Glass. Book. v-j "^"^STv^'^v Qass '^l^. Book. Accession // THE ILLS 0.feffiH£, SOUTH LIBRARY.'''' RELATED CAUSES HOSTILE TO THE GENERAL PROSPERITY OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE CHARLES H. OTKEN, LL.D. h 35 -> '5 • ■) ■> J 3 ^ 3 3 ' 3 3-3 333 3 G. P. FUTNAJVI :VSONS NEW iORK ; ' / ; '>', / ' \ '/'. LONDON ,?,7 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STI^AND ^ , ' ^ 5 T J J ;€1K ivuckcrbnck^r 1894 Prci,3 Hn Copyright, 1894, by G. P. Putnam's Sons > O- /n t^ n O" ^-— r"V\ r. f , A^ A Ye- c~> h, h ^ i^rY < t I (. c c c A. TO JOHN JAMES WHITE OF McCOMB CITY, MISSISSIPPI THIS BOOK OF BENEFICENT INTENT IS INSCRIBED AS AN EXPRESSION OF SINCERE FRIENDSHIP BY THE AUTHOR 1/ o o ^1 PREFACE My purpose in writing this book is found in the book itself. Some seventeen years ago the gover- nor of a Southern State asked the author " what the sentiment of the people in his part of the State was concerning the lien laws." After inquiry of quite a number of furnishing merchants, the fact was revealed that all these merchants except one were opposed to the repeal of these laws. This inquiry led to investigation not only of the business system, but of related subjects. The result of this inquiry is now given to the public. The book was written in no hostile spirit to any class of men. Its generous intent will disarm criti- cism. A condition of affairs exists that can not con- tinue without serious hurt to all the people. Gen- eral prosperity there is none. To call attention to the causes that underlie this condition, is the aim of the book. I am indebted for valuable information concern- ing the education of the colored people in the States of Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas, to Hon. S. D. Bradwell, John C. Scarbor- ough, W. N. Sheats, J. H. Shinn, and J. M. Carlisle, Superintendents of Public Instruction in these States; also to Hon. W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, for the latest educational statistics. V vi Preface, My acknowledgments are due Governors J. S. Hogg of Texas, Thos. G. Jones of Alabama, Mur- phy J. Foster of Louisiana, Henry L. Mitchell of Florida, J. M. Stone of Mississippi, and Hon. L. A. Whatley, Superintendent of Penitentiaries in Texas, and Hon. L. B. Wombwell, Commissioner of Agriculture in Florida, for crime statistics in their respective States. I desire, also, to acknowledge my obligations to Judge J. B. Chrisman and Judge Wm. P. Cassedy, both of Mississippi, for reading portions of the manuscript. C H. O. Summit, Miss., March, 1894. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Condition of the South in 1865 ... i Widespread desolation — Disadvantages — The new rela- tion of former slaves — Whims and ignorance — Use of freedom — Attitude of the Southern people to the old relation — Encouragement — The negroes' fears easily ex- cited — Consequences — The spell broken — Poverty of the South — Shylocks — Debts and distress — The credit system introduced. CHAPTER II. The Credit System 12 Usefulness of credit — Basal elements — Wealth and capital — Value and production — Features of the credit system — Opinion of Samuel Smiles — The debtor bound — Ignorance — Carelessness — Infidelity and dishonesty — First step to bankruptcy — A bad crop year — Lost all in ten years — The covenant — Merchant Harlem's view of bad debts — General effects — Millwell — Gains on a cash basis — Remedy — A prosperous cash merchant — No general prosperity — Invest- ments — No hostility — A serious condition. CHAPTER III. The Lien Law Machine 33 Slow progress — Worth makes the man — Deeds of trust — Their intent — Effect on labor — Merchants became large landowners — Their grip on tenant labor — Resident farmers without labor — Decoy ducks — A big screw loose — Bitter vii viii Contents, memories — Patrick and Black John — Depredations — Cause of violence — Credit system and cash — Lien laws, the back- bone of the system — " Prettiest business in the world" — Five hundred men tied up — "Eight hundred do my bid- ding" — Honesty relegated to an inferior position — The galling yoke — Unscrupulous transactions — Lien laws have not benefited the negro nor the white people — Lien laws have placed a discount on all services — Strike the laws from the statutes — A large class has the experience, a small class the gold, as the fruit of these laws. CHAPTER IV. Cotton Production 54 *' We never do " — Our business system — Henry W. Grady — Comments by the New Orleans Picayime — Debts and cotton production — " His line of credit" — The chances — Hon. B. H. Hill — Wade Sherman's experience— Canons of commerce perverted — The difference — More cotton — From Maryland, through Texas — "Superb estates" — A million bales in excess — Corn acreage, short — Live at home. CHAPTER V. Testimony 65 Farmer Haygood and Merchant Caperton — Credit, cash, and discount — Who pay the bad debts ? — Ninety million bales could have been saved — Samuel Drew — Alexandre Dumas — Farmers handicapped — Does not know — Need of sympathy — Fifty to one hundred and twenty-five per cent. — Credit, the money-making business — High prices — Testi- mony in Alabama — Senator Irby — The true cancer — Ray- mond Gazette of Mississippi — The Selma Times of Ala- bama — Louisiana — Mississippi — Tennessee — Arkansas — Texas — Five million dollars lost per annum — Elements of high prices. Contents. ix CHAPTER VI. PAGE Testimony continued 8i The first step — What Alabama reports — Florida — Georgia — South Carolina — Over thirty thousand liens in eleven counties — North Carolina — The situation unchanged in' 1893 — Groping in the dark — Local disturbances — The Clarion Ledger of Mississippi on the lien laws — A practi- cal example — Cost to record liens — Gains on cash basis at various rates — Gains on cash basis to ten men — Gains on cash basis to 2,005 nien on 10,000 bales of cotton for twenty years — Not a local condition — Joseph Baxendale. CHAPTER Vn. Agricultural Products 97 Arrearage in food crop — Cereals in i860 — Cereals in 1889 — After twenty-nine years, seven States had less grain than in i860— Cotton absorbed — The lesson of Table III. — Increase of the acreage and population — Increase of white and black — Persons engaged in agriculture in ten States — Cause of deficiency in grain — Shortsighted political econo- mists — The labor cause — Laborers on farms classified — Value of negro labor in Table VI TI. — Deterioration — What they do not raise — Productions of Hayti — "The people make the country " — Productions in Jamaica — The situa- tion in the English West Indies — The proof from three lands — Value of Southern farms — Value of ten Northern States — The experience from 1870 to 1879. CHAPTER VIII. The Farm Leaks 121 Little things — Value of method — The live stock cause — Deficiency — Livestock in i860 and in 1890 — Balance sheet of losses — Statement of a Mississippi merchant — A long step toward independence — Food products of i860, 1870, Contents, PAGE 1880, 1890, and 1892 — Fertilizers and fences — Fruit of twenty-seven commercial crops — Thirty years' experience — The dawn of a better day. CHAPTER IX. Our Broad Acres 134 Our vast domain — The ten States — Comparisons — Farm land — Ownership — European and railroad ownership- Americans — Locality of alien lands — Railroad land and the German Empire compared — Land owned by syndicates in the South — The land movement — Size of farms in iS6o and in iS8o — Number cultivated by owners — Cultivated on the rental plan — Cultivated on the share plan — Total of these, per Table VI. — Tenure of farms — Difference in twenty years — Large plantations on the increase — Owner- ship in i860 and in i88o — Who own these farms? — Shy- lock's plan — Effect of our business methods on the land question — The statement by the St. Louis Republican — England's farm tenantry, by Senator D. W. Voorhees — The patent and passport of the Anglo-Saxon race — Salaries of England's clergy — England's landlords — Opinion by Ruskin — Peril to the American estate — Opinion by the World — Galveston News — The Panhandle of Texas — Land corporations and Governor Hogg of Texas. CHAPTER X. The Perversions in Business 165 Business, an honorable term — Moral distinctions defaced — The science of exchange — The service of the merchant class — American farmers — Bad men — Crookedness in busi- ness — The situation of the South, an invitation — The gall- ing yoke — Ruin and riches — Might is right — Honest Mr. Hacker — The epitaph — Another pernicious doctrine — The retaliatory idea — Unscrupulous failures in business — Honest failures — Perjury — The Cretians — The Piengalee — A catalogue of lies — Negative goodness — The lack of indi- Contents. xi PAGE vidual responsibility— Public opinion — Its power — The value of prudence — The demand of duty — Dr. J. G. Hol- land — The true man — William Temple — Value of moral forces — Sentiments of a Southern statesman — The nation's wealth — Fairness — M illionaire condition — Causes. CHAPTER XI. Towns — Their Influence 187 Object of towns — Chief employment — The boast — Town- ships that lost population — Effect on towns — Indifference — What can be done ? — Six square miles — The town's workshop — Education — High-sounding names — Too much and too little — Effects— High schools — Confusion — The counterfeit and the true — Moral influence of towns — Value of the influential class — The subordination of moral con- siderations to business — Responsibility of prominent men — No life isolated — The town a political centre — The gov- ernment of a dozen. CHAPTER XII. The Progress of the Negroes 201 Their passive nature — W^hat have they done for them- selves ? — Kinds of negroes — Classes on American soil — Pure and mixed — Kind in each section — Movement — Lead- ers — Progress — Racial qualities — Rev. Dr. E. T. Winkler — Negroes in the West Indies — The South's endeavor to educate compared — Organized benevolence — State contri- butions—Crime — In six Northern States — In six Southern States — The difference between white and black — Increase of crime — Burden in the South — Mr. Everett's statement in 1833 — The Legislature of Connecticut in 1834 — Ver- mont — Resolution by the Legislature of Ohio in 1835 — Transformation in the South — Rev. Dr. MacVicar — Ala- bama — Mississippi — Pike County — Idleness and vices — Court expense — Effect of education — Fruitage of churches and schools — Relation of the whites to the blacks. xii Contents, CHAPTER XIII. PAGE The Negroes as Farm Laborers 236 Result of the incentives to work — Degrees in the work of the old and new generation — Condition now and then — Not self-sustaining — Non-productive classes — Workers — Prospect of the educated Hamite — A pauper race — White labor increasing — Difference between white and black labor — Without supervision, black labor is a failure — Cotton production by white labor, and the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1876 — The Centujy Magazine — Gain of white labor per annum — Mr, Edward Atkinson — " The old nonsense " in reference to white labor — Attention to the race question demanded. CHAPTER XIV. Negro Colonization 248 The historic record — The common opinion — The out- look of the English West Indies— Judgment of United States Senator Hammond in 1845 — Thomas Jefferson — Senator J. J. Ingalls — Mr. Lincoln — The even chance to the negroes, North and South — The veto of history — Hemmed in by a Chinese wall — The path of safety — Opin- ions of prominent colored men — Colonization ends the strife — Dr. M. R. Delany, a negro of pure blood — The colored Cleveland Convention in 1854 — The Great Congo Basin of Africa — A feasible deportation plan — Advantages — Deal justly with the black man. THE ILLS OF THE SOUTH. CHAPTER I. THE CONDITION OF THE SOUTH IN 1 865. The Past but lives in words ; a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts and kept the pale embodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips. — Bulwer. WIDESPREAD desolation reigned in every portion of the South in 1865. The war of the States was ended. The South had staked all — lives and fortunes — upon a principle, and lost. The four years' struggle, with its hopes and its fears, was behind them ; defeat, with all its vast significance, was before them. The Southern soldiers returned to their homes. It is not too much to say, that a large majority of the soldiers of the Confederate armies had homes. But these homes of comfort and plenty in 1861 were not those to which they returned after the surrender. A great change had swept over them. Four years' ruthless war had left indelible marks. Time with its ravages, the mismanagement of farms and plantations left largely in charge of the negroes, the vandalism of armies in the destruction of property, had made hideous alterations in the condition of the country. Dilapi- The Ills of the South. dated dwellings, fences out of repair and in many instances burned, sugar-houses and gin-houses dam- aged or in ruins, were seen everywhere. Farms once producing profitable crops were now grown up in broom-sage. The chimneys of hundreds of comfort- able dwellings furnished the only evidence that these places were once the abodes of human habitation. Cattle and live-stock of every description were largely diminished. Everywhere devastation met the eye. The Southern farmers commenced life anew under many and disheartening disadvantages. Not a few were well advanced in years, and had large families. There was mourning throughout the Southland. Many husbands, fathers, and sons slept on distant battlefields, never to return. Thousands of widows were left penniless. The gloom was appalling, and the people were poor. Those that had something left were ill-prepared to help their poorer neighbors. Hundreds returned maimed in body. There was nothing to relieve these scenes of ruin, save the brave, resolute determination to commence the hard struggle for existence. Their former slaves were freedmen. Four million negroes were not only free, but were invested with civil rights. What a novel condition ! What a tremendous experiment ! Nearly a million negro families commenced the business of housekeeping without a dollar in their possession. Their masters were poor. The negro was ignorant ; he could neither read nor write. In all knowledge pertain- ing to the management of business, or relating to political matters, he was a child. He was made the The Cofidition of the South in iS6^. 3 • victim of cruel impositions on the part of designing men. His truest friends found it impossible to reason with him. He was shy of his old master. The stranger who made him large promises and fulfilled none, had influence with him. The dis- honest man, playing upon the negro's ignorance, could secure his work for one-fifth of the crop made. The old master's of¥er of one-third was rejected. This ignorance of the negro complicated matters seriously. The immediate effect was, that the farmer who had worked twenty-five hands, com- menced his year's work with five or ten croppers, and they inferior laborers, while men who had never owned a slave had twenty. Negro labor was a gam- bling commodity. In a majority of these latter cases nothing was made, and in a few years these men, who expected to work freedmen as they had seen them work when slaves, found themselves hopelessly involved in debt. The negro was eman- cipated from servitude and from wholesome re- straints. He enjoyed his newborn freedom in full measure. Saturday was a holiday. To visit the towns on this day was paradise on earth. His whims were marvelous. To attend a negro funeral, ten miles distant, was a duty; to help the sick man in distress was another matter. Political meetings had a peculiar fascination for him. Carpet- baggers arranged these gatherings during the recon- struction period. The time for such meetings was usually at night, when the political ofiice seeker, generally a stranger to the Southern people, made preposterous promises to his dusky hearers. The The Ills of the South, division of the white folks* property was a charming theme. " Forty acres and a mule " v/as not a myth, but a genuine promise made by a genuine impostor. A solid negro vote for such a friend was as certain as the negro's credulity in the delusion. It widened the gulf between the negro and his former master. He became thoroughly estranged from his old master. Neither kindness nor reason could control him. Suspicion misconstrued the fairest acts and the most disinterested motives of his friends. Behind these motives the negro saw some fell purpose to re-enslave him. A hint to this effect from his political boss was sufificient to awaken his worst fears. His alarm took fire. The dreadful intimation of such a possibility — a return to slavery — spread like wildfire. In twenty-four hours the horrible news was conveyed from cabin to cabin, and whispered with bated breath. On election day he came to vote, not as an individual, but in companies of fifty, one hundred, two hundred strong, provided with tickets ; and without breaking ranks, each man waited with patience for the time to deposit a vote for his friend. Such was the travesty for years on the high privilege of an American citizen. The despot- ism of fear, secretly and artfully fanned by this class of adventurers, was stronger than the purest en- deavors of honest men to serve the credulous freed- men. Attendance on religious meetings, protracted for a week at a time, was a species of mania with the negro. The large crowd, the exciting harangue of the preacher, the singing of several hundred voices, The Condition of the South in iS6^. 5 the shouts of the most impressible natures, made these gatherings irresistible in their attractions. The wild, weird scene captivated his fancy. He felt good. His feelings were deeply stirred. Here he was conscious, too, of freedom. He could stay till midnight, and this was a common occurrence. No authority could command: "It is time to ^o home." If husband and wife and children trudged through rain and mud, and reached home by two o'clock in the morning, it was all right. Wasn't Dick a freedman? Wasn't his family free? Free- dom made him a fool during these early years after the war. What else could be expected? The negro could not appreciate its meaning. To him it was license. It meant to do as he pleased. He could rise no higher in his conception. If he stretched his freedom to the robbing of a hen-roost, the kill- ing of a shote or a yearling that did not belong to him, he felt no shame ; he knew no compunction of conscience. If, after a sleepless night, he went sulk- ily to work, and did his work generally wrong, and then in a fit of passion knocked his employer's mule in the head, and that employer asserted his authority in the use of the cane argument across Dick's back, promptly the case was reported to the carpet-bag sheriff. The sheriff was the boss of the county— the friend of the negro. A fine of ten dollars by the justice of the peace, the loss of a hundred and fifty dollar mule, and the decamping of Dick and his family, made up the finale of the protracted meet- ing or of the nocturnal political gathering. Such was the earliest fruit of freedom. That amid these The Ills of the South, perplexities, forced to deal with the negro incapable of understanding his own interest, the white people should occasionally resort to extreme measures, was but the natural outgrowth of this relationship. Let it be stated here that the Southern people are a unit in their cheerful approval of the accom- plished fact — the freedom of the negro. Negro slavery is dead forever. The Christian people of the South offered every encouragement to the negroes for regular religious worship. They counseled them, and in every way cultivated friendly relations. When they desired men of their own color as preachers, and houses of worship of their own, the white people aided them. That these gatherings soon after the war were often abused, and the hours of service extended to un- reasonable length, are well-known facts. The negro was excited by every bauble. This racial quality made him the dupe of the political adventurer ; the victim of every unscrupulous man who wished to use him. He was easily affected by his hopes and fears. Any absurd story to re-enslave him placed him at the disposal of his informer, to do his bidding. Fearful where there was nothing to fear, unable to detect the imposition, spurning the advice of Southern men, the situation during the first ten years after the war was full of turmoil. The negroes, destitute of the rudiments of political knowledge, controlled the affairs of the Southern States. Ignorance governed intelligence. Black and tan legislatures imposed heavy burdens upon the people. Taxes were high. A summons to the The Co7tdztion of the South 771 186^. 7 negroes to attend a political club, at night or in the day, must be obeyed. Protestations were vain. No matter how urgent the work was on the farm, even if the cotton and corn were in the grass, their presence at the club was imperative. During an approaching election, to lose two days in a week at political meetings, besides Saturday, no matter how much the growing crop suffered, did not concern the negroes. To meet a crowd of tv/o or three hundred negroes, all mounted on mules and horses the property of their employers, was not an uncom- mon sight. Such crowds, led by a single white man, were often met riding through the country. These negroes were in many instances instructed to oppose the white people— their old masters— by men who had no interest in the welfare of the country. They used the negroes for their own selfish pur- poses, burdened the country with heavy taxes, played upon the groundless fears of this ignorant people, and each year sunk the farming community deeper in debt. As long as the negroes could be influenced by the great bugbear re-enslavement, they voted solidly for this class of men.. They believed the adventurer omnipotent to save^them. But this state of affairs could not continue. The condition of the Southern States was desperate. A crisis was approaching. The South could not then, can not now, be made a Hayti. Ten years' woe-begone experience of iniquitous misrule had tested the patience of the Southern people to the utmost. The hour of deliverance must come. The white people determined to rid the land of these The Ills of the South, bad men. The majority of these men had one ambition — to fatten upon the country. They cared nothing for the negro, and in the welfare of the people they had neither part nor lot. The inex- orable law of self-preservation demanded their expul- sion. Necessity urged it every day. They were nearly to a man, with some noble exceptions, fire- brands to society, haters of social order, and their misrule was augmenting the debts of the farmer every year. With this riddance, the negro's bug- bear of re-enslavement soon died the death. He was disenchanted. The illusion which bound him so long, vanished. Since then, thousands have entered the Democratic fold, and a vast number care noth- ing for politics. They have discovered that " forty acres and a mule " is a hoax. Another discovery has been made, that the Anglo-Saxon race must rule this country. The superioV race must domi- nate. All the high interests of the South demand it. Such domination is mercy to the negro in his present condition. The affairs of government can- not be intrusted with any degree of safety into the hands of an ignorant and inferior race. It can not be done in the South. It is not done in the North. To do so, means anarchy and ruin to the negro. It should be observed that the situation of the Southern States, here described, was the retrograde and ruinous movement of the country, immediately after the close of hostilities. That condition in 1865 was unique. In all these Southern States there was not an inland village or town containing a single store that could furnish a barrel of flour The Condition of the Sotcth in i86^. 9 or sugar, a sack of coffee or salt, a pair of shoes or boots, a yard of calico or a yard of domestic, a hat, a cap, or a suit of clothes. Not a knife, a spade, a garden rake, a hoe, or a plow could be found. The destitution of every needful domestic article was general, and the people were in need of everything. But if the stores had been full of every variety of merchandise to supply every want, the people had no money. Confederate money was plentiful, but current money there was none. Here and there a little gold may have been found. The great body of the people had no money. Neither had a large percentage of the people anything with which to procure money. Those who had cotton sold it at a high price, and were able to provide their home wants. Speculators in cotton who were able to remain at home during the war on account of their age, or the ability to secure substitutes, fared well. This class of men, who in 1861 were worth nothing, or at best a few thousand dollars, were in 1866 rich. A hundred bales of cotton repre- sented forty thousand dollars. Men who were poor at the beginning of the struggle, were wealthy at its termination, representing fifty, a hundred, and two hundred thousand dollars in cash. They became the money lenders of the country. Some few were moderate and reasonable in their terms in aiding their unfortunate neighbors. Others were hard and exacting — veritable Shylocks. Their oppor- tunity had come, and they proposed to use it in full measure. It was the feast day for moneyed tyranny. The situation was deplorable to the poor lo The Ills of the South. and the unfortunate. The times were out of joint. Add to these troubles the fact that quite a number of men whose solvency was unquestioned in 1861, had old debts to pay, and they had noth- ing with which to pay them. Some of these claims were security debts ; others were for negroes bought when the war commenced. Hard, relentless cred- itors demanded payment with an urgency and a teasing persistency that drove the debtor to borrow money at exorbitant rates, and secured the same by a mortgage on his land. The foreclosure of such mortgage was in many instances a foreseen fact. A place worth ten thousand dollars was sold for half, and even one-fourth, of that sum. Hundreds of families that had never known what poverty meant, and unaccustomed to its pinching and hu- miliating distress, were homeless and beggars in the land of their birth. Many families nurtured in all the elegant refinements of life, were reduced to the hard necessity of doing the drudgery which a few short years ago was the work of slaves. The distress was bitter and keen. Others shifted their debts from one creditor to another, and, after years of hard toil, paid the principal and twice and three times that sum in interest. What a hard struggle it was! The milk of charity — the humane feelings — had soured in many a bosom. This condition of affairs in the South introduced a vast credit system whose tremendous evils and exorbitant exactions have brought poverty and bankruptcy to thousands of families. As a policy. The Condition of the South in i86^. 1 1 it is vindictive in its subtile sophistry ; as a system, it has crushed out all independence and reduced its victims to a coarse species of servile slavery ; as a relief measure, it is cruel in its deception and in its demands. It is proposed, in these pages, to portray the evils not of credit, but of the credit system, with such other concomitant evils as menace many vital inter- ests of the Southern people. A crisis is approach- ing. The future is dark with storm-clouds. CHAPTER II. THE CREDIT SYSTEM. " Of what a hideous progeny is debt the father ! What lies, what meanness, what invasions on self-respect, what cares, what double dealing ! How, in due season, it will carve the frank, open face into wrinkles! How, like a knife, it will stab the honest heart " — D. Jerrold. /'CREDIT is useful in an eminent degree. The ^-^ business system prevailing with such hurtful and dangerous tendencies in the Southern States, is enslaving the people, and, by its insidious operations, concentrating productive wealth in the hands of the few. It reduces a large body of people to a state of beggary, fosters a discontented spirit, checks con- sumption, produces recklessness on the part of the consumer, places a discount on honesty, and con- verts commerce into a vast pawning shop where farmers pledge their lands for hominy and bacon upon ruinous terms in harmony with the pawning system. The doctrine of credit is, that it is confidence in the integrity and truthfulness of our fellow-men. These qualities form a strong basis of trust. Where they exist, doubt as to the fulfillment of a promise loses its sickly hue. Ability to perform the promise made is the foundation upon which confidence must The Credit System, 13 rest. These three basal elements — ability, integrity, and truthfulness— ^x^ the strong ribs of genuine credit. When they are impaired by whatever circum- stances, misfortunes and providential dispensations excepted, confidence is damaged. Where these qualities exist, trust is their normal outgrowth. It is natural to trust when all the conditions upon which it depends are favorable. Trust in our fellow- men must be measured by the essential elements that give it birth. The basis of confidence is wealth, and wealth is composed of all those objects which can be used and exchanged for other useful things. Food, clothing, houses, land, and whatever object can gratify human desire and that can be appropriated, constitute wealth. Money in itself is not wealth. It has nothing to gratify human desires. It can satisfy no human want. The money of the civilized world could not have kept Robinson Crusoe from starvation. The silver of Peru, had it been coined into money, could not procure for Pizarro a pound of bread or a pound of iron. Money measures wealth; this is its function. Neither does wealth consist in mortgages, bonds, and stocks. They are mere title-deeds to wealth. A mortgage upon a farm divides the ownership. These commercial instruments are the mere symbols of genuine wealth. A five-thousand-dollar United States bond is a lien on the wealth of the whole country. Should production cease, the bond would be worth less than the paper upon which it is written. None of these 14 The Ills of the South. things can in themselves gratify human desires, and unless there is wealth, which they are supposed to symbolize, they can not be exchanged. Neither is all wealth capital ; but all capital is wealth. So much of wealth as is used in production is capital. Five hundred dollars invested in machin- ery to be used is capital. It is employed to produce wealth. If the five hundred dollars is locked up, the wealth it represents is idle. It produces nothing, serves no good purpose to mankind in procuring objects of desire or comfort. Production creates value ; it develops wealth. It multiplies those various objects that minister to human wants and enjoyment. The farmer, by whose exertion a crop of cotton, corn, or wheat is created, under the laws of God is a wealth producer. The tree of the forest, transformed into lumber, has value conferred upon it by human industry. The lumber is useful and desirable for many purposes. The same is true of iron changed into horseshoes. All industries that confer value upon the material provided by the bounty of God are wealth pro- ducers. Some of these industries confer value by direct methods ; others by indirect. The ax, the hatchet, the saw, the spade, the plow, are all instru- ments of value; but other persons than those that made them must use them in the production of those things that shall minister to our desires. Wealth developed by production is the foundation of confidence. Such a foundation is necessary to commerce — necessary in the manifold forms of ex- change. The employer trusts the truthfulness and The Credit System. 15 integrity of the employee to do the work proposed. The merchant reposes confidence in those with whom he has business relations. In all the various forms of trade, occupations, and industries, this confidence is a very important factor. Without it, human industries would halt; exchanges would be burdened with needless work. In commerce this element performs a larger and more useful function than money itself. Why should A of New Orleans send a thousand dollars to B of New York, when C of New York owes this sum to A of New Orleans? A's draft on C in favor of B will adjust the claim. Destroy the basis of this confidence, and this method of settlement is at an end. All healthy credit must be sustained by ability, integrity, and truthfulness. The features of the credit system in vogue in the Southern States during the last twenty-five years, differ widely from those of credit. It oper- ates upon a different basis. The credit mode of doing business and the plan of the credit system are far apart. While credit is helpful, stimulating in the development of wealth, the credit system is depressing, discouraging — destroying hope. The one is rational, an aid to progress ; the other is irrational, and clogs the forward movement of the people. (i) This system is responsible for an indefinite- ness as it respects the debtor, which amounts to tyranny. When A borrows a hundred dollars from B, he knows definitely the rate of interest he has agreed to pay B. The rate of interest is determined 1 6 The Ills of the South, before the money is taken. By this method there is no such understanding. All the satisfaction the debtor can get is, he must pay certain prices. If the merchant has agreed to furnish him, it is suffi- cient for the farmer to know that he must pay these prices. Whether the prices are moderate, reason- able, unreasonable, exorbitant, or ruinous, does not concern the purchaser. It is a financial transaction which is as clear as the noonday sun to one party, the creditor, and as dark as a starless night to the other party, the debtor. Would that this statement were fiction instead of a hard, ugly fact! The pur- chaser is enveloped in mists. He travels in the dark twelve months in the year. He does not know whether he pays forty or a hundred per cent, profit. This is a secret not to be divulged. Human nature is weak. The power is all on one side, and the necessity for supplies, real or imaginary, on the other. The history of nineteen centuries has cer- tainly taught the world one impressive lesson, that power, wherever found, has seldom been sparing in its exercise. It is not in the nature of power, gen- erally speaking, to be merciful. It has not a tender heart. The milk of human charity comes not from this source. The power of this system is a subtle, expensive, crushing machinery. " Regard for * Number One,' " says Samuel Smiles, *' is the prevailing maxim. High profits are regarded as the summiini bomim — no matter how obtained, or at what sacrifice. Money is our god ; ' Devil take the hindmost,' our motto. The spirits of darkness rule supreme." The Credit System. 17 " Mammon has led them on. Mammon, the least erect of all the spirits That fell from heaven." (2) The debtor is bound to the creditor when once he has commenced to make a purchase. If he has incurred a debt with one merchant, he can not readily get credit from another merchant. The reason is obvious. The risk under the system is great. No merchant cares to take a customer who is already in debt to another. If there is a mort- gage the transfer is attended with difficulties. The purchaser, as a rule, has no option. He is tied up under this peculiar plan. He may be dissatisfied with his merchant, whose prices may seem exorbi- tant ; he may have found a merchant whose terms are fairer, but if he is in debt, he is in no condition to make the change. The debt chains the farmer to the firm with whom he is trading. He can not buy where it suits him. The price asked is the only chance to get what he wants, even if that price amounts to confiscation. Blindly he must buy, if he buys at all. " Competition " is a word not found in the debtor's dictionary. " What power in civil- ized society," says Macaulay, *' is so great as that of the creditor over the debtor? " (3) Those who buy supplies under this system can not tell how much they have bought during the year until the cotton crop is delivered. It is believed to be true of 75 per cent. The only check to the mak- ing of purchases is upon the class of poor farmers whose property is small, and whose crop consists in a half-dozen bales of cotton. The limit is fixed at 1 8 The Ills of the Soicth, $50, $75, or $100. When merchandise to the amount agreed upon has been bought, a halt to further advances is called. The merchant may not be blamed for refusing to extend the credit beyond the value of the expectant crop. No such limit is fixed for the man whose real estate is large, and whose personal property in the form of horses, mules, and cattle is ample. If the purchaser has a family of somewhat expensive tendencies, the ac- count at the end of the year will generally be larger than he expected. Upon what did the good, easy, careless man base his expectation? He kept no account of his purchases. In a vast number of cases, the bill, as it is commonly known, is called for in November and December of the year. The wail of merchants in January is generally, *' We have large balances to carry over for next year." The size of the crop, the price of cotton, and the purchases made, determine the size and the number of balances. Few are the years that from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the farmers who thus bought supplies did not come out in debt to their mer- chants at the close of the year. These facts are gathered from conversations with many merchants and a large number of farmers. A slight improve- ment one year is reversed by an unfavorable crop year the next. The indefinite plan of purchasing, and ignorance of the amount bought until the cot- ton has been sold, is a fruitful source of disaster to the country. " Fifty per cent, of the people," said a prominent merchant in 1891, " in my section are in debt, and from 25 to 35 per cent, are not in an The Credit System, 19 easy condition." This incubus still tyrannizes the people. This method is ruinous to any people. It is called business in the sense of trade and trans- actions. It is all certainty and definiteness so far as the items bought, and the footing up of the mer- chant's ledger are concerned, and it is all uncertainty and indefiniteness so far as the farmer is concerned. (4) The mode of doing business is the wicked foster-mother of much carelessness, and carelessness is not the basis of prosperity. It may be business to some people, but it has a greedy heart. " I haven't had a settlement," said a farmer of ordinary intelligence, "in six years." "Do you ask your merchant to make out your account at the end of the year?" "No! I sometimes ask him how we stand ; and when he says, ' You are all right,' I'm satisfied. I have done business with him for twenty years, and have never asked him for a bill." Confi- dence is on the rack! "Are there many in your neighborhood who never call for an account ? " "A right smart of them. The niggers never ask for a bill, and don't get it if they ask for it." Granting that all merchants arc honest, the poor, ignorant negro, as well as the careless white farmer, in the absence of a written statement, has no opportunity to examine his year's transactions for himself. That honest merchant may be an infidel as respects the Bible, but his faith in keeping accounts is extraor- dinary ; there is no flaw in this confidence. The amount of blind trusting he demands of these care- less, ignorant people, is immense. Infidelity here would impose a good deal of labor. Such manage- 20 The Ills of the South, ment bodes no good to the country. Not one merchant in ten thousand would be willing to do business with other merchants in this way. Dishon- esty has the power to cheat and defraud in prices, in weights, and in measures, under such circumstances, with impunity. That the spirit of discontent should show itself, and the cry of " hard times " should be heard, ought not to surprise any one. ''There is no money in farming," says the planter. Certainly not, under such wild management. There is a big screw loose here, no matter how honest all parties may be. It is time to examine foundations. Silent and im- perceptible are the causes that undermine the pros- perity of a country. A magazine of explosives lies hid beneath this highly favored mode of business. (5) When all the cotton made during the year has been delivered and sold, and the farmer comes out in debt on the 31st of December, that farmer has taken the first step toward bankruptcy. If he is a small farmer, $25, $50, or $75 is a heavy burden to carry. Take these cases : Hezekiah Drawbridge owes $25 at the close of the year; his credit limit was $75. Stephen Goff owes $50 ; his credit limit was $150. Buff Tafton owes $75 ; his credit limit was $250. The year during which these debts were made was fairly good, the purchases were moderate, there was no sickness in these families. The follow- ing year similar credit arrangements are made, and they purchase the full amount agreed upon between them and their merchants. From some unaccount- able or accountable cause, the cotton crop is a little worse, or the price of cotton is a little less. The The Credit System. 21 winding up of the second year's farm operations finds Drawbridge, Goff, and Tafton with the following debts confronting them, respectively: $65, $115, $155. The outlook is blue for these farmers, and they feel blue. Thus, or nearly thus, this system operates in thousands of cases. Each year the plunge into debt is deeper; each year the burden is heavier. The struggle is woe-begone. Cares are many, smiles are few, and the comforts of life are scantier. This is the bitter fruit of a method of doing business which comes to the farmer in the guise of friendship, but rules him with despotic power. To a large class of men, the inscription printed in large, bold characters over the door of the credit system is : '' The man who enters here leaves hope behind," and it tells a sad and sorrow- ful history. Anxious days, sleepless nights, deep wrinkles, gray hairs, wan faces, cheerless old age, and perhaps abject poverty make up, in part, the melancholy story. The bitter reflection about the whole matter is, that, as a general rule, there was no substantial cause for this result. (6) " A bad crop year, Mr. Tafton." " Mighty bad, mighty bad," replies Mr. Goff. ^* We are ruined. I reckon our merchants won't furnish us another year unless we give a mortgage on our land. I used to think that I would see any man in Halifax before I'd do that. It's come to that now, or starvation." The end of these men as freeholders is near at hand. Drawbridge, Goff, and Tafton, and their companions in misery, wear sad and long faces. On some dreary, cold day in December, when nothing can well be 22 The Ills of the South, done on the farm, these men ride to town, each to execute that hard instrument called a mortgage, which in so many cases means ruin to themselves and their families. These ugly handcuffs are on, and they are hard to get off. This business method has peculiar attractions for these iron tools that chafe the flesh, but more the spirit. Independence! It is gone. Humiliation and dependence bow the head of the proud spirit. It is a rugged, thorny path these men must travel. A little earnest self- denial faithfully practiced for a few years, would have assured them ease, comfort, and competence. (7) Thus it is that not a few farmers in the South who held a fee-simple title to their property, lost all in ten years. They worshipped Moloch. Their adora- tion destroyed their independence, their self-respect, their lands, and their chattels. There are men who made an average of fifteen to twenty-five bales of cotton a year, owned from five to ten head of mules, and from five hundred to one thousand acres of land, with comfortable residences and all necessary out- houses, who found themselves homeless and poor at the end of ten years. There is a cause. It sleeps within the womb of this business arrangement. There must be an enormous abuse lurking some- where in these operations; it involves well-meaning and innocent men who keep no accounts, and, as a rule, apply no business principles to their farfn work or their expenses, in hopeless poverty. Neither the merchants alone, as a class, nor the farmers alone, as a class, are to blame for this state of things ; but the commercial contract, under whose articles they The Credit System, 23 formed a joint copartnership to do business, deserves full and signal justice. It is a covenant to which the parties of the first part are thoroughly organized, thoroughly systematic in keeping accounts, thor- oughly acquainted with the cost and selling price of merchandise, and thoroughly informed as to their expenses. The parties of the second part are thor- oughly unorganized, thoroughly unsystematic, thor- oughly uninformed as to prices and as to their ability to pay them, thoroughly in the dark as to what their product will be or its price, and thoroughly in the dark as to their expense account. The parties to the covenant are unequally matched. System, ex- actness, power, and risks — risks, however, provided for by high prices, and often secured by liens— are on the one side ; general inexactness, weakness, and heavy burdens in the form of prices are on the other side. The most certain thing about the cove- nant is, that the parties of the second part must pay the parties of the first part a definite sum. The price of cotton, sugar, molasses, rice, tobacco.^ and; all other merchandise may fluctuate, but the debit, side of the ledger maintains its figures with, stub- born and relentless regularity. Hard times do. not affect them. Storms and inundations do not change them. These figures remain unscathed amid social and political convulsions. Sickness and death can. not discount them. Certainty and uncertainty have gone into copartnership as a basis for the country's prosperity. (8) The many risks incident to this business involve many bad debts. The honest man must 24 The Ills of the South, pay the debts of the dishonest man. Merchant Harlem does a $100,000 credit business per year. He has 600 customers, who make 3,000 bales of cotton. Twenty per cent, of the customers are first-class men; 150 men are in fair condition — they are somewhat in debt. A reverse in their farm work, a bad crop year, or serious sickness in their families, will bring them at once to the dead- line where hope puts on its sickly hue. The remaining 250 obtain credit under a variety of con- ditions. That there should not be some rascals in this whole number, is as probable as that a cornfield should be without weeds. These bad debts, which ultimately may be charged up to profit and loss, will range from $1,000 to $5,000 per annum. This anticipated loss is considered when the selling price of the merchandise is marked. Were there no loss, the price would be less. Risk always raises the price ,of commodities. Every honest man must help to pay \\\s pro rata of the bad man's debts. There is not a merchant in the South, selling goods on credit, whose losses from this source have not amounted to thousands of dollars. This burden must be borne by the purchaser. These are some of the ugly features of this busi- ness method. It has done much to debauch public sentiment. It has enslaved thousands of good people. It has brought about a state of depend- ence that reduces the great body of agricultural people to a condition of serfs, the name excepted. It deserves serious consideration. The situation is alarming to free men. It is no small matter that The Credit System, 25 3,000,000 farmers should be dependent upon 10,000 men. We blame not the merchant class. They have drifted into this channel, and have concluded there is no other way. Some like it, because, to them, it is a feast. This method of trading has lowered the tone of public morals. It is not a secret that perjury often walks the streets, un- whipped of justice. False swearing is common. Wealth obtained by dishonest means is respectable, and occupies a front seat on the dais — the seat of honor in the great temple of public sentiment; and that public sentiment, like a cracked bell, jangles out of tune. Robust honesty is still in the land, but it is timid and passive. It is shackled by envi- ronments. About 300 farmers are, on an average, at the mercy of one man. Year in and year out, for a quarter of a century, this submission has been endured. There is no money in the country, save during the winter months. All those who have dealings with the farming class, rendering to them valuable and necessary service, are involved in these impoverished circumstances. Enterprise is stunted. Progress is choked. Whatever is of the highest value to the country, relating to its material advancement, its intellectual and moral elevation, is depreciated and throttled by this ruinous method. A young merchant, who had amassed in five years some $8,000, expressed his interest in the country in terms quite in consonance with his belief and prac- tice. Farmer Haygood explained that he had not been able to bring more cotton to market on account of the impassable condition of the roads. Millwell, 26 The Ills of the South, the young merchant, rephed : *' I don't care a damn for the roads! I don't care a damn for the whole country, so you bring me the cotton and the coon-skins." The following table shows the property of thirteen Southern States in 1880. It will furnish food for reflection, and may throw light upon the circum- stances that have hampered the progress of the people : VALUATION OF PROPERTY IN 1880.