it would attain its purpose if it were selfsupporting.but if this tramp colony proves a success, the same system could be applied not only to take care of all our dependent and criminal classes, but to play an important rôle in the production of the necessaries of life.there ought to be three distinct classes of colonies: the criminal farm colony surrounded by walls where the strictest discipline would be enforced, and within which the inmates would be confined to intensive cultivation, handicrafts, and some form of machine industry.the forced labor colony for misdemeanants and ablebodied vagrants and paupers where larger liberty would be enjoyed; and the free labor colony where there would be no regulation except that indispensable in all institutions.perhaps to these should be added probationary colonies as described in the elimination of the tramp, p.59, for those as to whose willingness to work there is doubt.these would furnish the test so much sought by english poor law guardians.from these probationary colonies the inmates would be graduated down to the forced labor colony, or up to the free.so also criminals would be prepared for social life by passing through the forced labor colony, and inmates of the forced labor colony prepared for social life by passing through the free labor colony.in a coöperative commonwealth free labor would have no objection to industrial work conducted within these colonies, because the less work there is to be done in any given industry, the less hours would the workers in that industry have to give to it.so that every industry carried on in the colony would by so much diminish the amount of goods produced outside by that industry, and to that extent relieve the free labor engaged therein.this great objection to penal labor being removed, the state will have an advantage in distributing the industries throughout its colonies according to geographical conditions.the criminal colonies will naturally be more industrial in their character than the agricultural, because they will have to be operated within prison walls.they will nevertheless include truck gardening and horticulture.[176] penal colonies, therefore, will group themselves around great water power, which will be retained by the state and not dissipated by the gift of franchises to private corporations.[177] misdemeanants and tramps will preferably be set to work on large farms which, because of their size and remoteness from towns, will render escape difficult.the methods adopted in switzerland for making escape difficult if not impossible, are fully described in the elimination of the tramp.[178] as in these colonies there is more or less work to be done all the year round, it would be indispensable to build in connection with them factories which could be operated during the winter months, the state being careful to limit the factories to the production of things already socialized, so as not to compete injuriously with private industry.free labor colonies ought to be located near large centers of population, not only because of the character of the things they will produce, for example, milk, vegetables, and fruits, which need a market at the door, but also because it is in these great centers that pauperism and unemployment express themselves in largest figures and in greatest variation.in these colonies inmates will remain the shortest terms, and it is important, therefore, to have them in proximity to places where the inmates are likely to live in order to avoid the heavy expense of transportation.free labor colonies will be engaged in the production of milk for two reasons: the hygienic importance of milk is so great that it should as much as possible be removed from the competitive field.it is important that milk should be produced as near as possible to the town where it is to be consumed.it is wiser, therefore, to assign the production of milk to the free labor colony, near the city, than to the penal or forced labor colony that would be comparatively remote.but it must not be imagined that the production of milk can be confided exclusively to such inexpert labor as that of the inmates of free labor colonies.the production of milk can only be entrusted to careful experts receiving a relatively high rate of wages.free labor colonies, therefore, will have to be provided with a corps of men and women trained in the production of milk and dairy products.it may be suggested that the fact that dairy products must be entrusted to trained experts is a reason for not associating the production of milk with free labor colonies.this objection disappears when account is taken of the fact that dairy farms should have connected with them such subsidiary products as chickens and pigs.skimmed milk is of the greatest value in these subsidiary productions; so also is the garbage that would accumulate in such an institution as a farm colony.the care of pigs and poultry can be confided to defectives such as we are likely to find in a free labor colony.it furnishes work all the year round; it enriches the soil rather than impoverishes it.free labor colonies, therefore, will be engaged in the production of milk, pigs, poultry, vegetables, fruits, and flowers.they will be furnished with grain by the forced labor colonies in the states where grain can be cultivated on a large scale; and by distributing industries among the three classes of colonies and arranging for exchange of products, the whole colony system ought not only to be selfsupporting, but to produce more than the colonies can themselves consume.the disposition made of these products will be studied in connection with the problem of distribution.under such a plan, no pauperism or even poverty will be tolerated in the towns.as soon as a man, woman, or family is incapable of selfsupport in the competitive field, or because of sickness or accident in the coöperative field, they will be taken out of the town where their presence is an expense and a nuisance not only to themselves, but to the community, to a free farm colony where health can be restored and defectives put to the best use possible.farm colonies in the rocky mountain region where sheep and cattle can be fed on public land for nine or ten months in the year, and fed by hand during the remaining two or three months, will furnish cattle and sheep to municipal packinghouses that will distribute meat with the economy of the postoffice system from door to door.state farm colonies in the graingrowing districts will furnish grain to all the other colonies and wheat to municipal bakeries that will distribute bread with the economy of the postoffice system from door to door.free labor colonies adjoining cities will produce milk, butter, and dairy products, pork and pork products, chickens, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers and distribute them with the economy of the postoffice system from door to door.state factories distributed amongst penal colonies in accordance with the geographical conditions that will make them most efficient, will furnish garments, shoes, hats, etc., to the other colonies at the cheapest possible price.by the side of these productions, there will be maintained exactly the same system of private ownership that exists today with all the virtues that emulation produces free from the fatal consequences that make failure result in misery, pauperism, prostitution, vagrancy, and crime.for so long as the individual prospers in his private enterprise, he will be encouraged to maintain it; whereas the moment he fails, he will come within the state system under which the private individual having proved his inability to support himself and his family under the competitive plan, will be shown how to support himself and his family by state institutions that will have reduced this task to a science.that the state will occasionally fail in this task is to be expected.but what is the worst consequence that can result from failure? nothing more than the maintenance of the competitive system in every field of industry where the state fails.if the state fails to furnish good bread, private initiative will take the baking of bread from the state and will keep it until the state succeeds in furnishing bread to the taste of the public.if the state fails in furnishing garments, private initiative will keep garment making in its hands except in so far as the state makes garments for the inmates of its own institutions.many problems connected with this system of production will occur to the mind of the intelligent reader.these problems, however, will be found to belong more strictly to the question of distribution and government controltwo subjects that cannot be intelligently discussed until the question of private property in land has been answered.§ 5