LAND TENURE AND LAND POLICY 67 



37. Are there reasons why it is more essential that the farm opera- 

 tor should also be the farm-owner than that industrial and mercantile 

 operators should own the land they use ? Explain fully. 



38. Has the land policy of the United States aimed to secure the 

 benefits of personal ownership to the man who works the farm ? What 

 measures have been taken toward this end ? Has the desired purpose 

 been accomplished? Have some results which it was desired to 

 avoid in fact been brought about ? Was the defect in the system or 

 in the way in which we have applied it ? 



39. What are the most promising means of redirecting that move- 

 ment toward the intended goal ? 



40. Explain the purpose and mode of operation of a graduated or 

 progressive land tax. Has such a measure ever been agitated in your 

 state ? By what interests, and with what result ? If not, try to get 

 the history of such a movement in some other state. 



41. Describe the "small holdings" movement in England. What 

 has been the effect of the European war upon farm tenure in England ? 



42. Is "the tenant problem" one thing or many? Is it to be 

 solved by some panacea or are a large number of present maladjust- 

 ments in the socio-economic relations of the various parties to our 

 agricultural industry to be gradually removed by separate and partial 

 reforms ? 



43. Is there some abiding source of difficulty which will probably 

 always cause mankind to be confronted with a land problem ? What 

 is it? 



PROBLEMS 



1. "It is estimated that three out of every four Iowa tenant 

 farms are leased from year to year. Short-time speculators invariably 

 use one-year leases containing the sale clause. As the rent and price 

 of the land advance, they are free each year to raise the rent or sell 

 the farm. As a rule, they know very little about farming and direct 

 or allow methods that exploit the land. On such places tenants fail 

 to equip the farm with the necessary tools and livestock to operate 

 it most successfully. Neither tenant, landlord, nor society is getting 

 the highest returns from the farm." Is such a condition one which 

 tends to grow worse or gradually to correct itself ? Is it one which 

 could be met by any practicable form of legislation ? 



2. "Perhaps there is no important provision in the average con- 

 tract that is so neglected as the one which calls for a reward to the 

 tenant and the landlord for the unexhausted improvements made on 

 the farm." Point out the evil results that flow from such a situation. 

 Is there also an injustice in not being able to charge either party for 



