Q. Will this result
in the ownership of the alluvial lands
being transferred to
the negro?
—A.
No, sir; because as he makes money he goes off.
Q. He is a Chinese immigrant?—A.
I mean by “goes off” he
does not go out of the
State, but he goes to the hills.
Q. And to smaller ownerships?—A. To smaller ownerships.
Q. And the aim of the
Southern planter is to accommodate
this tendency of things
to smaller rentings?
—A.
Yes, sir.
Q. Do you think a plantation is more productive where, under a general supervision by the planter or the owner, it is let out in small sections to the negroes to cultivate, or is it better to cultivate the plantation as a whole? —A. It is better to let it out, as I stated in my written answers. The cotton crop of this country is being raised to such an extent by the small white farmers that the large planter can no longer afford to hire and compete with that class of labor who only expend their own energy; consequently the tendency is to make farmers of the negroes.
Q. What chance is there of the planter securing white labor to carry on these plantations? —A. There is such a small proportion of white labor in the South that it would be difficult for him to find them, and the tide of foreign immigration is just beginning to be turned in that direction. There has been a prejudice against white emigrants going to the South, on account of going among the negroes.
Q. Do you think that
is diminishing?
—A.
Diminishing yearly.
Q. You mean that immigration from Europe is being employed on the plantations? —A. Not exactly upon the large cotton plantations, but the smaller plantations are now being converted into farms. For instance, there has been a large immigration of European emigrants into that section of the country between Little Rock and Fort Smith.
Q. Do they, upon these farm or small plantations being converted into farms, work in companionship with the negro laborer? —A. No; they generally buy the land and work it themselves; they may hire a negro and work with him; they are laborers themselves.
Q. Is there any
tendency among the white and colored
laborers of any class
to work in companionship, or to
fraternize at all in
labor?
—A.
I cannot say that there is. A white man would
not take
a negro in as a partner
to work with him in the field.
Q. And will a white man find any difficulty in hiring another white man and negro to work together side by side in the field? —A. No, sir; I have them myself working side by side.
Q. There is no prejudice
of that kind?
—A.
None at all.