SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 141 



was placed on neglect, shiftlessness, drunkenness, and social 

 squalor, and agricultural Ireland was emigrant as to its best and 

 most vigorous element, decadent economically and socially, and 

 rapidly increasing in pauperism and insanity. The various 

 Land Purchase Acts passed by Parliament revolutionized Irish 

 society, for it was mostly agricultural and rural. Small estates 

 could be purchased on one hundred year payments. Buildings 

 and sanitation were fostered. Agriculture and education were 

 promoted. Cooperative undertakings took root. As a con- 

 sequence the inhabitants are becoming thrifty, industrious, in- 

 terested in their own community affairs, temperate, and a 

 larger life is full of promise. 



In America social degeneration due to tenancy has been noted. 

 Absentee landlordism visits on the given region heavy economic 

 injuries. The tenant who keeps up the buildings, grounds, 

 fences, and fertility of a farm as he would were he owner is rare 

 indeed. No doubt juster laws and more progress in scientific 

 agriculture would form a basis for the correction of some of 

 these matters. Now the tenant sees no profit in the upkeep of the 

 farm. He believes he obtains the greatest advantage in getting 

 the largest returns with the least effort. Could just returns for 

 his efforts be secured the results would be better. 



But the economic phase is less important than the social. The 

 community interests are at stake, and are put in jeopardy 

 wherever a neighborhood is given up to renters dominantly. 

 This fact has been observed frequently. Strong spoke of it in 

 his "New Era" many years ago. It has received passing atten- 

 tion now and then since that time. Near Syracuse, New York, 

 (1894), life in certain tenant communities seemed pathetic. 

 Church, school, and home indicated systematic neglect. In 

 north central Kansas (1895) renters exercised neither interest 

 nor influence in community matters. Observations in Mont- 

 gomery County, Illinois, (1901-1903), resulted in the belief that 

 schools and churches were declining under tenant conditions. 

 Resident owners recognized and deplored the fact. Observers in 

 North Dakota report similar conditions wherever renting pre- 

 dominates. 



As an accompaniment of the neglect of church and school the 

 moral and cultural tone of the neighborhood sink low. Coopera- 



