Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-01-04
wHERE ORR FALSE LAND PoLTCY
mas BRO UGIfT US.

HiO DNOLFUl w.
When we begin 70 Investigate ourselve.
many unpleasant things come 20 view
which It Is difficult TO persuade Us can be
true; but when the proof is so positive a.
20 admit Of no denial, the best thing e
be done is to confess the fault and SET
about to remedy It.
The North American Review for jam.
airy prints an article on 'LandloFdism in
America, /" which brings out astonishing
iacts We boast Of our national indie
pendence, and point with pity TO the
landlord.ridden countries Of Europe,
where the relies OF feudai system are a
I few powerful landlords and thousands Of
dependent tenanis. But when we ioOk
at home, as 50 few of us do, the pledre
we see is but little more pleasant than
that we have been bemoaning abroad.
The facts collected IN the census Of 1850
show that this country takes rank as pos
sesslng the Ia gest tcnant-iarmiDg class
now furnished by any nation There
were at that time l.O24,GOl farms rented
by tenants, and IA the dive years that have
elapsed since then tits estimated that the
number has grown % per cent, and that
it is now equal to more than million and
quarter In England, Scotland, Ire
land and Wales the number OF tenant
farmers Is l,0G9,l27. Thus tie United
states possesses to-day nearly quarter
Of million tenant.iarmers in excess Of
that nation whose deplorable condition
we have 80 frequently pointed ont.
Five years ago the number OF persons
engaged In agriculture was 1870, 4g5, and
OF this number only 2.9sl 1906 are given
as nominal owners OF the soil which they
cultivate, leavlag 4,GsG,ls7 persons at
tached to the soil VINO have no propric-
tary interest in it. They arc either renters
or hired laborers. Thus is oyerthrown at
d breath our boastful idea that our farm |
ers own their holdings. Not half of them /
own land They are tenants and day
aborcrs, and IN this respect 30 better off
han the pcasantry of England and Ire
and, whose woful condition we have
,ften pointed 10 and thanked God that
we are not as they are.
There arc further facts disclosed that
'ome nearer home to the readers OF this
,aper. Texas, which in 1880 stood tenth
n order Of population, occupied the IN.
ln ira flf. t.rht,,fnarnn 80 .,,,.,.1 T.
'er of tenant farms, Illinois alone ranktng
Is in this respect, With G5,iG5 tenant
arms we stand ahead of New York with
our times our population, ahead Of Penn
yNania and Ohio. But we can ac.
cunt for this, as the people OF those
tates sre largely devoted to manufactur-
lg, and the same proportion of them
ave no need to farm as tcumts or as
olders. But We stand ahead also OF
indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Kansas and
owa which are malay agricultural,
'hich have each a greater population
Ian Texas, aud have far fewer tenant
lrmcrs than we. The conclusion is ire
istible that, With larger population en-
aged in farming and fewer farmers as I
chants, there must be more owners OF 9
'nd IN cachof those states than Ia Texas. !
And yet no state offers such cheap
lnds as Texas, on such easy conditions.
Va haye millions Of acres offered at 50
u ihiry years time, at per cent. in !
crest Whot need OF $1,000 tenant farms, !
lien their occupiefs might acquire farms /
nd homes of their own with less outlay 5
labor than they now give for the bare
So OF the land on which they subsist?
heir failure to do SO cannot be charged 4
pom the thrittlessness of the tenants. The c
luse must be searched for deeper than {
at There must be something that keeps
EN- on rented farms when they might OBJ
in land OF their own on such favorable !,
rms, The land legislation of the state G
responsible for the great majority OF :,
ese homeless workers, living from hand !
mouth, with no future, no hope, no II
me, no prospect of owning land, ex v
pt that 6x0 plot in the cemetery which "
'ath gives to the meanest among us. A
nd policy that will invite our tenants to
mes OF their own Gu the boundless
estern prairles is demanded, and II not
needed, those who stand in the way of 3,
enactment will be obllterated by the
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