The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-29
SOME THOUGHTS.
On Tenant Farming and Alleged
 Abuses in the South.

Editor The Advertiser:
 | have just read the article by BOOK | CT Washington in your Sundays issue | giving the cause of the influx or the cities.
 I write from the viewpoint of j. ! small farmer who has had some expe- rience with negroes as tenant farmers on halves. for standing rent. and also for wages. I have had ample ample oPPporv s,iv | own farm, and while Washington may be in the main correct, in his state ment of the crying need or better l houses for tenant farmers all through the cotton district of the South. the failure to build more comfortable and attractive abodes, has not been caused ] by any spirit of nhumanity towards the negro as class. but becuse the great majority of cotton farmers have been pressed for means with which to build more expensive houses. There are great numbers of white renters running one and two horse farms. who live In the same style of houses that the negroes do. It Is a well known fact that the average cotton farmer for the past decade or two, has not a drive through the e/country in any direction and 1 will venture the asser- tion that you will not find one house in a dozen to have ever felt the pres stances this may have resulted from the want of a proper appreciation of attractive surroundings and of the in- trinsic value of paint, but generally the owner has really been unable to go to the expense of fitting up his home in a comfortable. and attractive man ner. Why this is the case, it is not now my province to discuss. Some will say that the cotton farmers, as g. class. have lacked the discretion of so planting, directing and controlling their crops as to make them profitable Be that as it may, We know that they have been hard pressed for means ot needed improvements.
 The instance which Washington gives of a man hiring a boy and pro- viding no shelter, no place to sleep and giving him a buttered biscuit for his supper, is an isolated one. calculat- ed to prejudice Northern readers who do not know the real situation here in the South. It must have been only an arrant fool who could expect to retain labor under such conditions. Many laborers are hired throughout my sec tion for farm work and fed from the table" as the saying goes. and l have yet to hear of single complaint of in sufficient fare, either in quaatity or quality. They are, I think may truthfully say, almost invariably given the same fare which Is supplied for the table of the employer. together with as comfortable quarters as his means can afford.
 Many negroes, through thrift and acquired good sized farms, and have lGHdHlS OI LnelT own. HelT houses are no better, or perhaps do not aver age as good. as those supplied by their white neighbours so mans inhumani- ty to man." cannot be charged alone to the whites.
 In regard to high prices charged for provisions. very few landlords furnish provisions to their tenants. Where the tenant Is unable to supply himself the proprietor generally goes to some supply mercbant and makes arrange mentS for him to procure necessary ad- vances, and while 1t is true that the merchant often charges exorbitaut prices, the landlord has nothing what ever to do with 1t, and it, is the same price charged the whiteo farmer; in fact l don't believe there is any dis crimination made between the negro and the white tenant, either by the merchant or the landlord, where ad- vances are made.
 As for lynchings and whitecapping. 1t Is an old subject. and one seized with avidty by those who undertake to champion the cause of the negro. It may be said that the dealing of sum- mary justice for the commission of as- sault on the women of the South, is people, but 1t may also truthfully be said that lynching for any other cause whatever, Is deprecated and de- plored TIo rS by a great majority of our peo- cheating and swindling, will be the case as long as there Is q lawless ele- ment, and the devil is unclaimed. Law lessness prevails not only in the South ern States but statistices show that in the Northern States where strikes pre- vail mostly. the individual right to labor is often denied and prevented by force and intimidation, and in some districts the negro has not only been discriminated against by employers. but in some cases have actually been driven away from their homes in great numbers to seek a livelihood as best they could.
 The South has. perhaps justly, been scored for her lynching record, for the thing has been carried beyond all bounds, but there is one notable thing In regard to it, and that Is the censors nave invariably overlooked the fact that there have been grave causes for it. and they have also forgotten to in- weigh against the crime which gave rise to It, a crime which can only be put down by the better element of the negroes themselves. Will they rise to their opportunity?
 But the prospects of the Southern farmers arc growing brighter. Cotton has been bringing a better price than of yore, and they need to be directed and melted to the matter of better and more attractive abodes, not only for themselves. but also for their tenants It will be good investment, for it is an acknowledged fact that the happier and more contented the tenants are kept, the more satisfactory will be their work and the less liable they will be to move from place to place.
 n