Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
There will be no attempt to enforce upon the Colonists the rules and
regulations to which Salvation Soldiers are subjected. Those who are
soundly saved and who of their own free will desire to become
Salvationists will, of course, be subjected to the rules of the
Service. But Colonists who are willing to work and obey the orders of
the Commanding Officer will only be subject to the foregoing and
similar regulations; in all other things they will be left free.
For instance, there will be no objection to field recreations or any
outdoor exercises which conduce to the maintenance of health and
spirits. A reading room and a library will be provided, together with
a hall, in which they can amuse themselves in the long winter nights
and in unfavourable weather. These things are not for the Salvation
Army Soldiers, who have other work in the world, but for those who are
not in the Army these recreations will be permissible. Gambling and
anything of an immoral tendency will be repressed like stealing.
There will probably be an Annual Exhibition of fruit and flowers,
at which all the Colonists who have a plot of garden of their own will
take part. They will exhibit their fruit and vegetables as well as
their rabbits, their poultry and all the other live-stock of the farm.
Every effort will be made to establish village industries, and I am not
without hope but that we may be able to restore some of the domestic
occupations which steam has compelled us to confine to the great
factories. The more the Colony can be made self-supporting the better.
And although the hand loom can never compete with Manchester mills,
still an occupation which kept the hands of the goodwife busy in the
long winter nights, is not to be despised as an element in the
economics of the Settlement. While Manchester and Leeds may be able to
manufacture common goods much more cheaply than they can be spun at
home, even these emporiums, with all their grand improvements in
machinery, would be sorely pressed to-day to compete with the hand-loom
in many superior classes of work. For instance, we all know the
hand-sewn boot still holds its own against the most perfect article
that machinery can turn out.
There would be, in the centre of the Colony, a Public Elementary School
at which the children would receive training, and side by side with
that an Agricultural Industrial School, as elsewhere described.
The religious welfare of the Colony would be looked after by the
Salvation Army, but there will be no compulsion to take part in
its services. The Sabbath will be strictly observed; no unnecessary
work will be done in the Colony on that day, but beyond interdicted
labour, the Colonists will be allowed to spend Sunday as they please.
It will be the fault of the Salvation Army if they do not find our
Sunday Services sufficiently attractive to command their attendance.
SECTION 3.--AGRICULTURAL VILLAGES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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