A Stake in the Land

by Peter A. Speek

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.

The field notes of the writer on the above statements of the settler were later shown to the company's head, who answered them as follows:

The expression "makeshift houses" is not fitting at all, for the buildings are warm and comfortable—hardwood floors, painted wall board inside. They are small, it is true. You can travel the country over, where pioneers are located, and I defy anyone to find a better-looking set of houses than those in any one of our colonies.

This man states that so far only a few families are able to make a living. In our older colonies I could show a list of cream checks which the different settlers are receiving from their cows; they will range all the way from $50 to $400 a month. This does not take into consideration the surplus live stock, potatoes, and other grains, which they sell from their farms. It is not expected that these new settlers will make money out of their crops for the first few years. It is expected that they will go away to the cities and work part of the time, while their families remain on the land. We state in our literature, as does all state literature, that the first two or three years contain hardships, and mean some working out to earn money, provided the settler comes without any funds whatever. The survey of all our settlers shows that while they have worked in the city ten to fifteen years, their entire savings have amounted to from $200 to $1,000. In the colonies, due to clearing, increased value of land, and earnings on their new farms, they have made from $500 to $1,000 a year. Surely this entails some hardship and some hard work.

The statement that some of them hired out to the company at less wages than are paid in industrial centers I'll agree was true during war times. We could not hope to compete with the wages paid in the munition factories of the East. The company does, however, pay standard wages, as high as are paid anywhere for the same class of labor.

The statement that the company claims that it sells the necessities at cost is not correct, for the company sells nothing. We have an iron-bound practice that in no case do we enter into the store or sales business. We furnish the original house, barn, tools, live stock, with the land. After that we sell nothing. We have often stated that if we would enter into the store business or selling business, it would drive others out, and it was poor practice for the company to engage in any business outside of colonization, for it involved too much detail and was a separate business. Colonization is a game all of itself, and if we divided our energies with other industries we could not succeed.

Some time ago a charge similar to this was made by some of the settlers, stating that the company was making profits on buildings. We immediately offered to have any lumber company agree to put up those buildings for the same price that we did. We asked for a large number of bids, and the nearest bid was one hundred and twenty-five dollars more than the price we were charging the settlers. We did not ask them to bid on only one house, but on one hundred houses a year. The reason we have been able to construct these buildings at such a low rate is that we have our own timber. When the price of lumber went up during war times, we did not increase our price one dollar. By building hundreds of houses each year, by eight or ten years of experiment, and keeping the same foreman and crew, we have been able to develop an efficiency that will allow us to put these buildings up at one hundred dollars less than the best bid we could get from anyone. We would gladly give up this detail work if some one else could do it, for we make no money on it and barely take care of costs and our necessary overhead.

As to furnishing cattle, we made an offer to one of the local Holstein and Guernsey associations, asking them if they would be willing to furnish all of our settlers cows at the same price we were asking, and deliver them at the same time we were delivering them; we could not get anyone to accept our offer. We have lost money right along on our live stock—not a great deal, but a small amount. So when your informer tells you that they purchase goods from the company at a fair profit to the company, the statement is not correct, for we sell no goods to them at all except what goes with the land. In no case do we buy anything from the settlers, and in no case do we sell anything to them, except the original equipment which goes with the original purchase.

The statement that the company's purpose is to reserve large demonstration farms is laughable, for we only have two demonstration farms reserved in our entire tract of 60,000 acres. Those two demonstration farms cover 2,500 acres. Already one demonstration farm in a colony where we sold practically all the land has been cut up into small farms and offered for general sale. The other demonstration farm is in the vicinity of our present settlement and is not now broken up.

In our oldest colony we reserve not a foot of land there. The cheese factory which we started we turned over to the co-operative organization. The warehouse which we constructed we turned over to a Co-operative Shippers' Association.