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diff --git a/13107-8.txt b/13107-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6af382 --- /dev/null +++ b/13107-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5828 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New South, by Holland Thompson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The New South + A Chronicle Of Social And Industrial Evolution + +Author: Holland Thompson + +Release Date: August 3, 2004 [EBook #13107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW SOUTH *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE NEW SOUTH + + +A CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION + +BY HOLLAND THOMPSON + +1919 + + +[Illustration] + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE BACKGROUND + +II. THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE + +III. THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN + +IV. THE FARMER AND THE LAND + +V. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT + +VI. LABOR CONDITIONS + +VII. THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE + +VIII. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS + +IX. THE SOUTH OF TODAY + +THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +INDEX + + + + +THE NEW SOUTH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BACKGROUND + + +The South of today is not the South of 1860 or even of 1865. There is a +New South, though not perhaps in the sense usually understood, for no +expression has been more often misused in superficial discussion. Men +have written as if the phrase indicated a new land and a new +civilization, utterly unlike anything that had existed before and +involving a sharp break with the history and the traditions of the past. +Nothing could be more untrue. Peoples do not in one generation or in two +rid themselves entirely of characteristics which have been developing +for centuries. + +There is a New South, but it is a logical development from the Old +South. The civilization of the South today has not been imposed from +without but has been an evolution from within, though influenced by the +policy of the National Government. The Civil War changed the whole +organization of Southern society, it is true, but it did not modify its +essential attributes, to quote the ablest of the carpetbaggers, Albion +W. Tourgée. Reconstruction strengthened existing prejudices and created +new bitterness, but the attempt failed to make of South Carolina another +Massachusetts. The people resisted stubbornly, desperately, and in the +end successfully, every attempt to impose upon them alien institutions. + +The story of Reconstruction has been told elsewhere.[1] A combination of +two ideas--high-minded altruism and a vindictive desire to humiliate a +proud people for partisan advantage--wrought mischief which has not been +repaired in nearly half a century. It is to be doubted, however, whether +Reconstruction actually changed in any essential point the beliefs of +the South. Left to itself, the South would not, after the War, have +given the vote to the negro. When left to itself still later, it took +the ballot away. The South would not normally have accepted the negro as +a social equal. The attempt to force the barrier between the races by +legislation with the aid of bayonets failed. Without the taste of power +during the Reconstruction period, the black South would not have +demanded so much and the determination of the white South to dominate +would not perhaps have been expressed so bitterly; but in any case the +white South would have dominated. + +[Footnote 1: See _The Sequel of Appomattox_, by Walter Lynwood Fleming +(in _The Chronicles of America_).] + +Economic and industrial development was hindered by Reconstruction. Men +of vision had seen before the War that the South must become more nearly +self-sufficient; and the results of the conflict had emphasized this +idea. The South believed, and believes yet, that it was defeated by the +blockade and not by military force. According to this theory, the North +won because the South could not manufacture goods for its needs, because +it did not possess ships to bring in goods from abroad, and because it +could not build a navy to defend its ports. Today it is clear that the +South never had a chance to win, so long as the will to conquer was firm +in the North. As soon as the War was over, the demand for greater +industrial development made itself felt and gained in strength when +Reconstruction came; but during that period the people had to devote all +their energies to living day by day, hoping for strength to endure. +When property was being confiscated under the forms of law, only to be +squandered by irresponsible legislators, there was little incentive to +remake the industrial system, and the ventures of the Reconstruction +government into industrial affairs were not encouraging. Farm property +in the South--and little was left except farm property after the +War--depreciated in value enormously in the decade following 1860. +Grimly, sullenly, the white man of the South fought again to secure +domination, this time, however, of his own section only and not of the +nation. When this had been achieved, a large portion of the population +was overcome by that deadly apathy so often remarked by travelers who +ventured to visit the land as they would have visited Africa. The white +South wished only to be let alone. + +During this apathetic period there was some talk of the natural +resources of the South; but there was little attempt on the part of +Southerners to utilize these resources. There was talk of interesting +foreign capital, but little effective work was done to secure such +capital. Many men feared the new problems which such development might +bring in its train, while others, more numerous, were merely +indifferent or lukewarm. Many of those who vaguely wished for a change +did not know how to set about realizing their desires. The few men who +really worked to stimulate a quicker economic life about 1880 had a +thankless and apparently a hopeless task. + +Yet one must be careful not to write of the South as if it were a single +country, inhabited by a homogeneous people. Historians and publicists +have spoken, and continue to speak, of "Southern opinion" and of the +"Southern attitude" as if these could be definitely weighed and +measured. No one who really knows the whole South could be guilty of +such a mistake. The first difficulty is to determine the limits of the +South. The census classification of States is open to objection. +Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia are included in the South, and so +is Kentucky. Missouri is excluded, but a place is made for the new State +of Oklahoma. As to Delaware and Maryland, there may be a difference of +opinion, though it is difficult to justify the inclusion of the former. +West Virginia is certainly not Southern, socially, politically, or +economically. Kentucky is doubtful, and it is difficult to see why +Missouri should be excluded from any list which includes Kentucky. +Oklahoma is difficult to classify. But, at any rate the South is a +large country, with a great variety of soil, climate, and population. As +the crow flies, the distance from Richmond to Memphis, in an adjoining +State, is greater than from Richmond to Bangor, Maine. From Richmond to +Galveston is farther than from Richmond to Omaha or Duluth. Atlanta is +usually considered to be far down in the South, and yet the distance +from Atlanta to Boston or Minneapolis is less than to El Paso. Again, +New Orleans is nearer to Cincinnati than to Raleigh. + +There were, moreover, many racial strains in the South. The Scotch-Irish +of the Piedmont in the Carolinas had, and have yet, little in common +with the French of Louisiana. The lowlander of South Carolina and the +hill men of Arkansas differed in more than economic condition. Even in +the same State, different sections were not in entire accord. In +Virginia and the Carolinas, for example, economic conditions and +traditions--and traditions are yet a power in the South--differed +greatly in different sections. + +As the years passed, apathy began to disappear in some parts of the +South. Wiser men recognized that the old had gone never to return. Men +began to face the inevitable. Instead of brooding upon their +grievances, they adjusted themselves, more or less successfully, to the +new economic and social order, and by acting in harmony with it found +that progress was not so impossible as they had supposed. White planters +found that the net returns from their farms on which they themselves had +labored were greater than when a larger force of negroes had been +employed; shrewd men began to put their scanty savings together to take +advantage of convenient water power. Securing the bare necessities of +life was no longer a difficult problem for every one. Men began to find +pleasure in activity rather than in mere passivity or obstruction. + +Somehow, somewhere, sometime, a new hopefulness was born and this new +spirit--evidence of new life--became embodied in "the New South." The +expression is said to have been used first by General Adam Badeau when +stationed in South Carolina, but the New South of which he spoke was not +the New South as it is understood today. Many others have used the term +loosely to signify any change in economic or social conditions which +they had discovered. The first man to use the expression in a way which +sent it vibrating through the whole nation was Henry W. Grady, the +gifted editor of the _Atlanta Constitution_. In a speech made in 1886 +by invitation of the New England Society of New York City, he took for +his theme "the New South" and delivered an oration which, judged by its +effects, had some of the marks of greatness. "The South," he said, "has +nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle +between the States was war and not rebellion, revolution and not +conspiracy." He went on, however, to express the feeling that the +outcome had been for the best, and painted a picture of the new spirit +of the South, a trifle enthusiastic perhaps, but still recognizable. + +Today a New South may be said to be everywhere apparent. The Old South +still exists in nooks and corners of many States, it is true: there are +communities, counties, groups of counties, which cling to the old ideas. +In the hearts of thousands of men and women the Old South is enshrined, +and there is no room for the new; but the South as a whole is a New +South, marked by a spirit of hopefulness, a belief in the future, and a +desire to take a fuller part in the life of the nation. To trace the +development of the new spirit and to discuss its manifestations is the +purpose of this book. