This explanation should make it possible to avoid an error which may very easily arise from a superficial application of the statistics of the United States census.10 One reads that in the half-century between 1860 and 1910 the number of farms in the eleven States of the lower and middle South (excluding Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri) increased 353 per cent., although the area of farm lands in these States, notwithstanding the growth of Texas and of Florida increased but 43.3 per cent. In 1860 the average farm contained 365.1 acres of which 103.5 acres were improved. In 1910 the average farm had decreased in size to 115.3 acres of which 43.8 were improved. These averages in each case of course strike a balance between the largest and smallest farms. The statistics seem to show an enormous increase in the number of farms with a corresponding reduction in size. As will be made plain below, such a development has actually taken place and one of the characteristics of the new South is the increase in the number of the small farms both under black and, prevailingly, under white ownership. But the statistics are misleading because it is the practice of the Census Bureau to class as a farm "all the land which is directly farmed by one person managing and conducting agricultural operations, either by his own labor alone or with the assistance of members of his household or hired employees."11 Consequently the land occupied by every tenant is classed as a "farm" although his holding may be only a small fraction of an estate of many hundred acres the cultivation of which is under the direction of the landlord. In the compilation of the thirteenth census12 the attempt was made for the first time to correct this erroneous impression by obtaining special information from 325 selected counties distributed through the eleven States from Tennessee and Virginia southward. The results showed that there were nearly 40,000 tenant plantations consisting of 5 or more single small farms. These plantations contained over 28,000,000 acres of farm land, of which nearly 16,000,000 acres were improved. This total acreage amounted to about one-tenth of all the land in farms of all sorts in these eleven States. The average plantation contained 724.2 acres, of which 405.3 acres were improved, as compared with an average acreage for farms of all sorts in these eleven States of 115.3 acres, of which 43.8 acres were improved. The average plantation was more than five times as large as the average farm 10 In the half century between 1860 and 1910 a number of farms in the eleven States of the lower and middle South (excluding Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri) increased 353 per cent., although the area of farm lands in these States increased but 43.3 per cent., notwithstanding the growth of Texas and Florida. In 1860 the average farm contained 365.1 acres, of which 103.5 acres were improved. In 1910 the average farm had decreased in size to 115.3 acres, of which 43.8 were improved. Thirteenth Census, 1910, Agriculture, Vol. 5, p. 878. 11 Thirteenth Census, Abstract, p. 265, note 1. 12 Thirteenth Census, Agriculture, Vol. 5, chap. 12. in the whole United States. The average tenant farm in the plantation contained only 38.5 acres of land of which 31.2 were improved. This system was both absolutely and relatively more important in Mississippi-especially in the Yazoo-Mississippi delta, than in any other area of the South, but Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas have sections that belong in the same category. I have thought it necessary to present in some detail the survival of the plantation, which has so many analogies to the ante-bellum economy, because the conditions found in this cotton belt with its enormous preponderance of the Negro tenants are fundamental to an understanding of the thought of the South. It is outside of this wide area of the plantation that agriculture is carried on upon small farms under independent proprietors or renters. There were very many such farms in the South before the war; their number has enormously increased since. Part of the increase has been due to the breaking up of plantations, part to the development of new agricultural areas such as those of Texas and Oklahoma or of the Georgia "wire-grass" region.13 To some extent, as will appear hereafter, the Negroes have shared in this tendency: but outside of the plantation area the prevailing type is that of the white farmer; and even in the plantation area the Italian immigrant has made a significant beginning.14 It is a remarkable fact that the Negroes located in the richer soils of the black belt, unless they are closely supervised by intelligent white direction, do less well than the small farmers who use fertilizers and better tools on the less productive soil. Though accurate statistics do not seem to be available it has been estimated that whereas in 1860 probably not more than 12 per cent. of the cotton crop was raised by white labor, in 1883 as much as 44 per cent. was raised by whites and that now more cotton is raised by white people than by blacks.15 This does not mean, of course, that there are fewer Negroes raising cotton: it clearly emphasizes the increase of the white farmers. Other striking changes have marked the development of southern agriculture. In ante-bellum times little fertilizing was done; but the discovery of phosphate rock in South Carolina in 1867 opened the way to the use of commercial fertilizers which made the poorer soils available for cotton and other crops, and compensated for the decrease in productivity in the old cotton belt. More remarkable than this, however, is the utilization of the cotton seed. In the old economy this was pure waste. Scientific agriculture has demonstrated, however, the great value of cotton seed oil; and has shown, that the seed, or better the meal after the oil has been extracted, or best of all, the animal manures obtained by feeding the meal and hulls to cattle, return, if applied to the soil, all the 13 Banks, op. cit., pp. 