Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-08-07
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
LANDLoRplsM IN CONGRESS.
To Prohibit Alien FIR om Owning Lands In

To Prohibit Alien From Owning Lands in
the Uh..ed States.
Representative Oats of Alabama, from
the Judiciary Committee recently re-
ported to the House of Representatives
bill to prohibit aliens from acquiring
title or owning lands within the United
States. The bill is accom- panied by
report which sets forth with becoming
alarm the fact that certain noblemen OF
Europe, principally Englishmen. have
acquired and now own about twenty-one
million acres of land within the United
States, while various untitled foreigners
own large tracts, though the exact ex-
tent of their holdings is not known to
the committee. The report says that
this alien nonresident ownership will,
in course of time, lead to a system of
landlordism incompatible with the best
interests and free institutions of the
United States. Mr.. Scully, the untitled
Englishman, who owns ninety thousand
acres in Illinois and considerable tracts
further west and receives from them
rent of $500. 900 yearly, which he spends,
the report states, in Europe, is cited as
an illustration of the evil effects of alien
landlordism, and the bill proposes to pre-
vent any more foreigners from acquir-
ing title to lands in the United States,
and to compel those who now own lands
here to become naturaliZed or sell out.
The report goes on to state that, ac-
cording to the tenth census, there were
So 900 tenant farmers in the United
| States number larger than can be
found in any other country in the world,
and by implication it suggests that this
number is likely to increase. 1t says:
With the natural increase in popula-
ton and the 500, 600 foreigners who flock
to our shores annually and by COMPETE
| ton are reducing the wages of labor,
making the battle of life harder to win,
how few years hence to provide homes
| for our poor people is a problem for the
American statesmen to solve. The
multiplication of the owners of the soil
is corresponding enlargement of the
number of patriots, and every landowner
| in this country should owe allegiance to
| the United States.
The bill seems to aim chiefly at the
promotion Of patriotism by the artificial
| increase of the number of ''patriots,'
| but we fail to see what possible check it
offers to an increase in the number of
! tenant farmers or what solution of the
| problem of providing homes for the
| people under conditions that constantly
tend to the monopolization of the land
| needed for such homes. What difference
| does it make to the tenant whether the
man who receives his rent is anobleman
or commoner? What effect can the
| landlords citizenship have on the ten
ant. Suppose that Mr.. Scully were to
move to Chicago and become natural
| lied. He will only have to spend a
| few weeks in America each year to
enable him to obtain his papers, and
| after that he might go back to England
and live there inst as comfortably as he
does now, avoiding any obligations he
may now owe to that government. He
still could continue to rack-rent his
| Illinois peasants and live in luxury
abroad on the proceeds of their labor,
Just as hundreds of native born Ameri-
cans are now living luxuriously in
Europe on the proceeds of taxation that
they levy on the men who do business
in the city of New York.
We are glad that Congressman Oates
is studying the question, and that the
judiciary committee of the H6ss? IS dis.
posed to give it some attention. Their
efforts, however, will not amount to any
thing so long as they fail to compre,
bend the fact that landlordism is the
evil to be attacked, and that it is an
evil, whether the landlord be a native
or a foreigner. It would be a matter OF
trifing Importance whether Mr.. Scully
was citizen of the United States or a
subject of the Queen, if the State of Illi-
nois took annually for public purposes
the rental value of the lands that he
claims to own in that State. So long,
however, as Mr.. Scully is able to hold
them and appropriate the tax thus levied
to his own use, his wretched tenants
will continue to be the victims of the
evil denounced by the judiciary commit
tee, and for which it fails to suggest any
adequate remedy.