Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-10-22

-TNTTLlTE rIr tIIH .HN44Ea
Ian personality, live stock, and Mn.
lproyements are exempted from taxa.
ltion. The mortgage must paysAkStax
Ion his mortgage Is IL 1t were land,
and Is prohibited from charging it
to the mortgagor. About sixssev.
enths Of the farm home ownersssof
New Zealand pay no tax at all.
land tax to break up land specula.
ton and idle land holding.
"All the States Of Australia have
worked out colonization schemes,
with. the prime object Of breaking up
big estates and placing on them many
small farmers. not as tenants, butAas
owners or prospective owners. the
State of Victoria, for instance, Oilers
a wonderful inducement to the set
tier, It builds him a home, places
therein furniture and essential work.
ing machinery, gives him six headsof
cattle and a specified amount Of live
stock besides, and hands all over TO
him, with enough acreage for n
man to work without help, with very
little payment down n PM e4aily
!graduated scheme of partial pay.
ments by which he becomes the pro
,lprietor in due time, but with pro-
visions made for forfeiture and
lapses, SO that it is practically im-
possible for a fairly thrifty man to
lose his investment.
Contrast with this the American
scheme which spends large sums
alike the 100000 reclamation pro-
gives no thought to the essential crea-
ture comforts Of the man who must
work the land"
How can America meet this
foreign compettione"
There are several ways, some Vf
whichvhave been suggested and some
Of which are being developed. At
the present time I can no more than
diagnose the condition and point out
the undisputed facts. Take, for In
hundreds of thousands Of negroes
from the South to- Northern cities.
This would not AVE occurred IL bet.
ter chance existed in the South for
negroes to become owners. They are
not prohibited, it is true, under the
law, and many negroes do wi
homes, but the crying need is for
State encouragement.
California, which is inclined to
lead the nation in remedial legisla-
ton of this sort, has recently appro.
lpriated %$250,000 for the purpose OF
buying land for subdivision into
small holdings. It is a small sum,
comparatively, and in the nature OF
an experiment, but it will point the
way. 1t is in line with the teachings
of Ireland n Australia.
The problem is for all America.
Farm labor has had several severe
blows. The draft has hurt it. The
rising wage market in the cities in
evitably hurts it. The immigration
shortage has hurt it. Now If we add
emigration away from the land and
back to Europe. conditions here win
become uncomfortable. There will be
a serious decay in farming, which
%rleans, in a very definite sense, a de-
cay in our national life, too.
We do o do enough for the
farmer here in America. Europe is
going to meet us in competition for
him and. bid him away from us after
the war. That is the situation in a
nutshell.
See what they do for the farmer
IN Australia. Germany began a SIM
liar scheme before the war and is
said to have almost perfected it dur
: ing the a 1t consists in eliminat-
Ing the middleman. The Australian
farmer, as today the German, has an
agent who handles his business and
gives him allthe returns, less a COM
mission, which is State regulated.
Middleman profits are eliminated.
i, We give our farmers free seeds;
: Australia gives them free homes.
we ours, to the transporta-
!; ton wolves; Germany handles the
; farmers transport for him, at cost.
we oner public land for homestead
. ling after desirable land is all
i. g,ne; Ireland commanders its, best
land, long fallow under >absentees,
: andFsRlits it up among small farmers.
In ny United States today more
than 40o,000.000 acres Of rama, os-
tensibly in farms, is not under .cul-
: tivation, while 100000 acres, or one
, is in great estates, principally in the
West and South, some many hum
dreds Of thousands of acres III ex-
l tent. Land speculation has frozen out
the small farmer without capital.
And land speculation can best be
Q me- oy taxation, as is being lone In
q Canada. We hear Of the old grind
! 3 ing conditions in Russia and Ireland
! where the tenan farmer groaned.
under his BURDEN. America is the
, Russia and the Ireland of the future
3 in this respect.
!: The people. and especially our
new immigrants, are and hungry,
i speculation, and by promotion
panies which make it almost imposes
IDLE for a man to establish himself
= as q farmer if he has no .ap:taI.
europe has a farseeing eve on
= these millions. It proposes to mako
: bit for them. 1t will offer the
: prize of homestead to the small
settler. It will ruthlessly eliminate
the profiteer and the spe eulator. The
9 land hog and the land baron. Mean
while. America stands alone as nraa-
tically the only country which is not
= considering the reclamation of aps
: riculture in a constructive, intelliren-
7 way.
America exhorts the farmer ana
: educates him, but it will have 10 40
Z more than that for him il it wants
2 abundance. We have is. q ono
. @foreign-born people, many Of then,
peasants " for land. . wet con.
: ditions are such that they are mus
9 looking anxiously to war-scarrad
Q Europe to acquire a home"
DESTROYER OFFICERS
EXPONENTS OF GOLF
Base American Flotilla In Rr,t,..
Waters, Oct. 22.-(CorrespondencsnMs
e The AmericanNbfficer are hano.Si.-