30-44; R. P. Brooks, op. cit., 104 essential elements which the cotton has taken in its growth. This is where the white farmers, and those of the Negroes who have profited by agricultural training, enjoy the greatest advantage over their predecessors. Offsetting this is the destructiveness of the boll-weevil, which crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in 1892-1893, rapidly spread over Texas and has since marched North and East fifty miles a year.17 The fight against this pest has stirred all the inventiveness of scientific agriculture. Earlier planting, the careful selection of seed and cleaner cultivation have made it possible to resist the weevil to some extent: and at least one good result has been to force the farmers to consider a variation of crops. The pursuit of more careful methods has brought about a recovery and increase of production in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma: but the problem in the old black belt, where it is a case of Negro versus boll-weevil, is a serious one. By 1880, the South had caught up to the ante-bellum production of over five million bales of cotton. In 1914, the total production was over sixteen million, eight hundred thousand bales.18 Thus within twentyfive years, notwithstanding all the difficulties, the cotton production was trebled. But in accomplishing this, the ratio of the value of cotton as a crop to the value of other agricultural crops has been lessened. That is to say, there has been a marked increase in other crops, a return to some degree of diversification. In several States the cotton crop represents fifty or even sixty per cent. of the whole agricultural products in value: the publicity with which it is handled, and the interest which attaches to the price, but above all the unwillingness of banks to lend upon other crops: all these factors will help to explain the continuing prominence of cotton in popular psychology. No other single crop approaches cotton in value and no other general field crop available to a large portion of the South pays so much per acre. 19 But the total value of other farm products vastly exceeds that of cotton. Besides cotton the rice and cane-sugar crops are entirely Southern. Of other agricultural products the South raises a large share of the tobacco, peanuts and sweet potatoes. Of the cereals, taken as a whole, the South in 1909 produced something less than a third in value of the total production of the United States. The increase of value of the corn crop of the South Atlantic States was the highest of any geographic division of the United States except the mountain division of the West, and the increase in the West South Central division also was higher than that for the United States as a whole. In value the corn crop was 23.1 per cent. of the value of all crops in the South, as against 42.7 per cent. for the cotton crop.20 For the years since 1909 the statistics of the Department of Agriculture show a steady continuation of the progress of the Southern farmer.21 Reports of ten of the cotton-growing States have been studied by the Bureau of Crop Estimates. It appears that in these States, during the five years from 1909 to 1914, the cotton acreage varied little, constituting between 43 and 46 per cent. of the whole acreage: yet there was a strong upward trend to cotton prices, which would discourage diversification. Through 1914 the acreage in corn declined slightly: in that year it was 38.7 per cent. of the whole. The acreage of wheat, oats, and hay showed a steady increase. These three crops combined rose from 11 per cent. in 1911 to 18.6 per cent. in 1915. The year 1915, reflecting the results of the cotton panic of the year before, saw the most notable reduction in cotton acreage. The percentage fell from 44.9 per cent. in 1914 to 36.7 per cent. in 1915. Whether this will continue is extremely doubtful. The Manufacturers' Record, 22 estimating the value of the cotton and cotton seed of the crop of 1915 to be $750,000,000, points out that the value of the other crops in the South was more than two and one-half times as great as the value of the cotton crop; or in other words that the value of the cotton and the cotton seed was less than one third that of the whole farm crops of the Southern States. Inseparably connected with these agricultural developments has been that of a system of credits.23 In ante-bellum times credit for agricultural operations was furnished to the planter by the cotton factor, who transacted his business in one of the larger cities of the South. In the first years after the war, this system was re-established. But slaves were no longer the basis of security, and lands were heavily mortgaged. In this situation the legislature passed "crop lien" laws, which "permitted the planters to mortgage their crops and gave to the holders of these mortgages a prior lien on the crops when they were harvested."24 The ill effect was to perpetuate and intensify a system by which the farmer was constantly in debt, but it is hard to see what other plan could at the time have been adopted. But very interesting changes have come about. The factor has largely given way to the country merchant, who accommodated not only the larger landowners, but the tenants. Moreover the increase in transportation facilities has developed the practice of interior buying, by which agents of the brokers, or even cotton manufacturers, buy cotton at interior points, and it is no longer necessary to wait for a factor to sell. The country merchant deals in general merchandise, and buys cotton. In so far as he feels unable to advance money on any other crop and dictates the raising of cotton, he represents an obstacle to a varied agriculture. In many cases the country merchant has come into possession of the land, which he leases out to tenants, thus playing both the role of the landlord and the role of a capitalist. Moreover, in recent years land mortgage companies have been of assistance and there has been a wide development of country banks, such as the Witham banks in Georgia. Naturally the South looks forward with a peculiar interest to the initiation of a system of rural credits under government control. 