Community Civics and Rural Life Part 17

occupation. ... No man can pull up stakes and leave a farm at the close of the year without sacrificing the results of labor which he has done ... The renter who ends harvest knowing that he will move in the spring, will not do as good a job of hauling manure and fall plowing as he would were he to stay; nor does he take as good care of the buildings and other improvements ...

The cost to the farming business of the country each year for this annual farm moving-week mounts into the millions of dollars. And the pity of it all is that practically no one is the winner thereby ... The renter loses, the landlord loses, the general community and the nation at large lose. [Footnote: W.D. Boyce, in an editorial in THE FARMING BUSINESS, February 26, 1916, quoted in Nourse, AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, p. 651.]

Tenant farming also places obstacles in the way of community progress in other ways.

The tenant takes little interest in community affairs. The questions of schools, churches, or roads are of little moment to him. He does not wish to invest in enterprises which will of necessity be left wholly ... to his successor. In short, he is in the community, but hardly of it. [Footnote: B.H. Hibbard, "Farm Tenancy in the United States," in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1912, p. 39.]

A family that owns its home feels a sense of proprietors.h.i.+p in a part of the community land. The money value of a home increases in proportion to the prosperity of the community as a whole; its owner will therefore be inclined to do all he can to promote the welfare of the community. A community that is made up largely of homes owned by their occupants is likely to be more prosperous and more progressive, and its citizens more loyal to it, than a community whose families are tenants.

THE TENANT AS A CITIZEN

While all that has been said in the preceding paragraph is true, it must not be thought that tenancy is necessarily a bad thing in all cases, nor that a man who does not own his home cannot be a thoroughly good citizen. There are circ.u.mstances that make it necessary for many families to live in dwellings that they do not own. Tenancy may be a step toward home owners.h.i.+p. A citizen may have insufficient money to buy a farm, but enough to enable him to rent one. By industry, economy, and intelligence, he may soon acc.u.mulate means with which to buy the farm he occupies or some other. The increase in the number of tenants in the Southern States is due in large part to the breaking up of many larger plantations into small farms which are occupied by tenants, many of them negroes. That many of these tenants are on the road to home owners.h.i.+p is indicated by the facts stated on page 117.

It is as much the duty of the home renter as it is of the home owner to take an interest in the community life in which he and his family share, and to cooperate with his neighbors for the common good. While he lives in the community he is largely dependent upon it, like any other citizen, for the satisfaction of his wants. Its markets and its roads are his for the transportation and disposal of his produce and stock. He gets the benefit of its schools for the education of his children. He may share in its social life if he cares to do so. His property is protected by the same agencies that protect that of his neighbors.

He cannot, therefore, escape the responsibility of contributing to the progress of his community to the extent of his ability.

TEAMWORK BETWEEN LANDLORD AND TENANT

It is as much the duty of the man who rents a farm as it is of the man who owns one to make his farm produce to its full capacity, to protect the soil from exhaustion and the buildings and fences from destruction. But on the other hand, it is the duty of the landlord, both as a good business man and as a good citizen, to make such terms with his tenant that the latter will take an interest in the farm and will find it profitable to farm properly.

There must be team work.

The landlord must be interested not only in his land but in his tenant. The tenant must be interested not only in himself but in his landlord and his land. A system that favors the tenant to the injury of the land is bad. A system that favors the land to the injury of the tenant is equally harmful. Either system will result in the poverty of both the landlord and the tenant. [Footnote: Dr.

Seaman A. Knapp, quoted by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones in "Negroes and the Census of 1910," p 16. (Reprint from THE SOUTHERN WORKMAN for August, 1912.)]

The fact remains, however, that home owners.h.i.+p contributes to the permanence, the stability, and the progress of a community. It is also a fact that conditions have developed in our country, both in cities and in rural communities, which make home owners.h.i.+p increasingly difficult. In another chapter (Chapter XIV) we shall see what some of these conditions are, and what our government has done and may do to overcome them.

THE HOME A SCHOOL OF CITIZENs.h.i.+P

One of the most important services performed for the community by the home is that of training its members for citizens.h.i.+p. The family has been called "a school of all the virtues" that go to make good citizens.h.i.+p. It is a school in which not only the children, but also the parents, not only the boys and men, but also the girls and women, receive training by practice. In the home are developed thoughtfulness for others, a spirit of self- sacrifice for the common good, loyalty to the group of which the individual is a member, respect for the opinions of others of long experience, a spirit of teamwork, obedience to rules which exist for the welfare of all. If these and other qualities of good citizens.h.i.+p are not cultivated in the home, it is not in a healthy condition nor performing its proper service to the community.

Moreover, the exercise of these virtues in the home is not only training for good citizens.h.i.+p; it IS good citizens.h.i.+p. If the home is as important a factor in our national life as this chapter has indicated, then one of the greatest opportunities for good citizens.h.i.+p, and one of the greatest duties of good citizens.h.i.+p, is that of making the home what it should be; and in this each member of the family has his or her share.

