schools, a high-class hotel. The town is dependent upon one great paper-mill. This consumes the entire 25,000 horse-power from the river and more, too. The operations require an energy of 30,000 horse-power, all told. Five thousand of this comes from steam, necessary not for motive power, but for the heating and "cooking" operations of paper-making. For steam-generation fifty thousand tons of Pocahontas coal a year are consumed. The pulp-grinding machinery makes the heaviest demand upon the waterpower, consuming 20,000 out of the available 25,000 horse-power. The maximum output is much greater than from the average power. For the period of high water there is an extra battery of "grinders" that turn out vast quantities of pulp against paper-making needs in the season of drought. Ten thousand tons of pulp-sheets are stacked in the yard for this purpose. The output of this mill is from 160 to 180 tons of news paper a day, shipped in cars direct from the mill to all parts of the country.

The establishment of this great industry in the heart of the wilderness furnishes an argument for the opponents of railway rate-making by the national government. The enterprise de pended upon whether the freight rates charged upon the output would enable them to compete with other paper-makers nearer the markets. The railway management at once agreed upon an exceptionally low rate that meant only a

slight profit. It was figured that ample compensation would come from the "back-haul" of supplies for the mill and the large community to be built up; also from the general development of the region thus encouraged. But had

the desired rates been regarded as a precedent for correspondingly low rates on commodities that offered no such inducement,-as might be demanded under governmental rate-making,-the railway management would not have consented to the proposition.

A NEW TOWN FOUNDED ON "PAPER."

Wherever a river with rapids and falls runs between banks of favorable contour we have the potentiality of power and industry. Such a place is Sprague's Falls, on the St. Croix River-the southeastern frontier of Maine. Here is one of the early settled regions of Maine and New Brunswick. Calais is hard by; on the Canadian side of the river lies St. Stephens. A section of one of the oldest railways in the United States runs past the falls,-now absorbed in one of the newest lines in Maine, -the Washington County Railway. Being a coast line, this railway had to meet the competition of little schooners and their low rates. The company became bankrupt, and the line, joined to the great Maine Central, became a part of the yet greater Boston & Maine system. With its improved traffic possibilities, the railway is putting a new face upon things in

the once flourishing but lately decadent coast country. A large pleasure-travel has developed; the movements of sportsmen, hunters and fishermen, make this traffic last practically throughout the open months. Local habits are changing all along the line. The arrival of a schooner at a little port meant the laying in of storekeepers' and household supplies for months ahead. Now the people are learning to depend upon all-rail transportation. Fresher supplies are obtained more frequently and in less quantity. Better railway facilities are also encouraging local industries; prompt transportation in carload lots direct to destination offsets for many products the low rates for water-borne freights.

The valley of the St. Croix, on both sides of the international boundary, is a vast forest, spangled with big lakes and rich in untouched spruce. This, combined with water-power, spells "paper." Capital has been quick to perceive the fact, and much of the capital has come from the Canadian side; lumbering has meant riches at St. Stephens, and the New Canada is alert for industrial opportunity. So the new town of St. Croix is growing up at Sprague's Falls. Here we have the combination of hustle and thoroughness characteristic of industrial construction by wholesale. With the opening of last spring a swarm of workers camped upon the site, building the massive mills, the big dam forty feet high, a new railway branch and a new bridge, and the completely designed new town, its streets slashed through thickets of fir-balsam and spruce. St. Croix starts with thorough municipal equipments, tastefully built cottages, restrictions on

lots, and for the permanent reservation of a higher-class residential district a public park by the river-side. All this in one year.

AN INDUSTRIAL CENTER IN WESTERN MAINE.

In western Maine the creation of a modern industrial community from the ground up finds a most complete illustration at Rumford Falls,-a new railway, a magnificent water-power, large and diversified industries, a highly organized urban community. In various respects the development is ideal, worthy of the rarely beautiful site at the foot of the White Mountain range. All this is the fruit of the organizing genius of one of the most remarkable of our American captains of industry, Mr. Hugh J. Chisholm, of Portland, the president of the International Paper Company. Mr. Chisholm, born in Canada of Scotch parents, began active life as a newsboy on the Grand Trunk trains. When little more than a boy he had built up a railway newsservice and a printing and publishing business. These things led the way to paper, and eventually to paper manufacturing.

Rumford Falls is a child of the imagination. A near-by resident, the Hon. Waldo Pettengill, long enthusiastic about the enormous waterpower wasted in this lonely Androscoggin gorge, called Mr. Chisholm's attention to its possibilities. The latter was quick to appreciate the wonderful opportunity. The neighboring lands were quietly secured. But without railway facilities the power was worthless, and railways were many miles distant. The nearest, the Grand Trunk, was managed from London. The direct

ors lacked imagination; they could see no good of building a costly branch to a waterfall far off in the wilderness. At length Mr. Chisholm bought up a little railway that ran a few miles from the Grand Trunk, extending it to a junction with the Maine Central, and in the other direction up the Androscoggin Valley to Rumford Falls, and eventually to the Rangeley Lakes. At Rumford Falls the Androscoggin makes a plunge of one hundred and eighty feet. This This means 54,000 horse-power, all told. Only about half of this power is yet utilized. A recent State report on Maine's water-power says that there still remains undeveloped 48,000 horse-power in the Androscoggin alone.

