The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-06-04
The Chances of the Landlcss Man.

The Chances OF the LandlcSS Man.
The advice Professor Massey gave
the negro students at Hampton Insti-
tute-to get land and improve it, is
advice that they are getting from ev-
cry quarter. 1t is advice that the ne
groes are taking, too; and it is ad-
vice that the landless white men of
the South must take if they would
| maintain their economic independ-
ence and their social superiority. Pro-
vided only the population of negroes
in any community does not become
large enough 20 check the growth of
an adequate white population, we be-
lieve it is we'll for the South that the
worthy negroes on the farms should
acquire homes of their own, should
have the added stability and the in
creased incentive to thrift and indus
try that the ownership of land will
give them; but it is as inevitable as
fate that if any large proportion of
the negroes acquire land, build homes
and thus become in a marked degree
financially independent, profting by
every movement that makes for the
country's development, and sharing
In the natural increase in the value
of all land, that these negroes will
advance faster, attain to a higher
standard of living and acquire more
influence. hoth politically ana imam
cialy, thoD viii the white men who
remain mere renters, who have 10
home except by some other man. s.
permission, anu 10 whom the increase
that comes in the price of life's ne
cessities, as the result of the increase
IN land values, will mean only hard
er times. Wages are likely to increase
In the South, but they are not likely
to increase as fast as land values. So
it is going to be harder each year, as
President Branson says for the man
who must work for wages to get land.
And the white wage-earner is bound
to gradually become of less impor-
tance in the affairs of his community
and of his State than the negro land
owner to whose wealth the very la
bors Of these tenants will add.
1t helps the South to have the ne
groes prosperous, but it is necessary
for the prosperity of both white and
black that we have for the bulk OF
our rural population thrifty white
| farmers who own their own homes
We cannot believe that the landless
white men of the South will sit still
and neglect the opportunity now
theirs to get homes of their own, thus
putting themselves forever in the class
of men-men economically as we'll
| as politically free. The great estates,
| the big plantations, half farmed, rent
| ed out to tenants whose only care is
to get as much out Of the land as pos
sible without regard to how much
| damage their slipshod methods may
do, are going to be broken up. AS
these estates are broken up they
should be bought by the men who
are now tenants on them, and by am
hitious and progressive Western i'm
migrants who will not only enrich the
| South by their prosperity, but will
also help greatly by poularizing stock
raising and better methods or farm
| ing.
There are few tenant farmers SO
acres, at least, of land; and once own
! ing a tract of soil, if a man starts to
work to improve and bcautiGy il to
make it more fertile and more home
like, he will soon find it adding to his
| income and to his standing and in
llucnce in a hundred ways of which
be had never dreamed.
There is dignity in the very fact of
possessing a freehold, and while the
man who ncglccts his land or mis-
treats ii may be written down in na-
! lures eternal book Of justice as one
reor ant T. the trust confdcd to him.
! the man who takes even the humhlcst
h"mrSpot and loves it and cares for
it and makes it place of refuge ana
a source of comfort to those depend
ent upon him. not only shares in the
/ reward of those who put their talents
to work and thus gain others also,
but also earn the gratitude of all who