* Virginia Wes;; Virginia . North Carolina Soutji Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Texas Arkansas Kentucky Tennessee Total . . . . REAL ESTATE. $233,601,599 105,000,306 101,709,326 77.461,670 139,983,941 18,885,151 77,374,008 79,469,530 122,362,297 205,508,924 55,760,388 265,085,908 195,644,200 $1,677,847,248 PERSONAL PROPERTY. $741853,536 34,622,399 54,390,876 56,098,465 99,488,658 12,053,158 45,493,220 31,158,599 37,800,142 114,855,591 30,648,976 85,478,063 16,134,338 $693,076,021 $308,455,135 139,622,705 156,100,202 i33v56o,i35 239,472,599 30,938,309, 122,867,228 ^10,628,129 160,162,439 320,364,515 86,409,364 350,563,971 211,778,538 $2,370,923,269 In i860 West Virginia was a part of Virginia. The valuation of property, real and personal, includ- ing slaves of these States in i860, was $5,868,209,- 219. Suppose that the annual store accounts in these States from 1865 to 1890 were equal to $300,000,000. Let this sum represent the credit price, and that sum is 25 per cent, in advance on the cash price. Compendium, Tenth Census, Part II., p. 1508. The Credit System, Let this 25 per cent, cover not only the advance on cash prices, but all needless and extravagant pur- chases and all tricky transactions. This is a mod- erate average advance on the cash basis. Had the Southern people, by economy and self- denial, brought their business to a cash basis at the close of the year 1868, they would have saved annually this 25 per cent. The people in these thirteen States would have saved in one year, 8/5. - 000,000 ; in ten years, $750,000,000 ; in twenty-five years, $1,775,000,000. This sum added to the prop- erty in 1890 would bring the valuation of all prop- erty in the thirteen States to within less than $2,000,000,000 of the status in i860. If these facts and figures do not convince the people of the pernicious and ruinous tendency of the business plan, what will? On the basis of this advance of 25 per cent, on the cash price, $500 worth of cotton pays 8400 worth of supplies bought on credit. The supplies are worth $400 cash, but, as they were bought on credit, $100 must be added to secure these supplies on credit. The prosperity of the Southern people is very largely contingent on cash transactions and com- petition in business. As late as 1893 we found these prices still ruling the market on a necessary article of consumption, flour. From February to September the average price of flour in the city of St. Louis was, for Patent, sold under three fancy names, $3.35 ; for Majestic, sold under five fancy names, $3.09 ; 28 The Ills of the South. for Extra Fancy Grade, sold under three fancy names, $3.00; for Fancy Grade, sold under three fancy names, $2.65 ; for Choice Grade, sold under three fancy names, $2.40; for Plantation Grade, sold under three fancy names, $2.30. These fancy names, such as Challenge, Capitol, and Lillian, represent the same grade of flour. Each merchant adopts the brand that suits his taste. As will be noticed, for six grades of flour there are twenty different names or brands. These quotations, a merchant assured us, were those of grocers. At the mills any grade of this flour can be bought at ten cents less, and perhaps fifteen cents less per barrel. Adding railroad freight, after deducting ten cents per barrel, to the last five grades, we have the following cost price at the point of delivery : Majestic, $3.91 ; Extra Fancy, $3.82 ; Fancy, 83-47 ; Choice, $3.22 ; Plantation, $3.12. This flour was sold on credit at $6.00 and $7.00 per barrel. We will suppose that one of the first three grades was sold at this price. In this case the profit on the Majestic was 53 per cent. ; on the Extra Fancy, 57 per cent. ; on the Fancy, 72 per cent. Others paid $7.50 as per bill seen, credit price. The average cost of Patent flour was $4.17. According to this price the profit on Patent flour was 79 per cent. If this was the price on any of the other grades, the profit on Majestic was 91 per cent. ; on the Extra Fancy, 94 per cent. ; and on the Fancy, 116. A cash merchant informed us that he had sold a grade of flour equal to the Majestic, from January The Credit System, 29 to October, for $4.50 cash on an average, at a net profit of \2\ per cent. ; and that a farmer who bought his yearly supplies on a credit had paid for flour a grade below this at $6.00 per barrel. Had he bought for cash his flour would have cost him $4.29!. He would have saved 44^ per cent. This is the difference between cash and credit prices. On 10,000 barrels of flour of this grade the farmers would save on a cash basis $17,025. It is probable that the same difference between cash and credit prices rules the market in regard to dry goods, domestics, sheeting, prints, shoes, hats, hardware, agricultural implements, ready-made cloth- ing, and all the commodities usually bought by farmers at a general supply store. A friend informed the writer that he bought floor matting at a strictly cash store for 16 cents per yard ; for the same grade of matting, the price was, in a town where credit prices prevail, in one store, 25 cents, and in another, 30 cents per yard. These were cash prices in a place where the bulk of business is transacted on a credit basis. This means that the cash price of this article in the credit town was 56:^ per cent, in one store, and 8/1 per cent in the other store, in advance of the cash price of this article in the cash town. A lady informed the writer that she bought flannel for \2\ cents per yard, and a friend of hers bought the same flannel for 35 cents per yard on credit. On this article the credit price is 180 per cent, in advance of the cash price. If each of one hundred persons buys eight yards of flannel at \2\ cents per yard, cash, the cost to the one hundred persons will The Ills of the South. be $100. If the same number of persons purchase the same number of yards of this article on a credit, the cost will be $280. The remedy for this state of things is severe economy, earnest self-denial, and a fixed determina- tion to buy for cash. Two years of self-denial and economy will enable the majority of the Southern white people to buy on a cash basis. Mr. of Mississippi, a merchant, commenced business with $500. He sold all goods at an advance of ten per cent, on the cost price, freight added. When we formed his acquaintance, and were his guest for two days, he was the owner of five stores. In 1878 he sold in one of these stores, during the months of January, February, March, and April, $20,000 for cash. This town had no factory, no special industry on a large scale, that distributed money among the people. Mr. was eminently successful as a merchant. He was a thoroughly conscientious Christian gentleman. His pastor — a gentleman widely known in the South as a Christian minister and as an author — said to us : " Mr. never advertises in the usual style in the town newspaper, but every few weeks he publishes a price list, cash, of various commodities — as much as will fill a column in the paper. His representations are true, and no clerk is permitted to deviate from these prices for that week." He prospered, and benefited the people. I asked a prominent lawyer how many first-class lawyers — men standing at the head of their profes- sion in the State — had been able to lay aside, during The Credit Syste7n. 31 twenty-five years of toil, ten thousand dollars? *' They can be easily counted," was the reply. The great majority make a moderate living. The same is true of physicians, and of professors in institutions of learning. The governor of the State, the justices of the supreme court, judges of circuit and chan- cery courts, and other officers of trust and responsi- bility, make a bare living. Ministers of the gospel, no matter what their talents or their service may be, are proverbially poorly paid. Yet all these exalted vocations in life not only demand talents of a high order and superior aptitude, but require years of expensive literary and technical education. The skilled mechanic, after serving an apprentice- ship of four years, and in some instances longer, makes a living. Be the industry what it may, be the voca- tion in life, however exalted, however responsible, however great the preparation essential to fill it worthily, outside of the charmed circle of trade the compensation rarely exceeds a modest living. Often it means a miserably pinched living. Of the farming class this is the sum : a few are out of debt, and struggle to keep their heads above water, and live fairly well, but on an economical basis ; the majority are in debt, and the prospect is, that a large number are hopelessly involved. Five thousand dollars invested in trade, even if half is borrowed money, has a far better chance to make in a few years twenty-five thousand, fifty thousand, and a hundred thousand dollars, than has five thousand dollars in preparing for any of the learned professions, or invested in a farm, to make a 32 The Ills of the South, meagre living. Survey the field of human industry in the Southern States, and the fact is everywhere patent, emphasized in every vocation and calling of life, that there is no general prosperity. In large cities there are no doubt some prosperous physicians and lawyers, and prosperous men in other callings of life. It is not so in the country at large. There should be no hostility between the mer- chant class, the farming class, and all other classes. But this business method is not only bringing bank- ruptcy to the farmers, but practically and really it is damaging the just and reasonable interest of all other classes, since, in a great agricultural commu- nity, the professions and mechanics are largely the servants of the farming class. An alarming state of affairs has impressed its die in recent months upon the attention of the country. When people are prosperous, they have neither the time nor the disposition to engage in lawlessness. Men who can not see afar off, moving in a narrow circle, toiling hard, discouraged, despondent, in debt, the farm under mortgage, ruin and poverty staring them in the face, are easily led into desperate meas- ures, and that to their own undoing. But little sun- shine streams into their lives. The situation of the country, view it as we may, is serious. CHAPTER III. THE LIEN LAW MACHINE. " Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunello." — Pope. TTHE progress of Southern farmers to secure an ordinary competency is very slow. We refer to that class who own their land, from lOO to 2,000 or 3,000 acres. These landowners, pro- vided with necessary live stock, are struggling to make a living. Capital amounting to $500 and $5,000, with personal labor added, is not remunera- tive on the farm. It pays no interest in a majority of instances. The investment itself is in danger. The product on thousands of farms has not been sufficient to pay the annual expense account. What then ? A part of the property, real or personal, or both, must make up the difference between the income of the farm and its expenses. A good crop may cancel this balance, but this is a rare occurrence. The general rule is, the balance is increased until a part of the land, or all of it, adjusts the claim. It is history to-day, that farms of every dimension, all over the South, and the live stock, with the products raised on these farms, have barely enabled the occupants to live. In other words, in many instances the farms, horses, mules, and cattle, 3 34 The Ills of the South, personal labor of the owners, and the general prod- ucts raised, were required to pay the expense bill. Ten years made these men homeless. A still larger number, whose condition is not so bad, are toiling year after year, but can not reach the point to buy supplies for cash. They are always a year behind. Every year they are contending with risks. Storms, a drought, a rainy season, a bad crop year generally, inefficient labor, low price of cotton, high prices incident to this method of doing busi- ness, extravagance in buying, are all ugly contin- gencies. Many a sorrowful experience will recognize these elements in the business problem. To secure supplies next year, security may be demanded in view of the risk to be taken. The following year, affairs on the farm may be worse still. It is certain the farming community of the South is not in a prosperous condition. What are the causes ? Is it extravagant living ? Are the prices too high? Is the cotton crop too large — the supply greater than the world's demand ? Is it the labor system ? These, and other elements, enter the problem. Some of them are generic, affecting the common condition of the people ; others are indi- vidual in their nature. Spending more than the income is not a common fault, but it has brought disaster to thousands. " I can not afford it," is easily said ; but it takes courage and wisdom to ac£ upon it. It is proposed to consider one of the general causes that have led to this impoverished condition of the Southern farmers. We believe there is no The Lien Law Machine. 35 substantial consideration why affairs should remain as they are. There is a cause which underlies the evil. If it be real, remove it. We believe, with Pope : " Worth makes the m.an, and want of it the fellow." A higher value placed on integrity, a healthier moral sentiment in reference to right- doing, and the bestowal of confidence where it is deserved, would bring us back to the natural chan- nels of trade. Cash business is, in the main, a neces- sity for the great body of the people. They can not conduct business on principles whose operations they do not understand, and which make success to secure a decent living well-nigh hopeless. Deeds of trust have largely retarded the progress of the people. In one way or another they have hindered financial prosperity. The man who thus involved himself, whether he gave a Hen on his land, his live stock, his prospective crop, or on all com- bined, was bolted to a hard condition. In not a few cases, economy in buying was not the rule. The prices paid for his supplies were high — so high that he could not afford to make the purchases. Had cash trade been the rule, many articles which he bought on credit would not have been bought on a cash basis, unless the price was far different. Both considerations, the absence of economy and the high prices generally, made the expense account of this class greater than the income. The inefficient and unmanageable negro labor, soon after the war, involved Southern farmers deeper in debt than they were involved in 1865. Lien laws were enacted in all the Southern States 36 The Ills of the South, to help this class of men, as well as the negroes. The humane intent of these laws was to furnish a basis of credit. The man who had land could give a lien on that. Those who had live stock only could get their year's supplies on this security. Those who had neither land nor live stock could rent land and a mule, and could give a lien on the prospective crop to secure the landowner, and the merchant for the goods bought. This last lien enabled the negroes to be independent of the white man's supervision. No legislator could foresee the practical opera- tions of these laws. One of the first effects was to derange negro labor. He was desirous to be to himself ; to get away from his former master ; to feel that all the old relations of a former condition were destroyed forever. This was natural. Whether it was wise in the negro to be his own manager, and act upon his own responsibility, is another question. The negroes had everything to learn, and the dis- position to learn and be directed was wanting. The truth is, the old master was the negro's best friend and safest adviser. Unfortunately, the negroes as a class were far more disposed to listen to the stranger than to the old master. Prior to the enactment of these laws, some negroes worked on the wage plan. The number that worked in this way, as far as our observations and inquiries extend, was small at any time since the war. It never met with much favor among the negroes. It involved too much regularity as to the hours of work, and too much direction on the part of the The Lien Law Machine, 37 employer as to how to do the work. It was irksome. The semblance of the old slavery regime was in this plan. The negroes thought so. The wages were graded according to general efficiency and indus- try. It was difficult to make them understand why one negro's work was worth eight dollars a month, and another's ten dollars. The employer furnished everything under this plan, and assumed all responsibility for supplies bought of the mer- chant. The share plan was a favorite with the negroes. They were their own managers. The employer furnished the land, the mule, and necessary farm tools. He was responsible to the merchant for the supplies furnished the share worker. He generally received half the cotton and corn made by the negro. The corn was in many cases less than the quantity furnished by the employer and consumed by the plow animal during the year. How did this plan work ? Generally speaking, it neither benefited the negro nor the white farmer. The reason is plain. As soon as the negro became his own manager, his industrial qualities declined in value. Besides, he generally managed affairs badly. We speak of them as a class, and not of the excep- tional good and successful negro farmers — a small number at best. The negro under this plan gave little attention to the corn crop. He raised no meat. The result of the year's work proved that his half of the cotton was not sufficient to pay the store account. The balance due the merchant was paid by the employer. The employer, already in 38 The Ills of the Soitth. debt, and unable to pay his annual store account, in time lost part or all his land. In various localities in every State, merchants came into possession of many farms. Some mer- chants had a strong hankering to become large land- owners. It exalted them in the estimation of the world to be the possessors of 50,000, 100,000, and 500,000 acres of land. By indirect means, the aim was to get possession of land. What revelations this policy has to make, is in the future. Some merchants took land because they could not help themselves. Other merchants so conducted their business that the necessity to take land was firmly resisted. Before the lien laws were enacted, and before they were used as a basis of credit, thousands of farmers in every Southern State had already largely increased their debt obligations to merchants. At that period in Southern history, had no lien laws been enacted, and had all credit business been reduced to one-tenth of what it was annually, the whole South would now be solvent and prosperous. It would have entailed some suffering, but no one would have starved. Such an economic policy would have been of untold value to the negroes. Under the operations of this system of business and these laws, merchants in various localities became large landowners. It was quite natural that they should desire to utilize these lands. What they did, other men similarly situated would have done. These merchants became competitors with the farmer. Each desired to make the industry The Lien Law Machine, a success. There can be no question that the merchant, or any other class of men, had just as much right to own land and to cultivate that land, and to employ negro labor or white labor, as the farmer. On general principles it was a mistake. Wherever this was done, bitter rivalry between the resident farmer and the merchant Jarmer of the town ensued. All things in love and war are fair, is a falsehood. Modes of procedure may be legally right, yet they are not always expedient. They may, in this instance, damage the common interest of the seller and the buyer. The practical working of this new plan may be profitably illustrated. Mr. A., a merchant, owns one hundred farms. He proposes to cultivate these places on the share or rent plan. In no case, under these circumstances, does he employ hands for wages. The risk is too great, and supervision is impossible. In some instances land is sold, mostly to negroes ; here and there to white men. He does a furnishing business. He provides them with plow stock and farming implements, if necessary; also with bread and meat and clothing. This will be severely allowanced by the crop prospect., And this bread and meat supply, it is claimed by those who have the opportunity to know the facts, is less, in many instances, than the necessity of hun- ger demanded. The merchant is not to be blamed for refusing to furnish a man more than he is able to pay. The method of working farms in certain localities is under consideration, and not men. The purposes of men may be fair, yet the principles 40 The Ills of the Sotith. upon which they act may prove disastrous to the general welfare. These men — the one hundred — are the customers of this merchant. Liens of one sort or another bind these people to him. What they make on these farms is practically his. Where these one hundred farms of the merchant are located are two hundred places owned by resi- dent white farmers. Some of them are in debt to the same merchant, with no prospect of getting out of debt. The demand for security, if other supplies are asked for, is only a question of time. Some are already under mortgage. Others are in debt, but it is held in bounds. It is manageable. They are not in easy circumstances — somewhat pinched in home comforts. They jog along as best they can. They are hampered, restless, and dissatisfied when work goes generally awry. They know there is a screw loose somewhere, but what screw is it ? They know that they are not prosperous— they are barely keep- ing- their own. A few of the two hundred are free. They are out of debt. The number is exceeding small. The circumstances of some of these are very favorable, and the others live hard, save every dime, and are chiefly concerned with hoarding their money for the sake of hoarding. The miserly disposition of this very small class is the warp and woof of their lives. With this location of the tenants of the merchant farmer, and the resident white farmers, we are pre- pared to consider some of the fruitage resulting from this condition. It is a condition made pos- sible by the lien laws of the country. Without The Lien Law Machine. 41 them, the merchant farmer would lose his grip on his tenants. Neither he, nor any other man in his senses, would attempt to operate farms in this way, unless lien laws placed property, real and per- sonal, and the crop, under his control. It is a com- mon opinion, that the tenants on the places of the merchant farmers fare worse, upon the whole, than those working for resident farmers. The attraction of the negro tenant for these places is, that he is lord of all he surveys on his farm. He is the sole master of his time, work, and management. The results of these peculiar local circumstances born of lien laws may be briefly summed up: I. One of the first effects of the attempt of mer- chant farmers entering into competition with resi- dent farmers in the farming industry, is the difficulty on the part of the latter to secure labor. The mer- chant with a big store appeared, in the estimation of the negro, a rich man. The white farmer by comparison was poor, and himself dependent upon this rich merchant for supplies. The negro prefers the rich man to the poor man. The negro never had much regard for *' poor white trash." The mer- chant had the vantage ground in securing labor. Practically, the merchant embarrassed the debt- ridden farmer. It was not so intended, but it operated in this way. Then there was a charm in being his own boss on the merchant's place. This was a large inducement to the negro. One landowner lived in town, the other in the country. Supervision of work gave the tenant no annoyance on a place whose owner 42 The Ills of the Sottth. lived in town. Poor farming and poor products followed. Another incident of this plan was the occasional unfair means used to get labor. " Decoy ducks " were used. The " boss idea " always pleased the negro. Other plausible considerations, such as becoming a freeholder, were employed ; so that it happened, here and there, that a negro would leave the place of the resident farmer, when his labor was m.ost needed, giving no other reason than that he wanted to leave, or that a " spell had been put on him by some other negro, making him dissatisfied." His contract, and the loss sustained by his leaving, had no effect to change his purpose. All this was galling to the country people. 2. The labor on merchant farms demoralized the labor on places of resident farmers. Discipline and regular industry among the negroes are, at best, declining in value. This plan introduced a new ele- ment of danger and confusion. The negroes on the merchants' places enjoyed and took great privileges. They worked when they pleased ; they visited when they pleased ; they rode to meetings and everywhere else, by day and by night, when they pleased ; and they enjoyed this lazy, slipshod mode of life to their hearts' content. It had the spice of Africa in it. It did not stop here. They taunted the negroes on places of resident farmers, who did not follow their idle and vagrant example, as '* black niggers that didn't have sense enough to be free," and other expressions of scurrilous import. This conduct did the damage to the farming people in these localities. The Lien Law Machine. 43 The resident farmer saw in this state of things a big screw loose. Not a few had less than half the number of negroes that they could provide with land. The worst feature was, those they had were demor- alized by the labor on merchant places. To control them was a difficult thing. To get work out of them was a task. The danger of losing even these inferior laborers was great. Patience was worn threadbare. Other resident farmers, with land and live stock sufficient for twenty and more hands, could not secure a single negro laborer. They folded their arms in black despair. The situation of these men, burdened with debt, the property of not a few covered with mortgages, with an insuffi- cient complement of labor, and that not controllable, and in some cases no labor at all, was as blue as indigo. They were crippled in their work and their prospects by the very men into whose coffers they poured every dollar made on the farm. It is not charged that this was done intentionally. What was the remedy? Men were at sea without a com- pass. Ruin never before looked so much like ruin as these circumstances plainly prophesied to the farmers thus situated. 3. This purpose on the part of merchants to cultivate farms obtained under the credit system, and the lien laws of the country, waked up bitter memories. The application is to individuals. The effect refers to many. To illustrate : Mr. Henry, a farmer, was in debt to his merchant S3»ooo. This debt was the result of balances carried over for years. The farm owned by Henry was cheap at 44 The Ills of the South, $5,000. After much discussion and hard feeling, the merchant bought the place for $3,500. The old account and a small place valued at $400 and $100 cash closed the transaction. Thus ends this matter, but not so the consequences in the years to come. Time passed on. The parents were dead, and the children were scattered in various parts of the coun- try. Patrick, the youngest son, occupied the little place received in exchange with the merchant's account for the old homestead. Mr. , a near neighbor, incidentally remarked one day to a group of friends, that the Henry place cost in actual cash $i,ooc. Be this as it may, Patrick, now a married man, heard of the report. He was desirous to rent the place, and, if possible, buy it. His father's merchant was still doing business in the same town. Patrick offered to rent it, so did Black John, one of the old Henry negroes. Eight bales of cotton was the rental. Patrick offered nine bales, but Black John got it for eight. Patrick was an energetic, intelligent young farmer. Such, in substance, was the information imparted to us. The old homestead was on the same road, and a few miles distant from the little farm where Patrick lived. Here was material for thought. The legal aspect of the transaction cannot be questioned. But something is due to circumstances, to associa- tions, to those tender ties that give aroma to life. " My mother's bedroom," said the young man, " is now occupied by father's carriage-driver. Had he but rented the place to any other man, white or black, I would not feel so outraged. I have good The Lien Law Machine, 45 feeling for our old servant Black John ; but I can not separate myself from the endearing associations of my parental home. The very mention of father, mother, brothers, and sisters calls up sacred memo- ries, and these cluster about my birthplace. Why was my offer to rent the homestead so rudely rejected?" It is hoped that such cases are rare. The sympathy of the community was with that young man. The feelings of the people were smouldering. These are bitter memories. 4. Another effect showed itself in many depre- dations. These tenants fared no better than other tenants in making a living — rather worse. As a class they were often hard pressed for food. In such case *' mine and thine " were ignored. Shoats, sheep, young cattle, and poultry were common prey. The corncrib and the potato-bank, if accessible, were not sacred objects to a hungry stomach. Ten tenants, we were informed, representing 30 persons, made 30 bales of cotton and 500 bushels of corn. They raised no potatoes, or next to none, and no meat. Half of the cotton and corn belonged to the landowner. The remainder paid for the supplies furnished during the year. Fifty-two dollars will not suffice to buy food and clothing for three per- sons to each tenant on an average. It is not meant that the condition of all tenants of this class was this bad, nor yet that that of the ten- ants with resident farmers was much better ; but that this peculiar plan of renting land to negroes without supervision, means poor crops, especially food crops. And poor crops lead to stealing. Why should the 46 The Ills of the South. people be deluded with the idea that this sort of management can promote the prosperity of the country? The poor negro is not benefited, and the foundation is laid for trouble. 5. Thievery among negroes, if not the cause, has been the occasion, of much violence. It is difficult to appreciate the situation. Honest men that work hard to make a living, and fail in so many instances to make ends meet, and then have the little they make, stolen, are certainly annoyed be- yond endurance. 6. With these environments, the two hundred farmers have an uphill business, in these localities, at farming. If they were encouraged by sympathy and generous interest, unmixed with selfish consid- erations, it is firmly believed that the result would benefit them, the negroes, and the general trade. So much for the bad effects of lien laws in various localities. It is our purpose now to examine some of the effects of these laws on the general condition of the farming class in the South. A level-headed man remarked in our presence, *' Had I the money, and did I wish to enter the mercantile business, and wished to make money fast, I w^ould choose the fur- nishing business on the credit plan ; but if I wanted to do an honest, straightforward business, I would sell for cash." The credit system is a step generally toward lien laws. Either one enslaves; the latter intensifies the condition. Whenever the danger point is reached, these laws are sure to be invoked. Were these laws The Lien Law Machine. 47 repealed, the furnishing business would soon come to a dead halt in thousands of cases. Economy and freedom would in a few years take the place of extravagance, credit prices, and slavery. Whatever kindness may be in these methods, it is dearly bought. It certainly does look, from all the experi- ence of the past, that this plan of buying on long time, secured by liens, is the very best means to re- main poor all the days of one's life. This method as a whole keeps a man poor, wrecks his peace of mind, makes him old before his time, and destroys his independence. He can not trade where he pleases, if he has agreed to do business with a given merchant. Besides, in the course of years, he is bound to suffer more or less humiliation. If this is not a mean bondage, what is? When shall the delusion that this state of things is neces- sary, be broken ? *' The furnishing business is the prettiest business in the world." This was said in our presence, and, we are sure, with no bad motive. It is repeated here to show how fascinating this method of selling merchandise is to some minds ; what a hold it has on the life purpose. This liking to sell on credit is the strong fortress that must be stormed. There must be a cause for it. If the merchant likes to sell his wares in this way, the difficulty to induce a certain class of men to buy frequently what they don't need, and more frequently what they can not afford to buy, is not great. This way of buying needless things has made a big gash in the solvent condition of the farmer. The buyer must put on 48 The Ills of the South, big brakes on his wants. This is one healthy step in the right direction. The heavier the load, the more important to put on brakes. So ought it to be with men in debt. A seedy coat is more honorable than a debt incurred by extravagance, high living, and heedless buying. But what is it that is pretty about the furnishing business? Five hundred men tied up to do business with one man ! So hampered that they can not do business with any other merchant during the year ! Forced to pay long-time prices ! Is this condition a beautiful and healthy state of affairs to these men ? It may be beautiful to the merchant, but not to the men who dine on a crust, and, toiling hard through winter's cold and summer's heat, are poor. Let us call it, rather, the bondage business. In a certain company of gentlemen the remark was made, that slavery in the Southern States was dead forever. '' It is a mistake," said Mr. . '' I have eight hundred men who do my bidding ; they can not do as they please. If I say, ' Plant cotton,' they plant cotton." It was an ungracious remark ; it expressed a great deal too much. A business that imposes such conditions is indeed beautiful, but only to one class of men. This mode of business relegates honesty to an inferior position. It is certainly true of all those whose property is under liens. Doubt as to their good faith, and perhaps their ability to pay for their year's supplies, inspired the requirement of a lien. If this fear is real, that this class of people will buy more than they can pay for, why deal with them? The Lie7i Law Machine, 49 Would not a refusal to sell them goods prove a blessing in the long run ? Why help improvident men to rob themselves of their property ? Is not this the sad route hundreds have taken ? The fact that the act of assuming such obligations is volun- tary does not shift the responsibility, in part, at least, of those who can foresee the usual disastrous result. But what about the honest customers who are not tied up in this way ? Of what use is the well-tested honesty of any man, the moment he asserts his freedom ? He trades with B a few months, buying, of course, on credit. Merchant C suits him better. Will C sell him on time, after he had begun to trade with B ? Suppose C does furnish him, will not B complain, demand a settle- ment or security, ox bring suit ? The gravamen of such a transaction has nothing to do with the men concerned in it, but with this bondage business. The rights of the parties are not under considera- tion. The man that furnishes supplies may be in the right, and the buyer in the wrong. The point is not what each party ought to do when such a con- tract has been formed, but the object is to show results — fruitage. The man is not free, and the most robust honesty is often not worth the paper on which it is written. Honesty is relegated to the background. The credit obligations and the lien laws are everywhere pushed to the front. The strange part about it is, that Anglo-Saxon freemen have for so many years, and so patiently, submitted to this galling yoke. The men who say this yearly debt system can not be reversed, forget 4 50 The Ills of the South. the period from 1861 to 1865. Half the self-denial then practiced, now applied for a few years, will assure a healthy, prosperous condition. Best of all, it will bring independence. Conquer this deadly, unseen foe to Southern prosperity. " By no means run in debt ; take thine own measure. Who can not live on twenty pound a year, Can not on forty ; he's a man of pleasure, A kind of thing that's for itself too dear." But it is fashionable to run in debt — to live beyond the income. Style must be kept up. To live eco- nomically, to lay up something for a wet day, and to pay as you go, are safe virtues, and very honorable. *' But what will Mrs. Grundy say?" Her opinion is harmless. Is it fashionable to beg — to humble one's self in the dust, to submit to possible indignities, to cringe and fawn, to assume unbearable burdens, vol- untarily to go into a copartnership with sorrow — and at last to leave the family in want and sore distress? These lien laws have been the occasion of many unscrupulous transactions. Fair-minded, straight- forward dealers, in large number, have not abused these instruments ; but rascality has feasted on the opportunity. Signatures have been forged to notes ; figures altered. A pound avoirdupois, according to the black code, contains 12 ounces, and a yard, 25 inches. Poor nigger! Poor, ignorant white man! How you have suffered at the hands of the Philis- tines ! Meanness, trickery, and fraud have had full sweep at many an unfortunate victim. Have these laws done no good ? Their original The Lien Law Machine. 5 1 intent was kind. There is too much arithmetic in these instruments. Most men are not well up in figures. They can not calculate the long, rough road to be travelled. They cannot see the end to which they lead. They start in a fog, and end in a fog. They levy a tax on idleness, on extravagance, and on rascality. They are generally in printed form. How many interlineations have been made between the lines, that were not agreed upon ? They have not benefited the negroes, and what good have they done to the white people? Had they never been formulated in the Southern States, not a man would have starved to death. The canons of trade would not have been subverted. These laws have done '' good by stealth ; the rest is history." They have placed a discount on all other services — services of the highest value to society. Do the blacksmith and wheelwright take a lien on the prop- erty of the farmer for work done? No ! these men take their chances, or sell their account to the mer- chant that holds the lien at a discount of 10 or 20 percent. But this depends upon circumstances. If this is done, the farmer pays the discount, and 10 per cent, on the face value of the account. The sad- dler and buggy-maker either take their chances, or dispose of their bills to the lien holder upon similar terms. The other industries fare no better. The preachers take their chances absolutely. With them it is all honor ; no '^ deed and trust " for them. The physicians, riding through pelting rainstorms, by night and day, take even chances with the other unfortunates whose interests were not considered 52 The Ills of the Soicth. when these so-called anaconda laws were enacted. These classes have managed to get along without these securities. Why make the distinction ? Why- place every calling in life at a disadvantage ? Why not give the large farming class a lien on the prop- erty of merchants to secure fair dealing ? The great body of honest merchants would not do this, and the great body of honest farmers would not ask it. There ought to be some kind of protection. A lien implies distrust. If distrust is honorable in the one case, why should it be dishonorable in the other case? But these are not parallel caseso What is the difference, as a matter of simple justice, between the dealer that furnishes fifty dollars* worth of pro- visions to a man, and the physician that renders fifty dollars' worth of valuable service to the same man ? The lien holder, protected, covers the man with distrust ; the physician, by force of necessity, exercises confidence, and takes his chances in hope. Put all men on the same footing. Strike these laws from the statutes of every State, or greatly modify them. Make it difficult for a man to get off his estate by this piece of machinery. Under the treacherous operations of these laws, farmers involved themselves in debt, gave security on their estates when cotton was selling at 30, 25, 20, 15, and 10 cents per pound. They bought land, horses, and merchandise when the great Southern staple brought a high price. Everything else was high. Interest accumulated year by year. A steady pressure was kept on cotton production. Grain growing and meat raising were neglected. The The Lien Law Machine. 53 increase of the cotton crop pressed down its price. Now, when cotton is down to 7 cents, the attempt to pay old debts incurred when the price of cotton ruled at 15, 12, and 10 cents, is an herculean task. Many farmers are hopelessly ruined. Who is respon- sible for this desperate state of affairs? Not the merchant nor the farmer, but this subtle relief device, the lien laws, and the annual credit supply business. This system brings sad experience to one class of men, and gold to another class. CHAPTER IV. COTTON PRODUCTION. Some years ago the Legislature of Massachusetts made a law requiring that children of a certain age, employed in the factories of that State, should be sent to school a certain number of weeks in the year. While visiting the factories to ascertain whether this wise provision of the State government was complied with, an officer of the State inquired of the agent of one of the principal factories at New Bedford, whether it was the custom to do anything for the physical, intellectual, or moral welfare of the work people. The answer would not have been out of place in the captain of a coolie ship : " We never do ; as for myself, I regard my work people as I regard my machinery. They must look out for themselves, as I do for myself." — William Mathews, LL.D. /^UR business system has regarded the people ^^very much the same way. Capital calls no halt in the race for gain. The general prosperity of the people — their welfare — is not the question. Progress is measured by the aggregate capital of the few. There are said to be fifty millionaires in the South. What about the 18,000,000? Comparisons maybe odious, but they often convey alarming truths. It takes 360,000 people to make one millionaire. Mr. Henry W. Grady in an address to the young men of a Southern university, in 1889, said : *' Our great wealth has brought us profit and splendor, but the status itself is a menace. A home that costs Cotton Production, 55 $3,000,000, and a breakfast that costs $5,000, are disquieting facts to the millions who live in a hut and dine on a crust. The fact that a man ten years from povert)^ has an income of $20,000,000, and his two associates nearly as much, from the control and arbitrary pricing of an article of universal use, falls strangely on the ears of those who hear it, as they sit empty-handed, while children beg for bread. Economists have held that wheat grown everywhere could never be cornered by capital. And yet one man in Chicago tied the wheat crop in his hand- kerchief, and held it until a sewing woman in my city, working for 90 cents a week, had to pay him 20 cents tax on the sack of flour she bore home in her famished hands. Three men held the cotton crop until the English spindles were stopped, and the lights went out in 3,000,000 English homes. Last summer, one man cornered pork until he had levied a tax of $3 per barrel on every consumer, and pock- eted a profit of millions. The Czar of Russia would not have dared do these things. And yet they are no secrets in this free government of ours ! They are known of all men ; and my countrymen, no argu- ment can follow them, and no plea excuse them^ when they fall on the men who, toiling, yet suffer ; who hunger at their work, and who can not find food for their wives with which to feed the infants that hang famishing at their breasts." These may be regarded as pessimistic views, but the hard facts of the condition of the two great fac- tors, capital and labor, are alarm signals. The New Orleans Daily Picayune of June 27, 56 The Ills of the South. in its comments on the address of Mr. Grady, shows clearly and tersely the end to which this condition is unmistakably tending : " The prophet of evil is not a popular personage, but he is a wise one if his forecasts be well founded. " Without doubt the greatest danger which to-day threatens the safety of our free American institutions is the rapid and enormous aggregation and concentration of wealth. This is the richest country in the world ; it will soon possess more citizens with greater fortunes than has ever before been known in the annals of civilization. This concentration of wealth in the hands of a few means a corresponding drawing away from the many of comfort, competence, and the just recompense of labor. The more rich men, the more paupers. One extreme necessitates the other. " This concentration of wealth and corresponding concentration of poverty combine to produce the overthrow of democratic institutions, and to establish in their stead a powerful centralized government. For if the possessors of great wealth shall demand a strong govern- ment to protect them from the aggressions of the pauper masses, so also the indigent and improvident classes will call upon the govern- ment to seize upon all property and all industries, and administer them for the benefit of the whole people. These are the dangers which threaten, and they should alarm even the most enthusiastic optimist." The debts of the people, incident to the credit system of the Southern States, have been no small factor in bringing about the over-production of the great staple crop. Men in debt, w^ant money. Farmers know that cotton is the only crop that will bring money. In their opinion there is no time for anything else. They owe for land, for mules, for supplies of all sorts— bought at high prices. Cotton brings the money, and money pays debts. What matters it if corn and meat raising is neg- Cotton Production, 57 lected, so a large cotton crop is made? This will deliver the man from his troubles. Thus reasons the average farmer. For years a class of merchants encouraged their credit customers to raise cotton exclusively, or very largely. They reasoned very naturally and very logically, that, the more goods sold to farmers, the greater their sales and the greater their aggregate profits. Corn, bacon, and pickled pork are just as good commodities on which to make money as mo- lasses, calico, and brogans. Mr. Henry W. Grady in his second article in the New York Ledger, 1889, writing on " The Era of Speculation in the South," states how this class of dealers viewed the matter of cotton raising: " When he (the farmer) saw the wis- dom of raising his own corn, bacon, grasses, and stock, he WAS NOTIFIED that reducing his cotton acreage was reducing his line of credit. He was. thus helpless. Carrying this burden of usnry, and buy- ing everything he needed, and having stocked his farm on credit, he made slow progress." What other progress could he make ? Once in debt, he was forced to raise cotton to the neglect of corn' and meat raising, no matter how ruinous. The debts of the farmer bound him to cotton. He was power- less. He took all the chances as to price. If the cotton rose in price, the farmer was fortunate. He saw a rift in the dark cloud. His spirit rose in proportion to the price, and his purpose was soon formed to raise more cotton. He looked with wonder at the long-headed wisdom of his merchant who had ad- 58 The Ills of the South. vised him to raise a big cotton crop as the road out of debt. If the price fell, the farmer plunged deeper in debt. The fetters that bound him were tightened. During the first four years, after the war, the price of cotton danced up and down, gen- erally and alarmingly down. In 1866, it was 65 cents; in 1867, it went down to 40 cents. That meant a loss of $117 per bale of 450 pounds. It was a loss of $5,850 on fifty bales in one year. That farmer had all, or nearly all, his corn and meat to buy. No wonder he lost his breath, and a cold, dreary doubt suggested itself as to the Solomonic wisdom of the merchant. That doubt was as cheer- less and as benumbing as the lack of $5,850. '* What must I do?" said Farmer Jones to his merchant. " Plant more cotton ; it is the only way out of debt, and it is the backbone of credit." More cotton was planted. In 1868, the price of cotton went down to 11% cents. From 40 cents in 1867 to 11}^ cents in 1868 was a tremendous leap downward. In the mean time provisions kept up. Bacon, 22 to 23 cents; molasses, from $1 to $1.25 per gallon ; sugar, 15 to 22 cents per pound ; coffee, from 30 to 32 cents; a plow, $7; thread, 125^ cents a spool; flour, from $11 to $12 per barrel; corn, $1.50 per bushel; calico, 20 cents per yard; cottonade, from 40 to 50 cents per yard ; lard, 28 cents per pound ; nails, 10 cents per pound ; can- dles, 32 cents ; Irish potatoes, $7 per barrel ; russet shoes, $2.75 per pair; Lowells, 28 cents; cotton ties, 10 cents ; and bagging, 35 cents ; coal oil, $i per gallon ; matches, $5 per gross ; brogans, $2.50 Cotton Production. 59 per pair; tobacco, $r per pound. All these prices had to be covered with cotton worth ii^^j^ cents per pound. In 1868 the farmer realized on fifty bales $2,531, and lost, in consequence of the fall of price from 40 cents in the preceding year to 11}^ cents in 1868, $6,468.50. So that his losses for the years 1867 and 1868 amounted to $12,318.50. Shortly after this the price went up to 36 cents. It did not benefit the farmer. Strange manipulation of prices ! This heartless, conscienceless gambling in cotton prices ruined thousands. Hon. B. H. Hill, of Georgia, was during this period hopelessly involved to the amount of $250,000. From that day to this the method of business and the debts of farmers have kept a firm pressure on the yield of cotton. These causes have been main elements in the large yield. The increase of population and the use of fertilizers have added their per cent. It was shown in a former chapter that the mer- cantile system of business had much to do in derang- ing labor, and this condition had its effect on the increase of the cotton crop, not so much by what was done in raising cotton, as by what was left undone — not raising meat, and often very little corn. There is a bill lying before us on the table which will illustrate this point. Wade Sherman, a negro, made, in 1890, three bales of cotton valued by his merchant at $130.51. He bought corn, meal, and grits, valued at S34.05 ; the bacon bought cost him $38.55 ; the corn and bacon cost $72.60. When this was paid out of the cotton proceeds, he had left $57.91. More than half the cotton was spent 6o The Ills of the South, for corn and bacon ; the merchant held a lien on all his live stock, valued at $225. The bill at the store, including the old debt, was $230. Wade was anxious to pay up, and for this reason raised mostly- cotton, neglecting the cornfield and the hogpen. This folly impoverishes the poor negro, and not a few white men. But this is not all. The bill has another important food article — flour, costing $26.50, increasing his food bill to $99.05, leaving to Wade $31.46 for a year's work, after paying his provision account, consisting of flour, corn, and bacon. If the demand is in excess of the supply the price rises. The demand for Southern cotton has made a constant gain in the markets of the world since 1872. Then '' the American supply of cotton was 3,241,000 ;bales. The foreign supply was 3,036,000 bales. In 'the year 1888 the American supply was 8,000,000 bales, and the foreign supply 2,100,000 bales; both expressed in English bales. Since 1872 the popu- lation of Europe has increased 13 percent.; cotton consumption in Europe has increased 50 per cent. Since 1880, cotton consumption in Europe has in- creased 28 per cent., the consumption of wool only 4 per cent., while the consumption of flax has de- creased II per cent."* The business monopoly has reversed and per- verted the laws of trade and the canons of commerce. Healthy competition is dead. What there is, in the form of stimulating honest rivalry, is confined to small traders. Monopoly rules the farmer. '* I * Henry W. Grady. Cotton Production. 6i have taken on twenty new customers — can't take any more," remarked merchant Windem. There it is. They are fast. Their trade belongs to Windem, and if Windem says cotton, cotton they are sure to raise. There is no escape from the argument that the credit monopoly, controlled for twenty-five years by the merchants, has had much to do with the increase of the cotton crop. Debts and high prices can only be paid by this crop. Considerate merchants who advised farmers to raise corn, grasses, bacon, and stock were almost powerless. If they wanted the farmer's trade they must sell corn, bacon, and mules. But still there is a vast difference between the two merchants; one discouraged his customers from buy- ing corn, bacon, and mules, the other was eager to sell to them whatever they wanted. This eagerness was rarely freely and frankly expressed, but rattier adroitly concealed. The farmer's need was an open book. To make him cringe, and servile in his re- quests, was the thing wanted. The favor dearly bought was granted. Such men could hardly com- plain of prices. Such a man was Mr. Easygo. Mr. Windem bought for Mr. Easygo a mule costing $55? and charged him $115; took Mr. Easygo's note, drawing ten per cent, interest, and secured it by lien. He sold him flour for $15 — cash price was $8; bacon for 15 cents — cash price, /^ cents; and molasses at 75 cents per gallon. Mr. Easygo was advised to make a big cotton crop. Cotton only can pay for these big prices. All this hucksterirng business had but one end in view — to get a grip on 62 The Ills of the SotctJu the man's property and his trade for years to come. The trade was forced by a law of necessity into this merchant's hands. No matter what reasonable and lawful inducement conscientious merchants held out, the farmer's trade had to flow through one and only one channel. More cotton ! " From Maryland through Texas the merchants are prosperous y^' From Maryland to Florida, and from the Atlantic seaboard to western Texas, the farmers are poor. Under the agency of these causes cotton increased and the price fell. Lands, live stock, chattels of every sort, and a half dozen cotton crops, went down to satisfy the claims of creditors. '' Superb estates, that had brought $200,000, dragged at $10,000; and estates that had sold for $65,000 went unhindered to the sheriff's hammer for taxes. Broader than these personal losses was the oppressive system entailed on the planting class. Having once mortgaged his crop for supplies to his merchant, the farmer was practically the slave of that merchant."* If such was the fate of many lordly estates where intelligence and knowledge of business obtained, what could be expected of those humbler estates valued from $500 to $5,000, where income, gains, and losses are rarely calculated ; where business and management are practically hap-hazard affairs? Who can doubt that the oppressive system was the strong inducement to increase the acreage in cotton ? The planter depending on this one crop, cotton, ^ Henry W. Grady. Cotton Productio7i. 63 will remain poor so long as this one crop must pay all his obligations and expenses. In 1892 the world's requirement of American cotton was 8,500,000 bales, and the increase of this demand is \\ per cent per annum. If this be accurate, the world's demand for Amer- ican cotton will be, for 1893, 8,600,000 bales; for 1894, 8,736,000 bales; for 1895, 8,867,000 bales; for 1896, 9,000,000 bales; for 1897, 9,135,000 bales; for 1898, 9,272,000 bales; for 1899, 9,412,000 bales. In 1890 the cotton crop was estimated at 9,000,000 bales. Had it been 7,000,000 bales, it would have been too large under present canons of trade, though the price, in this event, would have been enhanced. Whenever this crop is a million bales in excess of the world's need, it is ruinous to the farmer under prevailing circumstances. Three related causes con- spire to the serious disadvantage of the South : over-production of cotton, under-production of grain and meat, and buying on long time. " The corn acreage in this country is 10,000,000 acres short." "^ Whenever the corn acreage is short in the West, and the raising of this grain is neg- lected in the South, the consequences to the South are apparent. The line of duty and of interest of Southern agri- culturists is to live at home. Raise the necessaries on the home farm. It is a safe rule. It is the road out of trouble. There is no heart-ache in it. The delusions of the past ought to satisfy any sensible man of the wisdom of this policy. Reduce the cot- * Mr. C. Wood Davis in Atlanta Constitution, 1892. 64 The Ills of the South, \ ton acreage. Every bale raised in excess of what i the world needs, lowers the price. This is a plain - proposition. The man who buys a plow not needed, will hardly pay for it the full price. The same com- mon sense is applied to cotton. CHAPTER V. TESTIMONY. The warp of the fabric is reality ; the woof, fiction ; the coloring domestic— M. A. Wilkins. CARMER HAYGOOD. ''What difference do ^ you make between cash and credit prices in supplying farmers who are solvent ? " Merchant James Caperton. " I can make a reduction of 25 per cent, for the cash." Farmer H. '' Do I understand you to mean that a bill of goods costing $100 on credit, the same bill of goods will cost $75 cash?" Merchant C. " Yes, sir! that is what I mean." Farmer H. " But that makes a difference of 33^ per cent." Merchant C. " Certainly, it makes a difference of $333 on every $100. I multiply the face of the credit price, and call it 25 per cent. off. In reality, the purchaser saves $33^ on every $100. I treat the credit price just as I do school warrants. In 1875, I bought $2,200 worth school warrants at an average discount of 30 per cent. I paid $1,540 for these warrants, and made $660 on my money in one year, or nearly 43 per cent. You know Mr. Blakeley? He made $30,000 in four years during reconstruction times. He bought one warrant for 5 66 The Ills of the South, building a bridge costing $i,8oo, at a discount of 65 per cent. The bridge builder needed money. Mr. Jones saw him buy that warrant for $630. Mr. Blakeley made $1,170 on his money." Farmer H. " Why do you make such a differ- ence between your cash price and your credit price ?" Merchant C. *' Mercantile business is a risky and an expensive affair. I have 600 customers on my ledger. Fifty are first-class men — they are sol- vent. Seventy-five are fairly good. Of the remain- der, 275 are white men, and 200 are negroes. These 475 need careful attention. Some of them would buy more in one year than they can pay for in three years. Some of them don't do half work. They will come to town for a pound of tobacco or a paper of pins on a fine day when they ought to be at work. I hold deeds of trust on many of their places, but they don't seem to be uneasy. Every year some cotton is run off to other markets. My annual losses are heavy." Farmer H. " That explains it. Your good cus- tomers must, in a measure, help to pay the losses sustained by the bad ones." Merchant C. "That's about it." " The warp of the fabric is reality ; the woof is fiction ; the coloring is domestic." Nine million bales of cotton in 1890, at $35, brought a gross income of $315,000,000. Out of this must come the expense bill : for meat bought, $45,000,000 ; for grain bought in the West, §20,000,- 000 ; for fertilizers, $11,134,784. Then, had supplies been bought for cash, what would have been saved Testimony. 