The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-12-12

DOx
tenants in Kansas have decided
to. join those in Nebraska in
common action. Perhaps before
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 unfortun-
ate persons as Scully tenants.
Whether this committee sue
ceeds in softening the hearts of
persons who live without pro-
ducing, and whose capital as,
we'll as in this case consists not
in any investment they have
made but in increment to land
value, is at least doubtful. There
is more hope in the possibility
that other tenants will 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 de-
cent treatment for it's present
tenants or no income.
Whatever the immediate out
come of this revolt, however, one
thing is certain. These hard
working farmers who have at
last had the courage to stand up
for square deal, have called at
tention to our vicious tenant-law
or system so forcibly that our
legislatures must do something
to relieve rot only the Scully ten
ants but all farm tenants.
Origin OF Scully Estate
The existance of what is call
ed the "Lord Scully estate" in
free America can not be UNDER
stood, unless we realize that our
land laws were taken bodily
from English law before certain
great reforms, which have made
the lot of the English and Irish
and Scotch tenant much better,
were enacted. They have won
better laws; our tenants have
not.
Seeing how things were going
in Great Britain about 1849, and
having been shot at several
times by outraged tenants in
Ireland, Scully sold all his land
there and in England and came
to America to start over. He
bought western land from SOL
diers who had gotten land grants
for Mexican war service, more
or less honestly for little or Moth
ing, and later he bought more
for 81 to 50 an acre from rail-
roads which had been presented
with the land by generous leg
islatures.
He never improved any Of this
land; he never paid any taxes on
occupied land; he simply let
other men use it for increasing
rentals as the settlers moved
westward. In 1906 he died leav-
ing an estate valued at over $50,
100000 made up of land worth
from $50 to $500 an acre. His es-
tate owns $4,000 acres in Neb-
raska, $4,000 in Kansas, 100000
in Missouri, $4,000 in Illinois,
and scattering amounts in Iowa,
Colorado and other states.
Surprising as it may seem to
some who have not taken an in
terest in the tenant question,
Lord" Scully was able to come
over here and set up in free A
merica the kind of landlord auto
cracy that was no longer poss-
ible in the old country. He saw
where the early Americans,
confident that there was so
much cheap land that there
would never be a land question
here and that all could be land
lords like the European nobility,
had left the rate open. He walk
ed in through the open gate.
Forced To Change Nationality
In 1887 there was a revolt
against him of considerable pro-
portions, carried into the state
and national governments. And
the relief the tenants got was
typical of old-gang politics. Hin
ois, for instance, passed a law
making an alien incapable Of
holding land titles for more than
three years. This wonderful rem !