Iron County register., 1892-03-24
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
The Ownership of American Homes.

In the Cleveland Press Henry George,
ir., has an interesting and valuable ar
ticle. based upon the census statistics
regarding the ownership of homes and
farms in the United States. He says:
With a view to getting some light
upon this most important matter, the
Single Tax club, of St Louis, two years
ago drew up petition to the superin-
tendent of the eleventh census to col
lect data to show what percentage of
the people own their own homes and
farms; what proportion are tenants; OF
those who occupy their own homes and
farms; what proportion have their prop
erty free from debt; and. of the homes
and farms which are under mortgage,
what percentage of the value is SO
mortgaged?
This petition was adopted not only by
all the single tax clubs throughout the
United States, but all the Knights of
labor assem- blies, all the Farmers al
lance associations and other farmer
and industrial associations. So strong
was. the demand, indeed, that congress
pass special act extending the in
veStigatlonS of the census bureau to
this work and made an appropriation
of half a million dollars The census
bureau accordingly set about its task
which was found at the outset to be a
gigantic one. No such work had ever
been undertaken before in this country,
and it was problem to know how to
proceed At length very simple plan
was decided upon that of sending out
printed lists of questions into selected
Il CO, at hot fN ha
tive of larger regions. The idea was to
make thorough canvas by sending to
every occupier of a home or farm with
in the selected district the list of ques-
tions, asking, among other things,
whether he owned or hired the
home or farm, which ever it might
be, upon which he resided; and if he
owned it, whether it was mortgaged,
and if mortgaged, to what extent
This information has for some time
been coming in, but it is only now be-
ginning to be tabulated. In few
weeks bulletin will be issued show
ing tabulated returns from two dis
tricts, representative of a large part cf
the western country. By the kindness
of the superintendent Mr.. Porter, and
of the expert in charge of this division
of the census work. Mr.. Holmes. l am
able to give some idea of the remark
able conditions shown by the returns
in these two districts.
One district consists of group of ten
neighboring counties in Kansas, little
west Of Topeka Kansas was selected
because it seemed to be attracting more
attention than any of the other states
in that part of the country. The dis
trict embraces ten counties in the
southwestern part of Ohio and in
cludes the city of Cincinnati This
district. covering the manufacturing
Miami valley. was thought to show the
average condition prevailing in the
state.
1t was ascertained that there were in
the ten Kansas counties 1s. S79 farms.
Reports were returned from all but
1,305 of these. or about per cent,
which is about the percentage of farms
in Ohio not heard from and of the
homes in both states not reported. The
mum ber is so inconsidera BILE that the re-
suit could not possibly be affected more
than per cent. for better or for worse,
SO that the following may be taken as
approximately correct.
Mr. Holmes formulates results in the
following clear manner:
Kansas-Percentage of hired farms in 1890. 80
&" 1890. Is
Ohio-Percentage of hired farms in 1890. ... 81
= 1S80...... 25
Kansas-Percentage OF owned farms subject
to incumbrance. Observation-Disclosures. 81
Ohio-Percentage OF owned farms subject to
incumbrance. Observation-Disclosures. 20
That is to say, extending the same
percentages over the whole of Kansas
as are found in the ten counties investi
gated, it would be found that out of ev-
cry nine farms two were owned free of
debt, three were worked by tenants,
and four were occupied by owners sub
iect to an incum brance Of 3s per cent
of their value.
In Ohio, on the basis of these returns, |
out OF every eight farms four are own
cd free of debt, three are worked by |
tenants, and one is occupied Ivy owner
subject to an incumb mbrance of 81 per
cent. of it's value.
AS to homes, the returns shows as
follows:
of hired homes. ......... 48 |
Ohio-Percentage of hired homes, including
Ohio--Percentage of hired homes, outside
Cincinnati. .............. .................. so |
of owned homes subject
to incumbrance. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Al |
Ohio-Percentage of owned homes subject to
mcumbrance -..-.....-........--... - |
Or, to put the same thing in another |
form, out of every ten homes in the ten |
Kansas counties examined, three are |
owned free of debt five are hired, and
two are occupied by owners subject to
an incum brance of 80 per cent. of their
value.
In the ten counties in Ohio. including
out of every fifteen homes.
four are owned free of debt. ten are
hired. and one is occupied by the own
er subject to an incum brance of 43 per
cent of It's value.
In the ten counties in Ohio, outside of
out of every twelve homes,
FIVE are owned free of debt, six are
hired, and one is occupied by the own
er subject to an incum brance.
In Kansas the farm mortgage aver
ages 81, 422, on which the interest is
S114 year. The Kansas home mort
gage averages $3.50, on which the inter-
est amounts to S74.
In Ohio the average farm mortgage
to 81, 422 and the home mort
gage to s1,354. The average interest
paid on the Ohio farm mortgage
to Ss5 year. and on the Ohio
home mortgage s97 yearly. The lowest
interest paid in any of the twenty coun-
ties was found to be in the county con-