The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-06-19

The following address was delivered
by Mr.. E. F. Morehead, president o
the Mississippi Valley Cotton Plan
terS Association, at its recent meet
ing in Vicksburg:
1t affords me great pleasure to in
form the Association of the satisfacto
ny work accomplished in the past
month, the effect of which should be
an encouragement to all as TO the sue.
cess of its great and benefcent objects,
look on the general interest mani
tested in this Association, the hatter.
ing tone of the press, and the
alacrity shown by various communi,
ties to enlist under its broad banner
of reform, apart from the success il
assures to the Association itself, as a
most encouraging sign of the times,
and without metaphor, the break of a
bright dawn for our country's good.
The very nature of our former habits
and institutions educated our people
to segregation. A planter in the
olden time needed no corporation of
his neighbors, his estate being COM
munity within itself, with its black
smith-shop, carpenter>shop, hospital,
ETC., our institutions and customs fos-
tering nothing but agriculture. Then
we raised our corn and meat, and i'm
portations were confined nearly to
manufactured articles. Now we raise
nothing comparatively, but cotton,
and import everything. The words
imported and importatiOns are not
used in a foreign sense. Then it was
a pleasure to behold the fine cultiva-
ton of a gentleman's estate, the deep
blowing, fine drainage, good bridges,
well maze and kept fences, one or two
bales of cotton and 90 to 80 bushels
of corn produced on every acre of
ground, respectively planted, full
cribs of corn and stacks of fodder laid
by, fat mules, hogs and stock, syste-
matte work at the Clubhouse and shops,
everything in place and a general air
of thriftiness pervading the atmos-
phere. Property was worth then any
price party chose to ask. Now, on
the same land, with double the guam
tity of labor to the acre, half the
quantity of cotton and corn is raised,
the mules are badly fed, and half at
tended, the bitches, fences, bridges,
etc., are in very ordinary, if not bad re-
pair, and property has no salable -alue.
/ claim that the system of making
tenants and share partners of pauper
laborers in the cause of this difference
between our former prosperity and our
present depressed condition. Take,
first, the case of the tenant. who is
sold team on time, and agrees to
pay rental of eight to ten dollars
per acre for this, he receives a house
to live in, water, wood, garden and
pasture for any amount of stock he
may have, and is then advanced by
the planter or some store, food and
clothing for himself and family. In
other words, the planter sets an igno~
rant pauper up for an independent
Landlord, to work his crop as he choos-
Is. The consequence of which is that
the planter ends by taking his mule
hack at the end ofone or two years, with
Il heavy ditching and fencing bill to
pay to induce another thriftless pau
per to take the land the first one had
nearly ruined. The share system of
partnership is quickly told: The plan.
ter gives the ground, implements,
team and feed for team, house, gar
den, water, wood, and pasture for any
cows, hogs or stock, and the laborer,
for this, agrees to give his entire la
Dor for the year / would here state,
by way of parenthesis, that laborers
only get one-third of the crop against
the landlords capital in the North
and West), and challenge the best
managed place in the South to show
where its labor has put in one hun
dred and eighty days of work in the
year, working ON this half or tenant
system. Now, l do not blame our la
borer for this state of things. With
his degree of intelligence and from his
standpoint, he considers it perfectly
and many white people
would likewise work FIVE hours a day
if he gets the same price as if he
worked ten, having no other ambition
than to get living. | would not be
thought 10 say this from any harsh or
unfriendly feeling to the negro, for
the contrary is the fact. l have the
kindest possible feeling and sympathy
towards them as a class, and my own
has always been of the
pleasantest character, never remem-
bering to have had in lifetime any
difference with one. But what l say
is for the benefit of all concerned
the WITHSTAND blacks alike-that our
present systems are false and PERM
cious to the last degree, and that no
prosperity can come to our country
until this is fully recognized and
changed. We must come to a system
of fair wages, and let intelligence d.
rect our farming-liversify our crops,
and make US self-sustaining people.
We must take the initiative in this
change, and a very short time will
elapse before the laborer is in hearty
sympathy with it. He can under
stand cash payment, but cannot com
prehend accounts, interest and credits.
We must practically eradicate Our
mast habits and education from our