Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
(1) The conveyance of each member actually living in the village to and
from London at the rate of sixpence per week. Each pass should
have on it the portrait of the owner, and be fastened to some
article of the dress, and be available only by Workmen's Trains
running early and late and during certain hours of the day, when
the trains are almost empty.
(2) The conveyance of goods and parcels should be at half the ordinary
rates. It is reasonable to suppose that large landowners would
gladly give one hundred acres of land in view of the immensely
advanced values of the surrounding property which would immediately
follow, seeing that the erection of one thousand or two thousand
cottages would constitute the nucleus of a much larger Settlement.
Lastly, the rent of a four-roomed cottage must not exceed 3s. per week.
Add to this the sixpenny ticket to and from London, and you have 3s. 6d.
and if the company should insist on 1s., it will make 4s., for which
there would be all the advantages of a comfortable cottage--of which
it would be possible for the tenant to become the owner--a good garden,
pleasant surroundings, and other influences promotive of the health
and happiness of the family. It is hardly necessary to remark that
in connection with this Village there will be perfect freedom of
opinion on all matters. A glance at the ordinary homes of the poor
people of this great City will at once assure us that such a village
would be a veritable Paradise to them, and that were four, five,
or six settlements provided at once they would not contain a tithe of
the people who would throng to occupy them.
SECTION 3.--THE POOR MAN'S BANK.
If the love of money is the root of all evil, the want of money is the
cause of an immensity of evil and trouble. The moment you begin
practically to alleviate the miseries of the people, you discover that
the eternal want of pence is one of their greatest difficulties.
In my most sanguine moments I have never dreamed of smoothing this
difficulty out of the lot of man, but it is surely no unattainable
ideal to establish a Poor Man's Bank, which will extend to the lower
middle class and the working population the advantages of the credit
system, which is the very foundation of our boasted commerce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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