THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FARmNG. 247 



the free admission of raw materials of all kinds — and all farm 

 productions are raw materials — will be agitated by men" 

 whose sympathies are not with the producer. Here again 

 the farmer can only help himself by organization. 



If I am right in my position, that the farmer has to-day a 

 need to protect his business by a concert of action, I must 

 not pass by a threatened peril to American agriculture, 

 which farmers should be the first to perceive, to warn 

 against, and to oppose, — actuated thereto by a love for their 

 calling as well as a love for their country. I allude to the 

 growing evil of foreign landlordism. It certainly is not 

 desirable that any considerable tract of land should be owned 

 by persons more interested in another country and form of 

 government than our own, that owe allegiance elsewhere 

 and will never aid in advancing the progress of our country. 

 As Americans, we should oppose them, because we love our 

 country and desire its development. As farmers, we should 

 oppose them, because we believe in the right of every farmer 

 to own the soil he tills. It makes him a better farmer, a 

 better citizen and a more patriotic one. We do not wish 

 the tenant farming system, with all its attendant evils, intro- 

 duced here. But it has been, and only last spring I read of 

 evictions in Iowa for non-payment of rent to a foreign land- 

 lord. Of late years, the ownership of land in Great Britain 

 has not been as profitable as formerly, which has prompted 

 capitalists to look elsewhere for investments. The cheap 

 lands of America were tempting baits and have drawn them 

 hither, many of them presumably for speculative purposes ; 

 but not in all cases, by any means, as their Jarge tracts are 

 being divided into farms and let to tenant farmers, and in 

 some instances the tenant farmers of Ens-land brought here 

 and placed upon them. So silently has this evil grown that 

 few are aware of its proportions, and when I tell you that 

 more than twenty millions of acres of land in the United 

 States are thus owned by aliens, you will be surprised by the 

 statement. Amons^ the laro:est of these foreiajn landowners 

 are the Duke of Sutherland, Duke of Hamilton, Earl 

 Dunraven and Marquis of Tweedale, the last of whom owns 

 a tract of 2,300 square miles, while his English holdings are 

 only G7 square miles. These four men own 23,000 square 



