Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1907-11-01
THE NEGRO IN THE NORTH.
Booker T. Washington in The Conere.
gationalist-Solution Of Problem
on the Farms.
The South Affords Greater Oppor.
tunities-City Life UnfavorabIe to
Health and Morals.

My attention has been repeatedly
called in recent years to the rapid
increase of the Negro population in
northern cities, particularly in the
larger cities of the North Atlantic
states, that is, New England, New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
These states have already consider
ably more than one-third of all the
northern Negroes and statistics show
that from 1880 to 1900, this portion
Of the population increased one-third
more rapidly than the white. The
Negroes in Philadelphia increased in
the ten years, between 1890 and 1900,
from thirty-six to sixty-two thousand.
The colored population in New York
was 23,606 in 1890, but in 1900 it had
risen to 6O,666. Boston's colored pop
ulation grew more slowly, but it has
grown steadily. In 1880 the Negroes
of Cambridge and Boston were 1877
but in 1900 this number had increased
to 15,497.
Under normal conditions doubt
whether the existence Of 100000 Ne:
groes scattered over the whole North
ern and Western country, and perma-
nently settled on farms and in small
towns, as they are to very large
degree in the south, would. have at
tracted particular attention. But the
fact is that he Negroes in the north
ern safes are, to a large extent, part
of a floating population. While 80
per cent of the southern Negroes are
on farms and plantations in country
districts, more than 70 per cent of
the northern Negroes are in cities.
This Negro element in the floating
population of the northern cities has
grown SO rapidly in recent years and
has to such an extent complicated the
problem of city life, already difficult
enough, that some persons have come
to regard it as a distinct menace.
City Life UnfavorabIe to Health and
... Morals.
l have more than once said that the
masses of the colored people are not
yet fitted to survive and prosper in
the great cities north and south, tt
which so many of them are croWding.
The temptations are too great and the
competition with the foreign popula-
ton with which they come in con
tact is too severe. Many of these
young colored men and women, Whc
leave the country for the city go d
rectly from the farms and plantations
of the south. where they have bes
living on the same soil on which ths
fathers and mothers worked as slave!
and under conditions not far removed
from those that existed before eman
cipation. It is not difficult under these
circumstances to understand that the
colored immigrants from the south
are not able at once to adjust them
selves to the crowded. strenuous al
complicated life of these great mod
ern cities. The vital statistics, wfic!
are perhaps the best indicators we
have in this matter, show that, OF
all races now pouring into the larger
American cities from various parts
of the world, the Negro Is the least
prepared to meet the conditions OF
city life.
It should always be borne in mind
that there is this difference between
the Negro in the north and the aver
age colored man living on plantations
q districts in the south,
that while he is ignorant he has not
been degraded, as a rule, except IN
rare cases, by vicious habits. In the
large cities OF the north, it is true OF
large element of Negroes, as 1t Is
true OF large element Of the same
class of any other races, that hey
have injured body and soul by de-
grading habits. There is vast differ-
'ence between pure ignorance and deg
relation.
NV own conviction is that this prob
lem. like others which the presence
of the Negro race in this land has
created, must find its solution ulti-
mately on the farms and plantations
of the southern states. So far as
I can understand the disposition OF
the masses of my own people, they
have determined to remain for all
time upon the soil Of the southern
states. where their future, in my opin-
ion. is inextricably bound up with the
of the soil. do not Pc
lie,ye that any large proportion OF the
Negro people intend to remain permar
nently outside Of the south, and y
5a,,,o+ ,,ar,, Y,,,1ch If any laborer will