Evening star., 1937-02-07
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

VSu64Io AAO OWAASAc 4ioc
reached the "second-thought"
L stage. Not exactly the second
thought stage, for that implies that
the thing has been done-and has been
found II. be not what first thought ex-
pected it to be. 1t would be more ac-
curate to say that the tenant-into-
landlord project has reached the stage
Of looking at the facts. And look
at the facts reveals some obstacles not
apprehended in the beginning.
still think, as have rather fire.
quently written, that the extent Of
farm tenancy in America Is a national
detriment. still think 1t ought to be
cured, and hope it will be. But am
obliged to admit, as the New Dealers
have been obliged to admit, that the
process is not simple. It can't be done
overnight. And 1t cannot be done
wholly by Government fiat.
Yet there must be reason for ex-
cessive farm tenancy, and there must
be a way Of ending the reason. There
must be a reason why farm tenancy is
greater in some States than in others.
Comparison Of the conditions ought to
give us a clew to the cause.
In Maine the percentage of farms
operated by tenants is only 4.3-prac-
tically nothing. In Oklahoma the per-
centage Is 613-over half. Why the
difference? Observe another pair of
States, one Eastern and one Western.
In PENNSYLVANIA "a gc~d farming
.State) the percentage Of farms
operated by tenants is 159. In Iowa
the percentage Is 47.3. Again, why the
difference?
I am not sure know the answer.
But I have glimmering Of surmise.
And I should like some one better
equipped than myself to explore this
suggestion.
I suspect the reason for the larger
percentage Of farm tenancy In Iowa
than in Pennsylvania lies in the fact
that the price Of land in Pennsylva-
mia has remained stable over the past
70 years, while in Iowa the price OF
land has been rising spectacularly
most of the time with occasional
sharp drops.
Price Affects Permanency.
Because the price of land in Penn
sylvania remained about the same
from decade to decade, farm owners
were not tempted to sell: they re-
manned on their farms, regarded
their farms as primarily homes. to be
kept to be lived on and to be handed
on to their children.
In Iowa, on the other hand. the
price Of land was rising, during some
periods rising spectacularly. Conse-
quently the Iowa farmer was tempted
to sell; he was led away from think
ing of his farm as primarily home;
he came to think of himself as a
speculator in land.
For many years in the country
banks of Iowa and in many OF the
city banks. a visitor could see on the
walls a poster reading something like
this-I quote from letter from an
Iowa citizen who himself quotes from
memory:
"The best investment on earth Is
the earth itself. Iowa Is the best part
of the earth. Iowa farm land has
doubled in value each 10 to IL years
for more than so years. Buy an Iowa
farm while you arc young and be
rich in your old age"
I suspect that rapid rise in value Of
farm land may have been one Of the
worst things that ever happened to
Iowa. I imagine Iowa might have
been a happier and more prosperous
State had land prices arrived early
at some stable price, and remained
there. Actually, Iowa land rose from
about SO an acre in 1865 to upward OF
5000 in recent years
When the New Dealers, with the
sympathetic support of nearly every
body. began to consider the project OF
! turning tenants into farm owners,
they found that one obstacle is finan-
cial-the sheer quantity of money
needed. The total number of farms
in the United States in 1885 was
6,8l1,9 ,9s9. OF these upward Of 40 per
cent are operated by tenants-consid-
erably upward Of 40 per cent. Secre-
tary Wallace, in one Of his speeches,
gave the number of farms operated by
tenants as 2,865,155.
For convenience, call it 100000
farms operated by tenants. The
objective is to turn these 100000
tenants into farmers owning and
operating their own farms. Now let
us look at the cost. The average price
Of these 100000 farms would be
about $4,000 each. That Is the figure
used by Secretary Wallace. I sup
posed it would be higher-and ]
am fairly confident it will be higher
If the Government starts in to buy
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