RISKS OF THE COTTON MARKET 139 



cultural labor, which had always been plentiful and cheap, 

 rose to a higher economic level. In a letter to a news- 

 paper a tenant described the new conditions for his class 

 in the following terms: 



The tenant no longer canvasses a whole country in search 

 of a home, for the landlord goes out into the byways and 

 hedges and compels them to come. The tenant makes his de- 

 mands as to additions, repairs to buildings in no uncertain 

 terms. He says how much fertilizer he must have and the 

 landlord gets it. He no longer plows a one-eyed stringhalted 

 mule, for the landlord is on his note for a $700 pair. 51 



Standards of living were raised for farmers from 

 North Carolina to Texas. Debts that had hung over men 

 for years were paid. Storekeepers dug out forgotten ac- 

 counts and presented them for payment. Land prices that 

 had been stationary for decades rose almost over night. 

 Writes Ray Stannard Baker of the rise and fall of cot- 

 ton prices: 



The tremendous paying of old debts was harvest time for 

 the merchants. In 1918 and 1919 . . . landowners and ten- 

 ants had a taste of a better way of life, more of the common 

 decencies and comforts, a better chance to educate their chil- 

 dren, a little glimpse beyond the horizon of their dull ordinary 

 lives. It is true there was great wastage . . . for example, 

 a tremendous automobile invasion of the South, but every- 

 where I have found new houses, new barns, new roof paint, 

 better roads, schoolhouses, churches, and better farm machin- 

 ery. I visited certain neighborhoods where for the first time 

 there have been glimpses of the comforts which are the com- 

 mon necessities of farm life in the North : home water supply, 

 plumbing, proper lighting, washing machines, better furni- 

 ture, musical instruments, telephones. 



51 Raleigh News and Observer, Oct. 6, 1921. 



