Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-26
down IN LOUISIANA
Where the President Was in
Camp.
TWO CLASSES OF PEOPLE
Practically Only Wealthy Planters
and the Negroes.
LATTER LARGELY IN MAJORITY
Not Interested in Politics.. Rela-
tionship Of the Races Beyond
Legal Regulation.
LATTER LARGELY IN MAJORITY

Special Correspondence Of The Star
STEAMBOAT, La. October u, 1907
II President Roosevelt should fail to
secure in his bear hunt sufficient material
upon which to exercise his varied talents
while In this section of the country he
can easily find in the aspects o: the race
question and the land problem as pre-
sented here subject; to which he may
turn'his attention with interest to himself
and possible profit to many Of his fellow
beings. Especially would II seem that
these subjects would appeal to him as a
sociologfst and publicist If not as the
nations chief executive. 1t may be ad-
mitted that there is little or nothing he
could do in his official capacity to i'm
prove conditions in either connection. for
land is a question of vested rights. the
relationship of the races is a matter of
sectional adjustment which appears to be
quite beyond legal regulation. at a t
by national authority.
The hunting field of the President In
this state was in East Carroll parish,
and his second in its southern neighbor
Kansas parish. and after the visitor to
either has scanned the broad cotton fields
and the extensive forests and has OBJ
served the mamie fertility of the soil
his attention will naturally be draw n to
the great preponderance of the colored
population over the white and when the
race question is spoken of the references
is necessarily to this state of affairs
There are no Chinese or Japanese prob
lens because there are no Chinese or
Japanese; no foreigners of any national
ity, Indeed, unless one may so designate
the few Hebrew merchants and Italian
fru1t dealres that are found in the towns
and most of whom have been In the coun-
try for years But negroes? The rae,
question Is the negro question, and the
race problem is how to treat the negro.
There are negroes everywhere The vii
lagos are full of them, and the country
is running over with them. You meet
them everywhere, day and night, and on
Sunday the highway and the byway are
crowded with them.
Only Two Glasses.
In the country districts there are prac-
tically only two classes, the wealthy
planters and the negroes. There are
very few that may be designated Is o. the
middle class, and there are still fewer
poor white peaple. at least in the cotton
poor white trash mentioned occasion
ally. People who fall within this CLASH
fcation are locally resignated. for what
reason no one seems to know az red
necks," and they are regarded with con-
tempt. by both white and black, appar-
emily because they persistently refuse to
improve the advantages with which ma
ture has favored them. There are also
a few men engaged in other occupations
than planting. such. for instance as tim
bering and railroading, who command
general respect whether owners or en-
ployes. These excap' ons only prove the
rule. however. and rye to emphasize
conditions on the plantations. Thu para
mount impression is that of vast acres
covered with white-fecksd cotton fields
filled with black men and women.
Whatever may be the condition els
where the plantations here are quite as
large as before the civil war If the
then big planter did not survive that
catastrophe his successor has proved
capable of taking up his task where he
left off. The talk is of plantations of
two thousand and three thousand acres as
TIE prevailing standard, and the man who
owns only few hundred acres is spoken
of with some degree of condescen zion. To
illustrate, the Presidents host, Mr.. John
M. Parker, Is reputed to own in this i'm
mediate vicinity no fewer than 5000 acres
of cotton land and other vast areas
covered with timber. The reader may
obtain some idea of the extent of his
domain from the fact that both the
Presidents camp and the ra lroad station
at Stamboul, ten miles distant. are on
lands owned by Mr.. Parker. and so far
as l lave been able to ascertain, there
are no intervening owners. Much of the
country lying between the two points is
woodland and the timber on IL 900 acres
of 1t is owned by Mr.. George B. O'Hara:
but since the timber was purchased n
few years ago Mr.. Parker has secured
the land on which il grows with priv
ileges which will enable him to plan 1t
in cotton as rapidly as he is liable to
want to do SO.
Soil Is Wonderful.
Not only are the acres broad, but Won
derful also is the soil one finds here. 1t
is well nigh bottomleSs. as one may well
imagine when one remembers that 1t is
the creation of the Mississippi itself. the
result of the overfows of countless ages
the cream from the rich lands hat inc
the Ohio. the Missouri, the Arkansas. the
Platte, TIE Illinois, the Iowa-the entire
watershed of the great river above the
Bayou Tensas. on which Mr.. Rooseve,t's
tent is pitched. While there are probably
not q large number whose interests equal
those of Mr.. Parker there are many
whose possessions are very extensive.
Their seats are scattered here and there
over the country, and many have more
tran one plantation with different man
ayers. OF these the Presidents friend
Mr.. Parker, Is again an illustration, and
he is reputed to be extensively Interested
III COTTON ldnuS not only IN Otler parts
of this state, but in other states as we'll
While speaking of this gentleman it may
be as well to state that he resides In
New Orleans and gives only general at
tcntion to his Planting interest His
reputation both landlord and land
owner is excellent.
Much of the land hereabouts Is In for
est. and therefore not under cultivation,
but the wooded land is being slowly re-
and it is claimed that the entire
area Is capable of high degree of cotton
which 1t is said will soon
'ollow if a ship channel up the river is
secured The forest is extensive enough
and impenetrable enough to still harbor
such game as the President delights In
but the inference should not be drawn
that the lack of settlement is the chief
chara cteristic of the parish. On the
it is a land of old-t!me activi-
ties and ante-bellum homes, such as made
a name for the south in those good Old
days" that one hears about. Indeed the
parish has been for many years one of the
states principal cotton growing sections,
the fertility of the soil giving it's product
a special prominence. But, was nat
ural. before the building of the levees to
keep out the overflow waters and of the
construction o. the one line of railroad
that penetrate5 the country, the cotton
fields chung closely to the river banks,
often more elevated than the bottoms
further inland. AS a consequence, the
great forests of cypress, oak. sweet gum,
cottonwood, pecan, etc, as well as the
wild cane, still remain almost as solid,
though not as extensive as they We're
when De Soto's enraptured gaze first fell