Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1924-11-25
System Of Tenantry in
Georgia

WACAkACI llC lives III 1COl SA0 VI
Texas. Some new facts on the
farm tenant have been given us
in the past few days by Martin
V. Calvin, specialist in agricul-
ture and economics.
Mr.. Calvin brings out some
interesting details, never before
presented in just this manner,
He gives US the percentage Of
tenants as to nationality, per.
centage of farm owners and
farms operated by tenants.
of statistics, Mr.. Calvin says
appreciate their value, but the
following from his pen is inter
esting and valuable:
Nineteen twenty-five, close at
hand, is year of rare expect
any. Business men, manufacture
ers and bankers have been
thoughtfully and industriously
planning for 1925 since early
autumn. They are still at work,
perfectly confident as to the
wealth of business opportunities
the rapidly approaching New
Year holds for them.
And the farmers are looking to
the New Year with anticipations
of the brightest and most en-
couraging nature; they are wise
ly planning for a year that will
crown all their considered efforts
wit ha high degree of success.
At no time in all the past has
there been SO widespread a recog-
milton of the close cooperative
friendship which should subsist
between these two great and in
dispensable factors in the pros
perity and development of this
country-agriculture and bust
ness.
In connection with the plans
referred to, it may be well to
look into the tenantry system
which has prevailed in all the
cotton producing States SO long
that, in the language of Black
stone. the memory of man run
meth not to the contrary" You
question the appropriateness of
the Notwithstanding of the
period of slavery. The entire
enriching plantation system was
based on a present, but invisible
system Of tenantry.
You have seen, and so has the
writer, Statistical presentations
of tenantry in Georgia and in
other cotton producing States.
The writer, for your information,
determined to go into the details
of the system since the spring of
1866 in order to ascertain the
number of the white and the ne
gro tenants.
You may rest assured that, in
order to succeed in the under
taking, much work and painstak-
ing were required. The writer
does not perform the labor l
would tell you how that is, but it
might brighten you. | will tell
you anyhow. An invisible angel
stands at my side, finds all the
facts, assemblies them and puts
them in regular order on NY ta-
bic next my desk. All l have to
do is touch the keys of my Rem
ington.
Why have / told you that
story? Solely with view to
moistening the statistics | must
lay before you. They are very
valuable statistics; | do not wish
you to regard them as un-utter-
ably dry. Is not that good ex-
cuse?
This story relates to eleven
Southern States-1920. In giving
- you the facts, / shall condense
as much as possible: | will give
you the facts as 70 the percentage
of the white and negro tenants
in each of the States. have
never seen those facts in any
statistical publication whatso-
ever. The facts are more than
worth while, assure you. They
carry the lesson that we have
not been, are not now, wholly
dependent on the negro for farm
labor. The facts are of extra inn
portance; because gentlemen are
now trying to evolve a plan by
which, to a very noticeable ex-
tent, old plantation methods, re-
vised to date, may be successful
ly resumed. All this involves
farm labor; you know that this
.ssais regarded as an extremely knot
! ty problem. Finding the "un-
] known quantity" as in algebra,
2 may be the essential question.
will take the States geo.
/. graphically: In 1920, North
Z Carolina had $685. farms. Of
e hiatt number, 151,376 were OPP
: Grated by owners and 117,459
were operated by tenants. 56.5
! per cent were operated by own
s ers; 43.5 per cent By etnants
Per cent operated by tenants
white, SAL; pegroh 49, q
South Carolina had 1858
farms. COf that awqiber, G7,724
We're operated by owners; 124,-
4 a.