The Labor enquirer., 1886-01-23
AMERICAN TENANT FARMERS.

II
j AMERICAN TENANT FARMERS. !
/ WITHIN Quarter: Of Century this
i Country Has Become as Bad as
/ Great Britain.
Chicago Herald.
Ina we'll advised sermon to young
people Rev. Mr.. Jackson, of the Cente-
nary church, expressed the hope that
no such land accumulations as had
cursed Ireland, where the tiller is not
the owner of the soil, would ever be
cou1tenanced in this country.
| Unhappily, America Is fast hurrying
to the very condition which the preacher
seems to regard as remote and scarcely
to be apprehended. Having possessed
the richest domain that ever fell to the
part of nation, America is to-day con-
fronted by the fact that, unable under
ordinary conditions to acquire more,
she is now possessed of available public
lands suitable for cultivation of no
greater extent than the area of the state
| Of Ohio. With amazing prodigalitv,
corrupt in many instances. reckless in
all. congress after congress has bestowed
the great patrimony of the country upon
irresponsible corporations, and in its
land laws has opened wide the doors to
to the cunning spectators. Uncle Sam
is no longer rich enough, as the old song
ran, to give us all farm, and the condi-
tions are now such that the arriving emf.
grant has no posi- BILE chance, unless in
some degree he is a capitalist. to become
the owner of the soil that he tills. His
one clance is to rent, with the prospect
that he will never do more than acquire
a bare existence. If he borrow his con.
dition is in nowise improved. The life
of tenant farmer must needs be hard
and eeaseless struggle for bread. When
he will have discharged his rent, or if
he is only nominally an owner borne
down by a heavy rate of interest, he
will find himself unable to accumulate
To 60 west in search Of the little gov ern-
ment land that remains Ile must have,
first, the cost of transportation, next, the
cost of entry, and then sufficient addi-
tional funds to purchase necessary i'm
plements, If he does not own these, and
maintenance for wear for himself and
his family. N
| The comfortable opinion prevails in
this country that agriculture, which is
one great source ofits wealth, is happily
conducted bv owners of the soil they
cultivate. It is the fashion to contrast
our situation with the deplorable condi.
ton of the European countries cursed
with landed aristocracy. But what are
the facts? 1t is disclosed by a recent
examination made bv Mr.. Gill, who
com municates the result of his study
to the North American Review, that
there are more tenant farmers in the
United States than in Great Britain,
that the labor of the tenants on lands
supports the titler not only but enables
a rapidly aceumulating class oflandlords
to live in utter idleness Here in Illi-
nois there are, according to the cen
sus of 1880, no less than $4,000 tenant
farmers. Their chance of ever acquir-
ing ownership in the soil that is titled
on shares is remote. An examination
ofthe laws of the various states dis
closes that the chapter-on leases is made
almost wholly in the interest of land
lords, and that the rights oftenants are
little more regarded. than under the
landlord system of Great Britain.
Almost insensibly America, rich in
virgin land beyond the dream of any
other country the sun5ever shone upon,
has built up the landlordism which the
people still fancy does not exist. The
farmer is indeed, as Mr.. Jackson says,
sovereign, but with this important
qualifcation-he must be proprietor.
Otherwise his lot is one of hopeless
drudgery, of ceaseless struggle. And the
American farmers who are not owners
exceed the proprietors. This lamenta-
BILE situation has grown up during
a quarter ofa century when the greatest
| public domain in the world has been
lavished upon spectators aud has en-
riched the few at the expense of the
many. TEX. 4
| The excitement about home rule
ought not to blind us to the fact that the
state of affairs in Ireland is becoming
more and more serious. Far rents" as
they are called, are 50 grossly unfair
that the people are resisting their pay
ment and evictions are beginning.
What we do not understand are the
tferocious attacks on baiIiffs. These poor
wretcE,s are but paid underlings and to
half kiil them is surely cowardly Lon
4 don Justica 445 ikt+s