The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and ObservationNordhoff, Charles
History
The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation
Nordhoff, Charles
Collective settlements -- United States
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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