The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-20
And Here's How It Looks To a
 LANDLORD
BY J. J. REEVES Missouri Farm Owner

Labor is having an easier time oi it than the landowner. These peo. pie that went out to the highways are no worse off than they usually are through their own failure to manage what they make.
 They have always been a heavy burden on the landowner, who has all the responsibility and bears the expense of the way they live
 As a boy, my father came with my grandfather into this section from Tennessee in an ox-cart just after the Civil War and began clearing their farm out of the woods. My father built up a large- sized farm, then in the high-price period of expansion in the World War, extended 1t to about 1000 acres.
 But the years that followed, when farm prices dropped, brought mort. gage after mortgages, and in 1852 the land company foreclosed all but 240 acres, which myself, my brother and sister still run.
 HARD WORK
 PAID DIVIDENDS
 That wouldn't support all of us SO came from the bottom country up here, and with little money l had and some my wife had saved teaching school bought 230 acres here at cheap price.
 We've worked hard Oh this place, and with the help of my wife's income as school teacher and flowage rights from the gov ernment in our land down in the New Madrid floodWay, we have paid off all but $400 of our debt, have increased our stock, and built up living on this farm.
 It hasn't been easy and one of the biggest drains has been the sharecroppers--I work 10 families of them now. If the troopers had made the edges cut the way we have had to do, they could have lived much better. But instead of saving for a rainy day, they spend their crop money, then look to the landowner to care for them.
 While I was taking my crop money to write-off debts my crop. perS couldn't return to me, or make payments on the land, or buy another calf, two of my share. croppers spent all their money op cars, one spent his on a radio. Last year two people on my places, one right after another, had to go 10 the hospital for appendix opera tions. and 1t was up to me to pay the bill.
 Things are better now than they were in 1892. but they still arc difficult. Some landowners, may be, throw their people out and let them shift for themselves. I and a lot of others haven't done that. MORE LABOR
 THAN HE NEEDS
 I carry c third more labor than I actually need on my farms, partly for their sake. partly be- cause I need 1t at picking season. But have to make cuts to keep going. On this place I'm on l started off with two sharecroppers and 1t didn't pay. I had to cut 1t to one family.
 Now I have told two or three families want them to move. They'll not be put out. If they can't find other places, I'll have to make some arrangement for them They are large families, one witt eight members, and therefore heavy expense, while, with the acreage reduction, e man and hi, wife can do all the work. So I'll keep the same number of families but r trying to get smaller families.
 That's not just in my intereS; alone. If I get smaller families, ] can give more acreage to some of the others and they can get along better.
 We lost one large acreage once and have notes for s10000 from my father for 10 years labor I put in there. Of course, they are worth nothing. Now I have to watch carefully to hold this place for my own. The sharecroppers on our place have got not only what they earned, but many times, be- cause of their way of living, have had to feed them out of my own pocket.
 The ones that try to look ahead and get along on what they have are not out begging on the high. way. It's not fair to expect the landowner, who bears all the responsibility and expense anc gets only his half of the crop, t scrape and deny himself to feed people who won't do something for themselves.