Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-08-12

agree with me. We cannot blind
ourselves, you say, to the fact tnat
the negro mas nowhere built up
genuine civilization or made any i'm
porLanl contribution to one. There
mas not, however, been such general
recognition OF q fact which think
follows as the night the day, namely,
lnat the more largely predominant is
the white element in the makeup OF
the population, the greater the per-
centage OF whites we have In our
population, the higher the type or the
civilization we may hope to develop.
There are q Thousand things TO
which you need TO give attention In
south carolina, as we do In North
Carolina, but there Is nothing else
half so much worth your attention as
increasing the percentage or your
iwnlle popuIation. In ~ years, II the
record of the last decade Is maintain
ed, you will have over half your pop
ulatlon white, but this should not
satisfy you. Before that time, more
than two-thirds OF your population
ought to be white-even IL you have
10 spend Sl0,OUU,O00 advertising your
resources and inviting thrifty north
ern and western white farmers TO
come down into what should be one
or Americas richest white common
wealths.
yet instead Of increasing the pro-
portion or acreage farmed by white
farmers, we md that in a single dec
ade the white farm acreage in North
lCarolina decreasing over 50O,0O0
acres, and In south Carolina over
500, 900, while in North Carolina the
negroes in the same period increased
tneir acreage over 100000 acres and
the South Carolina negroes about
II5U,0OO-in each case the negro farm
acreage gaining on the white farm
acreage at the rate Of over 100000
acres decade. And in our whole
rich south Atlantic territory terri
tory vast enough and with natural re-
sources, rich enough to make IT
white mans empire-the white farm
acreage decreased practically 3 per
cent, while the negro farm acreage
increased l3 per cent.
In the face, therefore, OF the fact
that negroes are not only in q ma
IJorlty in South Carolina, but gaining
I'm farm acreage at the rate Of nearly
i a million acres q decade, Ii Is doubly
Important Tor US TO get more white
settlers from the north and west and
iron England, Scotland and Ireland,
Ii we can.
i Another policy that I regard az
IabsoluteIy necessary both to retain ouI
present white rural population and to
provide conditions suitable for invit-
ling further white immigration Is
that or segregating the races In our
lrural districts. Throughout the south
thousands OF white farmers are being
driven from their homes by the
Igrowing number Of negro farm
ers around them and the consequent
lack Of adequate white social life
We must develop a public sentiment
which will require negroes to buy
land and group themselves in COM
munities to themselves by indis-
criminaIely sandwiching white and
negro farmers together.
Il advocate this policy, too, moi
only as vital to the welfare Of our
white people, but for the good OF
both races. For example, so negro
families and SO white families to-
gether in district can have only
half as good schools for either race
as they could have IL all the hundred
1amines were of one race! and with
regard to churches, Libraries, CO.
Operative societies, social meetings
and nearly all other agencies OF vita
civilization, the same thing is true.
A Fact to Face.
"The big fact we have to face 1:
that in thousands and thousands OF
communities in the south, the negro
farmers are not only subjecting the
white farmers to the more or less dis
astrous economic competition BY
their lower standards Of living, but ir
many sections the growing number OF
negroes Is driving the white people
to the towns for social reasons. Wher
the white population in community
becomes too small or too scattered
when the white farmers wife and
children find more negro neighbor.
than white neighbors around them
: a tremendous motive Is given for NOV.
ing away-and II the farmer move.
, some negro will probably buy his
land at a sacrifice because other white
, farmers have the same feeling ant
! do not care to buy land in a pre-
, dominantly negro community. Sucf
! Is the negro's f1agrantly unfair adyan'
tage for driving white people Off the
,, farms and taking the rural south fol
! himself.
Something must irde I'd be done
about this situation. / am not in ia
vor of doing any injustice to tht
negro, but l am in favor Of givint
justice to the struggling white farm
: er whose ancestors wrought out oul
civilization and who should hav'
: from the blighting injustice inheren
, in present conditions. Men are no
, mere beasts. They do not exist mere
.. ly to eat and drink and pile up GER
!. tain heaps of material things called
, ,, property. Their most sacred treas
ure is their home life and their so
, cial life; and 1t Is the height Of foil.
. .. therefore, to say that southern white
farmers have a right to protect thei
barns and houses and lands but hav'
no right to protect their higher treas
ures, their home life and social life
? their civilization.
II believe we can develop a publi
4 sentiment which will itself go far to
ward compelling negroes in the coun
|, try to buy land to themselves as i
! , already the policy in the towns; bu
! some further legislation may also b.
: necessary. The city Of Atlanta ha
l just passed a law saying that a ma
5 jority Of the property owners in cit.
block can say that in future no LAM
in that block shall be sold to a per
son Of q different race from them
{ Why, then, cannot Georgia or Soutl
, Carolina or any other state pass Law
1 giving a similar privilege to its coun
try people! why can IL not De Sdl'
that where there is a white communi
, ty and the majoriy Of the residen
white land owners wish to keep thei
I I community white, they can lay off
district in which it will be unlawful
4 to sell to a person Of different race
y And since the same privilege woul'
be given negroes, where they own tn
land, the law could not be said t
discriminate against any race, an
. the whites would lose little becaus
. . they do not care to buy in communi
ties wholly surrounded by negroe
anyhow. OF course, too, the lay
. would not be retroactive in eithe
: case-it would apply only to furthe
d sales-and white owners in blacl
d districts could continue to rent lam
or could sell 1t to negroes.
o Why Segregation
"a few of my many reasons for ia
{ voring segregation-and not merel
. for favoring it passively but for pro
3 foundly believing in it as the only wa
. now in sight out Of perilous situa
tion-may be given as follows:
Because it is necessary to give ou
white farmers and their families