Page:The Slippery Slope.djvu/176

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156
THE MINORITY REPORT

pocket-money, which is frequently irregularly supplemented by small sums sent by their wives from the money received for their maintenance. Most of the men live in the main College building, which is a sort of barrack; a small number known as "settlers," who are specially selected for emigration, migration, or life on a small holding, live with their families in cottages on the estate. These cottages are quite unlike ordinary labourers' cottages, and can only be described as of the "garden city" style of architecture. They are picturesque, but the accommodation is not always very suitable. Adjoining them are outhouses which, in order to give the "settlers" a foretaste of life in the backwoods, are of rude "Canadian" construction. There are organised games and recreations, but, as they have not yet been made compulsory, many of the men on the wrong side of forty do not feel moved to take part in them. In the evenings there are lectures, which are compulsory for some of the men, chiefly upon subjects connected with farm or garden, but varied occasionally by matters of general interest. For example, the distinguished authors of the Minority Report gave them, not long ago, a lecture upon the "Problem of the Unemployed," and another upon the "Sweating System." The men are also encouraged to write essays, chiefly upon agricultural subjects, and often write them very well. The Londoner is very quick-witted in such matters. There is no doubt, moreover, that many of the men work well when their task is set them under the supervision of the able farm manager. Their behaviour is usually unexceptionable, and the reports from week to week are that everything is going well. But the question still remains whether this is the sort of training which makes men, or whether the "institutional" atmosphere