IO i] ECONOMIC WORKINGS OF THE SYSTEMS iqi 



capacitated to bring about the most effective co-opera- 

 tion of the productive factors. The croppers do not as 

 a rule make plans with reference to the future, and bend 

 their energies toward the realization of those plans. 

 They are content if they can make some arrangement 

 whereby they may be enabled to get the bare necessaries 

 of life throughout the year that immediately concerns 

 them. 1 



It is in the midst of such a situation that the credit 

 system works its rigorous part. No doubt a conscious 

 mental alertness on the part of these croppers would cast 

 off the burden of the credit system in less than a half^_ 

 dozen years. But it is useless to speculate upon what 

 these croppers might accomplish in the way of extricat- 

 ing themselves from their unfortunate predicament by 

 using economy, foresight, perseverence and other ele* 

 ments of a superior psychological organization which 

 they do not possess. Since science is primarily con- 

 cerned with things as they are, it is sufficient here to 

 indicate that the absence of the above-mentioned quali- 

 ties not only lessens the well-being of the workers im- 

 mediately concerned, but also entails an extra cost upon 

 society as a whole. 



So long as these risks continue, and so long as the 

 cropping system, of which they are a part, is employed, 

 it is likely that the credit system will continue to weigh 

 heavily upon the croppers. But the situation does not 

 call for any fantastic measures of relief, for, as was pointed 

 out in the last chapter, the cropping system has already 

 begun to show a relative decline, and, before this chapter 

 is finished, it will be shown that in the presence of funda- 



1 For further consideration of the inadequate connection of the crop- 

 ping system with economic motives see below, p. 105. 



