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In ordinary times the settlement and improvement of this railroad region might be left to the natural course of events. Adventurers can always be found among us, for the pioneering spirit is, in a great measure, indigenous; but we want men more conservative in character than are trappers and hunters. We want men who will establish themselves and remain during their lives occupants of this virgin soil; we want colonists who intend to found states and become the fathers of civilization in those regions. They should be able to appreciate the privileges attaching themselves to their peculiar form of colonization and the advantages secured to them, at the very start, from Government assistance and patronage. In what way this assistance can be meted out most justly, will be discussed in the next proposition.

PROPOSITION SIXTH.

Are invalid villages practicable, where the results of accumulated and combined labor shall be annually distributed among the families constituting them, according to the amount of work performed by their members.

The results of associated labor on a large scale, and as practised by many communities in this country, lead to the inference that the system is not in itself an impracticable one, nor has it generally been an unsuccessful one, wherever a proper spirit of harmony obtained among members, and a just government administered their affairs. The two conditions, therefore, which may ever be considered necessary, if not indispensable to success, are entire unanimity on the part of members, and competent leaders to guide and develop the resources of the community. It is true, doubtless, that such associations have usually sprung from religious enthusiasm, tending, in a degree at least, to wear the outward appearance of fanaticism, and in consequence have been popularly considered as its offspring; still, there can be no question that material incentives have influenced their creation full as much as spiritual motives. Lands farmed by these communities have risen in value; their products have both sought and found ready markets, and commercial gains have flowed into their treasuries, not undesired nor undervalued. The true incentives to increased activity have been found, not so much in the greater amount of religious liberty enjoyed (since no man in our country is debarred this boon), but in the actual profits derived from associated and voluntary labor on a large scale. This result is the key to the problem. Communities of this kind are feasible in every sense of the term, and, better still, they may be made highly prosperous, for none pretend to deny that they do much more than merely support their members. In fact, a large communal fund is annually acquired from the labor of the whole, and it only remains to divide and distribute this, pro rata, in order to make the relations of members to each other one of entire satisfaction. According as they work should they be rewarded; and according as they derive profit from the association, will their efforts to increase its aggregate productiveness be augmented. Rewards are the proper stimuli to industry in human society, and consequently the larger they are, the greater will be the efforts made to obtain them.

It seems to be conceded that small associations for the purposes of combined labor, without wages, eo nomine, but where all have some share in the profits, generally prove more successful than large ones, on many accounts. In the first place, because of their inferior size they are susceptible of more simple, and consequently of easier management. The family or patriarchal type of government still prevails in a certain measure -- a form in which there is more sympathy and a greater mutuality of interest between leaders and laity, because born of better acquaintance and confidence. The affairs of small communities as compared with large ones are notoriously managed with more honesty and discretion. The fact is patent without argument, and its reason flows from the operation of those laws of social organization which render unity of interest dependent upon concentration of interest. As a consequence, the more that interest is dispersed, and the field of activity extended, the less is the individual sympathy among members. Again, and with greater significance for us, small communities will necessarily be less expensive in the light of experiments than large ones; and, while risks of failure, involving heavy expenditures, might deter a Government from undertaking a large and multiform effort, which, although known to be politic, might yet require several years, and possibly renewed experiments to prove itself so, the same objection would not obtain against small and inexpensive undertakings designed to pave the way for greater and lasting enterprises. These considerations point clearly to the necessity of beginning invalid villages on a small scale, a justification for which will be found in the experience of Shakers, who divide themselves into what are termed families, or, more truly, aggregations of individuals amounting to a few scores, who labor and live together, although still recognized as members of the general community. The family, so called, bears the same relation to the community at large, that the States do to the General Government. It both governs itself, and is, in turn, governed by the whole. We cite these facts merely by way of analogy and illustration, not intending them as models for imitation. They undoubtedly bear upon the question of the feasibility of such communities, and in that light are worthy of consideration. Beyond this they need not detain us to examine them.