Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-05-01
The Ona'ded Solution of fbe
Southern Race Problem.

Southern Race Problem.
Much has been said and written about
the race problem confronting theSouth.
No solution of it yet proposed has met
general acceptance. Probably the dis
cussioo of the subject thus far has re-
suited in little beyond securing recog-
Hition of its Importance as only less
than that of slavery itself Are we
drifting, then, and are we to continue
to drift, as before the war, until danger
becomes iminitent and critical? How
fares it with the patient who has reject
ed the prescriptions OF the social doc
tors 1t is the cheerful thesis of note
worthy article fy Mr.. A. S. Van de
Graft, Of Alabznsa, which win appear
in the May Forum, that all is well: that
the problem is already in process Of So
luton by the Spontaneous operation of
the same fundamental economic law
which, under the different conditions
of slavery, brought it into existence.
The race problem, in Er. Van de
Graft s opinion, arises out of the un-
equal distribution of the nsgroes in the
United States. 1T will certainly be
agreed that, if the negroes now within
our borders-were evenly distributed
over the country SO that in no State or
region did they form more than one
eight of its PoPulrtiou, we would have
no race problem in the sense in which
we commonly speak of it as existing
now. 1t is tho presence of an undue
proportion of negroes in the Southern
States that at once gives rise to the race
problem and makes it question belong
ing peculiarly to the South Mr.. Van
de CRAFT gives the result of his investi-
CATIONS, extending over a number of
years, into the movement of negroes in
the South. and the results as he presents
them in his forum article are VERY stril-
ing. For they show conclusively that
over much the greater portion of the
South the race problem does not exist
IN the sence in which he has defined it
In the whole South the tendency is to-
ward more equal distribution of the
blacks and the dissipation of black ma
Jorities- A remarkable tendency also
exists on the part of the negro 70 drift
away from the farms into the cities.
This passing Of the negro from the fields
into the towns is, in Mr.. Van de GRAFT
opinion, obviously fact of the great
est importance, not only in its bearing
upon his status and distribution within
the South itself, but also upon the qucs-
tion whether he e to remain in the
South in relatively excessive numbers
and as an element of its population not
shared IN an appreciable degree by the
North. Once loosed from the stability
of county life, fought to maintain hin-
self ~ the city, and placed on the gaeat
highways of travel. the negro has taken
the first and longest steS out of the /
South altogether. The transition from /
Richmond to Philadelphia, or from
Nashville to Chicago, is comparatively |
easy, and it may be made by easv
stages In brief Mr.. Van de GRAFT s
figures suffice to show that the negro is
capable of migration on large scale.
and that neither by choice nor necessity
/ he to remain fixed in the Southern
States. Mr.. Van de GRAFT concludes
his forum article a noticeable one.it is
too-with just tribute to the South
practically undevelOped resources and
boundless possibilities. He says: Great
as has been the industrial advance
made, considerable as appears the pres, /
ent Immigration movement, they but
family foreshadow the development
now at hand. If so much has been |
done in the last thirty years under such |
disad vabtages and practically unaided |
by immigration, what may we not ex-
expect when that rich tide which has
created the Empire States of the North |
west is turned in even greater volume
southwark? Only the marvellous
grow of the great West itself can guide
the imagination in attempting the fore
cast, and even that must be surpassed. |
TO the South unq uestionab!y belongs
the future.