The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-08-23

ment, and take up that which
refers to the steady decrease in the
farming population as shown by
the census reports which are cited
The writer points out that the pro-
portion of farmers is constantly de-
creasing in this country, and Gin
this fact" he says, els found the
surest guarantee of agricultural
/ prosperity"
This is directly contrary to the
prevailing belief, which is, that the
more land owners that till their
own farms and own their home the
more prosperous and powerful a
nation and people are. But is this
popular notion true or the opinions
expressed by the writer which l
have quoted? That the proportion
of farmers is decreasing steadily
and rapidly the census reports
quoted above for several decades
prove. And that the number of
land owners is decreasing more
rapidly than the numbers engaged
in rural pursuits, is also a fact.
The shrinkage in the price of farm
products mainly accounts for the
decadence of land owners and the
increase of tenant farmers.
That the old system of small
farmers is breaking up is evident,
and its first stage is found in the
tenant farmer. The MORTGAGE is a
''moneyed man." He doesn't pro-
pose to work the land the interest
on his mortgage has brought into
his possession without having per
formed a single days work of farm
labor. Tenant farming is a slovenly
mode of agriculture at best and
leads to peasantry in the end.
Farming must follow the same
course that all other industrial
pursuits have taken, and the small
farm give place to the large tract
where machinery, steam and cleo
tricity directed by science can have
full sway to produce to their utmost
capacity with the greatest economy.
Capital will, ere long, turn its at.
tention to this field of employment
or all signs will fail. With large
bodies of land under single direc-
ton or management in the form of
a corporation, with its board of di-
rectors and a specialist at the head
of every department, the increase
in products, the economy in opera
ton and the saving of waste which
is now unavoidable, will make the
small farmer an impossibility, as
the same advance over old methods
has made the small shop and factory
no longer possible. and as the great
apartment store is driving out the
small merchant.
If the present trend of affairs
continues, and there is no sign that
it will not, another generation or
two generations at most will not
know the small farmer of to-day.
This condition is not a necessary
evil, but appearances are in favor
of its becoming a most alarming
evil. If capital owns the land and
controls the labor which is en-
ployed in cultivating the land, this
country will have become an arts
tocracy in fact if not in name. The
employees of the large corporations
are fighting a hopeless and losing
battle against the enslaving power
of concentrated capital. The rural
population are really the only free
population of this country. The
money power or banking class is
complete master of the manufac-
turing and mercantile class. They
have to depend upon the banks for
money to conduct their business,
and if they offend the banking
interest that interest can almost
crush them with a word. By the
banks refusing to loan them money
the largest firms in the country can
be thrown into bankruptcy and
ruined.
1t is this cruel, heartless money
power which has its grasp on all
the great industries of this country
Agriculture could escape it by a
general cooperative movement. If
large tracts of land were thrown
together and the individual owners
were represented by stock, the