Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-04-24
The Landlord Blight in Illinois.

CHICAGO, ILL.,, Feb. 26-Fully one
hundred and twenty-five, and possibly
one hundred and fifty families, num-
bering in the aggregate at least five
hundred people, will take their per-
manent departure from Mclean coun-
ty, this state, between this date and
April Is next. One large party started
on February "a and will be followed by
others. They have chartered whole
trains and will join in general hegira
to northwestern Iowa in search of
cheaper lands. The great majority of
those who will join the exodus are
farmers who, most of their lives, have
been renters Many of them, it seems,
have been living in Mclean county
from fifteen to thirty years, and during
all that time, in which they have cult
waited one of the richest soils under the
sun, they have been unable to acquire
homes which they could call their own.
Mclean county is known as the breast
pin of the great commonwealth of ILL
uois. In point of population it is the
sixth county in the state. 1t is noted
for its rich soil, its resources and
beauty. 1t is the pride and boast of the
whole state. Few counties in the
United States possess SO many advan-
tages. 1t is the county TO which great
orators point as evidence of the nobility
of husbandry. But it appears that at
last this magnificent garden spot and
breastpin of one of the foremost states
in America is blighted by landlordism,
for the exodus about to take place is
due to the fact that farming lands are
too high to be profitably cultivated,
and, therefore, cheaper and perhaps in
ferior lands are in great demand.
According to the testimony of gen.
tleman from Mclean, with whom |
have just had conversation, the city of
bloomington, the seat of Mclean coun-
ty, is very largely populated by class
OF men who are known there as retired
farmers. Many of them live in luxury
their fortunes by the million. It's big
landlords, its is said, are equal in their
exactions 10 the noted Lord Scully,
whose thousands and thousands of acres
lie across the border from Mclean
county. Many of this distinguished
gentlemans serfs have escaped from
his acres and cast their lot with the
landlords of Mclean county, hoping
thereby to secure greater profits for
their labor from American" landlords,
secure in the belief that the methods of
the English tyrant We're not practiced
by the latter. In this they were sadly
mistaken, as they have learned to their
sorrow, after having labored for many
years in developing the richness of the
great county of Mclean. They found
that the American landlord was quite
as avaricious as Lord Scully, taking
from them all that their labor produced
except bare subsistence. Early in the
history of the county the Funks, the
6ridleys, the Brokaws, the Stevensons,
the Orendorffs, the Ewings, the Van
ordstaands, the Kennedys and others
probably to the number of a hundred.
got hold of the lands in this promising
country and by wise forethought and
business sagacity' kept them until ne
cessity compelled thousands to live
upon them at terms profitable to the
holders
After all these years of toll, and after
witnessing the wonderful development
If Mclean county, these tenants have
at last realized that they must have
cheaper lands, hence they propose to go
in great droves to Iowa, where rents
are cheaper than they are in Illinois
They want new landlords, as my friend
expressed it, Landlords who will not
charge them for house rent, nor more
than a dollar or two dollars an acre for
the use of land"
There is no place in the United States
which affords better field for single
tax laborers than Central Illinois, and
particularly Mclean county. The five
hundred people who have already deter
mined 10 become the tepapts of Iowa