x By WILLIAM C. UTLEY ALF of all the farming in the United States is done by ten- ant farmers. Most of them are in the southern states, and despite their numbers—there are some 1,800,000 of them, mostly cotton farm- ers, in 16 of these states—they have of late come to be regarded as the “for- gotten men” of the New Deal's tural experimenting. They are the share-croppers. Virtual ly illiterate, never at any time pros perous in the true sense, these unfor- forced into circumstances every bit as to investigations public and private which have been made within the last few months. For cultivating, planting and pleking their landlords’ cotton, these poverty- stricken Twentieth century serfs are given half the harvest from the crop, unless they furnish their own imple- ments, in which case they get three- fourths of It The Income this harvest Is from fore harvest time they are paid in com- the landowner’s store. It is alleged that the usual allowance for a family of five is two dollars a week before the harvest. Then If there is any balance it is pald off In cash. Meanwhile the share-cropper is often charged prices for his food and essen- tials which are considerably greater than those paid by his neighbor who owns land and may buy where he pleases. The lar downer, in addition, takes a 10 per cent levy in advancing scrip, making $2 worth really cost $2.20 The ordinary food supply for half a week for one family runs about like this: Half-sack flour, 55 cents; gallon of sorghum black molasses 60 cents, 24 pounds of cornmeal, 80 cents. That little for And these don't eat meat, clothing. leaves people simply Villainy of Fate. 1920 The share-cropper until g * eonae of getting enough to eat in he sense of a sufficiency to keep body and together, and having something over his family's heads prices began to fall. The which had been steadily growing as a threat, became a competitor real overwhelming. Competition from new cotton-producing soil erosion and sterility of the soll from constant Then ine, roof machi areas pro- the villainy fate. their woeful work to what some might call What these had knocked down, the depression trampled upon. And into what the depression had trampled up- on. the Brain Trust ground its heel when it decreed that must be reduced 40 cent, crop reductions and processing tax meant loss of income and loss of live lihood to many a tenant farmer who already had little enough of either, Probably the first really comprehen- give analysis of the situation was that recently made public by the committee on minority groups in economic recov- ery, headed by Dr. E.-R. Embree of Chicago, president of the Julius B. Rosenwald fund. As might be supposed from Doctor ¥mbree's presence (for the late Mr. Rosenwald was far famed for his sympathy with the black race), the original purpose of the commit. tee's survey was to investigate the condition of the agricultural negro in the South. It found more whites than blacks suffering and reported that the problem was so serious that all racial angles to it were overshadowed, No less than 58 per cent of the farm. ers of the South—and 71 per cent of the cotton farmers—are without land, Exports are on the decline, while cot. ton production abroad is increasing, The South faces a major crisis, says the committee, The committee found that of 3,088. 111 farms in 13 southern states, 1,980. 000 were cultivated by tenants. Of these, 1,001,000 were white and 608,000 colored. In certain regions farmed al most entirely by negroes, 80 per cent, of the farmers were of the share-crop- per variety. Pracfically all of the in crease in the number of tenant-farmers since 1920 is accounted for by whites, approximately 200000 of them, who were unable to keep a hold on their property. A good share of the tenant farmers and others have been released rpon the world with no means of sup per port until millions who should be get- ting a living from southern soll are Last year one family in every four was on relief, Chances Are Slim, According to the report, the tenant farmer's chances of recovery are slim under a credit system which enables landowner to borrow money at 41% to 6% per cent interest while “the tenant farmer cannot secure this cheap credit unless the landowner walves his * The landowner can seldom afford to do this. “If he refuses tc release the crop the Credit administration, Federal Farm for all his tenant farmers at 414 to 614 per cent, and then advance supplies and furnishings to his tenants at cus- tomary prices—20 to 30 per cent above cash prices, “Here again the tenant bears the If he can repay, his if he cannot repay, stock he may possess,” says the re “80 far the various debt reconcilia- tion commissions have made no at tempt to have the landlords scale down the debts owed them from previous seasons by erop pers and share tenants. doubt. by landowners who had just had the United States must the system of land tenure In the South.” The negro problem has long been an obst a program, comm opinion that the country estimated the importance farmers numetically as competitors, gince tenancy in the South has come to be essentially a problem of white farm ers.” The eommi upon cont acle to such ttee is of the “seriously of the has over. negro ttee distinctly age landlords to cut duction. It rail the South advised the than cotton in east, “with foreigh competition in cot ton growing increasing and Texas and able to furnish all the cot for the national market at cost of production.” Yet It in the that having cut d¢ admits an advantage fact by some 8.000.000 ion to ACTER, lanced ag get cot is in a posit force a ba riculture on farmers who ton off their minds, can't No money crops and no crops to be Rather, crops for home use are encouraged, as well as which tend to improve the soil and prévent crops “In the course of time the govern ment might find the outright purchas ing of certals farming lands less ex. pensive than the payments of rents, Such payments rightly expended would gorve to start worthy tenants In land ownership and remunerate large and absentee owners for portions of their excessive holdings,” the committee says. Would Need Help. Of course such farmers turned loose upon their own land, but restrained from raising the only crop with which most of them are familiar or experi- enced would need helpful supervision, but thelr properties—small subsistence homesteads—might bid fair to approach the economic state of some of the most prosperous peasant-owned farms in Europe, the committee Believes, Such a