Lower coast gazette., 1909-03-20
The Tenant Farmer.

The Tenant Farmer.
The Country Life Commission is sup
posed to have said everything about
the farmer, but we would call attenti-
on to a line in a prosperous Missouri
farmers letter which President Roose-
welt summarizes in Appendix A of this
message. Replying to the Commiss-
ions query whether the renters of
farms in the Missourian's neighborhood
were making a satisfactory living, the
letter~writer returned an emphatic no;
nbecause," he said, "they move about
so much hunting a better job" says
the New York Evening Post.
"Were the j%ourneyman farmer rare,
he might be overlooked; but for the
past twenty years he has been multi
plying at a rate that if not alarming,
is surely noteworthy. In 1880, 25.5
per cent of Our farms were leased to
tenants; in 1900, 1873 per cent; and to-
day, because of the recent huge in
crease of Italian market gardeners in
suburban zones, perhaps 40 per cent is
a fair estimate. Naturally the south,
with it's negroes and its scorn of mans
ual labor, has far more than this coun'
try-over average, and the west with it's
homestead grants, considerably less.
1t is significant that the proportion Of
tenancy is growing in spite OF the gov
ernment's creation of a large owner
class every year by it's homestead
grants, and also in spite of the fact
that farms are increasing more rapidly
than our population. But this does not
tell half the story, The tenant one
might say, can peither help o hinder
the uplift of rural life, because he is
probably a poor devil working a stony
back-lot; the Influential members of
his community are the prosperous ones
who own and work the most fertile,
best pleeed acres. But the analogy
does not hold. The census shows the
very reverse, the country over The
rich valleys are filled with tenants,
while the stubborn hilltops and sand
lots are worked by their owners. And
why? Because your yankee plowman
is shrewd enough to turn an honest
penny without instruction from FEEDER
al uplifters, If his loan can support
two families, he is quite willing to take
his own to town and let the other for
ward him his share of the haryests.
And who can reproaeh him for doing
what every man with capital does?
Farming is not unadultrated joy, nor
will it ever be; and it is particularly IN
attractive if one can live off his tenants
rent. We must expect, then, that, as
farms grow in productive value through
improved fertilizing, cheaper machine
ry and\ easier transportation of pre-
ducts, more and more Of them will be
held as investments by absentee cap
atalists.
1.-THE bearing of this drift upon coun-
try problems is unmistakab!e. In a
dozen ways, the tenant farmer hinders
the Betterment of his community. He
is a tramp-an honorable one, to be
sure, but still a tramp, with all the
habits of a tramp. He remains only a
short time in one place, American farm
leases being, unlike those in Europe,
Of short duration. Why, then, should
he go down in his pocket for macadam
roads, a new schoolhouse, a village liz
brary. and all the rest? What does he
care about sterilized wells and sanitary
pig-stys? Let the landlord look after
such frills, if he wants them, What
chances are there of more voluntary
organized effort among farmers when
this spirit shows itself in a third of
their number? Interest in local affairs
can never be stronger than the ties
which bind the farmer to the communi-
ty. And the country reformer who
sets in ignorance Of this obvious fact
will come to grief. -Bradstreets.