1168 
!»* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A Primer of Economics 
By John J. Dillon 
Part XLIII 
RIGIIT OF CONTRACT 
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The fundamental idea of property is n 
recognition of the right of every person 
to the things hg or she produces, and the 
privilege of disposing of them without 
deceit to suit their own purposes. This 
implies the. right to use for one’s own 
purpose things that rightly come into his 
possession by purchase, exchange or gift, 
or to dispose of these acquired things 
without deception or fraud in a way to 
serve his own jirofit or pleasure. 
In the early and primitive state of so¬ 
ciety it was a simple matter to determine 
the owner of artificial property. The 
woodsman who took undisputed posses¬ 
sion of pre-existing material from the 
storehouse of nature and made a crude 
boat of birch bark, was clearly the orig¬ 
inal owner of it. lie probably made the 
crude implements which he used in shaping 
the bark to his purposes, and saved from 
previous labor food to sustain him while 
he worked on the boat. If so, he was his 
own capitalist, as well as his own em¬ 
ployee. In modern industry the process 
is more complex. Labor is divided so 
that many different operators work on 
the same unit. Management, supervision, 
accounting and salesmanship are factors 
of production. They come under the 
head of labor and share with the manual 
laborer in the division of the product 
allotted as wages. 
Capital is also a factor of production 
and it is entitled to its rewards in the 
division of the product. Capital assists 
labor, hut all labor can do is to cause 
material things to change places, and by 
so doing call natural forces into action. 
All the human forces since Adam’s time 
down to the present could not create or 
destroy a singly atom of matter. Through 
the working of natural forces, matter is 
changed from one form to another. Man 
can direct and utilize these forces and 
shape forms to suit himself or destroy 
forms. He can do no more. When we 
say man creates or produces wealth, we 
do not mean that he created or produced 
matter. Through the use of natural 
agencies he simply changes the matter 
that already exists into new forms. Con¬ 
sequently lie must have access to natural 
gifts and natural forces before he can 
produce anything. lie mustfciave access 
to land. When land was free, the gifts 
of nature were free to labor. Since land 
has been appropriated, these natural pro¬ 
ducts can be used only with the consent 
of the owner, and the payment of rent. 
Hence land is a factor in production, and 
entitled to a share of the product. 
Sometimes the landlord, the capitalist 
and the laborer agree on the share of the 
product that goes to each, and it is so 
divided. The title of each to his share 
of the wealth is then clear. In modern 
practice the business man pays rent to 
the landlord, interest to the capitalist and 
wages to labor. He assumes entire re¬ 
sponsibility for the payment of these 
fixed costs in the processes of production, 
and by common consent becomes the sole 
owner of the products. His title is as 
good as if he produced them with his 
own hands, and his right to transfer liis 
title in them to another by contract is 
inherent in his ownership of them. It 
follows that the right to acquire title by 
purchase or contract is equally valid. In 
cases of minors or incompetents and cases 
of extreme improvidence or fraud, the 
validity of contract is denied ; but for the 
most part the free right to contract is a 
fundamental principle of English law, and 
except for special cases or emergencies in 
which the public welfare is concerned, 
contracts made without deceit or fraud 
are enforced by the courts. 
By contract, of course, is meant an 
agreement or understanding between two 
or more parties. The essence of a con¬ 
tract is an offer by the first party and 
an acceptance of the offer by the other 
party. In legal parlance it is the meet¬ 
ing of the minds. No particular form or 
verbiage is necessary. A letter contain¬ 
ing an offer, with conditions clearly ex¬ 
pressed, and another letter written in re¬ 
ply, accepting the offer, constitutes one 
of the best and safest forms of contract. 
A written contract is preferable to a ver¬ 
bal one, because it is easier to prove. 
