The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 27, 1921, Page 7

~ Texas Farmers Who Saw the Light - How One Group Helped Themselves to Better Conditions and What They Say About It Themselves—Second Article by Mr. Bramhall In a previous article the author, a Chicago journalist, told of deplorable economic conditions he found in farming districts on a recent visit through the South, particularly Texas. In this concluding article he tells how one group of farmers helped themselves to better conditions by co- operation, which, with their vote organized and made ef- fective in getting right laws, is the solution of the farmers’ problem everywhere, BY JOHN T. BRAMHALL EXAS merchants are not all sharks, " by any means, nor are all the bankers Shylocks. There are men of standing and influence in the Lone Star state, and in the South generally, who disap- prove of the practices of the class of credit merchants whose methods are clearly set ~ forth in the inquiry of the Texas A. & M. college. A banker in Tyler distinguished himself for lib- erality in loaning money to co-operating farmers at 8 per cent. This was when cotton was about 9 cents, farmers’ price, the average yield being less than a third of a bale to the acre and farm loans were about 12 per cent. This banker declared that the state’s commerce and industry rested upon the prosperity- of the farmer, and that the banking in- terests- should use every effort in their behalf. A leading wholesale merchant, noted for his fair deal- ing and public spirit, talked to me with much frank- ness. . : “They used to say when the war was over,” he said, “that when the niggers were emancipated they were free. Not at all, my friend. Some of them, who had nothing, were free as long as they had nothing, but as soon as they had something they were slaves again. Do you catch the idea? My father owned many slaves, but I tell you that I have owned more negroes than my father had on his plantation. And they were not all negroes either, that I owned, and that these credit mer- chants own. Understand me? Most of the white farmers are owned by the men who hold the mort- gages on their land, their stock, their tools and their crops. I’'m out of it—got out of it some years ago—and I want to tell you that there’s no hope for the farmers of this country until they, too, get out of it. It’s all wrong, and I'd like to see it righted.” FARMERS TELL STORY OF THEIR ORGANIZATION The more I heard about this credit trade business the more I wanted to see the farmers themselves, out of the shadow of the courthouse, and hear from their own lips the story of their troubles and their hopes. This was not easy to arrange, for the farm- ers are wary of strangers. As soon, however, as they were convinced that I was not an agent of the credit merchants, all difficulties were removed. One hot Sunday afternoon R. L. Curry, one of the organizers of the Red Springs Farmers’ club, took me in his farm wagon and drop- ped me at Ira Christian’s, at Sand Flat, some 20 miles north of Tyler. Ira came out later with his motor truck, on which he had hauled a load Mr. Bramhall’s first article told how Texas farmers had virtually been made peons by the oppressive and inade- quate farm credit system. White as well as negro farmers were victims. The exploiters did not draw the color line in selecting victims. The author found white farmers organizing in an attempt to do something to remedy the situation, and it is remarkable that he found these farmer co-operators tak- ing in colored as well as white farm- ers. If the exploiters did not draw the color line, why should. the exploited? He found creditors taking 10 to 40 per cent interest annually from small farm- ers for financing them—rates of inter- est that no business can stand, let alone farming. He found so-called “credit merchants,” who advance supplies to small farmers, adding from 10 to 60 per cent to the regular cash prices of the goods, which of course is the same as charging that rate of interest for cred- it. Organization, economic and politi- cal, is the solution of the farmer’s prob- lem everywhere, as well as in Texas. and myself sat in home-made. hickory chairs on the gallery and talked. “Nineteen-fourteen was a hard year for all of us,” said the leader. “Crops were none too good, and prices were way down. We were all trading at the credit stores, because there was nothing else to do. Prices of everything we had to buy were dou- bled. Many of the farmers had not raised enough’ crops to pay out, and you know, maybe, what that means. Children went barefoot, and some of the women too. Take my case, and I was fixed about as well as anybody, for I have above 1,500 acres of good land and about 20 tenants, mostly white. I had been carrying my tenants, but the credit house offered to take them off my hands. I agreed, and the result was that at the end of the year they were all in debt, and the credit houses complaining. They even sent their wagons down here and hauled away the farmers’ stuff and drove off their stock. . “The bank refused an extension of a note of mine, and offered to turn me over to a credit house. You will find, if you