of persons upon the state-owned
farms and on private estates which had been acquired by the government for
this purpose. Over $400,000,000 has been appropriated for the purpose of
encouraging home-ownership in Germany during recent years.

All over the world, in fact, the necessity of a new governmental policy in
regard to agriculture is being recognized. Thousands of Danish agricultural
workers have been converted into home-owning farmers through the aid of the
government. To-day 90 per cent of the farmers in Denmark own their own
farms, while only 10 per cent are tenants. The government advances 90 per
cent of the cost of a farm, the farmer being required to advance only the
remaining 10 per cent. In addition, teachers and inspectors employed by the
state give instruction as to farming, marketing, and the use of cooeperative
agencies, while the railroads are owned by the state and operated with an
eye to the development of agriculture. As a result of this, Denmark has
become the world's agricultural experiment-station. The immigration from
Denmark has practically ceased, as it has from other countries of Europe in
which peasant proprietorship prevails.

In my opinion, immigration to the United States will be profoundly
influenced by these big land-colonization projects of the European nations.
It may be that large numbers of men with their savings will be lured away
from the United States. As a result, agricultural produce in the United
States may be materially reduced. Even now there is a great shortage of
agricultural labor, while tenancy has been increasing at a very rapid rate.
And America may be confronted with the immediate necessity of competing
with Europe to keep people in this country. A measure is now before
Congress looking to the development of farm colonies, in which the
government will acquire large stretches of land to be sold on easy terms of
payment to would-be farmers, who are permitted to repay the initial cost in
installments covering a long period of years. Similar measures are under
discussion in California, in which State a comprehensive investigation has
been made of the subject of tenancy and the possibility of farm settlement.
Looking in the same direction are the declarations of many farmers'
organizations throughout the West for the taxing of land as a means of
ending land monopoly and land speculation. This is one of the cardinal
planks in the platform of the non-partisan organization of