Tenancy in the United States," in Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, March, 1912, p. 39.]

A family that owns its home feels a sense of proprietorship in a
part of the community land. The money value of a home increases in
proportion to the prosperity of the community as a whole; its
owner will therefore be inclined to do all he can to promote the
welfare of the community. A community that is made up largely of
homes owned by their occupants is likely to be more prosperous and
more progressive, and its citizens more loyal to it, than a
community whose families are tenants.

THE TENANT AS A CITIZEN

While all that has been said in the preceding paragraph is true,
it must not be thought that tenancy is necessarily a bad thing in
all cases, nor that a man who does not own his home cannot be a
thoroughly good citizen. There are circumstances that make it
necessary for many families to live in dwellings that they do not
own. Tenancy may be a step toward home ownership. A citizen may
have insufficient money to buy a farm, but enough to enable him to
rent one. By industry, economy, and intelligence, he may soon
accumulate means with which to buy the farm he occupies or some
other. The increase in the number of tenants in the Southern
States is due in large part to the breaking up of many larger
plantations into small farms which are occupied by tenants, many
of them negroes. That many of these tenants are on the road to
home ownership is indicated by the facts stated on page 117.

It is as much the duty of the home renter as it is of the home