670 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



annually. When money is borrowed by mortgaging farms 

 the rate of interest ranges from 18 to 24 per cent, per 

 annum. As a rule the tenants and croppers get about 35 

 per cent, of the cotton made in the state, but it is all 

 pledged for supplies before it is gathered; on an average 

 90 per cent, of the whole crop is pledged before grown for 

 supplies and interest. All supplies on this basis cost 

 upward of 75 per cent, above cash prices. The same thing 

 is true of Mississippi. 



Upwards of one-third of the farmers of Texas are 

 hopelessly burdened with debt. It is a common practice 

 for the farmer to arrange with the merchant for an advance 

 of $2 to $5 per acre of cultivated land, to be secured by a 

 crop lien. The renter has greater difficulty than the owner 

 in getting supplies. He must induce his landlord to waive 

 his landlord lien in the merchant's favor or to indorse the 

 renter's note for supplies. The annual rate of interest is 

 12 per cent, but it costs the borrower anywhere from 15 to 

 25 per cent. ; the difference between cash and credit prices 

 is from 25 to 50 per cent. 



In Arkansas the proportion of farmers in debt in the 

 cotton region is 75 per cent, and in the grain and grass 

 region, 25 per cent. The most of the labor is performed 

 by the tenant or share-hand farmer. He rents the land at 

 from $6 to $10 per acre, or works for part of the crop, the 

 risk on him being very great, he is scored at the rate of 50 

 to 100 per cent. In other words, it costs him two-thirds 

 more labor to live than it would if he had the cash. 



The worst form of indebtedness is that contracted by 

 securing advances to grow crops; it throttles industry and 

 breeds despair by reducing the borrower to slavery. Another 

 method of bringing about a system of land monopoly is 

 the profligacy with which Congress has granted to corpora- 

 tions and to States, for the use and benefit of corporations, 

 large tracts of land. We do not undertake to question the 



