Seattle Spends $100 on Seeds to Put the Unemployed on the Land
The city council backs the Pingree plan, buying garden tools and seed for indigent residents to cultivate vacant lots and raise vegetables.
The Pingree plan for Seattle received the financial indorsement of the city at the weekly meeting of the city council last evening in the passage by both houses of an ordinance authorizing the board of public works to expend $100 in the purchase of seeds and farming implements to be turned over to those who accept land from the general committee having the movement in charge.
In the board of aldermen, Clise introduced the ordinance. He explained that it was for the purpose of aiding the Pingree land plan, more generally known as the Detroit land plan. He believed that if the ordinance passed it would be a great aid to the indigent people and assist them to earn a living by cultivating land and raising vegetables. Jordan moved that the ordinance be passed. Clise thought it well to allow any of the general committee having the Pingree plan in charge who were present to speak. Rev. W. F. Taylor took advantage of the invitation and simply asked that the council pass the ordinance. The finance committee passed it without a dissenting vote.
“It would be a great aid to the indigent people and assist them to earn a living by cultivating land and raising vegetables.”
The 1895 Pingree plan was an early American experiment in work relief and urban agriculture, born from the depression of the 1890s. Seattle’s current debates over homelessness, food insecurity and vacant land still ask whether public money should help people grow their own way out of poverty—or whether aid should take another form.
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