The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-04-29

Much has been said and written about
theracs problem confronting the South.
No solution of it yet proposed has met
general acceptance. Probably the dis
cussion OF the question thus far has re-
suited in little beyond securing recogni-
ton OF It's 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 dangerbecomes inns
minent and critical? How fares Il with
the patient who has rejected the prescrip-
tons Of the social doctors? It is the
cheerful thesis Of q noteworthy article by
M. a. s.. Van de GRAFT, of Alabama,
which wiz appear in the May Forum,
that alsis well; that the problem is al
sready In process of solution by the spon-
taneous operation Of the same fundamen-
tai economic law which. under the differ
entconditions of slavery, brought it into
existence. The race problem. in Mr..
Van dc Graaf's opinion, arises out of the
unsqusl distribution Of the negroes in the
United States. "It 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 nor than one
eighth Gifts population, we would have
no race problem in the sense in which We
commonly speak of it as existing now.
Is is the presence ofan undue proportion
o~fnegross in the Southern States that at
once gives riss to the race problem and
makes 1t aquestiou belonging particular.
iy to the South Mr.. Van de CRAFT
gives the result OF hts investigations, ex-
lending over q number Of years, into the
movement Of negroes in the South, and
tho results as he presents them in his
Forum article are very striking. For
they show ~conclusivelv that over much
the greater portion of the South the race
problem does not exist in thu sense in
which he has defined ii. In the whole
South the tendency is toward q more
equal distribution OF the blacks and the
dissipation Of black %majorities. a re-
nlarkable tendency also exists on the
part of the negro to drift away from the
farrnsin to the cities; This passing OF
the negro from the fields into the towns
is, in Mr.. Van de CRAFTS opinion, lob.
Yioualy q fact of the greatest importance,
not only il its bearing npon his status
and distribution within the South itself
bat also upon the question whether he is
TO remain in the South in relatively Z
cessiYe numbers and as AN element of its
population not shared in an appreciable
degree by the North. Once loosed from
the stability Of country life, taught to
(rnaintain himself in the city, and placed
lon the great highways Of travel, the ne
gro has taken the first and longest step
out Of The South altogether. The transit
ton from Richmond to Philadelphia, or
from Nashville to Chicago. is compare
lively easy, and II may be made by
easy stages" In brief, Mr.. Van de
GRATIS figures suffice to show that the
negro Is capable Of migration on g large
scale, and that neither By choice nor ne
esssity is he to remain f5edin the South
Gin States. MIR. Van de Graaf concludes
his Forum article-a notable one it is too
with 8 Just tribute to the South's prac-
ticslly nndevsloped resources and bound
less possibilities. He says: "Great as
has been the industrial advance made,
considerable as appears the present i'm
migration movement, they but family
~foreshadow the development now at
hand. II SO much has been done in the
last thirty years under such d~isadvanta-
2 8 and practically unaided by immigra-
ton, what may we not expect when that
rich tide which has created the Empire
estates of the Northwest Is turned in sven
Greater volume Southwark? Only The
marvellous growth of the great Westitself
can guide tho imagination in attempting
the forecast, and even that must be sur
paused. Tothe South gpq~uestiouably be.
longs the f%qtareI'