67 on this account, and the useless and extravagant purchases that would have been prevented on a cash basis, would have put into the pockets of farmers, $100,000,000 more. Had meat and grain been raised on the farm, and everything been bought for cash, the saving would amount to S165,- 000,000 yearly. Just think what this saving means for twenty years. Saved by this plan in twenty years, $3,300,000,000, or 90,000,000 bales of cotton valued at $35 each. Samuel Drew said : " Economy and good man- agement are excellent artists for the mending of hard times." Alexandre Dumas gives a volume of good counsel in these pithy sayings : ** All the world cries. Where is the man who will save us? We want a man! Don't look so far for this man ; you have him at hand. This man — it is you, it is I, it is each one of us! How to constitute one's self a man? Noth- ing harder, if one knows not how to will it ; nothing easier, if one wills it." It is now proposed to introduce the general opin- ion of thoughtful people, and the evidence of the census report in relation to the business method or the credit system prevalent in the South. We believe this common and concurrent opinion is not only based upon facts, but is entitled to earnest consideration. The circumstantial evidence, to say nothing of positive knowledge of reliable men, shows that the farming community is tremendously handi- capped. They are burden bearers. There is no doubt about the fact. They are down, and to get 68 The Ills of the South, on their feet is attended with almost insurmount- able difficulties. We speak of them as a class. Like the man in the quicksand, the more they struggle the deeper they sink. Men down to the armpits are advised to continue their efforts. But every effort is fatal. The treacherous yielding sand threatens to ingulf them. Our people stand on a treacherous foundation. The cause of their troubles is complex. One form of it is the method of buying on time. The great objection to it is, there are many things about this credit plan, the average farmer can not compre- hend. He does not know what obligations he is trying to carry. A man can do so much work, carry such a load, and no more. " Another straw breaks the camel's back," is a true saying. What is there mysterious about it? This is a fair ques- tion. In the first place, he does not understand the terms of the plan — one feature of it in par- ticular. If he had the money and could barely afford to pay $4.25 for a barrel of flour, can he afford to pay $7, the time price? Does he think of this? Hardly. No one denies that prices on nine months' time are high. He can not afford to do business on these terms, and live. He eats up his labor, his horse, and his land, without knowing it. He is the man in the quicksand. Secondly, he is all the time in danger of buying too much. If the security is good, or if he has property, the temptation is strong in this direction, and in this event, he will not be denied the merchandise de- sired. Thirdly, he can not foresee what will happen Testimony. 69 during the year. His crop may be short, and the general crop may be large. These and other causes may bring about a considerable balance due the merchant at the end of the year. This way of trading is beyond the grasp of the average farmer. He can not calculate the disas- trous consequences to himself. To ask a man to do business on this plan, is almost to invite him to enslave himself and his family. It has worked this way thus far. What the country needs just now, to assure rea- sonable prosperity, is genuine sympathy between the merchant class and the farming class. Honest sympathy, transparent as God's daylight, is the need of the hour. "If I were to be asked," said Judge Talfourd, on whom Death was at that moment lay- ing his hand, " what is the great want of English society — to mingle class with class ; I would say in one word, the want is the want of sympathy y "^ It is the need of the South. The greedy, selfish policy, by which a few are enriched, and many are impov- erished, is a curse to any land in the long run. Men may call such a policy by the fairest name, and justify it by every specious argument at their com- mand, yet such a policy is fundamentally wrong. To put the common welfare of millions on the rack, is neither humane nor just. *' Righteousness exalt- eth a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people." There is no flaw or error in this great truth. The righteousness that elevates and prospers a nation, will do the same for the individuals composing the * *' Thrift," by Samuel Smiles. 70 The Ills of the South, nation. Oppression of every form, whether encour- aged, stimulated, or invited by direct or indirect means, is in intent and in practice opposed to right- eousness. The cost of supplies on the time basis cripples the Southern farmer. Whatever else may be fiction, this is history from 1865 to 1893. What is this credit cost above the cash cost ? The evidence shows that it is from twenty-five to one Jmndred per cent, above a fair cash valuation. Some of the most successful and competent business men in the South contend that merchandise in towns and country stores can not be sold for cash at a profit less than twenty-five per cent. The credit cost to the con- sumer ranges thus from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five per cent. Prices, of course, have been subject to various fluctuations. When cotton was selling at thirty cents per pound, the margin of profit was larger than when cotton sells at seven cents a pound. Nor have these prices been uniform among all mer- chants. It is claimed that the general average prices, as stated, ruled the market for all men who bought on time. The question is not whether merchants could do business of this nature on a less profit. It is pre- sumed they could not, or they had no inclination to do so. If the first view be the just interpretation of these commercial transactions, then it is fair to conclude that the consumer, judged by the experi- ence of the past, can not continue to be a partner to these transactions upon these terms and prosper. Testhizony, 7 1 These terms are denied by some. ^ Catalogue prices are no criterion. The discount off to the trade is large. Articles of luxury are not under consideration, but the necessaries of life. If the terms are not as high as represented, why should this confessedly risky business be courted by so many men ? Why should it be called the money- making business ? The direct information of individuals, various comparisons, the common judgment of reliable men and the testimony from ten Southern States, leaves no room for doubt as to the general average prices on the time basis. Besides, certain deductions, difficult to explain away, corroborate this common opinion. Honorable business has no need for evasion or jugglery of any kind. It can stand all the light that may be let in upon it. The man that offers to sell a horse for two hundred dollars, and proposes to make by the sale one hundred dollars, has a perfect right to do as he pleases with his property. The price may be regarded as exorbitant, but that is his concern. The purchaser may decline to buy at this price, because it is too high, or because he can not afford it. In either event, the act is his own, and honorable. Neither the seller nor the purchaser is blameworthy. The price of the horse is under consideration, not men. The credit price is the topic for investigation. Is it high ? A friend bought coffee for his family at 12 cents cash ; a neighbor of his bought, on time, a similar 72 The Ills of the South, article at 25 cents. A white farmer bought two articles of universal use on the farm for $9.80 cash ; another man bought similar articles on credit for $14. The cash price of a necessary article was $18 ; the credit price, $28. These may be exceptional cases ; possibly are. If such transactions are made in one place, they may be made in another. The path of self-denial for twelve months is certainly the path of wisdom. Such an effort will bring its own reward in time. "In Alabama 45 per cent, of the farmers, white and colored, are heavily in debt, without available means of liquidation ; and not less than 65 per cent, find it necessary to seek assistance from the county commissioners and the merchants. They pay over 50 per cent, more for their supplies than cash prices. Money is borrowed by mortgag- ing farms at interest rates ranging from 18 to 24 per cent, per annum. The negroes get about 35 per cent, of the cotton made in the State, but it is all pledged for supplies before it is gathered. On an average go per cent, of the whole crop is pledged before grown, for supplies and interest. All supplies on this basis cost upward of 75 per cent, above cash prices. The same thing is true of Mississippi. One-third of the farmers of Texas are hopelessly burdened with debt. They obtain from $2 to I5 advances from merchants on cultivated land secured by a crop lien. The annual rate of interest is 12 per cent, in Texas. Farmers pay from 15 to 25 per cent. ; the difference between cash and credit prices is from 25 to 50 per cent. In Arkansas 75 per cent, of the farmers in the cot- ton regions are in debt ; in the grass and grain region, 25 per cent. The tenant or share-hand farmer is scored at the rate of 50 to 100 per cent. In other words, it costs him two-thirds more labor to live than it would if he had the cash. The worst form of indebtedness is that contracted by securing advances on grown crops ; it throttles industry and breeds despair by reducing the borrower to slavery."* " In my opinion, the true cause of the unrest which pervaded the State for some years before i8go was a system of commercial extor- * History of the Wheel. Testimony, 73 tion or legalized robbery of the farming, and, in general, the poorer class by the money owners and money lenders, in whatever form it was loaned to the people, whether by bankers, private usurers, or cotton factors. This system began as early as the close of the war, when the Confederate soldier came home to find that all was lost, both on the battlefield and his farm. In order to assist him in the struggle to restore his fallen fortunes, to give him credit and stand- ing in the commercial world, the lien law was enacted. It was intended as a blessing, but became a curse so patent that in time the farming classes cried out against it as an infatnous, though silent, oppressor. Merchants and bankers charged outrageous rates of interest. With rates of 300 per cent, under the lien system, and 50 per cent, charged by bankers and merchants, the farmer was taxed to death ; certainly to the point where forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and where revolt was the remedy, both in law and equity."* " Monopoly is the true cancer, but, like other cancers, its roots penetrate the entire body on which it subsists ; in consequence of which we challenge the world to produce the equal of some Arkansas monopolists on a small scale. We know of a certain mercantile firm who twenty-five years ago owned nothing comparatively, but to-day own eighteen thousand acres of land, a great part of which is in cultivation ; also mules, horses, cattle, and several stores. Perhaps one person would be more correct than a firm, for one person owns the greater part of the property. The inquiry arises, how did this man, who had no capital to start with, amass that amount of property in twenty-five years, while farmers who had capital grew poorer every year? The answer is, monopoly and extortion ! These, in the instance named, were managed through the ' anaconda ' mort- gage, which he succeeded in obtaining on crops and stock, and often on lands. Then began the wholesale robbery by charging two and three prices for the goods furnished, thereby reducing his victims to extreme poverty ; yea, to financial skeletons. The poor victims, unable to comply with the enormous demands, were ' sold out ' at shamefully loiu prices, the mortgagee being the purchaser at two- thirds the cash value placed on the property by appraisers chosen to put the lowest valuation that decency would permit. " The instant one of these anaconda mortgages is executed, the maker becomes practically the slave of the mortgagee ; he is deprived * Senator Irby from South Carolina. 74 The Ills of the SoiUL of all means of obtaining credit elsewhere ; he is compelled to trade with the holder of the mortgage ; he can not object to the quality or quantity of the goods offered hi^n, nor to the prices charged." * Competition is the life of trade, but this can have no place under this system. Eight months before the cotton is ready for market, the purchaser is determined. Prices seeking equilibrium which whole- some competition would produce, is impossible. The Rayi7toiid Gazette, a newspaper published in the County of Hinds, State of Mississippi, had this to say on the credit system, in one of its issues in January, 1894: " What tightness there may be in the money market in the South is due more to reaction from the North than to the actual condition of this section. It is a financial back-water setting in from a less favored section than our own that we are suffering from. None the less, there is an undisputed stringency in the money market. Mer- chants are afraid to make the usual advances until they see what the banks are going to do. As for the banks, they are reported to be flush with money, and yet holding on to it, until they can see their way more clearly. " But be the cause of the stringency what it may, our farmers may as well make up their minds at once that they will have to buy less on credit this year than they have been accustomed to do. It is a good thing for all concerned that such is the case. The credit sys- tem has been so abused that it has become a curse rather than a blessing, and the sooner it can be abolished the better it will be for all classes of our people. " It is bankrupting many merchants, and to outsiders the wonder is that all are not bankrupted. There is a scramble among them for custom that is simply amazing, and in the eagerness to get a darky's trade all sound business principles seem to be thrown to the winds. The writer has known a leading merchant in this county to make advances to a penniless negro on no other security than an old pot- iron, double-barreled gun, that was pretty badly off in the matter of * History of the Wheel. Testimony. 75 lock, stock, and barrel. That is an extreme case, but nearly all advances are much on similar lines. Raw-boned horses and hollow- horned cows make up much of the security on which advances are often made to the tune of four and five hundred dollars on a single darky. And these enormous bills are not made legitimately. There are tenant farmers who can show bills in which they were charged last year $9 to |ii for a barrel of flour that cost perhaps $3.50. And so vi^ith other goods. And not only are these iniquitous charges made on the necessaries of life, but the bills are swelled by charges for useless gewgavi^s, for corsets and bonnets and fancy shoes. " While there are merchants who will fight for the possession of a darky with one hide-bound mule, nearly all will, naturally, demand all the security they can get. The shotgun merchant above men- tioned had tried to get the negro's landlord to stand for him before the gun was taken. And so it happens that there are merchants who have become, by demanding security of landlords, the largest landowners in the country. " So, after all, while many merchants have gone under, those who succeeded in business have succeeded on a large scale. They are men of great wealth, while their neighbors are poor ; and the poorest of all is the man who has a large body of land without the ready money to cultivate it. He has on his hands an unsalable elephant that is too good to give away and ruinous to keep. There are not many of the kind left. The merchants have swallowed them all. Such as are left would do well not to be tempted to go security for tenants. In nearly all cases where he does, he is left to ' hold the bag,' while the tenant has had victuals, clothes, and fancy articles, and the merchant has made his big profit. "Volumes might be written on this subject. Enough has been said to make it plain that the sooner the credit system, as it now exists, is abolished, the better for all classes of the community." The Selma (Alabama) Times says : " The only way to get out of debt and get a good price for cotton, is for every farmer to raise his farm supplies. Then he can sell his cotton whenever the price suits him. That is the road that leads to agricultural independence." This appeared in the Times in 1894. But let us hear what is the general opinion from 76 The Ills of the Sotcth, ten Southern States concerning this mode of doing business, and its effect upon the prosperity of the tillers of the soil : * Louisiana. "The system prevails very generally throughout the State. Rapides: To a considerable extent, the merchants, the chief of which are Jews, have heretofore got about ail the negro made, whether that was one bale or ten. Catahoula : Country mer- chants furnish small farmers or new beginners a reasonable amount of goods for themselves and families for the year, taking a mort- gage on the crop. Four-fifths of the farmers deal in this way. De Soto : It is almost universal; very few planters pay cash for everything, and almost no laborers do. Bossier: \\.\s universal, and our greatest evil. Red River : To an alarming extent after a good season ; but a bad season checks the system. Mississippi. f " The habit of scattering the energies of the working force over large surfaces . . . perpetuate the pernicious system of credit Q.wd. advances upon crops for provisions which could be more cheaply pro- duced at home. Mississippi Bottom : It prevails very generally throughout the region and to the extent of the ivhole or three-fourths of the growing crop. In Holmes, it is exceptional that any one, white or black, pays cash for an article. Deeds of trust are the rule. In Issaquena, frequently, the tenants (all negroes) when they have sufficient money and are able to pay cash as they go, prefer to keep their money and exhaust their credit. Upland Counties : The system prevails generally throughout the region and in most of the counties to the extent of one-half or 7Jiore of the prospective value of the crop. Alcorn : Hands occasionally desert the crop after getting all the advances they can. Marshall : At least one-half oi the crop is virtually raised on credit at ruinous rates. Noxubee, Pike, and Simpson : But few laborers can get along without credit. Hinds : It is due to this that land has no market value and that labor is taken from the landowners' control and forced into cotton production exclu- sively. Scott : It is one of the farmer's misfortunes that he is in * Tenth Census, Vol. V., Part I., p. 84. t Ibid., pp. 78, 155. Testimony. 11 debt and at the mercy of the merchant. Simpson : It is one great cause of the laborer's extravagance and wastefulness. Leake : Necessitates the exclusive production of cotton. Amite : Especially among the negroes. Tennessee.* " It prevails to a considerable extent throughout the State, often to three-fourths the value of the crop. Arkansas.! " Fulton : % It prevails to a sjnall extent; none of the farmers are rich, and they pay cash for what they buy. Miller and Boone : The system is quite getieral. Arkansas, Jefferson, and Grant : It prevails to a very large extent. Columbia : To a ruinous extent. Nearly all the hired laborers are negroes, who obtain their supplies from the merchants, the farmers having no control over their labor. Marion : Farmers frequently have to mortgage to merchants at very high rates of interest. CONWAY : It prevails to a large and ruinous extent, and induces laborers to spend their year's wages in advance, and leads to lawsuits. White, Pope, and Franklin : To a very serious extent, so much so that in many cases the credit given \% equal to the full value of the crop. Dallas and Garland : To an alarj?iing extent; in the latter county the condition of things is im- proving. Baxter and Drew : Largely, and to its fullest extent; generally a planter is credited to ihQ full amount oi \.\iG^ crop, and in some instances to a greater amount. Faulkner, Sevier, Lincoln, and Union : The system is almost universal. Sebastian : The poorer class of farmers secure the advances they need by mortgaging a few acres of the growing crop ; the better class obtain credit without mortgage. Hot Springs : Farmers obtain credit to the extent of about two-thirds the value of the prospective crop. Ashley : Three- fourths oi thosQ x^nWx\g diVid one- half oi those owning land obtain advances from merchants. Pulaski : About twenty per cent, of the farmers obtain advances. Scott : About thirty-five per cent. Craw- ford : Yxo\i2\A^ sixty per cent. Clark: sixty-six and two-thirds per cent. Prairie : Ninety per cent. Howard : Credit is given to the amount of at least one- half oi th e bacon consumed ; breadstuffs are * P. 104, f P- io6- X Fulton's population is 6,684 whites and 36 negroes. y'^ The Ills of the South, raised at home. Cross and Mississippi : The system prevails to a great extent. Chicot : The crop is made entirely on a credit sys- tcniy as the negroes give a mortgage before the crop is planted for all supplies, to enable them to make and gather it. Lee : Nine- tenths of the white and all the colored planters give mortgages to merchants for their supplies. Crittenden : Nine-tenths of the crops are made by money advanced by merchants of Memphis and New Orleans. Desha, Woodruff, and Saint Francis : The credit system is almost universal. Craighead: Yzxmexs buy 7nore than they cJU pay for, but that don't hurt their feelings one particle. Texas.* " It is not prevalent in Burnet, Gillespie, Clay, Palo Pinto, Eastland, Frio, and Live Oak Counties ; to a very small extent in Hopkins, Van Zandt, Cooke, Dallas, Grayson, Denton, Johnson, Tarrant, Hill, Lavaca, Karnes, Goliad, Victoria, Rockwall, Titus, Wilson, Comal, Harris, De Witt, Hardin, Chambers, Jefferson, Guadalupe, Blanco, Bexar, and Atascosa Counties. In other cotton counties of the State it prevails very largely, usually to one-half ox three- fourths, and sometimes to \.\vefull value of a crop. In a few of the counties it is declining. As a rule, the landowner is made responsible for any supplies that merchants may advance to tenants or share-laborers. Robertson County : Local or Galveston merchants advance supplies to about $30 per bale at 8 per cent, interest. Grimes County : About four-fifths of the farmers obtain advances of goods ; planters pledge to mer- chants, who make advances as far as they feel safe, and at the close of the season generally take all the crop. Mortgages are sometimes given before the crop is planted, and very few can raise a crop with- out assistance. Merchants sell goods at cash rates, but charge one per cent, per month on all credits. Colorado County : Besides obtain- ing supplies from merchants, the tenant also obtains credit on milch cows, corn, meat, etc., from the farm owners. The merchant always makes money, while the landowner suffers loss. It sometimes takes three years to pay for what was spent in eight months." In 1886 the Commissioner of Agriculture thus sums up the situation in the Southern States: " It appears that a large proportion of cotton * P. 162. Testimony. 79 planters are in debt for current supplies, and that the loss resulting amounts to $5,000,000 per annum in some States, and absorbs nearly or quite all the profits of production, while the soil is wearing away, with the lives of the cultivators, for the benefit of the commercial class." "^ This sum paid for supplies in excess of the cash price would amount to nearly $70,000 yearly on an average for each county of the cotton-growing States. On this basis, each county sustained an average loss in twenty-five years of $1,750,000. It is not surprising that the Commissioner of Agri- culture should say in reference to this situation, **This record makes a burden of interest that is unendurable." Now, it is a noteworthy fact that such men as Mr. Henry W. Grady and Mr. Harry Hammond, the various State Agents of the Department of Agri- culture, and observant men from every portion of the South, report the furnishing merchants every- where prosperous. They are making money. The contrast between their condition and that of the producer is very striking. Prosperity is the marked characteristic of the commercial class, as poverty and debts are the doleful features of the farming class. These are the features. How are they to be accounted for? The contention is not with the merchant, nor with the farmer. Both have dropped into a groove. The system of business is mainly to be charged with the results that burden the South. Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, iSS6, p. 427. 8o The Ills of the South. The expensiveness of conducting this kind of business has necessitated high prices. It is well known that a vast majority of these furnishing merchants operated during all these years upon borrowed capital. The commission merchants generally charged the country and town merchants eight per cent, on the money to be furnished dur- ing the season, two and a half per cent, for accept- ances, and the same per cent, for selling cotton. Storage and insurance of cotton formed items of expense. Often there was a loss on cotton of one and two dollars a bale. It is a general opinion that it takes ten per cent, on the sales to conduct busi- ness. The annual losses due to bad debts are never small. The theft of goods out of the store during the busy months of November and December must be added to the expense bill. Besides, in this busi- ness, balances are carried over every year. These items will run up a large per cent, that must be paid by the consumer. Add to this the net per cent, of profit. View it in whatever light we may, the business can not be conducted without a high rate of interest on the original cost. That this is so, that the prices must be high, is confirmed by the evidence of prosperity of mer- chants. Everywhere are men engaged in the fur- nishing business whose capital ranged from $500 to $5,000. In a period of twenty-five years, when the Southern planters were struggling with poverty, debts, and the labor system, they managed to accumulate handsome fortunes, varying from $io,coo to $200,000. CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY CONTINUED — ALABAMA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA. A LL reformation must have its birth in thought. *~^ It implies changes, personal, social, religious, and political. The man who goes heedlessly on year after year with a plan whose disastrous results lie around him does not think. '' I thought on my way," is the first step to a better life. Earnest thoughts about deranged and hurtful business affairs must be the first and essential step to a more pru- dent and a better management. The spendthrift, the sower of wild oats, the dreamer that sees " oceans of money " in every foolish scheme, and the man that makes no calculation in reference to his business, are not the men acquainted with effect- ive thinking. This is the only kind of thought that has value. Mere vagrant thought that does not consider the means to an end is rubbish. When reliable men from an extensive territory tell in plain words the damaging results traceable to the prevailing business system, the effect must be to stimulate thought ; and effective thought will produce reform. The evidence concerning a long and eventful period of bad management should lead to earnest reform. 6 82 The Ills of the South. Alabama.* " The system of advances, or credit, so prevalent throughout the cotton-producing parts of the State, is not without its evil influence, for the laborer and too often the owners of the land are obliged to get advances of provisions from their merchants, for the payment of which the crop is mortgaged ; and as cotton is the only crop which will always bring ready money, its planting is usually insisted on by the merchants making the advances. In this way cotton comes to be the paramount crop, and there is little chance for rotation with other things. *' The system of credits in the large cotton-producing regions pre- vails to such an extent that the whole cotton crop is usually mortgaged before it is gathered ; and when we consider that the prices charged for provisions, etc., thus advanced are at least 50 per cent. HIGHER than regular market rates, and that the cost of producing cot- ton is given by our correspondents, almost without exception, at 8 cents a pound, it will need very little calculation to show that the laborer who makes a profit of only 2 or 3 cents a pound, or $12 to $15 a bale, on his cotton, ivill have the chances too greatly against him ever to be out of debt to his merchants when he relies solely upon this crop to provide the money ; and the exorbitant interest on the money advanced is not likely to be lessened so long as the merchant's risks continue to be as great as they are,'' — Prof. Eugene Allen Smith, Ph.D., Special Census Agent for Alabama and Florida. Correspondents report for Alabama: " In regions I., credits to the value of one-half the laborer's crop are often made by the landowner ; in regions II., credits are given largely in a few localities, but not as much as formerly ; in regions III., credits have only been recently asked and granted ; in regions IV., v., VI., and VII., credits are almost universal, and regularly consume the entire crop of the laborer." Florida. f " In Jackson, Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson, Hamilton, Suwan- nee, Alachua, and Marion, and where cotton is the chief crop, the * Tenth Census, Vol. II., Part II., pp. 62, 63, 156. f Ibid., p. 71. Testimony Continued. 83 credit system prevails, and often to a ruinous extent, as in many cases the farmers are a year behind; the merchants are willing to advance on growing crops and take liens for heavy profits. No remedy seems possible under the present system of planting cotton exclusively. In the lower counties, Polk, Taylor, and Volusia,* the credit system does not prevail to any great extent, cotton not being the chief crop." " The cotton production of Florida in i860 was estimated at about 65.000 bales, in 1870 at about 39,000 bales, and in 1880 at about 55,000 bales. This decrease becomes all the more noticeable when we take into consideration the increase of the population during the same period." In i860 the white population was 77.746 ; in 1880 it was 142,605. In i860 the negro population was 62,677 ; in 1880 it was 126,690. " The reason for this decrease in the cotton crop is thus stated by Hon. Dennis Eagen, former commissioner of immigration : " 'The new conditions of labor have operated largely to reduce the acreage of this staple (cotton), and the attention of planters has been turned to the culture of other crops requiring the employment of a less number of hands.' " f Georgia, t *' Not to any extent in Catoosa and Gordon. § Provisions to tenants in Murray and Chattooga, and to a very great extent in other counties. Since the late war, the great majority of the peo- ple have been in debt, and hence the system of credits and advances. To a small extent in Union, Hart, Banks, Haralson, and Fulton ; but in all other counties to the extent of one-half or three- fourths of the value of the crop. Central Cotton Belt : In all of the counties, but to a limited extent in Marion County. Ad- vances are obtained by about one-half oi the farmers to the extent of from one-half to three-fourths of the value of the crop for provis- ions, supplies, and clothing. Long Leaf Pine and Coast Region: To no extent in Camden County ; limited in Appling, Coffee, Berrien, Montgomery, Wilcox, Chatham, Liberty, Wayne, * White counties. t Tenth Census, Vol. VI., Part II., p. 29. X P. 174. § White counties. 84 The Ills of the South, Clinch, and Echols, In other counties it prevails to a very great extent^ one-half or more of the farmers obtaining advances to the value of a large part of the crop. The system is declining in Brooks, Montgomery (liens only on live stock), and Telfair." South Carolina.* The statements concerning the economic con- ditions of this State are made by Harry Ham- mond, Esq., special agent of the census for South Carolina. He says : " Purchasing supplies on a credit prevails to a considerable extent, especially among the small farmers. The exact rate at which these advances are made can not be given, as it is not charged as in- terest, but is included in an increased price asked for supplies purchased on a credit. It varies from twenty to otie hundred per cent, above the market value of the goods, according to the amount of competition among the storekeepers, who here, as elsewhere in the State, are by far the most prosperous class of the community, in proportion to the skill and capital employed. The better class of farmers do not approve of the credit system. It furnishes facilities to small farmers, encouraging them to undertake operations they can not make remunerative to themselves ; it reduces the number of laborers, precludes high culture. The rental value of land is thus increased, and land which could not be sold for ten dollars may be rented for five dollars. " The thriftless culture resulting from the small farm, unduly multiplied by this unhealthy stimulus of credit, causes many acres to be thrown yearly out of cultivation. Thus the increasing demand to rent land, in consequence of the increasing facilities for credit to small farmers, and the constantly diminishing area of arable land resulting from the very imperfect system of culture their lack of means forces them to adopt, create high rejits injurious to the small farmer, and impoverish the landlord by deteriorating the quality of his land, as well as by abstracting the labor he would employ in remunerative culture. ' ' The system of credits and advances prevails to a large extent, * Pp. 6i, 65. Testimony Co7itinued. 85 consuming from one third to three-fifths of the crop before it is harvested. The statement is general that this is on the decrease, and is correct in so far that a larger amount of supplies is being pro- duced at home, and a larger number of purchases for cash are being made by farmers since 1S75. On the other hand, the number of farmers having largely increased in the same period, the number working on advances, especially among the small farmers, has largely increased also. The records of the courts show that the number of /zVwjon the growing crop is^/-^a//)/^« the increase^ the rate of increase being twenty-three per cent, per annum for the last two years. The number of such liens on record in eleven of the counties under con- sideration is (there being no return from Union) 30,205, a number nearly equal to the number of farros ; but as two or more liens are not unfrequently recorded against the same crop, probably not more than half of thd growing crops are under lien. The aggregate value of these liens is $2,354,956, an average to the lien of $77. It appears that the five counties lowest in the ratio of farm productions to farm values have a larger amount in liens by 13 per cent, than the five counties standing highest in this ratio. In the former, the recorded indebtedness is $4.28 for each acre in cotton, on which crop alone liens are taken. In the latter, it is $2.84 per acre in cotton. As may be inferred from the number and average amount of these liens, they are most taken from the smaller farmers, uszially renters, for advances made by the landlord, or more frequently by the storekeeper." North Carolina.* " Very little in Columbus, Guilford, Chatham, and Alexan- der. To a considerable extent in BRUNSWICK, Rowan, Anson, Union, Cleaveland, Cumberland, and Duplin. Not too much in Pamlico. To value of one-half of the crop on an average in Carteret, Franklin, Mecklenburg, and Wayne. Only for fer- tilizers in Alamanco. In other counties, the system prevails to a great extent, and in several almost universally. \ Wake County : Most farmers do not clear eftoitgh one year to enable them to grow the next year s crop. The system is 'blue ruin ' to the farmer. Craven County : The merchants and others take advantage by charging ^ P. 77. f Population : white, 24,289 ; negroes, 53,650. 86 The Ills of the South, extortionate prices. Lincoln : Not much among those farmers doing their own work, but is almost universal among those who hire. Edgecombe, Pitt, Beaufort : The practice is decreasing every year." In 1893 the Southern situation remained practi- cally unchanged. There may have been some slight improvement in various localities, but these few- isolated and temporary cases can not be regarded as sure and permanent indications of an upward and forward movement toward a general progress in economic conditions. The average status during this year of the farming class of the South was unusually gloomy. There was general depression, and a strange feeling of unrest. An awakened feeble sense of wrong manifested itself. All is not well. The unrest led to a search for the cause of their woes, and this, too, often when found, was not real, or vague and ill-defined, like other ill-defined and unsurveyed territory. Real hindrances against the farmer were clumsily managed. A dark, dan- gerous, zigzag course was taken, when the sunlit, straightforward method of calm, public protesta- tions was sure of triumph. The right way of doing things is always the best. It may be a little slow, but it is the wisest. It has no train of pernicious consequences following doubtful and dangerous methods to correct evil. The air was full of pyro- technics. A form of lawlessness arose, known as White Capism, in sections of various Southern States, striking terror to communities, placing the actors in the category of crime, adding to court Testimony Co7itinued, 87 expenses, and bringing grief and trouble to many families. A vast deal charged to White Capism is not true ; perhaps nine-tenths of the outrages attributed to these men are not true. It became fashionable to charge them with every villainy. As long as a befogged and distorted public sentiment could see crime alone in the so-called White Caps, unscrupu- lous men saw the occasion, under the screen of this opinion, to gratify their spite or their revenge, or further their interest. The end to be accomplished by this organization was not the same everywhere, nor were the causes that inspired the organization the same, if their acts form a safe criterion by which to judge them. In other words, the genus has a variety of species. The perpetrators of crime constituted a band of reckless, lawless men. Those whose one motive was to correct the labor system in certain localities, were another class. They harmed no man's person or property. Their great mistake was, they laid down the gap for the perpetration of crime by the other class. They established a mischievous precedent. The end in view could have been secured by unobjectionable methods. The object was to free the lands belonging to merchants of negro ten- ants. The grievance was, that these tenants were a menace to live stock, and a demoralizing ele- ment to the labor of the neighboring farmers. It was, in substance, a war against uncontrolled, unsu- pervised, and, in not a few instances, poorly fed, 88 The Ills of the South, labor. Supplies were furnished according to crop prospects. These disturbances were local. The number of merchants who thus farmed was small. Had the fifty or one hundred thousand acres been divided into a number of large plantations, and occupied by negro tenants, it is doubtful whether any complaint would have been made. Supervision in this event would have been necessary, and the larder would have been kept full. But these tenants were scat- tered over a wide area of territory, on many farms, ranging from a hundred to a thousand acres, among four or five times that number of farms owned by white people. These tenants thus situated, thrift- less, improvident, and poor; many with not a day's provisions on hand, and others with no provisions in their homes for days, were a constant source of anxiety to their neighbors. This state of affairs could not last. Criticism was plentiful on the movement to break up this phase of tenant system. The press teemed with exagger- ated stories, sometimes the product of mere idle rumor, and sometimes the product of prejudice or passion. One class of men condemned the move- ment with iron stoicism, because it was bad policy. Their view was correct, but this did not help the people in trouble. Their denunciatory gifts were large, but they were wanting in the gift to offer a remedy. They had no sympathetic interest in any of the three parties concerned : the merchants, the white farmers, and the negro tenants. Others dis- approved the method, approved the object to be Testimony Continued, 89 accomplished, and sympathized with the people. Wrong resulted to the merchants, but not through the men who gave orders to the tenants to leave these places after the crop was gathered. This is the common judgment of the people. The harm to the merchants was the result of the method. Had the merchants shown active sympathy for the people when they saw the storm coming, years before it darkened the horizon, or had the people adopted a frank, courageous policy, the class of mer- chants affected w^ould have been the least sufferers. The men that approved the object, but not the plan, sympathized with the hard environment of the white farming class, and no less with the negro tenants in their unwise and dangerous position. If these tenants were a threat to peace, order, and property, their life was also the source of danger. Others condemned the relief measure, not as unwise in plan, but in itself. It was a hostile measure to them. For the suffering people, white and black, they had no particular interest. Their active con- cern for the people who had enriched them was of the same type as that of Surajah Dowlah when he shut up one hundred and forty-six Englishmen in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Had a conference been proposed, it would have been to their gain and to the benefit of all parties. Unfortunately, they saw the matter only in the light of a certain class of people at Philippi of ancient Macedonia — ''The hope of their gain was gone." No good man favored wrong to them. Under all the circum- stances, and in perfect fairness, a motion from this 90 The Ills of the South. merchant class for a better understanding and an amicable adjustment would have been most graceful and would have gone a long way to healing the grievances. All these troubles had their root in the business system under review. The bulk of this land — over seventy-five thousand acres owned by one firm, and occupied largely by negro tenants — was lost by white farmers through the operation of the lien laws and the credit system. These related evils are not dead. Early in Feb- ruary, 1893, the Clarion Ledger, one of the most influential newspapers of the State, published in the capital city of Mississippi, thus uttered its warning notes : '' This lien-law device has wrought infinite evil. And it has but postponed the end. The effect of facility of credit on such a population destroyed the germ of the only practice — thrift and economy — which can save a farming community from ruin." The evidence is cumulative ; the reasons for speedy reform are cogent. The evil is not local ; it is as widespread as the Southern States. What is the staple of conversa- tion in every furnishing store of this territory dur- ing the closing days of December, 1893? ''How are they paying up ? Balances are many." A few more samples out of many will close this feature of the chapter. The unchanged business policy has still its grip on the people. The informa- tion was furnished by responsible men. " A negro made ten bales of cotton in 1892, which brought him $427. After paying his rent, for land and two Testimony Continued, 91 mules, $135, and $292 to his merchant, he closed the year's work with a balance due for supplies of $60." The difference between cash and credit prices on three styles of vehicles was 42, 56, and 86 per cent. The difference on a number of articles of universal use on every farm was placed on an average at 33 per cent, by our informant. Add to this the fact that the government at Washington appropriated $250,000 to ascertain the mortgage indebtedness of the country, part of which is in the South. But what is even this sum in comparison with the expense of recording the various liens on prop- erty ? The cost of recording the 30,000 liens in eleven counties of South Carolina in 1880 was $45,000. This burden had to be borne by the mortgageor. It would be interesting to know the annual ex- pense to record the liens of the South for the last twenty-eight years. If that sum was $250,000 for each year and for all the Southern States, and the cost of record for each lien $1.50, then the total cost for twenty-eight years was $8,000,000. This and other expenses formed a part of the general price on time. It is now proposed to show the difference between cash and credit prices by three tabular statements. The first will exhibit a comparison between $100 credit price and the cash price, according to the rate per cent, opposite it, and which rate measures the advance of the credit above the cash price. The latter price is the valuation of merchandise on a The Ills of the South. cash basis. The same merchandise will cost Sioo, according to the rate per cent, this is above the cash valuation. TABLE A. PER CENT. ABOVE GAIN ON CASH CREDIT PRICE. CASH PRICE. BASIS. $IOO .80 155-55 $44.45 lOO .70 5S.82 41.18 lOO .60 62.50 37-50 100 .50 66.66 33-34 lOO .45 69.00 31.00 lOO .40 71.42 28.58 lOO .35 74.07 25-63 lOO .30 • 76.92 23.08 lOO .25 80.00 20.00 ICO .20 83-33 16.67 The second table represents ten farmers, each of whom has bought annually merchandise on a credit basis to the value standing opposite his name. The second column shows the cash price, at a reduction of 25 per cent, on the face value of the credit price. This is the merchant's method of calculating per- centage. The other three columns show the gains on a cash basis at this rate for different periods of time. According to this plan, any man could have reached a cash basis in three years by reducing his purchase one-fourth per annum for this period. Testimony Continued. 93 TABLE B. Gains on a Cash Basis at 25 per cent, less than the Credit Price. CREDIT PRICE. CASH PRICE. GAINS ON CASH BASIS FOR I year. 10 years. 20 years. John Wilkes Henry Glass Peter Cooper Ralph Rowan Sam. Watts John Hicks 3ick Hoag Tom. Wells Carl Upton Wm. Downs $100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000 l75 150 225 300 375 450 525 600 675 750 $25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 $250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1.500 1,750 2.000 2.225 2,500 $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 The third form represents the business of 2,005 persons. Here too, it is supposed that the credit price is 25 per cent, in advance of the cash price. Should this be denied, notwithstanding the evidence presented in this and preceding chapters, it is safe to beheve that the difference between the two prices, and the purchases that would not have been made on a cash basis, would fully save 25 per cent. The first column shows the number of buyers ; the second, the sum bought by each on credit ; the third, the total credit price of the whole class in column one ; the fourth, the total cash price of the whole class ; the last three columns represent the gains on a cash basis for three periods. 94 The Ills of the South. TABLE C. Credit and Cash Prices compared for 2.005 Persons. Dif- ference 25 per cent. Gains on a Cash Basis for one, ten, and twenty years. CREDIT PRICE FOR ONE. TOTAL CREDIT PRICE. TOTAL CASH PRICE. GAINS ON CASH BASIS PERSON'S. For I year. For 10 years. For 20 years. 1,000 200 200 y 125 100 80 60 50 40 $50 100 200 300 400 700 800 900 $50,000 20,000 40,000 45,000 50,000 50,000 48,000 42,000 40,000 36,000 $37,500 15,000 30,000 33,750 37,500 37,500 36,000 31,500 30,000 27,000 $12,500 5,000 10,000 11,250 12,500 12,50c 12,000 10,500 10,000 9,000 $125,000 50.000 100,000 112,500 112,500 112,500 120,000 105,000 100,000 90,000 5250,000 ioo,coo 200,000 225,000 225,000 225,000 240,000 210,000 200,000 180,000 Total $421,000 $315,750 $105,250 $1,052,500 S2, 105,000 This calculation is based on an average sale of 10,000 bales of cotton, at an average price of ten cents per pound for a period of twenty years. The figures of this table deserve to be studied by thoughtful men. Calmly, and without bitterness, what lesson does this statement impress upon me, upon you, upon the merchant, upon the farmer, in its bearing upon the duty of to-day as seen by the sad experience of yesterday? Ten thousand bales of cotton at 10 cents a pound are worth $450,000. In these twenty years, cotton ranged in price from 18 to 7 cents. The average 10 cents will hardly be regarded as too large. Two years' self- denial to the value of one-third of the supplies bought, would have brought the people to a cash Testimony Continued. 95 basis. In twenty years, 2,005 persons, farmers, would have saved on this basis $2,105,000. This is a large sum. This is more than the valuation of all the property, real and personal, of many a first- class county in the Southern States. What more? It is probable that these 2,005 farmers are in debt to the full value of $200,000 to-day. What more ? Vast bodies of land have passed out of their pos- session. Is this a local representation confined to some one section? Is it not typical of the various com- munities of the cotton-growing States? If there is any force in evidence, such is the case. Variations there may be, and no doubt there are ; but the ruinous credit policy has depressed and burdened the farming people of all the Southern States. Mr. Joseph Baxendale, of England, placed in his warehouses and places of business various maxims as instructive reminders of valuable truths in prac- tical life. Being a humane and considerate man, he never lost sight of the interest and well-being of those in his employment. Some of these pithy sayings were " Never despair," " Time lost can not be regained," '' Let industry, temperance, and econ- omy be the habits of your lives," " He who spends all he gets is on the way to beggary." If ever there was a cause urgently demanding the exemplification of the last maxim, it is to be found in the general financial status of the Southern farmers. Take the illustration of the 2,005 ^^^' They have spent 28 cotton crops of 10,000 bales each, valued at $12,600,000. They have lost about 96 The Ills of the South. 150,000 acres of land, and are pressed with an indebtedness of probably not less than $200,000. Had the broad-minded, generous-hearted Baxen- dale been a merchant in our day, he would have advised heroic self-denial to those with whom he had dealings. One of his maxims was " Never to spend more than ninepence out of every shilling." Save one-fourth. There is hope in this plan. Again, he adds : " Upon industry and frugality our well-being depends." The counsel and disinterest- edness of such a man would inspire confidence, and would soon bring about a*n era of good feeling and prosperity. CHAPTER VII. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. " Most men work for the present, a few for the future. The wise work for both." HTEN Southern States are in arrears in food crops. ^ The ratio of supply between i860 and 1880, i860 and 1890, is not equal to the increase of popu- lation of these periods. In twenty years the whole population in these States increased 53 per cent. ; in thirty years, 87 per cent. In the latter period the whites increased 93 per cent. ; the blacks, 'J'J per cent. The negroes are laborers, and in i860 they were all agricultural laborers. Skilled workmen are few. Their income comes under the heading of wages. Whether they rent farm land, or work on shares, or engage in other gainful pursuit, they are laborers, and their moneyed income must correspond to the kind of work they perform. Whatever the grain product of these States was in i860, the increase in twenty years should be 53 per cent., and, in thirty years, 87 per cent. Two circumstances only can adjust this arrearage. First, that the excess of other than grain crops bal- anced the deficiency in moneyed valuation. Second, that a portion of the population of these States were engaged in other gainful industries, and that their 7 98 The Ills of the South. pecuniary income was equivalent to the loss sus- tained in grain. Another circumstance may be sug- gested : that the consumption of grain was less than in former years. In regard to the first circumstance, the evidence does not support any such conclusion. As to the second consideration, the manufacturing interests of the South displace but a comparatively small num- ber from the farms. Railroads and sawmills, and industries of this kind may have displaced a few hundred thousand blacks. Whatever the displace- ment of negro labor from the farm may be from these causes, it has been more than offset by the large increase of white labor. The inquiry deserving attention is, What are the facts in the arrearage of the grain crop \\\ the South ? The comparison is made with reference to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The status of these States will be a fair criterion by which to judge the South. In any event, the aggregate deficiency of these States in grain will not be denied. The following tables will show this condition. They were compiled from the reports of the Depart- ment of Agriculture. The first shows the yield of six grain crops in the ten States in i860 ; the second the yield of similar crops in Agricultural Products, 99 TABLE I. Cereals of i860.* Alabama Arkansas Florida Georg^ia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee. . . Texas Total WHEAT. RYE. Bushels. Bushels. 1,218,444 957,601 2,808 72.457 78,092 21.300 2,544,913 32,208 115,532 36,065 •587,925 4,743,706 1,285.631 5.459,268 39,474 436,856 89,091 257-989 1,478.345 111,860 18,310,849 1,258,722 INDIAN CORN. Bushels. 