Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1917-04-06
FARM TENANTRY AN OLD BUT SERIOUS PROBIFN

The tenantry problem in America
demands serious consideration, in the
opinion of Dr. II. j Waters, presi-
dent Of the Kansas State Agricul-
tural college.
Americans get excited over the
increase in tenantry every time a
new census is taken and it is well
that this is the case" said Dr. Wat
ers, because of the evils of our sys-
TEN of farming.
1T is a mistake to assume we are
the first people to have TO meet this
sort of problem. The fact is that
tenantry dates back to the beginning
of the established order of agricul-
ture, before man used typewriters
for writing farm leases or fountain
pens for signing them.
THE earliest leases of which
there is record were written in clay
and sun dried and the signature
made by thumb nail impressions, but
the terms Of the leases were exactly
the same as those of today-one-
half the crop when the oxen and
seed were furnished by the landlord
and one-fourth to one-third when
the tenant furnished the seed and
the work animals.
Moses established the best system
of land ownership that has been
known, intended definitely to pre-
vent land monopoly and to keep
farms the size that would be best
for everybody. One important pro-
vision was that the land belonged
to the Lord and the one who titled
it held it for rental of two tithes to
support the priesthood, which had
no land. and one 1.-THE for the pub
lie welfare. The tenant could hold
this land only so years at lost or
until the year of jubilees, when all
contracts ceased and all debts were
cancelled. Could we redistribute the
land now once every 30 years. we
should hear little complaint of OPP
pressive landlordism.
Long experience has shown that
the system of land tenure which best
saves the land from excessive wear
and waste is for il TO be titled by the
owner, pointed out DR.. Waters. Even
greater protection was afforded to
the soil under the old Jewish system
whereby the land was considered to
belong to God and it was sacrilege
to despoil it.
Moses was a believer in small
farms titled by the owner. Gradual
ly this system broke down, estates
became larger than the owner could
cultivate to advantage and system
of landlordism and tenantry again
came in.
There have been four ways of
dealing with the tenant problem in
the past" said President Waters
Germany stepped over from the
feudal system to the system of small
farms without the intervention of
it may be truthfully said that Ger
many never had a real tenant prob
lem. This is the only conspicuous
example of preventing tenantry.
France broke down the system of
land monopoly and tenantry by
means of the French revolution and
the long years of readjustment fol-
lowing, and as a result France today
practically has no tenantry problem,
but instead one of the m ost prosper
GUS and successful land owning sys-
tens of agriculture in the world.
Denmark accomplished the same re-
suit more recently without blood
shed.
New Zealand is an example of a
nation that thus far has prevented
tenantry. The motto of her nation
is, The land for the people, and a
system of graduated taxes makes it
Improbable to hold land not titled.
In other words, New Zealand has
taken all speculative values out of
land.
Great Britain stepped from feud-
alism to tenantry and instead of
trying to break it up, accepted and
regulated it. As a result, Great
Britain has the best regulated sys-
TEN known in the world"
The United States, Doctor Waters
showed, has done nothing to prevent
and almost nothing to regulate ten
ancy In Great Britain nine out OF
10 of the farms are titled by tenants
in the United States about four out
of 10, in France one out of 10. In
| New Zealand the mum Der is negligi-