we are confronted with a tenantry problem
as difficult as any in the world. The process of exploiting land has
added to the social and economic life of the country the farm landlord,
whose influence upon the immediate future of the American country
community, church and school, in all sections will be great, and in many
communities will be dominating.

The exploitation of land has produced the retired farmer. He is a pure
example of the weakness of the exploiter economy. Originally he was a
homesteader, or perhaps a purchaser of cheap land in the early days. He
expected not to remain a farmer, but hoped for removal to the East or
to a college town. The motives which animated him were varied, but among
them none was so prominent as a desire for better education than was
provided for his children in the country community of the farmer type.
So that at forty or fifty years of age he seized an opportunity to sell
his land, as the prices were rising, and retired to the town with a cash
fortune for investment.

Immediately the economic forces to which he had submitted himself made
of him a new type, for the retired farmer in the Middle West is a
characteristic type of the leading towns and cities. Some whole streets
in large centers are peopled with retired farmers. The civic policies of
scores of small municipalities are controlled in a measure by them, so
that journalists, religious leaders, reformers and politicians have very
clear-cut opinions as to the value of the retired farmer.

The analysis of this situation is as follows. While the land which he
sold continued to increase in value, his small fortune began to diminish
in value. The interest on his money has been less every ten years;
whereas he formerly could loan at first for six and sometimes seven per
cent, he cannot loan safely now for more than five or six per cent.

Meantime the prices of all things he has to buy are expressed in
cash,--no longer in kind as on the farm; and these cash prices are
growing. In the past decade they have almost doubled. This means that
he is a poorer man. His money has a diminished purchasing power and he
has a smaller yearly income.

In addition to this, his wants, and the wants of the members of the
family are increased two or three times. They cannot live as they lived
on the farm. They cannot dress as they dressed in the country. The
pressure of these increasing economic wants, demanding to be satisfied
out of a diminished