The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1918-01-11
Larger Paid-up Circulation Than Any TWO Other Paper
in the Calumet Region.
p " v " v - V
The FARMER AND Il FEuoAL SYSTEM.

out here in the middle west farmers own their land
and are proud Of it. 1t gives a man a sense Of security
10 be able to say: This is mine. I shall ferihze this
field, / shall drain this swamp; intend to clear this
patch next fan" He knows it paws TO improve the land
and that it pays him.. not some one else to whom he
might by paying rent.
How many American farmers born in free America
realize the advantages they hold over the farmers in
many parts OF Europe? How many have heard the term
"FeudaI system" as applied to conditions in Europe.
The "Feudal system" is a relic Of the days when a tile
of the soil wore a brass or iron collar around bis neck
and was bought or sold or given away with the lana
when some noble made 2 transaction in real estate. Tia
was eight or ten centuries ago.
Bus today. the sons and daughters of that nobleman
own that same land aud many more broad acres acquired
by marriage and great purchase. and the man who ulis
the soil. the descendant Of the fellow With the brass
collar around his neck, has but little more chance
today to acquire one cabbage patch than he had eight
or ten centuries ago. 1t is true that today he wears
no brass collar but he might as We'll
The nobleman will not sell the land and The farmer
is forced to pay such high rentals in the shape of shares
that he can never accumulate enough money to buy
even a rabbit for his feast az a wedding The rabbit
belong to the noblemans soil and 10 the nobleman and
the farmer goes 10 jail as q poacher if he shoots IT or
traps It. or else escapes with a whipping administered
BY the nobleman with his riding whip.
A very large part Of Europe is cursed today with the
@Feudal system While the American farmer may econ
omize and buy land and sit on the front porch Of his
home and call if his own, the European farmer is fortu-
nate if his rents do not eat up the profit of the soil. The
nobleman will not sell the land, because he does not
intend to work. Only the peasant and the artisan work
where the System" prevails. Work is something ignoble.
and so the farmer produces the grain and eats not. and
prunes the vine and must be content with a tin. red vine
gar. fermented from the hulls of the grape, while his
noble landlord eats the white bread and sips the vintage
wine.
Germany is caste ridden. There are more noble
men to the square mile in the kaiser's realm than any
other part Of the globe. And every nobleman is reared
with the idea that work is disgraceful, and when he
won't work some other man must toll and produce for
him. IN the mean time. the nobleman holds on 10 his
estate and sweats the peasant tirer of the soil 10 the
last measure Of wheat and to the last shrunken grape
Here il a picture for the mind to ~contemplate:
Let the kaiser's armies, commanded by these noble
men, defeat the American forces in France, sail over
TO these shores and defeat our armies here; lay hold OF
the American farms and apportion them among these
noblemen with The everlasting permit to collect the
fruits OF American soil What then would thar Cancelled
mortgage be but a mere scrap of paper? What would
be the worth of all the %unremitting toll that made \ gar
den Of that farm, what the worth Of all the effort that
permitted the lifting Of the mortgage?
This picture is not impossible OF realization. The
only way 10 keep il off the canvas and out or a frame
defeated. The sanest economy the American producer
can practice is to lend his money to the Government
SO that it may be enabled to Danish the feudal system
and restore all men to their rights. Money advanced to
The American government is money saved against pos
sible extension Of the "Feudal system to the American
shores.