The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1918-12-13
SCULLY TENANTS
UNITE FOR ACTION
AMERICAN FARMERS, RENTING
ON VAST ESTATE, ORGANIZE
TO DEAL WITH OWNER AND
TO DEMAND REFORMS.
BY A. B. GILBERT

In protest against an arbitrary in
crease in farm rents of from so to 100 |
per cent, the 225 tenants of the great
Scully estate in Nuckolls county, Neb.,
have organized to deal with the land
lord as unit and to apply to the
legislature for relief from unjust con-
ditions. The tenants of the same
landlord in Illinois have been aroused
by the same unfair attempt, and the
Scully tenants in Kansas have decided
to join those in Nebraska in common
action. Perhaps before the Nebraska
committee gets to Washington, d. c.,
where the beneficiaries of the estate.
now live, it will be joined by Scully
tenants from all the states where
there are such unfortunate persons as
Scully tenants.
Whether this committee succeeds N
softening the hearts of persons who
live without producing, and whose
capital as we'll as in this case consists
but in increment to land value, is at
least doubtful. There is more hope in
the possibility that other tenants vii
be wise enough to not take up the
farms which the Scully tenants would
be forced away from, with the result
that the Scully estate would have to
decide between decent treatment for
its present tenants or no income.
Whatever the immediate outcomc
of this revolt, however, one thing Is
certain. These Woodworking farmers
who have at last had the courage to
stand up for fair deal, have called
attention to our vicious tenant laws or
system SO forcibly that our legisla-
lures must do something to relieve
not only the Scully tenants but all
farm tenants.
ORIGIN OF SCULLY ESTATE
The CT ence of what is called the
sLord Scully estate" in free America
can not IL understood, unless We real
ize that cur land laws were taken
bodily from English law before GER
tain great reforms, which have made
the lot of tie English and Irish and
Scotch tenant much better, were en-
acted. They ke1 Non better laws
our tenants have TT.
Seeing how tl-i1g5 were going il
Great Britain about 1849, and having
been shot at several times by out
ragged tenants in Ireland, Scully solt
all his land there and in England and
came to America to start over. He
bought western land from soldier
who had gotten land grants for Mexl
can war service, more or less honestly
for little or nothing, and later he
bought more for 81 to 81 an acre from
railroads which had been presente,
with the land by generous legisia
lures.
He never improved any of this land
he never paid any taxes on occupied
land; he simply let other men use Il
for increasing rentals as the settler
moved westward. In 1906 he die
leaving an estate valued at over $50,
100000 made up of land worth from
$50 to $500 an acre. His estate own:
10000 acres in Nebraska, $4,000 /
Kansas, 100000 in Missouri, $4,000 i
Illinois, and scattering amounts
Iowa, Colorado and other states.
Surprising as it may seem to some
who have not taken an interest in tn
tenant question; "Lord" Scully wa
able to come over here and set up II
free America the kind of landlord au
tocracy that was no longer possible
in the old country. He saw where tn
early Americans, confident that Their
was so much cheap land that Their
would never be land question her
and that all could be landlords like til
European nobility, had left the gat
open. He walked in through the ope
gate.
FORCED TO CHANGE Ma
TIONALITY
In 1887 there was a revolt agains
him of considerable proportions, Cal