Alien Land Law and Texas Populism

In 1891, Governor Hogg called for an Alien Land Law that would forbid “absentee landlords.”

He was successful in his attempt and Texas was one of the first states to pass an Alien Land Law. At first declared unconstitutional, the law was revised to deal with already purchased land and land from folks that would become residents within 10 years.

This is from a speech that Hogg gave to the Texas legislature in 1895.

“To prevent the system of absentee landlordism which in some countries seems to menace the prosperity of the people, the Legislature in 1892 passed what is known as ''the Alien Land Law.”

“[This law will] guard for all time the citizens of the State in the enjoyment of the land for homes, without the threat of absentee landlordism or the danger of corporate monopoly.”

This law was clearly aimed at corporations and foreign ownership. Texas Populists consistently raised the issue of monopolies and absentee landowners.

Hogg was not a Populist, but Populist were plentiful in Texas and they were an angry bunch. They were especially irritated at the amount of Texas agricultural land that was being gobbled up by corporations, railroad companies and insurance companies.

As one example, the West Texas XIT ranch springs to mind. When I say West Texas ranch, I really mean West Texas. The XIT ranch was that big. It was the largest ranch in the world at the time. And it was owned by a British investment company. Texas simply gave the land away in exchange for building the State Capital. Populists thought it was a giveaway of public land to wealthy capitalists and corporations.

Today Texas Populists still call for an abolition of corporate land holding. They are not alone. 20 states have already forbidden corporate ownership of agricultural land. Please note that there are exemptions and provisions for families that incorporate in order to keep the land in the farming family.

Texas is not one of those 20.

Time for some facts. EEK!

Fact 1. 30% of Texas agricutural land is owned by corporations,

Fact 2. Only 4% of the farmers are corporate. Which is what the current Texas Department of Agriculture touts. But the corporations tend to be really large…shall we say gargantuan. Maybe too big, even for Texas?

The Hogg era law gave the “absentee landowners” 10 years to sell the land. That seems fair.

Texas Populist Jim Hightower talked about this issue corporate farming in an interview with PHIT.

“Strict laws can be written that say you cannot be a corporation and own farmland. That's not an outrageous proposition, because corporations don't know anything about farming."

“What they invest in is high tech agriculture that doesn't take care of farmland or farmers or food. It's not in the public interest. That's one way to deal with that.”

Fact no. 3. China own more land in Texas than any other state. But it is a paltry 162,00 acres. Jeff Bezos alone owns 460,000 acres. And he is not even in the top 5 owners.

The newly appointed Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, comes from Texas. She graduated from Texas A&M. The one agricultural policy that she is associated with is elimination of Chinese ownership of agricultural land. There will probably be a push in the current national legislature to do such a thing. Which fits in with a Texas Populist tradition. Chinese government ownership of land would indeed be almost the definition of“absentee ownership.” Let’s hope she remembers her Texas roots and adds “corporations” to the list of unacceptable and absentee agricultural entities.

Most news stories associate Alien Land Laws with the racist West Coast laws in 1910s and 1920s to prevent people of Japanese descent from buying and owning land. Let’s hope the new push for Alien Land Laws takes the Texas Populist approach.