No thoughtful man can study the land movement toward large plantations without fear for the future. When the uncertainty of labor is considered, and that cotton is the main crop of the South, as soon as the owners find that these plantations do not remunerate them, many plantations will fall into the hands of wealthy syndicates. The English West Indian history will repeat itself in the South. If 800 acres is the average size of these plantations of Group III. in the ten States, they embrace all combined 46,612,800 acres. It is less than the land owned by aliens in the United States.

We take it for granted that in 1860 there were very few farmers in the South who cultivated land as renters, and land cultivated on the share system was unknown. If there were any in either class, the per cent. was so small that it attracted no attention. Following the plan of Table IX., we will group all places according to ownership.

Comparing Tables IX. and X., we find that according to Group I., in 1880, 117,710 farms were cultivated by renters or shareworkers. In Group II. there were 323,477 farms cultivated by renters or shareworkers, and in Group III. 7,234 large plantations were thus cultivated. These renters and shareworkers were chiefly negroes. Nearly a half million of farms were in the sole charge of the negroes. This fact will explain in part the decrease in the grain crop of the South, referred to in a former chapter.

The ownership of these farms reveals a far more important consideration in its bearing on the land question in the future. By the overwhelming testimony from ten States and the South generally, farmers have made no money at farming. Mortgages and debts form the burden of their complaint.

In Group I., while there has been a decrease in ownership of 32 per cent. since 1860, our inference

is, that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the land cultivated by 117,710 renters and shareworkers belongs to white farmers.

But in Group II. there has been an increase of ownership in twenty years of 79 per cent., in Group III. an increase of ownership of 222 per cent. Who owns this land?-the speculator in part, the town and country merchant in part, the commission. merchant in part, and the farmer in part.

To say that the ownership is all vested in farmers can not be reconciled with the uncontradicted and well-known report of "blue ruin" coming from the great farming community in every State of the South.

Making allowances for the breaking up of old farms since 1860 in Group II., parceling their farms out to children, in other cases selling portions of old farms, our opinion is, that of the increase in ownership of farms in twenty years, 50 per cent. in Group II. and 75 per cent. in Group III. are vested in other persons than farmers.

A large portion of this land is destined in the near future to be the property of some syndicate unless some remedy by law can be found to prevent it. The movement to monopoly of land is sure and steady.

We can not impress with sufficient emphasis the danger that threatens our people in the strong movement toward land monopoly. Land now sold

for two dollars an acre will, long before the year 1925 is reached, cost our children twenty-five dollars an acre, if that land is held by a syndicate.

"The condition of the English and Irish peasantry to-day truthfully mirrors the near future of the American farmer, if land consolidation and landlordism is not checked." *

"For various reasons the farms of the South have not been mortgaged to the extent of those in the more fertile regions of the North and West. But Shylock has already turned his greedy eyes upon this beautiful Southland, and is now establishing his loan agencies. We can not too strongly urge upon the Southern farmer to beware of the net that is being spread for him. Shun it as you would a deadly plague, if you would save your homes from his relentless grasp."†

"The syndicates that loan money at from one to three per cent. are mainly made up of Scotch, English, and New England capitalists, who have their agents throughout the South and West. These mortgages are falling due, and soon an immense number of Southern and Western farms will be in the hands of foreign mortgagees."

The credit system and the high prices under that system are stealthily conveying a large percentage of Southern farms into the possession of some syndicate. For private and generous reasons, merchants who have come into possession of land ranging from 10,000 acres to 500,000 acres, will sell this land to resident farmers and planters. This is patriotic. But money is scarce in the South, and particularly so among farmers. When the merchant is pressed for money, patriotism will lose its aroma, and the land will go into the market; the highest cash bidder will get it. If this cash bidder is a company of capitalists, it will be held until a "corner" can be produced, or it will be cultivated by tenants. "Colonel Church, of New York, owns and collects

* Wheel and Alliance.
+ Ibid.

American Farms, p. 50.

rents from 180 farms in that State; some of them contain more than 500 acres each."* How many

Colonel Churches are there already in the South? Silently and almost imperceptibly, here and there a farm is slipping out of the possession of some small owner.

An editorial in the St. Louis Republican is quoted in "The Tramp at Home," by Mr. Lee Meriwether, p. 160:

"There is not a single one of the twenty-nine agricultural States that is not, to a greater or less extent, under mortgage to the moneylending creditor States. It is stated that the insurance companies of Hartford, Connecticut, hold $70,000,000 in Western farm mortgages; that the loan companies hold 1,000 mortgages, representing $76,000,000; and in the little State of New Hampshire, Western farm mortgages to the amount of $35,000,000 are held. These agricultural States pay annually to the money-lenders $180,000,000 in interest alone.

་་

According to the Michigan Labor Commissioner, February, 1888, the mortgages on farms in the single State of Michigan amount to $64,000,000, paying an annual interest of $5,000,000." +

Could accurate data be obtained, what would not the South reveal in regard to farm mortgages? In a former chapter the testimony has been given from ten States. These mortgages are fatal to the future native ownership of the soil.

Let us turn our attention to the Old World-to England, standing high in the scale of Christian civilization. This is a land of churches and schools, of renowned seats of learning, of famous statesmen, orators, historians, poets, and preachers. Great as * Wheel and Alliance, p. 674. The Tramp at Home, p. 161.