program would certaivly meet with approval! from the thousands of homeless share-croppers who have hit the southern roads without food or chattels, bound In ‘most cases for the cities, there to geek what relief they can from the proper agencies, Some of them write to the President in pitiful, hardly readable letters, implor- ing him to aid them. Some of them have formed the Southern Tenant Farmers’ union, whose allegedly radl- eal members have been said to be the instigators of violence In some ine stances. Designed to give these tenant farm. ers land of their own, after the man. ner of European land-owning peasants, is the Bankhead bill, proposed by Sen. ator John H. Bankhead of Alabama, father of the glamorous Tallulah Bank. head, the stage and screen star, and a member of a family which has repre sented Alabama for many years In the government. It is quite in accord with the suggestions of the committee under Doctor Embree. The Bankhead bill, which at this writing had gained a unanimously fa- vorable report from a house committee, would provide legislation patterned after that which has allowed the ten- ant farmer of Ireland, Denmark, Fin- land and Germany to become a land- owner. What has been done for own ers of mortgaged homes, it plans to do for the share-cropper—make fed. eral eredit available to lift him out of the financial morass, Renator Bankhead contends that the administration's crop reduction and tax on processing were measures adopt- ed In defense of the farmers, protect ing them from curtalled production by industries and manufacturers after the erash. In sharp opposition to him has been Senator Millard F. Tydings of Maryland, who claims that the result of the whole Roosevelt program has been only "eon He demands the end of the AAA. Bankhead Explains Senator Bankhead points that the United States at the start of 1833 was faced with the bigge #t cotton sur- plus on record, a full year's crop of hales, of which drop In was 104% 1832 it had pound, he the proc. the which crop cur- out the effect to cause a tremendous cotton prices. Cotton cents a pound in 1928, but fallen off to 5% pointed out, tax was des farmers the manufacturers had their prices, “The more money by cents a that gned to explaining easing give game “searcity” effected to maintain you put into they Answer Pex Be ple's hands the more WAS higher If the cont of then cons the can sell” can buy” “The can goods is Ine ‘rea sed, Senator Tydingy the price. the less they buy. is reduced, The hi Te umption or price of cotton, then you committees was in Senator Bankh tenant farmer Doctor mare interested ead's “Life of being its report. in the rural South is capable lived to the fu " sald “In our modern scheme of has proved much easier to produce a steady flow of goods than to produce a steady income with which to purchase those goods or their equiv. alent. Of all the laborers and crafts men, the general or allround farmer is the only one able to produce the type and variety of goods suitable for his own consumption. Fundamental Changes. “In the South we have lost much of this immunity to the fluctuations of the price system by an almost insane devotion to an export cash crop whose prics fluctuations have become pro- verbial. This ig due, no doubt, to the historteal conjunction of slavery, the plantation and the cotton plant. “Theoretically, the area saw slavery abolished. Actually, It changed the plantation pattern to tenancy and in- corporated a white peasantry which finally came to outnumber the negro tenants in cotton culture, “The plantation is not interested In feeding its lower-level the vegetables, milk, meats and fruits of a beneficent soll and clime, but only wants its cash crop of cotton, “Meanwhile, the system supplies its jaborers with a meager diet of fat. back, corn pone and molasses under Hest, be found in the world's agriculture.” Tenant farmers will undoubtedly find the bluebird singing for them once their own, when talked about $4,800,000,000, rural America all over agalp, princi pally by pew and fertile flelds where they can start all over again, on land described in deeds made out In their own names Mr. Rexford Guy Tugwell will superin tend the rural remaking. © Westers Newspaper Union, in Trying Times Permanency of Nation and of Home Depends on High Resolve. This is an era of curtallments, economies and limitations In matters in the United and such a state of affairs direct results In the home and on the family. It is a period which should be met with firm purpose and steady determination to wrest suc cess from difficulties, Such things have been done In former years, They can be done today. It is Interesting to note the place which faith holds, We heard much about the misery which lack of has brought to the masses, We have been urged to discard fears, and thereby confidence, And the good old “faith” has come into its own. who have not cherished faith who have discounted it, have over- looked the fact that faith does not apply to religion solely, but all things in which reliance upon others is Involved. of its synonyms Is confidence, Those who have an abid- ing faith and confidence in a Su preme Power are those emergencies of finan- States, bears high have confidence restore word and to One who can meet without the depressing which are crowd around. 1 tion Rock elements hey have ich on wh waves may beat times Le turbulent, dismayed, The stability of one's ry Is dependent upon the faith and confi dence the individual citizens have in it. Such faith and confidence is the rock of the nation, However much of an ferment certain specific issues cause, the belief that they are but evanescent and that the high funda- mental principles of the country will not be shaken beyond its ability of recovery must remain inviolable, Such a belief and confidence Is the greatest reviving element, Such Is the faith that is ours behind and below the existing clamor about de- pression, Such Is the faith that be of our country's istment and exhausting about them and but they are not sient disagreements and disturbances is Imperative, The home is wrecked where faith is lacking. It grows into a stronghald of happiness when faith is fostered, and confidence is invincl- ble, count ! Bervice, Real Heroism A chronie invalid is a hero doesn’t talk about his allment, If he LESS TIME WITH THE comes knowledge ultimate power future of readji “ RISE IEE success without fron Reduce your ironing time one-third , your labor one-half! 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