The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1888-05-19

anu We Dear all the losses. [ nder either
system the first supreme effort has been
to get them to grow the crop. but the
second was even greater to get them to
pick the cotton and pay their accounts.
When the tenant or share hand gets in
the grass you must advance cash
enough to get him out, and when the
picking season opens you must account
in cash or loss of cotton for his laziness
or dishonesty. A mule sold on time
to a tenant or entrusted to a share
hand is poorly fed and watered at in
tervals. and to harsh treatment is add
ed regular attendance at night-meet-
ings. Under this treatment the mule
dies. And | might multiply such incl
dental losses. What rate of wages
have you paid for the production of
this cotton! Ii is needless to gloss
actual relations with terms, empty ap-
pellations cannot alter real conditions.
Very, very few of the negroes are i'm
any sense tenants, the great mass of the
race are only wage-workers, by what
ever term their participation in agri-
culture may be designated. There is
no difference in principle whether the
advances are made by a merchant or
by the planter, the negro is the wage
worker for the man who feeds and
clothes him, Where the planter does
the advancing his books are usually
poorly kept in the single entry or more
properly in memorandum books.
Neither he nor the negro know what
rate of wages is being paid until the
crop is finally ginned, and the price of
cotton at that time has been ascertain
ed; 1t may be $500 per month, 1t may
be $4,000 per month. There may be n
balance of wages coming to the negro
ON final settlement which must be paid.
More probably there is a balance of
ovcrpaid wages due from the negro
which the planter must carry at least
twelve months. and during the picking
season the negro carries the key to the
only asset for the payment of his ac-
count-HIs COTTON PEN. II is neither
more nor less than blind speculation
which pleases the negro because he has
possession for the nonce of the mule
has credit, keeps an account, avoids
regular work under constant supervis.
ion, knowing all the while that h,
may make something and can't posi-
bly, lose anything by the arrangement
The whole system is eflete, perfunctor,
and impotent, and cannot be justified
by any business principle. 1t merely
attests the straits to which agricultur
can be brought, ana accounts in part
at least, for the incongruous fact tina
in the Delta we behold, in state o
pecuniary dependence, the owner o
the richest acres ON this continent.
ltnot infrequently has happened tina
the planter has felt called upon to d
something to attract and retain labol
as the saying goes, and consulting th
dominant tastes of the persons to b
attracted selects rum-selling as tn
most promising of quick results. Thi
venture usually consists of one apart
ment for whiskey, another convenien
: thereto for the inevitable crap tablt
The former is in control of mixer O
drinks, the latter is left to the teloniou
methods of the runner of the game
A farmer embarked in such an enter
prise is like sailor, who, invoking
prosperous voyage, fires his own shil
A drinking saloon beyond police SUI
vcillance Is the enemy of agricultur
anywhere, and in rural district wher
the population Is largely negroes,
pernicious beyond calculation. We've,
only as material question can sue
leprous influences possibly increase tn
efficiency of the negro Us a laborer
VIII he become painstaking and indus
trious in the field when an adacen
shade is made to contain for him th
full qualification of his only tastes
whisky, gambling and lewdnessl |
this the school in which the manumit
ted slave is TO be graduated into
freeman from being ratty, dishon
est eye-servant into self-respectinI
laborer? Will not these attraction
sufficiently exist over the protest o
the planter? Need he promote them
I have nothing to say Of such matte
on this occasion beyond an economic
material view, but allow at least tn
thought that If the souls of the depar
ted are sentent, if in the dread un
known, conscious spirits still viey
transactions on this planet, possibl,
there may be regret in the eyes o
Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumne
at the success of their earthly endeav
ors to reduce and destroy the South
ern white man, as they view him o
his child, in so short time, panderin,
to the dcbaucheries of his forme
slavel
There has been no little insincerit,
in speaking of the negro's develop
ment. Localities have desired invest
ors, editors have been emulous of be
ing read and quoted North, planter
have felt the pressing need at times t,
gloss business of questionable sol
vency. We have been told that th
negro has become industrious, fruga
and honest, and is now a prime facto
! in prospering agriculture. It is littl
odd that plantation saloon is noccs
sary to keep such laborer on han,
and at work Surely there is no
much in the actual condition of th
planter on which to predicate such eS
Z pressions. As a rule he is badly i
| debt; on nearly every fertile acre th
sunlight casts the shadow of mort
gage and one of the problems Of th
J year is 10 secure the necessary advai
: ces for his business. Very few, If am
conduct their business exclusively o
| their own means. My observation Ina
, not discovered one foot of groum
on which to rest such statements 8
far as the negro is concerned. A fe'
4 of them have acquired certain thri
and frugality. but can the statemer
: proceed further with TRUTH III
! great mass of them still buy the n,
4 cessaries of life on time where po
| sible, and waste their cash in whisk
e gambling, tinsel and lewdness. Fidelit
: to the marriage tie, the index to healtl
c ful industry, has obtained little footir
8 among them although the ubiquiioI
$ white seducer of colorcd beauty
Y now creature confessedly of the r
!, | ,.,,,t, $40. D,oo,.t ,a;Irna1 hu;tI;,