go deep enough, that the credit houses are tied up with the banks. I scratched around for cash and took up the note. I then swore off on credit. I decided on a new deal with my ten- I SOME TEXAS CO-OPERATORS l of peaches to Tyler. Elbertas were a drug on the market and the peach men had difficulty in getting their fruit graded, according to regulations. The only offer was the contract price made by the leading shipper*—80 cents a bushel for the finest peaches grown. This was refused by the dozen or more farmers on the square who had loads of peaches and they opened negotia- tions for a car. Bids were quickly advanced and the farmers sold out at $1.50 and $1.60. It was a victory for co-operation. Ira Christian’s house indicates that he is a prosperous farmer, it being an improvement on the ordinary “box house,” having four or five rooms and an ell, with flowers in the front yard and good farm buildings at the back. Ira is originator and president of the Red Springs Farmers’ club, and sev- eral of his mneighbors and supporters *The leading shipper of peaches, toma- toes or potatoes has a practical monopoly. In this way trade is systemati . / 5 A picture of the trustees of the Red Spring Farmers’ Co-Operative association of Smith county, Texas, whose activities Mr. Bramhall discusses in the accom- _ providing for incorporation of farmers’ co- panying article. Left to right in the foreground, R. L. Curry, 198, M. L. Fleming, R. A. Land and 1. B. Christian. ' PAGE SEVEN * ants. Pay off, I said, and start on a cash basis, right now. Perhaps I was too harsh, but I had made up my mind to go right down to the bottom. I didn’t want my farms to be run on an all-cotton system, with the men alwzays in debt. “We farmers had read about rural credits and we asked Mr. Ousley, of the A. & M. college, to show us a way out. We called a meeting and Mr. Ousley came, and Lawyer Jones of Tyler. It was a cold, drizzly night in February, 1915, when we had our meeting in the Red Springs church. That is no town, but in the woods. There were 20 farm- ‘ers there, and not half a dozen overcoats among them. We are a sorry** crowd. Our speakers told us about the farmers’ co-operative societies and we sat and thought it over—didn’t do any talk- ing. The next week we made out legal papers and organized the Red Springs Farmers’ club, and the co-operative association. Its charter has been in- dorsed by the supreme court of the state.*** The club does the talking, and the association does the business. And I want to tell you, there isn’t one among us who thinks we made any mistake. How is that, brothers?” CO-OPERATION GOT THEM OUT OF DEBT, THEY SAY + The brother farmers silently nodded assent. I do not think I ever met so silent and determined a body of farmers. “What have you done?” I asked. “What has the co-operative association done for you?” “We don’t claim to have done any big things, but the best is that co-operation has got us out of debt, and is keeping us out of debt, and at the same time it saves us money. Very few of our members now trade at the credit stores and soon there will be none at all. We have a community canning -outfit, and that is a great help. We buy our cans wholesale and we bring our fruit and vegetables to the cannery, do our own work, and go back home with a supply of canned stuff to last all winter. Next season we expect to have a surplus to sell. We bought a carload of cotton seed, and that saved us a lot of money, and we bought seed corn also, and have arranged with a nursery for our trees. We bought a hay baler and a grain and peanut thresher, which we can run from farm to farm and do our threshing. Just now we are figuring on a gin and sawmill**** which we propose to set up near the center of the community to saw our lumber and bale our cotton. With the help of the A. & M. college we hope to have a cotton-classer of our own, which will make us more independent when it comes to marketing.” “What about social benefits—your schools and churches ?” “The schools have increased, both white and black. The negro school used to be larger but they are now about even. Children used to walk a couple of miles to schocl, bare- foot, without their dinners. Now they have shoes and carry dinners. We are going to consolidate and have better schools. The church here at Sand Flat—mew name is Antioch—had preaching once a month and the preacher was to get $150 a year, but didn’t. Now we have preaching twice a month, and the minister gets his pay in cash. Better schooling and four weeks more of it, and better religion and more of it. And the most of us are out of debt and the rest are getting out. We are seeing the light of day.” . This is but half the story, but it is enough to show that the Texas farm- er is getting out of debt and seeing the light of day.” It means better farming, better business, more money in the banks, and general prosperity. The Sand Flat church and school are types of rural Texas. **Sorry is the southern term for unfor- tunate, poor, miserable. ***In 1917 the legislature passed an act operative societies. Chap. *#4%The cotton gin and sawmill are usuall combined in Texas and called-a ginm{lel. iy