Evening star., 1914-02-01
Secretary Daniels Makes
"Back to the Soil" Speech
to Real Estate Men.
TENANT farmer SYSTEM
IS CAUSE FOR ALARM
Reclamation Work in West and
South Discussed-Expresses Be-
lief in Personal Property Rights.

| PHILADELPHIA. January 31.-That it
ought to be made easy for persons to
obtain land and that no nation has ever
| made mistake in providing liberal land
tenure laws for it's people," was asserted
| by Secretary Josephus Daniels OF the
Navy Department in an address here to-
night before the Philadelphia Real
Estate Exchange. Secretary Daniels
spoke of the reclamation work which had
been done in the arid regions and with
the swamp lands of the eastern sea-
| board of this country. He also told of
the important part played by the home
stead law in the development OF the
west.
Dep1ores Farm Tenancy.
| sonal property rights, quoting the utter
ances of number of famous men in this
regard. He urged the private ownership
of small farms rather than tenancy,
which. he said. is now increasing with
alarming rapidity.
Referring to the fact that everything
''goes back to the ground" Secretary
Daniels said that the acquisition
of property, especially Of property in
land, has always made man respect him.
self more and given him standing amongst
his fellow men.
Praises Homestead Laws.
The Secretary referred to the important
part which the homestead law had played
in the development of the west. In those
days the government was extremely
liberal in its grants of public lands to
accompanies which were building the first
transcontinental railroads. The govern
! ment is following better plan today
in Alaska, where it owns nearly all of
the land. and where it is about to spend
$4,000 900 to build its own railroad.
opening up the splendid resources of this
section to its .enterprising people. This
is quite different from giving the land
away to private parties and corpora
tons. with the consequent temptation to
land monopoly SO well known to every
student of political economy.
1T is always evident" said Secretary
Daniels, that there is a conservation of
the Almighty, shown in the case of land
threatens to become too great for any
given area some method Is always dis
covered. such as irrigation. intensive
farming. protection by levees. etc,
oped and sustenance be provided and
prosperity assured. This Is evident to US
in the reclamation Of the arid lands of
the far west, where irrigation is making
For Liberal Land Laws.
NO nation has ever made mistake
in providing liberal land tenure laws
for its people. Such nations have been
the most prosperous and successful from
a governmental standpoint. Nearly every
| revolution has been fought over land.
The evils of landlordism have resulted in
ny1a nft tha da oh far iy, iSfn
Land has always been in too few hands,
and it is this fact that has led to the
great immigration movements from the
British Isles and from Europe to our
own shores in later days, as well as
the movement of the pioneers and the
immigrants from the east to the middle
west and then to the far west in the
early history of our own country.
Il have already referred to the great
value of the homestead In building up
the west. and recently We have seen a
great exodus of our own best farming
people to Canada, following her adver-
tisement Of free lands in the great prairie
wheat lands of the northwestern part
of that country. We ought to make it
easier to secure lands, and we are doing
this through the building and loan and
through rural credit systems. which
Europe has found to be a key to many
of the difficult problems which her
peoples have had to face. We should
also make it easier for land to become
a bankable asset. and we should adopt
the Torrens system or something like it,
so that land would be almost like a
bond as a security.
In spite of all the improvements which
agriculture has experienced in recent
years tenancy is increasing to an alarm
ing degree. I believe the figures show
something like this: That in twenty
years tenants have increased from thirty
seven to fifty per cent of the farming
population. The remedy for this is oc-
cupying ownership. whereby farmers
may own their own small farms and
utilize them to the fullest extent
IF our country provides literally for
land occupancy by owners along the lines
upon which our best students and states
men are working today we may be sure
that nature is just as responsive today
as she has always been and that the
| words of Douglas Jerrold are just as true
| now as when he wrote: Tickle the land
with hoe and lal1pha with hor