Evening star., 1936-03-30

Is not, furthermore, IdIm-CO-idrm m
problem. Not all farms need conser-
vation measures; good and successful
farmers have already taken them.
Soil conservation is also a geographic
cal matter. It is not universal. But
every farmer is going to clamor for,
and receive, the benefits.
Soil conservation has been the pre-
tert under which the Government
is continuing policy. Which. under
the A. A. A., pds declared unconsti-
tutional and may be so declared
again. But radical conservation
measures con be taken phich Dould
noDhere encounter the Constitu-
tion. In the South, TOR instance,
the cotton economy. Which ought to
be changed. is being kept intact by
the benefits to plantation oaDners.
Nothing fundamental is being done
to attack the tenancy question, al
though the experience of the Uhole
tDorld shotDs that there Is no good
agriculture under such system.
Seuenty-one per cent OF cotton is
yOUh Oy C-CBOPpCIo S,UVUyUUU
of them, Dho are as bad an agricxl-
tural proletariat as you can find in
the Western World.
The often repeated statement that
the American farmer will never sink
to the level of the European peasant
is nonsense. The Southern share
cropper has never risen to the level
of any peasant in Western Europe.
You have got to 60 to the Balkans
and the Near East to find land work.
ers as degraded. Furthermore, he Is
undernourished. Although he lives on
the land, his children usually get
canned milk. only such eggs, vege-
tables and fruits as he can buy in
the company store. and no meat to
speak Of except salt pork.
Government Could Make Change.
Yet Government has the power to
change all this. 1t could, for instance,
use its credit resources more con-
structively, for the main agricultural
credits come from the Federal land
banks and the intermediate credit
banks. Credit to cotton farmers Is
still issued almost exclusively against
cotton crops: changing this basis,
making credit depend upon giving
the share-croppers land for personal
agricultural, a COW, etc, would effect
great reforms without any cumber-
some administrative machinery. Laws
can affect changes, especially laws
to guarantee tenancy rights.
Why should Southern tenant
Improve the property on tDhich he
liDes ,Dhen he CON be epicted NTH
out any guaranteed refund for his
Improvement? In England, between
1918 and 1880, 80 per cent OF all
tenants became landowners merely
by eQualizing the law bet,0een ten
ants and o1Uners. depriuing o1Dner-
ship of undue privileges. Under this
reform natural selection had some
chance. The superior tenants had
some repdrd for enterprise. The
better type of farmers drifted into
ownership merely through la,os
changing the inclination of the
Dhole level.
Agriculture is not necessarily a per-
manent industry. And when the soil
goes men CO." said Theodore Roose-
welt. Wherever the virgin earth Is
turned man commits himself to its
constant care or it will pass away. Ma
ture left alone will take care Of the
earth, but once nature has been in
terfered with, she passes the respon-
sibility to man. Babylon and vast
parts of China show what happens
to civilization when men fail. And
Mussolini Is in Ethiopia. partly be-
cause his national ancestors went in
for goat culture. which destroyed the
young forests and produced erosion.
Copyright, 1850