in the same
way. Probably not one tenth of the number of voters in Vineland are what
may be called total-abstinence men. I explain this point to show that
this reform was not the result of mere fanaticism, but the sense of the
people generally, and that the people who succeed under it are such
people as almost all communities are composed of. This law has been
practically in operation since the beginning of the settlement in the
autumn of 1861, though the act of the Legislature empowering the people
of Landis Township to vote upon license or no license was not passed
until 1863. The vote has always stood against license by overwhelming
majorities, there being generally only from two to nine votes in favor
of liquor-selling. The population of the Vineland tract is about ten
thousand five hundred people, consisting of manufacturers and business
people upon the town plot in the centre, and, around this centre, of
farmers and fruit-growers. The most of the tract is in Landis Township.
I will now give statistics of police and poor expenses of this township
for the past six years:
POLICE EXPENSES.
1867.................... $50 00
1868..................... 50 00
1869..................... 75 00
1870..................... 75 00
1871.................... 150 00
1872..................... 25 00
POOR EXPENSES.
1867.................... $400 00
1868..................... 425 00
1869..................... 425 00
1870..................... 350 00
1871..................... 400 00
1872..................... 350 00
"These figures speak for themselves, but they are not all. There is a
material and industrial prosperity existing in Vineland which, though I
say it myself, is unexampled in the history of colonization, and must be
due to more than ordinary causes. The influence of temperance upon the
health and industry of her people is no doubt the principal of these
causes. Started when the country was plunged in civil war, its progress
was continually onward. Young as the settlement was, it sent its quota
of men to the field, and has paid over $60,000 of war debts. The
settlement has built twenty fine school-houses, ten churches, and kept
up one of the finest systems of road improvements, covering one hundred
and seventy-eight miles, in this country. There are now some fifteen
manufacturing establishments on the Vineland tract, and they are
constantly increasing in number. Her stores in extent and building will
rival any other place in South Jersey. There are four post-offices on
the tract. The central one did a business last year of $4,800 mail
matter, and a money-order business of $78,922.
"Out of seventy-seven townships in the state, by the census of 1869
Landis Township ranked the fourth from the highest in the agricultural
value of its productions. There are seventeen miles of railroad upon the
tract, embracing six railway stations.
"The result of my project as a land enterprise has been to the interest
of the colonists as well as my own. Town lots that I sold for $150 have
been resold for from $500 to $1500, exclusive of improvements. Land that
I sold for $25 per acre has much of it been resold at from $200 to $500
per acre. This rule will hold good for miles of the territory--all
resulting from the great increase of population and the prosperity of
the people.
"Were licenses for saloons and taverns obtainable with the same ease as
in New York, Philadelphia, and many country districts, Vineland would
probably have, according to its population, from one to two hundred such
places. Counting them at one hundred, this would withdraw from the
pursuits of productive industry about one hundred families, which would
give a population of six hundred people. Each of these places would sell
about $3000 worth of beer and liquor per annum, making $300,000 worth of
stimulants a year. I include beer saloons, as liquor can be obtained in
them all as a general thing, and in the electrical climate of America
beer leads to similar results as spirits. Think of the effect of
$300,000 worth of stimulants upon the health, the minds, and the
industry of our people. Think of the increase of crime and pauperism--the
average would be fully equal to other places in which liquor is sold.
Instead of having a police expense of $50, and poor expenses of $400 per
annum, the amount would be swollen to thousands. Homes that are now
happy would be made desolate, and, instead of peace reigning in our
midst, we should have war--the same war that is now carried on
throughout the length and breadth of the land in the conflict that is
waged with crime, where blood is daily shed, where houses are daily
fired, where helpless people are daily robbed, and the darkest of crimes
daily perpetrated. Concentrate the work of this war that is carried on
throughout the land for one day, and you will have as many people killed
and wounded, houses fired or plundered, as in the sack of a city.
"The results in Vineland have convinced me--
"1. That temperance does conserve the industry of the people.
"2. That temperance is conducive to a refined and esthetical taste.
"3. That temperance can be sufficiently secured in a community by
suppressing all the taverns and saloons, to protect it from the abuse of
excessive liquor-drinking. Here is a community where crime and pauperism
are almost unknown, where taxes are nominal, where night is not made
hideous by the vilest of noises, where a man's children are not
contaminated by the evil language and influence of drunkards."
The following letter from the deputy sheriff of Vineland gives the
practical result of the Vineland system of moral cooperation, as it may
be called:
"VINELAND, _December_ 4,1873.
