The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-12
.sTHE WHITE PERIL

| Tor December. MT. brown Is d HdtlRe
of Alabama, a graduate of Harvard
and was a lecturer on American his
tory of that university. His nativity,
training and broad mindedness have
rendered him peculiarly fitted to con-
sentative study of the subject of eco
nomic conditions at the South. He has
lately made an extended trip through
this section for the purpose of inquir-
ing especially into those conditions.
! His tour extended from Virginia to
| Texas, through practically all of the
cotton belt. What he saw and learned
convinced him that a great and mo-
mentous change is quietly taking place
in the basis of the entire industrial
system of the South.
THE white peril" as Mr.. Brown
sees it, threatens the negro. Reduced
to its lowest terms, it means that the
white race is pushing the black race
out of its position of advantage as the
mainstay of labor in the South.
There are noted two movements
Of population, an exodus and an
immigration. There is a steady move
ment of negroes from the country to
the towns and to the North, and at
the same time there is fairly steady,
and apparently increasing, inflow of
whites into the country districts. The
gain of whites from without is not as
large as that of some of the Northern
and Western states, but it is persistent
and Of a character that is likely to
add to the permanent population.
Farmers from the North and West are
continually moving in and settling on
lands that were formerly cultivated by
negroes. And the lands, under white
cultivation, are proving more produc-
tive than ever before. The complaint
is common that the negro, as farm
hand, is deteriorating. Nor is this ALL
1t is harder and harder to bind him
to any sort of service for a considera-
Bile and profitable length of time.
This latter statement is true of the
cities as well as of the country, and
white men in ever increasing numbers
are being found to do the work that
was formerly done exclusively by ne
groes; and they invariably do it bet
ter. Domestic service seems to Of
fer about the only exception, but
abundant fault is being found with the
negro as a domestic servant and it is
by no means certain that the negroes
practical monopoly in that line will
be long continued.
The negro has failed to establish
himself in the new industries of the
South. He is not to be found in the
cotton factories. He has been tried
in several such factories and has failed
in every instance to prove himself
satisfactory operative. The same is
true of the tobacco factories. Wher-
ever there is machinery to be handled
the negro has failed to measure UP to
the requirements of efficient service.
AS common laborers, too, the negroes
have lost ground. They have been re-
placed on many of the New Orleans
docks by white men from Southern Eu-
rope, and several of the lines of Mis-
sissippi steamers have replaced their
negro roustabouts with Italians. The
proportion of negroes employed as
truckmen. draymen, teamsters, rail-
road workers, fishermen, oystermen,
engineers, firemen, BARRIERS, launderers,
carpenters and masons is said to have
been shown by the census reports to
be much smaller in 1900 than in 1890.
In this city it is to be noticed that
white persons are now employed in
lines of gainful occupation that were
formerly monopolized by negroes. Fiji
teen years or so ago the barbers wait
ers, bootblacks and hackmen were
practically all black. Now a fair pro-
portion of such workers are white and
the number of them is steadily increas-
ing.
1t is Mr.. Browns belief that the
change that is taking place in indus
trial conditions is not only an in
vasion by the white race of the field
formerly occupied by the black race,
but also indicates an increase in the
demanded standard of efficiency, which
the negro has not met. The Negroes
future. therefore, depends upon him
self and his industry. If he would
survive he must meet the fierce compe-
tition to which he is being subjected.
He must demonstrate by work-hard
and intelligent work-that he is worthy
of place in the economic scheme of
things. THE white man whom the ne
gro has to fear is no longer the man
who would force him to work. 1t is
the man who would take work away
from him. The danger. the immedi-
ate menace, is rivalry rather than op-
preston"
ELECTRICITY VS.. STEAM.
For a number OF years the predic-
ton has been frequently made that