The earlier so-called city and empire builders were in most cases nothing more than dealers in land. When a lot or farm was sold, there the company's interest ended. The modern colonization company goes much farther. When a man settles on land, the company of the better type usually looks out for him, backs him with credit, affords him the service of an expert agricultural adviser, cares for his health, and promotes his social interests and activities through a salaried community worker.

All this is done by the company not only for the sake of the settler himself, but mainly for the sake of the business interests of the company, since the success of the settlers on the company's land is the best advertisement of the company's business. It creates confidence in the company among the searchers for land and helps to increase the volume of business and the profits. Such companies are of rather recent origin and as yet are comparatively few in number. Their appearance means specialization in the land-development business. In the North Middle Western states the wilderness land has been for the most part owned by the lumber companies. The lumber companies attempted to dispose of their cut-over and burnt-over land in the easiest way by selling to individuals. As a rule this retail selling was unsuccessful. They found that it was more profitable for them to stick to their lumber business and sell their land in large tracts to the land dealers and to land-development and colonization companies.

In this connection it is interesting to note that in the wilds of our north one may still see the following stages of frontier life as they exist side by side, sometimes overlapping and crosscutting one another.

1. The earliest stage known to American civilization was that of virgin wilderness inhabited by animals and roamed over by Indians. As remnants of that time there are found some animals, now driven into the swamps and rocks, and a few Indians settled on reservations.

2. The next stage was when the white missionaries, traders, adventurers, followed by professional trappers, began penetrating the wilderness. This white men's hunting stage is still represented by the present-day "shackers" and trappers, though they are mostly of an amateur character, and, so to speak, domesticated.

3. The following stage was when lumbermen began being heard throughout the forests. They are still there, though in considerably reduced numbers. They are hurriedly attacking the remaining woods, leaving in their wake a dreary, sorrowful-looking expanse of cut-over and burnt-over lands.

4. These cut-over lands are now invaded by the land development and colonization companies, with their armies of new settlers, attempting to transform the last remnants of wilderness into fertile gardens, fields, and meadows. This is the last decisive war of man upon the wilderness—a picturesque and difficult struggle. A settler gives this vivid description, printed in the Radisson, Wisconsin, Courier:

In the north the land-clearing line is called the firing line, a term which can be taken literally, for the land-clearing front is continually under fire and clouds of smoke from burning debris.

5. The sturdy new settlers, the last pioneers and frontiersmen in the country, are followed, especially along rivers where water power is at hand, by industrial workers. Here and there are appearing thriving manufacturing and commercial towns—the last stage in the opening up of a new country to civilization.

But the most important work in the wilderness at present is that of the modern land colonization companies. To give an idea of their work and methods it is necessary to describe one of these companies in detail.

A TYPICAL COMPANY

The particular company investigated with special attention is located in the wilderness of one of the North Middle Western states. In general the company is applying the same business methods to land colonization as Mr. Ford is applying to automobile production—production of new farms on a large scale so as to diminish the overhead expense, and standardization of various colonization methods. The guiding test is the success of the new settlers on the company's land. Failures among the settlers are avoided and fought against by the company as though they were a dangerous epidemic. "Each failure among our settlers is a bad advertisement for our company, a loss to us, and an evidence of defects in our business methods," stated the company's head.

To insure the success of the settlers and the settlement, the company proceeds as follows: The most careful study is made of the tract of land which the company intends to acquire for colonization purposes. Not only is the tract of land closely looked over by the company's officials, but land experts, such as soil surveyors, are engaged to examine the land from the viewpoint of its agricultural possibilities. Federal and state surveyors' reports are also used in considering the possibilities of the land.

When the land has been acquired, a plan for a colony is worked out, with provision for necessary roads, town sites, irrigation or drainage systems, utilization of water power, social centers, experimental farms, etc. The accompanying map shows the plan of one such colony.

The tract is then surveyed and cut up into farms according to the plan adopted. A number of farm lots are selected by the company. On each of these lots there is designated a place for the farm buildings and the garden. A simple, inexpensive house and a barn are built by the company on a small clearing, usually facing the main road. At present the company has ceased to clear any land for agricultural use for the reason that if there is a piece of cleared land the new settler is apt to expend his main efforts on cultivation of this cleared land, neglecting the clearing of more land.

explained a company official. This again shows with what fineness the company has to adjust its methods to the psychological peculiarities of the settlers.

At the same time the company equips the experimental farm and puts it into operation under the supervision of a trained agriculturist. For the community work a hall is provided and a community worker engaged.

Meanwhile the company's agents and advertisers have been busy in making the land opportunities known to people who are intending to settle on land. The new settlers are of two distinct types. One type consists either of native Americans or immigrants who have previously been on land in the United States either as landowners or as tenants. The second class consists of immigrants who have been living in the cities and who desire to settle on land. In most cases they have been engaged in agricultural work in their old countries.