33.226,282 17,823,588 2,834,391 30.776,293 16,853,745 29,0^7,682 30,078,^64 15,065,606 52.089,926 16.500.702 244,306,779 OATS. BARLEY. Bushels. Bushels. 682,179 15,135 475,268 3,158 46,899 8,369 1,231,817 14,682 89,377 224 221,235 1,875 2,781,860 3,445 936,974 11,490 2,267,814 25,144 985,889 67,562 9,719,312 1,510,184 BUCK- WHEAT. Bushels. ,347 509 2,023 160 1,699 55,924 602 [4,481 1,349 58,094 TOTAL CEREALS IN THE TEN STATES IN i860. Wheat 18,310,849 bushels. Rye 1,258,722 Indian corn 244,306,779 Oats 9,719,312 Barley 1,510,184 Buckwheat 58,094 Total 275,163,940 bushels. Tenth Census Report. oo The Ills of the South. TABLE II. Cereals of iSSq.* Alabama Arkansas . . . . Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total WHEAT. RYE. Bushels. Bushels. 208,591 14,618 955-668 15,181 290 13,389 1,096,312 87,021 257 374 16,570 3,544 4,292.035 276,609 658-351 I7>303 8,300,789 165,621 4,272,392 62,120 19,901,255 655,780 OATS. BARLEY. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 30,073,036 3,231,085 2,002 33,982,318 4,180,877 994 3,701,264 391,321 128 29,261.422 4,767,456 6.053 13,081,954 297,271 598 26,148,144 1,362,290 875 25.783,623 4,512.762 3.521 13,770,417 3,019,119 9,428 63,635,350 7,355,100 63,866 69,031,493 12,578,880 47,692 135,157 318,469,021 41,696,161 BUCK- WHEAT. Bushels. 4,622 5,074 126 3,527 345 [2,621 472 7,143 1,263 35,193 TOTAL CEREALS IN THE TEN STATES IN 1889. Wheat 19.901,255 bushels. Rye 655,780 Indian corn 318,469,021 Oats 41,696, 161 Barley I35,i57 Buckwheat 35, ^93 Total 380,892,567 bushels. * Production of cereals, Eleventh Census. Agricicltiu^al Products, loi The grain crops increased 37 per cent, in twenty- nine years. Population increased during this period, 87 per cent. The gain in round numbers was 105,- 000,000 bushels. The gain of Florida, Tennessee, and Texas was 106,000,000 bushels in round numbers. The aggregate grain in bushels of seven of these States was less in 1889 than in i860. In 1888, the cotton crop in the ten States was 6,898,020 bales, and brought §291,378,388.^'" This was a gain of a little over a million and a half bales, and this excess brought Southern farmers and planters nearly sixty-six million dollars ; but the corn and oat crops were in arrears in seven of these States, based upon the increase of population, about 150,000,000 bushels, and these figures will about represent the valuation of the deficit of these two grain crops. Thus, it follows that the corn and oats absorbed the gain on cotton, with a large balance against the planter. Table III. will show that the productive prosper- ity of Southern farmers, fifteen years after the war, gave no signs of an improved condition. Such food crops as potatoes, peas and beans, hay and corn, were less in 1880 than in i860. * Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1SS9, p. 229. I02 The Ills of the South, TABLE III. Statistics of Agriculture for Ten States— Alabama, Ar- kansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.* Tobacco pounds Cotton bales Wool \ pounds Irish potatoes bushels Sweet potatoes " Peas and beans " Orchard products Product of market-gardens Dairy products — butter pounds *' " cheese " Sugar-cane hogsheads " maple pounds Molasses, cane gallons " sorghum " " maple " Bees' wax pounds Bees' honey " Hay tons i860. 79,673,781 5.331.439 7,357,252 4.354.673 35,976,022 10,986,789 $2,056,428 $1,705,712 46,177,799 527.545 230,580 151,065 14,941,691 1,409.765 92,275 625,902 7,582,422 641,731 1880. 57,791,641 5,697,079 13,950,094 3,941,727 25,939,990 4,859.761 $6,116,840 $1,415,891 74,131,166 304,410 178,872 4,103 16,573,273 9,823,258 4,270 507,803 8,511,088 410,497 The fact of this arrearage will be seen when we compare the total of these six grain crops with the population. In i860, there were 36 bushels per capita; in 1890, 27 bushels per capita — a difference of 9 bushels. The aggregate deficiency at this latter period, in these ten States, was 133,664,000 bushels. * Compendium, Tenth Census, Part I. f Texas alone in 1880 clipped 6,928,019 pounds. On eleven of these products there was a loss in 1880, when population had increased 53 per cent. The corn was short in the ten States in 1880, as compared with i860, nearly 21,000,000 bushels. Measured by the increase of population, it was nearly short 112,000,000 bushels. Agriculhcral Products. 103 The total deficiency in corn and oats alone was 114,864,478 bushels, and in corn alone 138,384,655 bushels. As there was a gain in the oat crop of 31,976,849 bushels over i860, this must be deducted from the total loss of the corn crop, to make that estimate exact. The oat crop serves quite as well for the purpose of feeding live stock, as corn. The 133,664,000 bushels of the six grain food crops, expresses the exact loss in the productive prosperity of the States. The correctness of this conclusion, measured by the increase of population, is reasonable. No indus- tries in the South have withdrawn any perceptible portion of the population from agricultural pursuits. But even if this w^ere the case, the food crops would still be necessary by the increased population. These food crops represent wealth just as much as cotton. The farm acreage for all crops in i860 was 45,389,333 acres ; "^^ in 1880, the total acreage was 58,740,689 — a gain of 29 per cent, in 20 years. If in the next ten years there should be a proportionate increase in acreage, then the whole enlarged farm area in the ten States will be 58 per cent, over i860. But as population gained 87 per cent., the disparity is apparent. To illustrate : if three million farmers out of a population of fifteen million cultivate forty- five million acres, thirty million people, it would seem natural, ought to furnish six million farmers cultivating ninety million acres. Three reasons may account for the inequality between the augmenta- tion of the farm area and population. First, dis- * Report on Agriculture, Tenth Census, p. xii. I04 The Ills of the SoiUh, placement of labor from the farm. Second, intensive farming, and reducing the number of acres for field hands. Third, lazy and demoralized labor. The gains of all the crops were neither 29 per cent, for 1S80, nor 58 per cent, for 1890. Besides, 42 per cent, of the population contributed nothing to the farm products, or sought employment in other pursuits. The arrearage in the grain crops of the ten States is indisputable. The following table exhibits the population of these States: TABLE IV. White Population. STATES. i860. 1880. 1890. Alabama 526,271 324.143 77.746 591.550 357.456 ^53.899. 629,942 291.300 826,723 420,891 662,185 591.531 142,605 816,906 454,954 479.398 867,242 391,105 1,138,831 1,197,237 830.796 816,517 224,416*. 973.462 454,712^ 539.703 1,049.191 458,454-^ 1.332,971 1.741,190 Arkansas .Florida North Carolina • South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total 4,397,920 6,741,994 8,521,457 Agric2tltitral Prodiuts. \o- TABLE V. Colored Population. STATES. i860. 1880. 1890. Al3.b3.rn3 437,770 111,259 62.677 465,698 350,373 437.404 361,522 412,320 283,019 182,921 600,103 210,666 126,690 725.133 483,655 650,291 531,277 604,332 403,151 393,384 681,431 311,227 florida. 166,678 Gcors^is 863,716 562,893 Mississippi . r . • . . ... 747,720 561,170 Smith Carnlina 692,503 434,300 Tennessee Texas 492,837 Total 3.104.963 4,728,682 5,514,475 While the grain crops in these States have varied each year from i860 to 1880, the aggregate deficiency during any one year can not be disputed. In 1886,"^^ the corn crop was less in five of the ten States. In Georgia, there was a gain of 520,707 bushels. There was a large increase in the oat crop in all the ten States at this time. Yet, in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missis- sippi, and Louisiana, there was only an aggregate gain in the combined corn and oat crops of a little over 4,250,000 bushels over i860. This was the gain in twenty-six years, when the population had nearly doubled itself. In considering the causes which have been mainly instrumental in producing the arrearage in food crops, a table will be given to show the human * Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1S86, p. 368. io6 The Ills of the South. working forces on Southern farms in these States. A comparison between the table following, and the table on population, will show what proportion of the people are engaged in agricultural pursuits. It is to be regretted that no data are at hand by which the human labor force of i860 could be compared with any subsequent period. It is hoped the twelfth census will give the country information as to the actual number of persons engaged in agri- cultural labor, of both races, white and black, male and female, of each race so engaged. It would be invaluable knowledge upon which to base conclu- sions for future action. TABLE VI. Persons Engaged in Agriculture in 1880.* 10 Years and Over. By Ages, from STATES. MALE. FEMALE. TOTAL. 291,477 195,002 47,465 329.S56 T47.538 252,324 314,228 208,672 275,620 330,125 89.153 21,653 11,266 102,358 57,768 87,614 46,709 85,930 18,533 29,192 380,630 216,655 58,731 432,204 205,306 339,938 360,937 294,602 294,153 359.317 Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total 2,392,307 550,166 2,942,473 The causes of this arrearage are, in the main, two- fold. One of these has been presented in a former ^Census Report, 1880. Agricultural Proditcts. 107 chapter. It is referred to here to show its bearing upon food crops. If the lessons these pages are to impress shall have any value, it must be done by giving line upon line. First, over-production of cotton has brought about the deficiency of grain crops in the South. The supply has been greater than the world's demand. Whatever other causes have operated against a remunerative price, this one cause has been chiefly instrumental in the result. Too much attention to cotton has reduced the crops of corn and oats. In i860, the cotton acreage was 12,000,000 acres." The increased acreage from that period to 1886 is 50 per cent. The American cotton is 57 per cent, of the world's product. Had corn and oats in the six States mentioned on a former page received equal attention with cot- ton, the gain in these two food crops would have been 80,000,000 bushels. If we value these grains as worth to the farmer, one dollar a bushel, cotton seven cents a pound, and estimate a bale of cotton at 450 pounds, it will take 2,544,444 bales to balance the account in the deficiency of corn and oats. "In June, 1870, when a large increase of cotton planting was reported, the declaration was made in the Monthly that the ' cotton growers seem deter- mined to reduce the price to 15 cents,' which was accomplished within six months, by an increase of the cotton crop from a little more than three mil- lions of bales to nearly four and a half millions ; and * Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1886, pp. 382, 386. io8 The Ills of the South. in the report of June, 1870, it was stated that the penalty of growing four milHons of bales instead of three, was a reduction of seven cents per pound, equivalent to $130,000,000 on the crop. Short- sighted political economists objected to that phase of presentation of the resulting loss, as incorrect ; but when four millions of bales, at $76 per bale, produce but $304,000,000, while three millions of bales, at $109 per bale, bring $327,000,000, or $23,- 000,000 more for the smaller crop than for the larger, there is the additional loss of the labor em- ployed in making the extra million of bales, instead of producing food and forage supplies, now obtained at ruinous cost from the North ; and all these losses, with their incidental results in thwarting systematic rotation and recuperative cropping, will far exceed the $130,000,000 of the above calculations. "The crop of 1871, partly from diminution of area and partly from diminished yield, has probably fallen to the plane of that of 1869, and the price has advanced in almost equal proportion. While the recommendations of these reports, respecting the production of cotton, have been bitterly assailed by speculators and dealers, the positions taken are impregnable, viz. : that these fluctuations of produc- tions and price are injurious alike to producers and manufacturers; that cotton in the Gulf States, while the prominent crop, should not be grown so exclu- sively as to run the price below a living profit and create a debt for provisions and supplies ; that no one crop, which can scarcely average for years to come, however large it may be, a value of $300,000,- Agricttltural Products. 109 000, . . . can alone make the South a wealthy or even thriving community." This one thing the South has done. From 1865 to 1890, cotton planting has been a mania. The neglected corn field with all its consequences is a part of Southern history. The second cause instrumental in the arrearage of grain crops is to be found in the condition of negro labor. *' The negro will not raise corn," is a com- mon remark. This indifference to corn growing and food crops generally, is an element of a large unit. The matter of inquiry here is the negro's relation to field crops, especially the grain crops. By examining Table VI., showing the persons en- gaged in agriculture, we have the whole number so employed in 1880. After much inquiry of practical men, farmers and others, an analysis of the whole number of agricultural laborers, furnishes the follow- ing data : 25 per cent, of the whole are white men — it may be larger; the remainder are all blacks, 15 per cent, of the males are old slave negroes; 85 per cent, of the males, born since 1845, practically know nothing of slavery, and the others are females, assumed to be colored. These arranged in classes will give the following tabular statement with the per cent, each class is of the whole. The rate per cent, is approximately accurate. I lO The Ills of the South. TABLE VII. Persons Engaged in Agriculture in 1880, Classified. White males Old slave negroes, males. Younger negroes, males . Colored females Total. 598,076 269,135 [,525,100 550,166 2,942,473 .25 •75 The concurrent testimony of farmers and others is that the value of the work of negroes on the farm, as compared with the same kind of work done in slave time under humane masters, and that work under no effective supervision to-day, may be thus ex- pressed ; the value of the work done by the old slave negroes is 50 per cent, of what it was in olden times ; that of the younger negro men, 30 per cent.; and that of the colored females, 20 per cent. We write of them as classes. The work done covers an entire year. The standard of measurement is rea- sonable work prior to the manumission of this people. The result of this investigation may be stated in the following : TABLE VIII. Value of Negro Work on the Farm in 1880. NO. PER CENT, 134,567 457,530 110,033 •50 •30 .20 Total 702,130 Agricultural Products, 1 1 1 The substance of the estimate is that 2,344,401 negroes working on farms in 1880 do as much work as was done by 702,130 negroes prior to their emancipation. Is the estimate unreasonable ? Ac- curacy is not claimed for the statement. It is not far from the truth. The elements of deterioration in the quality and quantity of the work done by the colored people are known to all the Southern States. In their present condition this people as a class, undirected, waste much valuable time ; their racial quality, laziness, here as in Hayti and the English West Indies, has few checks ; they are proverbially poor managers of their own affairs; the future, with its interests, is one long day-dream. To them, more than any other people, the present hour is life. These are acknowledged facts. What reduction in work will these elements produce during twelve months ? The average value of this labor according to the estimate is 32 per cent. The average colored laborer that produced in i860, 100 pounds cotton, 100 pounds corn, 100 pounds fodder, 100 pounds field peas, 100 pounds sweet potatoes, has reduced this average to-day in each of these productions to 32 pounds. Then he aided in raising the meat supply. Now the majority of colored people raise no hogs. He kept up the repairs of the farm ; his work has been fully reduced to the same per cent, in this par- ticular. As it takes three colored farm hands to produce as much to-day as one produced in a for- mer period, the effect on food crops is evident. 1 1 2 The Ills of the South. Colored labor on an average produces more than 32 per cent, of cotton as compared with the quan- tity produced in the period before the civil war. As this is the crop bringing money, it receives special attention. The general opinion, however, is that the number of colored farm people producing two and three bales of cotton per hand is far in ex- cess of those producing four and five bales per hand. That the grain crops, essential to Southern pros- perity, have not been in proportion to the increase in population, Tables L, II., and III. of this chapter fully exhibit, The facts showing this to the year 1880 are clear. The ten years following have been years of depression. The leading newspapers of the South have urged and warned the farming commu- nity to attend to the corncrib and the smokehouse — to live at home. These admonitory appeals have resounded through the land annually. A certain per cent, of farmers have heeded this important matter, especially small white proprietors, and some excel- lent colored landowners. But 75 per cent, of farm labor, according to the estimate in 1880, was col- ored people. In 1890, colored labor on the farm probably did not exceed 60 per cent. The majority of this people work under the metayer, or share system, or rent plan. This majority class neglect food crops of every sort. The fact that the over- production of cotton has pressed the price down to seven cents is proof in itself of the evil here pre- sented. This indifference or hostility of the colored people to the raising of corn is seriously affecting them and the country. Agricultural Prcducts. 1 1 3 Seventy-five per cent, of the actual farm popula- tion producing less than one-third of the amount formerly raised is a fatal blow at prosperity. Detri- mental as this is to the interest of both white and black, yet the situation wears a darker and gloomier hue when it is considered that horses and necessary farm appliances and food supplies furnished are based upon 100 laborers. This number, however, represents 32 hands, and these, without reference to the 68, raise an insufficient quantity of corn, potatoes, and peas for themselves, and the meat raised by them is a modicum of what they need. To our understand- ing of the facts, the conclusion is unavoidable, that the 2,344,401 colored farm laborers of the South, constituting three-fourths of the whole, have vastly reduced the food crops, their labor deteriorating to less than one-third in value, and have largely dimin- ished farm values. Corroborative testimony from other lands where the Hamites are in possession of freedom and civil rights, confirms the conclusion. The history of Hayti is a mournful record of misgovernment and retrogression. In 1789 the negroes massacred the French and achieved their independence. Their freedom extends over a century. At its beginning they numbered 56,666 freedmen, black and colored, and 509,642 slaves. It is reasonable to suppose that in a hundred years this population increased to a million and a half, even when full allowance is made for the loss of life incident to their numerous wars. The inspiration of freedom, the government in their own hands, sole masters of the western half of San 114 The Ills of the South. Domingo, every vocation in life and every avenue to advancement open, and the markets of the world ready to purchase the productions of their soil, should have increased productions threefold, and exports in the same ratio. The facts here recited are taken from the book on " Hayti, or the Black Republic," by Sir Spencer St. John. He was Min- ister Resident and Consul-General, representing the British Government in Port-au-Prince from 1863 to 1875. PRODUCTIONS OF HAYTI IN 1789. Coffee 88,360,502 lbs. Sugar, white and brown 161,000,000 " Cotton , 8,400,000 " In subsequent years these productions never again reached the same quantity, nor were there any other productions that took their place. In 1821 the quantity of sugar was so small that it was struck from the custom-house lists. The figures now to be given will fairly represent the retrograde movement. They express the production of some of the best years during the period of freedom. TRODUCTIONS OF HAYTI DURING THE ERA OF FREEDOM. Sugar. Year 1821 600,000 lbs. " 18S8 , 1,900,000" Cotton. Year 1835 1,649,717 lbs. " i860 688,735" " 1865 4,000,000" " 1886 2,037,000" Agricultural Products, 115 Coffee. Year 1818 20,280,589 lbs. " 1863 71,712,345 '• •' 1886 58,075,739" In 1875 the estimate was that population had increased to about a million and a half. The exports in 1789 were from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000. The following year they were $55,000,000. The highest exports since that period amount to $11,- 500,000.* An American poet has said, ''The people make the country, but no country can make the people." f Energy and thrift and self-respect come not from the soil. The evidence from the fifteen English West Indian colonies is similar to that of Hayti. In these colonies were, in 1834, 750,000 African slaves when they were emancipated. The government paid the owners $100,000,000, or i^20,ooo,ooo, for the negroes. Let us examine the effect on agricul- tural production. Jamaica is one of the largest of these colonial islands. PRODUCTION IN JAMAICA, t Sugfar, cwts. . Rum, gals. . . Pimento, lbs. Coffee, lbs, . . 1834. 1,500,000 2,697,324 3,605.400 17,725,731 599-737 1,694,606 6,850,54s 6,145,362 1867. 515.902 1,769,716 4,866,239 6,264,861 * Hayti, or Black Republic, p, 372. f Alexander H. Stephens. X Chambers' Encyclopaedia, vol. v., p. 674. 1 1 6 The Ills of the South. Mr. James Anthony Froude visited these islands in 1887. A few of his utterances, or those quoted by him, are here recited: *' The public debt had increased, and taxation was heavy. Many gentlemen in Jamaica, as in the Antilles, were selling or trying to sell their estates and go out of it." * " Col. J , acting governor, confirmed the complaint which I had heard so often, that the blacks would not work for wages more than three days in the week, or regularly upon those, prefer- ring to cultivate their own yams and sweet pota- toes." t " Fine properties all about the island were in the market for any price which purchasers could be found to give. Too many even of the old English families were tired of the struggle, and were longing to be out of it at any cost.":}: Of Grenada he says : " Such a scene of desolation and desertion I never saw in my life save once, a few weeks later at Jamaica." § St. Lucia : *' The chief complaint is the somewhat weary one of the laziness of the blacks, who, they say, will work only when they please, and are never fully awake except at dinner-time." || "The English of those islands are melting away; that is a fact to which it is idle to try to shut our eyes. Families who have been for generations on the soil are selling their estates everywhere, and * The English in the West Indies, p. 200. \ Ibid., p. 211. X Ibid., p. 231. ^ Ibid., p. 54. II Ibid., p. 134. Agricultural Products. 1 1 7 are going off. Lands once under high cultivation are lapsing into jungle." "^ Dominica : '* The soil was as rich as the richest in the world. The cultivation was growing annually less." t Barbadoes : '' The great prosperity of the island ended with emancipation." ij; The final outcome of this investigation is dis- couraging. Credible witnesses in large number, unbiased by passion or interest, from these lands, have placed themselves upon record. Free Hamitic labor deteriorates in value, year by year. The prod- ucts of the soil diminish in like proportion. Debts and perplexities confront the people whose interests are endangered. The facts and figures of the Southern States cover a period extending over a quarter of a century; of the English West Indies, more than half a century ; and of Hayti, a full century. The results of Hamitic labor, to which these American territories testify by authoritative record, is strikingly unit-like. It is not the report of a narrow district. In Hayti, where the Hamites are in absolute con- trol, the agricultural condition has steadily gone from bad to worse. In the English West Indies, where the negroes are proprietors, as in Grenada, or labor as tenants or on the share system, as in Bar- badoes and in other islands, the outlook is gloomy. In the Southern States, a combination of causes have placed the people between the upper and * " The English in the West Indies," p. 284. t lb., p. 143. X lb., p. 105. ii8 The Ills of the South. nether mill-stones. One of these is the failure to raise ample food crops. Unless the colored people can be induced to attend to food crops as essential to their material well-being, the day of agricultural prosperity is in the far-distant future. The history of the past twenty-five years, crowded with mistakes and delusions, furnishes not one ray of hope, without this essential basis upon which to build. As proof of the tardy progress of the Southern people, traceable largely to the various causes related in these pages, note the value of farms in the two tables following : TABLE IX. Value of Farms.* Note. — The valuation refers to lands, houses, and fences. Alabama Arkansas Florid^ Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Ca4-olina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total $78,954,648 74,249,655 20,291,835 111,910,540 58,989,117 92,844,915 135,793,^02 68,677,482 206,749,837 170,468,886 $1,018,930,517 i860. 1175,824,622 91,649,773 16,435,721 157,072,803 204,7^89,662 190,760,367 143,301,065 139,652,508 271,358,985 88,101,320 $1,478,946,826 * Compendium, Tenth Census, Part I., p. 658. Agricultural Products, 119 TABLE X. Value of Farms. STATES. 1880. i860. Connecticut Dakota $121,063,910 22,401,084 1,009,594,580 635,236,111 567,430,227 499,103,181 193,724,260 75,834,389 1,127,497,353 109,346,010 $90,830,005 2,085,265 408,944,033 356,712,175 392,662,441 160.836.495 27,505.922 69,689,761 678,132.991 94,289,045 Illinois Iowa Minnesota New Hampshire Ohio Vpfmont Total $4,361,231,105 $2,281,688,133 The increase of acreage referred to on a former page belongs wholly to the States of Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. They increased their acre- age 13,606,469 acres in twenty years. Of this num- ber, 9,999,633 belong to Texas alone. Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi increased their acreage 331,008 ; on the other hand, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina reduced the number of acres in cultivation 486,120. The six States con- sidered as a whole show a deficit of 155,112 acres in cultivation. This reduction took place in spite of the fact that population increased 53 per cent, from i860 to 1880. Another determinate factor directly related to the question of food crops has been brought to our notice upon further investigation of the causes affecting Southern prosperity. 1 20 The Ills of the Sotith, In 1870 the aggregate cotton crop was 3,011,996 bales; in 1879 ^^^^ cotton crop was 5,755,359 bales.* The increase is 91 per cent. At the former period the price was 23^- cents per pound ; at the latter period it was 9y% cents per pound. This is a loss of 13A cents on each pound, or 1.37 per cent. That is, a bale weighing 450 pounds on an average brought, in 1870, $105.75; in 1879, $44-55- In other words, the smaller crop brought to the cotton farmer $62,117,333.55 more than the larger crop. If there is any virtue in comparisons, such facts enforce attention. What effect did this large crop have on corn, oats, sweet potatoes, field peas, hay, fodder, and bacon? There is but one answer: less than was needed, and less money besides. * Tenth Census, volume on Agriculture, page xxvii. CHAPTER VIII. THE FARM LEAKS. HTHE history of the world is made up of a vast ^ number of little things. Success and failure in life have their origin here. " Despise not the day of small things," is good counsel. The com- plaints against ill-fortune would rarely be heard, should attention to small matters become the rule. The road to poverty is a zigzag journey paved with neglect in little things. A little extravagance in domestic affairs, a little time lost this week, and a little lost every week, and a little inattention to this important matter, and then some other affair, will soon show their effects upon the prosperous condi- tion of any man. These little things are efficient agents to reduce profits. A little leak will sink a ship ; a little fire may do great damage ; a little carelessness may wreck a railway train ; and a little bad management may make prosperous farming im- possible. Excellent management in all kinds of indus- try is a much rarer virtue than some people suppose. Every man wishes to make headway in his busi- ness. This is right ; it is praiseworthy. Without such reasonable ambition there is no progress. The man who is satisfied to live from hand to mouth deserves no commendation. It is a kind of content- ment that is of no use. There is no glory in the 122 The Ills of the South. resolve to be a beggar, and there is no manliness to fold one's hands in despair. It is brave to push forward. Improvement is the law of progress. A thorough understanding of the particulars of any honorable industry is essential to success; what relation has each upon the other, and all of them upon the end to be attained ? Then there must be a plan, faithfully carried out. This need not be of the cast-iron material, but some method must be adopted according to which the business shall be conducted. What is this but an orderly arrange- ment of time and labor to the objects demanding attention ? The man who blunders and blusters about his work is not a model in any vocation of life, and is rarely prosperous. The calm, steady worker, cheerful and self-reliant, pursuing the course marked out, calculating gains and losses, is, as a gen- eral rule, the man that wins success, even from untoward circumstances. If one plan does not work, a better plan may. Merchants may increase their gains by a number of methods. They may extend and enlarge their business ; they may eliminate risky and unprofitable customers; they may decline to deal in certain commodities that experience has shown not to be remunerative; they may reduce expenses. In all this there is common sense. Whenever there are leaks that reduce profits below the point of reasonable remuneration for labor and capital, there is always a first thing to do. To find the cause is the prime consideration. No remedy can be applied until this has been found. The Farm Leaks. 123 It makes no difference where the leaks are, whether in the home, the mercantile house, the factory, or the farm, the same principles govern. It controls every business of whatever nature, however small or great. The leaks must be found before they can be stopped. In great manufacturing establishments five factors are necessary to their prosperous management. There must be ample capital ; sufificient labor, skilled and common ; rapid production of goods ; quick sales ; and competent superintendence. A defect in any one of these elements may reduce dividends to zero, or bring disaster to the enterprise. Inefifi- cient superintendence is a large and serious defect. The man who cannot grasp the parts of such a business is sure to bring swift misfortune to all concerned. In former chapters various causes have been considered operating detrimentally to the farmer. Another is now to be examined. It is another leak, through which have trickled millions of dollars that should be in the pockets of the Southern farmers, or invested in permanent improvements. Let us call it the Southern Live Stock Leak. The deficiency in animal products in the ten States is such that it is worthy the serious attention of all farmers. The year 1890 is compared with i860. There can be no question as to the effect of this condition upon Southern prosperity. This lack of animals robs the farmer of a large percentage of profits. It is a factor that invariably adds to his poverty. It is a loss, especially the swine product, 124 ^-^^ ^^^^ of the SotttJi. for which no cotton-lint, pound for pound, is a compensation. The general condition in the number of the six classes of animals at two periods, thirty years apart, is indicated in the three tables following. If we omit Texas the loss in sheep was 23 per cent, in 1890; in all the ten States there were less hogs in 1890 than in i860. In nine States, omitting Texas, the loss at the latter period exceeded a million head. It would take five hundred thousand bales of cotton to stop this leak. In milch cows there is a gain of 28 per cent. Omitting Texas, there is a gain of 12 per cent, in other cattle in the nine States. The gain in horses is 10 per cent., if Texas be omitted. The largest gain in the ten States is 72 per cent, in mules. Three-fourths of them were probably imported, and paid for in cotton. As a digression from the topic under consideration, this increase in the number of mules, largely used on farms, furnishes strong grounds for the belief that agricultural laborers have increased nearly in the same ratio as population. It is believed that the increase of white labor is in excess of colored labor. Probably 30 per cent, of the colored popula- tion has been displaced from the farms and is now found in the towns and villages of the South. The displacement and depreciated labor of this people has in part been counterbalanced by the increase of white labor. The aggregate number of laborers is larger than in i860; but the 29 percent, increase in acreage is less than the gain in labor, and the gain in mules. Besides, nearly three-fourths of this in- The Farm Leaks, 125 crease in acreage belongs to Texas, as elsewhere shown, and in that State the white population has more than quadrupled since i860. The tables following furnish the material for any comparison between the two periods indicated, of the progress of any one of the ten States in refer- ence to the increase or decrease of the six classes of animals named. TABLE I. Live Stock, i860. STATES. NO. SHEEP. NO. SWINE. NO. MILCH COWS. NO. OTHER CATTLE. Alabama . . . 370,156 202,753 30,158 512,618 181,253 352,632 546,749 233,509 773,317 753,363 3,956,508 1,748,321 1,171,630 271,742 2,036,116 634,525 1,532,768 1,883,214 965,779 2,347,321 1,371,532 13,962,948 230,537 171,003 92,974 299,688 129,662 207,646 228,623 163,938 249,514 601,540 454,543 318,089 287,725 631,707 326,787 416,660 416,676 320.209 413,060 2,761,736 Arkansas Florida. . . ........ Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total 2,475,025 6,346,192 TABLE II. Live Stock, 1890. STATES. NO. SHEEP, NO. SWINE. NO. MILCH COWS. NO. OTHER CATTLE. 286,238 269,484 110,351 411,846 115,082 240,148 414,819 102,031 511,118 4,752,640 7,213,757 1,530,001 1,663,275 358,021 1,627,008 706,947 1,443,813 1,291,893 670,652 2,242,215 2,321,246 311,805 329,121 54,951 354,618 177,613 309,234 272,155 156,575 377,740 843,342 3,187,154 454,042 587,212 565,201 580,816 295,731 441.862 398,414 210,396 484.578 7,167,853 Arkansas Florida Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total 13,855,071 11,186,105 126 The Ills of the South, TABLE III. Live Stock. STATES i860. 1890. HORSES. MULES. HORSES. MULES. Alabama 127,063 140,198 13,446 130,771 78,703 117,571 150,661 81.125 290,882 325,69s 111,687 57,358 10,910 101,069 91,762 110,723 5I.3S8 56,456 126,345 63,334 134,805 187,153 34,737 115,629 124,650 139,468 154,229 70,303 303,206 1,350,344 143,258 129,866 13,000 155,700 94,785 196.436 96,295 79,269 229,246 213,146 Arkansas Florida Louisiana North Carolina South Carolina Texas Total 1,456,118 781,032 2,614,524 1,351,001 The large decrease in sheep and swine in 1890, as compared with i860, is apparent. No compensating crop has been found to make up this loss. The loss pointed out is only partial. It does not express the full damage. Let us suppose that in i860 one- half of the colored population were engaged in farm labor, and that one-twentieth of the white popula- tion were so occup-ied. A certain quantity of animal food was necessary to their sustenance. In 1890, the colored population had increased JJ per cent., and the white population 91 per cent., in the States under consideration. The increase of the two races was about 87 per cent., or, taking the above rates as a basis, 84 per cent. The white farming population in 1890 represented not less than one-tenth of this TJie Farin Leaks. 127 race. If, now, we make full allowance for the dis- placement of colored people from the farm, yet the increase of this race will justify the conclusion that the number on farms in 1890 is much greater than in i860, whether the whole number is actively engaged in work or not. They are there, and must be provided with food. Whatever, therefore, may have been the changes in location and work of the colored people, supposed to be 30 per cent., their aggregate increase and the increase of white farm labor will warrant the conclusion that the total increase of farm labor, or those living on farms and so named, is equal to the aggregate increase of population. The people are on the soil, and the bulk are in the rural districts. In order that the status of wealth of 1890 in these States may correspond with the increase of popula- tion, the increase of the six classes of animals should be 84 per cent. If eighteen thousand pounds of bacon were required to sustain one hundred persons in i860, thirty-three thousand pounds will be required to sustain one hundred and eighty-four persons in 1890. The greatest diminution is in the supply of animals used for food. The difference between that species of farm capital sustaining life in i860 and the losses sustained up to the year 1890, on this capital, may be presented in tabular form. The figures represent, in round num- bers, the 84 per cent, on the capital of i860. It is an approximate estimate of annual losses. 128 The Ills of the South. BALANCE SHEET OF LOSSES. Hogs, 12,000,000 @ $5 $60,000,000 Sheep, 175.000 (^ $2 350.C00 Corn and oats, 50,000,000 @ 50 cts 25,000,000 Field peas, 15,000,000 @ 50 cts 7,500,000 Sweet potatoes, 40,000,000 @ 50 cts. . . . 20,000,000 Milch cows, 1,300,000 @ $15 19,000,000 Other cattle, 500,000 @ $6 3,000,000 Total $135,000,000 This is the annual leak. Put it at $100,000,000. It will take three million bales of cotton to pay this deficiency. By referring to the tables of this and the preceding chapter, it will be observed that the figures express an aggregate loss. The burden falls most heavily upon some of the States. Some of them raise considerable quantities of wheat — such as Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. South Carolina raises rice, and Louisiana cane. The gain in sheep during thirty years in the ten States is a little over two and a half million, but as the increase in Texas is over three and a half million, nine of the States have a less number of sheep than in i860. The increase in horses is a little over a million, but nine hundred thousand belong to Texas. The increase of mules is the most uniform in all these ten States. In further illustration of this leak, the information was obtained from a merchant in a town of Missis- sippi, that, in fifteen years, the firm of which he was a partner had sold 4,500,000 pounds of bacon ; average, 300,000 pounds a year. The firm bought The Farm Leaks. 129 annually from 2,500 to 3^000 bales of cotton. About one-third of the customers bought no meat. The price of meat is generally higher than the price of cotton. It is fair to suppose that one-third of the cotton delivered to this mercantile firm paid for bacon. If for every 2,000 bales of cotton, being two- thirds of the whole bought, 300,000 pounds of bacon are sold, then a cotton crop of 6,000,000 bales repre- sents a demand for 60,000,000 pounds of bacon. One-third of this crop goes for bacon. No man living in the South questions the fact that the quantity of Western meat sold in the South annu- ally is enormous. Every furnishing merchant in the cotton belt is a witness to this truth. The inference from these considerations is both just and practical, that, if the necessary quantity of meat is raised at home, the demand for credit is reduced one-third, with all its burdens and vexa- tions. It is a long step toward independence and prosperity. One commercial crop cannot secure this end in the Southern States. The experience of thirty years furnishes ample proof. The loss in quantity of corn, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes, rye, wheat, hay, sheep, and swine, in the State of Mississippi in 1880, as compared with i860, at a moderate valua- tion, was $9,000,000. In 1 890-1-2, her cotton crop of 900,000 bales brought between $35,000,000 and $40,000,000. The increase in mules, in 1890, was JJ per cent. An increase of nearly 86,000 mules over the number in i860 would consume from 5,000,000 9 130 The Ills of the South. to 6,000,000 bushels of corn. There was also an increase of more than 130,000 horses. Her popu- lation had increased, in thirty years, 62 per cent. Notwithstanding this augmentation of more than 200,000 work animals, and nearly 500,000 human beings, the food products were less in 1870, less in 1880, less in 1890, and less in 1892, than in i860. With slight variations, this is the status in the States of the cotton belt. No argument can justify the policy of concentrating capital and labor upon the production of the one commercial crop, increas- ing it beyond the world's demand, steadily lowering the price, and then buying Western corn and hay and meat at an advance of 50 and 100 per cent, of that received for cotton, If the fertilizers now used on cotton were reduced one-half, and this half, in addition to the quantity already used, was applied to corn land, the effect upon the financial condition of Southern farmers would show itself advantageously in twelve months. Hog and hominy are intimately related. The gain on the home-raised pork, it is estimated, is 50 per cent, on the nominal value of corn. When the smoke-house is five hundred miles from the farm, the railroad freight on bacon, the handling it by merchants, and buying it on long time, makes it a very costly article to the cotton farmer. A table on the cost of fertilizers, and the cost of building and repairing fences, is here given. It will serve the purpose of information, and may lead to efforts to supplement the commercial fertilizers with the preparing of an invaluable home article. The The Farm Leaks, 131 figures refer to the year 1879. The fence question is a matter pressing more and more upon the atten- tion of farmers every year. The old rail fence will soon be a thing of the past. TABLE IV. Cost of Fertilizers and Fences, * FERTILIZERS. t FENCES. $1,200,956 108,732 72,642 4,346,920 278.305 123,253 2,111,767 2,659,969 157.442 74,796 $1,402,609 I,579>i44 366,180 1,834,625 1,482,121 1,560,119 1,869,654 917,000 2,426.008 3,676,603 Arkansas Florida Louisiana Mississippi South Carolina Tennessee Texas Total $11,134,784 $17,114,063 There is no doubt that active industry has been on the increase in the South during the past thirty years. The sum of workers is greater to-day than in i860. Thousands of white men have gone to work. The number of colored men on farms is equal to, if not greater than, the number in slave times. Thousands, however, have gone to the towns and sought other employment. The colored women doing light work in the fields in slave times, do but a fraction of that work to-day. Yet when all the facts are fairly considered, the conviction is well * Tenth Census, Vol. on Agriculture, p. 103. f Ibid., p. 25. 132 The Ills of the Soitth. grounded that the active labor force on Southern farms is larger to-day by 50 per cent, than in the past. The cotton crop has increased to nearly 8,000,000 bales. Now, what is the compensation to the toilers? What is the financial status of the men who have produced twenty-seven commercial crops? Has all this money been consumed on food, clothing, and appliances? What is the increase in fixed capital? What in real estate? When the debts are sub- tracted, how does the valuation of property owned by 3,000,000 of farmers in the South compare in 1890 with i860? No reference is here made to the slave property, valued at $1,250,000,000. It is not considered in the comparison. The prosperous farmers are few ; those who have made a bare liv- ing are not many ; those who have consumed their farm possessions and the crops made thereon are thousands ; those who are poor to-day are legions. There must be something wrong in the general management. Thirty years' experience ought to satisfy any man of the correctness of this proposi- tion. It is high time to institute an earnest search for leaks, and, when found, close them forever. What a monotonous plaint we hear at the end and beginning of each year ! The last eight are grum- bling weeks about bills and prices ; the first eight weeks are begging weeks for new advances. The leaks in management, the leaks in buying, and the leaks in waste have had much to do in bringing about this pitiable condition. Suppose that the seven and a half million bales The Farm Leaks. 133 of cotton are hereafter reduced to four and a half, and the capital, time, and labor heretofore devoted to the remaining three million bales be employed in raising food crops and live stock. In two years, when the surplus cotton shall be out of the way, the price of the staple would be remunerative. When the farmers can live at home, the dawn of a better day is at hand. The old plan has depressed the South and brought poverty and debts. CHAPTER IX. OUR BROAD ACRES. OOW large is our landed estate ! The States and Territories, including Alaska, cover an area of 3,605,000 square miles, or 2,307,200,000 acres. In the ten States which have been used as a basis of comparison are 697,383 square miles, or 446,324,320 acres. If Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Ken- tucky, Maryland, and Missouri be added, there will be an increase of 191,305 square miles, or 122,435,200 acres, making a total of 568,759,520 acres in these sixteen Southern States. Even the ten States cover an area more than three times as large as the German Empire, even larger in area, by over 20,000 square miles, than France, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Den- mark, all combined. But these ten European coun- tries contain a population of 1 30,039,000, and support them on less territory than is contained in the ten States. Their population is more than twice as large as that contained in the United States in 1890, whereas the population of the ten Southern States was a little over 14,000,000 at this date. Our Broad Acres. 135 LAND SURFACE IN TEN STATES. STATES. LAND SURFACE IN SQUARE MILES. LAND SURFACE IN ACRES. ACREAGE OF FOR- EST LANDS IN iSgO. Alabama 51,540 53,045 59,268 58,980 45,420 46,340 48,580 30,170 41,750 262,290 32,985,600 33,948,800 37,931,520 37,747,200 29,068,800 29,657,600 31,091,200 19,308,800 26,720,000 167,865,600 17,000,000 28,000,000 20,000,000 1 8 000 000 Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina. . . South Carolina Tennessee Texas 13,000,000 i3,oco,ooo 18,000,000 13,000,000 16,000,000 40,000,000 Total 697,383 446,324,320 196,000,000 The total number of acres in all the States and Territories is 1,856,108,800. About one-fourth of the entire area is occupied by these ten States. Forty-three per cent, of this Southern area consists in forest lands. The foregoing total number of acres does not include Alaska. It alone covers an area of 580,000 square miles. It should be stated here, that there are slight discrepancies between the figures given in the Tenth Census report and vari- ous geographical works. The figures are approxi- mately correct, and will answer the purpose here in view. These figures will interest the thoughtful reader, especially in their bearing on the question of own- ership. The American Landed Estate. Including Alaska, it is a splendid domain. This vast territory is the property of the Federal Union. 136 The Ills of the South, No single country in South America is equal to its area. Brazil has less territory by nearly 400,000 square miles. European Russia has less land by more than 1,500,000 square miles. The Chinese Empire has about 575,000 more square miles than the United States; but the empire has 341,000,000 more people than the United States. The Ameri- can heritage is not only of colossal dimensions, but is diversified by every variety of soil and climate and production. Unavailable Land. This comprises 1,002,997,177 acres. It embraces 369,529,600 acres in Alaska; military and Indian reservations cover 157,000,000 acres; mountains, lakes, and rivers embrace 476,467,577 acres. Available Land. When these deductions are made, there remain for all uses, present and prospective, 1,304,202,823 acres. Farm Land. The land thus used comprises 687,906,375 acres. It is a little over half of all the serviceable land in the Union, north and south, east and west. Ownership. This important question of land ownership con- cerns all the American people. It is a matter of vast significance to know the drift of this inherit- ance, and what its effect will be in the near future Our Broad Acres, 137 upon every acre in value. The honor and the inde- pendence of being a freeholder may be an impossi- bility, fifty years hence, to millions of our people. The land movement during the last thirty years rings out alarm bells that should be heard by all the people. The situation, as nearly as it can be ascer- tained, may thus be indicated : ACRES. I. Farmers own 687,906,375 II. Railroads own 209,344,233 in. Foreigners own 6r,goo,ooo IV. American speculators own 20,500,000 V. Doomed by mortgages, estimated 20,000,000 Undisposed-of Land. When the sum of these five classes is taken from the available land, there remain of the American estate 304,562,215 acres — not quite five acres to every man, woman and child living. The wealthy men of Europe who own the vast territory as given in Class III., also have absolute control through mortgages of 90,000,000 acres of the railroad land given in Class II. RAILROAD OWNERSHIP IN LAND.* ACRES. Northern Pacific 47,000,000 Atlantic and Pacific. 42,000,000 Southern Pacific 35,200,000 Texas Pacific 18,000,000 Union Pacific 12,000,000 Kansas Pacific 6,000,000 Central Pacific 1 1,000,000 St. Paul and Pacific 4,723.038 * Hist. Wheel and Alliance, p. 672. 138 The Ills of the South. ACRES. Oregon and California 3,500,000 New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg 3,800,000 Cairo and Fulton 3,000,667 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 3,000,000 Illinois Central and Mobile and Chicago 2,596,053 Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf 2,350,000 Burlington and Missouri River 2,441,600 Denver Pacific 1,000,000 Oregon Central 1,200,000 Wisconsin Central 1,800,000 Pensacola and Georgia 1,568,229 Mobile and Ohio River 1,004,640 St. Paul and Sioux City 1,100,000 Iowa Falls and Sioux City 1,226, 163 St. Joe and Denver City i, 700,000 Missouri, Kansas and Texas 1,520,000 Pacific and Southwestern 1,161,235 Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw. . 1,052,169 Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 1,261, 181 Cedar Rapids and Missouri 1,298,739 ALIEN OWNERSHIP IN AMERICAN LAND.* ACRES. English Syndicate in Texas. 3,000,000 Holland Company in New Mexico 4,500,000 Sir Edward Reid in Florida 2,000,000 English Syndicate in Mississippi 1,800,000 Marquis of Tweedsdale 1,750,000 Phillips, Marshall & Co 1,300,000 German Syndicate 1,000,000 Byron H. Evans 700,000 Anglo-American Syndicate 750,000 Duke of Sutherland 425,000 British Land Company in Kansas 320,000 Wm. Whaley, M.P 310,000 Missouri Land Company of Scotland 465,000 Robert Penant of London 260,000 * Hist. Wheel and Alliance, pp. 673-677. Our Broad Acres. 139 ACRES. Dundee Land Company of Scotland 247,000 Lord Dunmore 120,000 Benjamin Neugas 100,000 Lord Houghton 60,000 Lord Dunraven 60,000 English Land Company 110,000 Albert Peele, M.P 10,000 Sir J. L. Kay 5,000 Alex. Grant 35, 000 English Syndicate in Missouri 1 10,000 M. EUerhausen 600,000 Scotch Syndicate in Florida 500,000 A. Boysen of Denmark 50,000 Total 20,557,500 OWNERSHIP IN LAND BY AMERICANS, SYNDICATES, OR SPECULATORS.* ACRES. Col. Murphy. 4,000,000 The Standard Oil Company 1,000,000 Ex-Senator Dorsey in New Mexico 500, 000 Diston of Pennsylvania, in Florida 2,000,000 The Vanderbilts f . . . . 20,000,000 Total 27,500,000 LOCALITY OF LAND BY ALIENS. ^: ACRES. In eleven Northern and Northwestern States 5,050,000 In thirteen Southern and Southwestern States ... 20,350,000 In eleven Pacific States 39, 500,000 Land Restored to the Public Domain. From March 4, 1885, to June 30, 1888, the lands restored to the public domain for the benefit of the * Hist, of Wheel and Alliance. f Newspaper. X Hand Books of Facts. 140 The Ills of the South. people amount to 83,158,990 acres. These broad acres were recovered through forfeitures of rail- roads, private land claims, entries under pre-emp- tion given up, and invalid State selections. Over 60,000,000 acres of land are now recommended for recovery. This was an eminently wise movement. It was begun during Mr. Cleveland's first administration, and while Mr. L. Q. C. Lamar was Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Comparisons. Comparisons are said to be odious. Why this should be so we are not informed. We do know that profligate sophistry is odious in essence and in practice. To contrast the abstract with the con- crete is a method not to be despised in conveying information to the great body of the American people. On September 20, 1850, Congress commenced passing Land Grant Bills to aid in the construc- tion of railroads in different States."^ The first bill granted to the State of Illinois, for the benefit and use of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, 2,505,- 053 acres of land through the richest portion of the State. The company has realized about $30,000,000 from the sale of these lands. In the six years fol- lowing 1850 some forty-seven Land Grant Bills were passed by Congress in furtherance of railroad build- ing. But since the war colossal grants have been * Hist, of Wheel and Alliance, pp. 671, 672. Our Broad Ac7'es. 141 made for the same purpose. The total number of acres thus granted for the building of railroads amounts to 209,344,233» oi" 3i 1.475 square miles. This vast territory was granted to 1,482 companies, which up to June 30, 1880, had completed 87,891 miles of railroad ; 19,722 miles extension were pro- jected, and 21,307 miles of new roads were projected. COMPANIES AND MILES OF RAILROAD.