Saturday, September 9, 1916
EDUCATION, COOPERATION, LEGISLATION
(1) Education to Develop Power. G) Cooperation to Multiply It, and (3) Legislation and Good Government x
to Promote Equal Rfchti and Human Progress-Plain Talk About Men, Measure and Movements Involved . '
: : By CLARENCE POE ' " : 1
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A Study of tfie Tenant Problem -
S I have said before; I have lived the life both
of landlord and renter, and I think I can
sympathize with both classes of our people
and hold the scales? equally between them. As.L ' '
ana- , , .1. . x -:.t.i ' il 'Now there
man heingsi the noblest possible ;form of rural civ
ilization: Here thenis rbur . twofold problem- to
promote as amply :as possible (1) the conserva
tion of soil fertility: ,(2) the highest human devel-
opment.
' V-.'P ' - ;r (11) : 1033
useful citizens than they are on large tracts held
for speculation by absentee k landlords".: And not
only isxthis true, but taxes are higher yet; in pro
portion to value, on the personal property of the
landless .man struggling to become a home-owner.
Take a case mentioned by Mr. R. F. Beasley in
.'ifr ""-Renters' and Landlords' Special" one year
ago.' In his countyVlast year he said the tax; as-,
sessors -vaiued cotton at 9, cents a pound, corn '
and wheat at $1 a bushel, horses at $200 and cows
at $50, etc.r-all the personal property of the poor
epA w astuay oi xnc leuaiu ytumciu duiius uner-.- . , - . . .. . , . . ; vvuuw struggling 10 get a loomoia in me worm
sec ' , - s ' j " " - ownership favors both4 these desired' results. It lL ' " ; , - 14 inrt
ringly to two .great needs: ;. . . el0tnW because1 as' Tames Oliver used .tV';em?sessed at Poetically 100 per cent value
1 The conservationrofoil, fertility. ' 1 V clps ause, as James Uhver, used to ,WMe kfld wag asseisW at probably less than .33
2. The conservation of manhood. . . .
Both these issues are, of - course, of. the highest
importance to our -future 'civilization. "The high
say j nappy , is the land that is tilled by the man
who owns - it." '"he magic of ownership," as a
philosopher of another era has said, "converts de-
per cent of its real vaiue.
This :s Is - an iniquity in the sight pi God, a sin
agamst:Hiy poor ; and the nation, state, or county
import i t "t serts and sand banks into blossoming 'gardens." : u c , .. . - A ' '
pst conception of a nation, said the late James J. .;- . . . - - guilty of such a policy is sure to pay the penalty
Hill in his famous St. Paul address, ten years ago - . . x, - .
. i v r ' x "hm cognized as promoting the highest human develop
last week," th .of austee fo posterUy. The .. been- recognized-from .ihe time
Nation must think of the generations yet unborn, . 4. .; . ...
vv licit " Vjrvfiuaiiii tii gciici anwiia dgu saii J1 lia
and take steps -to safeguard our . one great inheri
tance from the Almighty the. fertility of the soil
through which the life of these generations is to
be sustained. ' v -5 '' ' '
The Nation's Duty to Conserve Soil Fertility
THIS last idea was the thought that was per
haps oftencst in the mind and heart of the
late Henry Wallace.' during the last, years of
his life. "The Voiceless Land"; was 'a' subject he
was constantly writing aboutmeaning , to x say
"bold, peasantry", as cthe f mainstay "of England's
greatness,- until our ewn" tinie when Dr. Carver
proclaims that "next tOi war, pestilence and fam
ine,, the. worst thing- that can, happen to arrural
community is absentee landlordism."
with all, the accumulated interest of the Almigh
ty's vengeance. And any political party endors-''-ing
such a policy should be in peril of the people's"
wraths 1
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Reforms in Taxation and Rural Credits
BELIEVE that' provision should be made for
encouraging home:ownership by providing that L
a resident's first $1,000 of -real estate should
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We" Must -Encourage (i)-Permanence of H TUt?'6 ha'f the JrateAat7hich.th,e
" . ResidenceXa) of Rewards - - til W T'-f 7 u-rtam
,r , , . , ; double iniquity of taxing large holdings higher
A LL'4n all, therefore, we hardly think that any-J than small, and of taxing personal property at a
onewilldenj that home ownefshippromoteV, higher rate than real 1 estater should be forever.;;;
bnth soil-rnnservaiinn 'arA trip flowpvino- nf .!t,- ' .' -. - -t ' .;.-v
."TV r-"--TvV : r .) 'f. . r 'i, UUUC rtWcty Willi.
