The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-05-14
Delegate Hickey Makes His Report at
tho National Convention and
Tells About Texas
Land.
rs WORSE THAN IRELAND
II Texas Was Divided up, Everybody
Would Have 436 Acres
But Il Isn't Di-
vided. !.

UNITED Press Leased Wire Service
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. May IA
"Landlordism that eclipses the we'll
known Irish methods that are foster
ed by the British government is the
cause OF most of the trouble in the
United States" declared Thomas A.
Hickey of Hallettsville, Texas, to the
national socialist convention today
and percipitated an argument that&
lasted for several hours.
Hickey was delegated by the nation
vestigate the single tax theory pro-
mulgated In America by Henry
George, and his report denounced
land ownership, not alone in the Unit
ed States, but everywhere where the
question of renter and lessee Is a po-
tent problem. Hickey in his report
said
"A revolution has occurred in land
ownership within the past fifty years,
which we have no parallel in the
world, and today presents to the peo-
pie of the United States problem
that demands an immediate solution
In 1860 land renting was unknown in
/ the great state of Texas, in those
days it was not uncommon to buy a
section OF land for as low as fifty
cents per acre; after the war, ths
public lands were grabbed wholesale
! by tricky spectators who were ably
assisted by corrupt legislature; the
4 railroad received an enormous part of
4 the public domain they were given
land at the rate of sixteen sections
for each mile they built; the total
amount of which was thirty-ive and
one-half million acres. A Chicago syn
dicate received three million acres,
now worth $6000N.000 for building
state capitol which was "scab' jon,
i the stone for it being quarried by me-
gro convicts, and put in place by i'm
4 ported English "scabs." Cattle COM
Ranies fenced in millions of acres
and as a result we find that renting
commenced in the latter portions OF
the 6o's-with the result that In
= 1870, five per cent of the land OF
Texas in cultivation was operated by
renters.
In 1900, the twelfth census shows
fifty percent OF the cultivated land
operated by renters. Since 1900 a
steady and continuous increase of
renting has been going on all over the
state. SO that the thirteenth census
shows us that seventy-two percent OF
the cultivated land is operated by ex-
plotted tenants, who are suffering
from landlordism, as severely as the
Irish tenants in the Galtee mountains
in Ireland. or the miserables who tli
the land in southern Europe
) In response to many calls rrom SO.
cialist party conventions to do some.
thing for the agricultural proletarias,
the Texas socialists proceeded to
grapple with the situation. We issued
> call, unofficially for a convention
of renters who met in Waco, Texas,
: on the fourth of last November There
: were lilo delegates present from
t twenty-four counties. They success
; fully launched the Land Renters I'm.
ion of North America, They have es.
i tablished national and state headquar-
4 ters at Halletsville. Texas. They
! have appointed organizers, drafted a
e constitution with bylaws and declara.
t tion of principles, have organized
4 many locals; have arranged for the
publication Of pamphlets and other