The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-20
PRESS ON NEGRO MIGRATION

ARTIFICIAL and temporary one. The
North has offered higher wages than
the South because of the competition
for labor. This competition has been
due to the Capitalization of industry
in the North. In this connection,
therefore, those who study the ques-
ton in its wider aspects perceive that
before long, with the great trend Of
industry southwark, the Southern de-
mand for labor will rectify any pres
ent tendency to migrate. Indeed, 1t
would not be surprising if, within ten
years, the migration should be re-
reversed, and not only colored labor
but also white labor be travelling
South. The negro, therefore, will find
himself economically in much stronger
position by remaining where he is and
working himself into the growing de-
mand for labor in the South.
This, however, does not assist in the
solution of the Southern farm labor
problem, which has been rendered
more acute by the migration, for, re-
| maj NO CiiC cDiph lliDuHCs hCCOIQ-
ing to the report of government in
vestigation, $4,000 negro farm hands
have left Georgia for industrial CEN
ters of the North-thirteen per cent.
of the total number of negro hands
in that state. South Carolina has lost
22,700, or three per cent, and Florida
about two per cent. Alabama has lost
ten thousand, Arkansas fifteen thous-
and and Tennessee forty-five hundred.
All this has taken place within a year.
The effect upon the cotton crop alone
may be easily understood. DIR.
Motion, president of Tuskegee Insti-
tute, believes that conditions in the
South as regards the negro are so rap
idly improving that this migration will
soon cease"
AS to the serious depletion of farm
labor, the New Orleans Times
Picayune takes the hopeful view that
negro migration would probably OPP
crate to make easier the enlistment
of white settlers. We cannot ex-
pect to balance negro migration with
white migration in a single season or
a single year. But as the white colo
nists are settled here and there over
the South, upon terms that are fair
and under conditions favoring farm
success and community content, the
movement this way will, before very
long, begin to march under it's own
power" The Atlanta Journal like
wise believes that there is a south
ward movement of whites which more
of blacks, and says: more persons
than ever before have means to visit
this region when their northland is
locked by rigorous winter; and, once
having taste of cline where De-
cember is almost if not altogether as
pleasant as May, many become per-
manent residents" The Journal also
quotes Forbes Magazine to the effect
that experience has proved that it is
easier to attract workers to pleasant
chimes than to districts where extreme
heat and cold alternate. Not only so,
but the output per worker is greater
when climatic and living conditions are
favorable than where they are less
favorable" In the long run the South
has nothing to fear in this competition
for population, especially as industries
multiply and health conditions are
made superior to those elsewhere.
The Wall Street Journal looks at
the practical results of the migration
as affecting the cotton crop and VEN
lures the opinion: "This movement
of the colored people is not like the
spring migration of the birds that go
north for the summer, but is mostly
permanent change of habitation. A
continued colored migration inevitably
means a decreased cotton production
in the future while demand is on the
increase. Like the boil weevil, the ne
gro now is to be counted in the mar
ket as bullish factor" The Column
bia, S. c., State realizes the situation
and considers means of checking the
migration. The State concludes: "The
one way by which white people can
prevail upon the negroes to stay is
to give them something to stay for.
The time has passed that negroes are
helpless to get away. Northerners are
inviting and assisting them" The
State suggests two ways of stemming
the tide. The first is to attach them
to the soil by encouraging and assist
ing them to buy lands and establish
homes" The second method proposed
by the State "is for the whites to CO.
operate with and enlist the negro
leaders in trades and professions, in
endeavors to dissuade negroes from
leaving"
1t appears, however, that the real
solution of the labor problem caused
by negroes leaving Southern farms is
to encourage better methods of farm
ing. All will not leave the farms
ever, neither white nor black. But the
number per unit of titled land is
1 bound to be reduced and is being re-
duced. That being the case, the South
| ern farmer must take a leaf from the