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE + + +As the year 1877 was beginning, the carpetbag governments in nine of the +Southern States had been already overthrown. In two other States were +two sets of officers, one of which represented the great mass of the +whites while the other was based upon negro suffrage and was supported +by Federal bayonets. Both sides seemed determined, and trouble was +expected. The Republican contestants in Florida had already yielded to a +decision of the Supreme Court of the State, but in South Carolina and +Louisiana the Republican claimants held on until the orders to withdraw +the troops were given in April, 1877. The withdrawal of the troops +marked the definite end of Reconstruction. The Democratic claimants then +took undisputed possession of the executive and legislative departments +of these States. The native whites were again in entire charge of all +the States which had seceded. They now had the task of rebuilding the +commonwealths shattered by war and by the aftermath of war. A new era +for the South had dawned, and here properly begins the history of the +New South. + +The first and most important problem, as the white South saw it, was the +maintenance of white supremacy which had been gained with so much +difficulty. In only three States--South Carolina, Mississippi, and +Louisiana--were there negro majorities. Obviously, if the whites could +be induced or coerced to stand together, they could continue to control +the governments in eight of the seceding States. The negro population, +however, was not distributed uniformly over any of these States, so +that, no matter how great the white preponderance in the State as a +whole, there were counties or other civil divisions where negroes were +in the majority. This meant that the issue of white supremacy was +present in every State, for the negro majorities in such counties could +elect the local officers and control the local governments. + +To attain a political consolidation of the white population all other +issues must be subordinated. Differences of opinion and judgment must be +held in abeyance. No question upon which white men might seriously +disagree must be placed in the party platform, if any way to avoid such +insertion could be found. If by any chance the majority adopted a course +obnoxious to the minority, the decision must be accepted loyally if not +cheerfully, and the full white vote must be cast. Objection to a +candidate or measure must not be expressed at the ballot box. Personal +ambition must be restrained, and weakness and even unfitness in a +candidate must be overlooked for the sake of white solidarity. + +The task of creating a permanently solid South was not easy. The +Southerner had always been an individualist, freely exercising his right +to vote independently, engaging in sharp political contests before 1861, +and even during the War. The Confederate Congress wrangled impotently +while Grant was thundering at the gates of Richmond. So strong was the +memory of past differences, that old party designations were avoided. +The political organization to which allegiance was demanded was +generally called the Conservative party, and the Republican party was +universally called the Radical party. The term Conservative was adopted +partly as a contrast, partly because the peace party had been so called +during the War, and especially because the name Democrat was obnoxious +to so many old Whigs. It was not until 1906 that the term Conservative +was officially dropped from the title of the dominant party in Alabama. + +It is not surprising that men continued to turn for leadership to those +who had led in battle and, to a less extent, to those who had taken part +in the civil government of the Confederacy. But for the humiliations of +Reconstruction, some of these men might have been discredited, but the +bitter experiences of those years had restored them to popular favor. As +the Federal soldier marched out of the public buildings everywhere, the +Confederate soldier marched in. These men had led in the contest against +the scalawags and the carpetbaggers and many had suffered thereby. Now +they came into their own. In some States the organization of voters was +almost military. + +During the first years after the downfall of the Reconstruction +governments the task of consolidating the white South was measurably +achieved. As some one flippantly put the case, there came to be in many +sections "two kinds of people--Democrats and negroes." It was the +general feeling on the part of the whites that to fail to vote was +shameful, to scratch a ticket was a crime, and to attempt to organize +the negroes was treason to one's race. The "Confederate brigadier" +sounded the rallying cry at every election, and a military record came +to be almost a requisite for political preferment. Men's eyes were +turned to the past, and on every stump were recounted again and again +the horrors of Reconstruction and the valiant deeds of the Confederate +soldiers. What a candidate had done in the past in another field seemed +more important even than his actual qualifications for the office to +which he aspired. A study of the _Congressional Record_ or of lists of +state officers proves the truth of this statement. In 1882, fourteen of +the twenty-two United States Senators from the seceding States had +military records and three had been civil officers of the Confederacy. +Several States had solid delegations of ex-Confederate soldiers in both +houses. When one reads the proceedings of Congress, he finds the names +of Vance and Ransom, Hampton and Butler, Gordon and Wheeler, Harris and +Bate, Cockrell and Vest, Walthall and Colquitt, Morgan and Gibson, and +dozens of other Confederate officers. + +The process of unifying the white South was not universally successful, +however. Here and there were Republican islands in a Democratic or +Conservative sea. The largest and most important exception was the +Appalachian South, divided among eight different States. It is a large +region, to this day thinly populated and lacking in means of +communication with the outside world. Though it has some bustling +cities, thriving towns, and prosperous communities, the Appalachian +South today is predominantly rural. In the 216 counties in this region +or its foothills, there were in 1910 only 43 towns with more than 2500 +inhabitants. + +This Appalachian region had been settled by emigrants from the lowlands. +Some of them were of the thriftless sort who were forced from the better +lands in the East by the inexorable working of economic law. By far the +greater part, however, were of the same stock as the restless pioneers +who poured over the mountains to flood the Mississippi Valley. Students +of the mountain people maintain that so small an accident as the +breaking of a linchpin fixed one family forever in a mountain cove, +while relatives went on to become the builders of new States in the +interior. Cut off from the world in these mountains, there have been +preserved to this day many of the idioms, folksongs, superstitions, +manners, customs, and habits of mind of Stuart England, as they were +brought over by the early colonists. The steep farms afforded a scanty +living, and though the cattle found luscious pasturage during the +summer, they were half starved during the winter. If by chance the +mountaineers had a surplus of any product, there was no one to whom they +might sell it. They lived almost without the convenience of coinage as a +means of exchange. Naturally in such a society there was no place for +slaves, and to this day negroes are not welcome in many mountain +counties. But though these mountain people have missed contact with the +outside world and have been deprived of the stimulus of new ideas, they +seldom give evidence of anything that can fairly be classed as +degeneracy. Ignorance, illiteracy, and suspended or arrested development +the traveler of today will find among them, and actions which will shock +his present-day standards; but these same actions would hardly have +shocked his own father's great-grandfather. These isolated mountaineers +have been aptly called "our contemporary ancestors." + +The same people, it is true, had poured out of their cabins to meet +Ferguson at King's Mountain; they had followed Jackson to New Orleans +and to Florida and they had felt the influence of the wave of +nationalism which swept the country after the War of 1812. But back to +their mountains they had gone, and the great current of national +progress swept by them. The movement toward sectionalism, which +developed after the Missouri Compromise, had left them cold. So the +mountaineers held to the Union. They did not volunteer freely for the +Confederacy, and they resisted conscription. How many were enlisted in +the Union armies it is difficult to discover, certainly over 100,000. It +is not surprising, therefore, that these people became Republicans and +have so continued in their allegiance. + +Another element in the population having great influence in the +South--in North Carolina, at least--was the Society of Friends. It was +strong in both the central and the eastern sections. Many, but by no +means all, of the Quakers opposed the Civil War and, after peace came, +opposed the men who had been prominent in the War, that is, the dominant +party. In spite of the social stigma attaching to Republicanism, many of +the Quakers have persisted in their membership in that party to the +present day. In all the seceding States there was a Union element in +1861, and, while most of the men composing it finally went into the War +with zeal, there were individuals who resisted stoutly During the War +they were abused without stint, but this criticism had only the effect +of making them more stubborn. They naturally became Republicans after +the War and furnished some of the votes which made Reconstruction +possible. With these may be classed the few Northern men who remained in +the South after the downfall of the Reconstruction governments. + +There was another class of people in the South, some of whom had been +rabid secessionists and whose Republicanism had no other foundation than +a desire for the loaves and fishes. The salaries attached to some of the +Federal offices seemed enormous at that time and, before the prohibition +wave swept the South, there were in the revenue service thousands of +minor appointments for the faithful. These deputy marshals, +"storekeepers and gaugers," and petty postmasters attempted to keep up a +local organization. The collectors of internal revenue, United States +marshals, other officers of the Federal courts, and the postmasters in +the larger towns controlled these men and therefore the state +organizations. These Federal officials broke the unanimity of the white +South, and they were supported by thousands of negroes. Some individuals +among them were shrewd politicians, but the contest was unequal from +the beginning. On one side was intelligence, backed by loyal followers +fiercely determined to rule. On the other was a leadership on the whole +less intelligent, certainly more selfish, with followers who were +ignorant and susceptible to cajolery or intimidation. + +Before the downfall of the Reconstruction governments, and in the first +few years afterward, there was much intimidation of negroes who wished +to vote. Threats of loss of employment, eviction from house or +plantation, or refusal of credit were frequent. In many sections such +measures were enough, and Democrats were ordinarily chosen at the polls. +Where the negroes were in a larger majority, stronger measures were +adopted. Around election time armed bands of whites would sometimes +patrol the roads wearing some special badge or garment. Men would gallop +past the houses of negroes at night, firing guns or pistols into the air +and occasionally into the roofs of the houses. Negroes talking politics +were occasionally visited and warned--sometimes with physical +violence--to keep silent. On election day determined men with rifles or +shotguns, ostensibly intending to go hunting after they had voted, +gathered around the polls. An occasional random shot might kick