"Dear Sir,--_The poor tax in this township amounts to about five cents
to each inhabitant per annum_, and our special expense for police
matters, when any body happens to be engaged on an emergence, amounts to
an average expense _of about one half cent each_. In fact, it may be
said we have little or no crime or breach of the peace; and, though I am
no total-abstinence man, I ascribe this state of things to the absence
of liquor shops, and on this account have always voted against
licensing. Before I came here I acted as constable in Massachusetts, and
have been deputy sheriff and overseer of the poor for five years, and I
know from actual observation that more happiness is secured to men
themselves, to their wives and children, and more peace to the home,
than by any other cause in the world, not excepting all the churches--so
help me God!
"Yours respectfully, T. T. CORTIS, Deputy Sheriff."
In the journal from which I take this letter it is stated that the poor
and police expenses of Perth Amboy, also in New Jersey, amount in the
same year to _two dollars_ per head! The figures need no comment.
_Prairie Home._
The Prairie Home Colony, in Franklin County, Kansas, was established by
a French gentleman, E. V. Boissiere. He owns three thousand acres of
land, and has been engaged during the last three years in putting it in
order for settlement, upon a plan to which he gives the title,
"Association and Co-operation, based on Attractive Industry." So far as
the details of his plan are developed, it appears that he wishes to
secure to colonists constant employment at reasonable wages, and to
enable them to live in an economical manner. It is evident from what
follows that he does not intend to establish a benevolent institution,
and that at _Prairie Home_ there will be no accommodations for
idlers. I reprint here a circular, which is issued by Mr. Boissiere,
and parts of a private note from him, in which, in March, 1874, he gave
me some particulars of the progress of his enterprise:
"A domain of more than three thousand acres, purchased about four years
ago, and then called the 'Kansas Co-operative Farm,' but since named
'Silkville,' from the fact that the weaving of silk-velvet ribbons is
one of its branches of industry, and silk-culture is contemplated, for
which ten thousand mulberry-trees are now thriftily growing, having had
two hundred and fifty acres subjected to cultivation, and several
preliminary buildings erected upon it, it is now thought expedient to
inform those who wish to take part in the associative enterprise for
which the purchase was made, that the Subscribers, as its projectors,
will be prepared to receive persons the ensuing spring, with a view to
their becoming associated for that purpose.
"A leading feature of the enterprise is to establish the 'Combined
Household' of Fourier--that is, a single large residence for all the
associates. Its principal aim is to organize labor, the source of all
wealth, first, on the basis of _remuneration proportioned to
production_, and, second, in such manner as to make it both
_efficient_ and _attractive_. Guarantees of education and
subsistence to all, and of help to those who need it, are indispensable
conditions, to be provided as soon as the organization shall be
sufficiently advanced to render them practicable.
"A spacious edifice, sufficient for the accommodation of eighty to one
hundred persons, will be erected the ensuing season, its walls and
principal partitions, which are to be of stone, being already contracted
for, to be completed by the 1st of October. But the buildings already
erected will furnish accommodations--less eligible, but perfectly
comfortable except in severely cold weather--for at least an equal
number.
"It is not, however, expected that the operations of the ensuing year
will be any thing more than preparative; they will be limited probably
to collecting a few persons to form a nucleus of the institution to be
gradually developed in the future. But, from the first, facilities will
be furnished for industry on the principle of _remuneration
proportioned to production_, by means of which, or otherwise, each
candidate will be required to provide for his own support, and for that
of such other persons as are admitted at his request as members of his
family or other dependents.
"The means of support at present available for those who come to reside
on the domain will be, as they may be stated in a general way,
_opportunities_ to engage, on liberal terms, in as many varieties as
possible of productive industry; but, more particularly, first, an ample
area of fertile land to cultivate; and, secondly, facilities for such
mechanical work as can be executed with hand-tools, especially the
making of clothes, boots and shoes, and other articles of universal
consumption, not excluding, however, any article whatever for which a
market, either internal or external, can be found. But, as far as income
depends upon earnings, the most reliable resource will be agricultural
and horticultural industry, as most of the mechanical work likely to be
required for some time should perhaps be reserved for weather not
suitable to out-door employments. Employment for wages at customary
rates will be furnished to some extent to those who desire it for a part
of their time, but cannot be reliably promised. Steam-power will be
provided as soon as warranted by a sufficient number of associates, and
by the prospect of being applied to profitable production.