The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-07-31
FACING a CRISIS"
PLAIN, SENSIBLE TALK TO THE
COLORED PEOPLE.
Commissioner Watson Points Out
to Them Their Exact Condition in
the South at This Time.

meeLlnS WHICH u pelu6 uelu oI
Irmo by Rev. Richard Carroll to
several hundred colored people on
last Tuesday.
1.-The negro is now facing a cri-
SIS" said the commissioner, 1.-The
repeal of the lien law will throw
many a man on his own resources,
and the next year will tell whether
the negro is going to be able to
make good by himself.
"The Infamous doctrine of social
equality must be stamped down,
declared the commissioner, for 1t
is a vampire more to be feared than
the deadly sting of the rattlesnake. >
After summarizing present con-
ditions Mr.. Watson's remarks were,
in part, as follows:
"Let us look for a moment now
at the matter of the occupations in
which the negro is engaged. Two
thirds of the negro breadwinners
Of the country are engaged as ag-
ricultural laborers, farmers, plant
ers and overseers, and as plain,
general laborers. Between 1890
and 1900, however, those in agricu!-
ture increased only 59.4 per cenE,
while the whites engaged in the
same pursuit increased 43.5 per cent,
and constituted 42.1 per cent of all
the population engaged in agricultu-
raj pursuits. The occupations of ne
groes are those that make heavy
demands upon the muscular system,
such as laborers, sawmill and plan
ing-mill hands. There is a small
second class requiring little skill,
such as servants and walters. A
third distinct class Is that in which
the service is rendered by negroes
almost entirely to negroes; sc',uo.
teachers and preachers. The sup
ply of negro preachers in the South
exceeds the supply Of. the whites
and is steadily increasing. In the
South more than one minister in
three is negro.
The Competition.
Between 1890 and 1900 the num-
ber of negroes in such occupations
as draymen, hackmen and teansters,
in which callings there is no close
and constant supervision, materially
decreased, and so in such callings as
launderers, laundresses, railway en-
ployes, engineers and firemen; and
again is this true in regard to such
crafts as carpentering, blacksmith
ing, barbering, fishing, cigar maxi
ing, etc.
Surely these figures show even
a marked backward tendency on the
part of the race; that the negro
wherever he has had to meet COM
petition with the white race has lost
ground, and this has been more
marked since 1900.
"But let's bring the matter down
to our own State and see If the oc-
cupations the members Of the race
are following today give any indi-
cation whatsoever of the results that
so many thought would result from
the attemept to educate the race up
on academic lines, and If they do
not on the contrary prove the as
sertion that this attempt at acade"
mic education, the policy pursued by
our best thinking men in the hope
of making the negro a better citi-
zen, has been proving and S today
proving a farce, delusion AMI
snare, indeed I might call it crime
of itself. Let us see If its tendency
has not been ito unfit the negro
of the rising generation forever for
field work, honest and honorable
manual labor, without enabling him
to enter any of the occupations for
which it was supposed to ut him.
Let us see if this policy has not been
largely responsible for filling the
cities with vagrants, sent negro
youths of both sexes to distant places
where they can not get the oppor-
tunity to compete with the white
man, booming them to failure and
to become criminal and moral de-
generates. Remembering that the
negro youth who leaves the
academic college does not go back
to the farm in one case out of thous-
ands, and that in consequence the
figures as to the agricultural laborer
must be eliminated therefore from
the case, just listen to these figures,
and in them you will find proclaim
ed in clarion notes the colossal
failure and the immense damage to
the race that this magnificent scheme
of academic education has wrought
and see the damage not alone to
both races but to the welfare of the
commonwealth that it is doing. Re-
member that these youths crowd to
centres of population, increasing the
death rate of the race, increasing the
crime of the country and filling the
prisons, and the thinking men of
both races may we'll stop to consider
soberly and plainly the situation that
confronts them. With the tremen
dous load of academic education and
neck it is truly wonderful to me that
the negro has accomplished any,
thing at all; it is no wonder to me