* [,146 336 1,482 87,891 19^722 21,307 128,920 CONDITION. Completed. Extension projected. New roads projected. Complete and projected. To encourage these 1,482 companies to build 128,- 920 miles of railroad, the great-hearted and far- seeing Congress granted them a dominion greater than the German Empire, for this empire only covers an area of 211,000 square miles, and the railroad grants equal 311,475 square miles. These railroad grants cover an area of more land than is contained in the German Empire, England, and Wales and Scotland. In this land of vast mountain ranges and mighty rivers — this ocean-girdled repub- lican empire — nothing is done on a niggardly scale, even if the Anglo-Saxon people are beggared by fabulous grants. Maine, Vermont, Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, South Caro- * Compendium Tenth Census, Part II., p. 1257. 142 The Ills of the South. lina, Maryland, Louisiana, and Mississippi do not contain as many acres as those embraced in the railroad land grants, by 155 acres. These land grants to 1,482 railroad companies are greater in area than all the land owned by 16,051,000 people in twelve independent States of the Federal Union. Nor is this all. The situation portends nothing that is cheerful. Ninety million acres, or 140,625 square miles, of this railroad land are mortgaged to foreign capitalists who, in the elegant language of commerce, will hold "■ the corner " on this vast property and fix the prices handsomely to the native and industrious bread-producers in the years to come. In case of war, these hardy sons of the soil will even defend these broad acres, whose owners reside in gilded palaces beyond the blue Atlantic. Titanic land-holdings require corresponding com- parisons to express them. The land owned by an English syndicate in Texas equals 3,000,000 acres. It is an area of 4,687 square miles. Were this land in the form of a square, the distance would be covered by 272 miles. If a man rode twenty-seven miles a day, it would take ten days to ride around it and get back to the starting point. A dozen Englishmen own this splendid estate. This syndicate owns more land in Texas than is contained in the following twelve counties selected at random: Bastrop, Baylor, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Austin, Burleson, Dallas, Galveston, Hardin, Houston, and Harrison. Our Broad Acres, 143 In Florida, one Englishman owns 2,000,000 acres, and a Scotch syndicate owns 500,000 acres. An English syndicate is in possession of 1,800,000 acres in the State of Mississippi. This means a strip of territory covering 2,812 square miles. A Mississippian, with a good horse, riding twenty-five miles a day, can ride around it in eight days. All the land improved and unimproved, in the counties of Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Benton, Hinds, and Marion is not quite equal to the body of land to which this syndicate holds the title. This ownership of large bodies of land by wealthy foreigners is certainly a disquieting factor to the American bread-winners of the soil. Is landlordism to be the fate of this nation ? Are the Anglo-Saxon people destined to become "the hewers of wood and the drawers of water" ? Does African freedom mean the enslavement of the white people ? Are the American people to be cheated out of their land, and denied the birthright privilege of becom- ing freeholders, paying for land at honest prices? Shall these colossal speculations go on until the great body of our people are at the absolute mercy of whatever price rapacity can demand ? Alarm bells should ring out their earnest protest in every State of the Federal Union, against any further encroachment upon the public domain by either foreign or American speculators. Legislative as- semblies in all the States, and the Congress of the United States, should be charged to protect the people from these greedy and pitiless vampires. The land movement in the South presents another 144 The Ills of the South. phase. It is a twofold movement. The one is the American idea: toward many small farms, where each man is his own freeholder, independent, uncon- scious of grinding dependence — a freeholder, the " patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo- Saxon race ever since Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England." The other is the European idea : it means landlordism, vast estates, a multi- tudinous tenantry, beggary, serfdom. Can this con dition be imposed on the Anglo-Saxon race in the nineteenth century? The following tables furnish a study. TABLE I. Number and Size of Farms in i860. UNDER 3 ACRES. 3 AND 10 AND 20 AND 50 AND lOO AND 500 AND 1,000 STATES. UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER AND 10. 20. 50. 100. 500. 1,000. OVER. Alabama .. 1,409 4,379 16,049 12,060 13,455 2,016 696 Arkansas . . 1,823 6,075 131728 6,957 4,231 307 69 Florida .... 430 945 2,139 1,162 1,432 211 77 Georgia . . . 906 2,803 13,644 14,129 18,821 2,692 902 Louisiana. . 626 2,222 4,882 3,064 4,955 1,161 371 Mississippi. 563 2,516 10,967 9,204 11,408 1,868 481 N. Carolina 2,050 4.879 20,882 18,496 19,220 1,184 311 S. Carolina 352 1,219 6,69s 6,980 11,369 1,359 482 Tennessee . 1,687 7>245 22,998 22,829 21,903 921 isa Texas 1,832 6,156 14.132 7,857 6,831 468 87 Total . . 11,678 40)439 126,116 102,738 117,625 12,187 3,634 y Our Broad A crcs. H5 TABLE II. Number and Size of Farms in 1880. TABLE III. 18S0. Number and Size of Farms Cultivated by Owners. UNDER 3 ACRES. 3 AND 10 AND 20 AND 50 AND roo AND 500 AND 1,000 STATES. UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER UNDER AND 10. 20. 50. 100. 500. 1,000. OVER. Alabama... 92 956 1,652 8,501 16,282 38,814 4,^94 1,724 Arkansas . . 33 5B5 1,417 8,981 18,135 33,962 1,561 571 Florida .... 53 815 1,238 3.532 3,461 6,132 607 360 Georgia . . . 35 906 1,353 6,605 14,401 43.505 6,392 3,254 Louisiana.. 811 1,942 5,425 6.780 13-243 1,884 1,142 Mississippi. 36 732 1,499 5,708 13,032 30,931 3,564 1,712 N. Carolina 123 2,141 3,851 13,973 25,929 52.810 4,447 i,6c8 S. Carolina 34 1,168 2,609 5,914 8.750 23,358 3.276 i,S36 Tennessee . 102 2,447 3^996 15,028 29,257 53,515 3,121 988 Texas 21 1,463 12,024 3,015 10,312 21,374 63,440 5,508 3,583 Total . . 593 22,572 83,979 157,401 359,710 34,554 16,478 146 The Ills of the South. TABLE IV. tS8o. Number and Size of Farms Rented for Fixed Money Rental. STATES. UNDER 3 ACRES. 3 AND UNDER 10 AND UNDER 20 AND UNDER 50 AND UNDER 100 AND UNDER 500 AND UNDER 1,000 AND ID. 20. 50. 100. 500. 1,000. OVER. Alabama. .. 51 1,058 3.251 11,858 3,995 2,343 248 84 Arkansas . . 8 414 2,563 3,464 1,417 1,848 145 57 Florida . . . 6 262 582 1,980 452 236 24 6 Georgia — 27 978 1,631 8,205 3,616 3,680 280 140 Louisiana.. 26 464 1,831 2,524 634 887 179 124 Mississippi. 23 605 3,341 7,931 2,859 2,381 217 83 N. Carolina 23 921 1,553 3,023 ^,305 1,639 M5 35 S. Carolina. 46 4.418 5,096 8,443 1,866 1,811 225 69 Tennessee . 44 934 3,732 6,369 4,019 3,846 217 55 Texas 5 547 2,222 25,802 5,678 1,503 1,^77 168 89 Total . . 259 10,651 59,475 21,666 20,548 1,848 742 TABLE V. Number and Size of Farms Rented for Shares of Product, 1880. STATES. UNDER 3 ACRES. 3 AND UNDER 10. 10 AND UNDER 20. 20 AND UNDER 50. 50 AND UNDER 100. 100 AND UNDER 500. 500 AND UNDER 1,000. 1,000 AND OVER. Alabama. . . Arkansas. . . Florida Georgia . . Louisiana .. Mississippi . N. Carolina. S. Carolina. Tennessee.. Te.xas 134 56 10 39 15 38 1,583 1,071 224 1,226 573 999 4,211 3:, 449 2,390 1,544 8,152 6,800 636 5,710 2,935 7,096 7,910 4,814 9,607 11,543 21,362 .6,837 2,128 21.714 4,677 13,^97 17,152 13,160 13,386 27,685 6,170 8,037 1,087 3,427 6,773 6,265 6,662 2,166 194 6,450 901 2,181 7,357 2,566 5,954 5,504 203 87 21 ^i 155 471 192 211 312 60 20 TI 97 i 30 43 121 Total... 525 15,270 65,203 141,298 44,120 36,370 2,093 55T Our Broad Acres, 147 TABLE VI. Number and Size of Farms by Totals in Each Class. SIZE OF FARMS. CLASS AS TO SIZE. OWNERS. RENTERS. SHARE WORKERS. TOTALS. Under 3 acres I. II. III. IV, V. VI. VII. VIII. 593 12,024 22,572 83,979 157.401 359,710 34,554 16,478 259 10,651 25,802 59,475 21,666 20,548 1,848 742 525 15,270 65,203 141,298 44,120 36,370 2,093 551 10 and under 20 37,945 20 and under 50 284,752 223,187 416,628 38,495 17,771 50 and under 100 100 and under 500 500 and under 1,000 1,000 and over Total 687,311 140,971 305,430 1,133,712 TABLE VIL The Tenure of Farms in the Ten States, \\ STATES. NUMBER OF FARMS CULTIVATED BY OWNERS. NUMBER OF FARMS RENTED FOR FIXED MONEY RENTAL. NUMBER OF FARMS RENTED FOR SHARE OF PRODUCT. Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia I-ouisiana Mississippi N. Carolina .... S. Carolina Tennessee Texas 72,215 65,245 16,198 76,451 31,286 57,214 104,887 46,645 ioS,454 108,716 22,888 9,916 3,548 18,557 6,669 17,440 8,644 21,974 19,266 12,089 40,761 19.272 3,692 43,618 10,337 27,118 44,078 25,245 37,930 53,379 Total 687,311 140,791 305,430 148 The Ills of the South. TABLE VIII. Difference in the Number of Farms betv/een i860 and 1880 in THE Ten States. SIZE BY ACRES. i860. 1880. INCREASE IN 20 YEARS. Under 3 3 to 10 None 11,678 40,439 126,116 102,738 117,625 12,187 3,634 1,377 37,945 "3,577 284,752 223,187 416,628 40,495 17,771 1,377 26,267 73,138 158,636 120,449 299,003 28,308 14,137 10 to 20 20 to 50 50 to 100 100 to 500 500 to 1,000 1,000 and over. . It is now proposed to arrange these eight classes of farmers into three great groups according to the quantity of land cultivated. Those cultivating less than 3 acres; 3 and less than 10; and 10 and less than 20; will constitute Group I. They are the single farmers whether proprietary, renters or share workers, employing no hired help. Group II. will embrace all those cultivating 20 acres of land and less than 500 acres. They are the middle class of farmers. The last class will be Group III., consist- ing of plantations cultivating from 500 acres up- ward. These three groups will be presented for i860 and 1880. They are indexes to the economic movement in the South, as well as the strong tend- ency to multiply large plantations. Our Broad Acres. 149 TABLE IX. Number and Size of Farms in Three Groups. SIZE IN ACRES. i860. 1880. GAIN PER CENT. Group I Group II 3 and less than 20. 20 and less than 500. 500, 1,000 and more. 52,117 346,479 15,821 152,899 924,567 58,266 1.93 1.66 Group III 2.68 No thoughtful man can study the land move- ment toward large plantations without fear for the future. When the uncertainty of labor is consid- ered, and that cotton is the main crop of the South, as soon as the owners find that these plantations do not remunerate them, many plantations will fall into the hands of wealthy syndicates. The English West Indian history will repeat itself in the South. If 800 acres is the average size of these plantations of Group III. in the ten States, they embrace all combined 46,61 2, 8cx) acres. It is less than the land owned by aliens in the United States. We take it for granted that in i860 there were very few farmers in the South who cultivated land as renters, and land cultivated on the share system was unknown. If there were any in either class, the per cent, was so small that it attracted no attention. Following the plan of Table IX., we will group all places according to ownership. I50 The Ills of the South. TABLE X. Number and Size of Farms as to Ownership. Group I . , Group II. Group III SIZE IN ACRES. 3 and less than 20. 20 and less than 500. 500, 1,000 and more. 52,117 346,479 15,821 35,189 601,090 5^,032 LOSS AND GAIN PER CENT. Loss . 32 Gain . 79 Gain 2.22 Comparing Tables IX. and X., we find that accord- ing to Group I., in 1880, 117,710 farms were culti- vated by renters or sharevvorkers. In Group II. there were 323,477 farms cultivated by renters or shareworkers, and in Group III. 7,234 large planta- tions were thus cultivated. These renters and shareworkers were chiefly negroes. Nearly a half million of farms were in the sole charge of the negroes. This fact will explain in part the decrease in the grain crop of the South, referred to in a former chapter. The ownership of these farms reveals a far more important consideration in its bearing on the land question in the future. By the overwhelming testi- mony from ten States and the South generally, farmers have made no money at farming. Mort- gages and debts form the burden of their com- plaint. In Group I., while there has been a decrease in ownership of 32 per cent, since i860, our inference Our Broad Acres. 151 is, that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the land cultivated by ii7,/^io renters and shareworkers belongs to white farmers. But in Group 11. there has been an increase of ownership in twenty years of 79 per cent., in Group III, an increase of ownership of 222 per cent. Who owns this land? — the speculator in part, the town and country merchant in part, the commission merchant in part, and the farmer in part. To say that the ownership is all vested in farmers can not be reconciled with the uncontradicted and well-known report of " blue ruin " coming from the great farming community in every State of the South. Making allowances for the breaking up of old farms since i860 in Group II., parceling their farms out to children, in other cases selling portions of old farms, our opinion is, that of the increase in ownership of farms in twenty years, 50 per cent, in Group II. and 75 per cent, in Group III. are vested in other persons than farmers. A large portion of this land is destined in the near future to be the property of some syndicate unless some remedy by law can be found to prevent it. The movement to monopoly of land is sure and steady. We can not impress with sufficient emphasis the danger that threatens our people in the strong movement toward land monopoly. Land now sold for two dollars an acre will, long before the year 1925 is reached, cost our children twenty-five dollars an acre, if that land is held by a syndicate. 152 The Ills of the South, " The condition of the English and Irish peasantry to-day truth- fully mirrors the near future of the American farmer, if land consoli- dation and landlordism is not checked." * " For various reasons the farms of the South have not been mortgaged to the extent of those in the more fertile regions of the North and West. But Shylock has already turned his greedy eyes upon this beautiful Southland, and is now establishing his loan agencies. We can not too strongly urge upon the Southern farmer to beware of the net that is being spread for him. Shun it as you would a deadly plague, if you would save your homes from his relentless grasp." f "The syndicates that loan money at from one to three per cent, are mainly made up of Scotch, English, and New England capital- ists, who have their agents throughout the South and West. These mortgages are falling due, and soon an immense number of Southern and Western farms will be in the hands of foreign mortgagees." % The credit system and the high prices under that system are stealthily conveying a large percentage of Southern farms into the possession of some syn- dicate. For private and generous reasons, merchants who have come into possession of land ranging from 10,000 acres to 500,000 acres, will sell this land to resident farmers and planters. This is patriotic. But money is scarce in the South, and particularly so among farmers. When the merchant is pressed for money, patriotism will lose its aroma, and the land will go into the market ; the highest cash bidder will get It. If this cash bidder is a company of capitalists, it will be held until a '' corner " can be produced, or it will be cultivated by tenants. " Colonel Church, of New York, owns and collects * Wheel and Alliance. t Ibid. X American Farms, p. 50. Our Broad Acres, 153 rents from 180 farms in that State; some of them contain more than 500 acres each." "^ How many- Colonel Churches are there already in the South ? Silently and almost imperceptibly, here and there a farm is slipping out of the possession of some small owner. An editorial in the St. Louis Republican is quoted in "The Tramp at Home," by Mr. Lee Meriwether, p. 160 : " There is not a single one of the twenty-nine agricultural States that is not, to a greater or less extent, under mortgage to the money- lending creditor States. . . . It is stated that the insurance companies of Hartford, Connecticut, hold $70,000,000 in Western farm mortgages ; that the loan companies hold 1,000 mortgages, representing $76,000,000 ; and in the little State of New Hampshire, Western farm mortgages to the amount of $35,000,000 are held. . . . These agricultural States pay annually to the money-lenders $180,000,000 in interest alone. " According to the Michigan Labor Commissioner, February, 1888, the mortgages on farms in the single State of Michigan amount to $64,000,000, paying an annual interest of $5,000,000." f Could accurate data be obtained, what would not the South reveal in regard to farm mortgages ? In a former chapter the testimony has been given from ten States. These mortgages are fatal to the future native ownership of the soil. Let us turn our attention to the Old World — to England, standing high in the scale of Christian civ- ilization. This is a land of churches and schools, of renowned seats of learning, of famous statesmen, orators, historians, poets, and preachers. Great as * Wheel and Alliance, p. 674. f The Tramp at Home, p. 161. 154 ^-^^ ^^^^ ^f ^^^^ Sotctk. England is, what about the barriers to the progress of her millions? Has England any pity for her oppressed farm tenantry? To become a landowner is to millions of her people an impossibility. The door to land ownership by the poor is closed by wealth. The cruel dilemma presented to every poor man is: *' Work on our terms, or starve." Yet wealthy Englishmen wish more land. The condition of the dependent English farm tenantry has a lesson for the American farmer — a lesson for all the Southern people engaged in agri- culture. To learn that lesson, at whatever cost of self-denial and rigid economy, is an act eminently wise. Senator D. W. Voorhees, in the North American Review o{ November, 1 891, thus states the condition of England's farm tenantry: ** According to reliable official statements the population of the United Kingdom, embracing England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, may be put down at 28,000,000, and her land at 72,119,962 acres. Of these lands, 51,885,148 acres, more than two-thirds of the whole landed property of the kingdom, are owned by less than 11,000 persons. These vast land- owners draw a rental from an oppressed tenantry of over $562,000,000 per annum, and as the amount of money circulating in the kingdom is contracted, and its volume diminished, so is the purchasing and governing power of these enormous millions increased, and the privileged few aggran- dized by grinding the faces of the poor. The for- Our Broad Acres, 155 eign policy of England is often denounced for its brutal rapacity, but her home policy, whereby an idle, sensual, income-devouring aristocracy enjoys full and free license to prey upon her toiling masses, wears a darker hue than even the perfidious and crimson stains she has left on distant shores, and with which she has incarnadined the seas." This means an average of 4,717 acres to each one of the 11,000 persons, and not quite three-fourths of an acre to each of the 27,989,000 poor people. If civilization is the condition of a people's progress in physical comforts and conveniences, in intellectual enlightenment and expansion, and in those virtues that lie at the foundation of individual happiness, social order and well being, then England's civiliza- tion is not for the masses. Eleven thousand English- men have the power to prevent twenty-eight million other English people from ever becoming freehold- ers ; and to be a freeholder, Mr. Blaine said in his eulogy on President Garfield, "had been the patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England." That self-respect is denied to this people by inexorable conditions. The mon- eyed power has encrusted her civilization with a deadly blight. Notwithstanding these remorseless conditions — those cruel laws that confront the poor man in his efforts to improve his surroundings — the scale upon which England pays by law the clergy of her State church bears no proportion to the poverty, oppres- sion, and burden of her millions. 156 The Ills of the South. Per annum. The Archbishop of Canterbury's salary is $76,000 Bishop of London 50,000 Archbishop of York 56,000 Bishop of Durham 40,000 Bishop of Winchester 35, 000 Bishop of Ely 27,000 Six Bishops, each $25,000 150,000 Eight Bishops, each $22,500 180,000 Eight Bishops, each $21,000 168,000 Twenty-nine Deans, each $7,400 217,500 One hundred and twenty Canons, each $5,000 600,000 177 Clergymen are paid annually $1,599,500 In the United States this large sum would sup- port several thousand ministers who claim no higher title than the sublime purpose to serve their divine Lord and the high interests of humanity. It is a melancholy portrait to contemplate in these closing years of the nineteenth century; a wealth-enthroned clergy representing Him who was lowly of heart, and millions of worshipers ground down into the dust. This is the boasted civilization of the agfe. This is grim progress. This is Christianity emascu- lated, its efficacy and healing power lost in gorgeous ceremonials, fit only to captivate and enthrall for an hour the sensuous intellect. The poor, the lowly, the despised, the disconsolate, are forgotten and neglected, and everywhere encircled by crush- ing laws. Wealth is everywhere intrenched in strong and protecting statutes, not merely as wealth should be protected, but to the detriment and serious disadvantage of the poor. It is stated that less than 200,000 men in England Our Broad Acres, 157 have an annual income of $700,000,000, and eight persons in the United Kingdom own more than 220,000 acres of land. ENGLAND'S LANDLORDS. Duke of Sutherland 1,358,425 acres. Duke of Kuccleugh 459, 260 ' ' Sir James Matheson 406,070 " Earl of Breadalbaugh 372.609 " Earl of Seafield 305, 891 ' ' Duke of Richmond 286,407 *' Earl of Fife 257,629 " Alexander Matheson 220,433 " Duke of Athol 194,640 " Duke of Devonshire 193, 121 " Duke of Northumberland 185,515 " Duke of Argyle 175,114 " If we take 50,000 acres as the average number of acres cultivated in many a county of the South- ern States, then these twelve rich Englishmen own as much land as is cultivated in eighty such coun- ties. In England, the land question is settled. It is owned by the moneyed power, and that power will hold it. ** Though England is deafened with spinning wheels, her people have no clothes ; though she is black with digging coal, her people have not fuel, and people die of cold ; and though she sold her soul for gain, they die of hunger." *Such is the condition of England, reputed one of the wealthiest nations of the earth. Wealthy she is, but wealthy in the midst of overwhelming and appalling poverty and distress. * Ruskin. 158 The Ills of the South, The causes that have brought about this condition in England are not unlike the causes that operate now in these United States, and that are at work in these Southern States to bring about similar disas- trous results. One phase of these results is the land question. If the agencies now in existence go on unchecked, men now living may see the day when land ownership will be out of the reach of the poor man. These agencies are: 1. Titanic land grants to build railroads ; 2. Land bought by foreign syndicates ; 3. Land bought by American syndicates ; 4. Land that will fall into the hands of syndicates through loan associations ; 5. Land that will ultimately fall into the hands of syndicates through the credit system and its accompaniment, deeds of trust. The Peril Threatening the American Estate. That the danger of land being, wrested from the people of these United States, North and South, East and West, is real, is supported by unequivocal testi- mony. The methods to accomplish this land spolia- tion are often insidious and unscrupulous, and no less bold and arrogant. Bribes and perjury have been invoked when necessary to the fell achieve- ment. " There are no morals in politics and govern- mental affairs," said a State official to a farmer, whose sound, rugged common sense remonstrated against certain vicious proceedings. That a false- hood, charged with the very essence of the doctrine of Machiavelli, should be formulated into words, Our Broad Acres, 159 and should be given publicity, is sufficiently start- ling. Such profligate sophisms are used as the clumsy weapons to silence common sense. Bribery and arson, perjury and felony, according to this hideous falsehood, wear no moral complexion. But why argue against so monstrous a perversion of the fundamental idea of all government? Yet it should surprise no one, when an artist so corrupt should bring forth his masterpiece of villany by lending his official influence to any scheme however nefarious. That there are such men, no one can doubt. That the influence and the official station of such men are a menace to the interests of the people, there can be no question. The danger of land spoliation is thus portrayed by the World : " There are many reasons why aliens living in their own countries, yet desiring to benefit by the prosperity of this, while not sharing the responsibility of citizenship, are anxious to own land and houses, and reap the benefit of our countrymen's toils and industry. Chief among those reasons is the desire for a permanent and safe invest- ment, especially for the future. There is no longer either honor or profit in being a landlord in Ireland, and those who could sell their properties have done so. The Land Restoration Leagues of Eng- land and Scotland have reached such proportions that the future hold- ing of real estate is of doubtful value ; while the Social Democrats, who seek the establishment of a social republic, are enlisting the workingmen and poor of both countries, and a general uprising is only a question of time. . . . There is nothing under the sun so sensitive as capital. Those who hold it foresee coming disaster afar off, and desert the sinking ship before others have an idea of the proximity of danger. Thus the capitalists of the Old World have sought new and sure fields in which to invest, and the United States furnish all the requirements desired by the most careful money-lenders of the world. . . . Their willingness to own i6o The Ills of the South. land, to invest in business enterprises, to possess the patent riglits of machinery, to run breweries, to tunnel or bridge rivers, to build houses, to work mines, or to operate railroads, is not from any love of this country. It is altogether that they may lay every man, woman, and child, under tribute — not only the present, but all future generations ; that every one here who toils may pile up for them riches to be spent in their own countries ; that they may perpetuate here the conditions against which their own countrymen are about revolting. They would fasten on the people of the United States the curse of ' absentee landlordism.' " In order to obtain these holdings, the most corrupt practices have been resorted to. Congressmen have been bribed, government officials silenced, witnesses suborned, and perjury resorted to. Mil- lions of acres of the best farming land in the nation have been stolen, and hundreds of thousands of acres of magnificent forests have fallen into their hands. Let those who believe in America for Americans study the figures given, and act accordingly." * The Galveston News as reported in the '' Econo- mist Scrap Book," Part II., for May, 1891, page 124, says : '' The fathers of Texas saw further than their sons. They forbade the holding of Texas lands by aliens. Otherwise, nearly all the lands in the country might have passed into the hands of foreigners. In less than fifty years, citizens of Texas will curse the day that an empire in extent of her territory passed into the hands of men living abroad, and spending money there drawn from Texas renters." Similar causes are operating in all the Southern States, and in the same direction. A few years ago, the attorney-general of Texas entered suit against a railroad company to restore to the State lands granted that corporation. A * Handbook of Facts for January, 1891, p. 65. Our Broad Acres. i6i delegation from the Panhandle of Texas visited the State Capitol, and formally requested the attorney- general to withdraw the suit, as the suit was throw- ing a cloud upon the titles of lands in that section, and injuring the Panhandle and its people. The attorney-general declined to comply with the re- quest of the delegation. He is reported as saying, speaking of the greed of the corporation in grab- bing Texas lands, that to-day they controlled one- fourth of all the lands in Texas, they would control it in perpetuity, and he predicted that in less than twenty years, the people of the Panhandle, instead of owning and controlling their own homes, would be vassals of rich English landlords."^ 'This is the dreary condition of servitude awaiting the Panhandle people of prosperous Texas. But Texas is waking up. The alarm is sounded. The recent message of her Governor has an earnest ring on this all-important land question. We quote that part of the message relating to land corporations. It has direct practical value to all the Southern States. Land Corporations. f " The constitution declares that ' perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be al- lowed, nor shall the law of primogeniture or entailments ever be in force in this State.' — Article I., section 26. The laws of this State regulating the estates of deceased persons, are amply sufficient to give full force and effect to the spirit of the constitution against primogeniture and entailments. But there is no law to check or *The Economist's Scrap-Book, Part II., for May, 1S91, p. 124. f Message by Gov. A. S. Hogg of Texas, Jan., 1893. II 1 62 The Ills of the SotUh. limit title to lands owned by corporations nor to prevent monopolies of real estate by them. "While land corporations can not, as such, be chartered under the laws of this State, yet under the law authorizing the Secretary of State to grant permits to foreign corporations to do business within the State, they are chartered in other States and for- eign countries, and are operating here in the purchase and owner- ship of lands. Titles to many million acres are now vested in them, the lands withheld from settlement except at exorbitant prices, with- out any law regulating or controlling or limiting the corporate rights in any respect whatsoever. There is danger in this condition, which seems to have aroused the people ; for, in their convention last August, they adopted the following platform on that subject : * ' ' i6. We demand the enactment of a law that will define perpetu- ities and prohibit the operation of land corporations in this State, requiring those now holding title or possession of lands for agricul- tural, horticultural, grazing and speculating purposes, excepting over- flowed and irrigation lands, to dispose of the same within such reason- able time as may not impair vested rights.' "The purpose of this demand is wise and just. Land corpora- tions, having in view the ownership of large bodies of soil, portend land monopoly with titles in perpetuity. There is no institution more inimical to the genius of a free government ; none that should be more strenouusly prohibited. Permit corporations of this class to operate much longer in this State, grouping together large bodies of agricultural and grazing lands, and the time is not far off when, if the people are permitted to buy homes at all, they can only do so at prices and on such terms that bondage of themselves and their pos- terity must be the result ; for an excessive mortgage debt on a home, bearing annual interest high enough to demand the surplus products of labor to meet it, means no more nor less than bondage of an aggravated form. The condition of other States in this respect can- not fail to be a valuable lesson to Texas. " A corporation has been defined to be an artificial being, invisi- ble, intangible, existing only in contemplation of law, with life perpetual. No power can check its franchises nor limit or destroy its life, except the government that grants its charter. Operating in Texas lands now are Scotch and British corporations and those of other States. While the State has no power to destroy them nor to revoke their charters, she has the right to tax them and to limit their right to acquire property, to prescribe the time and method of its Our Broad Acres. 163 alienation, and to exclude them from the State on conditions and terms consistent with vested rights, at will. Many of them are char- tered abroad with the provision in the grant that they shall not own lands within the grant or government, but may go elsewhere for that purpose. If they were good, this condition would not be in them. It is not well for a great people, in the exciting race for wealth, to overlook this germ now being sowed among them, which, if neg- lected long, will spring into an overshadowing growth that can neither be checked nor destroyed. There is a land famine in most of the Old World and in many sections of the New. In the natural drift of affairs it may reach Texas within the next generation. Nothing can so readily precipitate it as the land corporation. When known that there are in nine of the old States only seven acres per capita ; that in nine of the others there are only twenty acres per capita ; that in twelve others, comparatively new States, there are only twenty-two acres per capita ; that in nine strictly Southern States there are only thirty-five acres per capita; and that in the whole United States, including the Territories, there are only thirty-seven acres per capita of the whole population, and that about one-tenth of these lands are possessed by land corpora- tions, there is at least some excuse for a thoughtful people to be agi- tated at this time over the land problem. " While the whole area of Texas amounts to about seventy- four acres per capita of her population, she is confronted with the most serious condition of corporate ownership of about one-fourth of it all. Statistics show that in the United States from 1S70 to 1S80 the cultivable lands in stable crops increased sixty-six per cent ; while from 18S0 to 1890 the increase thereof was only twenty-six per cent. The evident cause of this is the growing scarcity of agricultural lands throughout the government. The bread-producing land of the world is fast being exhausted, while the bread-consuming people are increas- ing. As the ratio of production decreases, the ratio of bread con- sumption from year to year steadily increases. The land problem, after all, underlies the bread problem. It is the duty of the govern- ment to understand this and to act wisely for the good of posterity. This can best be done by restrictive laws, making corporate land monopoly impossible for the future. While the American people have escaped the evil of land monopoly under the laws of primogeni- ture of the Old World, they may yet find themselves involved in a more serious condition — that of land monopoly from titles in per- petuity caused by corporate ownership. 164 The Ills of the South, "To comply with this demand of the people of Texas, therefore, who had the right to make it, a law now becomes necessary by your honorable bodies, and the following suggestions therein are respect- fully made : " I. Declare that land corporations are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall hereafter exercise no rights in Texas ex- cept such as may be expressly authorized by law. " 2. That no such corporations shall hereafter be chartered or be permitted to do business in the State after a limited period named. " 3. That further acquisition of title or interest in land for spec- ulative, agricultural, or grazing purposes shall be prohibited. "4. That those now holding title to or interest in lands for agri- cultural or grazing purposes, or that may, under the provisions of the law authorizing them to purchase real estate in collection of debt, hereafter acquire interest in or title to such land, shall within a speci- fied time, consistent with vested rights, alienate them to natural persons, wind up their corporate affairs, and leave the State on prescribed penalties and forfeitures." CHAPTER X. THE PERVERSIONS IN BUSINESS. DUSINESS is an honorable term. It does in- ^ valuable service in commerce and exchanges. Freighted with blessings, it is the servant of the rich and the poor. Its purview embodies method, exactness, and punctuality. In a moral sense, it stands for equitable transactions. From these functions, in numerous individual instances, it has been deflected. It has often done degrading service. Its fair visage is besmirched. To discriminate legitimate business from disreputa- ble transactions is not always an easy task. Extor- tion is business; fraud is business; peculation and speculation have appropriated the title ; the taking advantage of ignorance and necessity has employed the term ; corners in trade, dealing in " futures," and gambling in " stocks " have been so styled. Confiscation prices are fair in business. The cheat's transactions come under the term. According to this perverted usage, legitimate and illegimate, reputable and disreputable dealings are styled busi- ness. Crime is not the violation of law, but busi- ness. Oppression is business. Thus it happens, that moral distinctions between right and wrong are defaced in trade. 1 66 The Ills of the South, The science of exchange occupies a prominent place in pohtical economy. The appHances neces- sary to effect the end, require vast capital. Steam- ship lines and railways have not only destroyed the isolation of distant communities, removed the bar- riers to progress, but have made the exchange of productions possible, and have brought them to the doors of the rich and the poor alike. The merchants constitute a large class of those concerned in exchange. Their position in society and the service rendered are quite as important as that of the producer. Without them the factory would be of no use, and the cotton and grain fields might as well be abandoned. They are a highly useful and intelligent class in society, honored for their integrity and business sagacity. Their service is indispensable to progress. The tillers of the soil, or the farming class, in these United States differ widely from a similar class in the Old World. We have no peasantry here in the European sense. Caste has taken no root on American soil. Of twenty-one Presidents of the United States, fifteen came from farms; they were either farmers, or the sons of farmers, and four of the number spent their young manhood tilling the soil on small farms. Thousands of merchants, senators and members of Congress, eminent lawyers and preachers, and men in the various professions and vocations in life had early acquaintance with plough handles. Farm life is simple. Industry is regular. Temptations to evil are few. The circum- stances furnish strong supports to virtue. Morality is The Perversio7is in Business. 167 robust. The unanimous verdict is, the best men and women, not by nature, but environments, are found in the rural districts — on American farms. They are hospitable, unsuspecting, honest, true and faithful to their obligations. We shall not be suspected of any intention to do injustice to either one of the great classes por- trayed. As classes their record is unsullied. Bad and faithless men are found in all the conditions of life. Among the twelve apostles, there was a Judas. Among gentlemen, there are those who belie the title. In every club, lodge, association and con- vention, are faithless men — false to avowed prin- ciples. Farmers and merchants are no exception to the weakness or the wrong that pertains to humanity. With this understanding we may study the per- versions in business relations. There is wrong; done. No doubt about it. We do not believe that the guilt belongs altogether to the individuals of one class. Business has not all been fair. Crookedness has cut a large swath. There is guilty splendor on the one hand, and honest poverty on the other. What causes brought about these conditions? Were they normal? Without discussing these questions, attention is directed to the fact that the Southern situation since 1865 was an invitation and a temptation to a great deal of crooked business. The situation deserves consideration. The people were poor. The credit system was the mode of doing business. Tens of thousands of white farmers were incapable of doing 1 68 The Ills of the SotUh. business in this way, without ruin. They did not understand what they were doing, even when the merchants were thoroughly honest dealers. They could not afford to pay long-time credit prices. If this is not true, how shall we explain the impover- ished condition of Southern farmers in general ? If the dealer was dishonest, swift ruin was inevitable. The negroes were all ignorant. Their custom was sought. They bought without rhyme or reason, as long as the prospect to pay was good. The lien law, intended as a blessing to them, proved a curse, as it practically alienated them, by their own choice, from their old masters. Those who fell into the hands of unscrupulous dealers, became bondsmen a second time. These peculiar circumstances were favorable to rascality. The successful cheat, if a dealer, soon became rich ; if a farmer, white or black, he made a little which the high prices paid by the honest farmer covered. Some of the underlying principles that gave rise to rascality are well worth consideration. Disowned they may be, but their existence is real, and, as active governing motives, the results show them potential. Men love power. It is inherent in the constitution of man. There is no real '' Wamba " or *' Gurth " in all the Southland to-day. A con- dition exists but little removed from that of an age gone forever. Many an Anglo-Saxon has a collar around his neck quite as galling as the iron ring worn by Wamba. Upon its gorget may be read the significant inscription: "Harry Yellowly, the son of Hardfate, is the lienserf of Isaac Shellwell," The Perversions in Business. 169 or, " Dick Fitzurse, the son of Riskall, is the thrall of Wagter Brothers." Merchants that succeeded under existing business methods, became rich in a few years — some very rich. Failures were inevitable. Bad debts were rarely paid. Debts secured, in many instances, the land paid the claim. When every circumstance is considered, the farmers fared the worst. None are rich. Thousands are miserably poor — even men that started with no debts encumbering their prop- erty. These hard and unreasonable conditions upon which the necessities of life, the bread and meat supply, were made dependent, were fruitful in conduct that can not be reconciled by any principles of common justice. " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn," is a merciful command for the interest of the ox. But to impose a percentage which can not be extorted from the soil shows less consideration for the man than the beast. Frankness demands, and justice, '' You can not buy on these terms and avoid beggary and bondage." " Might is right " is expressive of oppression as old as humanity. It fills a dark and dreary chapter in history. The clumsy and brutal weapons em- ployed to enforce it in ages past, are no longer in use, but the doctrine is still in the world. Power still confronts weakness. Its false and vicious intent is not blazoned to the world. It uses delicate machinery for the enforcement of its end. All power unjustly used is of this nature. *' I have him in my power," is too often the expression not of right, but of might ; and to use that might i7o The Ills of the South. unjustly is atrocious. The tools used in the prac- tical application of the maxim to business are, money employed to produce monopoly values in food supplies ; advantages of every sort that the creditor may have over the debtor, or the debtor over the creditor; and circumstances as varied as human wants. The tricks of trade, the jugglery of laws, the art of deception, perjury itself, a wanton disregard for truth and honor, have all been called into requisition to support this species of tyranny. An adept in this sort of crookedness is vulgarly styled " a smart business man." Rehoboam's yoke is heavy. Mr. Hacker is reputed an honest man — he pays his debts promptly. This is well, but is this one virtue to be used as a substitute for meanness and avarice ? Is it not Mr. Hacker's rule to use every advantage over those with whom he has dealings, that money and circumstances give him? Did he not buy Mr. 's school warrant, face value $40, for $18, when he knew that it would be paid at farthest in two years ? That teacher had a large family. Hacker asked an old neighbor 40 per cent, for the use of $100 on twelve months' time. He took a yoke of oxen from a man who was owing him for $30, and sold them next week for $65, and this was *' cheap as dirt." He bought at the highest market price. In trade, he was exorbitant, unmer- ciful. One hundred per cent, profit was fair. " Stubbs ! This is the way to do business." It was a favorite saying of his. A gentleman thus philosophized concerning hon- The Perversions m Business, 1 7 1 est Mr. Hacker and his one vicarious virtue : " Were the leading men in the various counties of the Southern States all honest Mr. Hackers, in a few years there would neither be a school nor a church in the land. Professional men would take their talents elsewhere ; public enterprise would die a still death ; the people would, in a few years, be reduced to a state of serfdom. He never at- tended a meeting of his fellow-citizens, save from compulsion ; from choice and interest in the public good, never. His epitaph will read: 'Here lies the body of Nabal Hacker, His life was selfish ; his ruling passion asserted itself in death — Save the property.' His one vicarious virtue, honesty, is on record ; his dominant selfishness and his other quali- ties must be read in the poverty and the desolation of the homes and the people over whom he had the advantage." Another bad doctrine that has gained favor in practice, is that right and wrong are contingent on knowledge. The obsequious Uriah Heep could not look more humble than some men in expressing their entire confidence in its soundness. "There is big money in nigger trade." Certainly, there is no telling what a benumbed and tattered conscience will permit a man to do when money-making is the life-blood of such a soul. " To do justice to all men, black and white, ignorant and informed, is the law of God. The negro has rights — to deal fairly with him is one of the simplest. Justice demands it. The lowest consideration that it is bad public policy forbids injustice in every form, especially to the 172 1 he Ills of the South, ignorant and the weak. ' It is business.' This is a diabolical defence. ' Niggers cannot tell twelve ounces from a pound ; twenty-four inches from a yard ; and they don't know the cost or the qualities of goods.' The very best reasons why they should be protected. How have ignorant white men fared under such a guardianship? How many liens have been recorded in the county clerk's office whose fatal cross mark was never made by a black hand ? 'Guilty wealth!' Chuckle over it, who will. It is an infamous load to carry down to the grave. Vicarious virtues will be published in the ' In Memoriam,' and then go down to dust and forget- fulness. But such acts will be embalmed in the memory of living sufferers, and read on the historic page of ' splendid guilt.' " The retaliatory idea has also played a part in the conduct of men. Wrong means wrung, twisted, bent, perverse. All wrong is a twisted affair. It soils heart and hands. It has stings for the ap- pointed hour. It is a horrible companion in the midnight watches. One wrong is not an adjust- ment of another wrong, but a shoot from the same perverse stock. The fact that A cheated the people out of $50,000 can never be pleaded in justi- fication of B's conduct to cheat A. One robbery does not adjust another robbery. Such measures knock the bottom out of character, and no wreck in life is attended with such far-reaching consequences as character scarred by injustice or passion. The inheritance is transmitted to children's children. No amount of wealth can compensate for the loss The Perversions in Business. 173 of incorruptible integrity. On this subject, the counsels of an old book have stood every test — tried in the furnace. Every misfortune has declared the lessons of wisdom pure and true. Some of these les- sons are : " A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches ; " " He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely ; " " He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall lose them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." Whatever else may be depre- ciated, these truths in their wide application have never been discounted. To retaliate wrong with wrong is a vengeful cheat. Wrong-doing has many phases. All failures in business are not honest. The true man compelled to yield to inevitable circumstances may become poor, but he comes through the fiery trial with a spotless name. His word is still his bond, and the syno- nym of truth and honor. The circumstantial evi- dence in many a failure points to a different result. What an amount of artful work must be necessary to prepare for such a fraudulent scheme! The books must be doctored; merchandise must be spirited away, if it be part of the plan ; notes given for fictitious money and passed to the credit of bills payable to make one of the preferred creditors look like a decent, honorable gentleman. Preparation for the solemn act of perjury is essential, as w^ell as for the hard and disturbing questions of the lawyers. Assets and liabilities must be arranged. Accounts of good debtors must be closed in the main ledger, and transcribed to a separate book, and payments by these debtors agreed upon by private arrangement. 1 74 The Ills of the South. These methods and others that have not been brought to our attention are more or less necessary in fraudulent failures to make these scurvy transac- tions look fair and honest. The liabilities are greater than the assets, yet the poor man in a short while appears to have more money than he had before his credit went to zero. These dark occurrences in business are sledge-hammer blows to confidence. We would not add a feather's weight to the mis- fortunes of a true man. Legitimate business amid disaster deserves that generous consideration which misfortunes always evoke from noble spirits. Such business when prosperous will always obtain the award due to the high qualities of character and management which make success possible. Wealth legitimately and honorably made can not be the object of envy or reproach. It is the fruit of merit and business capacity. There is a terrible evil in the country, striking herculean blows at truth. The solemn appeal to God in our courts, with the implied belief in retribu- tive justice, is often a heartless mockery. Perjury riots with demoniacal glee in the temples of justice. Forsworn witnesses suborned in desperate cases defy the law. Legal talent of the highest order too often racks ingenuity to exalt a technicality into a fundamental principle, beclouds the plain intent of the law, and minimizes the value of conclusive testi- mony. ''A sharp legal practitioner" is a common term. " Elaborate tissues of circumstantial false- hood, chicanery, forgery, and perjury" are the com- mon weapons used to destroy the plain import of The Perversions in Business. 