The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-06-11
SMALL FARMS.

Mill, the practical philosopher,
and Emerson, the trancendentalist,
have both lavished superlatives on
the moral and commercial benefits
of land-owning. A vagrant, shift
ing population is n constant men
ace to law and order. 1t manu-,
features criminals and paupers
faster than schools, prisons, poor
houses, and scaffolds can take care
of them. The same population,
settled on little homesteads, will,
in the great majority of cases, be-
come sober, industrious, thrifty,
and supporters of the law. The
French peasantry have supported
the state and obeyed the powers
that be with religious fervor since
they acquired an interest in the
soil of France. They are always
on the side of the Government
which gives the best guarantee of
of the maintenance of law and or
der. Gambetta never excited
more alarm in monarchist minds
than when he made his famous
tour through the provinces, har-
arguing the peasantry in behalf
of the Republic. If the peasants
were once convinced that stability
of institutions would be secured
by the Republic, then, it was adj
mitted, the Republic would come.
English writer's have traced the
extinction of the old English yeo-
many to the absorption of small
holdings into large ones. The
greatest reason of the enormous
growth of our population has been
the chance offered every immigrant
10 become a landowner. The
poor of Europe, who there had no
chance to ever to possess more
land than Harold of England of
fered Harold of Norway,-"a grave,
6 feet by 2,"-have thronged here
in such numbers that nearly all the
arabic area has been occupied.
The westernmost farms of Kansas
and Nebraska edge the grasshop-
per and arid regions. Land-sub-
division has been carried nearly
far enough at the North. At the
south, however, thes old planta-
tons are still in great part kept
unbroken. The soil is worn out,
but the ownership of many acres
conveys social dignity In the South
as-its does, in Great Britain. 1t is
for this reason that the remnants
otthc old slaveholding aristocracy
cling to their vast estates, which
yield little but taxes.
This land monopoly system
should be broken up. The i'm
poverished land, well-nigh ruined
by successive cotton or tobacco
crops, should be sold in small lots
to mon who will give each one of
their scanty holdings the care it
needs. Capital is wanted. A
number of small capitals will do
more in agriculture than one large
capital of equal amount. The his
tory of France and Belgium and
the Rhine provinces of Germany
during the last half-century prove
this. If the South were full of
small farms, it would accumulate
wealth. far more rapidly. Prosper
ity would return to it, and by re-
turning cut many Gordian knot
of politics.
Some efforts in this direction
have already been made. A few
months ago, Louisiana planter
offered to sell ree-fourths of his
estate, in small lots and on long
time, to men WHO would live on
their land and cultivate it. 1t was
said at the time that his example
would find many imitators, but as
yet they have not appeared. The
South Carolina Tax-Payers' Con-
vention of 1874, appointed Com
missioner of Immigration and
adopted measures for breaking up
the vast plantations into little
holdings. The Convention, how
ever, wished to divide the land
among white emigrants, leaving
the vagrant blacks to their fate.
This was sheer folly. The negroes
and the native "poor whites as
land Owners would be producers
of wealth instead of mere consum-