The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-02-05
South's Dispossessed, Replaced BY
Machines Are On The Way North

ed south in order to capitalize on
the increasing demand for cotton
producing machinery. One of these,
the Int'l Harvester Company, has
a plant in Memphis, Tennessee, and
in its first year of production it
plans to turn out 1900 cotton pick
ers, which alone will displace CO.,
900 men.
Mechanization is gaining momen-
tum on the big cotton plantations
of Mississippi, Texas, and Oklaho-
ma. 1t is the big land owners who
count as far as production is con-
cerned. 1t is the big land owners,
and only they, who can afford to
mechanic their farms. Half-heart-
ed measures are not enough. If a
man is going to mechaniZe, he must
do so completely, and the cost runs
from $4,000 to 100000.
The smaller, family-type farm in
the deep south cannot adapt itself
too readily to these changes. Ac-
tually, mechanization is going to
mean the virtual disappearance of
this type of farm. When cotton is
completely mechanical in the Mis-
sissippi Delta area on the plains of
Texas, and in the irrigated lands
Of the Southwest, farmers back in
the old cotton belt are not going
to raise cotton. They will not be
able to afford to do so. Some Of
the larger landowners and perhaps
some of the middle-sized ones in
these areas will be able to recon
vert their farm operations to live
stock farming. For example, the
trend is already noticeable in Geor-
gia. Prior to 1871, never more than
40,000,000 were made each year
in livestock, while the value of cot
ton at times reached 1862, 100000.
In 1916, however, cotton accounted
for only $72, 100000 of production,
while livestock farming gave the
state an income of $113,0O0,000.
1t is the little man who will be
most adversely affected by mechan-
ization. The tenant farmer or the
sharecropper who raises, probably
primarily by hand, two to five
bales Of cotton each year as his
only cash crop, is not going to be
able to sell his cotton at any kind
Of a profit when the big farms take
over the faster and cheaper means
of production. Only a few farm
hands will be needed then, and they
will be those men who know how to
run tractors, cultivators, and pick
ers. The rest will lose their places
on the farm; their shacks will be-
come empty; they will turn to the
cities for work.
Many problems, arising as a re-
suit. Of this mass displacement, will
face US before the end of another
decade. Maladjustments will inevi-
tably occur during the painful pro-
cess of learning to live in new en-
vironment. Then, too, these 4 or
100000 inexperienced, unskilled
workers will constitute a serious
threat to the industrial wage levels
of the cities, for they will be easy
prey to offers of substandard
wages.
What are the possible solutions? =?
First, some arrangements must be
made for the orderly transfer OF
these people to the cities. Subsidies
covering their transportation may
be necessary. Second, relief funds
may have to be provided until the
transition from farm to city job
is complete. Third, a program ac-
quainting the tenant farmer and
the sharecropper with the prob
lens of the city worker, the value
of and need for unionization must
be pushed now before the great
exodus progresses too far. Fourth,
and perhaps most important, these
people must be given the opportun-
ity to learn new skills-both after
their arrival i'm the cities and while
they are still on the farms. How
much more easily could adjustment
be made if man were to come to
the CITY trained i'm some skill or