175 the law. Life, liberty and property are in danger. The too frequent use of this villanous enginery has brought the courts of the country into disrepute. The veneration for law and the confidence in courts are jostled by the miscarriage of their intent. Is there no legislative wisdom in the land to provide a remedy against these evils, so damaging to the interests of society ? In the marts of trade, in the administration of government, in all those relations of life, in which money, property or interest is the main considera- tion, truth is mangled. We have confidence in the statements of thousands. Were it not so, business would come to a dead halt. Into this goodly fel- lowship of truth-loving men, have crept the liars. '' The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts," and the Cretians are found where a penny is to be made or a personal interest is at stake. A lie is a confession of weakness. It resorts naturally to secresy and darkness, to whispers, and to reticence when nearing the confines of truth. A lie can be a mute, and thus affects prudence, wisdom and dignity in the drapery of falsehood. What can not be accomplished by a straightforward course, is attempted by circumvention. Many an unworthy enterprise would fail, if truth directed the issue. The hope of attainment depends upon truth carved and clipped. A lie dares not reveal itself. The Bengalee on the Lower Ganges typifies the tribe. '•Courage, independence, veracity, are qualities to which his constitution and his situation are equally unfavorable. What the horns are to the buffalo, 1 76 The Ills of the South, what the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, . . . deceit is to the Bengalee." An American writer has given quite a variety of lies prepared in the manufactory for the demand of the market to impose on the weak and the unfortu- nate. They are not the Hteral tools of burglars and highway robbers, but the equally dangerous instru- ,ments of the children of the Bengalees and the Cretians. Here are the samples furnished : " Large lies and small lies; lies private and lies public, and lies prurient; lies cut bias and lies cut diagonal; long limb lies and lies with double back action ; lies complimentary and lies defamatory ; lies that some people believe, and lies that all the people believe, and lies that nobody believes ; lies with humps like camels and scales like crocodiles, and necks as long as storks and feet as swift as an antelope's, and stings like adders; crawling lies and jumping lies and soar- ing lies." Honor is prostituted ; shame is without a blush; evils national, municipal, civic and private, have too often their substratum in a compact of lies. There is another evil not coordinate with any of those named, but intimately related to them, and to wrongs of every sort. It is the doctrine that a man in a public position must not express his convic- tions concerning any wrong that affects the interests of society. It is a doctrine firmly rooted in the general belief. It is entertained by many excellent men, whose motives are pure. Others there are who see through the thin gauze, the naked falsehood. Men of convictions are many, but men who dare The Perversions Z7t Business, 177 express these convictions for the pubHc good are not so numerous. Men in pubhc positions are merchants, ministers, teachers, lawyers, physicians, poHticians, and all per- sons who in any way are dependent upon the people for support, patronage, or votes. Society is the sum of the individuals composing it. Moral evils exist in this society — they must not be assailed ; there are pernicious laws, promotive of the interest of a few, hurtful to the many — their ill effects must not be analyzed ; an unwise and unhealthy mode of business takes root in the thought and habits of the people, its pecuniary benefits accrue to a class and its damaging effects touch every other member of the community — no reformatory influence must be put in motion ; the surreptitious selling of liquor is quite common, it is designated by the term Blind Tiger, the law is cheated, and the community is in- jured — no one must speak out. Individual respon- sibility is nowhere to be found ; it is a worm-eaten commodity, and as thin and small and '' scentless as a cake of soap in a public bathing room." The guilty vendors of the article, and their patrons, and all those who wish to prove that prohibition does not entirely prohibit, no more than the laws against fraud, theft, robbery, or murder entirely and abso- lutely prohibit these crimes, nevertheless they are wise laws — are silent, even if they have guilty knowl- edge. Those in public positions are mute for pru- dential reasons. To speak out, may hurt the trade, the business, or may cost some votes. He who antagonizes any evil is sure to excite the ill-will of 12 178 The Ills of the South, somebody. In short, this fallacious doctrine flatly asserts that men, whatever may be their position, are not responsible for the influence they are competent to exert. This negative character thus taught is a deadly poison. The moral dry-rot must go on. The contagious, inflammatory distemper must be allowed to send out its putrid effluvia into every household. Another view. Public opinion is the prevailing opinion of the community. You and I help to make it. If it is virtuous, it is a blessing. But it can only be a blessing when it is a dominant force in society. It can never be a controlling force if the men who make this opinion are '' all dumb dogs that can not bark." There is not an evil in society to-day that could not be largely checked or exterminated, were it not for this vicious doctrine of irresponsibility. But " what is everybody's business is nobody's business." The fallacious adage conveys less than a half truth. If A, B and C are charged to do a certain work, it is their duty solely to perform it. Nobody else has anything to do with it. This feature finds large application in practical life. But human responsi- bility and moral influences have no such narrow limits. It is everybody's business to do right, to promote sound morals, to obey and uphold the laws of the country, to be loyal and true, and to stand up in a manly way for principles. What about prudence ? It is a good quahty in its place. To be cautious — to consider what is to be done and how the end is to be attained, are The Perversio7is in Business. 179 valuable in every undertaking. Do this and act. It is a mere preliminary step to the more important thing, action. If it is all prudence — all selfish con- siderations — balancing of gains and losses when moral questions demand attention, it is as valuable as a cracked bell when the town is on fire. The house will burn to ashes before prudence can resolve to extend a helping hand. The man who makes prudence his sole guide in moral questions is selfish. This is the law of ethics. The man who is governed by duty is virtuous. Selfish considerations enter not into the equation. Prudence consults ease, pleasure, money, gains, losses and votes. Duty is governed by no such earthenware considerations. What is the right, and the obligations that it im- poses ? Duty has nothing to do with consequences. Prudence queries: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Selfishness in all its deep loathsomeness is in the skulking interrogatory. The reply of duty is calm and majestic: *' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And this means, render him service, and the highest service that can be rendered to humanity is to emphasize the right by every available means. Away with the delusion of the wretched doctrine ! Away with the accursed peace it would purchase by selfish considerations ! Away with all the deadly evils lurking in many noxious recesses, which mere selfish prudence would rather endure and tolerate than by manly efforts exterminate ! The gist of the whole matter is : there are times and occasions when it is the duty of all men to speak and to act. Convictions must find a voice. When i8o The Ills of the South. laws are surreptitiously and shamelessly violated ; when grievous wrongs artfully enslave the unwary ; when crimes go unwhipped of justice, and the eva- sion of the laws by means subtile or desperate is the order of the day, then this duty to speak out is imperative. To be silent under such circum- stances is not manly — it is immoral. Dr. J. G. Holland pertinently remarks on this subject : "It is for this peace that numbers have failed to set themselves against great evils that threaten their neighbors, themselves and their children. " A man v^^ho only asserts so much of that which is in him as will find favor with those among whom he has his daily life, and who withholds all that will wound their vanity and condemn their selfish- ness and clash with their principles and prejudices, has no more manhood in him than there is in a spaniel, and is certainly one of the most contemptible men the world contains." The whole truth is, the selfish man, with sordid aims, " seeks to make the world useful to himself," even if the attempt bankrupts the people in life and in property. He risks nothing, and does nothing that will affect his interest. Such a man may die amid affluence and be buried with fashionable eclat, but he did not " live well." The true man, with higher instincts and nobler aims, " seeks to make himself useful to the world." The character of Sir William Temple, as described by Macaulay, illustrates this bad doctrine to decline a public service when that service might endanger personal interest. "Yet Temple is not a man to our taste. A temper not naturally good, but under strict command, — a constant regard to decorum, — The Perversions in Business, i8i a rare caution in playing that mixed game of skill and hazard, human life, — a disposition to be content with small and certain win- nings rather than go on doubling the stake, — these seem to us to be the most remarkable features of his character. This sort of modera- tion when united, as in him it was, with very considerable abilities, is, under ordinary circumstances, scarcely to be distinguished from the highest and purest integrity ; and yet maybe perfectly compatible with laxity of principle, with coldness of heart, and with the most intense selfishness. Temple, we fear, had not sufficient warmth and eleva- tion of sentiment to deserve the name of a virtuous man. He did not betray or oppress his country ; nay, he rendered considerable service to her ; but he risked nothing for her. ... If the cir- cumstances of the country became such that it was impossible to take any part in politics without some danger, he retired to his library and his orchard ; and while the nation groaned under oppres- sion, or resounded with tumult and with the din of civil arms, amused himself by writing memoirs and tying up apricots." This complacent attitude which ignores responsi- bihty and manly expressions upon questions of the highest moment, is found in all the gradations of society. Men wink at crime, connive at vice, and sometimes shut eyes and ears to wrongs of every hue and type. It is not meant that they approve these things, but they shirk the responsibility to express condemnation, and to bring guilt before the proper tribunal. And this want of individual responsi- bility has enfeebled the administration of justice, lowered the tone of public morals, and affected the material interests of the people. The man who expresses his convictions on any important matter, however sound, however true, however pure the motive, if he antagonizes personal or class interests — interests hurtful to the community, may expect maledictions. The Ephesian coppersmith is more concerned with gains than sound morals and the 1 82 The Ills of the South, public welfare. The successful fraud is more likely to receive fulsome congratulations. Public opinion must be toned up to a higher standard, and individ- ual obligations and individual responsibility must be vitalized with truth and principles. The moral forces of society are not only entitled to high and earnest consideration, but the intense obligation upon all classes of men to make them dominant is the demand of the age. Great princi- ples must be reinforced and grounded in the belief. Their supreme importance must be established in the thought and the affections of men. Every agency by which this is done is a boon to society. All hostile influence to such agency is also hostile to the best interests of the community. Wealth is of far less value to society than robust morals. It may not be fashionable to say this, but it is the truth nevertheless. " Breeding, brains, or bullion," it is said, determine the laws for the " best society," and bullion is generally the controlling spirit. But when did wealth make any attempt to regenerate society, reform an abuse, or seek the elevation of humanity? An eminent writer thus expresses him- self : *' There is hardly a fact in all history more patent than this, that in the undertaking and prose- cuting any humane or Christian reform, the fashion- able classes are never to be relied upon for aid, while their opposition in one form or another is cer- tain." Wealth and fashion, in varying degrees, go hand in hand. We point to the general rules, and not to the noble exceptions. Is wealth, then, to be despised ? No ! The meaning is : its place is sub- The Perversions in Business, 183 ordinate to the far higher consideration of the moral forces in all the interests that affect man. This view of the value of great underlying princi- ples of morality is forcibly presented by a Southern statesman. He says : " Our public men reflect the conscience of the nation, and are our representatives in politics and morals. By them are the people judged and influenced. . . . False notions of moral responsibility under- mine all solid ground for virtue ; destroy courageous self-reliance and independence ; elevate expediency and availability above worth and principle ; beget vacillation and time-serving, encourage a habit of appealing from eternal verity to the force of numbers ; and generate a brood of slimy sycophants, vt'ho fawn and flatter in order to fatten on popular credulity.' The common distinction betwixt political and personal honesty is a delusion and a fraud. The politician who is disingenuous, tricky, untruthful, dishonest, is unfit to be trusted in public or in private life. Virtue is permanent, and circumstances cannot efface the distinction between right and wrong. The capri- ciousness of human nature does not ally duplicity and honesty ; nor do vicarious virtues compensate for crime. Marlborough was an invincible warrior of consummate courage and ability, loved his am- bitious wife devotedly, but these should not win forgiveness for his cruelty, hardness of heart, falsehood, avarice, and treason. Colonel Turner, a gallant cavalier, was hung after the Restoration for a fla- gitious burglary. At the gallows, he told the crowd that his mind received great consolation from one reflection— he had always taken off his hat when he went into church. To be the wisest of mankind is no excuse for being the meanest. . . . "Commerce, mechanic arts, agriculture, literature, heroes, battle- fields, internal improvements, free institutions, will not regenerate a nation nor insure its permanent welfare. Christianity, breathing mercy, justice, truth, fraternity, must be its basis, and give sanction to its laws. The vices which degrade men will destroy a republic. Meanness, avarice, drunkenness, extortion, insolence, cruelty, syco- phancy, falsehood, bribery, will dishonor and ruin any people. A low standard of integrity will demoralize, corrupt, overthrow. The right and true must find embodiment in statutes. God's law and civil laws must run in parallel lines. Mischievous and meaningless 184 The Ills of the South, else are representation, trial by jury, ballot-box, common schools, habeas corpus, constitutions, and 'checking and balancing of greedy knaveries.' When contracts and vows are treated as idle things ; when oaths from frequency or levity in administering become idle jests ; when vices are licensed by statute, and revenue is coined from crime ; and when in the shameless facility for divorce * the statute of heaven intended for the purity of home and lying at the foundation of all society,' is trodden under foot, a people may well study the history of dead nations, that Tekel, Tekel, be not written over the doors and on the walls of their capitols, seats of learning, and sanctuaries." * It has been fashionable to boast of the wealth of this nation. Here are sixty million people, and sixty thousand million dollars represent their aggre- gate wealth. Who are the owners? 200 people are worth $4,000,000,000 400 people are worth 4,000,000,000 1,000 people are worth 5,000,000,000 2, 500 people are worth 6, 250,c 00,000 7,000 people are worth 7,000,000,000 20,000 people are worih 10,000,000,000 This was the schedule in 1890. By this time, three years later, it may be that forty thousand people own two-thirds of the national wealth. We would not be misunderstood. There should neither be prejudice nor hostility against wealth in any form. Righteously obtained and used, it is a blessing. This is the inflexible condition. Govern- ments, railroads, steamship lines, inventions and wealth are all to be construed as favorable to the interests of mankind when equitably used. They are curses to the people when they are transmuted * Hon. J. L. M. Curry. The Perversions in Business, 185 into engines of oppression. Money is not an oppro- brious term. '' Money-borrower " and " money- lender " are not humiliating epithets. " The laborer is worthy of his hire." This is good doctrine. All the agents employed in production are entitled to their full pro rata of reward accord- ing to their effective capacity. These agents are the common laborer, skill and talent in all their diversified phases and wide application, responsibil- ity and honor attached to positions of trust and importance, and capital. The classification is gen- eral and will serve to convey the thought intended. We have no metric system by which to determine with exactness the distributive share of any produc- tion due to the agents employed in its creation. Equity will have little trouble in approximating the just portion to each. Fairness will solve the prob- lem on just principles. Unreasonable labor is just as hurtful to justice as unreasonable capital. When one acts the Nero and the other the Caligula, then both are tyrants. In i860 there were few millionaires in these United States. In thirty years from this period less than forty thousand people own nearly two- thirds of the national wealth. The statement is amazing. What is to prevent this forty thousand, with their vantage ground, from securing in the next thirty years, full ownership of the remaining one-third of the wealth? It may be announced to the world: America is the wealthiest nation on the earth — she is so to-day. Fifty thousand people own the aggregate property of the great Republic. And 1 86 The Ills of the South. then in 1920, this announcement may be made: The American Republic is the greatest pauperized nation on the face of the globe. We hope it will not be so. There is certainly something wrong to make this millionaire condition possible. There is injustice somewhere. What part the National Government has contrib- uted to this condition ; what part capital itself has done; what is due to speculation; what is due to inventions — the great labor-saving machinery, and the inability of labor to adjust itself to these new conditions — all these furnish vast material for in- quiry. This one thing is certain, the gains of capi- tal are enormous. In the South, capital in trade, when successfully managed, has been by far the most remunerative investment. A return to normal methods may avert untold calamities. CHAPTER XI. TOWNS — THEIR INFLUENCE. A TOWN means more than a square mile of terri- tory. We use the term in a general sense, whether its inhabitants number 1,500 or 15,000. The community of such a place will have in view an object, more or less clearly defined. The essen- tial idea is occupation. Other considerations, such as convenience to schools and churches, and various privileges and facilities, may govern individuals ; bat the main thing for the majority is the work of such a place that can secure to them a living. Without employment the breadwinners are a burden to them- selves, and something worse in numerous instances to the community. The principal industry of the Southern people is agriculture. To this chief employment, the busi- ness of the majority of towns in the South is directly related. Towns where railroad shops are located, or where manufacturing interests and the lumber business furnish employment, are few. Probably ninety-five per cent, of all Southern communities gathered in towns depend for their support and existence upon the busy workers in distant cotton, cane, and rice fields. If this industry is depressed, the town suffers. The industries of these towns are 1 88 The Ills of the South. expressed with sufficient exactness by the terms, *' trade and transportation, professional and personal service, mechanics and laborers." There is work for all of the four classes in every town. There is no danger that the three first named will overcrowd their vocations long. The fourth class is equal in number to all the other classes in many communi- ties, and in some places double and treble the three classes. The complexion of our population ac- counts for this fact. The suburbs of Southern towns and villages are alive with colored people. No observant person can fail to note the fact that the supply of laborers, so styled, in these communi- ties, is greater than the demand. The town is the reservoir into which the stream of this class from the adjacent country flows. Every town is ambitious of its business prosperity, its schools and its churches, and an important evi- dence of its growth is the increase of its population. It is human nature so to boast. No one doubts that Southern towns generally have a large surplus population. The truth about this matter can hurt no one. A larger laboring population in any place than the work there requires is not a sign of health, but of disease. The outside world and reflecting men may construe the parade about population as a satire on this unfortunate status and the burdens it imposes on the municipal government. Five hun- dred people, less or more, in a town, without money, work or bread, are not convincing proofs of a pros- perous condition. " Nudity and rags," says Horace Mann, *^ are only human idleness or ignorance Towns — Their hijiuencc. 189 out on exhibition." It is a cheap exhibition, save the effect it has on the tax schedule to provide for the expense of the criminal docket. There is no question about the statement that there are large numbers of colored people in our towns whose con- dition would be greatly improved were they on farms where their labor is in demand. As it is, they eke out a precarious existence. According to the tenth and the eleventh census, in the ten Southern States used as a basis of comparison, out of 6,937 townships, 2,061 lost population. This is nearly thirty per cent, in ten years. These figures do not indicate the entire movement to the towns. There is not a township probably in any Southern State, notwithstanding the general increase of pop- ulation, from which there has not been a colored exodus. " Let us reason together." A depletion of this labor in the country can not benefit the town. The Southern farm is the town's remunerative workshop. The prosperity of the town hinges on the success of the farm. This is quite evident. But is even this gainful idea a matter of thought— a matter of sym- pathetic interest ? Good roads to a town are neces- sary, but labor on the farm is more so. Indifference on the part of those most concerned will not help matters. A dealer that will sell a farmer $500 mer- chandise on time, and buy him a mule besides, may not regard himself under any moral obligation to turn the idle labor at his door into a useful channel. " It is not my business." Certainly not. But a man can be humane — can be helpful to those who 1 90 The Ills of the Soitth. make business prosperous, especially when a little right influence costs not a nickel. A man need not crowd his life with all sorts of excuses, yellow, green, and speckled, when a little service is to be done, that would be helpful to the poor colored man, helpful to the merchant himself, and helpful to everybody. A little helpful influence exerted by all good and earnest men would do good. Generally speaking, there is altogether too much dependence upon law and law officers, and too little effort in life and practice to make virtuous opinions dominant. The best laws are evolved from virtuous public opin- ion, and this same opinion must aid to enforce these laws, stand by the officers when they execute the laws, and frown down upon unfaithful public ser- vants when they wink or connive at infractions, or fail in any wise to do their duty. It is too often the case, that the man who is loud in condemnation of unfaithfulness in public men, is the last man to put in motion one right influence to check the evil he condemns, or root up the causes that produce the evil. Idleness is one of them. It is not a virtuous commodity. It makes no man rich. It is a rotten thing within and without. It is a cruel thing. Hope is not in it — nor right. It produces no bread. It cheers no living man. It breeds crime. What can be done? Much everyway. In union there is strength. Concert of action can do a vast deal in town and country. Let the best men, the most influential men, come to the front. Let right motives and right actions dominate. Let an earnest inquiry go forth from such a source: "Why stand Towns — Their Influe7ice. 191 ye here all the day idle ? " A committee on " Indus- trial Morals" is in order everywhere. Let the inquiry be made when the sun is high in the heavens. Moral suasion, wholesome counsel, and sympathetic interest will not be fruitless. The let- alone, do-nothing, irresponsible, negative policy has been weighed in the balance, and found wanting. ^' Upon an area of six square miles," said a friend, " live eight hundred men and grown boys, who prac- tically live from hand to mouth. They are colored people. They could make 2,400 bales of cotton, 80,000 bushels corn, 80,000 bushels sweet potatoes, and other produce." Yet not a friendly hand is stretched out to help them. It is manly to say to them : '* There is no work for all of you here. It is not to your interest to remain." If it be true that the country is the town's work- shop, much may be done to add to the efficiency of that workshop. Friendliness must show itself to be so. There is a reciprocal relation between them. If one is injured, so is the other. Absolute inde- pendence is nowhere to be found. The utmost good will and friendliness should exist between the merchant and the farmer. Fair dealing and hearty kindliness will cement this relationship. They apply to both alike. There is another matter of no small interest to the people. We refer to education ; especially to the public schools of Southern towns. It is one thing heartily to approve the education of the chil- dren of the State at the public expense, and it is another thing to indorse all the particulars of the 192 The Ills of tJie South, plan to accomplish the desired end. There is no question as to the duty of the State to give a com- mon-school education to all her children. Our observations relate to the policy. In other words, to the quantity of the work that is attempted in the public schools of our agricultural towns rang- ing from i,ooo to 3,000 inhabitants. Wealthy cities can afford to do what these can not. In the first place, a common-school course of studies should be definitely confined to its proper work, as the term implies. It is the school for the masses in town and country. Spelling, reading, geography, arithmetic, English grammar, and United States history make an ample common-school course. This elementary course should be well taught. Thor- oughness is the crying need in these schools. Why not add other studies to this list ? The reasons are plain : our people are poor ; the pay of superior teachers is small ; inefficient teachers are numerous. From ninety to ninety-five pupils out of every hundred pursue the studies named. From a half-dozen to a dozen girls and boys in such a town are ready to take up advanced studies. This number is divided into three or four classes. They are generally the sons and daughters of well-to-do and influential parents. Of course, there is more or less forcing done ; not so much by the instructor as the parents. Another dozen of ill-prepared mate- rial may swell these higher classes, much to their injury, and to the hurt of those that are ready for the advanced work. Let us see how it works. The town builds a new Towns — Their Influence, 193 schoolhouse, costing from $5,000 to $10,000. Now for a name. In a city of a hundred thousand or more inhabitants, a school of such material is styled '' pub- lic ; " in a small city, a graded school — quite appro- priate ; in the country, the village, or the town, such an institution takes a more ambitious title : it is a nor- mal school, or a high school, or a college. The town is on a boom, the college is on a boom, and a new broom sweeps clean. Everybody favors the school. Tuition costs nothing, except in the music depart- ment. In ten years the children of the few wealthy and influential patrons are educated ; they have finished the higher studies, taught under disadvantages, by teachers burdened with elementary work. But the taxes go on. These may amount for State, county, and town, to two and a half to three per cent. Who pay these taxes ? In towns such as de- scribed, the bulk is paid by two or three dozen men ; and of that number, a dozen merchants pay by far the larger portion. Leave them out, and the bottom drops out of the school. If meagre salaries are paid the one or two teachers of the high school, or if the whole number of teach- ers in the common and high school course is not sufficient for even the common free-school course, to do first-class work, since the number of pupils generally attending the public school of a town is large, inefficiency follows, however competent the teachers may be. If a requisite number of teachers are employed, and living salaries are paid, the ex- penses are increased, and this burden falls heavily 13 1 94 The Ills of the South. on the large business class of these towns — the mer- chants. It will not be borne many years. A limited course well taught, is far better than a long course ill taught. The country public school of four months' session imitates the town school with sessions from eight to ten months. Higher studies are added for two or three favorite pupils, and the attention these receive from the teacher is equal to the attention given to the second, third, and fourth reader classes. Three pupils in physical geography, general history, elementary algebra, and rhetoric, will take up more time in their recitations than twenty-four pupils in the lower studies. These studies are added when the demand is made, or when the circumstances are ifavorable for their introduction. A very common opinion is, ** the four months' free school " in the country is a failure. It has been the complaint for years. We have assigned a cause. Instead of doing well in this short time a small amount of work, a great deal is attempted, and that, as is the case in seventy-five schools out of a hun- dred, by inexperienced teachers. In a number of schools of this sort, personal inquiry revealed the fact, that a young lady teacher having from twenty- five to thirty-five pupils, attempted to teach the six common-school studies mentioned on a former page, and eight advanced studies besides, pursued by three pupils. She worried through the four months, attended one or two teachers' institutes, closed with a general examination and a concert, and she was paid for her work from $120 to $140. Towns — Their Influence. 195 The best pupil in the school could not tell whether there were eight or fifteen parts of speech in Eng- lish grammar, and was perplexed to know to what the product of a half of a half referred. Better work in elementary studies is the need in these schools. To it every effort should be directed. The great evil of too much work, too many studies, is apparent. The towns set the example. They imitate the city ; the village and the country school, the town. The tendency of the town schools, especially if high-school studies form a part of the course, and instruction in the latter is free, is to invite country patronage. Several dozen children board with their relations or friends to enjoy the benefits of the town institution which furnishes free tuition to all that can come. The poor man's children can not come. The enrolment of the town school is thus increased a few dozen pupils. Here and there a few farmers move to town to secure these benefits, and generally leave the town with more experience than money. The town is not benefited, and those that come are not compensated for the loss sustained. People in pinched circumstances, perhaps involved in debt, leave their farms, upon which they are dependent to support their families, and come to town to edu- cate their children. The inducement is, education in town is free. Others move their families to town, governed by the same motive. This is all well, if a man is out of debt, and can see how to make ends meet, and support a part of the family on the farm and a part in town. The motive to educate is laud- 196 The Ills of the South. able, but experience has shown that these methods adopted by anxious and ambitious parents to ac- complish the object are In the end unwise. Not a few farmers have thus crippled themselves financially for years, and that without educating their children in a free school. We need high schools, intermediate between the common schools and the colleges. They should be genuine, not makeshifts. Burdened as the South- ern States are with debts, crippled and uncertain as are the great farming interests of the country, the people are in no condition to maintain them at the public expense. Very few are the communities able to do this. The well-to-do people will patron- ize these schools, and they are able to pay for such education. The condition pointed out in educational matters can not last. There is confusion. It is difficult to tell where the common free school ends its work, and where the high school begins. Nothing is de- fined, nothing limited. Schools with all sorts of pompous names are springing up in the country. At every cross-road, village, and town there is a high school or a college. They flourish a few years, then die the death. Like Jonah's gourd, they spring up in a night, and perish in a night. The counterfeit always damages the genuine, for in many things they may be alike. The discerning alone can tell the difference between the true and the false, that which is permanent and that which is temporary. The tendency of the movement is hostile to gradation in school work, and discouraging Towns — Their htfluence, 197 to every man who desires to make educational work a profession. No man with liberal preparation cares to enter this field at from $40 to $75 per month, with no hope of permanency or improvement in the remuneration. The counting-room, medicine, law, and mercantile business offer more inviting fields under these circumstances, and require no such intellectual equipment. The influence of towns, morally, is worthy of attention. There are good people in every town. But wherever population is massed, whether the number is 1,000, 5,000, or 100,000, there are moral dangers. Here the assaults on virtue are fierce. The term *' virtue " is used in a generic sense as standing for the entire circle of moral principles. The town is a life centre, a trade centre, an enter- prise centre, a crime centre, a vice centre, a centre of various influences put in motion by all sorts of people, differing widely in their motives and ob- jects in life. We note the influence of a class highly honorable on many accounts. The reference is to the business portion of the community; not the merchants alone, but all men engaged in honorable, honest, legitimate vocations in life. They constitute the respectable class in the town. Diligent, attentive, and punctual in their professions, callings, and business, they contribute their share to material prosperity. It is the industrious class. Take them out, and the bottom drops out of the place. The central object with the major portion of this class in society is business, and the dominant motive 198 The Ills of the South, is material prosperity. To accumulate property is the end in life, worthy of every effort. If honor and distinction are added, they grace the fruit of their exertions. We are sure that we do no injustice to any one in the affirmation, that the majority of our law-abiding, industrious, and influential citizens in every community propose to themselves, as the supreme object in life, material prosperity. With not a few, every other consideration is secondary ; and, we are confident, with many, every other con- sideration is zero. It is not meant that they are indifferent to their families, the ordinary social relations, or the amenities of life. No ! The very appeals of charity are made to them, and will obtain a hearing with most of them. Much that is pleasant and amiable is found here. Earnest efforts to secure material well-being are indorsed by prin- ciples human and divine. It is a means to an end. It is not half of that for which life was given. Moral influences are needed everywhere, and especially in those places where temptations to evil are numerous, and the strain upon morals is the greatest. Habits, customs, certain social influences, idleness, a low public opinion, fashionable acquies- cence in wrongs of various types — these make a tremendous strain on the right. The pernicious example of a man of influence is incalculable. He may poison the minds of whole platoons of men whose conduct he despises. That example may consist in nothing more than placing a discount on morals, in depreciating their value. W^ealth is nec- essary to individual comfort ; morals are essential Tow7ts — Their Inflzcence, 199 to hold society together. The latter is entitled to the first place in the affections, esteem, and prac- tices of men. This gives power and beauty to char- acter, and lies at the foundation of all well-ordered society. It is a great truth that no man lives to himself. No life is isolated. Every man is in a community, and of a community. He can not separate himself from it. The vicious influence which he shuns, and about which he is indifferent because it does not concern him, is in the community of which he is a part. Its miasma reaches his home and his place of business. He may wish to have nothing to do with it, but it will have something to do with him. This is certain. Vice and wrong of every kind are threats against everybody. For these reasons, the depre- ciation by word or act, of great moral principles, is an incalculable injury. The town is also a political centre. The oppor- tunity is here furnished to impart lessons of patriot- ism. Governmental affairs so directly concern all the people, rich and poor, that it would seem any matter of a political nature relating to the munici- pality, county, or State, would enlist the interest of the most responsible and influential citizens. If good government is so important to the welfare of the people, it seems that they would emphasize its value by interest in its affairs. The interest should be commensurate with the exalted end in view. It is the solemn duty of all good citizens to show by their acts, and by sacrifices if need be, that " this is a government of the people, by the people, and 200 The Ills of the South. for the people." Individual responsibility to the government is the essential condition to make this possible. We hear much in our day of *' thug-rule, ring-rule, and class-rule." A government of a dozen, by a dozen, and for a dozen, is a sign of decay both as to interest and responsibility. But who is to blame? Not the dozen. Blame those who plead indiffer- ence, who plead excuses and dissatisfaction, who plead, perhaps, despair of improvement. Blame those who will not help to remove bad men from office, and aid in the enactment of wise and benefi- cent laws. Dispassionate discussion defines the boundary of truth. Individual interest and respon- sibility of all the people are signal marks of healthy progress. It is a lamentable sign when a large number of the poorest conditioned men, morally and intellectually, are the guardians of political interests. CHAPTER XII. THE PROGRESS OF THE NEGROES. THEY were brought to America by compulsion ; they were sold to Southern planters when interest dictated the bargain ; others were brought from Africa and sold to the Southern people by reason of the same selfish motive; and they were liberated by no act of their own. Whether enslaved or made freedmen, the effort was not their act. They have ever been the football of superior races. Degraded in slavery, or elevated by philanthropy, the moving force, whether a curse or a blessing. Is from without. No Joshua has appeared among them. White captains dared the dangers Incident to their enslavement. Adventurous cunning and cupidity placed upon the neck of the negroes the yoke of bondage. In submission they yielded to the curse. White statesmen, white philanthropists, and white organized efforts have exerted themselves untiringly, and In large and noble measures, to ele- vate them during the last five and twenty years. What has been done for the negroes, In bane or in blessing, has neither been proposed nor done by the negroes. White men write and speak In their be- half ; white men give their money In the interests of the negroes, and white men do the effective think- 202 The Ills of the South. ing for their good. The negroes are passive. All the predominant influence for their elevation is extraneous. This is a luminous fact in the history of this people. They have been a fruitful cause of contention to the American people. They are a bone of contention to-day. The negro problem does not concern them as a class, but the white people are anxious about its solution. The negroes are an amazingly helpless people. Amid the strife and progress of the ages, what book, what invention, what trophy in the arts or let- ters, what achievement in the field of industry, what brave and wise leadership on some ensanguined bat- tle-ground, and what persistent and triumphant vic- tory in any great moral contest of humanity, signalize the part which the sons of Ham have taken in civil- ization ? On the North American Continent they have been in close touch with the stirring activities of the Anglo-Saxon people. What have they ab- sorbed and utilized ? The encouragement of friends, the leverage of government, the presence of inspir- ing Anglo-Saxon examples, have given birth to no high purpose and to no generous spirit of self-de- pendence among this people. The very incentives of personal and political freedom have impaired their energy. The story of their wrongs, and the results of all the intellectual and moral agencies instituted for their advancement, are written by Anglo-Saxon pens. The world is still waiting for some pen-mark, some epic, that shall chronicle the deeds of a pure Hamite, some granite monument that shall commemorate the heroic or civic services The Progress of the Negroes. 203 of a son of Ham. The past is a dreary waste, bar- ren of results. The hope and the inspiration of the future are palled by the past. Kinds of Negroes. " The great primordial nations of Ham were first four — those o£ Mezer, Cush, Phut, and Canaan. Of these, the nation of Canaan was much the largest, consisting of twelve nations ; that of Mezer was composed of seven nations ; Cush, of six ; while Phut made only a single nation. Five of the nations descended from Canaan were destroyed, enslaved, or expelled from Judea by Joshua, and six have left no written history. . . . Turning to Africa, we find, according to ethnologists, four great types, the jMoorish, the Egyptian, the Berber, or Abyssinian, and the Negro. Of these the Mauric type seems descended from Phut, the Egyptian from Mezer, the Abyssinian from Cush, and the Negro from Canaan." " The negro type is found aboriginal in Africa, in the Fejee Islands, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Madagascar. Its nations are all black or brownish-black. The hair of the negro is woolly and wiry ; his features generally broad and flattened, though there are several tribes of them who have, in connection with woolly hair and dusky skin, the most elegant forms and features, as among the Caffres and lolofs. , . . There seem to be six or seven kinds of negroes, which we enumerate as follows : (i) The Hottentots, (2) the Caffres, (3) the Guinea negro, and (4) the lolofs, all of Africa ; (5) the Papuan of Oceanica, (6) Negrillo of New Guinea, and (7) the Australian negro. The Guinea negro, common with tcs, has woolly hair and black skin, thick lips, a broad, Jlat nose, prognathous jaws, narrow and receding forehead, a sletider waist, high hips, slender limbs, 2,Vid. massive feet, rounded on the bottom. . . . The lolofs, in addition to woolly hair 2x1^ jet-black skijt, possess z. fine form and strictly European features. The Caffres are of woolly hair, blackish-brown complexion, and ha\e fne form and features.'^ * If this description of the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah, be * Dominion ; or. The Unity and Trinity of the Human Race. 204 The Ills of the South. accurate, we have in these United States the Guinea negro, the lolofs, and the Caffres. To these must be added those in whose veins flow one- half, three-fourths, or seven-eighths white blood, or the mulattoes, the quadroons, and the octoroons. (The last three will hereafter be designated by the common title, mulatto.) These four classes are found on American soil. The Guinea negroes con- stitute an overwhelming majority. The close ob- server may have seen a few lolofs and Caffres. What per cent, these are of the whole negro popu- lation can not be determined. The mulattoes con- stitute a little more than one-seventh of the entire population. The Guinea negroes, the lolofs, and the Caffres will be classed as black. According to the eleventh census. Bulletin No. 199, these Canaanites, or persons of African descent, may be arranged as to numbers thus : Blacks 6,337,980 Mulattoes 956,989 Quadroons 105,135 Octoroons 69,936 — 1,132,060 Total 7,470,040 According to their residence they are found, as per Census Bulletin No. 199, as follows: RESIDENCE. BLACKS. MULATTOES. 207,175 16,477 297,331 2,823,905 2,993,092 62,731 10,604 133,781 438,785 486,159 Western Division North Central States South Atlantic States South Central States The Progress of the Negroes. 205 Of the whole African population in the North Atlantic States, 23 per cent, are mulattoes ; of those in the Western Division, 62 per cent, are mulattoes ; of those in the North Central States, 31 per cent, are mulattoes ; of those in the South Atlantic States, 10 per cent, are mulattoes; and of those in the South Central States, 13 per cent, are mulattoes. In the three Northern Divisions were, in 1890, 728,099 persons of African descent ; of this number, 28 per cent were mulattoes. The Southern Divisions had at this time, 6,741,941 persons of African descent. Thirteen per cent, of this number were mulattoes. MOVEMENT. Of the entire mixed population— mulattoes, quad- roons, and octoroons— 17 per cent, are in the North. Of the black population, 8 per cent, are in the North. The ambitious, aspiring portion of this people are either mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons, or the lolofs and Caffres. The mulattoes inherited the superior intellectual qualities of their fathers, and often their bad moral qualities. Ambition, pride, cunning, and resentment show themselves much more clearly in varying degrees in the mixed race than in the pure negro. The Guinea negro is sub- missive, humble, always jolly, cares little for the future, and is wanting both in resentment and gratitude. The jet-black and the blackish-brown negroes, styled by the author of Dominion, lolofs and Caffres, show far more intelligence than the Guinea type. They may constitute from 5 to 10 per cent, of the pure African race. 2o6 The Ills of the Soiith. LEADERS. The majority of those esteemed leaders of this race are mulattoes, with a small per cent, of higher type pure negroes. Generally il is the white blood of the mulattoes that pushes forward, that seeks the professions, looks with resentment upon the past, and boasts of its relationship to a white father. The lolofs and the Caffres are less ambitious, but more conservative. The lower strata, the great bulk of this population, have given no sign of an upward movement. The worthy specimens indicating prog- ress belong to these higher types. Rev. Henry M. Turner, Bishop of the African M. E. Church; Rev. J. A. Beebe, Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church ; Rev. Isaac Lane, Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church ; Rev. Lewis H. Holsey, Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church, are fine examples. Their photographs are found in a work entitled The Gospel among the Slaves, published by the Pub- lishing House of the M. E. Church South. In a book published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, entitled Prisoners and Paupers, by Henry M. Boies, M.A., are four photographs of pure negroes, whose features are not those of the Guinea type. They are Rev. Joseph C. Price, D.D., President of Livingston College, Salisbury, N. C. ; Rev. C. N. Grandison, D.D., President of Bennett College, Greensboro', N. C. ; Hon. John H. Smyth, ex-United States Minister, etc., Washington, D. C. ; also a group of five well-developed pure negroes in private life is given. There is no doubt that three or more types The Progress of the Negroes. 207 of pure negroes are found in this country. That progress and leadership belong to these pure higher types, and that the mulattoes outnumber these in leadership, is, I believe, a common opinion. Hon. Frederick Douglass, Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, and Hon. John R. Lynch, stand in the front rank. The chief characters portrayed in '' Uncle Tom's Cabin " are mulattoes, quadroons, and an octoroon. Madame de Thoux, George Harris, and Susan are mulattoes; Gassy and Emmeline are quadroons; and Eliza is an octoroon. Uncle Tom is an exceptionably good negro, whose living reality it will be difficult to find. Sambo and Quimbo belong to the genuine Guinea type. At a recent pubHc school institute in the county of Lincoln, Mississippi, we counted fifteen teachers in attendance. Of this number, six male and seven female teachers were mulattoes. Progress. — What have education and freedom done for this people in twenty-seven years? What progress have they made? If by progress is meant political, civil, and religious privileges, improve- ment in knowledge, in morals, and in all those ele- ments that pertain to the well-being of the race, the question is difficult to answer in the affirmative or negative without committing a grave error. If it were a question relating to individuals, truth de- mands an affirmative answer. The inquiry refers to the race— to 7,470,040. The answer to the inquiry may be stated thus : Let the figure 5 represent the general condition of this people in 1865, and the figure 10 the reasonable progress of the race in twenty-seven years. The aggregate condition of 2o8 The Ills of the South, 100 persons would be represented by 500 in 1865. Ten persons have gained five points each ; their total is 100 points, measuring reasonable progress. Ninety persons have retrograded two points each ; 270 points measure their general condition to-day. Three hundred and seventy points express the general condition of the race in each group of 100 persons in 1892, as compared with 500 points ex- pressive of the condition of this race in 1865. The race has sustained loss in the general condition of well-being ; choice individuals have made commend- able improvement. They have had the privilege to vote, to sit on the jury, and many other privileges accorded the white race. They have schools and churches. They are masters of their own time and work. Some hold property. The number is small — it may be five per cent. There has been prog- ress in knowledge. It may be that 3,000,000 can read, and many can write. They had, in 1880, in the Southern States, 1,140,405 children in the pub- lic schools, and over 1,000,000 did not use these privileges. There were 18,219 teachers. In 69 schools of science, theology, law, and medicine were 15,639 students. In industrial schools there were perhaps 500'''" students. There are not less than 5,000 t ministers of the gospel. Here are some of the elements of progress. * This number is too small. The Tuskeegee Institute of Alabama has from 900 to 1,000 students of this class, according to the Review of Reviews for April, 1894. f Too small. There are in the Southern States, 7,991 ordained Bap- tist colored ministers alone. See American Baptist Year-Book for 1894. The Progress of the Negroes. 209 The things in which some of the best negroes have made advancement do not counterbalance the elements of retrogression of the legions. In other words, the uplifting forces have carried on an un- equal contest with the down-grade forces. The latter have done more injury to this people in their new relation as freedmen and citizens than the former have aided them to a better life. Moral or physical forces must govern every life. Moral considerations play an insignificant part in the life of the majority. Physical restraints are the most effective. Note tJie idleness of a large and increasing class. It is their great curse. Reason can not induce them to work, and compulsion is out of the question. Wise laws might do much. This one trait is the parent of a whole brood of evils. The progress in this direc- tion is fearful. The truth may be distasteful, yet 15,000,000 people are witnesses to the fact. Should the public schools introduce lessons in industry and morality^ and place them on an equality with read- ing, writing, and arithmetic^ they would be of match- less importance to this race. This one racial quality visible everywhere, in town and country, can be easily verified by those who have direct dealings with this people. The mere theorist who judges them at a distance, or judges the whole people by a few choice specimens that have come under his observation, is sure to paint the prospects of the race in rose-colored terms. Thousands of men would gladly have dealings with such characters as Uncle Tom, but the Uncle Toms are few. The numerous family of Sambo, Quimbo, 14 2 TO The Ills of the South. and Topsy makes *' the negro problem " so serious. The African people as a class— there are noble ex- ceptions — have made no advance to a better life in mdustry. By the concurrent testimony of all those whose business forced them to note the char- acter of their work, and of those who worked with them side by side, and compared results, negro industry has decreased 66 per cent. Besides, licen- tioiisftess, lying, thieving, drunkenness, gambling, and perjury have made alarming gains in twenty-seven years. Promises are idle things, utterly valueless in their estimation. Consequences do not affect them. Confidence in their promises is reduced to the minimum. They will not testify against each other in court unless envy, jealousy, or hatred in- : spires them. These things exist ; they are reality ; and are not the product of prejudice or of exaggera- tion. James Anthony Froude relates a similar con- dition existing in the West Indies. He says: "The negro morals are as emancipated iji Dominica as in the rest of the West IndiesT "^ Of a former period, the same author thus writes : " Dominica had then been regarded as the choicest jewel in the necklace of the Antilles." t Again, speaking of the negroes near Mandeville, on the Island of Jamaica: " They stole cattle, and would not give evidence against each other. If brought into court they held a pebble in their mouths, being under the impression that, when they were so provided, perjury did not count." :t^ ■^ The English in the West Indies, p. 152. \ lb., p. 153. Xlb., p. 249. The Progress of the Negroes. 2 1 1 The progress of this people, as a class, in knowl- edge, in accumulating wealth, and in orderly life, are outweighed by the retrogression of the great body of negroes in morals. The various forms of immorality that mark their downward course are not done in a corner ; they are on record. A great body of white people, especially the farming peo- ple, are weary of the struggle. Every farmer of the South knows that the odds to successful farming are tremendous when he is dependent upon this labor. As early as 1874 Rev. Dr. E. J. Winkler, an eminent minister of Georgia, said in an article on "The Negroes in the Gulf States," published in the International Rcviezv, vol. i.. No. 5 : *' Labor they esteem as a humiliation. They will not engage in any service unless compelled by urgent necessity ; and, when em- ployed, are neglectful and resentful to a degree. AJthough they afford the only material for the future supply of menial service to the home and the field, the growing desire of good citizens is, that most of them remove to other regions. The more industrious must be retained, for they can be used to their own profit and for the advantage of the community. The others will only consume and destroy what more industrious hands may produce.''