The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-01
The Italian Cotton Grower In the
South.

South
The Southern States are now seeking
10 attract immigration, and immigrants
from other States and from foreign
countries are settling in the South, BY
1910 that community, SO long essentially
home bred, will probably have received
a considerable foreign strain. Should
the great stream OF new blood be turned
southwark far-reaching economic and
social changes may be expected. The
question naturally arises: What will be
the effect upon the negro laborers OF the
competition Of races more industrious,
saving, ambitious, intelligent and adapt
able?
In an excellent North Carolina publica-
ton, the South Atlantic Quarterly, Mr..
ALFRED Holt STONE studies The ltal-
ian Cotton Grower: the Negroes Prob
lem Economically considered, the
Southern negro's problem is to hold his
own against white competition, indus
trial and agricultural, and especially
the latter, since the South is mainly an
agricultural region and the great mass
Of Southern negro labor is agricultural.
Is the negro necessary for the raising
Of cotton, the main Southern crop? II
has been the habit Of most Southerners
and Northerners to assume SO.
Mr.. STONE reminds his readers that
in the riparian lands Of the Mississippi
and its tributaries in Arkansas, Missis-
80 on1 Tpt,iciopn Tho n n
the whites in the proportion OF from
three or four to one to more than fifteen
to one Every condition Of climate,
soil and economic condition tended 10
render absolute the hold of the negro
agriculturist. Yet in this very field
OF negro monopoly the Italian cotton
growers, coming in small but increasing
numbers, have shown their superiority
almost from the first In q year or two,
according to Mr. STONE, they become
more intelligent cultivators than the
negroes. They work more carefully
and constantly. Tenants, ike the re-
groes, they keep the fields and premises
in so much better condition that mere
glance is sufficient TO tell the observer
whether the occupier is an Italian or a
negro. Tho fields OF the latter are half
cultivated, his fences broken down, his
garden choked with weeds. Speaking
Of plantation property in which he Is
Interested, Mr.. STONE says that it seems
hopeless to try to induce negro tenants
to keep the premises in good order and
repair. Whereas
Prom the rardcn ,po, which the negro allows
70 grow ~ In weeds the Italian will supply his
family from early spring untl late fall. and also
market enough larg ly to carry him through the
winter have seen the ceilings OF their houses
literally covered with strings Of dued butter beans,
pepper, okrA and Other garden products. while
tn walls would be hung with com. sun cured In
the roasting car stag In the rear OF well Kept
house would BE- erected woodshed. and IN 10
could be seen enough nrewood, sawed and ready
for use TO the family through the winter months
These peope did not walt I'll half frozen feet com
PEELED attention TO the question OF fuel and III
tear down fence 70 pply their wants Nor
woul they be found drifting about near the close
Of each season In an Anless effort 10 satisfy an
unreasoncd desire to move max. tho ueI,
! crop somewhere else
ImmemoTial necessity has forced the
Italian to make the most of every inch
of ground What is too small for the
plough he clltivates with the hoe He
sows down to the waters edge. Mr.
/ STONE has seen Italians make more
cotton per acre than the negro on the
adjoining cut, gather II from two to four
4 weeks earlier, and then put in the extra
( time in earning money by picking in the
negros field
Other races will follow the Italians.
( The whole cotton belt will receive white
/ immigration. What does all this mean
to the Southern negro? Here Is Mr.
STONES temperate statement:
The w,sesi leaders among his own people agree
with his most sensible white advisers upon two
points vital to his future in this country: shat tho
/ homo Of the mass of the race must remain in tho
/ Southern States and tina, It's destiny mus, be
worked out upon the soil The Geld OF the negro's
activities thus becomes doubly olrcumscrbed.
and any Invasion OF tha, held by tho white man
must present for MIN serious aspect. / would
no, be understood as attempting to set up scare
| head here. There Is no danger OF an inrush OF
/ foreigners buying UP oil the land In the South
and leaving none for the negro. Not al all. But
with every enoroAehneni By 'he white man upon
the neFros ancient hed there follows CORE.
| spending dimnuuon OF the lat,ers opportunities
| In tina, neld. II the negro this year produces
as per- cent. OF our cotton and twenty years hence
| Is producing but IS per cent., then certainly the
/ two decades would marx for hin 9 dlElnct loss
! OF ground
How rapid this movement nay become II Ia OF
/ course lmposslbls to forecast. Il may be many
! years before the negro. Is race, viii be In any
/ wise vislbiy affected By IT, But hencefouh II can
no more be Ignored than can the progress Of any
/ other economic struggle between the black race
ard The Caucasian. The man who argues that
{ toe negro sgneultursi to-day Oils a place that
cannot be wrested from him by the white man
that because he lie TO day essential 10 tbe produo.
ton OF the oouutrys greatest crop be is therefore
! essential for al une-dispAyS lue wisdom a.
does he who contends that the negro will some day