The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-23

to pay their fare west Those people
are raised In poverty to work
Give such men a chance to buy an so
acre farm in the rich land of the black
belt and they will pay for il if they kill
themselves doing it. Clay county is full
of little farms of 49, so or 100 acres. which
have been paid for out of the proceeds
of the land. Besides this, the purchasers
made a living out of it while they We're
paying for 1t and afterward built taste
ful frame houses and bought good teams
and implements. Also in every neigh
borhood handsome churches and school
houses have replaced the old log build
ings.
Would it not be good policy to plant
colonies of such Anglo-Saxons in the
black belt? They would soon make a
white belt of it. That is the only prac-
tical solution of the negro problem In
this state. And if the people of Ala
bana and of the black belt especially
are wise they will do it, for the spread
of education among the negroes is going
to make great change before we are
all much older.
Sheer weight of numbers gives them
great advantage which no prudent
statesman ought to overlook. No one can
tell what political complications may
arise to bring on a worse state of things
than that same black belt has had to
"
no one to blame but itself when it gets
in the mire again if they refuse the only
practical remedy, namely. cutting up
those unwieldy plantations and selling
them to colonies of white men who will
do their own work and quietly oust the
negroes who are doing no good for them
selves or the state, yet occupy its richest
and best lands.
1t will do no good to bring down iso-
lated settlers. They will have no neigh
bors or company of their own race with
whom to associate. That has ben tried
time and again to my knowledge for over
% years. White people from Clay coun-
| ty going down to- the valley of Talla-
| dega invariably return the first fall dis
gusted. They had only niggers for neigh
bors and were in continual fear for the
safety of their women folks. They had
no churches or schools There was no
chance of buying little home. The
farms We're so big they could not hope
to own one The water was bad and it
did not pay them to dig new safe wells
on other peoples land Having been born
and raised in the highlands where malaria
is unknown, they got fever and ague OF
the worst kind.
fine young man who used to work
for me and whom l knew since he was
a kid came back from the valley a few
years ago. Himself and his wife and
TWO .chllufen We're SICK with -cn1llS and
faver / saw him at the depot and he
told me he would buy the highest up
farm in Clay county and sweat the ague
out of his system working for it rather
than live in such a country" and he has
done that very thing since. Such young
couple as that would have been val
liable acquisition to any country.
Had a colony of, say. 20 such families
gone to where that young man was and
divided up the unwieldy 2000-acre tract
he farmed into small farms, they would
be protection and neighbors for each
other They could have their own schools
and churches and the land being their
own they could havesnew safe wells and
by screening out mosquitoes and staying
indoors in sultry weather at night they
could live in health and work. They
would build homes and plant orchards
and surround themselves with the COM
forts of life as they do here in their ma
tive county and have the advantage of
far richer and smoother land to till than
the poor soil this rugged county af-
fords. Respectfully.
JOSHUA FRANKLIN.
Pyriton, Clay county, September %