Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1914-04-16
ABSENT LANDLORD
IS BECOMING BIG
ECONOMIC FACTOR
Prof. O. W. Holman Declares
Land Ownership Fast Drift
ing to Political Issue
in America.
HE DISCUSSES THE TENANT
Moss-FIetcher Rural Credit Bill At,
tackled in nvention-Measure
Is Said to Be RepIete
With "Jokers."

With "Jokers."
Chicago. April 16.-Several dele
gates attending the Second Annual
Conference on Marketing and Farm
Credits, which opened here yesterday,
today announced their intention of at
tacking the Moss Fletcher land credit
bill now before congress on the ground
that it will provide for a flood of inn
properly secured bonds and will In
jure, instead of help, the credit of the
farmers.
The Moss-Fletcher bill provides for
the establishment of a new series of
banks for the loaning of money to
farmers on q plan by which long term
loans could be discharged gradually by
payment of interest and u small part
of the principal each year. Opponents
of the bill say it contains many jokers
Two and "A quarter million tenant
farmers In the 25 states that produce
most of the perishable farm products.
the grain and the cotton of America.
make the organizing and federating of
farmers for business-like marketing a
stupendous if not an almost impossible
undertaking" Charles w. Holman. of
the University of Wisconsin, secretary
of the Second National Conference on
Marketing and Farm Credits. made
this statement in an address here yes
terday afternoon before that organiZa-
ton and the Western Economic society.
Landlord Problem.
"The richest and most productive of
American states are today confronting
a problem of absentee landlordism that
bids fair in the near future to be the
all engrossing task of Statesmen and
economists" he said. Within few
years the land question will be a ma
tional political issue. 1t has already be-
come a matter of the gravest concern.
This very year in the state of Texas,
which alone has about 225.000 tenant
farmers. enough to control the elections
in that state if they We're properly
organized people are alarmed over the
imminence of tenant revolt.
when we remember that in the
United States in 1910 there We're g.
854.676 tenants. and these % states fur
nished 2.18S.5S6 of them. we have
of tensat farmers in the Gnited States
Increased from 25.6 in 1880 to 81 per
cent in 1910.
I'm the majority Of cases the tenant
farmer is the left over man of progress.
His business ability and his intelli-
gence are not so great as that of his
more prosperous neighbor who owns
q farm.
I'VE have been taught to believe in
the landlord as the ruling class, whose
duty it is to help solve these problems:
but the landlord is doing practically
nothing except to raise the rent on
every possible occasion. And in the
south the condition is one of exploita-
tion by the landlord and vicarlous suf-
fering for the tenant. That much of
this exploitation is unconscious does
not in the least change the situation;
for the landlord is in control
The Stockholder, Also.
Conditions in Texas have caused
rural revolutions: and that renters pc
tition to Governor Colquitt was but q
sporadic fire of the deeper discomfort.
For one believe that between the abb
sentee landlord. wherever he may be,
and the absentee stockholder of the
Lawrence cotton mills there is no great
difference and between the over
worked. underpaid foreign population
who manned the Lawrence mills and
the poverty stricken anaemic tenants
of the south there is a parallel.
1t is here we may sense the great
humanitarian mission of the farmers
marketing movement-to make it pos
sible for the tenant population to pro-
duce a fair product and receive for 1t
fair price.
What. you will say, should be the
incentive for farmers" 1t is the non
profit making corporation. form Of
corporation that gives the growers the
three fundamentals of power-G) the
power to manufacture. ca to sell. and
(3) to buy any product connected with
or necessary in the carrying on of a
legitimate business enterprise. The only
two states. to my knowledge. that have
these laws are the states l have men
toned.
The first thing that we must do in
national campaign such as is con-
templated by this organization today is
to. make it possible for growers il every
state to organize with the power OF
action as l have here described.
The non-profit making corporation
should in no sense be interpreted as a
monopoly or an organization in re-
straint of trade.
Co-Operative Plan Summary.
The cooperative corporation offers
no incentive to the speculator; provides
automa tically for the buying of stock
and the taking up Of stock; is non
exclusive in that it will take in any
member; cannot restrain trade. because
in perishable fruit industry the stuff
must sell. and sell fast; allows farm
ers the most satisfactory way of trans
acting their affairs by either the one
man. one vote, or the acreage vote basis:
finances its operations by levying upon
the packages as they move; adds a
new element of credit to the commu-
nifty by giving the cooperative cor
poration the power to borrow money
upon the Joint security of all the land
represented in the organization; adds
to the community wealth because of
the greater profits that come through
such an organization; does not try to
fix the prices of products but seeks an
even distribution to avoid glutting any
market and to prevent an overstock-
ing of all markets.; and even has the
somewhat doubtful benefit of raising
land values.
In these ways the cooperative cor
poration creates and makes permanent
machinery for marketing the products
of q community. 1t is truly commu-
nifty servant and constitutes a perma-
nent community property. irrespective
of who owns the land represented in
the corporations; and in typical ag-
ricultural community 1t will have the
same relation to the people in eco
nomic service that the school plant has
for education and social service.