Evening star., 1923-07-22
BY BEN MckELwAY.


vital economic factor in the
development of the south. have part
ed. There is nothing to indicate what
the mule is doing, but there are large,
numerous and imposing figures to
show what the negro is doing. He
has packed up his bag and is travel
ing moth, and the south is surveying
his departure with anything but its
traditional compoSure, while econo-
mists generally are awake to situa
ton unparalleled in the country's
history, one which presents its threat
eping as well as its promising as
poets.
Census reports for 1920 put the
town of Rising Fawn, Ga. on the map.
These reports showed that between
1910 and 1920 the center OF colored
population in the United States was
one and three quarter miles northeast
of Rising Fawn. and that in those
ten years this center had been moving
in a northeasterly direction for a
distance of nineteen and one-quarter
miles. 1t wasn't SO much the distance
moved in that time by this center of
population that set the experts think
Ing. 1t was the direction. For since
1890 the country's center OF colored
population has always moved steadily
southwest. The call of the northern
industries during the war years of
1913 brought approximately
900 negroes from the cities and
cotton fields of the south. The slack
year of 1927 saw about 100000 of
these immigrants t-'s 'og southwark
a.sain. - in. 90 rHa or so of their
brother g.. T.. ..; r in the industrial
center e. 80 IN and apparently
well ;. ,,ith their lot.
Last December saw the beginning,
and it was small beginning at that
time. of the greatest exodus of ma
tive-born population from one part of
the country to another in the ma.
tion's history. The exodus gathered
force like a rolling SNOWFALL, until
today. when this immi grafton of ne
groes to northern Industrial centers
is at its height. il is estimated that
since November 312. 900 colored work
ers have come out of the south to
settle north of the MaSon-Dixon line.
The movement was never greater in
volume than today. and the close of
summer is the only thing to stop it.
During the winter the country will
witness the results of this migration.
Returning. for a moment. to the
bereft mule. A visitor to Atlanta not
long ago was impressed with the fact
that the excavations for a new mil
lion-dollar office building in that city
were being dug with negro labor,
their mules. plowS and carts There
wasn't steam shovel in sight, The
absence of steam shovels was the
moral of his story. This visitor was
willing to wager that If the eXcava-
tions were going forward today there
would be fewer mules and negroes
and more steam shovels. For the
south must find substitutes. The
south has been hard hit. recent
statement from the Department of
Agriculture declared that a survey of
southern farming districts showed
marked movement of negroes from
the farms to the northern industrial
centers. According to this state
ment, $4,000 negro farm hands or la
borers have left Georgia within the
past twelve months, while Alabama
reported approximately az per cent
of the whole body of negro farm
workers have moved north since the
last crop season. Arkansas showed
a loss of about $4,000 negro farmers
14F
South Carolina since last fall. Com
menting on this migration from
South Carolina, the New York Jour-
nal of Commerce recently stated:
owing to the migration whites now
outnumber negroes in South Caro-
lima, a condition which has not ex-
isted before in the memory of the
living"
Ties Up Road Work.
An Associated Press dispatch from
North Carolina early this spring re-
ported that the migration of negroes
from North Carolina had been sc
heavy that the state highway COM
mission was forced to shut down
more than fifty highway construction
programs. Pages Of evidence could be
written along the same line to show
the south Is aroused to what it con-
siders an alarming condition, and ap-
peals have reached Washington, some
of them almost frantic, for suggested
remedies.
How explain this sudden rush from
the south, the traditional home of the
negro. to the north?
The Department of Agriculture,
which never loses an opportunity to
give the boil weevil another black
eye, suggests this miserable insect as
a. contributory cause: BOIL weevil
conditions last year, which made cot
ton growing improbable for num-
ber of negro farmers; unrest among
returning negro troops, who expert
enced more attractive living condi-
tions away from farms during and
after the war, and breakdown of the
contract labor system are given as
contributsry causes"
Both white and negro speakers at
p conference called in Mississippi to
bonsider the problem stressed other
than economic causes. The negroes
had lost confidence in the fairness Of
the white population, they said, and
they objected to the violation Of their
civic rights. One speaker is quoted as
saying: "The mass of the negro race
want to stay here, but they are not
going to do 1T under present con-
diffons."