Evening star., 1936-12-20
TENANT FARMER
|. PROBLEM STUDIED
W. P. A. Report Suggests
improvements in Lot of
Plantation Workers.
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

tions for improving the lot Of tenant
farmers, described as the victims OF
starvation incomes" and "exorbi-
tant" interest rates, was released yes
| terday by the Works Progress Admin
istration.
The report, made public with the
consent of Harry Hopkins, chief Of the
| agency, was prepared by DR.. T. j.
Woofter, jr., w. P. A. co-ordinator of
rural research.
DR.. Woofter and his associates. who
based their report on study of con-
ditions prevailing in 1884, made no
specific recommendations, but it was
felt the report might spur the new
Congress to aid tenant farmers.
The report was based on study of
plantations worked by five families or
more in Arkansas, Mississippi, LOU
isiana, Alabama, Georgia and the
Carolinas. 1t showed that the aver
age family studied had a net income
in 1884 of $304, including what it
raised for its own use, and that it was
charged 81 per cent interest for credit
W 4liCNI 11FAl6 CAPSlioCo.
Discusses His Survey.
In discussing his survey, DR.. Woof-
ter said:
The persistence of the plantation
as a Socio-economic institution sur
viving the Civil War and subsequent
depressions, ramifying in its influence
into all phases of Southern rural life,
indicates that the plantation has
evolved to f1t definite socio-economic
condition and that it meets the stu
alton better than anything else which
can be produced by the unaided ef-
forts Of the groups involved.
1T also indicates the formation of
a deeply ingrained set of customs and
relationships which will be difficult
to change and impossible to revolu-
tionize suddenly. In fact, a search for
parallels in European agrarian reform
indicates that nations such as Ireland
and Denmark, which have accom-
pliShed conspicuous tenant reforms,
have required several generations to
attain their goal.''
The war against farm tenancy.
which is especially prevalent in the
South, although it is marked in the
Midwest and is found in every State
in the Union, is at the top of the new
Roosevelt farm program This pro-
gram has turned its attention from
control of the immediate workings Of
economics, by such an agency as agri-
cultural adjustment, to interest in
long-range land use and the sociolog-
ical betterment of the man who tills
the soil.
The repeated emphasis on the i'm
portance Of ridding the country of
the tenancy system, steadily on the
increase since the turn of the CEN
tury, has resulted in a long series of
studies, one of the most recent of
which, the Department of Agricul-
lures Graphic Summary of Farm
Tenure, explains the Government g
fight against the system.
Various Problems Affected.
1T may be noted" the summary
reports, that tenancy affects such
problems as those of balancing pro-
duction with the consumption of farm
| products. soil conservation, educa-
tional standards, migration from
farms to cities and the ability Of the
migrants to find employment and the
accumulation or dissipation of rural
wealth-in brief, most rural economic
and social conditions and institutions.
Moreover. the influence of tenancy
is increasing. rather than decreasing,
with the passage of time. There were
only 180 counties in 1880 wherein as
many as half the farms were tenant
operated, and practically all these
were in the South. but in 1895 such
counties totaled $780, and they el-
fectively blanketed the cotton belt
and much of the more fertile parts
of the corn belt.
Farm tenancy tends to increase
with the commercialization of agri-
culture Free land and democratic
rural institutions have retarded the
segregation of labor from capital in
agriculture, as contrasted with in
dustry. but the trend toward such
segregation is clear. Increasing pro-
portions of the farmers are becoming