^ The Southern people will testify to the accuracy and severe truthfulness of this statement. The only difference that eighteen years have made, is, that the condition now is far worse ; it is more embarrassing. No argument can explain away the facts. More than this, the matter of the last statement of Dr. Winkler furnishes one of the causes of much of the lawlessness of the country. Men are crazed with the struggle and their desperate surroundings. The 212 The Ills of the South. lawless deeds are paraded in the newspapers, but no inquiry is made into the condition that gave them birth. Peaceable Anglo-Saxon farmers of meagre intelligence, maddened by their hard surroundings, not knowing which way to look for relief, growing poorer every year, and more despondent, in an evil hour startle the community. The situation is dreary and menacing. Lawlessness is not the route out of the difficulties. There can be no sympathy with anarchy, but to relieve it by lawful means is the dictate of virtue. In further illustration of this retrograde move- ment, we quote from Mr. Froude's book, The Eng- lish ill the West Indies^ as a realistic companion portrait of the condition in the South. " Mr. , however, did most really convey to me the convictions of a lai'ge and influential body of West Indians — convictions on which they are already acting, and will act more and more. With Hayti so close, and with opinion in England indifferent of what becomes of them, they ivill clear out while they have somethittg left to lose, and will not wait till ruin is upon them, or till they are ordered off the land by a black legislature. There is a saying in Hayti, that the white man has no rights which the blacks are bound to recognize.''* (p. 192). . . . Col. J , acting governor of Jamaica, ''con- firmed the complaint which I had so often heard, that the blacks would not work for wages more than three days in the week, or regularly upon those, preferring to cultivate their own yams and sweet pota- toes " (p. 211). . . . "The negroes in Mandeville were, perhaps, as happy in their old condition as they have been since their glorious emancipation, and some of them to this day speak regretfully of a time when children did not die of neglect ; when the sick and the aged were taken care of, and the strong and healthy were, at least, as well looked after as their owner's cattle. Slavery could not last; but neither can the condition last which has followed it" (p. 246). The Progress of the Negroes. 13 Men who live in the South, familiar with what has been going on for twenty-five years, seeing the strong racial qualities of this people, involving black and white in ruin, and who dare speak out without gloss or varnish, and with no selfish motive govern- ing them, are bound to say the situation is full of alarm. Those that decry the endeavors of the South to educate her children, have not examined her condi- tion and her trying environments. Some compari- sons may emphasize the truth of what the South is doing. TABLE A. 1880. School Population, Enrolment, and Attendance.* STATES. SCHOOL POPULATION. SCHOOL ENROLMENT. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. Alabama 388,003 426,689 433,444 1,641,173 307.321 586,556 179,490 236.704 236,533 1,031,593 306,777 426,057 117,978 156,761 145.190 573.089 233,127 259,836 Mississippi Georgia New York Massachusetts * Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1880, pp. 406, 407 214 The Ills of the South. TABLE B. 1880. Expenditure per Capita on School Population, Enrolment, AND Attendance.* STATES. EXPENDITURE PER CAPITA ON SCHOOL POPULATION. EXPENDITURE PER CAPITA ON SCHOOL ENROLMENT. EXPENDITURE PER CAPITA ON SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. Alabama $0.96 1.56 1.08 6.34 14.91 8.17 $2.09 2.70 1.99 10.09 14 93 11.25 $3-17 4.01 3-31 18.16 19.66 18.45 Mississippi Georgia . . . ? .... New York Massachusetts Iowa TABLE C. 1880. Per Cent, per Capita of wSchool Expenditure on Valuation OF Property. STATES. ASSESSED VALUA- TION OF PROP- ERTY, REAL AND PERSONAL, t TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDI- TURE. t PER CENT. OF PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURE ON ASSESSED VALUATION OF PROPERTY, REAL AND PERSONAL. Alabama Mississippi Georgia $122,867,228 110,628,129 239,472,592 2,651,940,006 1,584,756,802 398,671,251 $375,465 830,704 471,029 10,412,37s 5,156,731 4,921,248 .003 + .oo7i + New York . ... Massachusetts Iowa .004- .003 + 012 + * Report of the Commissioner of Education, 18S0, pp. 412, 413. f Compendium Tenth Census, 1880, Part IL, p. 1508, X Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1880, p. 412. The Progress of the Negroes. 215 The valuation of property of the State of New- York, in 1880, was $2,651,940,006; the expenditure for public education during the year was $10,412,- 378; and the school population of the State was 1,641,173. According to the sources of information referred to — the Compendium of the Tenth Census, and the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1880 — the valuation of all property, real and personal, in thirteen Southern States, namely, Virginia, West Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Flor- ida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkan- sas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, was $2,370,923,269. The difference in valuation between these thirteen States and the State of New York is $281,016,737. That difference alone more than equals the value of all the property in Florida, Alabama, and Missis- sippi. The expenditure of these thirteen States for public education in 1880 was $7,132,651. The school population in these thirteen States that year was 2,943,180 white children, and 1,680,273 negro children, making a total of 4,623,453 children of school age. These thirteen impoverished States had 2,982,280 more children for which to provide educa- tion than New York. According to wealth, in 1880 Alabama expended 3 mills for educational purposes ; Mississippi, 7i mills ; Georgia, 2 mills ; New York, 4 mills ; Massa- chusetts, 3 mills; and Iowa, 12 mills. Iowa leads in this comparison, giving three times as much money as New York ; yet New York has six times as much wealth. 2 1 6 The Ills of the South, The per capita comparison , accoding to Table B, places the Southern States at a disadvantage. By this rule Alabama expends $3.17 per capita on school attendance; Massachusetts spends $19.66. Measured by property, each of these States spends 3 mills. There are two men whose school expenditure may be thus stated : Mr. Hogan is worth $150,000. He sends a boy to college, costing him $500 per annum. Mr. Samuel is worth $250. He sends two children to school at a total expense of $25 per year. According to the per capita illustration, the figures of Hogan stand at $500; Samuel at $12.50. By the rule of wealth, Hogan expends of his wealth on the education of his son, 3^^ mills ; Samuel ex- pends of his wealth, 100 mills, or ten cents. In other words, Samuel does thirty times as much for the education of his children as Hogan, and Samuel is by far less able to afford it. Hogan can pay $5,000 per annum with far greater ease to himself and family than Samuel can pay $25. The same reasoning holds good as States. The whole force of these remarks is to show that the Southern States in their poverty, em- barrassed by hard surroundings, have bravely met their responsibilities in this matter. They have done what they could. Our ^' Brother in Black " has been a full sharer in the educational blessing. Organized benevolence coming from Northern citi- zens has made splendid contributions to the edu- cation of the negroes. The resources from which The Progress of the Negroes. 2 1 7 revenues are derived, as far as they are known, may be thus stated : American Missionary Association $6,000,000 Freedman's Aid Society (Methodist) 2,225,000 Baptist Home Missino 2,000,000 Presbyterian Home Mission. 1,542,746 John F. Slater 1,000,000 Daniel Hand 1,000,000 Other individual gifts 1,000,000 The different Woman's Societies 500,000 Quakers and others 500,000 Total $15,767,746 The following contributions have been made by Southern States in aid of common and normal schools for this race. The statistics were prepared by the Rev. Dr. A. G. Haygood (General Agent of the Slater Fund, now Bishop of the M. E. Church, South). As the article in Harper s Magazine for July, 1889, from which these statistics are taken, was written in the early part of 1889, the expendi- tures by States do not extend beyond the year 1888. Alabama $3,404,293.24 Arkansas 3,409,110.00 Florida 849,000.00 Georgia 2,702,276.00 Kentucky 1.362,873.00 Louisiana , 2,150,000.00 Mississippi 7.136,800.00 North Carolina 2.441,062.00 South Carolina 3,000,000.00 Tennessee 2,358,000.00 Texas 4,064,259.00 Virginia 4,500,000.00 Total to the close of 1888 $37,377,673.24 2i8 The Ills of the South, To this sum must be added the contributions for the same purpose, made to the close of the year 1888, by West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Mis- souri, and the District of Columbia. These, with the appropriations of all for the five years following 1888 will swell the aggregate of the Southern States for the education of the blacks to $55,000,000. The money given by the North, and the appropriations of the Southern States, with the District of Colum- bia, will make from $70,000,000 to $80,000,000. When, in the ages of the past, have seven million people on the Dark Continent, during a quarter of a century, received such generous aid from organized benevolence and State governments for their eleva- tion ? The woe-begone condition of the children of Ham in their native land pleads in vain for help ; but their cousins and their kindred on American soil, though 260 years held them in bondage, have in recent years been the objects of unwearied and benevolent attention. What is the fruitage ? Crime. — We must face the painful facts, and write the melancholy truth that, in spite of the ennobling agencies and of the social and civil incentives, crime among the sons of Ham is on the increase. Passion and license are stronger than reason. There is no disposition to make a worse showing for this population than the facts warrant. These are sufficiently alarming. Neither is there any pur- pose on the part of the Southern people to treat them more severely because their color is black. It is frankly admitted by those who understand their character, that they need greater restraints than the The Progress of the Negroes. 219 Anglo-Saxon race. Fear with them is a far more potential factor in the maintenance of good order than reason. If the charge that the Southern people and South- ern courts are unjust and harsh to them be true, how is the disparity between the excessive number of African convicts in Northern prisons as compared with white convicts to be explained ? We would not charge our Northern citizens of Anglo-Saxon lineage with cruelty toward this people. Compare Tables D, E,.and H, with Tables F, G, and I. TABLE D. Population in i8So, in Six States, North.* STATES. WHITE. AFRICAN. 610,769 3,031,151 1,614,600 5,016,022 3,117,920 1,763,782 11-547 46,368 9,516 65,104 79,900 18,697 New York Ohio Massachusetts Total 15,154,244 231,132 Compendium, Tenth Census, Part I., page 3. 220 The Ills of the South. TABLE E. Prisoners in Penitentiaries in 1880.* IF CRIME AMONG THE WHITES HAD BEEN EQUAL TO THAT NUMBER OF AFRICAN STATES. WHITE. AFRICAN. OF THE AFRI- CANS, W H AT THE NUMBER OF WHITE CON- V I C T S WOULD HAVE BEEN. CONVICTS TO WHITE CONVICTS PER POP- ULATION. Connecticut. . 224 28 1,465 6 A. to I W. Illinois 1,690 148 3.396 5 A. to I W. Iowa 522 24 4.O6S 7 A. to I W. New York 5.848 444 34,159 6 A. to I W. Ohio 1,130 148 5.768 5 A. to I W. Massachusetts 1,046 39 3,663 3i A. to I W. Total 10,460 831 52,254 5^^ A. to I W. Av'ge. TABLE F. Population in 1S80 in Six Southern States.! STATES. WHITE. AFRICAN. Alabama 662,185 591.531 454-954 479398 867,242 391.105 600,103 2ro 666 Arkansas .... Louisiana 483,655 650,291 531.277 604,332 North Carolina South Carolina Total 3.446,415 3,080,324 * Compendium, Tenth Census, Part II., pp. 1694, 1695. f Compendium, Tenth Census, Part L, pp. 2, 3. The Progress of the Negroes. 221 TABLE G. Prisoners in Penitentiaries in 1880.* STATES. WHITE. AFRICAN. IF CRIME AMONG THE WHITES HAD BEEN EQUAL TO THAT OF THE AFRICANS, WHAT THE NUMBER OF WHITE CONVICTS WOULD HAVE BEEN. NUMBER OF AFRI- CAN CONVICTS TO WHITE CON- VICTS PER POP- ULATION. Alabama Arkansas Louisiana iSIissis-ippi North Carolina. . South Carolina. . 75 200 81 82 428 22 312 466 653 3S3 237 344 1,017 436 479 624 152 4I A. to I W. 5' A. to I W. SlA. toiW. 5f A. to I W. if A. to I W. 7 A. toiW. Total 888 2,415 3,052 5 A. to I W. TABLE H. 1880. Number of Convicts in Penitentiary to 100,000 of the Population. Connecticut. . . Illinois Iowa New York. . . . Ohio Massachusetts. * Compendium, Tenth Census, Part II., pp. 1649, 1695. 222 The Ills of the South. TABLE I. 1880. Number of Convicts in Penitentiary to 100,000 of the Population. STATES. WHITE. AFRICAN. Alabama . . II 33 17 17 49 5 52 96 100 Arkansas Louisiana 72 39 South Carolina There is a difference between the Anglo-Saxon people and the negro race. Color is the least difference. Character, exhibiting itself in honor, in high incentives to action, in rational obedience to law and constituted legal authority, characterizes the white race in a far higher degree than the black race. The black man is far more disposed to con- strue liberty into license than the white man. Self- restraint is a hard lesson for him to learn. To this quality of his character is to be traced the increase of crime. It matters not whether his residence is in Connecticut or Massachusetts, Alabama or Mis- sissippi. Wherever restraints are the least felt by the blacks, there crime is on the increase. Making allowances for differences in the laws and the enforcement of laws in various States of the Union, the facts brought out in Table H can not be disguised. Table E shows the crime record in still The Progress of the Negroes. 223 darker colors. Had crime been as prolific among the white inhabitants of Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts as among the 231,132 Africans of these States, in 1880, there would have been in their penitentiaries 52,524 white convicts, instead of 10,460. In this statement no invidious comparison is intended between the North and the South. It is the criminal record of the blacks in six Northern States, where the influence for their elevation and progress is favorable. The charge of prejudice to this people that has been preferred against the Southern people would be resented there. The remorseless criminal record of this race in these States stares us in the face, and the people, North and South, dare not shut their eyes to its significance. Had the Africans in these States numbered 15,- 154,244, and the white people 231,132, it is probable crimes would have increased in geometrical ratio. Another fact : In the Northern States are quite a number of educated Africans, and all the people of African descent have, in common with the Anglo- Saxon people, enjoyed in unstinted measure the superior advantages of the common-school system, as well as the advantages of the well-equipped higher institutions of learning ; and all this superior intellectual leverage has been applied in its full strength to the sons and daughters of this people, for a period of nearly one hundred years. There they have had the sympathy of the white people in a large degree. In viev/ of this may we not say, in all candor and kindness, and in no spirit of bitter- 224 ^-^^^ ^^^^ ^f i^^^ South. ness, it is time to look for fruit ? What are the results of this magnificent outlay of money and endeavor to elevate the children of Africa in these Northern States? Connecticut spent in 1880, $1,408,375 on her public schools, and had propor- tionally six African convicts in her penitentiary to one white man ; Illinois expended that year $7,531,- 942 on the public schools, and had proportionally, during the same year, five African convicts in her penitentiary to one white man ; Iowa's expenditure for common-school education in 1880 was $4,921,- 248, yet Iowa had proportionally seven negro con- victs in her penitentiary to one white ; New York expended during that year on her public schools $10,412,378, and had proportionally six African con- victs in her penitentiaries to one white man ; Ohio's expenditure in 1880 for public education was $7,166,- 963, and she had proportionally five negro convicts in her penitentiary to one white man ; Massachu- setts gave that year to the support of her common schools $5,156,731, and had, in proportion to popu- lation, three and a fourth black convicts in her penitentiary to one white man. The average num- bor of convicts in the penitentiaries of these six States, in proportion to population, was five and a third negroes to one white man. The long-hoped-for fruitage is not indicated by this record. In these six Northern States were, in 1880, 47,007 persons of African descent, from ten years and upward, who could not write, and 517,850 white persons from ten years and upward who could not write. If we compare the crime record with the The Progress of the Negroes, 225 illiteracy of the two races, then seventeen negro convicts and twenty white convicts for one thousand persons would be the ratios for each race. This can be true only upon the condition that all the convicts were illiterates. One fact, everywhere prominent, account for it as we may, that however favorable or unfavorable may be the environments of this race, there is a wide disparity between the crime record of the blacks and the whites. In the South we note the same increase of crime among the negroes. A Mississippi judge says that eighty per cent, of the crimes in the State are either caused by the blacks, or can be traced to them. The number of negro convicts in the penitentiary of Mississippi in 1869 was 259; in 1880, there were 653." In Louisiana the negro convicts in 1880 were 466; in 1890, 75 1. 1 In Florida, the negro con- victs in 1869 were 102, in 1892 there were 407.:!: In Texas the negro convicts numbered, in 1882, 1,183 ; i^^ 1890, 1,523 ; and in 1892, 1,681. § In Ala- bama, the negro convicts in 1868 were 199; in 1880, 312. The number of State convicts in Alabama, September 30, 1890, was, white, 167; negro, 956; and the number of county convicts in the State was 63 whites, and 573 negroes. This gives a total for * Letter from T. B. Stone, Secretary Board of Control, Peniten- tiary. f Letter from J. W. Bates, State Clerk, Louisiana State Peniten- tiary. X Letter from Hon. L. B. Wombwell, Commissioner of Agricul- ture. § Letter from Hon. L. A. Whatley, Superintendent of Peniten- tiary. 15 2 26 The Ills of the South, county and State of 230 white convicts, and 1,529 negro convicts. The ratio of convicts in the State is (){\ negroes to i white. There were 2j white convicts to 100,000 white people, and 225 negro convicts to 100,000 negroes.^ In 1880 the negro population of the United States was 6,580,793.1 The negroes— those of African descent, whether pure or mixed — in the penitentiaries were 7,347 ; negroes in reformatories, workhouses, and houses of correction, were 1,935, making a total of 9,282. % The negro population in 1890 consisted of 6,337,980 pure Africans, and 1,132,060 mulattoes, making a total of 7,470,040. The pure negroes in the penitentiaries were 10,- 889, mulattoes 3,378 ; total, 14,267 negro convicts.§ Negroes in reformatories, 1,730. Total in peniten- tiaries and reformatories, 15,997.! Increase in ten years 6,715. The gain of the negro population in ten years is a little over 13 per cent. The in- crease in crime among the negroes from 1880 to 1 890 is a little over 72 per cent. Crime increased 5J times as fast as population. Two hundred and four- teen negroes in every group of 100,000 are criminals. Had the aggregate population of the United States in 1 890 been Africans, there would have been 134,011 black criminals in the penitentiaries and reforma- tories. " What of the night? " The future is dark. * Report of Inspectors of the Alabama Penitentiary. f Compendium, Tenth Census, Part II. X Census Bulletin, Eleventh Census, No. 199. § Census Bulletin, Eleventh Census, No. 31. \ Census Bulletin, Eleventh Census, No. 72. The Progress of the Negroes, 227 But the 15,997 do not represent in full the black criminal class. The convictions due to numerous minor offences, tried in the lower courts during every month of the year, in every county of the Southern States, must be considered. This will add 20,000 offenders in the Southern States to the dark catalogue. The majority of all the trials in the courts of every justice of the peace are negro cases. Ninety per cent, of these trials consist in offences among themselves. Southern society is burdened with this crime. Let no reader in a distant State where negroes are few, imagine that the more heinous offences such as felony are committed by negroes altogether against white men. Many are so perpetrated. There are now in County six negroes in the county jail charged with murder. Four of the six took the life of four negroes. Two of them each killed his man at a negro dance. One of the six killed another negro over the gambling-table. A dispute about ten cents led to the crime. All the blacks that can do so, and few can not, carry pistols, and that in spite of the law against carrying con- cealed weapons. Many have shotguns. The fac- tors of ruin among the black people are making steady progress. This exhibit of crimes among this people is not born of ill will to this race. Wherever they enjoy freedom and mingle with the Anglo-Saxon race, their crimes are far in excess of the white race. In 1833, Mr. Everett, in a speech before the Colo- nization Society, said : *' The free blacks form in 2 28 The Ills of the South, Massachusetts about one seventy-fifth part of the population. One-sixth of the convicts in our prisons are of this class." * In 1834 a memorial presented to the Legislature of Connecticut, draws a portrait of the negroes in that State nearly sixty years ago, very similar in many phases to what any man can see in every Southern State in 1893, who can write the facts as they exist. The memorial reads : '' Not a week, hardly a day, passes, that they [the negroes] are not implicated in the violation of some law." t This is true all over the South to-day. '* Assaults and batteries, insolence to the whites, compelling a breach of the peace, riots in the streets, petty thefts, and continual trespasses on property are such common occurrences, resulting from the license they enjoy, that they have ceased to become subjects of remark. It is but recently that a band of negroes paraded the streets of New Haven, armed with clubs and pistols and dirks, with the avowed purpose of preventing the law of the land from being enforced against one of their species. Upon being accosted by an officer of justice and commanded to retire peaceably to their homes, their only reply consisted of abuse and threats of personal violence. The law was overshadowed, and the officer consulted his own safety in a timely retreat." The memorial then proceeds to show that the evil complained of has so rapidly progressed, that the whites have become the subjects of insult and abuse whenever they have refused to descend to familiar- ity with them ; that themselves, their wives and children, have been driven from the pavements where they have not submitted to personal conflict ; * The Gospel among the Slaves, p. 108. f Ibid., pp. 108, 109. The Progress of the Negroes, 229 that from the licentiousness of their general habits they have invariably depreciated the value of prop- erty by their location in its neighborhood, and that from their notorious unclcanliness and filth they have become common nuisances to the community. This was the complaint and charge of Connecti- cut in 1834. In 1880 there were 240 negro con- victs in Connecticut to 36 white convicts for 100,- 000 citizens of each race."^ " In Ohio the black population (1835) is i to 115 whites ; con- victs, 7 whites to 100 blacks. Vermont, hy the census of 1830, con- tained 277,000 souls ; 918 were negroes. In 1831 there were 74 convicts in the prison, and of these 24 were negroes. [This means 1 white convict to 145 negro convicts.] When compared with what is reported of the proportion of negroes in the prisons of the slave-holding States, it is shown that the proportion of negroes in the penitentiaries of the free States is in the ratio of more than 10 to I in favor of the slave-holding States. The free negroes in Ohio in the aggregate are in no better condition, therefore, than the slaves in Kentucky. They are excluded from social intercourse with the whites, and whatever of education you may give them will not tend to elevate their standing to any considerable extent." — From the Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, relative to the repeal of laws replacing restrictions and disabilities on blacks and mulattoes, by Mr. Gushing, February 21, 1S35. Agreed to unanimously. Legis- lature of Ohio. In 1880 there were 185 negro convicts to 36 white convicts for 100,000 citizens of each race in Ohio. A Southern State in which there is a large black population, as is the case in all the Southern States, has dangerous and pernicious evils with which to contend, unknown to the older States. Many good * The Gospel among the Slaves, p. 109. 230 The Ills of the South, citizens North and South, in strong sympathy with the negro's condition, intellectually and morally, and genuinely desirous for his elevation, have studied the poor, wronged negro only as they see him in the past, and believe that he will yield to the lever- age that has been so efficacious in the general elevation of the Anglo-Saxon race. They see him in his Sunday dress, but neglect to examine him in his every-day garb. We think it more than prob- able that a slave-owner raised with the negroes, who saw them at their work day by day up to the year i860, and then left the South, would be amazed should he return to the South in 1890, at the trans- formation in the every-day life of this people. We are informed by reliable men, police officers, that negro boys and negro men, some old men, are readily employed as agents of vice. For a nickel, it is said, they will aid in the prostitution of their own race. Girls with a little common-school educa- tion do not seek service with good families, not- withstanding that their parents are poor and can not support them, yet they are well dressed — far better dressed than the girls who make their living by honest toil. Every village and town in the South is thus embarrassed. The significance of this con- dition can not be too soon considered by Anglo- Saxon parents. The thoughtful blacks, having the interest of their race at heart, have cause for deep concern. The enormous licentiousness existing among this people is well known. It is a moral contagion. It deadens the perception of the right. Here are The Progress of the Negroes, 231 negro women by scores in every county, with houses full of children, but no fathers to own them. Here is a mother with four girls ; she has no husband, and never had. Her oldest daughter has two children, and that daughter has no husband. It is a common state of things, and no one talks about it. Can this condition go on without terrible consequences? Can virtue bloom in Sodom ? Can the degradation of our "■ Brother in Black " go steadily forward in its progress of ruin, and the white race escape the con- tagion ? In a high moral sense, the civilization of the Huguenot, the Cavalier, and the Puritan is in danger. " One crime " may not be attempted by negroes in the South without swift retribution. The fiery temper of the Southern people will brook no delay in meting out punishment to the guilty. We plead in vain to let the law have its course in this as in other heinous offences. In spite of this well- known Southern sentiment, attempts at this '' one crime " by negroes are alarmingly on the increase. A person can not pick up a newspaper without an account of this " one crime " with all its revolting details. There is a timidity and dread among the white women of the South, unknown in the days of slavery. Rev. Dr. MacVicar of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, is represented in the National Baptist as saying: "The young negroes in the South live lives of unending debauchery and gambling." * * From Religious Herald, July 20, 1S93. 232 The Ills of the South. According to the Third Biennial Report of the Inspectors of Convicts for the State of Alabama, 1890, of 31 State convicts sentenced for forgery, 21 were negroes ; 28 convicts sentenced for rape, 23 were negroes ; 34 convicts sentenced for arson, 28 were negroes; 235 State convicts sentenced for murder, 183 were negroes. What is true in Ala- bama, is true in the Southern States. The Biennial Report of the Board of Control of the Mississippi State Penitentiary for the years 1890 and 1 891, shows that of the convicts received for the year ending December 4, 1 891, 20 were sentenced for forgery, 17 of whom were negroes; 28 were sen- tenced for rape, 26 of whom were negroes; 21 were sentenced for arson, and 21 were negroes; 115 were sentenced for murder, and 112 were negroes. The criminal docket, Circuit Court of the County of Pike, State of Mississippi, September Term, 1893, presents the following record: OFFENCES. Murder Arson Rape Retailing liquor Burglary Total In this county there were, in 1890, whites, 10,581 ; blacks, 10,620.^ The negroes have in this county * Compendium, Eleventh Census, Part I., p. 494. The Progress of the Negroes. 233 from 30 to 35 public schools, and from 40 to 50 churches, all with pastors of their race. In 1880 the whites raised 4,018 bales of cotton in this county ; the negroes, 2,489 bales.* The lumber business and the railroad shops may employ 500 negro men. The relations between the two races is cordial. The most influential white citizens are the best friends of the colored people. The demand for agricultural laborers is ample. Some most excellent colored men live in this county. They are regarded by their white neighbors as trust- worthy. A few own property. The number of trust- worthy negroes is very small — from one to two per cent. Here, as elsewhere, the colored people all belong to the laboring class, with the exception of the preachers, the teachers, here and there a physi- cian, a few small shopkeepers, a few shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and barbers. Crimes are frequent. The obtuse moral faculty leads to all sorts of violations of the laws. Personal property is in danger whenever there is an oppor- tunity. Homicides are common. Illicit selling of liquor is conducted by negro women quite as exten- sively as by negro men. This is the settled belief. In every town are scores of negro boys and girls, from twelve to twenty years, who do not attend school. This is a matter of sheer unconcern with them and their parents. They do no work the year round that deserves the name. The boys are street loafers. They run on errands for small storekeepers, * Map of Mississippi. 234 T^h^ ^^^^ of the Soitth. when needed, and are rewarded with a nickel or with a piece of cheese and a few crackers. The girls do less than this. They wish no honorable employment. Where there is one colored house- girl making an honorable living, there are twenty such girls who can not be employed to do work, though there is not a pound of meal in the house, nor money. Infanticide is a common charge against colored mothers without husbands. Ignorance and carelessness are, no doubt, chargeable with many a death. Still, the crushed skull of an infant demands a sounder explanation. The law in some States against the selling of laudanum without a physician's prescription is good. One intent of this law is to discourage the opium habit ; the other, no doubt, is to prevent crime. We mince matters. Checks and preventives are good, but why not go to the root of this moral condition ? " The fire of London was upon the whole a blessing. It burnt down the city and burnt out the plague." The '* torpid content " of reposing communities needs to be vastly disturbed. And laws, wise and humane, need to be enacted, that shall go down to the noisome recesses where lurk the germs of these enormous moral maladies. The court expenses for 1893 in the County of Pike, State of Mississippi, were more than $10,000; from six to seven tenths of this sum was chargeable to crime by negroes. The amount expended on the public schools for this race in the county is $7,790 per annum. What is the fruit of this noble agency ? What of the forty or fifty churches? We would not put a straw in the way of these approved instru- The Progress of the Negroes. 235 mentalities, but rather strengthen their efficiency. Our motive, therefore, will not be misconstrued, and the truth of what we are about to say will not be gainsaid, that the meagre acquirements of a com- mon-school education have had the general effect thus far of disqualifying the colored boys and girls as servants and as laborers. It is the voice of the South. We see the effect at home — it is the com- mon judgment of the Southern people. In Mississippi there are from 150,000 to 200,000 colored church members, connected in the main with two denominations, Methodists and Baptists. During the scholastic year 1892-93, there were in this State 2,569 colored public and 79 private schools. The amount expended for the colored public schools was $340,914 ; that is, for salaries of teachers. When other expenses are added, with the appropriations to the colored normal schools and Alcorn University, the total annual educational expense bill for this race will not fall far short of $400,000. What is the fruitage of these intellectual, moral, and religious instrumentalities for the eleva- tion of this race? It is our profound conviction, that the white people here and in the South mean well to the negroes. Kindness and forbearance have character- ized their relation to them, in large measure. This truth will stand every adverse criticism, and still it is the truth. CHAPTER XIII THE NEGROES AS FARM LABORERS T^HE negroes have enjoyed freedom nearly thirty years. It is natural to suppose that the incen- tives of this new condition would prompt them to industrious habits. There is no ill grace in telling the truth concerning the racial qualities of this people. The evidence of personally seeing this people at their work by living witnesses all over the South, during the entire period since their emanci- pation, is entitled to credence. It is not necessary to judge the black man harshly to tell the truth about him. The truth without any ingredient of hate or prejudice is sufficiently disheartening. What is this truth? As independent laborers, i.e., labor- ers not supervised by intelligent white men in planning and directing, they are a failure. Planters and farmers, whether they employ five or five hun- dred, concur without dissent in this opinion. We submit that the concurrent judgment of these farm- ers living in various States is good proof. During a period of years, to our personal inquiry of hun- dreds of our best farmers, " What is the value of the work on farms by the old slave negroes to-day as compared with their work in slave times under humane masters ? " but one answer has been given : " Half, and less than half." The old slave negroes The Negroes as Farm Laborers. 237 are everywhere regarded in the South as the best farm hands. The habits of industry taught them abide in a degree. They are bad managers when left to themselves, waste a great deal of time, and are self-indulgent ; still, they are the most reliable and industrious workers. '* What about the younger generation of colored people— those who practically know nothing of the life prior to the emancipation of the negroes, or who were born since then ? " *' The men do much less work than the older class, and the women do next to nothing." This is the judg- ment of white men, and this is the opinion of every old negro consulted by us. The agricultural condi- tion of the South corroborates these statements. In using the work done in slave times as a stand- ard, the unjust inference is not to be drawn that Southern people, as a rule, were severe, cruel, and unreasonable. Where there was one Simon Legree there were a thousand just and kind-hearted masters. We dare affirm that the great body of this people were better fed, better clothed, and better housed then than to-day. Slavery is dead, and may it remain so forever. Their work to-day is very inferior. It has depre- ciated in quantity and quality. When supervised, their work is not now what it once was ; when their work is entirely under their own control, it is very poor. It takes on an average to-day two negroes of the old class to do as much as one did formerly, three of the class of young men to do the work that one did in a former period, and five women of this 238 The Ills of the South. latter class to do the work of one in past time. There are worthy exceptions in these groups, but they are few. The equation resulting from the character of this labor may be thus expressed : the work of three negroes in i860 equals the work of ten negroes in 1890. The result is equivalent to this : that if three do their full quota of reasonable work, seven are idle. From these facts certain deductions follow. As a race, they are not self-sustaining. They produce less than they consume. A man doing half work, his wife rendering no help, can not make sufficient to support himself and his wife. When there are small children the situation is worse. With this condition of Hamitic labor in the South, the people are confronted with a serious state of things. The colored producers are few, the non-producers are many. The Tables A, B, and C will exhibit the non-producing classes. TABLE A. Non-Productive Negro Class. 1. Children under 5 years ... 1,114,365 2. Public school children enrolled i, 140,405 3. Teachers in public schools 18,219 4. Students in 30 normal schools 5.439 5. Students in 15 secondary schools 3j705 6. Students in 16 colleges 5,066 7. Students in 2 schools of science 434 8. Students in 13 schools of theology 725 9. Students in i law school 160 10. Students in 2 schools of medicine 1 10 11. Students in industrial schools, estimated 500 12. Ministers of 1 he Gospel, estimated 5,000 Total 2,294,128 TJie Negroes as Fa inn Laborers. 239 TABLE B. Non-Productive Negro Class. 1. Convicts in State penitentiaries I5>997 2. County convicts, estimated — small 5,ooo 3. Insane in i8So 5>995 4. Idiots in 1880 9.490 5. Blind in 1880 7,384 6. Deaf-mutes in 1880 3,i77 Total 47,043 TABLE C. Non-Productive Negro Class. 1. Aged negroes from 70 to 100 years old 1 1 1,434 2. Men from 35 to 69 years old, half of the class 347,048 3. Women from 35 to 6g years old, half of the class 338,674 4. Men from 15 to 34 years old, two-thirds of the class . . 1,039,714 5. Women from 15 to 34 years old, four-fifths of the class. i,oS6,oio Total 2,922,880 These data furnish us with 5,264,051 people be- longing to one race who practically produce noth- ing. Make an exception for i and 2 of Table B. They constitute expensive groups. The others of this table are the unfortunate groups. There will be little difference of opinion concerning Table A. Group I of Table C consists of persons deserving the commiseration of the communities in which they live. The remaining groups of this table make up the hard problem. What to do with them is the question. They perplex wise men. Can it be true that nearly three-sevenths of this people, able to work, practically do nothing to sus- tain life? It is not difficult to obtain evidence. The villages and towns of the country can furnish 240 The Ills of the South. the facts. What a moral dynamite this is in the land ! What a hot-bed of vice ! What convulsions sleep within this tremendous force ! What material for hospitals, asylums, and criminal courts ! What is the prospect in the future — twenty-five years hence? When this population shall number twenty million, the race friction will be intense, unless his- tory is reversed. But let us notice the working classes of this peo- ple — the bread-winners. TABLE D. Working Negroes. 1. Men from 35 to 69 years old, half of the class 347,048 2. Women from 35 to 69 years old, half of the class 338,674 3. Men and boys from 15 to 34 years old, one-third of the class 302,734 4. Women and girls from 15 to 34 years old, one-fifth of the class 271, 502 Total 1,259,958 They do their full quota of work. This number represents the total of the three out of ten. It is supposed that their productive work now is equal to the work done in i860. The classification of this people in these four tables presents 1,259,958 producers against 5,264,051 non-producers. Only the Africans in the Southern States are here considered. The defective groups in Table B are based upon the Tenth Census Report for 1880. Not quite nineteen per cent, toil to make a liv- ing. Eighty-one per cent, are dependent. Add to The Negroes as Farm Laborers. 241 this dreary picture the fact that a kind of Chinese wall encircles this people. It is referred to here, to show that the labors of the most cultured Hamite in any one of the professional groups in Table A are confined to his own people, and the masses of this people are ignorant. Life among them is very depressed. His sympathies, hopes, and aspirations are hemmed in by race conditions. Beyond, the atmosphere is cold and repellent. The labors of the one hundred and sixty colored lawyers will in the main be confined to their own race. Will these barriers give way ? The subject will be referred to again. The defective industrial quality of the negroes is the greatest hindrance to their progress. It not only breeds vice, but, poor as they are, this sluggish disposition makes them poorer every day, and widens the breach between them and the white people. Here are a million negroes who can not claim the roofs that shelter them as their own, and yet they are more independent than the richest man in the country. A vast number of them would rather work by the day than by the week, and so on through the other time periods. Penniless, they would rather postpone work for a week or a month than begin to-day. They believe in the blessings of procrastination. It is a matter of sheer uncon- cern whether they please their employer or not. Do the work as they please, quit when they please, begin when they please — this is the Hamitic idea of labor. This state of things can not continue. The notion is gaining ground that the Hamites are avast 16 242 The Ills of the South, pauper race. The struggle to secure labor is be- coming more difficult every year, and the labor itself when obtained is uncertain and unsatisfactory. The farmer who has ten families on his place in Febru- ary, may not have half that number in March. Under these circumstances farming is a risky busi- ness. The sons of farmers that can do so are seek- ing more inviting fields of labor. Something must be done. It is certain, notwith- standing the fact just stated, that the white labor on farms is increasing, and black labor on farms is constantly decreasing. All the hill country of the South will be occupied by white labor first. The negroes, as the years go on, will gather in vast num- bers in the swamps and alluvial bottoms of the South. This is the movement. There the last bat- tle will be fought. Let us note this labor movement. In thirty years, population increased Zj per cent, in the Southern States. The whites alone increased 91 per cent. During this period a large number of native white people have, by necessity, been forced to cultivate the soil. This number has annually aug- mented. They have brought to their work a degree of intelligence and management that could not be expected from the blacks. The persistence, energy, and enterprise of the white people is so far superior to the blacks, that the work and the results show in everything marked contrasts. We write of them as classes. The gentle rain that drives the negro from the field is a stimulus to the white man. The trifle that discourages the black is a matter of contempt The Negroes as Farm Laborers. 243 with the white. Besides, the white men introduce improved farm tools and machinery wherever they can be used to advantage. Take the cotton-planter — one man with one mule does as much work and does it better than was formerly done by three men and two mules. In 1865 it took eight mules and two boys to run a gin. The ginning of three bales of cotton was a day's work. Now a small engine does twice the work at less expense. The white man is quick to see what is to be done, and does it. The black man is slow to see, and slower to act. What he does, is done awkwardly. Tell him to do two things, and neither is performed. He delights to dally at his work. It takes him twice as long as it does a white man to fasten a hame's string or adjust a backhand. His house, corn-crib, hennery, and garden fence, if they are of his own construction, are models of their kind. Blind men could do better. One picket of the fence is seven feet long; the next, four ; then, five ; next, seven again, and so on to the end. Some overlap each other; between others there are gaps of three and four inches. Some touch the ground, and some fail to reach it by six inches, and the fence is as straight as a crooked line can be. All this is characteristic of his work in general. He prefers to be his own manager — live to himself, and plan for himself — away from white influence. His progress is of the sort that makes himself poor, and his friends too. White labor, it was said, is steadily increasing. The superiority of this labor in the general manage- ment of farm work, the native energy of the white 244 ^^^^ I^^^ of ^^^^ South. race, and their disposition to seize upon improved implements and new methods, make the advantage over the colored man immense. This superiority adds a large per cent, to the increase on production. The negro labor is steadily leaving the farm ; yet upon the whole, for the masses of this race, with a few exceptions, this work is best suited to them. They can make it profitable to themselves and to others, upon the condition that their labor is sub- ject to direction in detail. Without such superin- tendence, the experience of years shows that their work is an egregious failure. A farm under their management means bedlam let loose. There are ex- ceptions to this general statement ; but, like all exceptions, they are numerable. This fact, that the colored people are leaving the country for the towns, suggests another subject : *' Can the white people raise the cotton demanded by the world ? " We find the following statement and table in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1876, p. 136: (i) " Some writers have assumed, prior to the change of the labor system, one-sixth as the proportion of white laborers in the cotton fields. The proportion has been increasing for the last ten years, until now there are two States, according to the reports of our cor- respondents, in which the larger part of the product is grown by whites. Returns from vtore than half \\\& cotton area of Texas make the proportion of cotton grown by white X^or five-eighths, and data representing three-eighths of the Arkansas area establish the propor- tion of six-tenths. In every State there is a large increase of white labor production. While the percentage for each State might be nearer to perfect accuracy if the information covered every acre of the cotton area, the actual canvassing of about half the field, ranging The Negroes as Farm Laborers. 245 in each State from three-eighths to five-eighths of its area, furnishes the best attainable means of estimating the proportion of the cotton crop grown by whites. On this basis the proportions are, 60 per cent, by black labor, 40 per cent, by white. The proportions, by States, are as follows : North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi.. . Louisiana Texas Arkansas Tennessee. . . . BLACK. WHITE. 65 35 68 32 66 34 72 28 59 41 63 32 77 23 3S 62 40 60 59 41 " The proportion of white cultivators will not decrease. As popu- lation increases, the white element will be stronger in numbers, and a larger proportion of the cotton will be grown by small proprietors ; while the African element will drift into menial service in towns, and in manufacturing and mining enterprises, and many who aspire to occupancy of land will earn only a precarious existence." This was in 1876, seventeen years ago. (2) *' King Cotton's days of prosperity, it was gravely predicted, would end forever with the emancipation of the slaves. But the South raises thirty per cent, more cotton to-day than it ever did before the war, and raises it on a smaller number of acres. And note the increase of white labor in the production of the cotton crop. Before the war, white labor produced only ten per cent, of this staple; in 1883, forty-four per cent. ; in 18S4, forty-eight per cent; in 1885, over fifty per cent. . . . The white man of the New South has gone to work in the cotton fields as well as everywhere else."* * The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine for March, 1887, p. 77] 246 The Ills of the South. If the gain in cotton production by white labor is two and one-half per cent, annually since 1883, then the cotton produced by white labor in 1893 is about seventy per cent, of the entire crop. (3) " Mr. Edward Atkinson has shown that the crop produced in twenty-one years by free labor was 35,000,000 bales in excess of the crop produced in the preceding period of twenty-one years by slave labor. The claim has been often iterated in the South that this difference is due to the white labor that has entered the cotton fields since the war ended." " This old nonsense about our climate and the inability of the white man to toil under a blazing Southern sun, is so transparent that it is scarcely necessary to show its falsity. White immigration has poured into Florida of late, passed over the negro districts, and, settling in the extreme southern portion, the hottest section of the State, has built up there, amid its waste swamp lands, an agricultural prosperity that Florida never knew under slavery and negro labor. The white men who have poured into Texas since the war, from all sections of the Union, have shown that the climate did not affect their labor in the slightest degree ; but they have worked to such good purpose, that they have placed Texas at the head of the cotton States, the producer of nearly one-quarter of the entire crop." "Cotton has long since ceased to be the product of the negro. . . The white States and white districts have become the cotton centres of the South. The negro parishes of Carroll, Tensas, and Madison, the finest cotton country in the w^orld, where the yield is greater and the staple the finest, produce far smaller crops than they bore thirty years ago, while the white counties of Texas have increased their production four and five fold. This fact attracted the particular attention of Professor Hilgard, who prepared the census report on cotton, and he notes the singular coincidence that the bulk of the crop of Mississippi is raised in the hills, where the yield per acre is small, instead of in the bottoms where every condi- tion is favorable. The fact did not seem to strike him that the true reason lay in the fact, that in the hills the cotton was raised by the whites, in the bottoms by the negroes." With this condition of Hamitic labor, and all the resultant racial influence of this people upon pros- The Negroes as Farm Laborers. 247 perity, upon morals, upon the civilization of the South, the time is at hand when the future of this race should be dispassionately considered. Southern agriculture can not always remain in its present par- alyzed condition. It is mercy to consider the race question now. It may be far otherwise twenty-five years hence. CHAPTER XIV. NEGRO COLONIZATION. TJISTORY has no record of two races as unlike * •'■ as the Anglo-Saxon and the African, living together in harmony under like conditions. The superior race is energetic and ambitious. Every door of enterprise, of industry, of knowledge, of preferment in civil and political life, is wide open to them. It is a masterful, dominant race. The other race is sluggish and unenterprising. Its past history is a vast Sahara. Every door of ad- vancement, or nearly so, open to the Anglo-Saxon, is closed to the African. Hayti, with a hundred years' experience and opportunities, and the British Colo- nies in the West India Islands, with nearly sixty years of freedom, and educational, civil, and politi- cal advantages, furnish no ground of hope for the Hamites of the Southern States. The Indian has long ago been forced to move toward the setting sun. The number of Indians is insignificant. When interest puts forth its claim, the imperious superior race will demand the re- moval of the sons of Ham. Interests moral, social, industrial, and political are already demanding a hearing. ** What shall we do with the negroes?** is impressing itself more and more upon the South- Negro Colonization, 249 ern people. To impose political disabilities upon the black man removes one difficulty, but leaves the grave moral and industrial perplexities untouched. With these the people have to do every day. The consensus of thoughtful observers is, that two races, not homogeneous, can not live on the same soil. Mr. Froudethus expresses himself concerning this subject, after his visit to the English West Indian Colonies in 1887 : " The races are not equal and will not blend. If the white people do not depart of themselves, black legislation will make it impossible for any of them to stay who would not be better out of the way." " The whites are leaving the islands. Negro labor can not be con- trolled, and negro labor is the only kind of labor on the islands that can be employed by the English planters. Dominica has 29,900 negroes and 100 English." Of this island, he says : " The soil was as rich as the richest in the world. The cultivation was growing annually less. The inspector of roads was likely to have an easy task, for, except close to the town, there were no roads at all on which anything with wheels could travel, the old roads made by the French having dropped into horse-tracks, and the horse- tracks into the beds of torrents. . . . The island goes on in a state of torpid content.