60 LAND TENURE 



single year, the soil is being rapidly exhausted and the conditions, therefore, 

 tend to become steadily worse. Even at present a very large proportion of 

 ^ the tenants' families are insufficiently clothed, badly housed, and underfed. 

 Practically all of the white tenants are native born. As a result of these condi- 

 tions, however, they are deteriorating rapidly, each generation being less 

 efficient and more helpless than the preceding one. 



"4. A very large proportion of the tenants are hopelessly in debt and are 

 charged exorbitant rates of interest. Over 95 per cent of the tenants borrow 

 from some source, and about 75 per cent borrow regularly year after year. 

 The average interest rate on all farm loans is 10 per cent, while small tenants 

 in Texas pay 15 per cent or more. In Oklahoma the conditions are even 

 worse, in spite of the enactment of laws against usury. Furthermore, over 

 80 per cent of the tenants are regularly in debt to the stores from which they 

 secure their supplies, and pay exorbitantly for this credit. The average rate 

 of interest on store credit is conservatively put at 20 per cent and in many 

 cases ranges as high as 60 per cent. 



"5. The leases are largely in the form of oral contracts which run for 

 only one year, and which make no provision for compensation to the tenant 

 for any improvements which may be made upon the property. As a result, 

 tenants are restrained from making improvements, and in many cases do not 

 properly provide for the upkeep of the property. 



"6. Furthermore, the tenants are in some instances the victims of oppres- 

 sion on the part of landlords. This oppression takes the form of dictation of 

 character and amount of crops, eviction without due notice, and discrimination 

 because of personal and political convictions. The existing law provides no 

 recourse against such abuses. 



"7. As a result both of the evils inherent in the tenant system and of the 

 occasional oppression by landlords, a state of acute unrest is developing among 

 the tenants and there is clear indications of the beginning of organized resist- 

 ance which may result in civil disturbances of a serious character. 



"8. The situation is being accentuated by the increasing tendency of the 

 landlords to move to the towns and cities, relieving themselves not only from 

 all productive labor, but from direct responsibility for the conditions which 

 develop. Furthermore, as a result of the increasing expenses incident to urban 

 life there is a marked tendency to demand from the tenant a greater share of 

 the products of his labor. 



"9. The responsibility for the existing conditions rests not upon the land- 

 lords, but upon the system itself. The principal causes are to be found in 

 the system of short leases, the system of private credit at exorbitant rates, 

 the lack of a proper system of marketing, the absence of educational facilities, 

 and last but not least, the prevalence of land speculation. 



"10. A new factor is being introduced into the agricultural situation 

 through the development of huge estates owned by corporations and operated 

 by salaried managers upon a purely industrial system. The labor conditions 

 on such estates are subject to grave criticism. The wages are extremely low, 

 80 cents per day being the prevailing rate on one large estate which .was 

 thoroughly investigated; arbitrary deductions from wages are made for vari- 

 ous purposes; and a considerable part of the wages themselves are paid in the 

 form of coupons, which are in all essential particulars, the same as the "scrip" 

 which has been the source of such great abuse. Furthermore, the communities 

 existing on these large estates are subject to the complete control of the 

 land-owning corporation, which may regulate the lives of citizens to almost 

 any extent." 



At the third national convention on Marketing and Farm 

 Credits in Chicago, 1915, various speakers dwelt on the menace 

 to our political and educational institutions which is even now 



