The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-17
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE RACE
QUESTION.

| QUESTION.
Lawyers. politicians and journalists
are not the only ones that are discuss
ing the race question. Farmers are TAX
| ing part in the discussion, and what
they are saying shows they have given
it good deal of thought. and have a
better understanding of it than
many of those who write elab-
crate essays on It. For in
stance a farmer Of Talladega, Ala, in
a letter to New York paper, expresses
some views that will strike the average
reader as being well considered and
sound.
! In answer to "a statement Of Booker
! Washington in the Montgomery Ad-
vertiser, as to why the negro leaves the
farm and goes to the town, he says that
the War of Secession eniancipated the
poor whites of the South as well as the
blacks, and that after the war the PLAN
| ter thought himself better than the poor
whites who constituted more than half
of the South's population and wouldn't
associate with them. The planters
| therefore found themselves with only
negroes for neighbors. So their children
moved to the towns. and soon after
wards they followed them. The planta-
tons were rented to poor white men, in
many instances. Gradually these poor
white men brought their relatives from
their mountain homes, and, together
with their own families, cultivated the
land. OF course they had the help of
the negroes when they hadn't sufficient
help of their own, but, gradually, the
number increased and therefore they
had less use for the labor Of the negroes.
The consequence has been that those
who were classed as poor whites be-
for the war have become the farmers
of the South, and they are gradually
taking up the land and opening up
farms. They are the people also who
are supplying the labor for the cotton
mills. They are the people who furnish
ing the foremen for the iron mills and
the coal mines and for most of the
other enterprises. They are building up
the South.
are doing is apparent to all. This year
they have done the largest part towards
producing more than 12,0000 900 bales Of
cotton, besides more corn, hay and
other crops than the South has ever,
in any one year produced before.
This Alabama farmer concludes his
letter by saying that these white men
from the mountains mean to make the
Southern country a white mans country
They don't intend it shall be Hayti.
It is because of this intention, he says,
that the South is solid.
There is of course much truth in this.
1t is a fact that the greater part of the
cotton crop is made now by white
labor. 1t is planted, cultivated and
picked by white people. And to a great
er extent every year the farms of the
South are worked by white hands. 1t
is well understood of course that the
operatives in the cotton mills and most
other factories are white. This is be-
cause white labor is more efficient.
But if the poor whites and their des-
cendents expect to make the South what
it ought to be and what it is capable
of becoming they ought to take care
that their children have the very best
education it is possible for them to get,
1t is a notorious fact that the mill
people do not seem to be as deeply in
terested in the education of their child
rem as they ought to be. They put them
in the mills as soon as they are old
enough to earn dollar.
In South Carolina it is proposed to rem
edy this condition of affairs. A bill
viii be introduced into the Legislature
when it meets next month making at
tendance at school compulsory. 1t is
alleged that in that state there are now
about 10000 more negro, than white,
children in the public schools. That will
never do if South Carolina is to remain
in control of the white people. The poor
whites may be proud of what they have
accomplished but to meet their re-
sponsibilities fully they must educate
their children.