HUMAN ELEMENTS IN COTTON 265 



incapacitated for a summer. The winter before that all of 

 them had had the influenza. 



John Smith made one desperate effort to pull out winter 

 before last. He succumbed to the popular frenzy of violation 

 of the Volstead Act. He became associated with one of his 

 neighbors in the manufacture of liquor. It promised divi- 

 dends, liquor was selling for $12 a gallon, a bushel of corn 

 would make several gallons. Profits would be large, the work 

 easy, the risk nominal, and the initial investment small. His 

 boys helped, and the partner attended the business of mar- 

 keting. 



Again disaster befell them. Raiders got the rude, home- 

 made plant one day, and destroyed the collected raw material. 

 John Smith retired from the liquor business. He had failed 

 at that, as at everything else to which he had put his hand. 

 It was the only time that he had ever broken the law. He 

 escaped uncaught, to be sure, but the loss but added to the 

 already mountain-high debt. He drank a little of his product, 

 But not much. He has always been a sober, industrious tenant. 



A brief analysis of the record of John Smith, Tenant 

 Farmer, follows: 



He has in 28 years, with the help of his family of seven 

 children, produced 336 bales of cotton that brought $16,600. 



He received for his share of that amount $7,900. 



He has received an average yearly compensation of $282.15. 



Out of this he has lived, clothed his family, bought six 

 mules and partly paid for them. 



He has spent on an average of $328.56 annually over a 

 period of 28 years. 



He is now in debt $1,400, and when his mules were taken 

 from him ten years ago, his creditor lost $600. 



His present liabilities are $1,400, and his assets are $700. 



The expenditure of $328.56 includes such permanent im- 

 provements as the purchase of mules, wagons, furniture, etc. 

 It also includes money paid for food, clothing, doctors and 

 medicine, etc. 



