Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-09-02
Industrial Commission
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fContiniled from Page ID
of ownership and the problems OF sea-
tsonal labor are set forth elsewhere.
At this point, it is desired to present
tie results of the investigations OF
tenancy and agricultural Corporations.
THE investigation of these prod
lens was confined practically TO me
because it is in this reslon
tthat the systems have become most
fully developed and their results IN
the form of the acute unrest Oh
militant tenant movement are most
easily studied. The Investigations In
this region, however, were very
thorough, consisting of detailed stud
les and reports by field Investigators,
which we're later confirmed by pub
lie hearth 6.
rs a result of these investigations
he flowing conclusions are fully
=, justified:
{ l. Tenancy in the Southwestern.
States is already the prevailing
method of cultivation and is increas-
ing at "a very rapid rate In 1880,
Texas, had 65, 468 tenant families
comprising 37.6 per cent Of all farms
tin the State In 1910. tenant farmers
mad increased to a19,571, and operated
SO per cent of all farms in the State.
Reckoning on the same ratio OF ia
crease that was maintained betWeen
1900 and 1910, there should be in
Texas in the present year (1S1b) at
least 296 900 tenant farmers. A more
intensive study of the field, however,
shows that in the eighty-two counties
of the State where tenancy is highest
the average percentage of tenants
will approximate sixty.
For Oklahoma We have not ade-
lquate census figures SO afr back, but
at the present time the percentase OF
farm tenancy in the State is 54.S and
for the AZ counties where the tenancy
lis highest the percentage Of tenancy
lis 6813. IL
2. Tenancys while inferior in every
way to farm ownership from asocial
standpoint, is not necessarily an evil
If conducted under a system which
protects the tenants and assures cul-
tivation of the soil under proper and
Economical methods, but where ten
fancy exists under such conditions as
lare prevalent in the SOnthw est. it's in
Icrease can be regarded only as men
lace to the Nation.
8. The prevailing system of ten
fancy. in the Southwest is share-ten-
lhncy, under which the tenant furn'
dishes his own seed, tools and teams,
and pays the landlord one4third of the
grain and one-fourth of the cotton
There is, however, constant ten.
hency to increase the landlords
, Ishare, through the payment either oil
Ilcas hIbonuses or ahigher percentage
iiof the product Under this system
. tenants as a class earn only, bare
Iliving through the work of themselves
land their entire families. Few of the
tenants ever succeed in laying by a
surplus. On the contrary. their eyner
fences are so discouraging that they
:, Isseldom remain on the same farm fol
more than a year, and they move
, from one farm to the next in the con
slant hope of being able to better
ltheir condition: Without the labor
of the entire family the tenant farmer
lis helpless. AS a result, not only
lis his wife prematurely broken down
lbut the children remain .unedueated
and without the hope of any condi
, Itfon better than that of his parents
FL AC VOAnAl0 Adr AAA5 ANtSAALCCtNSIt ~ CAAS
tresnlts beyond the crops of singh
lyear, the soil Is being rapidly exhaust
led, and the conditions therefore tend
Ito become steadily worse. Even al
Epresent a. very large proportion of the
|. tenants families are insufficiently
iclothed, badly housed, and underfed
. Practically all of the white tenants
tare native born AS result of these
= Hconditions, however, they are deter
fiorating rapidly, each generation be
ling less efficient and more hopeless
than the one preceding.
4. "A very large proportion of the
. tenants are hopelessly in debt and
! llare charged exonbitant rates of in
lterest Over ninetylfive per cent of the
tenants borrow from some source
; land about seventy-five per cent Dor
trow regularly year after year. The
leverage interest rate on all farm
! loans is 10 per cent, while small ten
ANTS in Texas pay Is per cent OF
more. In Oklahoma the conditions
. lare evenworse, in spite of the enact
ment of laws against usury, Further.
more, over eighty per cent of the ten.
ants are regularly in dept to the
/ lStores from which they secure their
hsupplies, and pay e1orfitantly for this
Icredit. The average rate of interest
lon store credit is conservatively put
. lat 20 per cent and in many cases as
high az 60 per cent.
/ 1~~~.E~