Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-10-30
AFRO.AMER|CAN CU[uNCS

The majority Of Negroes Of Texas
are engaged In the occupation OF
farming. Most Of them are farming
because their fathers farmed before
khsm, they were raised ON the farm
and know little else, and reilly little
OF that. Their woeful ignorance OF
the science underlying agriculture, OF
recent discoveries, of the use OF MOD
ern machinery and the marketing OF
their crops Ia appalling. They do not
practice home economies because they
have not had the opportunity to learn
anything about the subject. So these
people 60 on from year to year doing
the work Of the farm in very mucn
the same way 1t was done a genera
ton ago. No particular effort mas
been made to reach these farmers
with modern agriculture and home
economics. The beauty, independence
and Importance of the farmers life
have never come to them. They only
know the drudgery and wretchedness
Of It all. Is it surprising that so
many are deserving the farms ana
seeking service in our cities? 10
those acquainted with conditions sur
rounding the average Negro farmer
and farmland it Is not surprising.
There are some conspicuous exam
pies of successful Negro farmers IN
Texas, but theirs are individual cases.
and most of these successes are due
to fortunate circumstances and not to
any particular effort to promote the
general efficiency of the Negro farm
ers as a class. Articles appearing IN
the papers from time to time, speak
ing OF Negro prosperity and citing
these conspicuous individual sue
cesses as examples Of what the
masses are doing are misleading and
really do the Negro farmers, less for
tunately situated, great harm, for
those in position to help him help him.
self conclude that the Negro farmer is
doing well enough. We are all glad
that a few individual Negro farmers
are succeeding, but at the same time
We are very much concerned about
that very large body of toilers of the
soil for whom the sun Of prosperity has
never risen.
Honest men everywhere will agree
that the only way to eradicate evils,
and to make living conditions better,
10 to tell the truth about them, awak-
en- sentiment, find a remedy and then
apply it. The purpose Of this letter is
to arouse the people of Texas to the
importance of making farm life more
attractive to the Negro farmer and
thus hold him on the farm, and to at
tract others back to this life from
congested conditions Of living in Ne
gro sections in our large cities, max.
ing Ill OF them useful citizens in their
communities and producers of not
only enough to supply their own needs
but producers of surplus which may
go a long way to increase our food
supply ard materially reduce the high
cost Of living.
Now somebody please rise and say:
1T can't be done-we've tried It," The
fact that 1t has never been tried in
Texas in earnest on a sufficiently
large scale and we'll organized effort
to result in much good. A few good
men of our state are doing the best
they can, for example: r. L. Smith
OF Colorado county and now Of Waco
has done more than any other single
individual for the uplift and improve
ment of Negro farmers through the
medium of his farmers organization,
the Farmers Improvement society.
and an agricultural college at Ladonia,
Tex, supported by this organization.
This society is self-supporting and de.
serves additional aid for its splendid
work. E. L. Blackshear of Prairie