up the +dust near an approaching negro. Men actually or apparently the worse for +liquor might stagger around, seeking an excuse for a fight. It is not +surprising that among the negroes the impression that it was unwise to +attempt to vote gained ground. + +Less crude but no less effective methods were employed later. As +candidates or party organizations furnished the ballots, the "tissue +ballot" came into use. Half a dozen of these might easily be dropped +into the box at one time. If the surplus ballots were withdrawn by a +blindfolded official, the difference in length or in the texture or +quality of the ballot made possible the withdrawal of an undue +proportion of Republican votes. Usually separate boxes were supplied for +different sets of officers, and it was often provided that a ballot in +the wrong box was void. An occasional intentional shifting of boxes thus +caused many illiterate negroes to throw away their votes. This scheme +reached its climax in the "eight box law" of South Carolina which made +illiterate voting ineffective without aid. Immediately after any +literate Republican, white or black, left the polling place the boxes +were shifted, and the illiterates whose tickets he had carefully +arranged deposited their ballots in the wrong boxes. White boys of +eighteen, if well grown, sometimes voted, while a young negro unable to +produce any evidence of his age had difficulty in proving the attainment +of his majority. In some precincts illiterate Republicans were appointed +officers of elections, and then the vote was juggled shamelessly. A +study of election returns of some counties of the black belt shows +occasional Democratic majorities greater than the total white +population. The same tricks which were so long practiced in New York and +Philadelphia were successful in the South. + +Conditions such as these were not prevalent over the entire South. In a +large proportion of the voting precincts elections were as fair as +anywhere in the United States; but it may be safely said that in few +counties where the negroes approached or exceeded fifty per cent of the +total population were elections conducted with anything more than a +semblance of fairness. Yet in some sections the odds were too great, or +else the whites lacked the resolution to carry out such extensive +informal disfranchisement. For years North and South Carolina each sent +at least one negro member to the House of Representatives and, but for +flagrant gerrymandering, might have sent more. Indeed negro prosecuting +attorneys were not unknown, and many of the black counties had negro +officers. Some States, such as North Carolina, gave up local +self-government almost entirely. The Legislature appointed the justices +of the peace in every county, and these elected both the commissioners +who controlled the finances of the county and also the board of +education which appointed the school committeemen. Judges were elected +by the State as a whole and held courts in all the counties in turn. To +this day, a Superior Court judge sits only six months in one district +and then moves on to another. Other States gave up local government to a +greater or less extent, while still others sought to lessen the negro +vote by strict registration laws and by the imposition of poll taxes. + +In many sections the negro ceased to make any attempt to vote, and the +Republican organization became a skeleton, if indeed it continued at +all. There was always the possibility of a revival, however, and after +1876 the North often threatened Federal control of elections. The +possibility of negro rule was therefore only suspended and not +destroyed; it might at any time be restored by force. The possibility of +the negro's holding the balance of power seemed dangerous and ultimately +led to attempts to disfranchise him by law, which will be considered in +another chapter. + +The relation of the races was not the only question which confronted the +whites when they regained control of the state governments. The problem +of finance was equally fundamental. The increase in the total debt of +the seceding States had been enormous. The difference between the debts +of these States (excluding Texas) in 1860 and in the year in which they +became most involved was nearly $135,000,000.[1] In proportion to the +total wealth of these States, this debt was extremely high. + +[Footnote 1: See W.A. Scott, _The Repudiation of State Debts_, p. 276. +Texas had practically no debt when it passed under Reconstruction +government, but added $4,500,000 in the period. The total increase in +the debt of all these Southern States was then nearly $140,000,000.] + +Not all of this increase was due to carpetbag government. While, of +course, the debts incurred for military purposes had been repudiated in +accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment, several of the States had +issued bonds for other purposes during the War or immediately afterwards +before the advent of the Reconstruction governments. There were other +millions of unpaid interest on all varieties of debts incurred before or +after 1860. The Reconstruction debts had been incurred for various +purposes, but bonds issued ostensibly to aid in building railroads, +canals, or levees made up the greater part of the total. These bonds, +however, had been sold at a large discount, and only a small part of the +money realized was applied to actual construction. + +Some of the States had escaped almost entirely any considerable increase +of debt; others were burdened far beyond their ability to pay, +especially as property valuations had declined nearly one-half. + +The wholesale repudiation of their debts injured the credit of all the +Southern States, and they have been loudly denounced for their action. +Their spokesmen have justified their procedure in regard to the bonds +issued by the carpetbag legislatures on the ground that they were voted +by venal governments imposed by military force; that many of the bonds +were fraudulent on their face; and that those who purchased them at a +great discount were simply gambling upon the chance that the governments +issuing them would endure; that the greater part of these bonds were +stolen by the officers; and that little or no benefit came to the State. +Not all of the bonds which were repudiated or scaled down, however, +belonged to this class. Many were undoubtedly valid obligations on the +part of the States. The repudiation of these bonds was excused on the +ground that they were generally issued to aid railroads which had been +practically seized by the Confederate or the United States governments +and had been worn out for their benefit; that interest could not be paid +during the war; and that war and the Reconstruction Acts had so reduced +property values that payment of the full amount was impossible. The last +reason is true of some States, though not of all. The prompt payment of +interest on the reduced indebtedness has done much to restore the credit +of the South, and the bonds of some States now sell above par. + +Extravagance had helped to overthrow the carpetbag régime. The new +governments were necessarily forced to be economical. Expenditures of +all kinds were lessened. Government was reduced to its lowest terms, and +the salaries of state officers were fixed at ridiculously small figures. +Inadequate school taxes were levied; the asylums for the insane, though +kept alive, could not take care of all who should have been admitted; +appropriations for higher education, if made at all, were small; there +was little or no social legislation. The politicians taught the people +that low taxes were the greatest possible good and, when prosperity +began to return and a heavier burden of taxation might easily have been +borne, the belief that the efficiency of a government was measured by +its parsimony had become a fixed idea. There was little scandal +anywhere. No governments in American history have been conducted with +more economy and more fidelity than the governments of the Southern +States during the first years after the Reconstruction period. A few +treasurers defaulted, but in most cases their difficulties rose from +financial incompetence rather than from dishonesty, for a good soldier +did not necessarily make a good treasurer. Few fortunes were founded on +state contracts. The public buildings erected were honestly built and +were often completed within the limits of the original appropriations. +So small an amount was allowed that there would have been little to +steal, even had the inclination been present. + +The decline in the prices of agricultural products after 1875 made +living harder. The Greenback agitation[1] found some followers, and in a +few scattered rural districts Greenbackers or Greenback Democrats were +nominated. In a few districts the white men ventured to run two tickets, +and in a few cases the Greenback candidate won. This activity was a +precursor of the agrarian revolt which later divided the South. There were +also some Republican tickets with qualifying words intended to catch votes, +but they had little success. Some strong men were sent to Congress, a very +large proportion of whom had seen service in the Confederate army. Their +presence aroused many sneers at "rebel brigadiers" and an immense amount +of "bloody shirt" oratory. They accomplished little for their section or +for the nation, as they were always on the defensive and could hardly +have been expected to have any consuming love for the Union, in which +they had been kept by force. They were frequently taunted in debate in +the hope that indiscreet answers would furnish campaign material for use +in the North. Sometimes they failed to control their tempers and their +tongues and played into the hands of their opponents. They advocated no +great reforms and showed little political vision. They clung to the +time-honored doctrines of the Democratic party--tariff for revenue only, +opposition to sumptuary laws, economy in expenditures, and abolition of +the internal revenue taxes--and they made ponderous speeches upon the +Constitution, "viewing with alarm" the encroachments of the Federal +Government upon the sphere of action marked out for the States. + +[Footnote 1: See _The Agrarian Crusade_, by Solon J. Buck (in _The +Chronicles of America_).] + +Partly because of constitutional objections, partly because of fear of +Federal supervision of the administration of the measure, a majority of +the Southern representatives opposed the Blair Bill, which might have +hastened the progress of their section. This measure, now almost +forgotten, was much discussed between 1882 and 1890 when it was finally +shelved. It provided for national aid to education out of the surplus +revenues of the Federal Government, the distribution to be made in +proportion to illiteracy. Though the South would have received a large +share of this money, which it sorely needed for education, the +experience of the South with Federal supervision had not been pleasant, +and many feared that the measure might result in another Freedmen's +Bureau.