Make a study of farm tenancy in your locality (neighborhood, towns.h.i.+p, or county).

How many of the farms of the locality are occupied and operated by their owners? how many by tenants? What is the percentage of tenancy?

To what extent are the tenants men who were formerly farm laborers, but who by renting farms are making a start on their own account? Is this a sign of progress?

What percentage of the tenants are white? negro?

To what extent are the tenants foreigners who have recently come to the locality?

Are the tenant farms usually rented for long periods or for short periods?

What is the system of tenancy in your locality (i.e. cash rental, working on shares, partners.h.i.+p with the owner, etc.)? If more than one exists, which seems to work best? Why?

Is tenancy increasing or decreasing in your locality? What reasons are given for this?

Does experience in your locality support the statement that tenant farmers are less likely than others to interest themselves in community progress?

If you live or go to school in town, make a study of home owners.h.i.+p in the town. (If a small community, the cla.s.s may study the entire area; if large, different sections may be studied by different groups of pupils.) How many homes are occupied by their owners? how many by tenants? What is the percentage of tenancy? Is tenancy increasing or decreasing? For what reasons?

Is there some section of the community where most of the people own their homes, and another section where most of the people rent? If so, do you notice any difference in the general appearance of the two sections? Do you think that the difference, if any exists, is due in any part to the fact that some own and others rent their homes?

Is there a tendency for the farmers of your locality to move into town? If so, why? What becomes of their farms?

Review the points made in the discussion of topics 4 and 5 on page 38 (Chapter III). Continue to develop plans for cooperation in the home and school.

What does it mean to be "in training" for athletics? In the light of your answer to this question, what would it mean to be "in training" for citizen s.h.i.+p?

READINGS

See Readings for Chapter IX. Also:

"Housing the Worker on the Farm," Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1918, pp. 347-356.

"What the Department of Agriculture is Doing for the Housekeeper,"

Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1913, pp. 143-162.

"The Effect of Home Demonstration on the Community and the County," Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1916, pp. 251-266.

"Farm Tenantry in the United States," Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1916, pp. 321-346.

Lessons in Community and National Life: Series C, Lesson 32, "Housing for Workers."

CHAPTER XI

EARNING A LIVING

LIVING, NOT EARNING, THE END IN VIEW

The most conspicuous activities that we see going on in the community are usually those that have to do with earning a living or the production of wealth. [Footnote: The activities by which we earn a living are also the activities by which wealth is produced.

It is important to understand that when we speak of "wealth" we do not necessarily mean GREAT wealth. A boy who has a fifty-cent knife, or a girl who has a twenty-five-cent purse, has wealth as truly as the man who owns a well-stocked farm. The difference is merely in kind and amount. Food, clothing, houses, books, tools, cattle, are all forms of wealth. ANY material thing, for which we are willing to work and make sacrifices because it satisfies our wants, is wealth. Earning a living is merely earning or producing wealth to satisfy our wants and those of others.] Indeed, some people become so absorbed in the business of earning a living that they seem to be LIVING TO EARN rather than EARNING TO LIVE. It does not do to forget that not EARNING, but LIVING, is the real end in view. Unless we know how to use what we earn to provide properly for all of our normal wants, the effort we spend in earning is very largely wasted.

Nevertheless, before we can enjoy a living it has to be earned, by ourselves or by someone else; and the activities by which it is earned occupy so important a place in our lives, are so closely dependent upon the community, have so much to do with our citizens.h.i.+p, and receive so much attention from government, that we must give them some consideration in this chapter and several chapters following.

IMPORTANCE OF VOCATIONAL LIFE

While young people are spending most of their time at school or at play, their fathers and other grown people are usually chiefly occupied in the business of making a living or "earning money."

[Footnote: Gold and silver and paper and wood are forms of wealth.

Out of wood we make a yardstick or a peck measure with which TO MEASURE QUANt.i.tIES of cloth or grain. In a similar manner, out of gold, silver, paper, and other materials, we make money, and for a similar reason, viz. to MEASURE THE VALUE of wealth. When we speak of a FIFTY-CENT KNIFE and a TWENTY-FIVE CENT PURSE, we measure the value of these articles. It would take thousands of DOLLARS to measure the value of a well-stocked farm.

When we say that a boy earns a dollar, or that a man earns $4.00 a day, we measure the value of his work or his service. If a man works for a farmer, he very likely receives his "board and lodging" in part payment for his services; he makes a direct exchange of his services for food and shelter. But he also probably receives in addition an amount of money, because with the money he can buy clothes and other things that the farmer cannot give. He takes the money and buys with it these other things that he needs to supply his wants. Thus money becomes something more than a measure of wealth or of services; it is also A MEANS OF EXCHANGING WEALTH OR SERVICES.