The company itself takes into consideration racial and national factors. In the year of the investigation the company was doing its main business in the one section with Polish immigrants, and preferred them even to the native settlers. The reason given was that immigrants, especially Slavs, are easy to get along with and readily follow the company's directions and advice. They are hard workers and are satisfied with a small return at the beginning. In contrast, the natives commonly pay little attention to the company's directions and advice, being anxious to make a quick success. In case they do not succeed as rapidly as they expected, they get discouraged, leave the place, and give the company a "black eye."

The land is sold in plots of forty acres each, either as "made-to-order" farms or without farming improvements—"land only." The purchaser may buy as many plots as he desires and is able to pay for. However, the company discourages the buying of more land than the settler is able actually to improve and cultivate, which usually is about forty acres.

The company offers in its folder the following three land sale plans:

PLAN NO. 1
Land Only, without Improvements

PLAN NO. 2
Forty Acres of Land with House and Live Stock

PLAN NO. 3
Forty Acres of Land with House, Barn, Live Stock,
and Tools

As experience has shown, a settler on new land which he has to clear has no opportunity for using a horse to its fullest capacity during the first two years. Therefore the company does not include a horse in the preliminary equipment of a "made-to-order" farm. When a new settler needs horse power either for plowing or hauling he hires a horse from his older neighbors or from the company's demonstration farm at a reasonable price.

One of the company's special efforts consists in securing a market for the settler's produce. With this end in view, co-operative creameries are favored and promoted by the company.

It is the policy of the company to encourage the organization of local state banks wherever it does any colonizing work, for the company realizes that the short-time credit needs of the settlers must be taken care of. It always encourages the local merchants and people in the near-by towns to take some stock in the bank. Whatever stock is left over, different members connected with the company usually take, upon an understanding with the local people that as soon as any of them wish some of this stock the company will sell it to them at 6 per cent interest on its money.

A number of years ago the company organized a bank in one of its colonies in order that the settlers might get proper credit. The company found it necessary to do something, as heretofore the settlers had had no opportunity to secure short-time credit. After the bank had been organized for three years the people in the colony desired to take the bank stock, and the men connected with the colonization company sold all their stock with the exception of one or two hundred dollars each, which the local people desired that they retain, so that out of $10,000 capital stock $1,000 is held by men interested in the company. In another colony some of the local people spoke for some stock and were offered the stock held by men interested in the colonization company at exactly what they paid for it, plus 6 per cent interest on their money. This has been true in the different sections where the company has promoted the organization of a bank.

As the company's business methods are based upon the principle of the settler's success, the company is keeping in very close touch with its settlers. For each settler a "Progress Record" card is filed in the company's local office. The following reproduction of the main features of the card indicates the items that show the economic progress of the settler. Although it is not possible to have all the items filled up to date, a beginning is always made. As visits are made to the settlers' farms by the company's representatives, or the settlers come to the company office for advice or help, information is collected and added to the cards. Eventually an invaluable record of salient facts in regard to the settler and his progress is accumulated in this way. SETTLER'S PROGRESS RECORD

improved

_____________

These progress records are valuable to the company for a number of purposes. They help in considering extension of credit, in giving advice to the settlers, and in finding out what general business methods are the best for the company to follow in the way of assisting the settler to make a success.

As the settler's future well-being depends to a certain degree upon his progress in Americanization, it would be advisable for the company to include in the record cards items concerning the date of the settler's arrival in America, his naturalization status, and the degree of his knowledge of English at the time of his settlement on land. These few additional items would hardly complicate or burden the recording work of the company's local office.

THE ADVISER

The company's officials stated that the immigrant family when first arriving in the colony is shy and helpless. The introduction of the family to the new conditions and surroundings has to be made gradually. A representative of the company meets the family at the station and directs it to a hotel, where it stays a few days before it is taken to the farm. During these several days the company's adviser calls often upon the family, talks with its members, takes them through the colony and introduces them to their future neighbors, and explains the local conditions. When the family is transferred to the farm the company's adviser still has to call almost daily, for there are numerous matters upon which the settler needs advice and encouragement.

The majority of the new settlers are quite ignorant of the methods of land clearing. This the adviser has to teach them. How to feed cows, what and when to plant, how to cultivate, and how to handle the products—in all such questions the new settlers need constant direction. They themselves give two reasons for their need of advice in farming operations. First, the European methods of farm work are different from the American methods, especially because in Europe they were not engaged in opening up new land. Secondly, having been engaged in industrial work in America, often for long years, they have forgotten the European farm experience to a certain degree.

