The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-02-02

Advised
TO ADOPT METHODS If THEY
WISH TO RETAIN PRESENT
ADVANTAGE.
Mortgaging the Crop
For the money on which to live
while the crop is being raised,
Booker Washington tells Negro
toilers, is profitable neither to
- landlord nor tenant. ----------~- -

hooker washington tells Negro
toilers, is profitable neither to
&C., landlord nor tenant. .--~------- -
>Tuskegee, Ala, Jan. 30-In his
address opening the goth annual
Negro conference here, on the 18th
inst. President BrooKer T. Wash
ingtn said to the audience or three
thousand:
:.EColored farmers throughout the
Southern States and especially those
IN the cotton raising states might as
we'll understand from now OIL that
the OLD methods are passing away
and new ones are to take their place
| refer especially to the old habit Of
mortgaging the crop( animals, etc.,
Tor the money on which to live while
the crop is being raised. The Negro
in the South has been free for more
tnan forty-hVe years and it ought
not to be necessary much longer for
any proportion Of these colored
FARMERS to be treated as though they
were children instead Of men. But
tc speak more plainly, the, people,
whether they are bankers or nler-
chants, or land holders, who have
been carrying the Negro farmer by
the old mortgage system, are sick
and tired Of that old method Of do
ling business. It has proved in the
highest degree too expensive to the
banker, to the merchant, to the land
holder. There is no more difficult
problem to solve than that which
faces the owner Of land in Alabama,
when farmer comes to him to rent
his land but is absolutely
empty handed practically naked,
has no horse Or mule, has no farm
ing implements, no food upon which
to live single month and is with
out even proper clothing for himself
and his children. Such a man has
no credit in his community. Under
these circumstances, the land holder
must find way to furnish this far
mer with the necessities Of life for q
year or he must let his land go un-
occupied.
Il repeat; that the time has come
when the Negro farmer should be
thrifty, SO Industrious, so full-hand-
ed, that he can live for a year or
longer without having to go to some
body to supply him with food, cloth
ing, animals, and implements to be
used while he is making his years
crop.
eff the Negro farmer does not
save enough during one year to sup
port him during the coming year, the
South will soon begin to look out
for a class Of farmers who will save
enough to enable them to live dur
ing the fo11oW1ng year without hay
ing to be run" or advanced to. The
old crop lien, Or mortgage, system
has proven disastrous and costly
both to the white man and to the
black man, and the only way to get
rid of this system is fo:I every color
ed farmer to be SO Industrious, So
thrifty and saving that he will save
enough out Of this years crop to
live on during the next year with
out going into debt.
ITO speak roughly, one-fifth of
the farming land in the Southern
States is occupied or controlled by
co]ored people.
"This means that unless the Me-
gro farmer gets as much out Of this
land as any other class of farmers
can get out of their land, that in the
same degree that they fail to do
this the South as whole will be the
poorer.
There are some people in the
South who do not realize that sys-
tenn Of dealing with the Negro, which
would succeed dn slavery will not
succeed III a state Of freedom In d
state Of slavery, farmers could be
controlled in a way that they cannot
be controlled in period Of freedom.
During slavery the Negro had some
one to plan for him, but in freedom
the Negro, in a. large degree, has the
responsibility Of planning for him
self.
During slavery he had no home,
| no family, no children, nothing to
educate him up TO a system Of re-
sponSihility, where he could take up
| --r---------
(CONTINUED TIIRERl