16 E. C. Brooks, "The Story of Cotton," pp. 358 ff. 17 Ibid, pp. 325-328. 18 U. S. Bureau of the Census, "Cotton Production," 1914. 19 G. McCutchen, "The Case for Cotton," Bulletin University of South Carolina, October, 1915. 20 Thirteenth Census, Agriculture, Vol. 5, p. 549. 21 Monthly Crop Report, February 29, 1916. 22 Issue of March 16, 1916. 23 Banks, op. cit., pp. 45-61; R. P. Brooks, op. cit., pp. 3234; Stone, "S. in B. of N.," Vol. 6, pp. 420-426; "Agricultural Credit and Crop Mortgages," and by the same author, "The Cotton Factorage System in the Southern States," "American Historical Review," Vol. 20, pp. 557 ff. 24 Stone, "S. in B. of N.," Vol. 6, 421. We pass from the realm of agriculture to that of manufactures, to consider the effect of the industrial revolution upon the South. In the decade 1899-1909 the value of the manufactured products of the South was 12.4 per cent. of that of the whole United States, and the rate of increase for the decade was 107.8 per cent. as against 81.2 per cent. for the entire country. The South with one-third of the population of the country, contained in 1910 slightly more than onesixth of the total number of wage earners in manufacturing industries, contributed something over oneeighth of the total value of manufactured products and showed a more rapid increase for the decade than did any of the older sections.25 As in the case of England and New England, the first expansion of the factory system developed in the textile industries. In the later seventies the price of cotton fell to half that of 1870. Farming became less profitable. Before 1880, relatively few cotton factories had been established. But in 1890 it appeared that the number of spindles in North Carolina alone was more than three and one-half times the amount of ten years before, over $10,000,000 of capital were invested, and the North Carolina mills consumed nearly one-third of that State's cotton production. The next decade saw a rapid increase, and the prosperity of the cotton mills. The depressed condition of agriculture encouraged many to leave the farms and to come to the cotton mill towns. From these beginnings the factory system has developed in the manufacture of other products, and constitutes another phase of the social revolution which has had a powerful effect upon Southern life. In one respect, however, there has been an important contrast with the experience of New England. There, after the early years, a constant stream of foreign immigration has come in to furnish the labor supply. Operatives in the Southern mills, however, are practically all native whites. The rise of the factories has changed the life and employment of part of the South's own people instead of injecting a new element into the community. Again the development of New England industrialism carried with it the decline of agriculture: in the South the two pursuits have progressed side by side. Coming into prominence at a late period when the mills of the East had passed though the formative 25 Thirteenth Census, Vol. 8, Manufacturers, pp. 77-79. stages and become established, the Southern mills have seemed to many to thrive because of the lower wages and longer hours, and especially through the absence or inefficiency of child labor laws. There is much truth in this: but it is only fair to point out that the situation of the mills in the cotton producing regions is near water power, and the consequent saving in transportation and fuel was an important factor: and that the labor for the most part was not so skilled as that in the North. In recent years cotton has no longer brought the low prices of the nineties, and the farm has strongly competed with the mill. Much of the cotton, because of the great increase in the spindles, must now be brought from a distance, and the product has to be shipped to distant markets: fuel is more expensive, wages have risen. Massachusetts still holds the first place, but North and South Carolina compete for the second place, Rhode Island ranks fourth, then Georgia and, at a distance, Alabama. Now more cotton is consumed by the mills in the South than by those in the North. Hitherto the products of the South have been chiefly of the coarser grades, but the manufacture of finer materials steadily progresses. As in other factory regions, there has developed the problem of regulating the labor of women and children. The social effects of the cotton mills have been a matter of much dispute. The evils have been painted in lurid colors. It is hardly open to question, however, that there have been very good results. Many mill owners have pursued an enlightened policy. The concentration of population in small towns has made schools possible where, under the former rural conditions, no effective schools had existed. The climatic conditions are far more favorable than in the North. If sanitation has been crude, there have been fewer overcrowded tenements. What is needed is better enforcement of reasonable laws, rather than too severe legislation. The agitation has had the good result of calling attention to the condition of the mountain whites, and splendid efforts have been made to carry education into the remoter sections, where a multitude of good English stock, possessing the very ballads of centuries ago, capable of development, but hitherto checked and limited by an unfavorable environment, awaits the enfranchisement of education.26 Cotton cloth is only one of the important manufacturing industries of the new South. Another likewise derives its raw material from the cotton plant. This is the crushing by machinery of cotton seed for the production of oil. The oil is shipped to Italy, where it is used as olive oil; it is employed in making artificial butter; it goes to make soap; it is used for packing fish. 27 The cotton seed of the crop of 1909 was worth $142,000,000. Only about 60 per cent. of this seed went to the mill. The oil extracted was worth over $55,000,000; the cake and meal were worth over 26 Besides the general references given above, D. A. Tompkins, "The Mountain Whites as an Industrial Labor Factor in the South," "S. in B. of N.," Vol. 6, pp. 58-61. 