The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-11-24

The Lessons . r lho Prcsent sra

The present season has brought dis
appointment to all directly interested in
the cotton culture-planter, laborer and
merchant. The yield viii probably not
fall short of last years, but the price is
Unexpectedly low. The decline in this
particular is not less than forty dollars
per bale. With the proneness of people
to look upon the bright side of the pic
ture, and to make no provisions for a
darker day, business transactions for the
current year were based upon the idea
that the staple would command the rub
ing prices of last season. The credit
system was re-established in full blast;
and planters and laborers were invited
alike to enjoy its benefits. The unPleas-
ant fact is now revealed that when the
crop is disposed of large balance wiz
remain due from the producer to the
merchant, and new years business, in
many cases, must be commenced with the
disagreeable reflection that part of its
Iabors are to be swallowed up by the bad
management and extravaganza +. which
marked the operations of the pre-
ceding season.
Merchants, too, are to realize in many
cases, after appropriating the crops on
which they have secured liens, that bal
ances will be standing over which will
never be paid. They are not wholly
free from blame for this condition of af-
fairs. The custom which, in the hope of
large profits, they have inaugurated of
ignoring the planter and dealing directly
with the freedmen in his employment,
has tended greatly to produce it. The
freedmen, uneducated in business and
untrammeled by the sense of responsible
ties which are felt by the planter, are apt
to plunge headlong into debt without ref
erence to the cost or quality of their pur-
chases, and were therefore deemed more
profitable customers than the planter.
To this the evil practice which we are
deprecating, is due. The employer has
keenly experienced its damaging effect
in disorganizing labor during the entire
year. As consequence of the liberal
credits in the sale of gewgaws and trifes
to freedmen in the early part of the sea-
son, numbers of the latter as the year adj
vanced and when it became evident that
the price of cotton would fall below
expectation, were not able to provide
themselves with the food that was actual
" needed TO enable them to finish and
gather the crop. Merchants, who had
scured liens, "closed down" upon them,
and they were compelled to look to their
employers (who were ignored in the first
instance), for the necessaries of life
And the employers were driven to the al
tentative of having the crops abandoned
or of running the risk of supplying on
their own credits laborers whose earnings
had already been mortgaged and appro-
priated. Such cases of hardship to the
planter are numerous, and it is to be
hoped that the experience of the present
season will work a reform of the bad
practice from which it has resulted.
At best, the credit system is an evil,
but not to be avoided in the present en-
barrassing condition of our people. 1t
should, however, be regulated by thor
ough cooperation between the merchant
and planter. The disappointments and
losses that have attended the loose and
reckless custom on which we have COM
mented, will convey wholesome lesson
to both parties.