Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-06-11
The Negro's Unfair Advantage
for Driving White People
Out.
Out.

GU q oil, CuC cdpduCoC
lem in California is not one-hun-
dredth part as serious as the negro
problem in the southland more
particularly in the rural south. And
| if it is serious in the rural south, it
is serious for the south as a whole,
for not only does the permanence
of any civilization depend in the
long run upon its rural stock, but
this fact is especially pertinent with
reference to the south, because it is
more largely agricultural than any
other section of America.
The writer is not an alarmist. On
the contrary, we have steadily dis
counted and discouraged all who
seek to stir up trouble between the
races h. the south. We do not
want trouble, and we must not have
trouble. Blu. the fact must not be
forgotten that the way to avoid se-
rious trouble is to face the facts as
they are, detect and watch the
symptoms of disease when they
appear, and apply the re' ly be-
fore it is too late.
The plain fact is that in thou
sands and thousands Of communi-
ties in the south, the negro farmers
are not only subjecting the white
farmers to more or less disastrous
economic composition by their low
er standards of living, but in many
sections the growing number of ne
groes is driving the white people
to the towns for social reasons.
When the white population in
community becomes too small or too
scattered, when the white farmers
wife and children find more negro
neighbors around them, a lremen-
dous motive is given for moving
awsy-and if the farmer moves
some negro will probably buy his
land at sacrifice because other
white farmers have the same feeling
and do not care to buy land in
predominantly negro community. y
Its this latter condition that
Sscalls some snecia 3 med ned This
/ Is wbefe The negro nassss fss!sg graaa..II 1 :
unfair advantages of the white man..
1t may be said that economically.
all the white man wants is "a fair
field and no favor" and that while
the negro is willing to work on
cornbread and fat meat, and is will
ing to live in shanty such as even
a japanese or Chinese would scorn,
yet the white man by reason of his
superior intelligence can always
compete with him successfully IN
the labor market.
But when it comes to the social
problem, the negro, as we have said,
has this tagrantly unfair advantage
for driving white people ont of the
farms and taking the rural south
for himself. The writer's father, for,
example, was himself in his last.
three years forced to leave the
farm ou which the writer grew up
and on which he and his ancestors
for three generations had farmed,
simply because the place became
surrounded by negros, and 30 pro-
vided neither satisfying social life
nor the neighborly attention of
white friends which he needed in
his age and sickness. And another
white family left the same place
last fall largely for the same reason.
There is your problem. We can
handle the problem of the negro's
industrial competition by Increasing
the knowledge and efficiency Of our
white people and by raising the ne
gro's own standards of living, but
the problem of keeping the negro
farmers from pushing white farmers
out of their ancestral con munitiCS
must be met in another way. And
in the writer's opinion, that way j.
by developing public sentiment
which will require the negroes t.
buy land in communities to them
selves, instead OF breaking up whit,
communili - by present system Of
lindiscrimn1tely sandwiching white
and negro farmers together. Pre-
gressive Farmer.