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Page 5
The Madrid newspapers are saying very bitter things about the United
States for not punishing the persons connected with these affairs. They
declare that we make a pretence of taking them prisoners to satisfy
Spain, and then set them at liberty to please ourselves.
* * * * *
It would seem that the reports from the Philippine Islands are as
unreliable as those from Cuba.
It was only last week that we heard that the rebellion was on a stronger
footing than ever, and that there was little chance that it would soon
be put down.
This week a steamer from Japan brings the news that the Governor-General
of the Philippines has issued a proclamation that the rebellion is at an
end, and announcing that Spanish rule had been re-established.
It will be interesting to know whether this is really true or merely a
statement of the same kind as those General Weyler has been making for
so many months.
* * * * *
A curious experiment is being tried in Tennessee.
A co-operative town has been established by a few workingmen, and from
all accounts it seems to be a great success.
The town is called Ruskin, and at the present time has seventy families
in it.
In this town all men are considered equal, every man, and woman too,
receiving the same amount of wage for his labor, whether it be skilled
or unskilled. The school teacher receives the same pay as the day
laborer; all stand on an equal footing.
When a man wishes to go and live in Ruskin, he has first to ask for
permission to settle there. The Ruskinites own their town, and are
careful not to allow any people to settle in it who are not likely to be
agreeable to them.
To every person who wishes to join them they send a list of questions,
asking the would-be settler what his ideas are on certain points.
If the answers are unsatisfactory, the applicant is told that there is
no room for him in Ruskin.
If, however, his ideas agree with those of the rest of the community,
his name is put up for membership, and he is elected by ballot, as he
would be to a club.
When elected, the new member is obliged to pay an initiation fee of $500
toward the general funds of the town, and he and his family are then
welcome to join the settlement as soon as they see fit.
When they arrive they are given a house and lot rent free. There are no
taxes to pay in Ruskin; everything is free but furniture and food.
Schools and school-books, doctors, medicines, all are free; the family
washing is even undertaken by the community free of charge.
In return for these advantages the family is required to work.
The father must be willing to do any task that is assigned to him,
without complaint. It does not matter if he has never handled a spade in
his life, he must dig if required to, and dig to the best of his
ability.
The payment in Ruskin is not in dollars and cents, but hours' labor,
notes of one, five, and ten hours' value being printed, and passing for
currency in the town.
The community allows each man the value of fifty hours' labor a week,
his wife the same amount, and his children twenty hours each.
The husband is required to work the full time for the community; the
wife is allowed four hours of the day to work for her home, and need
only give five hours to the general good. The four hours that she spends
in her housework are, however, credited to her as hours of labor,
because she is benefiting the community by keeping an orderly home.
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