Pueblo chieftain., 1921-11-13
OUR DEPARTING Farmers

neither reforested nor cleared for ag-
riculture, then there Is sickness in
the industrial system Of the country
just as serious as failure OF assimi-
lation in the human body.
VALUE OF LAND SPECULATIVE
All who have studied this question
seem to agree that the basic trouble
lies in the speculative price at which
lands are held in this country. With
all of the time, nothing is SO certain
as that land will constantly increase
in value. Buy any piece OF productive
land and hold 1t long enough and you
can sell it at great advance. This
increment works with the force and
regularity of a law OF nature. AS a
result. all land in this country. and
In every other country where no free
land is available, is held at valuation
based, not on what 1t will produce in
food and other commodities. but on
what 1t win sell for at some future
of the trouble.
For this reason all of the vast mass
OF legislation designed to help the far
mer by teaching him cooperative mar
keting. and giving him hog cholera
serum, and showing his wife how to
cook and SO on. is irrelevant to the
main issue. In, point of fact, the far
mer who owns a piece OF productive
land Is not at all badly off. He cam
not make much money, but II he prac-
tices diversified farming in an intel
ligent way, he can be and often is.
one of the best-fed and most comfort
able men in the world. City people in
this country often live on rations that
to the more substantial sort OF coun-
try people would look like starvation.
1t is only the farmer who foolishiy
stakes his all on one money crop. like
NJ hn nf0r q
tual want
The trouble is not that tho farmer
who owns farm is suffering. The
trouble Is. first, that he can sell his
farm, invest the money In mortgages
and make more without working II
many instances. than he can make oy
farming his land. Second. he can often
rent his land to some one else more
profitably than he can work 1t himself.
Third, IL he has several sons. the ones
that do not inherit the farm cannot
afford to buy one In this country. They
either go into other lines OF work or
else go to some other country.
The result Is a country in which moi Q
and more of the land passes into the
hands Of men who hold 1t idle for spec
uiative purposes. or rent 1t. and in
which man who wants to invest his
money in land and to farm 1t, canno.
do so Nprofitably. Inevitably 1t Is also
a land In which food prices rise stead
tly.
What is the remedy? Two have been
proposed First, for the nation or tho
states to buy and reclaim land ond
sell 1t to farmers at a price based on
what |. will produce and on long time
credit. This was the essence OF Sec
retary Lanes scheme of land for SOL
diers. which SO mysteriously utsip-
peared- 1t II the basis of tho Cali
fornia land and colonization plan.
which has worked well. and IL has been
put into practice In some form by
several other states.
The second method IL Q form of tax
alton on unimproved land which would
make 1t Improbable to hold such land
Tor speculative purposes. Such tax has
always been held sound by students.
A pill providing for such tax was in
troduced in the last congress by Rep
resentative Nolan and re-introduced in
this congress by Representative Keller.
1t has attracted as much attention
as pin falling into the Atlantic
ocean.