TITLE )SY BEQUEST 
Since a rightful title to property, 
whether original or acquired, carries with 
it tlii 1 right to dispose of it during life as 
the owner wishes, the right to bequeath 
it after death must also be conceded. Iu 
the primitive state of society property 
was held by the tribe or the patriarchial 
family. It was produced and defended 
and possessed by all the mature members 
of the family or tribe, and at. the death 
of- one his place and property naturally 
fell to another. The idea of bequests did 
not seem to have occurred to them. In 
their circumstances it would not have 
been natural, and would not have been 
just, because the home and property was 
created and protected by the several mem¬ 
bers of the family group, aud where all 
work the products of their labor could 
not justly be appropriated or disposed of 
by any one of them. 
In the present state of society property 
is not held by the family, but by indi¬ 
viduals. and save for the relations of 
husband and wife aud the obligations to 
minor children the individual is free to 
dispose of his property, with a few 
exceptions, according to his own con¬ 
ceptions of duty. The exceptions in 
this country restrict the entailment of 
property beyond the second generation. 
In England, under the principle of primo¬ 
geniture. a parent may entail property to 
the oldest son in perpetuity. Since the 
Revolution France, in order to avoid the 
custom of primogeniture and overcome the 
tendency of accumulating large individual 
holdings, property is divided on the death 
of the parent equally among the children. 
With us the State has established laws 
tor the disposal of property of persons 
who die intestate. In the case of chil¬ 
dren the State authorizes the distribution 
of property of the parent among them ; 
and when no direct issue survives the 
division is made to the next of kin on the 
theory that this is the disposition that 
would probably be made of the property, 
provided the deceased had directed the 
disposal of his property. The right of 
bequest, however, which is inherent in the 
right of private property, is different from 
the right of inheritance. While children 
and next of kin are the natural bene¬ 
ficiary of a parent’s estate, the parent is 
not bound to bestow any portion on his 
mature children during life, nor is he 
under obligation to bequeath it to them 
at death. He is at liberty to leave ns 
much or as little *to his children as he 
pleases; or he may pass them by entirely, 
and dispose of his property in bequests 
to public institutions or to other indi¬ 
viduals. 
The average parent is moved by an 
impulse of natural affection to give his 
or her children a start in life with a 
better material prospect perhaps than 
the parents themselves enjoyed, and 
this sentiment leads them in normal cases 
to leave their property iu large measure, 
if not entirely, to the children or next of 
kin, but there are eases that are not nor¬ 
mal. Parents may well recognize a higher 
service to children than to provide them 
with ease and luxuries. Character, hab¬ 
its of industry and ideals of service are 
worth more to the individual and to 
society than material wealth, and when 
parents are convinced that they can best 
cultivate those desirable human attri¬ 
butes in their son by denying him any 
portion of the parental estate, and throw¬ 
ing him on his own resources, after fit¬ 
ting him with a healthy equipment of 
body and mind, society would assume a 
grave responsibility to itself if it. at¬ 
tempted to interfere with the parental 
discipline and judgment. As a rule it 
does not assume any such responsibility. 
BITS OF FARM LAW 
Fence Line on Highway 
We contemplate building a fence across 
the front of our farm. Can you inform us 
how many feet from center of main road 
(highway) fence must be? There is a 
row of large trees extending across front 
September 24, 1921 
lawn near highway, and we do not know 
whether fence should be inside or outside 
of the row of trees. m. m. m. 
Spencerport, N. Y. 
It is impossible to give you the exact 
place to build your fence along the high¬ 
way. You should build it on the boun¬ 
dary between your land and the highway. 
Your road may be three rods wide or four 
rods wide, the traveled portion may be in 
the center or at one side of the right of 
way. Perhaps your town superintendent 
of highways will help you out in this mat- 
ter. n. T> 
Drawing Up a Legal Farm Lease 
I would like to have you assist me in 
drawing up a contract with a tenant 
farmer. T own a farm of about 400 acres, 
tillable, 00 wood and 200 pasture, in 
Putnam Co., N. Y. At present it is be¬ 
ing run by hired men as a dairy farm. T 
have 14 milking cows (one is purebred), 
two purebred bulls and two heifer calves 
I have two horses and quite a lot of farm 
implements, though they could be im¬ 
proved and added to. There is a dwelling 
house and a tenant house. c. h. b. 
