The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-14
THE INCREASE OF FARM TENANCY
IN THE UNITED STATES.
Not Bad Symptom-Leveling Up, Not
Down.
BY REV. L. G. POWERS.
minnesota Commissioner of Labor.)

That the reader may consider the
subject of farm tenancy in all its re-
lations, the writer, before calling
special attention to the figures for
the same in 1880 and 1890 invites
consideration of the number of men
and women in the various decades
classed by the Census as 'farm labor
ers." The Census has reported the
number of this class each decade
since 1910. If American farming as
an industry is undergoing degrad-
ing movement, if the people who
make up the millions toiling on our
farms, East and West and North and
South, are sinking from independence
to dependence, then such degrade
ton would be shown all along the
line. Farm owners would be de-
creased relatively in number in the
nation, and farm laborers, the lowest
class, would be greatly increased. A
movement upward among the Amer
lean agriculturists would be reflected
in the opposite changes in the relative
number of these two classes of farm
laborers and owners. The upward
movement would be evidenced by a
smaller relative increase of laborers
than of owners. Either the down
ward movement or the upward one
might show an increase of tenancy;
but the test OF the movement is to be
found in the two extremes of the
scale, the farm owners and laborers.
Which of these classes is increasing
the most rapidly? What are the
facts about farm owners and farm
tenants and farm laborers in the
United States7
From 1880 to 1890 the farms oper-
ated by their owners increased from
1884, 3O6 to $685. 2s, the farms oper-
ated by tenants 1924, 6O1 to 1894 ,913,
and the farm laborers which in 1880
were 3,223,876 in number, in 1890
were 3,004,C15. The farm tenant ia
miles or families living as tenants
upon farms in 1890, were 1924. 433.
No corresponding figures were given
for 1880. An examination of these
figures show that the farms operated
by owners increased 285,422, while
those operated by tenants increased
only 270,312, and the number of men
and women on farms working for
wages decreased PIG, 761, although the
farms of the nation increased BOB, 734,
and population of the United States
increased about twelve and half
millions.
Taking all these groups together
we learn how tenancy is a sign Of
progress in our land. 1t is something
quite different from the tenancy of
the old Dutch PATRONS of New York,
and quite the opposite of the absentee
landlordism of modern Ireland. 1t
is part OF a most benefcent social
and industrial revolution that is lift
ing the common laborer through
tenancy to farm ownership. Farm
tenancy in the United States is re-
cruited from several sources. Its
members come from the old and de-
creasing class of native American day
laborers, who once toiled on year
after year with but little hope of ris-
ing in the world and lettering their
condition. 1t is further recruited
from the ranks of immigrants, who
seek a home in this new world with its
opportunities to rise from the hum
BILE position of a wage-earner through
farm tenancy to farm ownership. In
the South farm tenancy marks the
rise of men once slaves toward
greater degree of independence and
AuduCloA 5uCCCo5 III lllC. III Iu0
Eastern States farm tenancy marks
the removal of the wide-awake Amer
lean original owners to the West, and
the renting of their farms to the
European immigrants struggling for
ward to the goal of farm ownership.
That this is the real meaning of
the figures showing the comparative
number of farm owners, tenants and
laborers in the United States in 1880
and 1890, can be more clearly seen
by considering corresponding figures
so far as they are accessible, for still
earlier decades. In 1860 there were
in the United States 2,044 OF farms,
of which probably nearly twenty per
cent, or from $4,000 to 100000, were
operated by tenants. These tenant
operated farms were largely confined
to few States, and were the proper
ty of the descendants of the old
Dutch PATRONS and the correspond
ing class of landlords in other COM
munities. This would give an approx
innate number of farms worked by