Mr. Pettengill's farmer neighbors, unimagina tive as the Grand Trunk directors, remained incredulous. The falls had always been there, they said, and always would be just as they had been. Even when the colossal construction-work was well advanced, few in the whole region had any faith that anything would come of it. Failure was generally predicted; it was to be a "folly." Now where twelve years ago there was nothing, something like eight thousand people are clustered, a little city, picturesque in site and environment, uncommonly attractive in the use made of these possibilities.

undertaking was thoroughly organized to this end. Independent, though allied, corporations were formed for each particular activity. The railway company looked after transportation; the power company developed the water-power and dealt with the various manufacturing interests; the realty company planned the town lots, built and let dwellings and places of business; the water and light company provided watersupply and electric lighting. These various functions are all discharged in perfect coördination. Practically the same persons are in each company. A national bank and a trust company furnish financial facilities for the place, the trust company having also a savings-bank department. To a considerable extent the same persons are also interested in the several industrial corporations whose activities stand at the base of things.

The carefully studied plan of the town has a marked irregularity. The street lines have been skillfully adapted to the uneven site. The short street from the station crosses the river on a handsome bridge of reënforced concrete. The main fall, a magnificent cataract about a hundred feet high, terminates a striking vista up the river from the business section. Some care has been taken to conserve the natural charm of the river's rushing wildness. At all prominent points not needed for industrial purposes the banks have been preserved for park purposes. There is a consistent intention to make the promi nent buildings worthy of a first-class municipal

ity. Two new blocks for stores and offices owned by the realty company, designed by two of the foremost architectural firms in the country, would be a credit to any great city.

The most striking work of the realty company is Strathglass Park, named in honor of the Scotch village whence came Mr. Chisholm's parents across the Atlantic. It is a residential park, and it looks as if it might belong to the choicest suburb of a metropolitan city, -say Brookline, in Greater Boston. But the residents are employees of the mills! Along a fairly uniform slope of the valley two long paral lel streets converge in semicircles at either end. Large detached houses of brick,

with slate roofs, harmoniously varied in architecture, stand with ample lawn space about them. The grounds are carefully looked after by the company. Fine cement sidewalks are bordered by turfed margins with shade trees. The houses are divided into convenient apartments. About to be built are a monumental gateway and a handsome casino.

Strathglass Park originated in Mr. Chisholm's idea that successful paper-making depended upon good workmen; that for good workmen good homes were essential. The suites are rented upon a lease. The rent is figured to cover interest and certain other fixed charges. There are also special deposits in advance; one is for anticipated taxes, another for maintenance charges. At the end of the year, according as these costs have been less or more, a deduction is made or an additional payment is required. In this way the lessees, as citizens, are directly interested in keeping the tax-rate low; as tenants, also, in taking the best care of their premises. In a neighboring quarter of the town the realty company has built for operatives comfortable wooden cottages, with all modern conveniences. The rental includes free electric light as well as water.

SUBSIDIARY INDUSTRIES.

Rumford Falls illustrates the economic principle of coördinated industries. The International Paper Company has here a great nine-machine mill. This and its several other Androscoggin

mills above and below turn out a total of five hundred and fifty tons of paper a day. A second great mill at Rumford Falls, that of the Oxford Paper Company, is planned to be the greatest producer of book-paper in the world. Here all the postal cards for the United States Government are made,-three million cards a day, producing a postal revenue of about eight million dollars a year. Subsidiary manufactures

allied with these two mills illustrate the two great industrial principles,-economy in labor, economy in material. The largest paper-bag factory in the country stands next door to the former mill, and utilizes the greater portion of its product. The paper-mill employees are nearly all men. But in the paper-bag factory something like half of the seven hundred employees are women and girls. The light and profitable employment for the female part of the population thus assured largely increases the total earnings of the community.

A large envelope factory is subsidiary to the Oxford mill. In a paper-mill the waste,-trimmings, defective paper, etc.,-all goes back into pulp. Hence, nothing is actually wasted. In envelope-making a considerable portion of the paper is represented by trimmings. Here it all returns on the spot to the paper-mill. The economy is therefore enormous. A feature at Rumford Falls is the distribution of electricity through the town for power purposes. This encourages

the diversified minor industries that tend to grow up in such a community.

THE

HE American is an optimist and a braggart concerning the agriculture of his native. land. He refers with pride to the great part that the United States plays in feeding and clothing the nations of the earth; to the advanced agricultural methods of to-day and the minimizing of hand labor through the extended use of machinery. The American farmer is held up as a type,-one of the best types, too,of the American citizen. Foreigners are impressed with his independence, his prosperity, and his social condition. The literature and speech of Americans have much to do with agriculture, and the influence of such publicity is being felt, in that farming is coming to be recognized more and more as a business and a profession rather than as a dull, laborious method of obtaining a livelihood. Such optimism concerning agriculture, in our literature and our speech, is good. The American farmer to-day does enjoy more advantages than any other class of toilers in our nation. As a class, the farmers are prosperous,-some are failures financially, and others have become rich from the management of their lands.

SMALL RETURNS FROM FARM INVESTMENTS.

In spite of the apparently prosperous condition of the American farmer, it must be admitted by any one who is a close observer of agriculture that business system and method have not progressed as rapidly in agriculture as in the other great industries of the nation. The financial prosperity of the American farmer to-day is due more to the advantages he has had in unlimited soil fertility and large acreage, in the use of improved machinery and from the appreciation in land values, rather than from successful management or the application of strict business methods. Investments in agriculture from a business standpoint are not highly productive. In many instances, farmers owning land worth from $75 to $100 per acre would be better off financially were they to invest their capital in city industries and work for wages at some trade.

High-priced land in the middle West rarely yields an income to exceed 6 or 8 per cent., and if interest on investment (at commercial rates) be considered as an item of expense in the farm business, the net profit will be reduced