[1] Not all Southerners, however, were opposed to the project. +Dr. J.L.M. Curry, agent of the Peabody Fund, did valiant service for the +bill, and some members of Congress were strong advocates of the measure. +Today we see a measure for national aid to education fathered by +Southerners and almost unanimously supported by their colleagues. + +[Footnote 1: See _The Sequel of Appomattox_, by Walter Lynwood Fleming +(in _The Chronicles of America_).] + +Though rotation in office was the rule in the representation in the +House, the policy of reelecting Senators was generally followed, and +some of them served long periods. Looking upon themselves as ambassadors +of their States to an unfriendly court, they were always dignified and +often austere. As time went on, their honesty, old-fashioned courtesy, +and amiable social qualities gained for many the respect and +affectionate esteem of their Northern colleagues. Many strong +friendships sprang up, and through these personal relationships +occasional bits of patronage and items of legislation were granted. +Often, it is said, politicians who were accustomed to assail one another +in public sought each other's society and were the best of friends in +private. These Southern men were almost invariably a frugal lot who +lived from necessity within their salaries and used no questionable +means of increasing their incomes. + +The election of Cleveland in 1884 gave to the South its first real +participation in national affairs for a quarter of a century. Thomas F. +Bayard of Delaware, L.Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi, and A.H. Garland of +Arkansas were chosen for the Cabinet, from which the scholarly Lamar was +transferred to the Supreme Court. John G. Carlisle of Kentucky was Speaker, +and Roger Q. Mills of Texas became Chairman of the Ways and Means +Committee of the House to succeed William R. Morrison. A fair share, if not +more, of the more important diplomatic, consular, and administrative +appointments went to Southerners. The South began to feel that it was again +a part of the Union. However, though Cleveland had shown his friendliness +to their section, the Southern politicians, usually intensely partisan, +could not appreciate the President's attitude toward the civil service and +other questions, and his bluntness offended many of them. They followed him +on the tariff but opposed him on most other questions, for his theory of +Democracy and theirs diverged, and his kindly attitude was later repaid +with ingratitude. + +During the period in which the "rebel brigadiers" had controlled their +States a new generation had arisen which began to make itself felt +between 1885 and 1890. The Grange had tried to teach the farmers to +think of themselves as a class, and the skilled workmen in a few +occupations, in the border States particularly, had been organized. The +Greenback craze had created a distrust of the capitalists of the East. +The fear of negro domination was no longer so overmastering, and the +natural ambition of the younger men began to show itself in factional +contests. Younger men were coveting the places held by the old +war-horses and were beginning to talk of cliques and rings. The Farmers' +Alliance was spreading like wildfire, and its members were expounding +doctrines which seemed rank treason to the elderly gentlemen whose +influence had once been so potent. It is now clear that their fall from +power was inevitable, though they refused to believe it possible. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN + + +Practically all the farmers in the South, like those of the West, were +chronically in debt, and after 1870 the general tendency of the prices +of agricultural products was downward. In spite of largely increased +acreage--partly, to be sure, because of it--the total returns from the +larger crops were hardly so great as had been received from a much +smaller cultivated area. The Southern farmer began to feel helpless and +hopeless. Though usually suspicious of every movement coming from the +North, he turned readily to the organization of the Patrons of +Husbandry, better known as the Grange. In fact, the hopeless apathy of +the Southern farmer observed by Oliver Hudson Kelley, an agent of the +Bureau of Agriculture, is said to have determined him to found the +order. In spite of the turmoil of Reconstruction, the organization +appeared in South Carolina and Mississippi in 1871. Tennessee. +Missouri, and Kentucky had already been invaded. During 1872 and 1873, +the order spread rapidly in all the States which may be called Southern. +The highest number reached was in the latter part of 1875 when more than +6400 local granges were reported in the States which had seceded; and in +Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and Missouri there were +nearly 4000 more. The total membership in the seceding States was more +than 210,000 and including the border States, over 355,000. Since +negroes were not admitted, the proportion of the total white +agricultural population in the Grange was perhaps as high in the South +as in any other part of the Union. In the years that followed, the order +underwent the same disintegration in the South as elsewhere. + +As a class the Southern Grangers did not take an active part in +politics. The overshadowing question of the position of their States in +the Union and the desire to preserve white supremacy prevented any great +independent movement. In a few instances, men ran for Congress as +Independents or as Greenbackers, and in some cases they were elected; +but the Southern farmers were not yet ready to break away from the +organization which had delivered them from negro rule. There was not at +that time in the South the same opposition to railroads that prevailed +in the West. The need of railroads was felt so keenly that the practice +of baiting them had not become popular. Some railroad legislation was +passed, largely through Granger influence, but it was not yet radical. +Nevertheless the Granger movement was by no means without permanent +influence. It helped to develop class consciousness; it demonstrated +that the Western and the Southern farmer had some interests in common; +and it also implanted in people's minds the idea that legislation of an +economic character was desirable. Heretofore the Southern farmer, so far +as he had thought at all about the relation of the State to industry, +had been a believer in _laissez faire_. Now he began to consider whether +legislation might not be the remedy for poverty. Out of this serious +attention to the needs of the farmer other organizations were to arise +and to build upon the foundations laid by the Grange. + +About 1875 there appeared in Texas and other States local organizations +of farmers, known as Farmers' Alliances, and in 1879 a Grand State +Alliance was formed in Texas. The purposes were similar to those set +forth by the Grange. In Arkansas appeared the Agricultural Wheel and +the Brothers of Freedom, which were soon consolidated. The Farmers' +Union of Louisiana and the Alliance of Texas were also united under the +name of the National Farmers' Alliance and Coöperative Union of America. +This was soon united with the Arkansas Wheel, which had crossed state +lines. + +A session of the National Alliance was held at St. Louis in 1889 with +delegates present from every Southern State, except West Virginia, and +from some of the Middle Western States. The National Assembly of the +Knights of Labor was also held in St. Louis at this time, and a joint +declaration of beliefs was put forth. This platform called for the issue +of more paper money, abolition of national banks, free coinage of +silver, legislation to prevent trusts and corners, tariff reform, +government ownership of railroads, and restriction of public lands to +actual settlers. + +The next year, the annual convention of the Alliance was held at Ocala, +Florida, and the Ocala platform was published. This meeting recommended +the so-called sub-treasury plan by which the Federal Government was to +construct warehouses for agricultural products. In these the farmer +might deposit his non-perishable agricultural products, and receive 80 +per cent of their market value in greenbacks. Surely the Southern farmer +had shaken off much of his traditional conservatism in approving such a +demand as this! The explanation is not far to seek. + +The high price of cotton in the years immediately following the War was +the economic salvation of the South. Whatever may have been the +difficulties in its production, the returns repaid the outlay and more. +The quantity was less than the world demanded. Not until 1870-71 did the +production approach that of the crops before the War. Then, with the +increase in production and general financial stringency came a sharp +decrease in price. Between 1880 and 1890 the price was not much above +the cost of production, and after 1890 the price fell still lower. When +middling cotton brought less than seven cents a pound in New York, the +small producer got little more than five cents for his bale or two. The +price of wheat and corn was correspondingly low, if the farmer had a +surplus to sell at harvest time. If he bought Western corn or flour in +the spring on credit, the price he paid included shrinkage, storage, +freight, and the exorbitant profit of the merchant. The low price +received by the Western producer had been much increased before the +cereals reached the Southern consumer. The Southern farmer was +consequently becoming desperate and was threatening revolt against the +established order. + +While Southern delegates joined the Western Alliance in the organization +of the People's party in 1891 and 1892, the majority of the members in +the South chose an easier way of attaining their object: they entered +the Democratic primaries and conventions and captured them. In State +after State, men in sympathy with the farmers were chosen to office, +often over old leaders who had been supposed to have life tenure of +their positions. In some cases these leaders retained their offices, if +not their influence, by subscribing to the demands of the Alliance. +Perhaps some could do this without reservation; others, Senators +particularly, justified themselves on the theory that a legislature had +the right to speak for the State and instruct those chosen to represent +it. + +The feeling of the farmer that he was being oppressed threatened to +develop into an obsession. His hatred of "money-power," "trusts," +"corners," and the "hirelings of Wall Street" found expression in his +opposition to the local lawyers and merchants, and, in fact, to the +residents of the towns in general. The idea began to grow up that any +one living in a town was necessarily an enemy to the farmer. The +prevalent agricultural point of view came to be that only the farmer was +a wealth producer, and that all others were parasites who sat in the +shade while he worked in the sun and who lived upon the products of his +labor. This bitterness the farmer extended to the old political leaders +whom he had regarded with veneration in the past. These old Confederate +soldiers, he believed, had allowed him to be robbed. + +The state Democratic Convention of Georgia in 1890 pledged all +candidates for office to support the demands of the Farmers' Alliance, +including the sub-treasury "or some better system." Senator John B. +Gordon, however, refused to pledge himself and was reëlected +nevertheless. The leader of the Alliance was nominated and elected +governor. In Alabama, Reuben F. Kolb, the Commissioner of Agriculture, +almost obtained the Democratic nomination for governor. Two years later, +he again entered the primary and, declaring that he had been cheated out +of the nomination, ran independently as the candidate of the +Jeffersonian Democracy. On the face of the returns, the regular +candidate was elected, but Kolb pointed out the fact that the +Democratic majorities came from the black counties, while the white +counties had given a majority for him. Again in 1894 Kolb entered the +race for governor and again declared that he had been counted out, as he +had not only the Jeffersonian Democracy behind him but also the +endorsement of the Republicans and the Populists. + +Undoubtedly the controlling influence in Democratic councils in some of +the Southern States had been exercised by a very small element in the +population. A few men, almost a "Family Compact" either held the +important offices themselves, or decided who should hold them, and fixed +the party policy so far as it had a policy other than the maintenance of +white supremacy. The governments were generally honest, economical, and +cheap. The leaders, partly because they themselves believed in limiting +the function of government and partly because they believed that the +voters would oppose any extension, had prevented any constructive +legislation. Events showed that they had misunderstood their people. +When the revolt came, the farmer legislators showed themselves willing +to vote money liberally for education and for other purposes which were +once considered outside the sphere of government. + + +South Carolina furnished the most striking example of this revolt. In +that State the families which had governed before the War continued the +direction of affairs. By a rather unusual compromise, the large western +population of the State had been balanced against the greater wealth of +the east. Consequently there was overrepresentation of the east after +the negro had been deprived of the ballot. It was charged--and with some +show of truth--that a small group of men clustering around Charleston +exercised an entirely disproportionate share of influence in party +management. The farmers, with a growing class consciousness, began to +resent this injustice and found a leader ready and anxious to direct +them. + +In March, 1890, the delegates of the Farmers' Association decided to +secure the nomination for governor for Benjamin R. Tillman, who had +devoted much of his time for four years to arousing the farmers. The +contest for the nomination was begun in May and, after a bitter +struggle, Tillman won easily in the convention in September. The +"straight outs," dazed and humiliated, ran an independent candidate. +Tillman and his followers accepted the challenge and the conflict took +form as a struggle between mass and class. The farmers' leader, though +not himself illiterate, obscure, or poor, raged up and down the State +frankly and brutally preaching class war. He held up Charleston as a +sink of iniquity, and he promised legislation to cleanse it. Perhaps a +majority of the whites really believed his charges and put faith in his +doctrines. If not, the fetish of party regularity drew the votes +necessary to make up the deficiency. Tillman had been regularly +nominated in a Democratic convention, and South Carolinians had been +trained to vote the party ticket. He was elected by a large majority. + +At the end of Tillman's first term two years later, he was again a +candidate, and the convention which nominated him approved the Ocala +platform. Since the party machinery was in control of the Tillmanites, +the opposition adopted the name "Cleveland Democracy" and sought to undo +the revolution. The result was never doubtful. Tillman was reëlected by +an overwhelming majority, and on the expiration of his term was sent to +the United States Senate, which he shocked by his passionate utterances +as he had so often shocked his own State. The attitude of the educated +and cultivated part of the population of South Carolina toward Tillman +affords a parallel to that of Tory England toward Lloyd George twenty +years later. The parallel may be extended further. Tillman, in time, +modified some of his extreme opinions, won over many of his opponents, +and gained the respect of his colleagues just as Lloyd George has done; +and South Carolina grew to have pride in her sturdy fighter whose life +ended just as his fourth term in the Senate was almost done. + +The election of Tillman as Governor and then as Senator was a real +revolution, for South Carolina had been long represented in the United +States Senate by Wade Hampton and Matthew C. Butler, both distinguished +soldiers and representatives of the old régime. Hampton, under whose +leadership the carpetbag government had been overthrown, had been a +popular idol. Both he and Butler had won the respect of their colleagues +in the Senate and had reflected credit upon their State. But such +services now availed nothing. Both they and others like them were swept +out, to be replaced by the partisans of the new order. + +Nothing was omitted by the reformers to humiliate what had been the +ruling portion of the population. The liquor traffic was made a state +monopoly by the dispensary system modeled on the Gothenburg plan: no +liquor was sold to be drunk on the premises, and the amount allowed a +purchaser was limited. It was hoped the revenue thus received would +permit a considerable reduction in the tax rate. These hopes, however, +were not realized, and scandals concerning the purchasing agency kept +the State in a turmoil for years. Other legislation was more successful. +An agricultural and mechanical college for men was founded at the old +home of John C. Calhoun at Clemson. A normal and industrial college for +girls has also proved very successful. The appropriations to the state +university were reduced on the ground that it was an aristocratic +institution, but on the other hand funds for public schools were +increased. + +Not all the members of the Alliance remained in the Democratic party. +Populist electors were nominated in every Southern State in 1892, except +in Louisiana, where a combined Republican and Populist ticket was named. +In no State did the new party secure a majority, but in Alabama, +Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, the Populist vote was +large. In North Carolina, always inclined to independence, the combined +Republican and Populist vote was larger than that cast for Democratic +electors. It was obvious that Democratic supremacy was imperiled, if +the new party continued its amazing growth. + +The politicians, Republican and Democratic, set out to win the +insurgents. Some shrewd political manipulators, scenting future profit +for themselves, had joined the new movement and were willing to trade. +During 1893, 1894, and 1895 the Republicans were generally successful. +In many States there was more or less cooperation in state and county +tickets, in spite of the disfavor with which the Republican party had +been regarded in the South. In North Carolina J.C. Pritchard, a regular +Republican, was elected to the United States Senate, to fill the +unexpired term of Senator Vance, but the Populist state chairman, Marion +Butler, cool, calculating, and shrewd, took the full term to succeed +Senator Ransom. The Democratic party had maintained control for twenty +years, and it was held responsible for all the ills from which the +farmer suffered. Then, too, some of the leaders of the new party felt +that they would have greater opportunities for preferment by coöperating +with a party in which the number of white voters was small. + +The doctrine of free silver had been making converts among the +Democrats, however, and early in 1896 it was clear that a majority of the +Southern delegates to the national convention would favor a silver plank. +The action of the convention in nominating Bryan and Sewall is told in +another volume.[1] Bryan was also endorsed by the Populist convention, but +that convention refused to endorse Sewall and nominated Thomas E. Watson +for Vice-President. A majority of the Populist convention favored a strict +party fight, but the managers were shrewd, and the occasion manifestly +offered great opportunities for trading. In twenty-six States the electoral +tickets were divided between Democrats and Populists. Among these States +were Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. But coöperation +with Republicans on local legislative and state tickets often occurred. In +North Carolina, a fusion legislature was elected, and a Republican was +chosen governor by the aid of Populist votes, though one faction of the +Populists nominated a separate ticket. The judicial and congressional +nominations were divided. The apparent inconsistency of voting for Bryan +for President and at the same time supporting Republicans who might be +expected to oppose him in Congress was accepted without flinching. +According to the bargain made two years before, when a Republican was +sent to the United States Senate for an unexpired term by the aid of the +Populist votes, Senator Pritchard was reëlected. + +[Footnote 1: _The Agrarian Crusade,_ by Solon J. Buck (in _The +Chronicles of America_).] + +The experience of North Carolina with fusion government was a reminder +of the Reconstruction days. The Republicans had dilated upon "local +self-government" and the Populists had swallowed the bait. The +Legislature changed the form of county government, by which the board of +county commissioners had been named by the justices of the peace, and +made the board elective. This turned over to the blacks counties in +which several of the largest towns in the State were situated. Negro +politicians were chosen to office, and lawlessness and violence +followed. In Wilmington there was an uprising of the whites, who took +possession of the city government by force. The Legislature was again +Democratic in 1898 and began to prepare an amendment which should +disfranchise a large proportion of the 125,000 negro voters of the +State. There was coöperation between the Republican and Populist +organizations again in 1900, but too many Populists had returned to +their former allegiance. The restrictive amendment, of which more will +be aid presently, was carried by an overwhelming majority at the special +election in the summer, and at the regular election in November the +Democratic ticket was chosen by an overwhelming majority. + +The fusion of 1896 and the rising prices of agricultural products killed +the Populist party in the South, but the influence of the movement +remains to this day. It has had some effect in lessening political +intolerance, for those of the Populists who returned to the Democratic +party came back without apology, while others have since classed +themselves as Republicans. The Populist attitude toward public education +was on the whole friendly, and more money has since been demanded and +expended for public schools. + +Perhaps the greatest effect of the Populist movement was the overthrow +of the old political organizations. In some States a few men had ruled +almost by common consent. They had exerted a great influence upon +legislation--not by use of the vulgar arts of the lobbyists, but by the +plea of party advantage or by the prophecy of party loss. They had given +their States clean government and cheap government, but nothing more. A +morbid fear of taxation, or rather of the effects of taxation upon the +people, was their greatest sin. The agrarian movement took them unawares. +They were unable to realize that between the South of 1890 and another, +older South, there was a great gap. They could not interpret the +half-coherent speech of the small farmer, who had come to feel that