Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-10-08
White Farm Communities
She uld Have Right of Self
Protection.

" tuC Iulloi. w LII JOu oC hluSi
enough to give me space-since the
Ideals 80 new. since it has excited
so much interest, and since so many
people are ignorant of my exact
purpose-to ex plain to your read
ers just what / propose by the poll
cy of race segree alton / have been
advocating for the rural South?
But to begin with, let me say a
word as to the imperative need for
some such remedy as i have been
urging. l knew when l began this
agitation that thousands and thou
sands of white farmers in all parts
of the South were being forced
from their homes for social reasons
by the growing number of negroes
around them las my own father
was), bu, l did not then know how
widespread are the evils resulting
from our present indiscriminate
sandwiching of white and negro
farmers.
Situation Demands Remedy.
The hundreds of earnest messages
from farmers, and even more ear
nest messages from farmers wives
and daughters, have opened my
eyes. A white farmer may have
bought land in what he expected to
remain forever white community,
may have built good home with
this expectation, ordering his VIII ole
life accordingly. And yet some
nonresident owning land adjoining
him may put any kind of negroes
on it, terrorizing the farmers wife
and daughters, destroying the social
life of the community, depreciating
the value of the farmers land, and
finally forcing him to move for
social reasons-leaving the negroes
to gobble up the farm for half its
real worth.
This is nota fancy picture but
literal report of what is actually
happening all over the Cotton Belt.
Almost every section of the South
feels the blighting effect of such
conditions. Worthy settlers refuse
to come, and farmers already in
community hesitate to build worthy
country homes, because they have
no assurance that they or their chill
dren will not be forced TO leave the
place in order to find plenty of
white neighbors.
A Simple Law Advocated.
If we are to save the rural South
to the white race, we must find some
remedy, and 1 have become con-
vinced that an aroused public senti-
ment is not enough. We must have
a statute which will enable any
white community that wishes to do
SO to take steps to insure its re-
naming white-a statute framed
not in spirit of injustice and per-
secution TO the negro, but in spirit
of justice and protection to the
white man.
Briefly, l propose a simple law
which will say that wherever the
greater part of the land acreage in
any given district that may be laid
off is owned by one race, a majori-
ty of the voters in such a district
may say (if they wish) that in future
no land shall be sold to a person of
a different race. Provided such &C
tion is approved or allowed las be-
ing justified by consideration of the
peace, protection, and social life of
the community, by a reviewing
Judge or board of county commits
sioners.
Itmay be argued, | know, that
such law is unjust because with
the government of the South as it
is, il could be utilized by white peo-
pie to keep their communities
white, but the negroes would rarely
or never be able to use it to make a
community wholly negro. All of
which | admit, and yet believe it
is just.
Not Unjust to the Negro.
believe it is Just because the
white man needs the social protec-
tion of such law and the negro
doesn't. If a majority of his neigh
bors are white, the negro doesn't
care. His land is made more val
liable by the predominance cf neigh
bors of different race; the chances
of selling it for its worth are bet
ter; his family are not uneasy or
unsafe; they don't mind running
off day or night to see neighbors
or kinfolk miles away; and his
money making facilities are better.
But with the white man surrounded
ootl,, +lo oon