The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-05-17

ant farmers. Most of them are
in the southern states, and
DESPITE their numbers-there are some
100000 of them, mostly cotton farm
ers. in 16 of these states-they have OF
late come to be regarded as the "fof-
gotten men" of the New Deals agricul-
tural experimenting.
They are the share-croppers. Virtual
" illiterate, never at any time pros
porous in the true sense, these untor-
Inmates have in the last few years been
forced into circumstances every bit as
pitiable as old-time slavery, according
to investigations public and private
which have been made within the last
few months
For cultivating, planting and picking
their landlords cotton, these poverty
stricken Twentieth century serfs are
given half the harvest from the crop,
unless they furnish their own nipple
ments, in which case they get three
fourths of it.
The income from this harvest is
largely spent before they get 1t. Be
fore harvest time they are paid in COM
missary scrip which is good only IN
the landowners store 1t is alleged that
the usual allowance for a family OF
five is two dollars week before the
harvest. Then if there is any balance
it is paid off in cash.
Meanwhile the share-cropper is often
charged prices for his food and essen
tials which are considerably greater
than those paid by his neighbor VINO
owns land and may buy where ne
pleases. The landowner, in addition
takes a 10 per cent levy in advancing
scrip. making So worth really cost S2.2O.
The ordinary food supply for half
week for one family runs about IKE
this: Half-sack flour, 55 cents; gallon
of sorghum black molasses, GU cents
"a pounds of cornmeal, 60 cents. That
leaves little for clothing. And these
people simply don't eat meat.
VilIainy of Fate.
The share-cropper until 1920 was
able to exc out fair sort of existence,
getting enough to eat in the sense OF
a sufficiency to keep body and soul
together, and having something OF
roof over his family's heads. Then
prices began to fall. The machine,
which had been steadily growing as
threat, became a competitor real and
overwhelming. Competition from new
cotton-producing areas, soil erosion and
sterility of the soil from constant pro-
duction of a single kind of crop added
their woeful work to the villainy of
what some might call fate.
What these had knocked down, the
depression trampled upon. And into
what the depression had trampled up
on, the Brain Trust ground its heel
when it decreed that cotton acreage
must be reduced 40 per cent. AAA
crop reductions and processing tax
meant loss of income and loss of live
lihood to many a tenant farmer who
already had little enough of either.
Probably the first really comprehen-
sive analysis of the situation was that
recently made public by the committee
on minority groups in economic recov-
cry, headed by DR.. e. r. Embree of
Chicago, president of the Julius B.
Rosenwald fund.- AS might be supposed
from Doctor Embree's presence (for
the late Mr.. Rosenwald was far famed
for his sympathy with the black race),
the original purpose of the commit
tees survey was to investigate the
condition of the agricultural negro in
the South. 1t found more whites than
blacks suffering and reported that the
problem was so serious that all racial
angles to it were overshadowed.
No less than So per cent of the farm
ers of the Southland II per cent of
the cotton farmers-are without land.
Exports are on the decline, while cot
ton production abroad is increasing.
The South faces a major crisis, says
the committee.
The committee found that of $685.
Ill farms in 10 southern states, 1885,
600 were cultivated by tenants. Of
these, 1901, 900 were white and $4,000
colored. In certain regions farmed al
most entirely by negroes, so per cent
of the farmers were of the Share-crOp-
per variety. Practically all of the in
crease in the number of tenant-farmers
since 1920 is accounted for by whites,
approximately 100000 of them, who
were unable to keep a hold on their
property. A good share of the tenant
farmers and others have been released
upon the world with no means Of sup