THE TENANT FARMS. 79 



ready become a gigantic movement in the interest of 

 alien capitalists. 



Throughout all the older States, as in the new, the 

 American plutocrat indulges in the peculiar luxury 

 of the old feudal barons of Europe, in being able to 

 count his tenants by scores and by hundreds. Among 

 the number is the late Acting Vice President of the 

 United States, who has his tenant farms scattered 

 throughout the central part of the State of Illinois. 

 As illustrative of the general prevalence of this feudal 

 relic in our country I will here call special attention 

 to a few only of the older States in the north and 

 west, without reference to the Southern States, where 

 it might be said that their presence is the natural out- 

 growth of the old slave system. In the State of Illi- 

 nois the census of 1880 gives 80,244 tenant farms ; in 

 Ohio, 47,627 ; in New York, 39,872 ; in New Jersey, 

 8,438 ; and in California, 7,124. Every State and 

 Territory in the Union furnishes its quota, generally 

 numbered by thousands. 



The condition of the tenant farmers in this country 

 is also far worse than is that of the much pitied ten- 

 ant farmers of Great Britain and Ireland. There the 

 tenant farmer pays his rent with one fourth of his 

 crop ; here it takes one half (ranging from one third 

 to two thirds). There the tenant farmer is usually a 

 capitalist ; here he is but little removed from the con- 

 dition of a pauper. There the tenant farmer has a 

 comfortable dwelling and farm buildings ; here he 

 has usually a miserable house only, or hovel, without 

 one comfort, or, as in many instances, a hole in the 

 ground. 



