CHAPTER VI. 



HENRY GEORGE'S REMEDY. 



The undoubted tendency of the time toward larger 

 farms, and the control of land by men of capital, and the 

 increase in the number of farms owned by others than 

 the occupiers, is evidently an indication that capital has, 

 in some way, gained an ascendency over the typical 

 American farmers. That the greater number of farms 

 becoming subject to the landlord are those of the 

 quite small areas, also goes to prove that the small land 

 proprietors are giving up the contest more rapidly than 

 any others. 



Yet, notwithstanding all this, there is nothing in the 

 nature of the conditions now existing to give a grain of 

 weight to the conclusion, that the destruction of land 

 values to the individual would, in any way, give relief 

 to the small land proprietor. That the large farm is 

 growing larger by additions to its area of the small farms 

 about it, only shows that the larger farm is, in some 

 way, better circumstanced to hold its own in the contest 

 for gain. 



The causes which have brought the small farms into 

 the hands of the capitalists are various, but the weight 

 of mortgage-debt has been the final agent in the ma- 

 jority of cases. The once fortunate owners of such 

 farms were, at the first, benefited by small loans from 



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