The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-04-15
farm TENANTRY
!. SEEN As FAST ~
| GROWING EVIL
(Henry J. Allen in Saturday Evening
= Poatsl = ~ 'sE

Henry J. Allen in Saturday Evening
-. Post.)
Kansas "a working upon a program
to srelieve us from the growing me-
maze of absentee landlordism in the
Agricultural sections. 1t Is an alarm
Ing fact that In Kansas today land
tepantry has grown to point where
more than As percent of all the SOIL
OF the state is titled by renters.
I am conscious of the fact that In
comparison with other states this Is
actually lower percent of absentee
ownership than exists generally In
tho great agricultural states. In some
of -the best farm districts of Illinois,
Iowa, Ohio and Indiana the percent
age runs, as high as IS percent. In
than thirty-five*@year absentee land
lordism has grown to nearly so per-
cent. There Is no danger more real
than that which comes to land
whose tillable soil is owned by spec
ulators and, cultivated by renters.
The founders Of the old Roman COM
monwealth recognized the truth OF this
statement when they established the
Law that every soldier must be a
landowner, and for man to be eligi-
bla to the army he must have proper
ty.- To this end a redistribution of
land was made in order that the
farms might be owned by the sol
diers. The strength which enabled
france to meet the repeated assaults
of sher enemies in the beginning
months of her four and half years
of .life-and-death- struggle was In the
land-owning class. France, a great
agricultural republic, possessed more
than five million farmers who owned
farms Of their own.
French Soldiers Owned Land.
During 1916 and 1917 Red socialism
driven by the cleverest of German
propaganda, rose and broke upon the
land titles because more than 80 per
cent of the Frenchmen who titled the
Land owned all or portion of the land
they titled. More than 60 percent of
tho French soldiers owned land. 1t
gaze to them always the realizing
sense that they were fighting for their
own possessions. When you endow q
mans love Of country with the added
sense of his home, ownership you
plant something in his heart that gives
relieved strength and reality to his
patriotism 1t is trite expression of
the truth that has often been used that
q man will fight for his home when he
win not put up much of a struggle for
his boarding house. ~.
There is. rapidly growing up in the
United States an unclassified peas
antry known as renters, and they
bring deterioration to agriculture be-
cause they live hand-to-mouth exist
enee, add nothing OF the scientific
value of their effort and reduce the
general agricultural strength. Census
Figures show that the average invest
mgnt in farm buildings and farm ma
chinery on tenant operated farms is
s785. The average value of these
Items on farms operated by owners is
s2,16S. According to the 1915 Iowa
state census farm machinery was val
ued at $60,000,000, and five years prior
to that the United States census val
ued it at $95,000,000. In five years,
with the rapid increase Of farm ten
ansry, the value of Iowa farm imple-
ments and machinery had decreased
$3S000,O0O; and this in the face of the
increased prices of farm machinery.
State Aid for Small Farmer.
The federal land bank helps the man