The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-06-22
The Farm: The Negroes
Salvation,

In Sundays Journal G.. w. Lewis,
principal of the Pensacola Normal and
Industrial School for colored people,
made strong appeal to members Of
his race to go back to the farms--the
farms Of Escambia county. After
pointing out the advantages and pro-
ductiveness of Escambia soil, he sub
mitted the following pointed reasons
why the negro should forsake the
pavement for the burrows:
The death rate will be diminished.
They will be taken away from a lot
Of vice, immortality, which they are
not strong enough to Withstand.
1t will keep lots of them off the
.vagrsnt list.
1t will give them healthy employ
ment.
It will make conditions better for
the few who might remain.
They will be contributing to the
commonwealth.
It will reduce criminality 90 per
cent.
There Is a world of wealth on the
south from cotton than any other one
article.
Colored men, think of what you saw
at the Tri-County Fair last fall.
Last February we held a series of
meetings at the Normal and Industrial
School, the purpose of which was to
get before the colored people these
ideas.
Some time in July we propose to
hold another such meeting for the
same purpose, only on larger scale.
Several white speakers will speak
on this occasion.
Not in long time have we read
more truth in such few words from a
negro leader and teacher to the men
and women of his race. It Is not often
that the negro gets such straight talk
from one of his brothers.
Last year Hon. Harris Dickson Of
vicksburg, Mississippi, in a notable
contribution to one of the leading
magazines, discussing the great negro
questions, boldly stated that, as condi-
lions now are, the negro of the south
would himself solve the race question
by dying out and passing into history
as a race that was once physically
cSAoh6 aAo pO"CA1uls Juu6c
quoted from vital statistics in many
southern cities to show that idIensss,
crime and disease have put the ne
gro's death rate considerably higher
than that Of the white man, while his
birth rate is growing lower. This con-
dition ia due, primarily. 70 the causes
named. City and town life Is aftrac-
tive to the average negro, but the de-
mand for him there Is less; the temp
tation Of crime is greater. He is led,
partly by his own inclination, and
partly by environment, into idleness,
crap-shooting, drinking and other
forms Of vice. The Mississippi writer
an unfuestioned authority on the
race question-predicted that as a
consequence TO this deploFable state of
affairs the black man, within the
course Of few generations, will so
degenerate as to pass from the stage
like the Indian. unless the present con-
ditions are ameliorated.
Prior to the war between the states,
the southern plantation negro under
the enforced sanitation of the white
man was recognized as perhaps the
most powerful race of men of which
history makes mention. His body
then was not contaminated with all
manner Of diseases which today beset
too great a proportion of the race.
tuberculosis then, We are told. was
practically unknown to the negro.
Today It Is one of his greatest enemies,
the outcome of neglected sanitation
and unnatural living. We must charge
this evil to the great influx of the ne
gro from the farm to the towns and
cities. This quest of ease and idle
ness has transformed a giant into a
weakling. 1t has harmed him both
physically and morally-and the white
man in turn is made to feel his share
of the effects.
This being true-and it cannot be
successfully challenged-then the sal
walton and happiness of the negro
would seem to lie in his voluntary
change from a life that is impoverish-