The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-06-28
HOW TO BUILD UP
THE CAROLINAS.
Extracts From Address of Clarence
Poe Before the South Carolina
Press Association.


Both Carolinas need and must have
larger proportion of white peop.e.
The whole South, in fact, is still TOO
sparselv settled Our eleven South
ern States, excluding Texas, support
only 16,000,OO0 people of both races,
and only 100000 white people,
while the same area in Europe sup
ports over 16O,000,OO0 white people.
And it must be remembered that up
; to a certain point which We shall not
reach for centuries yet, and other
things being equal, prosperity de-
pends upon density of population.
Population makes wealth, provided
that it is normally intelligent and ef-
fcient. '>~--s
The Sort of Immigrants We Need.
| Of course, We do not want the
lower-class European immigration.
If we can get immigration from Eng
land, Scotland, Ireland, Germa11
Holland, Sweden, etc.-the countries
whose blood. has gone to make up our
vigorous American stock-it would
be Of great help to us. We are all Of
US such immigrants ourselves or de-
scendants of such immigrants. From
some countries of Southern and East
ern Europe, on the other hand, immi-
cation is of decidedly lower order
and Objectionable because Of a low
standard of intelligence and eff
cheney.
ever, immigration of a normal or
high standard of intelligence and ef-
fciency is desirable. Such immigra-
ton can be had, and ought to be had
in some measure perhaps from. our
English, Scotch, Dutch, and Irish
kinsfolk across the sea-but chief
ly from our Northern and Western
States. For years now hundreds OF
thousands of the most enterprising
and progressive farmers in the Mid
die West have been going into Can
ada with its long hard winters and
bitter climate, not only giving up
American citizenship, but actually
paving two to three times as much
for land in that inhospitable region
as land of the same fertility COM
mands in the South. We ought to
have brought these men to the South.
They know our institutions, our Ian
guage, they are Industrious, thrifty,
wide-awake. and many of them are
of Southern ancestry who should ma
turally come back home Let's bring
them back.
Immigration to Solve the Race Prob
lem.
If there were no other reason for
advocating such immigration from
/ the North and West, I should favor
it as our surest deliverance from our
race problem. The proportion of ne
groes to whites is too large in every
Southern State, and my hope is that
ultimately the tides of migration and
immigration will equalize popoulai-
tion until the proportion of negroes
in no State will exceed 20 per cent.
We must train the negro-the more
! ignorant he is the greater the burden
on the South-but at best the process
will be slow, and at present it would
probably not be too much to say that
in considering our whole population,
| including our great constructive
leaders and captains of industry, the
average negro in the Carolinas in
economic worth and efficiency is only
half as useful as the average white
man. In other words, in rating gen.
era1 average Of efficiency we should
put the white man at 100 and the
negro at SO, so that county half
white and half negro would have an
average efficiency of Is or a handicap
! of 25 per cent. as compared with
county with an exclusive white popu-
lation of a normal degree of eff
cheney.
Whether or not the difference is as
much as 1 have indicated, certain it
is that the larger the proportion Of
whites, the higher the average of ef-
fciency, the more prosperous will be
our every industry, and the better it
will be for every individual citizen,
including the negroes themselves.
Two Ways to Build Up the Carolinas.
There are just two great ways to
build up the Carolinas. First and of
paramount Importance is education