?1a . KntTi r.fanrl1nrH . anrl pnarifv snpdV s nut
. ' ' sjji:. ''i.! a richer civilization. Let us. not be content, how- ' hr svstpm! nf QtatP nnH Inral tavatinn ciin,,t
every rciuiix . . ' . - , Jtr! V - 7
their views as to, their own interests in
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contract, the land' itself,, more' important than 7 :eve' -Withlhe simple; statement; but go further (i) .encourage f small holdings rather, than large; "
either, is- silent, voiceless, and its interests are too a- ,.W.1S 18 : " vV- ' (2) .orne-ownership rather than absentee land-.":' ; ' ,
nfip .ntrarl Thi f, the wav thp fnw," We th 48 true fr twQ masons (l);because lordism; and (3) should seek to encourage the " ' 1
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of the; permanence of the home-owner's-residenceMattdless - mariin the accumulation ' of personal,. ' -
oh .the land ; (2) because of the- sureness" that he property as the necessary route to home-owner-j S
will reap what hesows, whether that is soil-pov- . ship. - r , " ' M
erty.or soil-fertility.- Our states are at fault for hot engrafting these
, - And then ft follows as the night the day that the principles into their systems of taxation,. and the'
further we get away from, these two" characteris- Nation. .is at fault, for not engrafting the same-
tics of home-ownership (1) permanence of resi- principle into what would then become an excel-,
dence, (2), sureness of . rewards-the-worse be- ient' system .of, rural credits. But so long as mon-
. comes our condition. -And in the ojie-year renting' ey is lent "to land Speculators, through joint-stocW .
they are fed well or compelled to starve wil v system of ihi South,-we get just as far away as it banks as cheaply or virtually as cheaply as to
depend on whether the rights of the land are - js possible for us to get in any business governed resident, home-owning farmers through national ' 1 J
by such circumstances. . .. . .. ,. ...
We reach, "then,. these conclusions that home
ownership is the ideal ; and that where home
ownership cannot exist, we should aim at least to
provide as far as possible the:conditions that
often outraged. This is the way the great Iowa
farmer-leader put -.it on one occasion; ' .
"In every lease there are reallyvthree , . pari
ties interested-the 'land, the landlord, and
the tenant; and the? most important of this"
trio is the land itself. It will be here when
the grave has closed over the other two par
ties to the contract, and will be' here after the
tombstone, be'it marble , or sandstone, has
crumbled into "4ust. From the land genera
tions yet' unborn must be fed, and' whether ;
recognized in such leases -as are-now being
made all over the Corn Belt.- The land is -voiceless,
and someone must speak for it, and
in so doing speak for the generation -yet to ;
come. --
"Some forms of leasing are especially vi- -cious;
for example, a lease for one year for a
share of the crop on' land farmed for grain ex
clusively. This means nothing "'more nor less'
than the rape of. the voiceless land, which can
not cry out nor protect itself, It ; is 'simply a
conspiracy between the owner of the land and
the tenant to rob it as thoroughly as possiSle v
and as quickly as possible, and divide the
swag. A lease for a series of years, without:
an efficient method of feeding the land,1 is only
prolonging the agony.", . "
There is indfed,, as Henry Wallace pointed out,
a great, moral duty here., The Almighty did not
make the earth and the fullness thereof just i
for those of us who happen to be living in 1916,"
nor our immediate offspring. He made it, for all
we know, for people. who are to live ten thousand
or ten million years front now. xAnd for this? rea
son, it is the high duty of the state,-"the trustee
of posterity," to safeguard the interests both of
the "voiceless land" anj the voiceless unborn who '
are to come after us-their right to life and suste
nance as sacred in God's eyes as is our own right
to life and food, v - - ' ,
Home-Ownership and Rural Civilization
NT. only. must wejeonsider .the tenant prob-
lem as it is related- to the conservation of :.
soit resources", however, but also as "related
directly. to the conservation of our - human-resources.
