The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 5, 1924, Page 12

— The Growth of Tenancy In Agriculture P (Continued from Page 3) The statistics of acreage prove the contrary what is assumed by the “pauperization theory”: Tenant farms are growing not only in numbers but in sizes as well they exceed the growth of owner farms and in considerable parts of the country they are bigger than owner farms: Let us look what changes have been made in distribution of farm property among the tenure groups: The total farm property estimat- ed in 1910 in 41 billion dollars and in 1920 in 78 billion dollars was distributed as follows in per cents of the totals of each year: 1916 1920 In owner farms 65.1 61.1 In manager farms 4.1 4.0 In tenant farms 30.8 84.9 The tenant farms appear here ad the only group where the increased farm property was accumulated relatively more at the end of the decade than that was at the begin- ning. Owner farms and farms operated by managers had smaller part of farm property in 1920 than they had in 1910. Property Subdivision, ’ The total property in its subdivi- sions was distributed among the main groups of farms (in per cents of each year’s total amount) as follows: 1920, In tenant farms. 37.6 27.4 é 29.0 268 29.3 29 25.4 4.5 1910. 33.2 24.1 In manager farms, 1920, 4.0 4.0 1910, 3 8 4 1 In owner farms. 1920, 58 68. 68. 66. 1910, 62.5 72.1 69.1 Value of buildings % Machinery and implements 71.1 Value of live stock Value of land Owner farms still had in 1920 more “land values” and held more of the values of buildings, machin- ery and live stock than both the other groups. But comparing the figures for owner farms of 1920 with those of 1910 we have to note that their relative economic force is vanishing: in “value” of land and capital—buildings, machinery and live stock—they had smaller share in 1920 than they had in 1910. The strength of tenant farms in. creased. Their share in “value of land” and in capital was consider- ably bigger at the end of the decade. Temant Farms Advance First. Very small changes we can find in the position of manager farms They had turned more to live stock raising. It is‘impossible to find any confirmation of the assert!ons of pauperization theory in the census| Statistics. Tenant farms do not ap- pear as pauperized, weak, economi- cally exhausted establishments. In intensification of agriculture tenant farms are advanced before owner farms. Average values per acre of live stock, farm implements and machinery are higher and had in- creased more in tenant farms than in owner farms. The 1920 census report does not give any direct information about changes in types of farms by ten- ure. We cannot trace directly in which groups of farms simple com. mercial farming is developed more in capitalistic farming with hired labor. But the statistics of farm Froperty indicate that in this re- spect exactly tenant farms are breaking the way: intensification of agriculture, in which tenant farms are the leaders, demands more labor than extensive farming of owners. When the backward progressives or liberals denounce tenancy then they always speak not about one but about two things: tenants and hired labor. Thus the “Report of the Com- mission on Land Colonization and Rural Credits of the State of Cali- fornia,” of Nov. 29, 1916, complains: Great properties, owned by non- residents are being cultivated by tenants or by nomadic and unsatis- factory hired labor” (page 7, Black mine, O, P.). This same danger was noted by the “Report of the Public Land’s Commission, 1965,” which an- nounced; “There exists and is spreading in the West a tenant of hired labor system (black mine. QO. P.), which not only represents a relatively low industrial development, but whose further extension carries with it a THE GROWTH OF TENANCY IN most serious threat. Politically, so- cially and economically this system is indefensible.” Page xxiv.) Yes, tenants and hired labor come together and can remain together in the “most serious threat.” Difference In Systems. The characterization of new ten- ant farms by the above report in substance as capitalistic farms, the definition of the new tenancy as a tenant or hired labor system, it seems, is correct. ‘This feature of the tenant farms is vital and de- serves attention. enancy, as established at pres- ent in the United States, ig created by different forces and in different conditions than tenant systems came into existence in ofher countries and in this same United States in pre- vious times not so very long ago, Its development does not depend from individually accumulated capi- tal of tenants, as that was the case for a very long time with tenancy Brown,” by Michael Gold, Pub- lished by the DAILY WORKER thru arrangement with Haldeman- Julius Company, of Girard, Kans. Copyrighted, 1924, by Haldeman- Julius Company. > 2; © & The Arsenal Is Captored. fr VENTS flashed sharp and ter- Trible and swift as lightning after this sombre opening of the storm. The telegraph wires were cut, the watchman at the bridge captured, guards wer2 placed at the two bridges leading o1t of the town, and many citizens were taken from the streets and held as prisoners in the Arsenal, Perhaps the most distinguished prisoner was Colonel Lewis W. Washington, a_ great-grand- nephew of the first President, and like him, a gentleman farmer and slave owner. He lived five miles from the Ferry, and with the in- stinct of a dramatist, John Brown seized him and freed his slaves as . @ means of impressing on the American imagination that a new revolution for human rights was being ushered in. Brown’s Heroic Struggle. The little town was peaceful and unprepared for this sudden attack, as unprepared as it would be today for a similar raid. By morning, however, the alarm had Labor Limericks By CHARLES ASHLEIGH ha earnest young curate, named Flynn, Said the workers were living in sin. So he chased and he harried Both single and married— Then died from devotion to gin. A stout pompous person, named Bleed er,—— A prominent union leader,— Said: “You ask why I dine With the boss ?