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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 81

Citizenship

Citizenship.

Upon arrival at the Republic the boy or girl becomes a "citizen;" an active factor in the life of the little community. No rules are placed over him except the economic forces that are at work in the great Republic, and such laws as may have been made by his fellow "citizens". He is not told to do 'this' or to go 'there'. He must act as he would were he becoming a citizen of any town in the country. He must secure a position by which he can earn enough to pay all his expenses, board, lodging, laundry, tax, etc. The motto of the Republic is "Nothing without Labor". There is work for all to be found in the number of shops, on the farm, in the cottages or in the government. After securing his own job, for which he is paid in the equivalent of United States currency, he must arrange his board and lodging in one of the cottages. In this way he learns how to be self-supporting and self reliant. He pays for all he gets, nothing is gratuitous.

All boys and girls are not of the same earning capacity. So the cottages are run at different rates to accommodate them. The boy earning enough can secure the best accommodations, page 7 while he that is inclined to be indolent or lazy must put up with poorer fare. If a boy entirely neglects work there is no one to make him industrious, but he is in danger of arrest for vagrancy and of being placed in jail where he will have to work for the government and not for himself.