Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-07
Census Figures Show That 1t
Is Distinctly a Southern
Question
NoRTHERNERs OVERLOOK FACT
People of the North Do Not Realize
the Situation in the South Where SO
Per Cent of the Black Population Is
Located-condition Hard to Meet
General News Notes.

Washington, July THE people of
the north in their attempt to suggest a
satisfactory solution of the negro pro-
| blem ought never to lose track of the
highly important fact that the negro
population is largely massed in the
southern states; and yet they do lose
track of it, for at times they appear
utterly blind to the point of view of the
| southerner, who has the negro on his
| hands, and is daily compelled to endure
many things, which, il brought closely
home to the north, would quickly make
| that section as radical in its attitude
| towards the negro as the SOUTH
| A very instructive pamphlet or the
geographical distribution OF popula ton,
based on the last census, has been is
sued by the census bureau, and from 1t
may be gathered much that is instruc-
tive regarding the negro question. For
instance, 39S of every 1000 negroes In
the country are to be found in the re-
gicns drained into the Atlantic, south
of Pennsylvania, and ga per cent OF
them are in the lands drained into the
Gulf of Mexico.
These are familiar facts and yet they
are frequently overlooked by the north
in it's academic discussion of what is
perhaps the most perpleXing social
problem now confronting the nation.
The proportion of negro population in
the middle west, the far west or the
north, is triiing In what is known as
the lake region, embracing the north
ern portions Of New York, Ohio, In
diana and Illinois. and all of Wiscon-
sin. Michigan, and nearly all of Mime
sofa there are only 70,64O negroes,
or not as many as are to be found In
single counties in some of the southern
states. The prairie region, embracing
the country drained by the Ohio and
the upper Mississippi valleys. have less
than a half million negroes, or about
one to each square mile of territory:
while on the southern Atlantic sea-
board, the average is about twenty ne
groes per square mile. The great
plains embracing the country between
the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains,
as far south as Kansas, contain over
$4,000 negroes, or one for every block OF
thirty-five miles of territory.
The Black Belt.
The black belt is very real thing,
and no amount of dispassionate dis
cussion and volunteer advise from the
north can make it anything else. 1t has
been said that If that belt could, even
for a few weeks. be transported TO New
Englan, it would cause the population
there to become intensely negro haters.
and this is probably true.
Senator Tillman in his winter adj
dresses in northern cities t3rpifies the
radicallsm of the south so far as the
negro is concerned. In Minneapolis he
was listened to without sympathy. be-
cause few Of his hearers were able to
appreciate from actual contact with the
blacks just how much justification
there was for the position he takes.
The census figures call attention to
another startling fact in connection
with the negro, and that is his rapid
increase in numbers. and his increasing
numerical strength in the black belt,
where he is holding his own with the
whites AS the center of population
moves westward, it would naturally be
supposed that it would take the negro
with it, but it does not. The black man
is fastened to the south and will not
Willingly live in any other part of the
country, except as he is educated and
made able to compete successfully in
the struggle for existence with the
whites. This means that the best there
is of the negro race has come to the
northern states, and is now to be found
in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Wisconsin.
Minnesota, and other northern states.
The refuse-that part of the race
which is sunk lowest in degradation
and shameless vice and ignorance--re-
mains a fixture in the south. 1t is from
the ranks of this lowest class that
brutes in human form go forth to prey
upon the women and children of south
ern homes.