Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-08

Slaall farming, tasn, auOS W siio SS5AS
gate of human energy. 1t produces
homes, and in It's homes the strength Of
q nation resides. It augments the sum
of human love; it gives the man Bome-
thing to love as well as to work for, and
labor is the slave of love. 1t cultiVates
a spirit of independence. and therefore
brings into the public field class Of cit
liens who think and acs for themselves,
and contribute Of their thought to the
governmental problems IN which they are
factors. Small farming therefore exercises
direct influence upon the national char
aoter, and is material to It's formation and
development. II agriculture, as pur-
suit, is absorbed by the few, their iniu-
eaoe will be that of the tenant rulers.
Lsndlordism can have no place naturally
in a system of government Ike ours. All
it's sympathiea are opposed to the indie
pendence Of the many. The occupant of
land as tenant has no fixed home Of ne
cessity or right, and as a consequences he
has no ambition to surround himself with
those things that contribute to the true
home and add to the strength of his coun-
try. AS he is q tenant, he is in greater
or a less degree at the mercy of his land
lord, and as result ia more or less sub
seryient to him, and with the growth of
generations this subserviency must in
crease, and by natural processes eliminate
the spirit of independence absolutely,
which is so necessary to the life of patri-
otto sentiment. In short, with the de-
crease of land ownership among the masses,
and the absorption of the soil by the few,
with the necessity still remaining of earning
livelihoods by soil culture, there must be a
proportionate increase of a servile DEEPEN
dency unnatural in and dangerous to a
republic. We cannot afford to invite in
this country the agrarian movements which
under the Roman republic resulted from
the exclusion of the people from the owner
ship of lands in Italy, and turned the soil
over to slaves for cultivation.
In one section of this State there may be
pointed cut continuous large land holdings
by less than half dozen men, which ex-
tend no less than thirty-six miles. In that
whole distance there are no rising church
spires school houses are rare institu-
tions in the community, which is after
all no community, since it is composed
mainly of few employees of uncertain
domicile, and no personal interest in the
region. In that whole distance there is
no home of the independent farmer, no
hum of business, no cheerful freight Of
cottage hearth, no groups of romping chill.
dren, no gatherings of youths in rural
sports, no societies for mutual advance.
ment and amusement, no busy plows held
by the hard hands of agricultural mon
archs-nothing but one unbroken, cheer
less, deathly monotone OF wheat. The
dullest fancy can paint the piesure Of that
region were il occupied, as it should be,
by six or seven hundred small and indie
pendent farmers, with homes over which
they were kings in their own right, and
whose title no man dare dispute. These
SIX hundred would beautify and diversity
the land by their industry. They would
add to the strength of the State, and take
place in its counsels; they would be the
proud parents of hundreds of children
born to the soil, and with life leases in the
welfare of their country, and unfading
hopes in expectancy for its future.
In a political view of the question, equal
ly as important considerations srise. The
lands in the hands of the few, to the ex-
clusion of the many agriculturists, means
the placing of political power in the
hands of the large land owners, and con-
sequently the laying of the foundations OF
an aristocracy. Landed estates are the
coTner.stonss Of all aristooratic structures,
and as large land holdings can only be en-.
joyed by the mcneyed class, as conse-
Quence all OF GuAG Glass VIII iluu EESir Uesb
interests in favoring the possessors of
large land holdings. As result there
will grow up greater unity of interest
among capitalists in agriculture, and cap
itslists in money, which will widen the
breach still more, that is already too broad
between wealth aud dependency.
The suggestions that present Themselves
OF this subject are well nigh endless, and
some must of necessity be put aside for
subsequent consideratioR-as the special
relation of viticulture to the system of
large land holdings; the experience of the
people Of Dakota in settling up their fertile
lands; the incoming of English capital TO
secure vast tracts of land the revelations
made by the figures of the United States
Land Office; the immediate influence of
land absorption upon immigration the
influence upon social culture, the devel-
opment of natural resources and the pro-
motion of the better systems of agricult.
ure, etc.