he had +been wronged and struck out blindly at those whom he had previously +trusted. New and unknown men appeared in Washington to take the place of +men whose character, ability, and length of service had made them +national figures. The governorship of the States went to men whose chief +qualifications seemed to be prominence in the affairs of the Alliance or +else bitter tongues. + +Though the Populists, for the most part, returned to the Democratic +party, and the suffrage amendments, which will be mentioned presently, +made the possibility of Republican success extremely remote, the "old +guard" has never regained its former position. In all the Southern +States party control has been for years in the hands of the common man. +The men he chooses to office are those who understand his psychology and +can speak his language. Real primary elections were common in the South +years before they were introduced elsewhere, and the man who is the +choice of the majority in the Democratic primary wins. + +Some of the men chosen to high office in the State and nation are men of +ability and high character, who recall the best traditions of Southern +statesmanship; others are parochial and mediocre; and some are blatant +demagogues who bring discredit upon their State and their section and +who cannot be restrained from "talking for Buncombe." + +The election of a Democratic President in 1884 had stirred the +smoldering distrust of the South on the part of the North. The +well-known fact that the negro vote in the South did not have the +influence its numbers warranted aroused the North to demand a Federal +elections law, which was voiced by bills introduced by Senator Hoar of +Massachusetts and by Henry Cabot Lodge, then a member of the House of +Representatives. Lodge's bill, which was passed by the House in 1890, +permitted Federal officials to supervise and control congressional +elections. This so-called "Force Bill" was bitterly opposed by the +Southerners and was finally defeated in the Senate by the aid of the +votes of the silver Senators from the West, but the escape was so narrow +that it set Southerners to finding another way of suppressing the negro +vote than by force or fraud. Later the division of the white vote by the +Populist party also endangered white supremacy in the South. + + +In this same year (1890) Mississippi framed a new constitution, which +required as a prerequisite for voting a residence of two years in the +State and one year in the district or town. A poll tax of two +dollars--to be increased to three at the discretion of the county +commissioners--was levied on all able-bodied men between twenty-one and +sixty. This tax, and all other taxes due for the two previous years, +must be paid before the 1st of February of the election year. All these +provisions, though applying equally to all the population, greatly +lessened the negro vote. Negroes are notoriously migratory, and a large +proportion never remain two years in the same place. The poll tax could +not be collected by legal process, and to pay the tax for two years, +four dollars or more, eight months in advance of an election, seemed to +the average negro to be rank extravagance. Moreover, few politicians are +reckless enough to arrange for the payment of poll taxes in exchange for +the promised delivery of votes eight months away, when half the would-be +voters might be in another county, or even in another State. To clinch +the matter, the constitution further provided that after 1892, in +addition to the qualifications mentioned above, a person desiring to +vote must be able to read any section of the constitution, "or he shall be +able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable +interpretation thereof." Even when fairly administered, this section +operated to disfranchise more negroes than whites, for fewer can read and +fewer can understand a legal instrument. But it is obvious that the +opportunities for discrimination are great: a simple section can be read to +an illiterate white, while a more difficult section, filled with +technicalities, may be read to a negro applicant; and the phrase "a +reasonable interpretation" may mean one thing in the case of a negro and +quite another where a white man is concerned. It is perhaps not +surprising that only 5123 Republican votes were reported in 1896, and +hardly more, in 1912, were cast for Taft and Roosevelt together. + +South Carolina followed the lead of Mississippi a little more frankly in +1895, by adopting suffrage amendments which provided for two years' +residence in the State, one year in the county, and the payment of a +poll tax six months before the election. Up to 1898 any person who could +read any section of the constitution, or could understand and explain it +when read by the registration officer, could have his name placed upon a +permanent roll and could vote thereafter, provided he satisfied the +other requirements already mentioned. After January 1, 1898, every one +presenting himself for registration had to be able to read and write any +section of the constitution, or else must have paid taxes the preceding +year on property assessed at three hundred dollars or over. The list of +disqualifying crimes is long, including those of which negroes are most +commonly found guilty, such as larceny, false pretence, bigamy, adultery, +wife-beating, and receiving stolen goods. To insure the complexion of the +permanent roll, the registration was conducted in each county by a board of +"three discreet persons" appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice +and consent of the Senate. + +It would seem that either of these constitutions would serve to reduce +the negro vote sufficiently, while allowing practically all white men to +vote. Large discretion, however, is lodged in the officers of election, +and Democratic control in these matters is safe only so long as the +white men stick together. Louisiana went a step further in 1898 and +introduced the famous "grandfather clause" into her constitution. Other +requirements were similar to those already mentioned. Two years' +residence in the State, one year in the parish, and six months in the +precinct were preliminary conditions; in addition the applicant must be +able to read and write in English or his mother tongue, or he must be the +owner of property assessed for three hundred dollars or more. + +This general requirement of literacy or ownership of property was +waived, however, in case of foreigners naturalized before January 1, +1898, who had lived in the State five years, and in the case of men who +had voted in any State before 1867, or of sons or grandsons of such +persons. These could be placed upon a permanent roll to be made up +before September 1, 1898, and should have the right to vote upon +complying with the residence and poll tax requirements. Practically all +white persons of native stock either voted in some State in 1867 or were +descended from some one who had so voted. Few negroes in any State, and +none in the South, were voters in that year. It is obvious that suffrage +was open to white but barred to negro illiterates. Apparently the only +whites debarred under this clause were the illiterate and indigent sons +of foreign-born fathers. + +North Carolina adopted a new suffrage article in 1900 which is much +simpler than those just described. It requires two years' residence in +the State, one in the county, and the payment of poll tax before the 1st +of May in the election year. A uniform educational qualification is laid +down, but the "permanent roll" is also included. No "male person who was +on January 1, 1867, or at any other time prior thereto, entitled to vote +under the laws of any State in the United States, wherein he then resided, +and no lineal descendant of any such person shall be denied the right to +register and vote at any election in the State by reason of his failure to +possess the educational qualifications herein prescribed: _Provided_ he +shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior to +December 1, 1908." In other words, any white illiterate thirteen years old +or over when the amendment was adopted would not be deprived of his vote +because of the lack of educational qualifications. No other State had given +so long a time as this. + +The "grandfather clause" here was shrewdly drawn. Free negroes voted in +North Carolina until 1835, and under the terms of the clause any negro +who could prove descent from a negro voter could not be debarred because +of illiteracy. Negroes voted in a few States in 1867, and they or their +descendants were exempt from the educational test. Of course the number +of these was negligible, and the clause accomplished precisely what it was +intended to do--that is, it disfranchised a large proportion of the negroes +and yet allowed the whites to vote. The extension of the time of +registration until 1908, eight years after the amendment was adopted and +six after it went into effect, made the disfranchisement of any +considerable number of whites impossible. + +Alabama followed in 1901, combining the South Carolina and the Louisiana +plans and including the usual residence and poll tax requirements, as +well as the permanent roll. This was to be made up before December 20, +1902, and included soldiers of the United States, or of the State of +Alabama in any war, soldiers of the Confederate States, their lawful +descendants, and "men of good character who understood the duties and +obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government." After +the permanent roll has been made up, the applicant for registration must +be able to read and write and must have worked the greater part of the +twelve months next preceding, or he or his wife must own forty acres of +land or real estate or personal property assessed at not less than three +hundred dollars. A long list of disqualifying crimes was added, +including wife-beating and conviction for vagrancy. As if this were not +enough, after 1903 an applicant for registration might be required to state +where he had lived during the preceding five years, the name or names by +which known, and the names of his employers. Refusal to answer was made a +bar to registration, and wilful misstatement was regarded as perjury. + +Oklahoma adopted its disfranchising amendment in 1910, without valid +reason so far as any one outside the State could see, as the proportion +of negroes was very small. An attempt was made permanently to +disfranchise the illiterate negro by the "grandfather clause," while +allowing illiterate white voters to vote forever. Other States allowed a +limited time in which to register on a permanent roll, after which all +illiterates were to be disfranchised. Oklahoma sought to keep suffrage +permanently open to illiterate whites, while closing it to illiterate +negroes. This amendment was declared unconstitutional by the United +States Supreme Court in June, 1915, on the ground that a State cannot +reëstablish conditions existing before the ratification of the Fifteenth +Amendment, even though the disfranchising amendment contained no +"express words of exclusion" but "inherently brings that result into +existence."