Omaha daily bee., 1917-05-03
MANLESS LAND FOR
The LANDLESS MAN
Countess of Warwick Urges
English Estates Be Turned
Over to the People.
TO BETTER CONDITIONS

Correspondence of The Associated Press)
London, April 5O.--The countess o.
Warwick, owner of $4,000 acres, ha:
issued stirring appeal to the landed
aristocracy of Great Britain to follow
the example of the Russian grand
dukes and turn over all their feudal
properties to the state.
I'VE must CO." she says. THE
aristocracy Of England, i'll its position
OF hereditary landowners, must go.
THE country rings with suggestions
for the betterment OF the conditions
under which land is cultivated, but as
see things, the suggestions are in
no instance drastic enough.
The only cure for the present evils
seems to me to be state ownership,
the abolition OF all private property
in the earth that.was given to all of
us in common.
There are two classes of large
landowners in England, the aristo-
crazy and the plutocracy.
Good Landlords.
"As a class, the arstocracy have
been good landlords within limits, but
the limits are, very marked, because
they have always been a narrow
minded body. The average chatelaine
who plays the part Of Lady Bountiful
is to me an abomination, because her
philanthropy is so closely associated
with dogmatic religion, personalipride,
and party politics.
II have known estates where the
tenants are expected to belong to the
Church Of England, and non-conform-
lists are barred or prosecuted. Radi-
calism is likewise suspected. Farmers
laborers, and small village tradesmen
have been ruined or exiled from the
place of their birth because their opin-
ions are contrary to those of their
landlords. Men and women on such
estates must rule their lives to order.
think as they are told to think. If
our arstocracy possessed the over
whelming wisdom necessary to their
role as supreme dictators, all would
be well, but | cannot reckon in their
ranks more than six whose claims
would bear momentary consideration.
AS for the plutocrats, the men
who have bought lands and titles in
the open market-and the one is nearly
as readily purchased as the other
they have not the old feudal tradi-
ton of the aristocracy. They have
been accustomed to make business
ventures pay; they demand 6 per
cent on their outlay and employ an
agent who will see that they get it.
The landlord of this class is bad
landlord.
Need Better Social Conditions.
For the betterment of social con-
ditions in England supreme sacri-
flee is required 1t is no more than
justice that the men who have Of
fered their lives i'll this war for Britain
should have' the freedom of Britain
for their reward. It is no justice
that calls men to fight for the land
and leaves it in the hands Of frac-
ton of those who fought. To me it
is impossible that in the future His
Grace or My Lord should own
square miles of the mother earth for
which Tom died and Dick was sore
wounded and Harry fought unscathed.
THE country has great needs. If
it is to remain solvent the united
work of one and all is necessary. The
old feudal landlord will be an an
achronsm, the new money-spun land
lord an abomination. Only the state
can own the land i'll trust for those
who can make it productive. We
who are in the high places in Eng
land should retire from them in the
real halo of remuneration, and our
act of sacrifice would be better me-
mortal than the best Of us could have
hoped to gain"