Cañon City record., 1910-03-03
Mr.. SPENCER TELLS OF
NEGROES N THE SOUTH
Editor The Record:

your vacation Notes" on your re-
cent trip through the South have been
read by me with more than passing
interest. for they treat of scenes and
conditions among which have spent
my entire fife before coming to Colo
rado. / congratulate you upon the
graphic descriptions and accurate
narration which characterize the
series until yesterday. when you fell
into error relative to the condition of
the colored people in the South. In
your article of yesterday you said:
1T matters not what the price of
cotton is. or how big the crop. the ne
gro always comes out in debt. so he
must remain where he ,is and go
through the same process another
year. 1t is not considered safe for a
negro to get ahead and 1t is not con-
sidered dishonest to keep the poor
devil in debt"
Notwithstanding you quote bank
err as your authority for this state
ment / must tell you that the truth
is exactly the reverse-it is not safe,
it is positively ruinous. to allow a ne
gro to get in debt. All OF my life has
been spent among the negroes. The
county in which l lived in the South
has five negroes to one white man,
and I possess a frst-hand knowledge
of affairs down there
The negro farmer or "cropper," as
he is known in the South, goes to the
local merchant in the early spring
and makes arrangements for supplies
for the ensuing crop year. The mer-
chant advances these supplies on
credit and is secured by a mortgage
on the crop before the crop is planted.
The merchant limits the amount Of
supplies to be advanced 70 an agreed
sum per acre and the cropper is per-
mitted to draw only limited value of
supplies per week during she crop
making season, which runs from Feb
ruary or March to June and July.
Crops are '1aid by In June or July
anu AutAF - Nv AAAIAf WIN ~ " hRhN
in them until the picking season,
which begins In September or oc-
tober. The tenant must take care Of
himself during the laying by" in
terval. and he usually does so by split
ting rails clearing new ground or
getting out timber and hauling It 20
the factories in town.
When his cotton is ready TO market
he hauls It to town and goes among
the buyers with a sample and sells
TO the highest bidder. when sold. the
official weighmaster gives him a re-
ceipt for the cotton. stating number OF
pounds. etc. and he takes this to his
supply merchant. who credits him
with the amount OF the sales. The
land owner collects his rents from the
supply merchant out OF the very first
proceeds OF the crop. The merchant
then satisfies himself and all over
goes to the negro who cultivated the
crop. II the negro does not make cot
ton enough to pay his store account In
full (which very rarely happens. un-
less there has been a crop failure)
the merchant simply balances the ac-
count. tells the negro that they arc
square and tells him to hunt up an
other merchant to supply him another
year Experienc has shown that IL n
negro comes out In debt one year and
the merchant attempts to carry him
for another IN tie hope of wiping out
the old debt, the deb. will become
larger instead OF smaller. Therefore
It is almost fixed policy among ex-
perienced supply merchants to square
off with negroes who come out in
debt and refuse to extend further
credit.
AS n rule the coiored farmers make
good money and the land owner and
merchant both encourage them In ev-
cry way possible. But the colored peo-
pie as a whole are improvident spend
thrifts. will cite an instance that
came within my personal observation.
Judge H. b. Bateman OF Clarendon,
Arkansas, 10 one of the largest land
owners in his county. He works all Of
his land on what is known as the
Share plan" under which the land
lord supplies the land. mules, tools
and feed for the stock and divides
equally with the cropper. Hamp VIII
liams, n colored tenant on the Bate
man place in the year 1906. made
enough cotton 10 pay his store ac-
count and all other expense and at