ALIEN LAW EVADED BY LONG LEASES ON LANDS

JAPS SOLVE PROBLEM BY TAKING LEASES

While Real Estate Men and Legislators Worry About Constitutional Amendment, Orientals Settle Question.

ALIEN-BARRING LAW DOESN'T BOTHER THEM

Rent Farms for Terms of 99 Years; Few Heavy Annual Payments; and After That Virtually Nothing at All.

While the members of the Seattle Real Estate Association, state legislators and others are fussing around over the clause in the state constitution that provides that aliens shall not own realty in this state, the Japanese market gardeners have solved the problem to their own satisfaction by leasing farming ground for terms of ninety-nine years.

The lease in most cases, has all the ear marks of a sale. A very large deposit is charged, and a heavy rental for the first three or four years is paid. After that period the rent is reduced to one dollar per annum or such a matter for the balance of the term of the lease.

A number of Japanese market gardeners who are operating acreage on Vashon Island and sending their products to the local markets, have found this a very satisfactory system. The same idea is being carried out in other parts of the state by other Japanese and Chinese. In some cases the Japs buy the land outright and have it held in trust for them by citizens of the United States.

It is claimed by landowners who have rented their holdings on this plan, that the law which bars out aliens is a good one, as by the time the leases have expired the land will be very valuable, and the heirs of the present owners will have a nice little nest egg.