TENANCY 57 



United States it usually is." In the section covered by this report 

 the average length of time that a tenant stays upon the same 

 farm is two and one-half years. This makes not only frequent 

 removals but also the constant effort on the part of the tenants to 

 take from the soil as much as possible while giving back to it as 

 little as possible (Figs. 10 and 11). Such a process if continued 

 must result in soil impoverishment and deterioration. Very few 

 of the renters succeed in acquiring farms of their own. For the 

 most part they remain a floating, discontented element in the 

 population. They 'are the marginal members of the community, 

 and their increasing numbers in northern Ohio constitutes not 



FIG. 11. When the owner farms. 



only a serious agricultural question, but a more serious social and 

 religious problem. The United States Industrial Relations Com- 

 mission probed the causes of unrest in the South and conducted 

 hearings there. The Survey Magazine of New York speaks of 

 these investigations in these words: 



" About a thousand pages of testimony was taken in the five days of the 

 hearings. A study of this testimony will reveal a remarkable coincidence of 

 statement with regard to the actual conditions, and considerable difference of 

 opinion as to what remedies should be adopted. 



"It was generally admitted that a remarkable concentration in the owner- 

 ship of land is taking place. With it are the attendant evils of a rising absentee 

 landlord class and a descending tenant farmer class. It was shown that this 

 concentration of ownership is aided by the farmers moving to town, by the 

 credit system, by speculation and holding of land, etc. 



"The growth of landlordism has been aided by the one-crop system, which 

 in the South, makes it difficult for tenants to rise to the cash basis, and often 

 impossible for them to become home owners. Excessive valuations of farm 



