FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 43 



selves longest. In other words, figuratively speaking, the operators 

 of greatest capacity and efficiency (which undoubtedly are the main 

 determinants of largest accumulating power) crowd upper strata of 

 the tenant stages and soon pass off into the owner stage. On the 

 other hand, the poorest accumulators of the owner and share-tenant 

 stages suffer reverses and settle toward lower stages, out of which 

 some never rise. 



Among owners, however, the majority of best accumulators have 

 worked for themselves longest — the reverse of the situation with the 

 tenant classes. Many operators become owners through fortuitous 

 assistance and often can remain in the stage throughout life, even 

 though suffering a small annual loss. Nevertheless, reversals from 

 this stage (there were 42 tenants out of the 258 Who had at one time 

 been owners) largely involve incompetent operators, many of whom 

 can provide for their families best in a state of tenancy, where they 

 are supervised by more competent operators. 



These two functions of the different tenure stages are based on the 

 fundamental fact that men vary greatly in ability to produce and 

 accumulate, which fact must not be neglected in shaping any land 

 policy. It is highly important that the road to advanced stages be 

 kept open and free from uneconomic handicaps, such as speculative 

 land values ; that care be taken that the operators in the lower stages 

 get a return commensurate to their efforts and ability ; that they have 

 proper houses to live in; that they be given a chance to expand as 

 they prove their ability; and that they have contracts protecting 

 them in their rights and protecting the landlord from any dishonesty 

 on the part of unscrupulous renters. 



I [/AS8IFICATION OF OPERATORS ACCORDING TO ABILITY TO ACCUMULATE WEALTH. 



The reasons why men differ in their ability to accumulate wealth 

 are numerous. In fact, each case probably has its own set of reasons 

 that are somewhat different from all others. Nevertheless, there are 

 some general conditions associated with the rate of accumulation 

 which '-an well be brought out by way of comparison."' 



A glance at Figure 5, in the light of what has been said on the dual 

 function of the tenure stages, will show that a tenure classification 

 within itself is a rough chi-~ ili<;ition of operators into classes of 

 accumulators. However, within each tenure class there are good as 

 well as poor accumulators; therefore operators within each tenure 

 < I ■ - v ere divided into the best, the med/wm, and the 'poorest accwrm- 



■The factor! thai enter Into the Individual operator's ability i<> accumulate wealth 

 from til earning! are B Colloid (1) Ability to produce, which depends on the operator's 

 capacltj ;mki efficiency; '-» ability to save wealth produced; :■ ■><! (3) ability i" use saved 

 wealth in iii<- production of more wealth, 



