The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-04-28
=. OUR COUNTRY
BY SCOTT NEARING.

BY SCOTT NEARING.
We learn in early childhood ia
speak with pride of "Our Country"
Economically, the phrase is inaccur-
ate, since the average American living
In an industrial center owns no more
of the United States than does the
average Chinese coolie in the Yangtse
valley. So completely is he expatri-
! ated, economically, that, in most cases
he does not even own the home in
which he lives.
| The point is we'll illustrated by the
situation in New England, the Oldest
| and most Highly urbanized part of the
United States.
The New England Of revolutionary
days was a country of farms, villages
and small towns, with few cities of
prominence. Rural life predominated.
The farm-Owner was the backbone of
this early American democracy.
When the last census was taken less
than one-fifth of the population OF
New England lived in the country
1913 per cent of the people were re-
ported In cities and towns. This is
| almost double the ratio of city dwell
ers for the whole United States.
The three New England states
which arc most largely industrial are
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut. The proportion of peo-
pie living in the country in these
three states is: Connecticut, 1913 per
cent: Massachusetts,, 7.2 per cent, and
Rhode Island, 3.3 per cent,-in other
words in all of these states more than
nine-tenths Of the population is a
town population, and in Rhode Island
almost 81 in every 100 people are city
and town jewellers.
The village life of old New England
has been replaced by modern town
and city life. The New England
farmer has practically disappeared
from the three leading industrial
states of New England and is of rela-
lively little consequence in the other
three New England states. In place
of the Independent farm owner is the
town dweller, working in a factory
and living in a rented house or apart
ment. Home ownership was one Of
the glories Of old New England. The
New England farmer owned his farm
and worked it himself,-an economic
always sprung. In 1910 there were
only 18S,802 farms in the whole Of
New England, (1S,430 less farms that
ownership still remains OF all these
farms, only 15,015 are run by tenants.
In Maine less than one-twentieth Of
the farmers are tenants, in Vermont
one-eighth are tenants, in Rhode
Island nearly onerfifth are tenants.
Still the important thing is not the
proportion of tenants, but the small
and decreasing proportion of farms
and farmers in the total population.
The New England farmer was a
home-owner; the New England town
dweller is a home-renter. The last
census reports 179,70O farm homes,
and 1,SS5,242 "other homes in New
England. OF these "other homes
S53,041 were rented, 412,249 were
owned, and 226,232 were owned free
of mortgage. That u.s., of every 100
New England homes in towns and
cities. sixty-six were rented, fourteen
were owned mortgaged, and twenty
were owned free of mortgage.
The proportion of home ownership
is much less in Massachusetts,, Rhode
Island and Connecticut than in the
other three New England states. In
Massa chusatts seventeen city and
town homes in each 100 were owned
free of mortgage, in Connecticut fiji
teen, in Rhode Island fourteen. The
highest proportion OF such homes
owned free Of mortgage is in Maine
with thirty-nine in each 100. No one
;1A ,to+@ 1FN
England can report as many as one
fifth Of it's city and town jewellers
owning their homes unmortgo sod,
and in each of these states more than
two-thirds of the city and town dwell
ers rent the homes in which they live.
New England, for generations, has
lived under a high protective tariff.
She has enjoyed the thing which we
describe as prosperity" She has
splendid school system. Libraries are
found everywhere. Yet in this ORR
ginal section of the United States,
which has had longer time than any
other part of the country to test out
the economic system that has grown
up here during the past 200 years,
less than one-fifth of the industrial
population own their homes.
The figures are not at hand to show
what proportion of the total wealth
of industrial New England is owned
by this One-fiftn who own their own
homes. 1t is probably very large. 1t
is enough for the present, to note that
in the part Of the United States where
there has been the greatest opportun-
ity to test out our economic system,
the great majority of the people are
so completely banished from eco
nomic participation in the country's
life that less than one family in five
owns the home in which 1t lives.