St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-01-15
FARMER NDPLANTER.
Ah1l-cAsH RENT CRUSADE.

ANTI-CASH RENT CRUSADE.
A Question that 10 AEitatlng the Land
Owners and Tenants Of Texas-The Situ.
alton from the Tenants Standpoint.
DALLAS, Tex, Nov. 2S.-No mutual
protective movement in Texas has
grown more rapidly or spread to larger
limits in recent years than that now
forming among the farm renters.
This statement came from one OF the
leaders of the movement to substitute
crop shares for cash rent. This leader,
speaking of the movement, saio'
These men have a lesser proportion
Of prosperity to show for their years
work in 1897 than any other OF the pop
ulation of this state. More than one
half the cultivated farm lands in Texas
are under the rent system. The Gus
tom has been to lease the lands on the
cash-rent basis. at a certain price per
acre, to be paid in money by the
tenant to the land owner. This sys-
tenn has proven disastrous for the
tenant this year. Not one renter In
fifty has SO much as a dollar left to
show for his years industry. No mat
ter how much land he may have cuitl-
waited. or how bountiful may have been
the yield in his crops, the land owner
and the merchant who has carried him
for supplies have taken practically all
he possessed in settlement of his debts;
and perhaps they have not been fully
settled at that. When the tenant states
his side of the causes for this condl-
ton. conscientious, disinterested minds
do not hesitate to conclude that his
side is the only one there is with merit
in it, and no one is surprised at the
widespread agitation that the CASH
rent system has 60 suddenly preclpi-
tated in Texas.
Take this years experiences OF the
renters as an illustration of condi-
ton that has long existed in the agri-
cultural sections of the state with un-
| satisfactory results for them at all
times, but absolute disaster this year.
The tenant farmer contracts with the
land owner in the winter or spring, at
an agreed price per acre, to be paid
| when the crops are harvested and mar
keted, the date of settlement usually
being fixed for not later than October
or November.
1.-The bargain is clear and safe one
| for the land owner, but the tenant
farmer is going it blind This year,
when contracts were made, the pros
perity' promises were ringing in the
| tenant farmers ears. He had Wis
ions of the hlgh-priced cotton
not less than seven cents, and
perhaps as much as ten cents per
pound-for the crop of 1897. He con-
tracted his cash-rent promises on the
basis Of this mental calculation. In
the spring he pictured himself man
with q bank account to his credit in
the fall; now he finds himself on the
verge of pauperism, although he has
been industrious and practiced self
denial in the matter Of home economy
all the season. He is desperate. The
ten-cent cotton vision of the spring has
changed to five-cent cotton reality
in the fall. The profits OF his crop
have not neeted him more money than
his cash-rent contract with his land
lord calls for. and having paid his
debt he finds himself broke
COLLECTIVELY, the tenant farmer in
Texas. during the last 60 days, has
started on q gigantic crusade. lie an
nounces himself as a reformer. He has
raised the banner of anti-cash rent
He has taken on his platform the time
honored aphorism: 'Self-preservation
is the first law of nature" Acting OF
this maxim. he has become active te
the point of dangerous aggressiveness
in certain instances These instances
are the individual exceptions to the
course pursued by the collective ten
antry. They have been characterized
by whitecap oatrages, in which q few
men have been whipped, one or two
shot, and numerous threats made in
writing to poison wells and cisterns
to sow lands in johnson grass and t.
burn buildings. in the event of cash
rent contracts being made in the fu
ture. But the bulk of the agitation ir
this tenant-farmer crusad. has been
conducted on higher and broader meth
DDS. 1t has been given the character
of living issue, u movement to at
tract public attention and enlist pub
lie sympathy. Mass meetings hav,
been held in fully 100 farming com
munities. Organizations have beer
perfected on the anti-cash rent founda
ton, the general name adopted being
the Cotton Growers Protective asso
ciation.' The policy generally adopt
ed has been to indorse substituting tn,
crop-share system for the cash-ren
system. This would make the LAND
owner a profit and-loss partner will
the tenant farmer. The rental terms
offered are one-third the grain and
one-fourth the cotton raised. Thi
would make the land owner directl,
interested with the tenant farmer il
procuring top-notch price for tn,
products when marketed, and stop tn,
tendency to force the tenant farme
into the market to sell at whateve
price he could get in order to procur,
means with which to pay his LANDLORD
the money called for in the cash-ren
contract. After settlement the tenan
farmer would he more likely to hav,
something beside poverty or pauperisn
rs an asset.
AT many of these meetings resolu
tions have been adopted calling TO
state legislation to better the condi
ton Of The farm tenantry. One legis
lative relief usually demanded is tn,
repeal of the law permitting the mort
gaging of crops stock and nipple
ments to procure credit with mer
1 oh SC cd 1,u he nAu r,
Gates of repeal that it would, for I
year or two work widespread hardship
to the tenantry. but in the end i
would prove blessing. In would in
augurate economy in debt-contractini
and stimulate the raising ont he farm o
many articles of living now purchased
on credit at double prices from tn,
| fonanf-..arrvinp merchant who n