

ADVOCATE AND GUIDE. 147 



and resells them to small farmers on easy payments. Other States 

 are studying the proposition of creating associations backed by the 

 States to create a system of credits through which a good tenant farmer 

 can borrow up to 90 per cent of the value of the land. 



"A valuable addition to small land holdings might also come from a 

 more intelligent and effective interest in the possibilities of irrigation in 

 the western portion of the State." 



His program further suggests : Exemption from taxation 

 of all improvements on land farmed by owners ; special tax 

 on absentees ; exemption of mortgages from taxation ; cheap 

 money for loans to near value of the land ; limiting amount 

 of land a man may own for speculation ; higher rate of taxes 

 on tenant lands than on owner-farmed; land indebtedness 

 not included for taxes on farms less than 160 acres ; increased 

 tax rate with increased holdings of all kinds of property. 

 State aid in buying farms for those who want them for 

 homes. 



Now, all these schemes to increase the number of farmers 

 and quantity of farm products would be in vain were there 

 no minimum price system enforced by the farmers to insure 

 good wages and overhead expenses, for without it prices 

 would go so low that people could not make a decent living 

 on 80 or 160 acres, though they be relieved of paying taxes? 

 interest and payments on the land. Land would become 

 worthless again and people would desert it by thousands as 

 before for the better wages and living conditions in cities. 

 Only by having a large family of working age to furnish free 

 labor could an industrious farmer by good management sur- 

 vive through buying out a half dozen of his neighbors when 

 they become dissatisfied to the extent of almost giving it 

 away to seek a living wage elsewhere. 



Those were the exact conditions I lived through in Kansas 

 during the time of practically free government lands and 

 very cheap railroad land on eleven years' time with little or 

 no taxes, interest or payments to make for years. Those 

 were the good old times when farmers fed the world free, 