27 E. C. Brooks, op. cit., pp. 361-362. $35,000,000; the hulls alone were worth nearly $10,000,000; and the "linters" or lint that sticks to the seed, used in a variety of manufactures, were worth nearly $5,000,000. All these by-products were formerly wasted. Naturally, in the new age, the oil mills constitute an enormous industry, which, because of the perishable character of the raw product, must predominantly be located in the South. In 1913 there were in the United States 870 cotton-seed oil mills of which all but six were in the southern States. The total value of the seed crushed was $155,500,000.28 To attempt to discuss other important manufactures, such as those which have to do with tobacco, petroleum, turpentine and resin, would extend this paper beyond all limits. Just a word may be said as to lumber and iron. From colonial times to 1870 the center of the lumber industry was in the North Eastern States. In 1880 the States on the Great Lakes took the lead. In 1905 the South forged ahead, producing 42 per cent. of the total output of the union. The South had increased the value of lumber production more than fivefold since 1880, while that of the rest of the country had little more than doubled. The three great lumber belts in the South are those of the mountain region whence comes the oak, hemlock, poplar and pine; the Atlantic lowlands and the gulf plain with their yellow pine, and the swamps, that produce cypress and live-oak. From the saw mill stage the industry has expanded to the manufacture of the more refined products. High Point, North Carolina, is now the center of a flourishing specialized furniture manufacture, reminding one of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Of older importance than the lumber industry is the manufacture of iron and steel. In its modern stage this dates from 1882-1883. In Tennessee and Alabama this was a time of "boom" towns, of which Birmingham survived. In this region the manufacture has centralized, declining in other States. It has been absorbed in the great tendency to combination, especially in the purchase by the United States Steel Corporation or the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. The steel trust has preferred, however, to exploit chiefly the Mesaba region on the Great Lakes though a stalwart friend of the iron industry now calls attention to the greater desirability for strategic reasons of developing the southern fields. As in the case of lumber a number of branch specialized industries have sprung out of that of iron and steel manufacture, for example the making of stoves. Along with the rise of manufactures has developed of course the expansion of commerce and the growth of cities. The census of 1910 showed a much more rapid rate of increase in the cities of the South than in the rural districts, but the latter showed a considerable increase, whereas the rural population of New England slightly declined. The rate of increase for the cities of the South was higher in ll of the divisions of the South than in New England, the East North Central, or the West North Central divisions; and the rate in the West South Central division was higher than that in any of them except the Pacific. But the proportion of rural to urban population is higher in the East South Central than in any other division and in the South as a whole than in the rest of the country. Only 22.5 per cent. of the southern people live in towns and cities. Of fifty cities in the United States which have a population of one hundred thousand or more, there are but nine in the South. Of one hundred and seventy-nine cities in the whole country with a population between 25,000 and 100,000 the South has thirty-five. Of more than 2,000 cities having between 2,500 and 25,000 inhabitants there are in the South less than 500.29 Thus the South is still a rural community, marked, however, by a rapid rate of increase in municipal life. Especially significant is the growth of great ports like New Orleans and Galveston with their enormous export trades and that of railroad centers such as Memphis and Houston, and manufacturing and jobbing cities like Birmingham, Richmond and Nashville.31 (This paper will be continued in the October issue.) Position of the Historian in Statehood Centennials BY JOHN WILLIAM OLIVER, INDIANA There come about periods, when it seems advisable for different professions to depart slightly from their accustomed plans, and give special attention to questions that lie outside their regular course. The threehundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death, for example, is now being celebrated throughout the Englishspeaking world. Hundreds of people, who in other years manifested little interest in this immortal writer, are now diligently reading his plays, and witnessing their reproduction. During the last school year, he has practically monopolized the English courses in our universities, colleges and high schools. 28 "Cotton Production, 1913," Census Bulletin 125, pp. 30-32. STATE LIBRARY, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. This is but one illustration of those special occasions that demand our attention. Two years ago, following the outbreak of the great European war, many colleges and universities in this country found it necessary to suddenly re-arrange their history courses. New classes had to be provided for, in European history, and American diplomacy. The writer, who at that time was engaged in research work at the University of Wisconsin, and who had his 29 These computations are derived from the Thirteenth Census, Abstract. 30 B. J. Ramage, in "S. in B. of N.," Vol. 6, pp. 363-368, 607-610. 