In .fact,-we are interested in soil censer;;,
vation simply as it affects future human lifer'and
We must also consider how' condition of ,land-
pnti? etc- affect human life at the present time. ,
, 11 1S not enough merely tjiat human beings'
shall exist on the land, but our aim must be to de
eIop on and ht highest possible' type, of hu-,
make home-ownership better, both for the. soil and
for civilization. . And these conditions-are (1) per
manence of residence, (2) sureness of rewards. ,
.farm loan associations, the Nation is- almost as
guilty as the states in the crime of promoting ab
sentee landlordism.
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Rewarding the Renter for Improvements
O MUCH then for legislation to encourage
landrownership. Now let us see what we can
do in , our renting systems to encourage the
v : saving principles of . home-ownership first, per-
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.iwuuHMiijwiiuv.uu. manenceof residence; second, sureness of re-
Rates Than the Rich wards; ,
INSTEAD of encouraging home:ownership and We ought,' of course, to have longer leases, and
discouraging absentee landlordism the con- we ought to have some plan whereby the. renter
trary. now. seems to be the: policy of both our; would be rewarded for increasing : soil-fertility
Stales ana ine iNaiion.' laxcs aic uauau niguc ana punisnea ior lessening it. in cngiana legis-
per 'acre uu sxuaii idims wumvaicu uj iimuoiHuu
iSEPTEMBER
HAVE not been among the woods,
Nor' seen the milk-weeds' burst their hoods, ,
The downy thistle-seeds take wing,
Nor the squirrel at his garnering.
And yet I know that," up to God, .
The mute month holds her goldenrod,
That clump and copse, o'errun with vines,
Twinkle with clustered muscadines,
And In deserted churchyard places,
..Dwarf apples smile with sunburnt faces.
J.I know how, ere her green Is shed, , ;
The. dogwood pranks herself with red;
How the pale dawn, "chilled through and through, f
' Comes drenched and draggled with her dew;
How all day long the sunlight seems . ' ,;
.v'As if it lit a land of. dreams,
Till evening, - with her mist and cloud,
" Begins to weave her royal shroud. .
If yet, as in old Homer's land, s
God walks with mortals hand in hand,
Somewhere today, in this sweet, weather,
Thinkest thou'nbt they walk together? - -
1 John Charles 'McNeill.
lation assuring these results has long been in suc
cessful operation, as explained elsewhere in this
issue by.a Virginia correspondent,' and also in a
quotation from the late Henry Wallace. ; .
- Of course, we are hardly ready yet for such leg-.
islation in this! country. "We must suffer more,
or must, see a greater body of , now fertile farm .
lands converted into waste, gullies, and old fields.
We shall also be delayed by the fact that such a'
' small proportion of our tenants are financially re
sponsible. ,? Stillf as time goes jon-we-shall have an
- increasing number of landowners who. will find
renters with sufficient personal property and say,
"You take this farm at a certain rent, tjie under
standing being that it is to be kept as fertile and
in as good condition as nowI to pay you if you
improve it, you to pay me if you injure it." It is
no use to dismiss the idea as "impracticable" for
- everybody and in all cases simply because it is yet
impracticable ;n the great majority of cases. , The
thing to do rather is to 'recognize the desirability ."
of the idea and seek to put it into practice wher-'
ever two men of the right sort can get together
on a satisfactory plan.- ' . . - r
. We must encourage (1) permanence of resi
dence; (2) sureness of 'rewards. 1
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