The Omaha guide., 1935-05-04
DISTINGUISHED LEADERS OF
RACES ON COMMITTEE
Report Calls Forth For Drastic
Readiustment Of South's
Excessive Devotion"
to King Cote on.
ADVOCATES CONCENTRATED
REFORM

~ 0OL4 -. - @LG ~
committee on minority groups in
Recovery, after a
years study of condi ions among
white and Negro sharecroppers in
the Southland, made public the
startling findings of its udy in
a two hundred fifty page report
here Wednesday in which atten-
ton Of he public and officials
was directed to the dire need for
a complete overhauling of the
excessive devotion to
Cotton.
The report which was summari-
zed in advocates among other
things:
Drastic REIMBURSEMENT of the
Souths Anticipated system Of
credit.
Immediate remedial steps to
remove the appalling and unbe-
lievably low economic status 20
which Negro and white farmers;
mostly sharecroppers are assig-
ned.
REIMBURSEMENT IN the south's
policy as regards land tenure.
Drastic readjustment of the
south's longtime excessive de-
votion to King Cotton as the
source of greatest revenue, live
lihood and support for The ma
jority of the inhabitants, the
south having held ohio cotton
as It's chief staple from prior 10
the days Of slavery to the pres
ent.
Financed by a fifty thousand
dollar appropriation from the Ju-
Illus Rosenwald Foundation, the
committee which made the twelve
months study was composed Of
Edwin r. Embree, president
of the Rosenwald Foundation,
Chicago; Prof. Charles S. John
son, head of the Department of
Social Research, Fisk University,
Nashville; and DR.. VIII w.
Alexander, Director of the south
ern commission on Inter-racial
cooperation and likewise PreSi-
dent of billiard University, New
Orleans.
The Committee made its report
to the Department of Agriculture
more than a month ago, but was
not made public until last We'd
nesday. DR.. Alexander and PreSi-
dent Embree said the report had
also been brought to the attention
Of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.
Among other things the vol
luminous two hundred-fifty page
report said:
with declining exports and
increasing foreign cotton produ-
ction, the South stands face to
face with a choice" the com
mittee found.
1T may choose continued regi-
mentation Of agricultural pro
duction with subsidies for re-
leased lands and relief for dis
placed tenants and agricultural
laborers.
"Or it may decide that this is
too great a price to pay for con-
centrated land ownership. in
such a case America might well
follow the example of Ireland
and Denmark and embark upon
a program of government aid to
peasant proprietorship."
Not Merely a Negro Problem
The report says the situation
constitutes not a Negro problem,
but a tenant and sharecropperS
problem alike, in that both races
Of the farming classes are Gin a
state Of peonage that approaches
slavery"
Continuing, the report further
said:
AS a matter of fact, the Ne
gro no longer furnishes the bulk
of cotton tenants" There are
1,091, 944 white tenants in the
south to 698,839 colored tenants.
While one may not be surprised
to note that over half the Negro
tenants are troopers, it is start
ling to learn that over one-third
of the white tenants are in the
same poverty stricken class.
The recent ~flareups between
plantation owners and sharecrop-
pers and tenant in Marked Tree.
Arkansas and other sections
which have attracted attention Of
countless millions in and out of
America, are but indications Of
how tense is the situation and
pitiable the conditions are among
both white and Negro tenants and
.harecroppers. Violence and in
on the part of land
lords in some sections have greet
ed the attempts Of the tenants,
Sharecroppers, and those interest
ed In them to make better and