The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 16, 1918, Page 9

Gouged Tenants in Nebras Scullv Estate, Long Known ds Greatest American Land ~ Arbatrary Raise of 50 to 100 Per Cent in Rents BOUT the middle of November last the 225 tenants of the Scully estate in Nuckolls county, Neb., received notice to call at the agent’s office. When they call- ed they were presented with the alternative of paying 50 to 100 per cent more rent next year or moving off. Legally this is no more than the landlord has a right to do. This power of the landlord to tell the tenant farmer to take up his hat and what little else he may have and go represents our idea of justice to the toiler. The action of the Scully estate agent would not, therefore, have attracted any attention except for one fact—the tenant “worms” decided they would not stand for it. They have turned, and the thing they have started will not end until free America gives its tenant farmers the protection enjoyed by tenants in many countries of the old world. As the Scully tenants came home from the agent’s office they made up their minds to organize. There was one landlord and henceforth he would have one tenant, the organization, to deal with. A general meeting was called attended by 125 farmers, who represented 200 of the 225 tenants, and C. A, Sorensen, Nonpartisan league attorney in Nebzaska, was called in to help. TENANTS ORGANIZE Articles of association were drawn up, officers elected and funds raised to carry on negotiations in common directly with the owmers of the Scully lands. But these tenants see that more must be done. When the next legislature convenes they are going to demand the elimination of speculation in land and the right of the landlord to seize or dis- sipate the tenant’s investment in improvements. What these farmers are up against is well illus- trated by the case of Peter‘Hansen, who. is leading the “strike.” He has been renting the one farm 15 years and he has put $10,000 worth of improve- ments on it. If he had to move he could not realize more than $3,000 by taking away all the improve- ments. But the leases are so deceptively worded that Mr. Hansen probably could not take away any of the buildings unless the landlord graciously al- lowed him to do so. On the Scully lands the tenants have always had to make the improvements and pay the taxes. A few years ago, however, the tenants were pleased to be told that if they desired to put up any new buildings the Scully estate would build the founda-- tions. But the favors or tender mercies of land- lords like those of the wicked, as the scripture says, are cruel. On careful examination of the wordmg of the leases Attorney Sorensen finds the proviso that where the tenant makes any additions to improve- ments owned by the landlord they are to become the property of the landlord. Those gift founda- tions are, of course, improvements owned by the Scully estate; so the houses and barns on them are also Scully’s although American farmers toiled long and late to put them up in the faith that: the results of their toil would be theirs. The unfairness of our laws which allows a pluto- cratic estate in England or some other distant part to rack-rent our farmers is also well expressed in . the following simple -story by an old gentleman who has spent muchlof his active life as.a Scully Here we see the great difficulty in reconstruction. ‘There are so man “doubtful if there will be anything left for the returned soldier but ‘the orgenized workers, femern and returned eoldiers get toget N c‘-’:-\—.flik'l\’-/.«’l&«ml\‘yévn«i*m%—aw—n—.wn\‘—,o" The phght of the tenants on the Scully lands attracts attention be-- cause of certain striking circumstances such as'the huge size of the estate and the fact that the rent money goes'- abroad, but let us not forget that about half of the tillers of the soil in free America are in the same position as the Scully tenants. In Nebraska, where the revolt described on this page has taken place, 18 per cent of the farmers were tenants in 1880, and 38.1 per cent in 1910. Now the percentage can not be less than 50 per cent. Illi- nois, Iowa, Kansas, other very impor- tant agricultural states with splendid industrious populations, have the same story to tell. This growing rack-rent-- ing ‘tenancy gives the lie to all the vulgar pretense of the men we have elected to offices from other classes, that they can best look after the farm- | ers’ interests. What difference does it make to these exploited tenants whether they pay rent to Scully or to John -Jacob Astor or to the banker in the nearby town? All of these people are able to exploit under our present system of farm tenancy just as the Scully estate can and the American landlords like the color of blood money just as much as the foreigners. Isn’t it time that