31 U. B. Phillips, Ibid, pp. 315-316. heart set upon taking a special course that was to be offered by the department of American history, was informed at the time of registration, that that particular course would have to give way to a class in diplomatic history. This change was necessitated because of the great interest which the war had created in the study of international relations. Students wanted to know something of the problems of diplomacy, and it was up to the departments of history and political science to provide classes for their accommodation. The recurrence of these special events imposes new demands upon our profession. But the event in which certain of us are now specially interested is the observance of statehood centennials. Five States are now on the eve of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of their admission into the union. That they will have a celebration of some kind, is well known. But the exact nature of that celebration, the significant events of the last century that shall be emphasized, the study of the developments that have occurred within each State-these will depend in large part upon the attitude of the historian. And the occasion should be welcomed on our part as an opportunity to render a genuine service. There will be a great temptation for producing cheap historical literature. The popularizer and the sensational story teller are going to be in the field early. To the knowledge of the writer, two large publishing companies are already canvassing two of the States that are planning for the centennial, in an attempt to have county histories written and put on the market, purely for commercial purposes. The stories contained on those gilt-edged pages will form the storehouse of historical knowledge for the citizens of each respective county. And while it is true that some of the histories thus produced are not without merit, yet they fall so far short of what we as a profession expect, that we wonder at their sale. Because of this very condition, it is imperative that the historian assert himself in an unusual degree. If the popularizer and the commercial publisher are to be checked, and if the true facts of a locality are to be set forth, then the historian must (to use the current word) provide for a certain kind of prepared ness. The plans contemplated should enlist the services of every teacher of history in the high schools, in the colleges, the research students and the professors in the universities. It is the desire to include every individual who is interested in the study, the teaching, or the writing of history, for it is believed that the scope of the work to be covered is of sufficiently wide range to enlist their combined support. First; let us consider the work that can be done by those who conduct seminaries, and who emphasize research work. They doubtless have the opportunity to render the greatest service of all. The students that enroll with them are, in most cases, residents of the State. When they enter upon graduate study, they are supposed to be prepared for thorough research work. Therefore, on the approach of the statehood centennial, you should select the one or two most important historical movements that have occurred in your commonwealth during the last century, and make it the subject of special study. If such a study is not made, then others, less well prepared, will be busy in an attempt to discover some new or startling fact, and will flash it before the public. Such movements should be checked. And the most effective method to suggest is that of having the best equipped students undertake these investigations. The facts should be reported to you. Around the seminar table, and in joint conferences with all those interested in the study, a thorough discussion should take place, and the real story of the movement should be unraveled. When this is done, the results of the investigation should be published. And if given proper publicity, there will be no occasion for the clever writer of a Sunday paper to distort the facts by composing a new feature story. Of one thing we can be positively certain, that those episodes in our State history, which lend themselves to the more dramatic treatment, will give rise to numerous sensational stories. And the extent to which the members of the history profession fail in making known the real fact, to that extent will the public be led astray, and history will be falsified. This research work of which I speak should be undertaken early, at least three or four years in advance of the centennial observance. If it is to be of any genuine value either to those who teach the subject, or to those who direct the exercises during the centennial year, then they must be in possession of the facts before laying their plans. So far as the writer has been able to learn, only two universities, in the five States preparing for centennial celebrations, have seen fit to select a local movement for the subject of their seminar study this year. Surely there have been historical developments within each of our commonwealths, during the last century, of sufficient importance to justify a careful study. And I submit for your consideration the value of State and sectional subjects during the next two or three years. Next, addressing those who are considering the writing of text books, I raise the question does not the approach of the statehood centennials provide the best opportunity they will ever have to make a real contribution? The schools of every city, town and rural district of the State are going to study, as never before, the growth of their commonwealth. Boards of Education will demand it in the public schools, and the colleges will add it in order to satisfy the students and patrons. The demand for a carefully written, impartial and comprehensive history will, therefore, be enormous. Those who contemplate writing a textbook will never find conditions more favorable, or the demand for their sale any greater. But their contributions should be made early. Do not allow the situation that occurred in Indiana to repeat itself. It was only four months ago that a committee was appointed to visit the State Board of Education, and request that it hereafter refuse the adoption of any his |