The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-22
RIGHTS OF LANDLORDS.

Judge W. A Johnson of the Kansas
Court of Appeals rendered an inter-
esting and clear-cut opinion against
Butler county's land baron, Lord"
| Scully, recently. The opinion was
published in yesterdays Eagle. Judge
Johnson holds that more recent and
humane legislation gives the tenant
more consideration than the laws of
ancient England, over a part of which
Scully's kind ruled. In his able Opin-
ion on the relations of a tenant and
landlord, Judge Johnson says that
one who purchases from the tenant Of
landlord, without knowledge of the
lien for rent, is not liable to the land
lord for his tenants unpaid rent; that
the landlord has no right to seize the
prOptrty so purchased of the tenant;
that the tenant can dispose of his crops
and that the laws of Kansas do not
tolerate secret liens.
Time was when the landlord had a
death-like grip on his tenant When
the Normans seized England the Sax
ons became tenant Serfs. The great
mass of the English farmers are ten
ant serfS today. The great tracts of ]and
owned by the English aristocracy make
the English farmer hardly anything
more than an object of the great lords
pity and philanthropy. Their rights
and rewards are not any nearer equal
ity in some respects than they were
at William the ConquerOr's period. 1t
is true that the actual chained sub
mission has passed away, but a social
system endures which binds the Eng
liSh farmer fast
Scully is foreigner who has come
to America and has attempted to trans
plant, in some respects, the English
system of vast landed interests and
vassalage of single landlord, to Kan
Sas.
1t Is well that our Kansas courts
in their opinions point out to him that
the English landlords domination
over his tenants can not be transplant
ted here too.
The law offers no particular discrim-
ination against the landlord. In this
case Lord" Scully had his remedy. |
Had he given notice of his lien on his |
tenants crops to the purchaser of these |
crops. either by publication or by filing |
the lien with the register of deeds, the |
purchaser would have been liable. But |
Scully neglected this, and the law
should have and does not have any
leniency TO cover neglect.
Judge Johnson, who rendered the !
opinion, is the presiding judge of the
court of appeals and peculiarly fitted
to handle the great legal questions
where land is involved. He is an old |
Kansas. He has seen the land which |
Lord Scully now owns, the play
ground of millions of buffalo and thou
sands of naked Indians. He has seen
it when it was unmarked, unsurveyed,
and even unclaimed. He has seen il
later when the most benificent govern
ment on earth marked it out into little
kingdoms and gave one 10 every man
that asked. He has seen this land
from dire necessity, su-
perinduced by a temporary but rigor-
Gus contraction in the price of farm
lands, and pass hence into the hands
Of landlord who owns thousands of
acres in Kansas.
While it is questionable whether it
is good sense or business to pass law
against alien-holders, or even Ameri-
can landlords, as has often been pro-
posed, there is no question that when
an American is unfortunate enough to
be tenant and not a freebooter, the
courts should extend to him the ut
most limit of their protection. Judge
Johnson is to be congratulated on his
decision as are Judges Cole and Den
1ison who cOncurred with him.