The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-06-19

Pacific Coast race prOblem-a Col
lier's Weekly article on Japan in
California written by P. F. Mac
farlane.
1t is notable in the first place, how
this writer points out tie same iden-
teal evils resulting from Japanese
buying farms in white California
communities which we pointed out as
resulting from Negroes buying farms
in white Southern communities-and
it is notable in the second place that
this great Northern periodical is
measurably excited about this mat
ter-it would probably never for a
thousand years have thought about
beWailing the tragic fact that it's
white brethren and sisters in the
South are wrestling with hundred
fold greater problem in developing
and saving their civilization than are
the white Californians. That is the
tragedy of our situation. There are
oceans of fearful sympathy for the
Negro, but little concern for the
white man who has suffered more
from the Negroes presence in the
South than the Negro himself has
ever done.
But now let us see on what ground
Ou4 81 ANOl Gl1S1A COACCuIpO1 oil
justifies the action of California in
saying, virtually, that only white men
shall own land in that State. The
reason it gives is a social reason:
When the Japanese farmers move
in numbers into a community, the
white farmers, for social reasons,
that is to say, in order to have an
adequate white society of Their own,
are forced to move out. And it adds
that wherever this happens, the white
man must really sell his land at
sacrifice because so few white men
are willing to move into a part-white
community.
Take the matter of cooperation,
for example. Is it not almost impos-
sible to have thoroughly satisfac-
tory ana harmonious cooperative en-
terprise of mixed Negroes and
whites? Taken as a general propo-
sition, in fact, we believe it is per-
fectly safe to say that if your settle
ment is half Negro, your chances for
cooperation are also. cut fully in half
If not more. Of course, part of
the Negroes may go into your CO.
operative enterprises, but in any
case, only a part, and because of hav-
ing half your neighbors Negroes, you
will be ABSOLUTELY unable to start at
all with many cooperative enterpri-
ses you might make an abundant sue
cess if your neighborhood were all
white, For example, if fifty Negroes
and fifty white farmers are living in
your school district, you may find it
impossible to start & cooperative
poultry society (such as every far
mer should have read ABOUT in last
weeks Progressive Farmer), Or CO.
operative creamery, or cooperative
store, or a cooperative warehouse,
or cooperative credit society, or a
farm women's club; perhaps impos-
Sible even to have a good graded,
two-teacher school for your children
whereas if the fifty Negroes should
move to a Negro district and fifty
white farmers take their places, Civ
ing you one hundred white farmers
in your school district instead of fif-
ty, you might with your double white
population get all these things, to-
gether with a richer social life and
a more joyous neighborhOOd spirit
than you have ever known. Here is
where white immigration from the
North and West would also help us
immeasurably by reducing our pres
ent excessive proportion of Negroes.
u
Our white farmers have to COM
noto with tho ond Inno