Evening star., 1935-10-13
New Deal Aided by
War and Weather
By Queen L. Scott.

Cotton, next to the dominating diff
Guilty Of unemployment, has provided
planners with their most battling task.
Cotton is the country's most important
single crop and go per cent of its normal
market is found abroad. Its trials and
tribulations Immediately are reflected
not alone in the status of 10,00O,000
persons who directly depend on the crop
for living, but in the lives of other
Southern millions.
To meet the cotton problem planners
first tried voluntary crop control and
o-operators threatened their plan.
They tried compulsory crop control, with
the hand Of Government reaching from
Washington down to every individual
cotton farm, and now the Supreme Court
threatens that. They tried price con-
troll and foreign competitors began to
take away markets.
Big European buyers, on whom the
South depends for sale of much of its
crop, undertook quiet boycott of Amer
ican cotton. They joined American cot
ton handlers in pressing for development
of South American competition. Men
and money went from this country to
Brazil to build up that country.
The story spread that the New Deal
was wrecking the cotton industry by
handing it over to foreigners. Leading
magazines informed millions in this
country Of the Brazilian threat to the
American South. Congress became in
terested. When cotton sales continued
to decline in the face of these reports
it looked as though an economic prob
lem VIC turning intn O national n0lifirQI
issue of real importance.
But now things are happening that
cause Agricultural Adjustment officials
to breathe sigh of relief.
Foreigners, who held off buying. except
meagerly. for more than year, are back
again bidding for American cotton.
Their supplies have run low. Not only
that, but war is threatening and cotton
is an essential.
War forces up the demand for raw
materials, and the South is assured that
Gotten will not be ruled an implement
of war subject to embargo under the
Nations neutrality plan.
Also, weather has timed its effect to
coincide with war as a factor in the
cotton problem. Its influence was ex-
There had been set under way the ex-
panSion program that would doom the
American effort to control production
in the interest of better supply and
demand relationship. Interest of Amer
leans in the South American industry
| fired the enthusiasm of BraZilians, who
set off a cotton boom that rivaled an
old-fashioned American gold rush.
fbo;r 1aff ont a
weather factor. Time to pick Southern
Brazil cotton came last March. 1t was
raining then. The rain kept up through
April and May and June. Weeds over
ran fields, and the pink boil worm,
cousin to the American boil weevil, got
in its work Next, coffee picking drew
away the meager labor supply from cot
ton fields.
At last the crop is in. But instead
of an expected 100000 bales, the Brazil
ians have 100000 bales OF uncertain
quality. Contracts made for delivery
cannot be fulfilled. Law suits are start
ing. One leading American firm is re-
ported to have asked extensions from
its customers so that it can find Brazil
ian cotton to deliver. The boom ex-
ploded with bang.
Then is all well with the industry on
which the American South depends for
its economic existence?
Scarcely. Nobody is more aware of
that fact than the officials of the Agri-
cultural Adjustment Administration.
They are giving attention now to a
study Just published by the University
of North Carolina press. This study
was made by Charles S. johnson of Fisk
University. Edwin r. Embree of the
Rosenwald Fund and w. w. Alexander,
who now is assistant to DR.. Rexford Guy
Tugwell, Undersecretary of Agriculture
and resettlement administrator.
The findings do not spare the A. A. A.
control plans nor the whole cotton-grow-
ing system of the South. They head up
to the conclusion that:
"The growth of cotton in the South
west and the prospect of increasing use
of machinery in tilling and picking make
| it certain that the ancient order of cot
| ton culture in the old South is doomed.
Sweeping changes in Southern farming
must come swiftly if millions of former
plantation workers are not to be COM
| pletely wrecked-if the region itself is
not to suffer violent ruin"
Cotton growing is based on a landlord
tenant system that the investigators said
| followed the old master and slave pat
tern" This crop largely is produced by
| 1900, 900 tenant families, of whom 1,100,-
| 600 are white and 100000 colored, ac-
| cording to the figures in the study The
standard of living of these families is
graphically portrayed. A relatively few
| ever see any money. They work on a
share basis" with the landlord keep
ing the books and handling all credit
relationships OF those families with
an income above subsistence provided by
the landowner, that income averages
| $105 a year.
That is the bare outline of a picture
drawn by the investigators. They said
the A. A. A. crop-control program was
| TEN of the South. OF this control plan
they said:
"The Government under the A. A. A.
| has assumed many of the risks of the
landowners, and thrown them on the
| tenant. The risk Of overproduction is
| met by fixed quotas. with rent to the
| landowner for his retired lands. These
benefits take little, if any, account of
labor's previous interest in the crop. The
tenants share of rental is pitifully small
or nil and on him is thrown the brunt
Of reduced acreage"
Then the study adds:
1.-THE risk of price fluctuations is met
| by the Governments policy Of pegging