STATISTICS OF THE TENANTS.
“Extra Bulletin No. 98 of the United States Census, 1890, says:
“There are 12,690,152 families in the United States, and of these families 52.20 per cent,” or 6,624,259 families, “hire their farms or homes, and 47.80 per cent own them.”[[61]]
“In regard to the families occupying farms the |FARM FAMILIES.| conclusion is, that 34.08 per cent,” or 1,624,655 families, “hire, and 65.92[[62]] per cent own, the farms cultivated by them.” So that “among every 100 farm families 34 hire their farms,” being landless.
“The corresponding facts for the families occupying |HOME FAMILIES.| homes are, that 63.10 per cent,” i. e., 4,999,396 families “hire, and 36.90[[62]] per cent,” i. e., 2,923,560,[[62]] families, “own their homes.” So that “in every 100 home families, on the average, 63 hire their homes, and 37[[63]] own them.”
“There are 420 cities and towns that have a population of 8,000 to 100,000, and in these cities |CITIES 64.004 PER CENT. HIRE.| and towns 64.04 per cent of the home-families hire and 35.96[[63]] per cent own their homes.” So that in these cities and towns, 64 out of every 100 families hire their homes, and 36 own them, or as the Bulletin states: “in 100 home families, on the average, are found 64 that hire their homes, and 36[[63]] own them.”
Besides this, “the cities that have a population of 100,000 and over,” i. e., cities up to millions, like Philadelphia, Chicago, New |LARGE CITIES 77.17 PER CENT. HIRE.| York and so on, “number 28, and in these cities 77.17 per cent of the home families hire their homes and 22.83[[63]] per cent own them.” It follows, that in these large and very populous cities of the United States more than 77 families out of every 100 are tenant families or those that hire their homes, and 23[[63]] own them. Or, as the Bulletin says: “In these cities among 100 home families, on the average, 77 hire and 23[[63]] own their homes.”[[64]]
Now then, what this Extra Bulletin reveals to us is as follows:
1. That in 1890 we had 1,624,655 families hiring farms. The difference between hiring a farm and owning a farm is this, that an owner of a farm reaps all the benefits |NUMBER OF FAMILIES HIRING FARMS.| of his own farm; whatever amount of energy he spends upon his farm, he obtains all the results of it by himself and for himself, remaining all the time an independent man. A farm tenant is just the contrary. He is a dependent being and is a subject to dividogenesure. He works upon a rentable property and must first of all satisfy the rightful owner of the farm. He must divide the results of his labor between his master and himself, by paying rent. And in order to be equally well off with the farmer that works upon his own farm, the tenant must exert almost twice as much of labor energy as the owner of a farm. But this is impossible. And this impossibility rests upon all the tenants of farms. They are economic slaves of their masters, slaves under the principle of dividogenesure. If they don’t wish to divide the sole results of their labor, then they must starve, and there is no other alternative for them, because they are propertyless and hence resourceless.
2. That at the same time we had 4,999,412 other families that were hiring not the farms but rentable homes of the propertied men. And these nearly |NUMBER OF FAMILIES HIRING HOMES.| 5-million families were not only the sources of income and profit in favor of the owners of the homes, but also the sources of income for the employers that permit them to labor. So that a farm tenant is a direct[[65]] source of income to one lord of property; while a home tenant is a direct[[66]] source of income for two owners of wealth. And a great injustice hangs on the neck of every one of these millions, because they have no property of their own. But the principal point is this, that neither one of them has the right to expend or apply his labor energy anywhere without paying for it to those that may not labor at all and live.