The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1940-03-16
LOOKING AROUND
and BEYOND
By
FRANK R. CROSSWAITH

AS THE LINES for the 1910
Presidential campaign continue to be
formed and the noise increases, there
is one thing that is becoming increas-
ingly clear to those who are carefully
watching the unfolding spectacle-that
one thing is that labor is going to bear
the brunt of attack by the reactionaries
in both the Republican and Democratic
camps.
ALREADY WE SEE the Republi-
cans advocating the abolition of the
National Labor Relations Board; also,
we see the program of the Smith Com
mittee which has just concluded Con-
gressional investigation of the Labor
Board. The more to discredit organ
lied labor is unquestionably taking
shape. The attacks will be more vici-
GUS than in 1885 when the Wagner
Act was being dragged through the
Courts. The spokesman of reaction
and of special interests are going to
work overtime to prove that Unions
are the evil incarnate of our time and
that they are responsible for unem-
ployment, etc. So let us be on guard
and be prepared for the attack.
ANOTHER WEEK DEVOTED to-
ward turning Americas gaze upon the
plight of our agrarian workers has just
come to a close The effort was quite
successful. A number Of important
meetings were held in the large indus
trial areas of the nation at which meet
ings, sharecroppers and others told the
tragic story of the tenant farmers and
other agricultural workers. This
writer participated in several of those
meetings and from observation is pre-
pared to compliment the Southern
Tenant Farmers Union and the Work
ers Defense League upon a job mag
nifcently well done.
THE SYSTEM OF farm tenantry
known as Sharecropping is an offshoot
of chattel slavery. 1t began to make
its appearance following the Civil War
when the slaves were given their free
dom minus the "forty acres Of land
and a mule" as promised by the
North. Under the circumstances, there
was nothing for the former slaves to
do but to return to their former mas
tiers on the latter's own terms. Thus
sharing the crop, became an inevitable
way out for both the ex-slave and the
Southland generally.
AS THE SYSTEM exists today it
embraces the worst features of Feudal-
ism. Today on many of the larger
plantations in the South, the tenants
are in a worse condition than were
their forbears. They have none of the
guarantees of chattel slavery and the
plantation owner assumes no real re-
spOnslbility for their welfare. These
people are therefore in a worse condi-
tion than the slave and it is therefore
the duty of those of their fellow men
with a sense of social responsibility
and greater opportunities to come to
their assistance.
MANY PEOPLE HAVE been in
IllICu " IOOh upon Iue DudTeCTOpDe S
situation as merely a colored problem.
Such people are looking at the picture
in a grossly false light. It is true that
cOlored people were the original vic
TINS of the system; however the insti-
tuition has changed since then. 1t was
recently estimated by Professor Vance
of the University of North Carolina
that the Colored Sharecroppers number
little less than 100000 families while
the number of whites is more than
100000. The fact that both colored
and white agricultural workers have
become the common victims of the
system makes little or no difference to
the plantation owners. 1t is to be adj
mited that the burden of the Colored
Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers is
heavier than that of his white brother.
nevertheless, they are both cruelty and
lnhumanly exploited. Contrary to
popular belief, color counts for but
little in the relationship between ex-
ploiters and the exploited.
NATIONAL SHARECROPPFRS