The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1902-06-27
SCHOOL LAND lessess.
keet and Pass Resolutions for Sale
Of Public Lands.

Special to Daily leader
chandler, Okla, June 27- The fol.
lowing resolutions were passed in the
convention Of Lincoln county school
land lessees:
Resolved, That the system of rental
for the school land lessees Of the ter
ritory as no wassessed by the school
land board inficts wrong on the
farmer and is tax on his industry
because the harder he works and the
greater improvements he makes on his
farm the bigger will be the rent he
will have to pay when he desires to re
new his lease at the expiration OF each
three years term for which leases are
now given; at this time an advance
of from 5 to 90 per cent and sometimes
more than this is made on the pre-
vious rental by the leasing board on
the majority of the leases granted by
them the tenant farmer is thus
placed at the mercy of his Landlord
who has the power II disposed to ex
ercise it of continually raising the
rent to as high a figure as he thinks
,he tenant win stand. or may even
force it up to a point where the lease
will become Improbable to him; in
either case he suffers a wrong for he
must either pay the additional rent
imposed in order to hold his lease OF
sell it for what he can get for IL and
try elsewhere, under conditions more
favorable OF the making Of home.
SO long as these lands re,uain in con
troll of the present leasing board we
suggest that a moderate and un-
changeable rent be set or them now,
to be effective until such time as said
lands are disposed of by the state leg
islature. AS citizens and lessees,
Resolved. That we emphatically ex-
press our dissent to the idea that these
lands should oe under a perpetual
tenant system. Believing thet the ex-
clusicn of large bodies of land like
the indemnity school land in the Kick
apoo reservation from tnat opportun-
ity of settlement which comes from
ownership and the building of homes
thereon is detrimental 10 to the com
muaity at large and If continued after
statehood is obtained must ultimately
affect injuriously the prosperity of the
state also. because permanent homes
cannot be erected on rented land even
when the conditions of rental are moro
favorable to the lessee than is the case
here A large community of tenant
farmers without homes they can call
their own, and coming and going year
by year like BIRDS OF passage, presents
elements of the instability ana cuhtin-
ued change that must act adversely
on the growth and well being of the
commonwealth and also prevent the
realization Of the American idea that
every man who has or expects to have
a family should owp a home of his
own and raise his family in this safest
conservatory of American liberty and
citizenship. We therefore demand
that such legal action shall be taken
by our first state legislature regarding
these lands as will bring them to
sale at as early a date as practicable,
at an appraised valuation as raw lands
according TO a ality, the lessee to
I have the preference right OF purchase
and be secured in the value OF the i'm
provements he has placed upon the
farm We believe thar ihis can he
done in such a way as 10 secure the
tenants in their just rights and at the
same time to protect the Oklahoma
school fund from loss.