98 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



ciated land values cannot be estimated. They give an 

 eloquent report, however, of the extent to which com- 

 munity after community had built its financial and eco- 

 nomic structure on cotton bales. 



Representative Scott Field of Texas well described 

 before the hearing on the Boll Weevil Control Act the 

 economic effect upon a community. 



. . . take my little town and the county in which I live 

 upon the Brazos. I am appalled at the results that this de- 

 structive agent has produced there. 



The town is accustomed to ship from 20,000 to 24,000 bales 

 of cotton. This year we will not receive 500 bales. In con- 

 nection with my brother, we plant 800 acres, certainly ex- 

 pecting a return of 600 bales. We will not get a hundred. 

 Men survive partial losses but when it comes so that every 

 man looks into the face of his neighbor and is alarmed at his 

 own condition and knows full well that he cannot discharge 

 the obligation which the law has created; when the bank is 

 locked like a frozen river; when no man is able to discharge 

 the obligation that is incurred to his neighbor; when busi- 

 ness is suspended; when land values are such that you can- 

 not get money to make another crop and the moneyed men 

 of the East stand in fear to invest a single dollar upon as 

 fine real estate as there is in the state of Texas, you begin 

 to realize the gravity of the situation. 39 



The invasion of the Black Belts by the Mexican wee- 

 vil had the effect of disorganizing the whole economic and 

 social structure. The plantation economy was disrupted 

 and impetus was given for the Negro migrations of the 

 war period. In certain localities the first two or three 



39 Hearings before the House Committee on Agriculture Regard- 

 ing the Boll Weevil, pp. 36, 37. 



