Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1886-01-30
LANDLORDS AND TENANTS
IN AMERICA.

kLiS AIN "'aA ~ 1900
interest by all Native Americans:
The land question is one to which the
Journal has not infrequently called at.
tention, and evidences have quite often
of late made themselves felt in various
ways and places with convincing force,
that the much neglected land question
has become a present issue. That we
have squandered our vast land resources
like the spendthrift who finds himself
in possession of a fortune so ample as
not to know the value Of money, and
that, like him, we have been the prey
Of false friends and crafty schemets, Of
the "eet.money .honestly-if-youcan but
get money" stripe, is sadly true. and is
at last beginning to dawn upon the
opaque darkness, not of American igno.
rance, but what is perhaps worse, Amer
lean indifference. 1t remains for for.
eiener to call our attention most urgently
to another phase of the land question,
to waken US most rudely from the leth.
arsic slumber in which we have been
for the last 100 years on this land ques-
ton. In the last number Of the Narfh
american ReviesV is an article on "Land.
lordism in America" by brilliant
young Irish journalist, Thomas P. Gill,
now, by the selection of Mr.. Parnell,
and the result Of the last general cleo
ton in Great Britain and Ireland, an
NJ. P, representing an Irish constituent
cy in the British Parliament. BY the
few prefaratory remarks OF the editor,
we find that Mr.. Gill was deputed by
the North Ameviean R<vi<sO "to person.
ally investigate the present condition Of
landlordism in the States Of Illinois,
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota"
The article in question is his report.
Apart from the general question Of land
waste and land frauds, to which Mr..
Gill calls attention, in language which
owes its force to its simplicity and d.
RICHNESS, he makes report on the spec ial
object Of his investigation, which would
unquestionably, if the bald facts, un,
sustained by supporting evidence, were
to be presented to the American people,
elicit 4 general and somewhat indig
nant denial. Mr.. Gill is quite right
when he says, "It is hard to say which
is more surprising: the extent to which
the system popularity known, as land
lordism has gained footing on Ameri.
can soil, or the ignorance OF the Ameri-
can people about the matter. The
average American has a vague but
rooted idea that the agriculture Of his
country is carried on by farmers who
are the owners Of the farms they till"
Such is undoubtedly the case, and
now for Mr.. ellis facts. In 1880 &C
cording to the census, there were in the
United States 1, o24, COL farms rented by
tenants in the United States. Allowing
for the five years elapsed since the cen.
sus, at a modest calculation, an increase
in tenant holdings of rs per cent. would
give the present number as 1880, 900
or by comparison with England and
Wales, Scotland and Ireland, an excess
Of tenant farms over the British Isles o.
at least 200, 900, the total number ir
Great Britain and Ireland being I,o6o,
I27. "ln the State of Illinois alone
which is neither an old eastern nor a
southern State, there are, with less pop
ulation, nearly. 10000 more tenant
farmers than there are in the ancien
feudal kingdom of Scotland" Thi
emphasizes another, and a surprising
fact, namely, that the preponderanc'
Of tenant farms, leaving the old slave
States out Of the question, is not in the
Eastern States, but in the Northern
Central group, comprising Ohio, Indi
ana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Dakota
Nebraska, and Kansas, and it will sur
PRISE most of our readers to learn tina
there are in Iowa almost as many ten
ant farms (44,I74), as in Pennsylvania
(45,3a7). or in Indiana (46,oso), ant
more by nearly IL per cent. than ii
New York. Another fact which ha
impressed the North Aweriean Revie7c'
enterprising commissioner is the absence
Of law on the side of the tenant. TIL,
truth is, we presume, that vast as thu