The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-31

and the greatest Industrial revolution
that the world ever saw will soon be
accomplished The new education must
be suited TO TIE new 60 ldition5.
The industrial. revolution in the Sout4
is manifested along four great lines %
A change from large farms to small. e,
A change from slave labor to free. (3
A change from isolation to world-compe
tition. t4) A change from purely rura
life and agricultural to urban life apc
manufactures.
Let us consider chiefly these changes
and what effect they hay, upon eluea
ton.
THE CHANGE FROM LARGE PLANTA-
TIONS TO SMALL.
In 1850 there were $1,000 farms ir
acres each In 1890 there were $4,000
farms, with an average of 127 acres. The
census Of 1900 will doubtless SHOW that
since 1850 TIE number of farms in NORTH
Carolina has increased 400 per cent and
their size diminished 400 per cent. We
have one farm for every eleven persons.
one for every six white persons, SURPRISING
every Southern State. except Texas.
This continuous and large increase in
the number of our farms, With a CORES
ponding decrease in their size, means
that the cid plantations and the old
planters are rapidly passing away and
and giving place to the small farmer.
that extensive farming is being driven
out by intensive. new education is
required, teaching the use OF machinery
and improved tools. with scientific meth
DDS of agriculture, horticulture and stock
raising.
THE CHANGE FROM SLAVE LABOR
TO FREE.
when the negro was emarctpated the
Southern planter made heroic efforts to
keep up the old plantation with free ne
gro labor. But all in vain. Instead
of paying the old debts, he could not
meet the new. The white small farmer
of slave days, made strong by years OF
poverty labor and endurance. was the
man really emancipated by the war. He
could now compete with the negro on
equal terms: for now these YVES no MAJ
ter and no law to keep the negro al
work There was no custom now to re-
strict him to poor ridges, or 70 small
patches VI l6IlIl6 Iduu dlOLS 'iGG cIlCcllAo'
He could now increase his little hold
ing, CIR cease to be a tenant and hire
ling; for the old planter was bankrupt,
and the big plantation would make many
little farms.
1.-The change from slave labor to free
meant a change from popular ignorance
to popular education. 1t meant universal
education provided by the State.
1.-The next step will be a compulsory
law, with industrial training il the public
schools. In this work aid should be given
by the national government, also in the
work of training public school teachers.
THE negro will continue to be q flc-
tor in the development of the South. BY
allure and by training ne is fitted for
agriculture but he is no longer guided
and pushed forward by the
white planter. He is n full competition
with the white laborer. If he has The
character, Intelligence and energy t
meet the new conditions and maintain
himself as land owner and a small
farmer. he will survive and
prosper But. if he continually runs
away from the farm to the easy. vicious.
servle and degraded life, which he seems
10 like in the towns and cities. he must
go the way OF all weaklings and incom-
Setents. This is the real race ques-
zion. The negro will neither I've helped
nor hindered much by legislation. His
future depends now almost entirely upon
himself.
'Iacreased TRANSPORTATION facilities,
producing change from industrial to
world con-. etion.
Nothing has contributed more to the
poverty of the South, at least of the Pied
mont section. than the competition t
has suffered for a full generation with
he fertile lards of the Mississippi VAL
ey, the Gulf States and the great North
vest. Not a single staple crop can now
)e grown protitably on the Atlantic coast
competition with these States. This
competition will probably be less acute
hereafter in the grain market and posi-
ply for few years in cotton. But it is
almost certain that increased production
If cotton in the Gulf States, in Asia, in
south America and in Africa will be
aused b. the continuance even Of the
present prices. We cannot hope to keep
cotton Gt ten cents. We cannot curtail
production and we cannot artiticially
'orce the price up. In order to hold the
lotion market we must produce it more
eheaply than it can be produced else
where. AS the American manufacturer
With superior intelligence, skill, energy,
coils and machinery is producing manu-
Lactured goods more cheaply than any
other laborer. so the American farmer
must produce the raw material more
.heaply than il can be produced else
where. Whenever he cannot do this. he
nay make up his mind to abandon the
crop.
Increased transportation facilities,
while greatly damaging us in the produc-
ton of staple crops, has opened up for
US, in compensation, new lines for profit
in agriculture. Our fisheries have great
ly increased in yield and in value. Our
truck interests have grown amazingly,
and are destined in the future to go way
beyond anything that we now dream of.
Our health resorts have been made
known to the world, destined soon to
bring into the State annually more money
than our total agricultural produce was
worth in 1885, The working of our mines
has been made possible. Our forests
have become valuable for lumber and
we have begun to develop a few lines