There are many tilings to consider in 
drawing a farm lease. Y’ou do not state 
whether the tenant is to work the farm 
on shares or not. The first essential is 
the portion of the crops or rental which 
the tenant must pay. The other essential 
conditions are as follows: The lease 
should state definitely who furnishes the 
seed, plaster, phosphate, etc.; who pays 
the taxes; who feeds teams; who fur¬ 
nishes the horses and does the labor; who 
pays the thrasher’s hill; what land shall 
he plowed : what crops shall be sown; 
what wood may he cut; what garden the 
tenant may have; wliat crops shall be 
planted ; where the products shall be mar¬ 
keted ; what stock shall he kept on the 
place : who is the owner of the swine and 
poultry; how the fences should be re¬ 
paired : when the manure shall be drawn 
and spread 1 what grounds shall be seeded 
and who shall furnish grass seed, and how 
much. The most important provision 
should he that the title to all crops should 
remain with the owner of the premises 
until a division is made. With the last 
provision in. the contract, the contract, 
may he filed in the town clerk’s office and 
it then operates the same as a chattel 
mortgage until the crops are divided. It 
is likewise essential that the lease con¬ 
tains a provision that the lease shall not 
he assigned without the written consent of 
the owner of the premises. 
A farm lease is one of the very impor¬ 
tant documents drawn, and to give pro¬ 
tection to both tenant and landlord, it is 
advisable that you employ an attorney to 
draw up your instrument. n. t. 
Legal Fence in New York and New Jersey 
Will you advise me as to the height a 
fence between two properties must be 
erected in New Jersey, and also in New 
York ? In New York, is one farmer re¬ 
quired to put up fence to keep out of his 
property the sheep of his neighbor? IIow 
high must this lx 1 ? Is the farmer required 
to fence along the road where his prop¬ 
erty touches that of his neighbor in order 
to keep out sheep belonging to his neigh¬ 
bor? t)n one of our farms both my neigh¬ 
bor and myself have land in each State. 
I erected a fence against his sheep. Does 
this mean that I am legally obliged to 
keep this fence up? F,. n. n. 
New Jersey. 
There is no prescribed height for a 
fence in the State of New York, so long 
as the fence is suitable to keep out. stock 
such as are usually pastured on adjoining 
premises. The statute provides that the 
fence viewer’s may prescribe what is a 
suitable fence, but there are very few 
counties in the State of New York where 
the fence viewers have laid down any hard 
and fast rule on this subject. 
The State of New Jersey seems to pro¬ 
vide that if a fence is 4 ft. and 2 in. high, 
measured from the level or surface of the 
earth, it shall he deemed a lawful fence. 
They have also provided that the line 
fence shall be so close, strong and suffi¬ 
cient as to prevent sheep from going 
through or under the same. Your neigh¬ 
bor lias no right to permit his sheep to 
stray in the highway, and is liable to 
damage for trespassing on your land, even 
though yon have no fence along the high¬ 
way. N. T. 
Drain from Adjoining Land 
Can a neighbor oblige me to dig a ditch 
through my land to drain the water from 
his land? He has served a written notice 
by the hand of a neighbor to dig it in 
30 days. Is that legal? If I do not dig 
it, can he come on our land, dig the ditch, 
and make me pay for it? x. r. z. 
Your neighbor cannot oblige you to dig 
a ditch through your land for the purpose 
of draining his land, and he cannot enter 
upon your land for the purpose of drain¬ 
ing his land without your consent. If. 
however, you have filled in the natural 
water course so as to cause the water to 
flow back on your neighbor, the situation 
i« different, and he can compel you to 
open the same. n. t. 
“U ho’s the swell guy you was just 
talkin’ to?” asked Tony the bootblack. 
“Aw. him an’ me’s worked together for 
years,” answered Mickey the newsboy. 
“He’s the editor of one of mo papers.”— 
Toronto Telegram. 
