The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 25, 1918, Page 10

land for use. As a business proposition it is bad because the price asked is not the present value but a possible real value in the distant future. Sup- pose, for instance, that the cash rental of a farm in 1918 is $300 a year. This sum is the interest on - $5,000 if the rate is 6 per cent, or on $3,750 if the rate is 8 per cent. But the owner of the land would “demand nearer $10,000 than either one of these fig- ures, or a sum on which the rental value would be only about 3 per cent.” Three per cent in fact is about what the average landlord thinks he is get- ting from the renting of his land so high does he place its value. If the new farmer were to pay $10,000 for this farm, putting up $5,000 and bor- rowing the other half at 6 per cent or more, the whole rental value would have to go'for paying the interest on the mortgage and his own capital would get nothing. If by hard labor and good luck this farmer succeeds in hanging on a number of years until he is worn out and has to sell, he may get back a little interest on his own money but not very much. Here we have the reason why bankers and others with large capital rather than new farm- ers are buying our farms at the present time. They can afford to speculate, whereas the man of small means can not. Here we find one of the important reasons why it is that farmers selling out to retire are replaced by tenants. X KILLING SPECULATION WILL HELP OWNING FARMERS The big land interests have always tried to line - up the land-owning farmer on their side, but they are no longer succeeding. The Nonpartisan league farmers are demanding exemption of farm improve- ments and at the famous conference in' St. Paul in September, 1917, organized farmers and organ- ized labor demanded a 2 per cent tax on idle land. These measures would relieve the farm owners of considerable taxes and at the same time the forcing of idle land into the market would not come so rap- idly as to depreciate their land values. As dis- tinguished from the idle land and the, tenant farm a very large part of the value of the farm owner’s land is really improvements that would be exempt- ed from tax. His land has had the benefit of years of careful diversified farming. Originally it had to be cleared or broken. Perhaps he has drained a good deal of it; he has built buildings and fences. LANDLORDISM A FOE OF DEMOCRACY Take away these improvements and his land would probably be worth for taxation no more than the idle land of the speculator. On the other hand, all the steps for farm improvement which the or- ganized farmers are fighting for will add to the land value. A better market for farm produce free of monopoly, state hail insurance, rural credit banks operated at cost, the grading of grain according to milling value, state-owned warehouses and cold storage plants, transportation at cost—all these and other steps in the direction of improving the farm- er’s condition will be immediately reflected in higher land values. Not speculative land values but real present-day values which the farm owner can put on the market readily and which another farmer can afford to pay at the time because the real value is there. By revising our tenancy laws we can give the good - tenant farmer a permanent home, make him an in- terested neighbor, and save our natural resources in the soil from vicious exploitation. By killing land speculation we can start the tenant on the way to land ownership, which is better yet. By carrying out at the .same time the other reforms which organized farmers are demanding, we will bring the one-farm owner and operator again into ' his own—the most éfficient and socially satisfactory form of land cultivation the world has found or ever will find. Thus we will save America for our children from the junkerdom of large country estates and ‘peasant proprietors which has been the curse of Europe. A If the present generation of hard-working, intel- ligent American farmers can not solve this land problem now and thus leave their children a fair democratic opportunity, whatever else they may be able to leave behind will .not be of great value to them. The big owners by their power over taxa- tion would be more than likely to gobble up any land the small farmer can leave his'children and they would then have to go to work on the land- lord’s. estate or-help to overcrowd the cities. OBJECTS TO TURNCOAT PAPER . Scandia, Kan. Editor Successful Farming: Having been a subscriber to your paper for seven years or longer because of what I supposed” was its fearless stand for principles of justice and 'its keen interest in the farmers, I am surprised at your stand regarding the farmers’ efforts ‘to protect themselves through political action. - What constitutes successful farming? We must take advantage of all the improved methods in production and this has been done in large mdas- ure by the thrifty farmer, but one thing more is neededs, The farmer should have some control over or voice in the market for his products. I stand for democracy—democracy f4r all the people—and I see no reason why democracy for ‘the farmer-should be objected to. ‘Therefore, if you can not stand by what you found the Nonpartisan league to be in the special investigation some time ago by Editor Alson Secor, you may discontinue sending me Successful Farm- ing and please remit the balance due on my sub- scription. L. 0. KELLY. I AIN’T IT A GRAND AND GLORIOUS FEELIN’?' s | \(En.' HE'S A HUN A TRAITOR AN' ‘A BOLSHEVIHI AND THE LIES YOou HEARD ABouT THE LEAGUE LEADERS TOWNLEY 1S A : BUM AN' AN. (WL W, AND THE WAY THE| AND THE FLAG MOBBSTERS TRIED | RAISING APPEAL. — AND THE WAY THE PoLITICIANS TALKED e wHY, THE LEAGUE HASNT A CHANCE 1IN TRE . WORLD - AND THEN ON NOV. 5, TRIS S MY FLAG,SEE, You LEAVE T ALONE WITHR ONE VERNOR , TWo U.S. SENATORS, FOUR CaNGRESS- fi%n AND'THE LORD KNOWS How MANY REPRESENTATIVES AND You SCARED THE POLMCIANS FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA—|-