The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-11-19
FARMER AND PLANTER.
A COMPLEX PROBLEM.
The Cause of the Epidemic of Whitecapism
Against the Negro In Texas In
tclligentIy Discussed.

tcliigently Discussed.
| There are crimes which are more
significant as symptoms of social OF
| industrial disease than as mere vio-
lations of law. One of these is the
epidemic of whitecapism that has SO
overspread the state as to call for q
proclamation from the governor, offer
ing liberal reward for the arrest and
conviction of offenders. 1t is stated
that over two thousand negroes have
recently moved to the city of Dallas
from neighboring communities on ac-
count of fear of whitecaps. Several
of the black land counties are being
depopulated of blacks. This certain
ly means something more than mere
spasmodic outburst of the race issue.
AS mater of fact, there is no race is
sue in the counties where the white
cap troubles have occurred. The
whites greatly predominant in popula-
ton, and the negroes have no organi-
cation of any sort. The root of the
trouble is not racial, but industrial in
its character.
| The truth of the matter, startling
as it may appear in print, is that the
whitecap is the herald of an industrial
crisis, one feature of which is clash
between the non-land owning white
man who makes his living out of the
soil, and the black laborer. 1t is
wiser to anticipate an evil and to put
limit to its scope, than to shut our
eyes and stubbornly refuse to ac-
knowledge its advancement.
When cotton sold at ten cents n
pound, and nearly every farmer was
employer, the negro laborer was in
demand for cotton chopping and pick
ing, and whitecapism was not heard
of. If these industrial conditions had
continued, there would have been no
movement, in any part of the state,
to get rid of the negro. Five cent cot
ton is rapidly revolutionizing the
methods of production, and that rev.
olution has brought the peripatetic
black man and the tenant farmer face
to face in sharp competition. There
are now probably 100000 negroes in
the state, nearly all of whom are de-
pendent on the cotton crop for their
maintenance. There are between $780,
900 and 100000 tenant farmers, all of
whom are compelled by custom and
contract to devote their energies
mainly to the growth of cotton. They
are enabled to keep at it by using
their families to cultivate and pick
the crop. If they were forced to hire
their cotton picked at 35 OF 40 cents a
hundred pounds, Their general condi-
ton would soon be below the level of
that of the Russian serfs and the
Irish peasantry. Whoever is disposed
to scott at this assertion is challenged
to make reasonable showing of profit
to renter out of cotton cultivated
and picked with hired labor. How may
it be done? Who has ever done it since
cotton crossed the seven cent mark.
1t is sad truth, an awful truth,
that, the supremacy of the cotton
crop In Texas, and perhaps in other
states, is maintained by the employ
ment of female and child latAr at
what is equivalent to starvation wages.
This is an appalling fact beyond the
domain of controversy.
If the families-the wives and chill
dren-of the tenants were not availa-
BILE for the cultivation of cotton, does
any intelligent person suppose that it
would, at the present market price,
be perpetuated as the staple crop of
the tenant farm? The average cash
product per acre of the cotton crop of
Texas il less than $40. One does not
need to resort to figures to ascertain
that the tenant could not pay rent and
labor charges, and secure a main
tenance for himself and family out of
this small pittance.
With his wife and three or four
children to help him to gather the cot
ton crop, the tenant farmer manages
to exc out an existence barren of
many things that modern civilization
classes as essentials of life. Poor Ar
menia excites our commiseration be-
cause her women and children are
forced to labor in the fields by the side
of men, to keep alive. Wherein, under
the hard rule of King Cotton, are we
superior to the Christian slave of the
unspeakable Turk?
The struggle for bread always be-
gins at the bottom, but it does not
stay there. Now the competition is
between those Immediately dependent
on cotton for employment. BY and by
1t will reach those dependent on the
producers of cotton for their profits.
Three millions of people can not con-
tinue to enjoy prosperity, and keep
step with the march of civilization.
while devoting their principal energies
to the production of crop that will
not pay wages, and avoids them by
drafting in the women from the fire.
side and the children from the school.