The Bossier banner., 1892-04-21

Quired plantations from customers. Some OF
these firms own anywhere from dozen to more
than thrice that number. When Thomas Il.
Alien @ Co., of this city, failed in the fall OF
1890, they turned over to the as
signee forty-seven plantations all of them
afrioig the most productive In the cot
ton belt. When Chaffe s. Co., of New Or
leans, went to the wall the other day, their
schedule of assets showed total Of $75O,OO0 OF
which $50, 600 was in plantations. One Memphis
commission house has received this season over
10000 bales of cotton grown on lands which u
owns.
The condition of the whole cotton belt, from
Texas to the Georgia line, approximates that OF
France at the time Of the revolution, as de-
scribed by Macau1ay. He tells us that while the
country was growing poorer and poorer every
year the court was i11orbidly ffourishing. So the
cotton commission men have CLEANED about the
only profits derived from the enormous crops OF
cotton produced in the last ten years or more.
But the lemon Is now squeezed almost dry. and
they find themselves troubled with an embaf-
rassment of riches in the shape of realty wh1cn
can not be made available to meet their current
obligations Most of them have on their boo KS
balaficgs against Customers who may never pay,
butt whom t.ey must either continue to carry in
the hope Of better times or sell out under mort
gage and thereby Increase their store OF unsal-
able property
SGch business as the city commission firms do
not Transact with the planter direct they do
with the country merchant, who can not settle
with them unless his customers pay him. IL 1s
with the latter class OF "furnishsrs" that the
petty white farmers and the negroes have to
deal Being bound to pay the city firm an ad-
vance on cash prices, and interest besides, the
country merchant is compelled to add the extra
charges in his own prices, and hence the
small-fry cotton producers must support
two classes of middle-men. Were it not
fOR tIn dalio hat thoco fU
producers receive from the sale of their
cotton seed they would be suffering for
the bare necessities Of life this winter. Fortu-
nately, also for them, they raised more corn
last season than Usual. But IN selling their cot
ton seed th6y discount the next crop, for nature
demands that the seed be returned to the land
as fertilizer containing as 1t does the chemical
properties OF the soil which are taxed to feed
the plant.
The Condition of the white farmers of the val
ley is discouraging enough, but that Of the ne
gr6es is positively pitiable. They have never
before SO entirely lacked present means or hope
for the future. They rent land and farm 1t on
their own account, or work on shares with the
landlord. In the one case they pay from six
dollars to eight dollars an acre for ground
which In very favorable season VIII
produce about three -fourths Of bale of cot
ton the acre, worth at current prices
$225 Out Of this sum they must pay their
rent and extra labor in the picking season,
and meet their store accounts, blacksmith's
bills and other necessary expenses. An average
hand will till dozen acres in cotton and three
to five in corn. He should raise in an ordinary
season six bales, worth in the aggregate some
thing less than $500. At least $1G0 goes for the
rent leaving him the other $10O ON which to
keep himself and probably several others. Man
festly, he must come out in debt, and he can get
no credit until cropping time comes again.
Heretofore the large planters have had fences
to repair bitches to dig, other preparations to
make during the winter, which afforded employ
ment to the laboring class and enabled them to
keep the wolf from the door between the end of
December and the last of February; or there was
levee railroad building to be done at fair wages
This winter they have no such resource The
planters have nothing to pay anybody with, and
no railroad or levee work is in progress To cap
the climax of the poor negro's woes, 0bdurate
creditors in too many instances are seizing his
corn for their debt thereby leaving him and his
family, and his mule, IL he has one, to suffer
from hunger. His white neighbors can not help
him. being almost in the same box. He will
pull through somehow-that Is, he viii not
starve to death; but under present conditions
there is nothing in life for him but toll and DJv-
erty.
One of the best speeches made in the Cotton
Planters convention was that of r. Gleed a
venerable colored man, who formerly served
several terms In the Mississippi legislature
as senator from Washington county-a
county which produces more cotton than any
other like area in the world. There, if any
where, the negro who will work should get
ahead. The soil is as fertile as the valley of
the Nile 1t Is situated in that latitude where
the cotton plant Is most likely to reach full ma
turity, unswept by destructive equinoctial
storms and unharmed by the dreaded army
worm. The quality of the staple Is the best
and brings the highest market prices.
Yet the picture that this intelligent and ex-
perienced old negro farmer drew of the state of
his people there was one that bodies no good to
that section Of the delta because it was a por-
trait from life. He told of cases coming un-
der his own observation that showed how far
the promise Of nature has been broken
to the hope of the black laborer. He
mentioned, among others, man who
with the assistance of his wife and two half
grown daughters, made twenty six bales of cot
ton last season They got just six dollars out
OF the crop after paying expenses-scarcely
enough to buy them a pair of coarse shoes
apiece. And this family he knew to be as eco
nomical as they were Industrious.
The speaker was engaged in a lecturing tour
among the negroes of his district, with the OBJ
ject of dissuading them from leaving for Okla
homa, as many were inclined to do. The Mis-
sissippi valley he told them, was intended BIZ
the Almighty to be their home: He had done
everything that heart could wish for ia the
way of soil and climate, and it only remained
for man to use the opportunities offered.
But what does all this come to" said the ex-
senator to the convention, "as long as there is
no common bond Of sympathy between the two
races-while the stronger despises and neglects.
and the weaker fears and distrusts? III be
plain with you, gentlemen; the negroes don't
trust you. They are ignorant; they can't fig
ure long accounts, and they don't understand
how cotton can be worth less and less eyerv
year, while the things they have to buy are as
dear as ever. They only know that after wears
~of hard labor and harder living they have less
than when they started, and they can't help
thinking that there is something wrong. You
must convince them of their mistake by giving
them chance to better themselves. They can't
make any money raising cotton to sell at six
cents which cost them that much to raise. but
they may get a decent living il you will show
them the way
You have adopted resolutions here calling ON
the farming people to raise less cotton and more
food crops, so as to put up the price of cotton
and have their smoke houses and corn cribs on
the farm, instead of 1000 miles away. You saw
the south makes too much cotton. So 1t does.
but how are you going to change this unless the
negro helps you to do it? And how can he helm
you when you force him to raise all cotton bv
charging him eight dollars an acre for the land
he worksY You know that M m IN co,, ,ffo.s 4.