Land Tenure in Oregon. 71 cate that the close contact between owners and tenants in the United States is gradually being severed; and as tenancy in- creases, its inner workings become less harmonized and un- suited for the agricultural welfare of the country as a whole. It is a question whether so-called landlordism is not in- creasing in the United States at the present time. Such a condition would be altogether undesirable. Free public domain is practically all taken ; what land is acquired by poor or rich, from this time on, must be bought. Our cities are growing in number, size and wealth ; money is collecting in the hands of great capitalists ; interest is lowering ; the close contact be- tween owner and tenant is slowly but surely being severed — all of these facts augment the pressure toward landlordism. But it is pleasing to note, in 1900, this movement had not ac- quired a noticeable or dangerous proportion. Eighty per cent of the owners of rented farms in the United States, in 1900, owned only one farm ; in the Western Division, over 90 per cent. So a very few of the land lessors owned more than one farm. The following tables showing the per- centage of the number of owners of rented farms classified by the number of farms owned by one person, and also the num- ber of rented farms classified in the same way, will make it evident that landlordism is making slow progress in the United States. TABLE 10. PERCENTAGE OF THE NUMBEB OF OWNERS OF RENTED FARMS CLASSIFIED BT THE NUMBER OF FARMS OWNED BY ONE PERSON. (*) Geographical Divisions. 1 Farm. 2 Farms. 3 and under 5 Farms. 5 and under 10 Farms. 10 and under 20 Farms. 20 farms and over. United States. Western Div'n Washington.. . Oregon 80.8 91.1 89.0 93.0 94.0 11.4 5.9 07.0 05.0 05.0 5.4 1.9 02.0 02.0 01.0 2.3 0.8 01.0 (1) (1) 0.7 0.2 01.0 (1) (1) 0.2 0.1 (1) (1)
- Ibid.
(i) Less than one-tenth of one per cent.----