While the writer was in the office of the adviser the settlers were constantly calling upon the latter for advice in all sorts of matters. One woman came, crying, and said, through her boy as interpreter, that her cow was sick and perhaps dying. Another woman sought advice as to her sick baby. A man came to ask that a certain road be extended to his place. Still another man wanted to do some stumping on his land in co-operation with his neighbors, provided the company lent a machine and the adviser came to direct the work. Another man asked advice in regard to the extension of credit to him. So the stream of inquiries went on continually. The adviser needed to be, as he was, an extremely capable man to deal with the extraordinary list of demands. He was an expert agriculturist, energetic, and in love with the game of helping the immigrant settlers.

In regard to the need of a trained adviser for the new settlers the president of the company explained as follows:

Observing the actual operations of such advisers in a number of cases, the writer has been convinced that in every new rural immigrant colony an intelligent, sympathetic, and efficient adviser is needed, and that the private colonization companies are to be commended for employing such advisers.

CHILDREN OVERWORKED

In one of the colonies the writer observed that the settlers' children worked a great deal. On one farm three children—two boys and one girl—of ages varying from nine to thirteen or fourteen, were clearing land of stones and the debris of brush and stumps. On another farm, the settler's wife, with her two tiny and delicate girls, was cultivating potatoes, each one using a rake. On a third farm, two boys, one of ten and the other of twelve, were cutting hay with scythes. The boys were thin and pale. In talk they appeared serious and somewhat cheerless, although in a measure enthusiastic about their new farm.

The company's local officials and also the settlers themselves admitted that their children work considerably, even to the extent that they are often kept home from school. The settlers said that they understood the harm being done their children both by working too hard and by being withdrawn from school. But they are very eager to put their new farms on a paying basis in the shortest possible time. The company's officials said that they had so far not interfered with the use of child labor, but that in the future they would try to exercise some supervision over the work of children in the colony.

The president of the company stated in regard to the labor of the settlers' children that "in some cases in the cities, on the farms, and everywhere, there is an indiscreet use of child labor, as also there is a practice in many communities of letting the children run wild. I believe I would rather trust future America to those brought up in pioneer regions than I would trust future America to those brought up under conditions where no hardship, no pioneering, no work whatever is expected of them."

While this is quite true, nevertheless the writer's impression was that a number of the settlers overwork their children and keep them out of school at times.

SECURING CREDIT

As the company's overhead expenses for the maintenance of a number of offices, for the employment of a large number of agents and for commissions and extensive advertising, are heavy, the company is able to do successful business only on a very large scale. The head of this particular company believed that, in view of this fact, the tract of good farming land on which a company operates must be not less than 50,000 acres. He also stated that in view of the fact that the company's outlay of money, and especially its extension of credit to settlers, is very large, the reliable land development and colonization companies ought to be assisted in the way of credit by the public through the government.

During the war the company had great difficulty in borrowing money on the settlers' mortgages. They had to pay a high rate of interest. Since the end of the war, however, the company has been able through the banks of the financial centers of the North Middle West to float a large number of collateral bonds on mortgages. These bonds at the present time sell to the general public at 6 per cent. The company, its president stated, must pay the cost of trusteeship commission on sale of bonds, etc., which brings the rate which the company pays to a fair amount above the 6 per cent which the ultimate investor receives. At the present time there is no difficulty in financing the organization, although it would be very desirable to have state and Federal assistance.

Bills providing for such assistance have been introduced in the state legislatures of all of the northwest states. Congressman Knutson at Washington has introduced a land credit bill to provide capital for the development by land colonization of the agricultural resources of the nation, providing for certain privileges to soldier settlers, and creating a National Colonization Board.[7]

CONSERVATION OF WOODED LAND

While the company has made provision for the conservation of riparian rights, for roads, and even for town sites, it has done little for the conservation of wooded land. It has preserved the woodland on river banks and 160 acres of timber in one colony, and it has planted about 15,000 small pine trees. Moreover, the company encourages the conservation of woodland by the settlers, advising them to keep in timber from five to ten acres for each farm.

How far the settlers will follow this good advice remains to be seen, while the conservation of wooded land by the company is inadequate. This the company's local officials admitted, but they reasoned that it would hardly be advisable for a single company, or even a number of companies, to attempt to conserve wooded land or other natural resources the return from which would be in the far distant future. It would be advisable for the state, or even for the Federal government, to make provisions and necessary regulations for the conservation of wooded land and other natural resources upon which the well-being of the public at large depends.

THE SIZE OF A COLONY

A number of Polish settlers in one of the colonies visited expressed the desire to have a Polish church and school. They believed that if the national Catholic Church organization would help them, they themselves would be able to maintain their church and school.

