The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-03-10
THE NEGRO IN THE NORTH

the last ten years other states have
begun to have their negro problems
In that time the negro population in
many Southern States has decreased,
in others there has been but only a
small gain, while in several Northern
states the numbers of negroes have
rapidly increased. For instance from
1910 to 1920 in the state of Mis-
sissippi there was a decrease in the
negro population of 74,3o3, while in
the state of Pennsylvania there was
an increase of eO.649; in the
state of Tennessee there was
in that period a decrease of 21,33e,
while there was an increase in Ohio
of 74,735; in Kentucky there was a
decrease Of 26,118 while in New
York there was an increase of 64,-
292. There were corresponding in
treases in Illinois and and Indiana.
With, a negro population of more
than 5000, 900 in 1910, there was
an increase in the South in ten years
of only 113,419, or less than me
half of one per cent. During the
same period the number of negroes
in the Northern states increased from
one and a half millions to a little
more than two millions, a net increase
of 521,94s, or thirty-three per cent.
These figures Indicate that the
South is not always to be the home
Of the negro. The negro problem will
in a few years be as much a problem
for the North as for the South. A
great many negroes have gone to
Northern states for one cause and
another. There are other causes
which will take them there. The ne
gro has been the great cotton raiser
Of the South. AS long as cotton. grew
in spite of Indifferent cultivation, a
want of fertilizers, and from a mere
planting Of the seed, the negro was
a cotton producer. But unless we
mistake the times, the negro's days
on the cotton farms Of the South
have been numbered, that is as a
farmer on his own account. If, as we
are told, the time has come when cot
ton can be produced only by the
abortion of scientific methods, by
the proper preparation of the lands,
by intensive cultivation and proper
fertilization, all Of which means
twelve months of work on the farms
IN each year, then the negro may
not longer be depended on to make
cotton. Here and there a negro will
be found with enough industry to
succeed, but by far the larger per
cent. of the Southern negro popula-
ton desires to plant cotton about the
middle Of April, gather it in the fall,
live from the seed money during the
winter and plant again next April,
obtaining the means of subsistence
during the work months from the
stores. That day has passed.
It looks to us like the only way by
which negroes on the farm are. to
be worth anything is by employing
them for day laborers, or for month
~ or yearly laborers. In that way
they will work under the direction Of
men who may be able to farm and
know how to farm successfully,
Otherwise they are about to become
useless on the farms.
The negro likes to be Independent
as he sees independence. He like:
rather to be tri1ing. He wants tt
work when he feels like it, and te
loaf most of the time. For these rea'
sons he will not desire to stay
on the farms and worl
every day in the year. Thi'
means that the landowner will nc
longer want or need the negro OF
his farm, and the latter will ne
longer want to make his home or
the farm. We expect, therefore, tx
see nor and more of the negroe'
the next few years quitting the cot
ton farns of the South and settling
in ths Industrial centers of the North