America cut out land speculation and guarantee to the ten- ant the value of any improvements he may make and longer leases well protected by law? tenant in Grundy county, I, where there is also a strong protest movement: “For 26 years I have lived on the farm I leased from William Scully. He encouraged me to improve it—to put up buildings, assur- ing me that it was mine as long as I paid my rent and that the rent would not be increased if I improved my preperty. He promised me that if I ever desired to quit the farm, he would not lease the land to any one who ‘would not agree to buy my buildings. Up to the time of his death he kept his word. Then the mana- gers of the estate began to violate the agree- ment. Our leases ran for a year only. No Ionger lease would be given no matter how badly we wanted one. “That farm was home to me. Every fence, ‘every btilding, every bit of improvement on the land represented some of my savings. :Every-dollar that I have saved in 40 years of hard work in farming is in buildings on that farm. T “So I paid the small increase in rent and worked a little harder—got along with fewer ~hiréd men. Again the rent was raised. What could I do? I pinched a little harder. I am no longer young, but I eould not bear to leave * - William Scully.when he got possession of the "~ bought western land for little or nothing from Mexi- -banker. ‘Not béing able to own their improvements, "they can not make the capital improvements (or y special interests that have to have theu' plntes filled froln the smell. There has been a lot of noise about the platefnl her fm- pohtlcal aetionr neither they nor: he will see. that “new q Revolt rd; Attempts the place that had been “home so long Then' 5 this younfc chap, an heir to the estate, came to my pldace. He seemed to think I was Just it . a.sort of l?slave from the way he talked to me . ‘and actes “Afterthe went away another taxse in rent NG came, ' It; meant working for a bare living to pay it—$6 an acre they demanded instead of the $4 we had been paying when I first went on the land. But rather than leave the place ‘that had been so long home to me I paid. 'Only: .- the wartime prices enabled me to make a bare .- living at the $6-rate. S 5 “Now they demand $10 an acre rental, more than three times the original cost per acre to land. I can not pay it. The land will not pro- duce a profit sufficient to pay it. The govern- ment asks us to exert every effort to rxuse grain, to plant every available acre.” FeR ¥ ORIGIN OF THE SCULLY ESTATE About 1849 one William Scully, a large land- : owner in Ireland and England, decided to sell out because he did not like the way the British govern- ment was interfering with landlords. ‘With what he realized- on his land, he came to America and can war soldiers who could not use the grants they had obtained. Later he bought land from railroads who had received grants from generous legislators, at $1 to $2 an acre. He never sold any of the land he had- purchased and never made any 1mprovements, but allowed farmers to use it for increasing rentals as the tide of civilization moved westward. In 1906 he died leaving an estate of over $50,000,000. He had 60,000 acres in’ Nebraska, 50,000 in Kansas, 40,000 in Missouri, 46,000 in Illmms and smaller amounts in -Iowa, Colorado and other states. "This land is now worth from $50 to $200 an acre. His estate has received not only this capital increase of several thousand per cent, but each year it receives many times the investment in rent. It may seem peculiar that “Lord” Scully was able to duplicate here the old landlord system which had been outlawed in England and Ireland, yet such is the case. In confidence that we would always have enough land for our people, the builders of America left the door open to landlordism and Scully, wise in his day and generation, took advantage of it. Our forefathers adopted the old English land laws because they thought everybody could be a land- lord. Instead our surplus land was quickly grabbed up by speculators such as Scully and held at fictiti- ous values so that would-be farmers could not af- ford to buy. Since 1880 our tenancy has been grow- ing fnghtfully until today about half of our farm- ers are in Just the position that the Scully tenants - are, not only in the backward South but in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and other western states. The -tenant farmers are gouged on rent whether ' they rent from the Scully estate or from the local borrow money for such) which are necessary for modern: successful farming. The short-time tenure: also adds to this inability to invest capital. The. tenant community, therefore, represents a minimum’ of improvements not only in the country but-in the : towns where the handxcapped farmers trade. 2 b et ~ ) .b a ¥ S ar @@= e A N T gs-