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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 12. New Blows to Southern Agriculture During the ’Thirties: Trends and Policies - 6. Mechanization
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26o An American Dilemma
buy more nmchines is evident from a sample inquiry about factors retard-
ing mechanization 5
half of the informants stressed the difficulty of financing
purchases.®^
It should be noted that the two Southwestern states, Texas and Okla-
homa, show a different picture.^*’^ But what has happened in the Southwest
has only a slight direct importance for Negro employment, as Negroes
there are so relatively scarce in the rural districts. If mechanization for a
long time should fail to become as intensive in the Southeast as in the South-
west, there is no doubt that the Negro, nevertheless, will suffer indirectly.
Great hindrances to mechanization have been both the difficulty of getting
credit and the high rate of interest. The recent reforms in the organization
of agricultural credit have reduced this obstacle considerably. The A.A.A.
benefit payments* add to the supply of cash that planters can use for mecha-
nization, though it is true that even with these payments their incomes have
not come to the pre-depression level. The A.A.A. frogram hasy howevery
another and most imfortant influence toward increasing mechanization
because of the fremium it offers for reducing the number of tenants*
Formerly, agricultural machines were not well-adjusted to the rolling
terrain in some parts of the South. This is being overcome by newer types
of machines constructed to satisfy Southern requirements.^® As the South-
ern market for machines increases and, perhaps, other markets contract,
the machine manufacturers, no doubt, will direct more of their attention
toward the specific needs of the South. The mechanical cotton picker
eventually may be perfected to such an extent that it can be used extensively
on an economical basis a mechanical cotton chopper, perhaps, is a nearer
possibility.^® But even without such innovations, there will be more motors
running in the agricultural South. The great number of large holdings,
in some measure, should facilitate the use of more machine equipment, and
Negroes are concentrated in those regions where holdings are large.
The threat against employment opportunities in the rural South is poten-
tially greater, for the very reason that so far there have been but few
machines on Southern farms. The displacement of labor which can be
brought about by further mechanization is so much greater than anywhere
else. Negroes, for several reasons, will feel the effects of this trend more
than white workers, in the same way as they have suffered more from the
decline in cotton economy. They arc moredependent on the cash crop culture.
They are more concentrated on plantations. They are objects of prejudice,
especially when it comes to handling machinery. To operate an expensive
machine is to have a position of responsibility, which, even in the rural
South, must draw ^Vhite man’s pay.” Although Negroes have shown that
they can acquire the necessary skill for the purpose,®® there is scarcely any
doubt that employers, more often than not, will prefer white labor if farm
operations are mechanized. The records show that but a small part of the
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