New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-02

feudal obligations imposed upon their tenants
by the Dutch PATRONS; but these troubles were
not altogether a remonstrance against feudai-
ism, for they involved also strictly COM
munistic instruction against the undoubted
right of the landowner.
In this later combination of the Tenants
Mutual Society in Montgomery COunty-if 1t
is correctly represented IN Mr.. Clarke's affida-
yit-the communistic character IS much more
strongly marked. The relations between land
lord and tenant have not been complicated by
any auasi-feudal tenure, but have been per-
feetly simple and straightforward. The father
of the present owner of the estates leased
farms for two lives at an annual rent of 12l2
cents an acre. Since 1870 the leases have
been running out in great number, and the
controversy is all about the price at which
they ought to be renewed Mr. Clarke has
demanded from so cents to 50 so an acre.
In any ordinary civilized community it would
be recognized that he had right to charge
what he pleased, and that those who did not
like his terms were not obliged to deal with
him. The tenants had made a bargain with
the landlord at a fixed price for definite
time. The time had expired. The bargain
was at an end. A new one could only be
made by mutual consent. But the Tenants
Society, holding that it takes only one to make
a bargain-.provided that one is strong
enough-proceeded to fix maximum price
TO suit themselves, and to enact: 1. That
they would occupy Mr. Clarke's land whether
Clarke pleased or not; 2. That they would
pay what they pleased; 3. That nobody
should pay more than the society pleased, even
10 do 4
That the landlord who objected to this sum-
mary seizure of his property was an Oppressor
SO the tenants who accepted Clarke's terms
were driven away by violence; barns and
dwellings were burned; crops were destroyed !;
and a fertile region was reduced to waste.
1t is a sign of the times that gross as these
wrongs were, the tenants found many apollo
gists and even defenders. They pointed to
the homes In which they had lived for years
and the fields upon which they had labOred,
and asked if it was not bard that they should be
turned out, and lose all that they had invested
in improvements. Yes, no doubt it was hard
Poverty is always hard, and in times of dis
tress like these our feelings are daily wrung
by stories Of suffering for which it seems i'm
possible to find a remedy. But there
Is bUOHR III Ahio NVuh
try that whenever q community feels the
pressure of hardships for which it is not pre-
pared, it is entitled to relief by a suspension
of the decalOgue, or a sort of moral revOlu-
ton. The numerous tenants on this Clarke
estate took leases terminable ut q certain time,
and whatever improvements any of them made
on their farms were made with the certainty
before them that when their contract with the
landlord expired it would be in his power to
raise the rent. But they accepted the risk.
Their case is precisely like that of thousands
of individuals, counties, cities, States, that
have contracted debts which it is now ineon-
venient to pay. few years ago the whole
country was rushing into debt. Farmers
raised money on mortgage TO buy more land,
towns raised money to help railroads, cities
undertook extensive improvements. and the
United States Government was compelled to
borrow in order TO carry on the war; Now is
the time Of reaction when everybody is
pinched, and we hear a mad cry, from ocean
to ocean, that the people are ground down by
oppressors debts must be scaled or cancelled;
bonds must be wiped out with sponge |;
everybody who has lent land or money is a
vampire The burning of barns in MontgOm-
cry County is no worse than the repudIntion
of pledges in congresses and legislatures. Both
wrongs proceed from the same defective moral
sense.