—I like wine; And, then, I’m a vigorous feeder.” A learned professor, named Bray, Said: “I anes a make teaching pay . So he lectures on Russia, And says we must crush ‘er. And guzzles champagne every day. ‘ This is “The Story of John | in England arid in other countries, In considerable extent tenancy is created here directly by the initia- tive and means of financial capital. Bonded tenants, hired tenants, are here among the different tenant groups. as Financial capifal develops in ten- ancy not only a system but a new mechanism of exploitation. The historical duty of the new tenants before their creator, finan- cial capital, is to produce more val- ues and more rent and profits than independent farmers were able to do even when their farms were in full order and they were not eco- nomically weak and pauperized. To- gether with this tenants are doing a work on which account the “eco- nomics of transition period” will be here simpler, Financial Capital—Its Influence. Pauperization of, farmers owners do not stay in. direct connections with establishment of tenancy. Direct transformation of owners in tenants, it seems, did not contribute much to the increase of number of tenants. In acquisition of farmers’ land by financial capital pauperiza- tion plays decisive role. For enlarg- ing and concentration of land hold- ings dispossession of farmers is enforced by “economic means” ot financial capital as effectively as that was done by fire, swords and scaffolds in “glorious revolutions” in Europe. In the battles with inde- pendency of farmers, financial capi- tal does not look for captives, When a farm is foreclosed or purchased by a land company that does not ™mean an immediate addition of a new tenant. It means only an in- crease of territory for tenancy. Financial capital separates land ownership from its cultivation and dispossession of farmers often is been spread; rang. the church bells military companies from Charlestown and other neighbor- ing towns began pouring in, the saloons were crowded with nerv- ous and -hard-drinking men, and’ there was the clamor and furor of thousands of awe-struck South- erners. No one knew how many men were in the Arsenal. No one knew whether the whole South was not vag attacked by Aboli- tionists, or Whether or not all the had armed and_ risen against their masters, as they had attempted to years before in Nat Turner’s and other rebellions, By noon the Southerners had begun the attack. They killed or drove out all. the guards John rown had stationed at ~arious strategic points in the town; they murdered two of Brawn’s men they had taken prisoners, and tor- tured another. They managed to cut off all of Brown’s paths of retreat, and by nightfall, he and the few_survivors of his men were in a trap. Robert E, Lee Takes Fort. His young son, Oliver, only twenty years old, and _ recently married, died in the night. He had been painfully wounded, and begged, in his agony, that his father shoot him and relieve him from pain. But the old Spartan held his boy’s hand and told him to be calm amd to die like aman. Another young son, Watson, had been killed earlier in the fighting. John Brown had now given three sons to freedom, and was soon himself to be a sacrifice. There were left alive and un- wounded but five of Brown’s men. The Virginia milina, mambering, with the civilians in the town, up to the thousands, seemed afraid to attack this little group of des- perate men. In the dawn of the next morning, however, United States marines, under the famous commander, Robert E. Lee then a Colonel in the Federal forces, at- tacked. the arsenal and captured it easily. John Brown refused to surrender to the last; and he stood waiting proudly for the ma- tines when they broke down the door and came raging like tigers at him, Brown Beaten Mercilessly. A fierce young Southern officer slaves A en carried thru or supervised by an- other set of offices or agents from that which takes care about exploi- tation of acquired lands. These are separate processes and require sepe- rate consideration. If we mix them up then :t is impossible to recog- nize their true features. A _ cruel attack of financial capital on land holdings of independent farmers in some sections can look then as an expression of crisis in agricultural production; a victory of financial capital we may accept then as a sign of decay of capitalism; con- fiscation of farmers’ savings in im- posed forms of bankruptcy can ap- pear then as another sign of crisis in production, med Creation of New Farmers Movement. Acquiring ownership of land as means to exempt and to appropriate in the form of land rent the values produced in agricultural financial capital produces the bass for ten- ancy and creates on this basig capi- talistic tenancy-as the typical form of relations which insure unceasing direct flow of land rent and profits in the vaults of banks, As by the means in acquisition of land ownership—mortgages, taxes, manipulated freight rates, etc.—so by increased skinning of people in the tenant system financial capital creates a new farmers’ movement which can be ended only with the end of the system of éxploitation in all its forms. It is impossible for this new farmers’ movement to dis- solve itself on individually owned farms, as that. happened with pre- vious farmers’ movements. This new farmers’ movement has neither the old traditional economic. founda- tions, nor traditional armies of prospective settlers. It cannot have their traditional end. “The Story of John Brown” ran at him ‘with a sword,- that bent double as it pierced to the old man’s breast bone. The young Southerner then took the bent weapon in his -hands.and beat Brown’s head unmercifully with the hilt, bringing the blood, and knocking senseless the old unself- ish and tender champion of poor Negro men and women. Those near him thought John Brown was dead; but he was still alive; es had still his greatest work to 0. (To Be Continued Monday.) (John Brown’s Men.) Moskvin In ““Polikushka” && Ivan Moskvin, the star in the great photoplay, ‘“Polikushka.” Moskvin plays the character of a ragged, ill- kempt stableman and makes an ap- pealing tho ffagically futile figure out of him. The picture was shown in Orchestra Hall, recently by the Friends of Soviet Russia eg Workers Germany. It will be shown over the nation by the Friends 6f Soviet Rus- sia and Workers’ Germany during the weeks ahead. 4 OORT RTT TEE RO a