WCP1535

Letter (WCP1535.1314)

[1]

29th. May 1908.

Dear Sir,

I am so sorry that I have made any mistake about the Starnthwaite experiment.1 I always understood that in its earlier stages it carried out Mills’2 idea, and that not until later did it depart from that. I have seen that stated very frequently and have never noticed a contradiction. Towards the end, I know, it changed completely, and in no particular was like the original proposals.

Yours very sincerely, | J. Ramsay MacDonald [signature]

1
In 1892 the Home Colonisation Society, founded in 1887 by Herbert Vincent Mills, bought a small farm at Starnthwaite (near Kendal) where by 1893 22 settlers worked and lived. However, soon disagreements erupted and 14 settlers were expelled (including the later Labour MP Dan Irving). In 1900 Mills deserted the project and handed the land over tot eh Christian Union for Social Service.
2
Herbert Vincent Mills. British Unitarian minister and utopian. In 1886 he published Poverty and the State and in 1888 was asked to give evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Poor Laws. In 1887 he founded the Home Colonisation Society and in 1892 founded the Starnthwaite community near Kendal.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1535.1314)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Lester, Ahren [2013-06-28]

Please cite as “WCP1535,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1535