t attached to our soil; they do not secure homes of their own
and are therefore restless and a menace.

A dangerous tendency has been developing throughout our whole land in
these later years. The usury of lands is on the increase. Tenantry is
becoming more common on the farms in the country, while the mass of
our city populations are living in rented houses or flats or crowded
tenements.

The yearning for a home of one's own is deeply imbedded in human
nature. To be denied the privilege of living in one's own house is one
of the greatest trials of a life. This tendency to tenantry is not
because our people have come to care less for a home of their own, but
the conditions are not such as to make a purchase of a home
profitable; the interest on the purchase price is greater than the
usury of the land or rental. The natural and desirable state is for
every family to own and occupy their home, and those conditions should
be encouraged which make it unprofitable for any one to own real
property he does not himself occupy, and which make it easy and
profitable for every family to own their own home.

When all lands are owned by those who occupy them, the prophet Micah's
picture of the millennial dawn will be realized. Every man shall sit
under his own vine and under his own fig tree and no one shall molest
him or make him afraid, by demanding a rental or by serving a writ of
ejectment.

CHAPTER XXXV.

PER CONTRA; POLITICAL ECONOMIST.

The students of political economy are not always reformers. It is not
their purpose nor the object of their studies to transform society.
They only endeavor to explain why things are as they are. They find
the taking of usury all but universal, and they endeavor to give the
reasons for the prevailing custom. The subject is usually but slightly
touched upon and dismissed with a few sentences.

Few economists claim that interest or rental is a part of the cost of
production. They mostly affirm that it is no part of production; that
it is merely the price paid for the opportunity to produce. The lender
of money makes a loan to the borrower and thus gives him a better
opportunity to produce than he had before. The landlord for the rental
withdraws his hand from over his land and gives the renter the
opportunity to produce a harvest.

In justification, or at least in explanation of this exaction for an
opportunity, three reasons are usually given. These may be briefly
stated as r