The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978 Page: 136
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
or had invested their profits in farm lands," wrote the historian of one
Texas cotton county. "These large owners usually held the lands for a
rise in value and rented them to immigrant farmers from the older
southern states." While land values were rising, however, owners still
gained the same returns on their land from the tenants (one third of
the grain and one fourth of the cotton); so they began charging extra
rent to bring them a larger return on land that had increased in value.
"This caused much resentment among the tenant farmers" and became
one of the Socialists' main organizing issues.8
These developments resulted in protests from the tenant farmers
who were paying the price for the absentee landlords' increased profits.
"Land is getting high," wrote one frustrated renter in 1907. "Lots of
it [is] being sold and [it is] advancing fast in price .... If we could
keep the capitalists out of the country it would be good. They buy up
land and hold it in large tracts for high prices . .."9 The capitalists
were there to stay. Indeed, they had been in Texas for some time, but
now they were applying new corporate business methods to land-
holding.'0
According to an investigator for the United States Commission on
Industrial Relations, which conducted hearings on the land question
at Dallas in 1915, the migratory white tenants were beginning to re-
semble "casual workers" who worked for wages. While the tenants
were moving further away from their goal of landownership, the
wealthier landlords were moving to town, creating a greater distance
-physically, economically, and socially-between the landed and the
landless." By 1910 the class differences were becoming obvious. As
the son of one Texas cotton renter recalled, even poor white children
perceived the division.
The landlord's children were commonly called the "rich chillern" by us
p. 437; ibid., 1905, p. 488; ibid., 19o9, p. 617; ibid., Igro, p. 695. For cotton prices,
see Hunt, A History of Farmers Movements in the Southwest, 41-42.
8George W. Tyler, The History of Bell County, edited by Charles W. Ramsdell (San An-
tonio, 1939), 329.
9J. F. O'Connor to Editor, March 28, 1907. Hallettsville New Era, June 14, 1907. This
statement is corroborated in a detailed academic survey by Leonard and Naugle, "The
Recent Increase in Tenancy," 14-15, 28-29.
10C. W. Holman, "Landlord and Tenant: White Tenants versus Black Tenants," Farm
and Ranch, XXX (November 4, 1911) points out the difference between the black share-
cropper and his traditional "master" (one that had changed little since slavery) and the
new relationship between white tenants and landlords.
11Charles W. Holman, "Probing the Causes of Unrest: The Tenant Farmer, Country
Brother of the Casual Worker," The Survey, XXXIV (April 17, 1915), 62-63.136
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978, periodical, 1977/1978; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101205/m1/164/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.