The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-06
DISCUSSES BOOKER
 WASHINGTON'S IDEAS
INDUSTRIAL, ECONOMIC AND OTHER PRESSING PROBLEMS TREATED BY J. w. DUBOSE, A WELL KNOWN ALBANIAN.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 A letter has recently appeared in the press from Prof. Booker T.. Wash ington, addressed to negroes who aban-
 don the farm to move to town, and also to white men who rent out or cultivate farms where negros live. The letter, as
 usual from the same author, is In good temper and plainly expressed. It it in-
 deed a very suggestive presentation of
 practical ideas. The man who could write
 1t is a good citizen. But there is sur
 face view of facts that may be departed
 from those ideas
 CD Poor cabins on farms for negroes
 to live in; @ a disposition in white pro-
 prietors of farms and white merchants
 to swindle negroes in business; (0 poor
 country schools for negroes; (D white
 capping and lynching in the country, ne- groes being the victims; (5) unnecessary forcing of race prejudice into the rela-
 tions of whites and blacks who live on
 farms. Upon these premises the letter | proceeds.
 In illustration of the faulty conditions,
 the Professor relates that he saw living
 on a single street in Atlanta idle or semi-idle negroes enough to cultivate fifty of the largest plantations in Geor-
 gia."
 | To be direct-I was born and reared
 in the region of cotton plantations and
 possess an intimate knowledge of the
 management of that kind of property,
 both in the slave era and in the later | time. l think there has never been all lowed a normal relation between the freedmen and the whites in Alabama. A | just weighing of the laws that have pre-
 vailed for forty years will show that nc
 other people than the people, white and black that lives here and no other agri- culture than cotton could have survived l in comparative peace and comparative prosperity the operation of those lands The negro is most distinctly the victim in the situation because the poor and | ignorant being most dependent on good | government, are the main sufferers from vicious government.
 The financial conditions In Alabama | discouraging to the permanent improve | ment of farms, are in part, an annual | drain of $4,000,0O on account of pensions, | an annual tariff tax equal to 53 cents av- | craze on the dollars cost of tariff pro- tected goods, say s2O,0OO,00o tariff tax I alone.
 l We shall understand this burden bet | ter when we learn that the government | collects surplus revenue from Alabama J farmers. At the present moment a few I favored banks in New York have on | deposit $50, ,000000 of government surplus | funds paying no interest for the use but | loaning it to trusts, etc. at discretionary | interest.
 | What relation does the cotton planta- | ton now bear to the fiscal system of 1 the government of the United States l And what is the difference between the l relation of that specie of property to the | fiscal system as compared with the | farms of the north? Senator Voorhees, of | Indiana said in debate in the special ses-
 sion of 1893, referring to the financial | panic then devastating the country, that | his state received during the summer | sl i, 900. 900 pensions and this ready money | getting into the banks had saved all l kinds of business there from utter ruin. l Alabama had sent out pension money by | the millions but had received little or none. However, that incident is mere mention here.
 We had z local currency here in Ala