THE COTTON BELTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 20 January 1938, Page 12

THE COTTON BELTS

A DISTRESSING PICTURE. A distressing picture of conditions in the cotton belt of the United States of America was drawn by Sir John Harris at a luncheon meeting held recently at Manchester by the North-western Free Trade Union.

“I know something of poverty in England and of poverty in Central Africa,” said Sir John, “but I have seen elsewhere no such poverty as I saw in the Southern States of America.” The negro workers did not receive wages. As tenant croppers they received seed, fertilisers, a little food, and perhaps an advance of money from the landowners. The crop belonged to the landowners, who sold it, and in October or November of each year there was a “share out,” in which the tenant cropper might receive anything between £2O or £SO, and perhaps nothing at all. Many negroes received no account from the landowner, and could not check the fairness of tho deal, and many growers had seen no money for several years in succession. President Roosevelt was trying to solve an extremely difficult problem in the Southern States. When the negroes were emancipated nothing was done for the great mass of them. It was not realised that mass degradation on such a scale was bound to drag down some of the white race. To-day there were some 2,500,000 negroes living in great poverty, and 3,000,000 to-3,500,000 whites who had been dragged down to their level and who were spoken of as “white trash.” One thing that oppressed people in these Southern States was the increasing world production of. cotton. They fc-ared such a condition as a world production of 50,000,000 bales of cotton, with a probable consumption of 30,000,000 bales only. He did not think that President Roosevelt could solve the economic problem alone. The solution seemed to him to be largely in greater freedom of trade and commerce.

Again and again he had heard it said that if only these 6,000,000 of whites and blacks could wear the goods produced from the crops they grew, if only the men could wear an extra shirt and the women an' extra frock, the change would be revolutionary. But again and again he heard it said that this was impossible because of duties and trade restrictions. It should not; be overlooked that not only the growers of cotton in the Southern States of America, but the growers of cotton in India were getting into increasing difficulties.