The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-05-27
The South Carolina Problem.

VIC ihiol ihdlloil tllaI during the last
live years young negroes, between the
ages of twenty and thirty years, have
acquired fifty houses in the town of
Bennettsville
When a man shows tax receipts for
the preceding year for taxes paid on
property assessed at $500 or more he
can obtain a registration certificate
whether or not he can read and write.
According to the census of 1910,
the average farm owned by negro in
South Carolina contains 4O.7 acres
and Is of the value Of $1,0S5. There
are 20,372 Of these farms Of negroes
in the State.
When the negro is thrifty and IN
dustrious he is more likely to become
property holder than is the white
man similarly situated, for the reason
that his tastes are simpler, he is sat
iSfied with coarser food and poorer
house and he can save more out of his
earnings.
The report OF our state superinten-
great white counties of South Caro-
lima, Spartanburg, Horny, Pickens,
Anderson, Oconee and Greenville, the
habit Of sending white children to
school is less general than In other
counties. In many OF the counties
having heavy negro majoritics, on the
other hand, negro chool attendance
Is general.
Business Is no respecter OF color
When negro becomes an indepcn-
dent landowner, he doesn't lack
friends. The merchant wants his Gus
tom so does the horse and mule
dealer, the wagon seller. the banker
the lawyer, the newspaper publisher
and every business man. That Is what
Booker Washington knows and that
Is what he breaches; that is what a
thousand negro teachers and preach
ers are dining into negro ears in
South Carolina every day and every
night.
There is no present danger OF negro
influence in South Carolina politics
and we can foresee no future menace
Of negro domination" but In 1939
| twenty-five years hence, If there shall
be fifty thousand negroes owning
homes and farms in South Carolina,
who can say that they will not seek
to vote?
The white people OF South Carolina
do not perceive the real situation.
Their political leaders won't let them
see 1t. They refuse to recognize that
white farmers owned fewer acres in
1910 than in 1900 while negro farm
ers owned more. The number of ne
gro farm owners Is now almost half
the number Of white farm owners.
The great. staring fact and problem
In South Carolina is the number OF
landless white men. There are 35 900
white farm tenants and only $4,000
white farm owners. Twenty-Five
thousand white men, living in the
houses owned by corporations. are
working In the cotton mills. Twenty
five or thirty thousand other white
wage carners live in rented houses in
towns and cities. More than half the
whole number Of white men in South
Carolina have only their hands and
their wages.
The illiterate and the propertyless
white man can vote in the primary,
the real election, and SO he Is denied
the incentive to get land and learning.
The negro must get one or the other
to get the ballot and he Is getting
both.
The State OF South Carolina, con-
soiously or unconsciously, Is working
overtime to keep the poor white man
poor and in darkness while 1t Is fore
ing and driving and goading the negro
to come out OF darkness.--Th State.
Most Prompt md Efiectual Cure for
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When YOU have bad cold you want
. remodv 'hnt w'll not only give re-
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to-, A., ,,t,F.l otnt, ro,,n