[1] What the Court will do with other similar constitutional +amendments when they are brought before it is not so certain. All differ +somewhat, and it is possible that the Court may let the whole or a part +of some of them stand. If not, it is probable that straight educational +and property qualifications will be substituted. In fact, if the Court +disapproves the permanent roll but allows the remainder to stand, +educational and property qualifications will prevail in several States. + +[Footnote 1: Guinn _vs._ United States, 238 U.S., 347.] + +All these plans for disfranchisement have accomplished the desired +results up to the present time. The negro vote has been greatly reduced +and elections are decided by the votes of white men. In some States, +negroes who could easily pass the tests no longer take the trouble to go +to the polls. The number of white voters also grows smaller. Some fail +to pay the poll tax, and others stay away from the polls because, as a +rule, the result has been decided in the primary elections. Since a +Democratic nomination is practically equivalent to election, many voters +who have taken part in the primaries neglect to vote on election day. +Only in North Carolina is there evidence of the growth of a strong +Republican opposition. In 1908, Taft received over 114,000 votes, and +the Republican candidate for governor 107,000. In 1916 Hughes received +120,000 votes as against 168,000 for Wilson. + +What was done with the negro when he was thus rendered politically +helpless? Was there an attempt to take from him other things than the +ballot? The answer must be in the affirmative. Men advocated segregation +in common carriers, in public places, and even in places of residences. +An attempt to confine appropriations for negro schools to the amount of +taxes directly paid by the negroes has been made; men have sought office +on a platform of practical serfdom for the negro. But although some few +have achieved temporary successes--at least they have been +elected--their programs have not been carried out. The "Jim Crow" car is +common and the negro schools do not get appropriations equal to those of +the whites, but little else has been done. In fact, evidences of a +reaction in favor of the negro soon became apparent. The late Governor +Charles B. Aycock of North Carolina at the beginning of this century won +his triumphs on a platform of justice for the negro. + +The question of the liquor traffic began to engage the attention of the +Southern people very soon after the end of Reconstruction. The great +problem was the sale of liquor in the unpoliced country districts, and +especially to negroes. By special legislative acts forbidding the sale +of liquor within a given number of miles of a church or a school a large +part of the South was made dry. Local option acts continued the +restrictive work until the sale of liquor outside of the larger +incorporated towns became rare. In some States, acts applying to the +whole State forbade the sale outside of towns. By concentrating their +efforts upon the towns, the anti-saloon forces made a large number of +them dry also, but there was so much illicit sale that employers often +found that Monday was a wasted day. + +State wide prohibition began in 1907 with Oklahoma and Georgia, and +State after State followed until, in 1914, ten States were wholly dry, +and in large areas of the other Southern States the sale of intoxicants +was forbidden through local option. Southern members of Congress urged +the submission of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, +forbidding manufacture or sale of intoxicants in the nation. Every +Southern State promptly ratified the Amendment when it was submitted by +Congress. + +Unfortunately many negroes when deprived of alcohol began to use drugs, +such as cocaine, and the effect morally and physically was worse than that +of liquor. The "coke fiend" became a familiar sight in the police courts of +Southern cities, and the underground traffic in the drug is still a +serious problem. The new Federal law has helped to control the evil, but +both cocaine and alcohol are still sold to negroes, sometimes by pedlars of +their own race, sometimes by unscrupulous white men. The consumption of +both is less, however, than before the restrictive legislation. The South +has traveled far from its old opposition to sumptuary laws. Like State +Rights, this principle is only invoked when convenient. Starting largely as +a movement to keep whiskey from the negro and, to a somewhat less extent, +from the white laborer, prohibition has become popular. On the whole it +has worked well in the South though "moonshining" is undoubtedly +increasing. The enormous price eagerly paid for whiskey in the +"bone-dry" States has led to a revival of the illicit distillery, which +had been almost stamped out. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FARMER AND THE LAND + + +The end of Reconstruction found the tenant system and the "crop lien" +firmly fastened upon the South. The plantation system had broken down +since the owner no longer had slaves to work his land, capital to pay +wages, or credit on which to borrow the necessary funds. Many of the +great plantations had already been broken up and sold, while others, +divided into tracts of convenient size, had been rented to white or +negro tenants. What had been one plantation became a dozen farms, a +score, or even more. Men who owned smaller tracts found it difficult to +hire or to keep labor, and many retained only the land which they or +their sons could work and rented the remainder of their farms. This +system is still characteristic of Southern agriculture. + +Few of the landless whites and practically none of the negroes had +sufficient money reserve to maintain themselves for a year and hence no +capital to apply to the land on which they were tenants. Yet the land was +there ready to produce, the labor was there, more or less willing to work +if it could but live while the crop was growing. The country merchant had + already assumed the office of banker to the tenant farmer, and this +position he still holds in spite of all efforts to dislodge him. His +customers include not only tenants but some landowners, white or black. +They buy from him, during the months before the crop is gathered, the food, +clothing, and other supplies necessary for existence, and as many simple +luxuries as he will permit. When the crops are gathered, he buys them, or +at least the share of them belonging to the tenant, subtracts the store +accounts, and turns over the surplus, if any, to the farmers. + +Unlike other bankers, the merchant charges no interest upon the capital +he advances, but he is paid nevertheless. For every pound of bacon, +meal, and flour, for every gallon of molasses, for every yard of cloth, +for every plug of tobacco or tin of snuff which the customer consumes +during the spring and summer, an advanced price is charged to him on the +merchant's books. With thousands of these merchants selling to hundreds +of thousands of farmers over a wide area, it is of course impossible to +state the average difference between credit and cash prices. +Investigations made in different sections show a wide variation +depending upon custom, competition, the reliability and industry of the +customer, the amount of advances, and the length of credit. Since a large +part of the advances are made during the six, or even four months before +the crops are gathered, the difference between cash and credit prices +amounts often to an interest charge of forty to one hundred per cent or +even more a year. These advanced credit prices, and consequently the high +interest rates, may be paid not only upon food, clothing, and other +personal goods, but also, occasionally, upon tools, farming implements, +fertilizers, and work animals. + +The merchant is supposed to be protected against loss by the institution +of the crop lien and the chattel mortgage. By one or the other of these +the farmer is enabled to mortgage his growing, or even his unplanted +crops, his farming implements, his cattle, and horses, if he owns them. +If he is a landowner, the land may be included in a mortgage as +additional security. The crop is conveyed to the mortgagee as in an +ordinary land mortgage, and the tenant cannot hold back his crop for a +better price, or seek a better market for any part of it, until all his +obligations have been settled. Disposing of mortgaged property is a +serious offense and no one not desirous of abetting fraud will buy +property which he has reason to suspect has been mortgaged. As a result +of this system in some sections, years ago, nine-tenths of the farmers +were in debt. Undoubtedly the prices credited for the crops have been +less than might have been obtained in a market absolutely free. If the +crops a farmer raises bring less than the advances, the balance is +carried over to the next year and no other merchant will give credit to +a man whose accounts with his former creditor are not clear. In the past +the signing of one of these legal instruments has often reduced the +farmer to a state of peonage. + +Naturally the merchant who has begun to extend credit, sometimes before +the seed is in the ground, has a voice in deciding what crops shall be +planted. The favorite crops in the past have been tobacco and cotton, +particularly the latter. Both contain comparatively large value in small +bulk; both can be stored conveniently, with little danger of +deterioration; neither is liable to a total failure; a ready market for +both is always available; and neither tempts the thief until it is ripe. +Only winter wheat, sown in the fall and reaped in early summer, is grown +in the South, and the crop is somewhat uncertain. A tenant who has secured +advances on a crop of wheat during the fall and winter may easily move to +an adjoining county or State in the spring and plant cotton there. Half a +crop of corn may easily be stolen, eaten by animals, or consumed by the +tenant while still green. A further reason for not encouraging the +production of corn and wheat is the profit the merchant makes by the sale +of imported flour, meal, and bacon. Cotton is therefore almost the only +product of sections admirably suited to the growing of corn or to the +raising of hogs. The country merchant has helped to keep the South poor. + +Yet in spite of the apparently exorbitant percentage of profit, few +country merchants become rich. In a year of drouth, or of flood, many of +their debtors may not be able to pay their accounts, even though their +intentions are of the best. Others may prove shiftless and neglect their +fields. Still others may be deliberately dishonest and, after getting as +large advances as possible, abandon their crops leaving both the +landowner and the merchant in the lurch. These creditors must then +either attempt to harvest the crop by hired labor, with the hope of +reducing their loss, or else charge the whole to profit and loss. The +illness or death of the debtor may also prevent the proper cultivation of +the crop he has planted. For these different reasons every country +merchant is likely to accumulate many bad debts which may finally throw +him into bankruptcy. Those who succeed are exceptionally shrewd or very +fortunate. + +The relation of the tenant to his landlord varies in different parts of +the South. Many different plans of landholding have been tried since +1865, and traces of all of them may be found throughout the length and +breadth of the South. One was a modified serfdom, in which the tenant +worked for the landlord four or five days in every week for a small +wage. In addition he had a house, firewood, and several acres of land +which he might cultivate on his own account. According to