The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-22
HOW THE NEGRO
RETROGRADES
IN THE SOUTH
Figures Which Show That White Labor Has
Crowded Out the CoIored Man From
Fields and Trades.

cultivated. 1t was subject to overflow
formerly, but has for years been safe,
thanks to splendid levee system. In
view of these improvements and the
better and more intelligent cultivation
of cotton throughout the South, which
has everywhere else produced such
favorable results, the yield of cotton
in this favored district-for it is de-
voted exclusively to that crop-would,
one would think, have materially in
creased during the past forty years.
Yet today these parishes yield census
of 1900 94,012 bales of cotton, as
against 81 ,298 in the single white coun-
ty of Ellis, Texas. (not nearly as good
for the southern slopes, and as
against 1875 bales under slave labor.
There has been little change in the la
Dor, which is almost wholly negro. as
follows: 1900, whites 4,S14, negroes
51,51S; 1860, whites 5.494, negroes
Sc, 1872. The production under slavery
was 2.S bales per negro; today it is 1.S
bales, a loss of nearly SO per cent.
The decline in the other crop OF the
district, corn, has been even greater.
There are no railroads, saw mills, or
other industries to divert the negro
labor. The white population is almost
exclusively store-keepers and over
seers, except few white farmers on
Black river, who do not raise cotton.
The cotton production is nearly all by
negro labor. The census figures show
that in the most favored section of the
South, and under the most suspicious
surroundings, the negro produces less
cotton in the aggregate and per capita
than he did under slavery. I might
say further that this decline has been
constant since slavery. The planters
say that they are not making money
with negro labor. That the negroes
are not growing richer is shown by
the fact that the total assessment of
all property held by them is only $685.
1872, or little over SO per capita.
I have spoken of cotton because it
is the crop in which the negro appears
to the greatest advantage. In other
agricultural departments the showing
is much worse The % parishes con-
shutting the sugar district of Louis
lana have a population today OF
274, 006 whites and 214,649 negroes, and
Ia out of the % are white parishes.
In 1870 they had only 1886 whites
and 1928 negroes, and only five of the
parishes had white majorities. This
! is simply stating statistically that the
negroes are being crowded out of work
on the sugar plantations by white
labor, such as Acadians, Creoles, An
glo-Saxon Americans and Italians
Twenty years ago negroes constituted
95 per cent of the sugar plantation
labor; today barely half The planters
who have tried Italian labor say the
Sicilian peasant who has never. seen
sugar cane proves a better laborer
than the Louisiana negro, who has
been cultivating cane for half a dozen
generations.
In the other crop of this section
rice-the negro is absolutely unknown
and does not produce L per cent of il
There is. plenty of cheap negro labor
offered, but the farmers prefer white
labor, even if they have to pay high
er. The utter failure of the negro IN
the rice district is well shown in the
rich rice parish of Calcasieu. This is
the most prosperous parish in Louisi.
ana, the richest and most progressive
in which the largest fortunes have
been made by farming, yet the 5,96t
negroes reported by the census owz
only $3,405, or little over half dol.
lar apiece.
! Such is the negro in the field OF
agriculture, where he appears to the
greatest advantage. In manufactures
no one claims anything for him; il
the mechanical trades he is losing
ground steadily. In spite of the OPP.
timism that you and others feel, the
industrial horizon of the negro i:
growing steadily narrower, and is now
actually more limited than in the days
of slavery. To those who look only al
the surface it seems different, for they
see new Industrial schools established
for negroes sand the old ones enlarged
and better endowed. The New Or
leans school board has abolished th'
higher grades in the negro public
schools and will use the money for in
dustrial education of the negro youth