The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-03
Ante Bellum Conditions
 Better.
LURE OF CITY, TOO GREAT
Black Man In Large Centers Disregards Laws of Hygiene and Disease Creeps in on Him
 Unawares.
negro is dying.

The negro is dying.
 Cloak the matter as he may. shat e the fact which Judge Harris Dick son brings clearly before every reader Of an article, of which this expert is the author. in the october number of Hampton's Magazine. He presents the
 opinions of physicians and he gathers together vital statistics until this con- ciusion Is inevitable
 S Forty years ago." writes Judge Dickson. "the negro was the health weakest. most predisposed to disease. the man with the least resistive power. Heredity aud the white mans regula- tions made him what he was in 'S5; heredity and the negro mode of life makes him what he Is today. Before the war the great mass of negroes--as they are today-were az. riculturaI laborers. Their masters pre- scribed hours of toll and rest. provided homes and overlooked their amuse- ments. Irrespective of any humane motive. the masters selfish interest de. < manded the best possible care of nis property.
 The planters had received from Afri- ca horde of barbarians. who had no idea of hygiene, sanitation, or medi- cine. The planter took this stock rnd made healthy race in a new land. His system was simple: he enforced tho primary laws of health. Every planta- tion constituted a separate community The will of the planter was the su- preme law. He located his slave guar ters on the healthiest spot of his plau- tation, laid them out In the form of a oa Tf yards and gardens for each family There was good water and good drain age. Space and air were cheap: every negro had plenty of both and the over crowding of cabins was never permit. ted When a family became too large for one cabin, another was assigned. Each cabin had Its open fireplace. the best of ventilation. and an ample sup ply of fuel.
 Conditions Have Changed.
 Conditions since the negro was giv- en his freedom have changed. The race was permitted to develop. or rather degenerate, willy nilly The re- expected. Judge Dickson does not aim to defend or idealize slavery. Far from it. But the regular, well-goyerned fife, he writes. provided vital in build ing up a race of strong parents and healthy children. The e.fnegro, in 1850, 
 xh ysical flan. while "in the south to- dayrf negro lives where he pIeases and in such manner as suits him best The plantation quarters are not laid out as formerly. the cabins are scatter ed, often without regard to sanitation or water. No efficient supervision is ] exercised over the negros care of his cabin. He Is notoriously unclean. His home is rarely whitewashed or disin- fected Tn the rural districts the blacks have nothing like the medical attention and care bestowed upon them. Negro a dearly love medicine: all kinds of sarhs and teas and connections. They delight in dosing thentselves with patent nos- trums, all manner of home cures and conju-cures."
 MT. Dickson says that the deadllest enemy of the negro Is tuberculosis- but 1t Is a new enemy. Old time south- err physicians are almost unaniinouS in the opinion that before the war tubercu1osis was less freG3ent among the negroes than the whites. Some of them mention it as exceedingly rare --naany insisting that the black man was practically immune to the white plague.
 After the war the negro's environ ment changed; he was free to do as he pleased. There was an immediate tncrease of all the old diseases, the 2 ventions. His birth-rate dropped his death-rate went skyward. The pro- cess of deterioration began at once.
 Leave Fields for City.
 One reason why the negro Is In the grip of death is that for the last thirty years he has shown tendency to abandon the field and flock to the pavement. He cannot resist the gas- light. the brass band. and the streef fakir.
 Mr Dickson declares that in no northern community Is the negro self. sustaining. His birth-rate does no' equal the death-rate. and lnmigratlnn from the south alone maintains ms numbers. Every southern negro who goes north is to a great extent With 5rawn from the reproductive popula- 4jon that is to say, he does not con tribute to the increase of his race by maintaining a birth rate in excess Q. his death rate. It can safely be saId that in no northern community is the negro seif-sustaining. Shut off immi grafton and the race will ultimately vanish from the north. In New & Hampshire. for instance. there was 6I negroes in 179O and 614 In 1s9n. # 2 The system of of cOddling by unwiss shiIanthropists, the author claims ran 3nly lead the negro to lesseninG in- ependence and a greater incapacitV 70 stand alone.
 S From an economic point of view f this phase of the negro problem is etaggering-this frishtful waste nf hu- man life and efficiency. For instance we will suppose that 1000 white and 1000 black children are born on the same day in Wash < fngton, D. c. Of those. 663 white ohild dren will reach twenty-five years. as Ragainst 4O1 negroes. The significance of this simple statement is appalling as 1t affects the comparative economic value of the two races. It Is finger