THE COTTON CULTURE COMPLEX 311 



heredity leaves off and even before birth begins to weave silk 

 or sackcloth for its favored or unfavored child. If unfavored, 

 circumstance stamps the imprint of poverty upon the infant 

 and child. . . . 



Poverty draws the plan for John Smith's house; poverty 

 tells him what he may wear ; poverty decides whether he shall 

 be warm or cold, dry or wet, clean or dirty; poverty declines 

 to give Smith's young child its quart of milk during the day 

 and so limits God in the sort of dust he may use in making 

 a man; poverty denies Smith a physician to attend his wife 

 in childbirth and sends for the old Negro midwife; poverty 

 refuses permission to have Mrs. Smith's laceration repaired; 

 poverty postpones sending for the physician, delays or denies 

 needed surgery and dentistry, and acute troubles become 

 chronic, curable passes into incurable disease. 



Poverty makes Smith and his family sick. Sickness . . . 

 keeps Smith from working or limits his output; sickness or 

 impairment keeps Smith from thinking thinking is the most 

 important thing Smith should do. Smith's earning capacity is 

 restricted and what he earns is spent on trying to recover 

 health. Smith approves the mortgage and it makes him poorer. 



Crude culture, inadequate housing, and poor health 

 reduce energy and create inefficiency. Isolation and ex- 

 clusion from educational and cultural contacts have 

 operated to render the cotton farmer's adjustment still 

 more inadequate. T. N. Jones, in referring to the decla- 

 rations of Dean D. T. Gray and E. L. Rast, has given a 

 vigorous statement of this view: 



One fundamental aid which sustains present conditions is 

 the uneducated condition of the masses of the people of the 

 southern states. 



The class of farmers about whom these gentlemen were 

 talking are the product of the infamous commercial system 

 which has existed throughout the cotton growing states since 



