Q. What do you think an average colored Southern laborer expends per annum for his clothing, say the head of the family, the man—­what does it cost him for clothing a year?  —­A.  I cannot give you a definite answer.  I will only say that we who are the producers of cotton are very glad to see them get in a prosperous condition in order that there may be more consumption, and when a man is prosperous he will buy two suits of clothes, where if he is not prosperous he will make one do.

Q. We have had a good deal of testimony as to what it actually costs a Northern laborer a year for clothing.  I have no desire to show that any laborers dress cheaply or poorly; I merely want to get an idea of the relative cost of the laboring man living North or South, in the item of clothing?  —­A.  I can sell and do sell a man a pair of jeans pants and a coat from $7 to $12 per suit.

Q. How many suits will he want in a year?  —­A.  That will depend on his condition and his ability to pay me.  If he is a prosperous man and beginning to accumulate he will make one do.  Whenever a negro begins to accumulate he goes to extremes; he does not want to buy anything; he wants to accumulate rapidly.  Where a man is not doing so well, and there is little doubt of his ability to pay, he would probably want several suits; but I would confine him to one or two.

     Q. The same is true, I suppose, of his wife and children? 
     —­A.  Yes, sir.

Q. But you look on the matter of clothing as a much less expensive item in the laborer’s account in your country than here in the North where the climate is colder, I suppose?  —­A.  Yes, sir.  What absorbs the profit of the laborers with us is their want of providence; that is, if they get surplus money they throw it away for useless articles.

Q. It has been suggested that a postal savings bank might be a good thing as a place of deposit of the savings of the colored population of the South; they might feel some confidence in an institution of that kind, and that it would be a beneficial thing to them.  What is your own judgment?  —­A.  I advocate it and approve it, and indeed propose to start a savings bank in our own neighborhood.  In this connection I will mention another important feature.  In the Mississippi Valley—­and when I speak of the Mississippi Valley I mean both sides of the river, Arkansas and Louisiana on one side and Mississippi on the other—­there are numbers of negroes who have considerable accumulations and use their surplus to advance to other negroes.  For instance, there are negroes right on our property who have accumulated enough to help out certain others, as they express it, and they use their money as an investment in that way.  For instance one negro who has got something will advance it to another negro and take a mortgage on his crop.  Consequently there are numbers of them who are getting advances from their co-laborers,