The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-08


 place to review the dishsartenins struggie of the Black Belt planter with .free. labor." as they called if | in the years which followed the war | The advancing system made some men rich--it is profitable to e few S now. Many planters draw a comfortable | living from. their plantations. There is no desperate situation In the Black Belt. but there problems which de- mana as much courage and though | in the solution, as those political pro- biens to the settlement of which the white man turned his hand after the war and never rested until they were finally settled.
 There is . problem because the negro labor. moves each year in increasing numbers from the plantations to the city. A few of the planters but only a few of them say "God speed them in their removal on most or the nIartations d labor agent and a shut run are linked together in the same l thought. /But whether the planter wants them to go or stay--it is all | the same the hegira of black labor increases steadily. Its impetus has | been accelerated in recent months be- cause the negro will go where he can get whiskey and in the country pre- cincts of the Black Belt prohibition l really prohibits
 So much for division number one of the question. Division number two | is an inevitable consequence of this movement. More acres each year are
 turned out" left to the grass the gullies and the lob Jolly pines. No labor to cultivate them-that Is all: There are stretches of the richest soil I tr xuhf nl0w has mt been stuck for five years. There Is no labor to grow cotton. but labor can be had to grow alafala and stock will
 rraze on the land whether the negro | is there or not
 | Comes division number three-the white man like the negro has been moving from the plantations to the towns and the cities. And worst of 6iI. when the old folks are welded to | the old places and the old scenes the eager young are leaving them for the | indehnable fascination of the city. Of all its losses. the Black Belt can least afford to loss the strength. the hope and the energy that Is wrapped upon its young manhood. The full question will never be solved until the young man can be made to stay on the plan tation where his labor and his thought will most benefit his State and his people.
 An UndeniabIe Condition. In Alabama we have today this un- deniable condition--the white sections l of Alabama are developing more rapidr | iy and increasing in population more rapidly than the Black Belt. The white farmer pm the small farmer is pushing his own section ahead of the Black
 Belt. which still leans on negro labor | Rural prosperity in the Black Belt is
 at stand still or 1t Is moving so
 slowly as to be almost imperceptible.
 Rural prosperity in the white section
 is a thing for pride and boasting. The Black Belt towns are growing but so slowly, and some are not
 growing at all. But in the white sec- | tions the towns are spurred and quick ened by some remarkable influence It is the Black Belt which must run forward and catch step.
 | How? Uniontown shows how. Its methods are imperfectly represented here. But enough has been set down | to show that the lesson Uniontown
 has learned shonld be taught the lthrough Middle Alabama from the l Chattahoochee to the Mississippi line.
 And most powerful of all the factors
 which has made this remarkable farm ing community is alfalfa. The alfalfa monopoly Is not so limited as to be l confined about Uniontown. Perhaps Sumter County grows more alfalfa
 than any other county of Alabama. In
 all probility it exceis either Perry or Marengo County. And Sumter County
 which has suffered in the adjudication
 of the post-beIlum problems is on' of the great cattle raising counties
 of the State. It is . new reputation but 1t has already been pointed out l that cattle growing and alfalfa go | hand in hand. as the twin agricultural industries.
 Tn Sumter County.
 From a recent article of Frank Mo ] gratifying inforrfiation on alfalfa