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1252

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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1252 An American Dilemma
ment.” The whole set-up is much like the often-criticized Russian scheme of having
discussion until a policy is voted upon and then a complete stifling of discussion.
Schmidt, of, cit,y p. 280. These estimates do not include future losses on
commodity loans. Because of the War, such losses perhaps will not be so large.
The full series of estimates for the latter part of this period is given below:
1929 1933 J 934 J
93S 1936 1937 >938 1939 1940
Millions of dollars 1651 648 807 1190 1245 1360 1473 134^ 1354 129a
Index Nos. 100 39 49 72 75 82 89 81 82 78
Figures arc from Farm Income (February 19, 1941) and from figures made available
through the Division of History and Statistics, Bureau of Agricultural Economics,
United States Department of Agriculture, in Lange, “The Agricultural Administration
Program and the Negro,” p. 39. The nine Southeastern states included in the analysis
were: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Missis-
sippi, Kentucky and Tennessee. A.A.A. payments are included for the years 1933-1940.
Computed from Lange, “Agricultural Adjustment Programs and the Negro,”
p. 39. Lange gets his figures from Farm Income (February 19, 1941) and from figures
made available through the Division of History and Statistics, Bureau of Agricultural
Economics, United States Department of Agriculture.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Annotated Comfilation of Soil Conservation and
Domestic Allotment Acty as amended (1938), Section 7a (5). Quoted by Lange,
“Agricultural Adjustment Programs and the Negro,” p. 9.
Lange, “Agricultural Adjustment Programs and the Negro,” p. 7,
Ibid, pp. lO-II.
Holley, Winston, and Woofter, of, cit,, pp. 40, 41 and 44.
True, not all planters receive incomes such as these averages indicate. Some even
have to suffer losses. This was true of about 7 per cent of the 646 plantations in
Woofter’s larger plantation sample of 1934. But over one-third of the planters had a
net cash income of at least $2,000, and the average for this group was $5,393.*^ On the
whole, it seems that the statement, often heard in the South, that not only tenants but
planters as well are poor, is greatly exaggerated. Those who want to argue that planters
generally are badly off, often taken their recourse to certain computations of percentage
returns on plantations j such computations cannot always be accepted without important
qualifications.
Woofter estimates that the operator’s average “capital investment” (total value of
land, buildings, livestock and machinery) for a sample of 632 plantations was $28,694
in 1934. If the operator’s salary for his own work is considered to be only $1,000 a
year, the residual net return on this capital would be 5.5 per cent.^ Such a capital
return may seem low, but it is questionable whether it is low also for agricultural condi-
tions. The author, who is somewhat familiar with Swedish agricultural economics, can
testify that similar calculations for Swedish farms indicate the prevalence of much
lower returns. This argument, however, cannot be stressed much, for computations of
• Woofter, Landlord and Tenant p. 86.
^ Ihid,^ p, 218.

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