^'' Of St. Vincent : "The prosperity has for the last forty years waned and waned. There are now two thousand white people there, and forty thousand colored people." Concerning Barbadoes: "The great prosperity of the island ended with emancipation. Barbadoes suffered less than Jamaica or the Antilles, because the 250 The Ills of the South. population was large and the land limited, and the blacks were obliged to work to keep themselves alive." Speaking of the English West Indies in general, Mr. Froude remarks : " The whites whom we planted as our representatives, are drifting into ruin." The whites are leaving the islands, since they can not employ the negroes as laborers for a common bene- fit. This is the chief industrial obstacle. The blacks can not leave, but in the West India Islands, as in the Southern States, they enjoy a '* torpid content." This cause alone is hastening the day of negro deportation. As early as 1845, United States Senator J. H. Hammond of South Carolina said : "It is the most fatal of all fallacies to suppose that these two races can exist together, after any length of time, or any process of preparation, on terms at all approaching to equality. Of this, both of them are finally and fixedly convinced. . . . Every scheme founded upon the idea that they can remain together on the same soil beyond the briefest period, in any other relation than precisely that which now subsists between them, is not only preposterous, but fraught with deepest danger," Elsewhere in the same paper, Senator Hammond draws a pen picture of a state of things following emancipation, which will be recognized as a condi- tion largely true in 1893 : "Very few of them could be prevailed on to do a stroke of work, none to labor continuously while a head of cattle, sheep, or swine could be found in our ranges, or an ear of corn nodded in our aban- doned fields. These exhausted, our folds and poultry yards, barns and storehouses, would become their prey. Finally, our scattered dwellings would be plundered, perhaps fired, and the inmates murdered." Negro Colonization, 251 The negro convicts in our penitentiaries are in part the fulfillment of the dreary prophecy. The labor question and the moral condition of the Africans are making more and more conclusive every month why the two races can not dwell on the same soil in peace. In 1782 Thomas Jefferson wrote concerning the negroes : *' Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free ; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, can not live in the same country." * Senator J. J. Ingalls is thus reported in the Atlanta Constitution^ December 3, 1888 : " Unless history is a false teacher, it is not possible for two dis- tinct races, not homogeneous — that is, which can not assimilate by intermarriage and the mingling of blood — to exist upon terms of political equality under the same government. One or the other must go to the wall" Mr. Lincoln said, in his joint debate with Stephen A. Douglas on September 18, 1858, concerning the negroes : *' I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people ; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality." When opinions are the outgrowth of a large observation of facts, and the operation of causes and their effects upon the industrial, social, and * Plea for Progress. 252 The Ills of the South. political relations of society, then such opinions are entitled to high consideration. If the negro is here to stay, justice demands that he shall have an even chance in all political privi- leges, and that all the avenues of industry shall be thrown wide open for his advancement. To educate the negroes — fit them for high service — and then close all the doors of progress, is trifling with their destiny. In all the Northern States, there is no record of a negro judge, negro governor, negro State senator, negro mayor of a town or city, negro sheriff, negro officer of any sort, negro president or negro professor of a college. No negro minister of the gospel, however learned and however devout he may be, has up to this time, in all the years of the past, been called to serve a white church of any Christian denomination in the North. As far as we can learn, all these doors are closed there. Yet Northern sympathy. Northern philanthropy. North- ern pleas, social, educational, and political, in behalf of the negroes, have been most emphatic. If this is the state of affairs in the North, what can be ex- pected of the South, where the traditions of master and slave, to say nothing of other vital considera- tions, shut the door? But history vetoes these privileges to the negroes on the soil of the Anglo-Saxon race. Hayti sends out its warning. The British Colonies in the West India Islands bring the intelligence of the whites leaving the islands, weary of the struggle with the negroes, and of '' drifting into ruin ; " and this intel- ligence, so crushing to the hopes of Christian men, Negro Colonization. 253 comes sixty years, nearly, after the manumission of the blacks. The reconstruction period of the South is replete in its lessons to the whole country, that the Anglo-Saxon people must and will rule this land. The North and the South are agreed upon this sub- ject practically ; their history runs in parallel lines, with this difference, that in the South are some sheriffs. State senators, and other civil officers of African descent, generally mulattoes. These privileges denied, all these doors closed, the negroes " must go to the wall." Their progress is hemmed in by conditions rooted in the natural antagonism and superiority of the Anglo-Saxon people, and this is stronger than the Chinese Wall. Add to this the moral causes characterizing the twenty-seven years of the negro's freedom, filling the land with violence and convulsions. Seventy- five per cent, of the criminal expense bill in the South is due to the negroes ; 26,046 negroes crowd the asylums. This status claims attention. Separation is the path of safety for both races. Wisdom, humanity, and Christian duty demand it. The best interests of the children of the white race and the black race require that the separation of the races receive speedy and earnest consideration. If there is any other feasible plan to remove existing evils, and impending dangers increasing five times as fast as population, it has not been revealed. It is madness to trifle with the situation. Separa- tion is better and cheaper than armed battalions. The leading men of this race are waking up and 254 The Ills of the South. are looking to Africa as the future home for their people. During the session of the Colored Insti- tute, held in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, in the month of August, 1893, Bishop Abram Grant, D.D., is reported as having expressed himself thus: In his opinion "the condition of things is such, that the colored people 7ieed to consider the subject of eventu- ally making Africa their future home.'' In the special to the New Orleans Times-Demo- crat, from which the statement is taken, this is added : " The Institute is made up of some of the ablest colored men of the South. Graduates of colleges will take part in the discussion touching on the future of the sons of Ham. Rev. W. H. Sheppard, the colored missionary to Africa, is here, and in attendance upon the Institute. He believes Africa to be the proper place for the negro race." Following this, appeared an article in the Phila- delphia Press, from Bishop Turner, in which he takes strong grounds in favor of negro emigration to Liberia. This is a negro republic in Africa,* " extending 500 miles along the grain coast of Upper Guinea, and reaching about 50 miles into the interior. It was originally established by an association of which Henry Clay was president, for the purpose of furnishing a home for emanci- pated negroes, and giving them opportunities of self-improvement and self-government, in 1821." Bishop Turner's position is thus stated : " The Anglo-Saxon race that controls this country is a peculiar one. It is a masterful and dominating race. Wherever it has settled among * The People's Family Atlas of the World. Negro Colo7iizatzon, 255 other races by colonization^ it has always either subjected the native races or exterminated them. It has subjected the native races in India, and at the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. It has practically extermi- nated the Indians in the United States, and it has, to all i^ttents aitd purposes, wiped out the natives in Australia and N'ew Zealand. . . . We do not believe that the Caucasian will accept the African as an equal in every respect. We are in favor of a judicious emigra- tion to Liberia. We should like to see a large number of young men with ambition and energy, of middle-aged or old men with experience and capital, of old and young men and women with edu- cation and culture to train the young, of mechanics and agicultur- ists, to go there to settle that country, the only ©ne in addition to Hayti where the problem of negro government is being solved. We have visited Africa more than once, and have inspected the territorial domain of the Liberian republic, modeled after the United States in its legislative, executive, and judicial departments, and we speak of what we know and have seen." Colonization is the hope of the African race. It is best for them and their children. It is best for the white people. All the facts of the case lead to this conclusion. It ends the strife, the turmoil. It is the one foundation for hope to prevent untold suffering to both races, and final extinction to the Hamites. Even now the land is full of violence. The discontent and the dissatisfaction of the Anglo- Saxon people, due to the thriftless habits, the wide- spread idleness and crime of the Africans, are ominous. Thoughtful men dare not close their eyes to the elements of this inflammatory situation. The existence of present conditions will not be a paralytic longevity, unless Anglo-Saxon history is reversed. Neither education nor the sanctuary, it is believed, will ever remove African racial peculiari- ties here. The white and the black races can not 256 The Ills of the South. blend. The difference between them is not nierely a difference in color. It is of very small importance in the race question. The distinctive race qualities of the Africans are not only unique, but fix the gulf between the Africans and the Anglo-Saxons. Upon these qualities rests the history of this race, and these qualities call aloud for their exodus, their colonization. It is mercy, humanity, and justice to them. Dr. E. T. Winkler relates in the International Reviezu, that at the National Emigration Conven- tion of Colored People, held at Cleveland, Ohio, in August, 1854, Dr. M. R. Delany, a negro of pure blood, who was then recognized as one of the most cultivated and distinguished representatives of his people, and who subsequently received the rank of major in the service of the United States, presented a paper on the Political Destiny of the Colored Race, which was adopted by the Convention with- out modification. The following extracts from this authoritative document are worthy of attention: "Our friends in this and other countries, anxious for our eleva- tion, have for years been erroneously urging us to lose our identity as a distinct race, declaring that we were the same as other people. The truth is, ive are not identical with the Anglo-Saxon, or any other race of the Caucasian, or pure white, type of the hunian family ; and the sooner we kno7V and acknowledge the truth, the better for ovrselves and our posterity. The English, French, Irish, German, Italian, Turk, Persian, Greek, Jew, and all other races, have their native or inherent peculiarities, and why not our race ? We are not willing, therefore, at all times and under all circumstances, to be moulded into various shapes of eccentricity to suit the conveniences and caprices of every kind of people. We are not more suitable to everybody than everybody is to us ; therefore, no more like other peo- Negro Colonization, 257 pie than others are like us. We have inherent traits^ attributes, so to speak, and native characteristics., peculiar to our race^ whether of pure or mixed blood ; AND ALL THAT IS REQUIRED OF US IS TO CULTIVATE THESE, AND DEVELOP THEM IN THEIR PURITY. . . . They [our fathers] admitted themselves to be inferiors ; we barely acknowledge the whites as equals, perhaps not in every particular." This extract is taken from the Life of Major M. R. Delany. To cultivate these " inherent traits " and " native characteristics," peculiar to the race, and ''develop them in their purity," demands separation. It can- not be done on American soil. Dr. Winkler adds : " Twenty years ago (1854) the Cleveland Convention directed the African exodus to Central and South America and the West Indies ; and to-day (1874) Mexico fronts these wandering tribes as the land of promise and the seat of power. There they may rest, amid such conditions of climate, soil, and company as suit their constitution, their habits, and their instincts. There they will feel at home, as they bask in the sun, and feast upon the spontaneous fruits of the tropics." * Since then, the great Congo Basin of Africa has been opened. This is the native land of the Ham- ites.f " In the opinion of some of the eminent scientists of the world, the Congo Basin will become the granary of the world. Vegetation of all kinds thrives most luxuriantly, as many as three crops a year of some kinds of vegetables coming to m.aturity. Coffee grows wild." Can the negroes go without help ? It is fair, it is but common justice to this people, that the nation that enslaved them should not only aid them * International Review , Vol. I., No. 5, pp. 591-594. t New York Ti77ies, Feb. 14, 1889. 7 258 The Ills of the South, in selecting their future home or homes, but trans- port them to their homes, and provide them with the necessaries of Hfe during the first year of their new residence. A thoughtful writer from Georgia has shown in the Times-Democrat of New Orleans, of May 23, 1893, that the entire negro population of the United States — 9,000,000 — can be transported to Africa in thirty years, at a cost of $25 per capita, or a total of $225,000,000. To this sum he adds $525,000,000 to start them in their new home with food supplies, clothing, and necessary implements of husbandry. This makes a grand total of $750,000,000, and this vast sum can be raised at a cost of i^ per cent, on the assessed valuation of our property. According to this plan, 300,000 could be transported annually. The sooner the initiatory steps for the exodus of the negroes are taken, the better will it be for both races. The advantages of such an exodus of the negroes will be manifold. 1. It will relieve the whole country of its em- barrassed condition. The racial qualities of the Africans threaten the peace of the country every day. It is the only plan by which a war of races can be averted in the near future. 2. As fast as they leave, a vigorous white popula- tion will take their place. The same enterprise and industry attending the influx of population into Texas and Florida will characterize the South. 3. The negroes from the Southern States will be better prepared to work out their destiny in their Negro Colonization, 259 new home than those of Hayti and the British colonies of the West India Islands. Their close touch with the Anglo-Saxon people, the educational and religious influence, the industry and enterprise of the land, ought to fit African leaders for inde- pendent national life. If ever the negroes can be fitted for self-government, they have had splendid opportunity for such preparation, North and South, during the past thirty years. This may be the way of Providence concerning the sons of Ham. 4. The gradual exodus plan, whether it covers twenty or thirty years, would annually throw new and vigorous life into the new African home and government. 5. If Christian negroes, ministers of the gospel particularly, have the zeal and the missionary spirit of their white brethren, they will embrace this plan to carry the gospel message to their kindred of the Dark Continent. Through them Africa can be Christianized. More ought to be done for Africa by a large number of negro ministers of the gospel in one year than has thus far been accomplished in fifty years. 6. It solves the negro problem. The exodus of this people puts forever at rest this vexed question. Without it, there is no peace for the South ; its development is checked ; its prosperity is lame and sickly ; misunderstanding of the negroes between the North and the South will continue; violence and lawlessness will hardly cease ; the negro's idle- ness will continue to paralyze agricultural industry ; and the alarming increase of crime and vice among 26o The Ills of the South, this people will hasten the day of a pitiless war of races. In these pages the Africans have frequently been referred to as negroes. The term has been used in no sense to express anything that is degrading. Under the term ^'colored population " are included negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. Negroes designate all those of African descent. We have described this people as a daily witness of their life on the farm, in the village, and in the town, for a period of twenty-eight years. Neither ill will nor prejudice has been our motive. We have befriended them in their educational work and in their religious work. We have defended them in times of violence. We are not conscious that there is a negro, living or dead, whom we have knowingly wronged in any sense whatsoever, and this is the statement of candor and truth. Our plea to-day is — as it has ever been our plea — as long as the negroes remain among us, show them kindness — genuine kindness — and in full measure. Deal fairly and honestly with them. Help them educationally, religiously, and industri- ally. Help them with good counsel. Organized efforts may improve their morals. Industrial schools, not makeshifts, but such as shall do what the name implies, may do much. The common schools, so far as they relate to this people, and so far as these agencies can be judged by the fruit they have borne, are not satisfactory. They have removed illiteracy in a degree. The beneficiaries have not been in- Negro Colonization, 261 spired to make their lives useful, but rather to shun and despise honest toil. Make these schools some- thing better than mere mechanical agents to impart so much knowledge. Lessons in punctuality, clean- liness, honesty, industry, and the like, would be in- valuable to this race. Make these schools morally disciplinary. Knowledge should show the path to virtue. Make the common schools efficient agents to energize moral principle. Dead perfunctory hearing of lessons is a waste of time and money. In dealing with the race problem, and until it is solved, no duty is more solemnly binding upon the Southern people, and joined to every interest, than obedience to constituted legal authority. Defective laws are better than no laws. A bad government is better than anarchy. To render obedience to " the powers that be," to sustain the authorities, to let the law take its course, are the dictates of reason. A lawless land, where every man can take his griev- ances, real or imaginary, into his own hands, is an accursed land. There can be no safety to life or property where this spirit prevails. Mob law is hateful in every way. It is subversive of justice. It is an adder, always stinging its deluded victims. It converts right into wrong. It damages the par- ticipant ; to him it is a personal injury. It is cruel in all its features. Under such a rule innocence has no protection. To-day it strikes the negro ; to- morrow it threatens the white man. It is ruinous to the country. It shames our Christianity. Such a law is a cheat and a delusion. It proposes to cor- rect crime with crime, and so it forms a league with 262 The Ills of the South. guilt. It has done infinite harm, and reformed nothing. Distress and trouble have invariably come home to its blind partisans. *' Righteousness exalteth a nation," not violence. Strengthen the right by every influence that can give it power. Wrong in every form must be brought into disrepute. The perjurer wickedly insults the God in whose hand his breath is, severs the bond that binds truth to the throne of justice, and destroys the confidence that holds society together. The assassin assumes the prerogative of God, and loads his memory with a crime that gnaws to the core. Every lawless act has its penal conse- quences. No crime exalts, but degrades. All guilt lowers the man before the court of his own soul. Wrong is commissioned with curses ; right is dow- ered with blessings to mankind. Right knows neither rich nor poor, neither white nor black. To do the right is the path of wisdom and virtue. The best interests of the individual and the country depend upon it. Here is hope ; here is order ; here is security. Happy are the people who love and honor the laws of the land. Every evasion, infrac- tion, or subterfuge affecting the purpose or the execution of law is a public injury. Right embod- ied in statutes, and these firmly and impartially enforced, are essential to peace and prosperity. INDEX. A. Acreage, farm, increase of, 103. Acres, number of, in England, owned by r 1,000 persons, 154. Acres, number of, in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 154- Acres, three-fourths of an, to each of 27,000,000 English- men, 155. Africa, Rev. W. H. Sheppard favors, 254. Africans, aspiring portion of, 205. Agencies to wrest the land from the people, 158. Agents, all the, used in produc- tion, entitled to their just share, 185. Agricultural States, twenty-nine, under mortgages, 153. Agriculture, report of the Com- missioner of, 244. Alabama, credit system in, 72, 82. Alabama, negro crimes in i8go, 232. Ancestor of the negroes, 203. Anglo-Saxon free men, their gall- ing yoke, 49. Anglo-Saxons a dominant race, 255- Anglo-Saxons rule North and South, 8. Area, land, in the Southern States, 134. Arithmetic, too much in lien laws, 51. Arkansas, credit system in, 72, 77. Atkinson, Mr. Edward, on cot- ton production, 246. Attorney-General of Texas on lands granted to corporations, 160. Australian negro, a type of negroes, 203. Avoirdupois, a pound equals twelve ounces, 50. B. Bacon, pounds of, sold by one merchant in fifteen years, 128. Balance sheet of losses, 128. Balances of merchants in No- vember and December, iS. Bankruptcy, first step to, 20. Barbadoes, prosperity ended with emancipation, 117. Baubles, effect on negroes, 6. Baxendale, Joseph, maxims of, 95. Bengalee, the character of, 175 . Bills, railroad land grant, 140, 141. Blacks in the United States, 204. 264 Index, Blacks, the, of Jamaica, will not work, 116. Blakely, Mr., speculator in war- rants, 65. Boss, effect of the boss idea on the negroes, 41. "Breeding, brains, or bullion" control society, 182. Business conducted on credit, ruinous to the masses, 168. Business, everybody's, to do right, 178. Business, its scope and meaning, 165. Business, the prettiest in the world, 47. Business, the term degraded in its use, 165. C. Caffres, type of negroes, 203. Caperton, James, merchant, on prices, 65. Capital of credit merchant, gains on, 80. Capital, when a Nero, is a tyrant, 185. Carelessness not the basis of prosperity, ig. Cash and credit prices, table of, 92. Cash basis, when attainable, 92. Cash business, a necessity for the masses, 35. Cash merchant, experience of, 30. Cash prices of certain articles, 29. Cattle, number of, in i860 and i8qo, 125. Cause, a, of the farmer's troubles, 22. Causes, general and special, of depression, 34. Cereals in i860, Table I., 99. Cereals in 1S89, Table II., 100. Characters, leading, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 207. Cheat, the successful, soon be- came rich, 168. Christianity must give sanction to laws, 184. Church, colored, draws rent from 180 farmers, 153. Churches, negro, in Pike County, Miss., 233. Civilization, the, of the Hugue- not, in danger, 231. Clarion-Ledger, opinion of, on lien laws, 90. Class, the industrious, sustains the towns, 197. Classes, four industrial classes in Southern towns, 188. Cleveland, the convention, con- clusion of, in 1854, 257. Climate, no effect of, on white men, 246. Coffee, production of, during era of freedom, 115. Coffee, production of, in Hayti in 1789, 114. Collar, a, around the neck of the Anglo-Saxon, 168, Colonization of the negroes best for both races, 255. Comparison in land area be- tween the South and the Ger- man Empire, 134. Competition, healthy, in trade, dead. 60, Index, 265 Condition of farmers in 1S90, Cotton, purchaser of, determined 132. eight months before it is made, Condition of Hamitic labor, a 74. serious matter, 23S, Cotton raised by whites in 1883, Confidence, basis of, 13. 18S4, and 1885, 245. Congo Basin of Africa, produc- Cotton raised in ten States by tiveness of, 257. black and white, 245. Connecticut, negro crimes in, Cotton, 70 per cent, raised by 1834 and 1880, 228, 229. white men, 246. Content, torpid, of Dominica, Cotton, the world's demand from 249. 1S93 to 1899, 63. Continent, the Dark, what has Counsels, the, of an old book. been done for, 218. 173- Copartnership, the joint, 23. Counterfeit, the, damages the true. Copartnership with sorrow, 50. 196. Corn acreage, short, 63. Country, the, is the town's work- Corn, the negro will not raise. shop, 191. 109. Course, common school, impor- Cotton, bulk of, in Mississippi tance of defining, 192. raised on the hills, 246. Covenant, the, 23. Cotton, can white men raise, 244. Credit business, fruit of, in twen- Cotton crop cornered, effect of, ty-eight years, 95. 55. Credit, doctrine of, 12. Cotton crop, value of, 66. Credit, his line of, and cotton Cotton crop, value of, in 1870 growing, 57. and 1S79, 120. Credit prices, 20 to 100 per cent. Cotton growing urged, 57. above market value, 84. Cotton, increase of, in its use, Credit system, a step to lien 60. laws, 46. Cotton plant, 48. Credit system, indefiniteness of. Cotton produced now in three 15, 16. negro parishes of Louisiana, Credit system, opinion by Ray- 246. mond Gazette^ 74. Cotton production, by black and Credit system, pernicious effects. white in Pike County, Miss., 12. 233- " Cretians, the, are always liars," Cotton, production of, during era 175- of freedom, 114. Crop, one commercial, policy of. Cotton, production of, in Hayti, 130. in 1789, 114. Credit system introduced, 10, 11. 266 Index, Cultivation of the soil in Domin- ica growing less, 249. Cultivation of the soil in Domin- ica, less annually, 117. Cultivators, white, of cotton, in- creasing, 245. Customers, good, pay bad debts, 66. D. Damage, the, of too many studies, 193- Debtor bound to the creditor, 17, Debts, bad, who pays them, 24. Debts in 1865, 10, Debts in Jamaica, 116. Decoy ducks, variety of, 42. Deficiency in corn and oats, 103. Depredations, negro, causes lead- ing to, 45. Desolation in the South in 1865, i. Despotism of fear on negroes, 4. Destiny of the colored race, by Dr. M. R. Delany, 256. Difference in grain crops and population, loi. Disabilities, political, on black, effect of, 249. Disadvantages of the Southern farmer, 2. Discount placed on all services by lien laws, 51. Disease, too large a population in towns, proof of, 188. Disparity in the crime record, 225. Distinction, moral, defaced, 165, Distress, negroes in, how regard- ed, 3. Disturbances, causes leading to, 32. Dollars, two million, saved on cash basis, 95. Dominica, rich soil of, 117. Drawbridge executes a mortgage, 21. Drew, Samuel, on remedy for hard times, 67. Dumas, Alexander, to find a man, 67. Duty as related to consequences, 179. E. Easygo, Mr., terms on which bought, 61. Economy, what it could have done, 27. Education in towns, 191. Education of negroes, result of, in Northern States, 224. Effect of negative characters on society, 177. Effect of night meetings on ne- groes in some cases, 5. Effect of the negroes on the English West Indies, 212. Effect of the negroes upon the country, 212. Effect of town schools upon the country, 196. Encouragement offered by the white people, 6. England's farm tenantry, condi- tion of, 154. English, the, in the West Indies, melting away, 116. Enrolment, school, in three Index, 267 Northern States and three Southern States, 213. Epitaph on the life of Mr. Hacker, 171. Estate, superb, sold under the hammer, 62. Estate, the American landed, 135. Estates, humbler, hopeless pros- pect of the, 62. Estates in Jamaica offered for sale, 116. Everett, Mr., on negro crimes in Massachusetts in 1833; 228. Evils, great, in their relation to peace, 180. Evils in society, how checked or exterminated, 178. Example, pernicious, of an in- fluential man, 198. Exchange, the science of, its prominence, 166. Excuses, crowding life with, 190. Expenditure, school, per capita, Table B, 214. Expenditure, school, per cent, on valuation of property, 214. Expense bill that could be saved, 66. Expensiveness of the credit busi- ness, 80. Exports of Hayti, highest annual, since 1790, 115. Exports of Hayti in 1789 and 1790, 115. Failure of four months' schools, cause of, 194. Failures in business are pot all honest, 173. Farm, every, a feeder to the town, 189. Farmers, American, their position to society, 166. Farmers embarrassed by mer- chant farmers, 41. Farmers, general condition of, 31- Farmers, how they fared under existing methods, 169. Farmers, the Southern, their hard lot, 2. Farm-life favorable to virtue, 166, 167. Farms cultivated by owners in 18S0, 145. Farms, effect of credit system on, 152. Farms, merchant, how worked, and effect, 39, 40. Farms, number and size, gains as to ownership, 150. Farms, number and size, in i860 and 1880, 148. Farms, number and size, in three groups, 149. Farms, number and size of, in each class, 147. Farms, number and size of, in ten States in 1880, 145. Farms, number and size of, in ten States in i860. 144. Farms rented for money, Table IV., 146. Farms rented for share of prod- uct. Table V., 146. Farms, tenure of, in ten States, in 1880, 147. Farms, who own them, 151. Fences, cost of, in ten States, 131. 268 Index. Fertilizers, cost of, in ten States, 131- Fitzurse, Dick, the son of Risk- all, 169. Florida, credit system in, 82, S3. Florida, immigration into, 246. Florida, land in, owned by for. eigners, 143. Flour, value of, 28. Food products, annual loss of, in Mississippi, 129. Foot-ball, the, the negroes, of su- perior races, 201. Forces, the moral, of society, of supreme importance, 182. Forces, the uplifting and the down grade, of the negroes, 209. Foreclosures of mortgages, 10. " Forty acres and a mule," 4. Freedmen, the effect of their ig- norance, 2. Freedom, stimulus of, no incen- tive to the negro, 117. Freeholders, their danger, 21. Froude, James Anthony, quoted, 116. Froude, Mr,, on the two races in the English West Indies, 249. Funerals, negro, attendance on, 3. Gains, cash basis, table of, 93. Gains, on a cash basis, on 10,000 bales of cotton, 94. Galveston News on land held by aliens, 160. Gambling in negro labor, 3. Georgia, credit system in, 83. Gorget, significant inscription on, 168. Government of a dozen, sign of decay, 200. Grady, Henry W., effects of wealth, 54. Grants, land, to build railroads, 141, 142. Grasp, beyond, of many farmers, buying on time, 69. Grenada, scene of desolation in, 116. Groove, farmers and merchants have dropped into, 79. Grundy, Mrs., opinion of, 50. Guinea negroes, qualities of, 205. Guinea, the type of negroes in the South, 203. "Gurth," no real, in the South, 168. H. Hacker, Mr,, an honest man, 170. Ham, four types of, in Africa, 203, Hamites, the past, a dreary waste, 203 ; prospects of the educated, 241 ; prospects of the race, 248. Hammond, Harry, Esq., on credit system, 84, Hammond, J, H., United States Senator, prediction by, 250. Harlem, merchant, view of the situation, 24. Haygood, farmer, cash and credit prices, 65. Hayti, production of in 1789, 114 ; productions during era of free- dom, 114, 115. Index, 269 Hill, Hon. B. H., ruined by speculators, 59. Hogg, Governor, of Texas, on land corporations, 162. Holland, Dr. J. G., on silence, 180. Home, live at, 63. Homeless in the land of their birth, 10. Honesty no substitute for mean- ness, 170. Honesty relegated to an inferior position, 48. Honor prostituted, 176. Horses, number of, in i860 and 1890, 126. Hostility, no cause for, between classes, 32. Hottentots, type of negroes, 203. I. Idea, the retaliatory, in the con- duct of men, 172. Idleness not a virtuous com- modity, 190. Ignorance, as to size of debts, 17, Ignorance, negro, effect of, 6. Immigration, white, into Flor ida, 246. Immigration, white, into Texas 246. Inches, twenty, equal a yard 172. Income of 200,000 Englishmen, 156. Indefiniteness of our school work, 196. Indefiniteness of the credit sys tem, 15, 16. Indians forced westward, 248. Indifference of towns respecting farm labor, 190. Industry, principal, of Southern towns, 187. Influence, evil, of the system of advances, 82. Influence, for the negro, extrane- ous, 202. Influence, moral, of the towns, 197. Ingalls, J, J., Senator, on the destiny of the negroes, 251. Intelligence of the lolofs and Caffres, 205. lolofs, a type of negroes, 203. Irby, Senator, on the causes of unrest in the South, 73. Irresponsibility, false claim of, 176. Island of Dominica, torpid con- tent of, 249. J. Jamaica, debt and taxation of, in 1887, 116. Jamaica, productions of, in 1834, i860, and 1867, 115. Jefferson, Thomas, predictions by, concerning negroes, 251. Joshua, no, among the negroes, 201. Judiciary, report of common, relative to negroes, 229. Justice, the administration of, effect of the doctrine of irre- sponsibility on, 181. L. Labor, depreciation of, in value, 236. Labor, free negro, a failure in three lands, 117. 270 Index, Labor, how regarded by negroes, in 1874, 211. Labor, in general, may act the tyrant, 185. Labor, need of, on farms com- pared with need of roads, 189. Labor, negro, effect of merchant farms on, 41, 42, 43. Labor, negro, unsupervised, cause of trouble, 87. Labor, supervision of negro, necessary, 244. Land, available and unavailable, 136. Land corporations in Texas, 161, 162. Land, farm, owned by merchants, 38. Land, farm, total in acres, 136. I^and in Florida owned by for- eigners, 143. Land in Texas owned by one syndicate, 142. Land, large bodies of, few left, 75. Land, Mississippi, owned by Eng- lish syndicate, 143. Land monopoly, danger toward, 151. Land owned by aliens, locality of, 139. Land, railroad, 140. Land spoliation, the danger of, 159. Landlords, England's, 157. Laws, the best, how evolved, 190. Lawyers, success of, 31. Lessons in industry, value of, 209. Liberia favored as a home for the negroes by Bishop Grant, 254. Lie, a. is a confession of weak- ness, 175. Lies, a catalogue of, 176. Lien laws, general effect of, 36. Lien laws in relation to negroes on merchant farms, 41. Lien laws, opinion concerning, by Clarion- Ledger, 90. Lien serf, the, Harry Yellowly, 168. Liens, cost to record, 91. Liens, number, in eleven counties of South Carolina, 85. Life, no, isolated, 199. Life on farms, conducive to morality, 166, 167. Lincoln County, Mississippi, mu- lattoes at institute, 207. Lincoln, Mr., opinion of, con- cerning the negroes, 251. Live-stock in 1S60 and 1890, Ta- bles I., IL, and IIL, 125, 126. Loss, annual, for current sup- plies, 79. Loss, average, for each county in the Southern States, 79. Loss in animals, Southern States, 124. Loss on cotton in 1867 and 1868, 59. Losses, balance sheet of, 128. Louisiana, credit system in, 76. Lucia, St., the chief complaints in, ir6. M. Macaulay, on debts, 17. Mac Vicar, Rev. Dr., on licen- tiousness of negroes, 231. Management, wild, 20. Index, 271 Man, the selfish, makes the world useful to himself, 180. Man, the true, makes himself use- ful to the world, 180. Mann, Horace, quoted, 188. Mark, the fatal cross, on liens, 172. Marlborough, character of, 183. Massachusetts, negro crimes in, 1833, 22S. Matthews, William, 54. Mechanics make a living, 31. Memories, bitter, 43, 44. Men, bad, in every organization, 167. Men expressing convictions, few, 177. Men, five hundred, tied up, 48. Men, many distinguished, raised on farms, 166. Men of convictions, many, 176. Men, professional, fate of, if all were Nabal Hackers, 171. Merchant, cash, experience of, 30. Merchant, standing and service, 166. Meriwether, Mr. Lee, on mort- gages, 153. "Might is right," the bad doc- trine, 169. Milch cows, number of, in 1S60 and 1890, 125. Millionaires in the South, 54. Mississippi, credit system in, 72, 76. Mississippi, land in, owned by English syndicate, 143. Mississippi, negro crimes in, iSgo, 232. Moderation, selfish, mistaken for purest integrity, 181. " Money, big, in nigger trade," 171. Money, had more after the failure tiian before, 174. Money, two plans to make, 46. Morals and wealth, value of, to society, 182. Morals, industrial, committee on, in order, 191. Morals in politics, opinion of, by high official, 158. Morals in public men, demand of, 183. Morals, negro, in Dominica and Jamaica, 210, Mortgage indebtedness, cost to ascertain, 91. Mulattoes in the United States, 204. Mulattoes, per cent., in each sec- tion of the United States, 205. Mulattoes, qualities of, 205. Mules, number of, in i860 and 1890, 126. N. Negrillo, a type of negroes, 203. Negroes, treatment of, by master and stranger, 3 ; their labor, a gambling commodity, 3; whims of, 3 ; fascination for political meetings, 3 ; three do as much work as one formerly, m ; quality of their work, ill ; ne- gro farm labor decreasing, 112; their number in Hayti in 1789, 113; in English West Indies, in 1834, 115; their passive 272 Index. nature, 201 ; a bone of conten- tion, 202 ; achievements of, 202 ; aboriginal type in five lands, 203 ; description of, 203; in what they have made prog- ress, 207, 20S ; effect of ra- cial qualities, 213 ; what the South has done for their edu- cation, 215, 216 ; contribu- tion for, by organized benevo- lence, 217 ; by the Southern States, 217 ; number in six Northern States, Table D, 2ig; number of convicts in these States, Table E, 220 ; number in six Southern States, Table F, 220; convicts in six South- ern States, Table G, 221 ; num- ber of convicts per ioo,coo inhabitants in six Northern States, Table H, 221 ; number convicts per 100,000 inhabitants in six Southern States, Table I, 222 ; criminal record of, in Northern States, 223 ; criminal record of in Southern States, 225 ; general crime record, 226 ; trials in inferior courts, 227 ; crimes against each other, 227 ; crimes in Massachusetts in 1833, 228 ; crimes in Connecti- cut in 1834, 228 ; crimes in Con- necticut in 18S0, 229 ; crimes in Ohio in 1835, 229 ; in Ohio, 1880, Table H, 221 ; crimes of, in Vermont, 1830, 229 ; trans- formation in the life, from i860 to 1890, 230 ; Southern towns embarrassed by their vices, 230; degradation of, 231 ; treatment of the "one crime," 231 ; tes- timony by Rev. Dr. MacVicar, 231 ; crimes in Alabama in 1890, 232 ; in Mississippi in 1890, 232 ; in Pike County, Miss.. 1893. 232 ; status of this race in Pike County, Miss., 233, 234 ; cost of crime and edu- cation in Pike County, Miss., 234 ; church members in Mis- sissippi, 235 ; cost of education in Mississippi, 235 ; value of the work of the younger gen- eration, 237 ; race not self- sustaining, 238; non-productive class. Tables A, B, and C, 238, 239 ; working class. Table D, 240 ; prospect of the edu- cated Hamites, 241 ; labor of, in English West Indies, 249 ; number of, in Dominica, 249 ; in St. Vincent, 249 ; door to advancement of, closed in the North, 252; "must go to the wall," 253 ; number in asylums, 253 ; government aid necessary to colonize them, 257 ; cost to colonize, 258 ; advantages of colonization, 258, 259 ; a plea for fair dealing, 260, 261, 262. North Carolina, credit system in, 85, 86. Nudity and rags, sign of, 188. Object of towns, 187. Octoroons in the United States, 204. Officers of the State make a liv- ing, 31- Index, Ohio, negro crimes in, 221, 229. Opinion, concurrent, concerning furnishing merchants, 79. Opinions, public, how produced, 178. Ounces, twelve, equal a pound, 172. Outlook, the, blue for the farmer, 21. Overproduction of cotton, cause of, 56. Ownership, alien, in land, 138, 139. ! Ownership in land by syndi- I Gates, 139. I Ovvnership, land, 136, 137. Ownership, railroad, in land, 137, 138. Ox, the, thou shalt not muzzle. 169. P. Papuan, a type of negroes, 203. Parade, too much, in our school work, 193. Parishes, three, in Louisiana, cot- ton produced in, 246. Pay, poor, to educated men, 197. Pen-mark, no, of a pure Hamite, 202. People, five hundred, in town, without money, 188. Percentage, the, that farmers cannot pay, 169. Perils threatening the American estate, 158. Perjury, its effect on society, 25, 174. Persons engaged in agriculture. Table VI., 106 ; classified, 18 Table VII., no; value of ne- gro work on the farm, Table VIII., no. Physicians make a moderate liv- ing, 31- Picayune, the New Orleans, on concentrating wealth, 56. Pike County, Miss., negro crimes, 1893, 232. Plaint, the monotonous, 132. Plan, the credit system, too dan- gerous, 68. Policy, the selfish, had no rem- edy, 89. Population, increase in ten South- ern States, 97 ; white, three periods. Table IV., 104. ; col- ored, three periods. Table V., 105 ; surplus in, in Southern towns, 188 ; school, in three Northern and three Southern States, 213 ; in Pike County, Miss., 232 ; of England, 154. Pork cornered, 55. Poverty of Southern farmers, 62. Poverty of Southern people in 1865, 9. Preparation for dishonest fail- ures, 173. . Presidents of the United States, fifteen came from farms, 166. Price of cotton and old debts, 53- Price of cotton, fluctuations in, 58. Price of provisions, 58. Prices, credit, from 1865 to 1893) 70. 71, 73. 93- Productions in Jamaica, three periods, 115. 2 74 Index. Productions on six square miles, 191. Productiveness, Congo Basin, Africa, 257. Products, agricultural, of 1S60 and 1S80, Table III., 102. Products, food, decrease of, in Southern States, 97. Progress, how measured, 54. Progress of the negroes, 207, 208. Property, effect of negro licen- tiousness on, in Connecticut, 229. Properties, fine, in the market in Jamaica, 116. Prosperity, general, not in the country, 32. Prosperity in Barbadoes ended with emancipation, 117. Prosperity, material, not the su- preme object, 198. Prosperity of furnishing mer- chants, 62. Prudence, value of, 178, 179. Q- Quadroons in the United States, 204. Qualities of the negroes, 210. Qualities, the racial, of the ne- groes, ruinous effect of, 213. Quality, the industrial, of the negroes, opposed to progress, 241. Quicksand, the man in the, 68. R. Race question, the, demands at- tention, 247. Races in the English West Indies will not blend, 249. Races, unlike, cannot live in har- mony, 248. Railroad land owned by foreign capitalists, 142. Railroads, miles of, in the United States, 141. Raymond Gazette on the credit system, 74. Reasons for deportation of ne- groes, by Bishop Turner, 255. Reconstruction period in the South, lessons of, 253. Reenslavement, effect of report on negroes, 4. Reflections, bitter, traced to credit business, 21. Reformation, how produced, 81. Relations between black and white, 235. Religious meetings by negroes, 4, 5. Remedies against land specula- tion, 164. Remuneration of capital on farms, 33- Rental drawn from English farms, 154- Residence of blacks and mulat- toes in the United States, 204. Right and wrong not contingent on knowledge, 171. Risks of the farmers, 34. Roads, good, value of. 189. Roads in Dominica, 249. Ruskin on the condition of the poor in England, 157. S. Salary of 177 clergymen in Eng- land, 156. Index, 275 Saying, a favorite, of Mr. Hacker, 170. Schedule, tax, efTect of idleness on, 189. Schools, common, in towns, who support them, 193. Schools, high, need of, ig6. Schools, public, in Pike County, Miss., for negroes, 233. Schools, the four months of the country, follow the town, 194. Self-denial, what it can do, 50. Selfishness, the dominant, read in the desolation of homes, 171. Selma Times ^ Ala., how to get out of debt, 75. Separation, the path of safety, 253. Services, all, discount placed on, by lien laws, 51. Share plan of working, a favorite, 37- Sheep, number of, in i860 and l8go, 125. Sherman, Wade, a negro, man- agement of, 59. Shylocks, their opportunity, 9. Signatures, false, 50. Situation, inflammatory elements of the, 255. Situation, the, in 1893, 86. Situation, the, in the South, an invitation to crookedness in business, 167. Slavery, negro, dead forever, 6. Slaves, eight hundred, do my bid- ding, 48. Slaves in the English West Indies paid for, 115. Smiles, Samuel, on high profits, i6* Smith, Prof. Eugene Allen, on credit system, 82. South, the, cannot be made a Hayti, 7. South, the condition of, in 1865, i. South Carolina, credit system in, 84. South-land, the, Shylock's eye is on, 152. Speculation, era of, in the South, 57- Speculators, their feast day after the war, 9. Splendor, guilty, inquiry as to the cause, 167. Statistics as to valuation of prop- erty in 1880, 26. Stephens, Alexander H., quoted, 115. Struggle, the, the English of Ja- maica tired of, 116. Studies in common schools, too many, 192. Sugar, production of, during era of freedom, 114. Sugar, production of, in Hayti in 1789, 114. Sugar struck from the custom house lists in 182 1, 114. Surface land in ten States, 135. Swearing, false, 25. Swine, number of, in i860 and 1890, 125. Sympathy, the need of, between farmer and merchant, 69. System, negro tenant, one form of, 87. System, the oppression, broader than losses, 62. 276 Index, T. Talfourd, Judge, on sympathy, 69. Temple, Sir William, considered self first, iSo. Testimony as to high prices and credit system in Alabama, 72 ; in Mississippi, 72 ; in Texas, 72 ; in Arkansas, 72 ; in Louisi- ana, 76 ; in Mississippi, 76 ; in Tennessee, 77 ; in Arkansas, 77 ; in Texas, 78 ; in Alabama, 82 ; in Florida, 82, 83 ; in Georgia, 83 ; in South Caro- lina, 84, 85 ; in North Caro- lina, 85, 86. Texas land granted to corpora- tions, 161. Texas, land in, owned by one syndicate, 142. Texas, white labor placed, at the head of cotton States, 246. Thievery, negro, the cause of violence, 46. Thrall, the, of Wagter Brothers, 169. Times, hard, not surprising, 20. Town, a, full of unemployed labor, no benefit to, 189. Town, the, a political centre, 199. Towns, ambition of, 188. Townships in Southern States that lost population, 189. Transactions, scurvy, what must be done to make them look fair and honest, 174. Transactions, unscrupulous, cause of, 50. Trusting, blind, required, 19. Turner, Colonel, flimsy reflection of, at the gallows, 183. Type of negroes that furnish leaders, 206. U. Uncle Toms Cabin, leading characters in, 207. Unrest, cause of, in the South, 73. V. Valuation of property in 1880, 26. Value of farms, no progress in. Table IX., 118. Value of farms, ten Northern States, Table X., 119. Value of two cotton crops, 108. Value, production of, 14. Values, farm, cause of their re- duction, 113. Vermont, negro crimes in, 1S30, 229. Vice, men connive at, 181. Vincent, St., prosperity of, 249. Virtue, the one vicarious, on rec- ord, 171. Voorhees, Senator D. W., on condition of England's farm tenantry, 154. Votes, how cast by negroes, 4. W. Wage plan disliked by the negroes, 36. " Wamba," no real, in the South. land, 168. Warrants, school and bridge, price of, 65. Index, 277 Wealth and morals, value of, to society, 182. Wealth, great, a menace, 54. Wealth, guilty, an infamous load, 172. Wealth of the nation, 31,100 people own two-thirds, 184. Wealth, when a blessing, 184. Wheat crop cornered by one man, 55. White Cap-ism, occasion of one form of, 86, 87. White cultivators of cotton in- creasing, 245. White labor in Texas, effect of, 246. Whites in English West Indies drifting into ruin, 250. Whites leaving Dominica, 249. Winkler, Rev. Dr. E. J., opinion of, concerning the negroes, 211. Work, better, in common schools, the need of, 195. Work of negroes, character of the. 243. Work of white man, character of the, 242. Work-people, treatment of, in a Massachusetts factory, 54. World, The, on land spoliation, 159- Yard, a, equals 25 inches, 50. YelloMdy, Harry, the son of Hardfate. 168. Yoke, Rehoboam's, is heavy, 170. XTbe StoriP of the Bations. Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in announcing that they have in course of publication, in co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic manner the stories of the different nations that have attained prominence in history. In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal history. It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in the great STORY OF THE NATIONS ; but it is, of course not always practicable to issue the several volumes in their chronological order. The " Stories " are printed in good readable type, and in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol., cloth, Si. 50. Half morocco, gilt top, $1.75. The following volumes are now ready (May, 1893): THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. •' " ROME. Arthur Oilman. " THE JEWS. Prof. Tames K. HosMER. *« CHALDEA. Z. a. Ragozin. " (GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. " *' NORWAY. HjALMAR H. Boyesen. " SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. " HUNGARY. Prof A. VAmbery. " CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred [. Church. " THE SARACENS. Arthur Oilman. "THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. " 'ITiE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. " PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. " ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. " ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. " ASSYRIA. Z. A. Rag'-zin. " THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. " " IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. " " TURKEY. Stanley Lane- Poole. " MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin. ♦' " MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson. '• HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. " " MEXICO. Susan Hale. " PHCENICIA. Prof. Gk.o. Rawlinson. " THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. " EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J Church. " THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane- Poole. " RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. " THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.D.Morrison. " SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. .. SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. ♦' PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens. " THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman. " " SICILY. E. A. Freeman. " THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. " POLAND. W. R. Morfill. fbcvocB of the Bationa EDITED BY EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. A Series of biographical studies of the Hves and work of a number of representative historical characters about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals. With the life of each typical character will be presented a picture of the National conditions surrounding him during his career. The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque and dramatic "stories " of the Men and of the events con- nected with them. To the Life of each " Hero " will be given one duo- decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to the special requirements of the several subjects. The volumes will be sold separately as follows : Cloth extra $i 50 Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top . . . i 75 Large paper, limited to 250 numbered copies for subscribers to the series. These may be ob- tained in sheets folded, or in cloth, uncut edges 3 50 The first group of the Series will comprise twelve volumes, as follows: Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark Russell, author of " Tlie Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc. Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Exist- ence. By C. R. L. Fletcher, M. A., late Fellow of All Souls College, ^ Oxford. Pel-icles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College. Oxford. Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilization. By Thomas Hodgkin, author of " Italy and Her Invaders," etc. Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H. R. Fox= Bourne, author of " The Life of John Locke," etc. Julius Caesar, and the Organization of the Roman Empire. By W. Warde Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Re- formers. By Lewis Sargeant, author of " New Greece," etc. Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary France. By W. O'Connor Morris, sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford. Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots in France. By P. F.Willert, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Alexander the Great, and the Extension of Greek Rule and of Greek Ideas. By Prof. Benjamin I. Wheeler, Cornell University. Charlemagne, the Reorganizer of Europe. By Prof. George L. Burr, Cornell University. Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By Arthur Hassall, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. To be followed by : Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J. L. Strachan Davidson, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Adventurers of England. By A. L. Smith, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Bismarck. The New German Empire : How It Arose ; What It Replaced ; and What It Stands For. By James Sime, author of " A Life of Lessing," etc. William of Orange, the Founder of the Dutch Republic. By Ruth Putnam. * Hannibal, and the Struggle between Carthage and Rome. By E. A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D., Regius Prof, of History in the University of Oxford. Alfred the Great, and the First Kingdom in England. By F. York Powell, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. Charles the Bold, and the Attempt to Found a Middle Kingdom. By R. Lodge, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. John Calvin, the Hero of the French Protestants. By Owen M. Edwards, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. Oliver Cromwell, and the Rule of the Puritans in England. By Charles Firth, Balliol College, Oxford. Marlborough, and England as a Military Power. By C. W. C. Oman, A.M., Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. G. P. 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