The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-11-01
MONDAY, NOVEMBER l, 1920
RAScALITY COMES OUT.


person who begins to delve into the
mixed-up transactions of negro ten
ats in these times is the number of
mortgages which the old cow will
carry and still give milk.
Negroes are hopeful creatures. In
the Spring of the year when things
look promising they do not hesitate
to make debts. And sometimes they
take long chances. They give first
mortgage on the cow, or the calf, and
sometimes on the game rooster, and
then they give several other first
mortgages" on the same chattels. If
times are good and cotton is high,
the mortgages are all paid off, and
the mortgages are none the wiser. If
times are not good and cotton is low,
you will find the mortgages looking
to see chow many are ahead of me-"
1t is a case of locking the stable after
The cow has gone down the road.
Most negroes, under these circum-
stances we believe, while knowing
the law, do not intend to defraud, but
every man must be held to the rea-
sonable consequences of his act, and
they are, therefore, criminally res
ponsible.
But they are not alone responsible
in these matters. A good many people
in these latter days are accustomed to
look out for their own tenants, and
to make to them all reasonable ad-
vances. After this has been done,
some merchants, and some people
who are not merchants, are accus-
toned to watch the crop and the pros
poets of good picking, then to ad-
vance goods of one kind or another
to these tenants, taking mortgages on
CEdLIelS WlllCl Iue HcSlo may hofS, Va
may not have, expecting that the
white man will pay it anyway before
the negro will be allowed to suffer.
Some even go so far as to say that
they would prefer that the negroes do
not own the chattels mortgaged, be-
cause the threat of prosecution will
bring money when chattel mortgage
will not.
All of this may help the negro to get
credit sometimes, and the white man
to collect debts sometimes, but it does
not help business in the long run,
and it is not fair dealing, man to
man. 1t is akin to the practice of
renting a patch to a negro who lives
on the neighbor's land and who is fur
nishing the tenant his advances. All
the cotton on the mortgaged crop is
neglected and all the cotton in the
fall is made on the patch.
We believe that landlords should
refuse to take up such debts. We be-
lieve that it is necessary for the pro-
lection of the landloard himself and
for the protection of the negro. Un-
der the system of farming as it is
carried on in this country, we believe
that the ends of justice and fair
play may be better served by outside
parties refusing to extend credit to
negroes without the consent of the
landlord. If the landlord does not
deal fairly iwth his tenants, they
will not stay long with him, and there
is no law to force them to stay against
their will
We believe that all debs should be
paid, by whites and negroes alike.
But we believe that obligations should
be fairly made, and that it is a mis-
take to extend credit under the cir
cumstances stated.
In what we have had to say we
refer of course to the merchant and
landlord who really gives the negro
a kind of value received for what he
obligates himself to pay. We do not
refer to the man who sells him BIZ
bles, clocks, and old buggies, wagons,
and such like, for ten times what
such things are worth. These male
factors should be driven from the con-
fines of decent society. There is no
place prepared for them except the
lower story.