The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-01-08
Tuesday, january s. 1918.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION.

extortion by taking charge Of the
fuel situation and the food supplies,
and by requiring that the necessi-
ties of life be sold at living prices.
No man we suppose amongst us
Will deny that the government has
done its duty in so taking charge
of the prices of these articles.
And this reminds US that while it
is right for the government to pro-
tect the people against the extor-
tions of those controlling the fuel
and food supplies of the country,
and while the state does its duty
IN regulating the credit price for
money within it's limits, there is no
limitation placed on the man who
sells food products on a credit to
the tenant class on the farms in
the South. 1t is a known fact that
some merchants, some employers,
and sometimes others have been for
years demanding of these people
under one pretext and another, pro-
fits for goods sold on credit far
IN excess of the profits demanded
On the same goods for cash. A
negro laborer gives mortgage on
everything which he has in order
to secure advances from the mer-
chant, and when he has done so,
he is tied hand and food by the
merchant, employer or private mon
ey-lender as the case may be. He
can neither go forward, nor back
ward. The result is what we might
expect. There are some people who
cannot withstand the temptation to
exploint field so fertile with enor-
nous and unconscionable profits.
For this reason we believe that
the legislature which is about to
meet in Columbia should endeavor
to enact some better credit system
In this country for tenants and farm
laborers to the end that man who
must buy on credit may buy as
nearly as possible on an open mar
ket. The government of the Unit
ed States should demand of those
merchants and landlords selling
goods on credit for farming pur-
poses that profits be restricted to
a certain per cent, or put them out
of business. The usurious money
lender should be locked up. And
most of all the landlords of the
country should come to the relief
of the tenant class and assist these
helpless people in financing the
present crop, which will be an ex-
pensive one to make. Money may al
ways be borrowed at the banks at
current rates, (Which are high
enough always), and by allowing a
tenant a certain amount of money
each month and seeing that it is ex-
pended properly, his interests as we'll
as those of the landlord may be
fully protected.
There has been a great hue and
cry amongst some farmers about
the scarcity of labor. Negroes have
left the South by the hundreds for
the North, and with the calls made
BY the War Department it is true
that farm laborers are scarce. But
for great part of the exodus to the
North, in the months before we de.
clared war, certain merchants and
farmers may blame themselves. Nc
other race of people would be con.
tent to- work year in and year out
On the farms for a scanty living
while the entire proceeds of the
crop which it raised went into the
hands of the supply merchants, the
landlords and the usurious money
lender, who made the advances al
enormous profits. The wonder i:
that the negro has not gone else
where many years ago.
While the world is fighting fol
democracy, in an effort to make al
the people of the earth free, may
We not look around us and under
take to fulfill our trust to an infer
ior race by giving them working
chance upon the farms, by enabling
them to buy the necessities of life