This fact led the writer to a discussion with the company's officials as to the advisable size of a compact colony of the same nationality. They stated that if an immigrant family is established among settlers of another nationality, the family becomes lonely and desperate and after a year or two of such loneliness is apt to leave the farm, no matter how successful it has been in buying and cultivating the land. Therefore the company's policy is to settle the people of the same nationality together.

The writer asked whether, if a colony of one nationality is large, having a hundred or several hundred families, the resulting conditions would not make for separation and isolation. They would have intimate intercourse only with one another, would establish a church and school of their own nationality, and would even develop their own town and elect their own local government officials. The company's officers admitted that this would possibly happen; they said that the company had not yet decided how large a colony of one nationality, in the same locality or neighborhood, it would develop.

The personal opinion of one of the officials was that from fifteen to twenty-five families of one nationality in the same neighborhood would not be a source of danger because of becoming clannish and remaining un-Americanized for a generation or a number of generations. A colony of such size would not be able to maintain a church and school of its own nationality. As to the danger of inbreeding, the officials pointed out that the church rules and state laws would prohibit it, and said that, furthermore, the immigrants, having friends and acquaintances elsewhere in the country, would marry into other groups of immigrants.

LEARNING AMERICAN WAYS

The writer, while visiting the company's colonies, was struck by the fact that the settlers who said they had been in this country from eight to ten years understood and spoke very little English, seemed to be rather shy, and in general appearance lacked signs of American influence. Overalls and the tools in their hands were almost the only betraying marks of the American environment.

The investigation developed the fact that most of the settlers had lived previously in the congested "Little Polands" in Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee. The settlers explained that they lived there as in the old country, having their own Polish church, Polish schools, Polish banks, Polish stores, Polish books and papers, speaking Polish in their homes, in the streets, and in social gatherings. Even in the factories where they worked, their fellow workers were often Poles; sometimes even the foreman was a Pole. There was almost no opportunity for coming in contact with the American ways of life and with the country's language.

Several settlers declared that they had learned more about America and had used English more during the last two years in the northern wilderness than during the previous seven or eight years in the city of Chicago. Settling on land, they came in contact with the American land agents, other company officials, government authorities, American banks and stores, and with American neighbors at the community meetings. Here in the wilderness they first found how badly they needed English and a knowledge of American ways. A number of parents started to learn English by taking lessons from their children, who themselves were learning English in the local public schools.

The company's officials stated, in confirmation, that the Polish settlers in their colonies were growing in dignity and self-reliance, that they were assuming American characteristics and an American bearing.

TWO POINTS OF VIEW

As the colonies of the company are comparatively young, it is impossible to foresee their future with certainty. So far they seem to be on a sound basis, and their success rather than their failure is to be expected. The soil is good and the settlers stick hard to their work on the land. The first colony founded seems to be over the danger line already. It is no longer under the financial control of the company, the settlers have secured loans outside, and their farms are progressing from the experimental stage to that of established security.

However, a settler expressed the following apprehension to the writer:

You see us, men and women, old and young, working here in the wilderness like beavers, clearing and digging, scraping and building. All are pressed hard by a strong hope of establishing a permanent home and of earning future independence. But we still live in makeshift houses, and so far only a few families are able to make a living, bare and meager, out of their clearings, diggings, and cows. The vast majority—almost all of us—have, at times, to leave the farm in care of women and children and look for work elsewhere—in Duluth, Chicago, Detroit—for the purpose of earning bread for the family on the farm. A number temporarily hire out to the company, but the latter's wages are considerably less than we get in the industrial centers.

You have heard the company's officials and seen their doings, and everything might seem to you to work smoothly for the benefit of the settlers. Is it not so? For instance, the company claims that it sells us tools at cost, but we already have found out in regard to a number of things that the company makes a fair profit on them. Again, the company claims that it runs the demonstration farms only for our benefit, but as a matter of fact the company's aim is, as we understand it, to build up a large farm estate on the best land of the tract, and to sell us its products, seeds, breeding stock, etc.; in other words, to make money out of demonstration. One hardly can object to this, except that the company claims that it is doing business with us "at cost," which is not so.

Almost in everything, even in our home life, we depend upon the good will of the company, and so far we have not much complaint to make against it. In general, it has treated us well under the existing circumstances, but we are a little apprehensive about our future. Suppose we, as settlers, finally succeed in making good, clear our land, and build up our farms, as expected by the company and hoped by ourselves. Will we then be free and independent of the company's control? We are afraid not. We will still have to transact our financial matters through the bank in which the company is interested, sell our products through the company's agency, etc., not because any law or stipulation would require this, but solely because the company, with all its business establishments, is here among us. The company is retaining river shores, town sites connected with certain business privileges, and the best pieces of land, as its demonstration farms. This means that the company, with its fatherly care for us, is going to remain with us for a long time to come.