another plan, +the landlord promised to pay a fixed sum of money to the laborer when +the crop was gathered. Both plans had their origin primarily in the +landlord's poverty, but were reenforced by the tenant's unreliability. +These plans, as well as combinations of these with some others to be +mentioned, have now practically died out. There remain the following +alternatives: land may be rented for a fixed sum of money per acre, to be +paid when the crops are sold, or for a fixed quantity of produce, so many +bushels of corn or so many pounds of cotton being paid for every acre; or, +more commonly, land may be rented on some form of share tenancy by which +the risk as well as the profit is shared by both tenant and landowner. + +Share tenancy assumes various forms. In some sections a rough +understanding grew up that, in the division of a crop, one-third was to +be allotted to the land, one-third to live stock, seed, and tools, and +one-third to labor. If the tenant brought nothing but his bare hands, he +received only the share supposed to be due to labor; if he owned working +animals and implements, he received in addition the share supposed to be +due to them. This arrangement, modified in individual cases, still +persists, especially where the tenants are white. As various forms of +industrial enterprise have continued to draw labor from the farms, the +share assigned to labor by this form of tenancy has increased until, in +perhaps the greater part of the South and certainly in the +cotton-growing sections, it is usually one-half. + +The ordinary arrangement of share tenancy under which the negro in the +cotton belt now works provides that the landowner shall furnish a cabin in +which the family may live and an acre or two for a garden. In addition, +working stock, implements, and seed are supplied by the owner of the land. +Both tenant and owner share the cost of fertilizers if any are used, and +divide equally the expenses of preparing the crop for market and the +proceeds of the sale. This arrangement means, of course, that the +capitalist takes the laborer into a real partnership. Both embark in a +venture the deferred results of which are dependent chiefly upon the +industry and good faith of the laborer. By a seeming paradox it is only the +laborer's unreliability which gives him such an opportunity, for if he were +more dependable, the landowner would prefer in most cases to pay wages and +take the whole of the crop. Because the average negro laborer cannot be +depended upon to be faithful, he is given a greater opportunity, +contrary to all ordinary moral maxims. + +When the share tenant lives on the land he may be a part of two +different systems. There are some large plantations over which the +owners or managers exercise close supervision. The horses or, more +generally, the mules are housed in large common stables or sheds and are +properly looked after. Some attempt is made to see that tools and +implements are kept in order. If the tenant falls behind in his work and +allows his crop to be overrun with grass or is unable to pick the cotton +as it opens, the owner hires help, if possible, and charges the cost +against the tenant. In other words, the owner attempts to apply to +agriculture some of the principles of industrial organization. The success +of such attempts varies. The negro tenant generally resents close +supervision; but on the other hand he enjoys the community life of a large +plantation. In the end, in the majority of cases the personal equation +determines whether the negro stays or moves. + +At the other extreme is the landowner who turns over his land to the +negro and hopes for some return. If the tenant is industrious and +ambitious, the landowner gets something and is relieved of the trouble +of supervision. Often, however, he finds at the end of the year that the +mules have deteriorated from being worked through the day and driven or +ridden over the country at night; the tools and implements are broken or +damaged; and the fences have been used for firewood, though an abundant +supply could have been obtained by a few hours' labor. Very often the +landlord's share of the small crop will not really compensate him for the +depreciated value of his property, for land rented without supervision is +likely to decrease in fertility and to bring in meager returns. + +A more successful arrangement between the two extremes is often seen in +sections where the population is largely white and land is held in +smaller tracts. Here a white farmer who owns more land than he or his +sons can cultivate marks off a tract for a tenant, white or black, who +may be said to work with his landlord. Both he and others of his family +may work an occasional day for the landlord, receiving pay either in +kind or in cash. Relations between such families often become close, and +the tenant may remain on the property for years. In some sections there +are numerous examples of what might be called permanent tenants. +Sometimes such a tenant ultimately purchases the land upon which he has +worked or other land in the neighborhood. + +The plantation owner may be a merchant-landlord also and may furnish +supplies to his tenants. He keeps only staple articles, but he may give +an order on a neighboring store for those not in stock or may even +furnish small sums of money on occasion. The tenants are not allowed to +buy as much as they choose either in the plantation store or in the local +store at the crossroads. At the beginning of the year the landlord or the +merchant generally allows a credit ranging from fifty to two hundred +dollars but rarely higher and attempts to make the tenant distribute the +purchases over the whole period during which the crop is growing. If +permitted, many, perhaps a large majority of the tenants, might use up +their credit months before the crop was gathered. In such cases the +merchant or landlord, or both, must make further advances to save what they +have already invested or else must see the tenant abandon is crops and +move. + +These relations between landlord and tenant show much diversity, but +certain conditions prevail everywhere. Few tenants can sustain +themselves until the crop is gathered, and a very large percentage of +them must eat and wear their crops before they are gathered--a +circumstance which will create no surprise unless the reader makes the +common error of thinking of them as capitalists. Though the landlord in +effect takes his tenants into partnership, they are really only +laborers, and few laborers anywhere are six or eight months ahead of +destitution. How many city laborers, even those with skilled trades, +could exist without credit if their wages were paid only once a year? +How many of them would have prudence or foresight enough to conserve their +wages when finally paid and make them last until the next annual payment? +The fault for which the tenant is to be blamed is that he does not take +advantage of two courses of action open to him: first, to raise a +considerable part of the food he consumes; and second, to struggle +persistently to become independent of the merchant. Thousands of tenants +have achieved their economic freedom, and all could if they would only make +an intelligent and continued effort to do so. + +Nowhere else in the United States has the negro the same opportunity to +become self-sustaining, but his improvidence keeps him poor. Too often +he allows what little garden he has to be choked with weeds through his +shiftlessness. One of the shrewdest observers and fairest critics of the +negro, Alfred Holt Stone, says of the Mississippi negro: "In a +plantation experience of more than twelve years, during which I have +been a close observer of the economic life of the plantation negro, I +have not known one to anticipate the future by investing the earnings of +one year in supplies for the next....The idea seems to be that the +money from a crop already gathered is theirs, to be spent as fancy +suggests, while the crop to be made must take care of itself, or be taken +care of by the 'white-folks.'"[1] This statement is not so true of the +negroes of the Upper South, many of whom are more intelligent, and have +developed foresight and self-reliance. + +[Footnote 1: Stone. _Studies in the American Race Problem_, p. 188] + +The theory that there is an organized conspiracy over the whole South to +keep the negro in a state of peonage is frequently advanced by ignorant +or disingenuous apologists for the negro, but this belief cannot be +defended. The merchants usually prefer to sell for cash, and more and +more of them are reluctant to sell on credit. In some cotton towns no +merchant will sell on credit, and the landlord is obliged to furnish +supplies to those who cannot pay. The landowners generally would much +prefer a group of prosperous permanent tenants who could be depended +upon to give some thought to the crop of the future as well as to that +of the present. In the South as a whole the negro finds little +difficulty in buying land, if he can make a moderate first payment. It +is true that some are cheated by the merchant or the landlord. Prices +charged for supplies are too high, and the prices credited for crops are +too low, but the debtors are hardly swindled to a greater extent than +the ignorant and illiterate elsewhere. + +The condition of the white tenant is sometimes little better than that +of the negro. He usually farms a larger tract, 83.8 acres on the average +(in 1910), as against 39.6 acres for the negro, and he is on the whole +more prosperous; but there are many who live from hand to mouth, move +frequently, habitually get into debt to the merchant or the landlord, +and have little or no surplus at settling time. In the South in 1910 +there were 866,000 white tenant farmers who cultivated 20.5 per cent of +all the land, and since that time white tenancy has been increasing. The +increase of land ownership is greater among the negroes than among the +whites, who are in many cases illiterates. This illiteracy is one cause +of their poverty, but not the only cause: a part of it is moral, +involving a lack of steadfast purpose, and a part is physical. The +researches conducted by the United States Government, the state boards +of health, and the Rockefeller Foundation show clearly that much of the +indolence charged to the less prosperous Southern rural whites is due to +the effect of the hookworm, a tiny intestinal parasite common in most +tropical and subtropical regions and probably brought from Africa or the +West Indies by the negro. The Rockefeller Foundation is now spending nearly +$300,000 a year in financing, wholly or in part, attempts to eradicate the +disease in eight Southern States and in fifteen foreign countries. + +The parasite enters the body from polluted soil, usually through the +feet, as a large part of the rural population goes barefoot in the +summer; it makes its way to the intestinal canal, where it fixes itself, +grows, and lays eggs which are voided and hatch in the soil. Since most +country districts are without sanitary closets, reinfection may occur +again and again, until an individual harbors a host of these tiny +bloodsuckers, which interfere with his digestion and sap his vitality. +It is now believed that the morbid appetites of the "clay eaters" are +due to this infection. The fact that the negro who introduced the curse +is less susceptible to the infection and is less affected by it than the +white man is one of life's ironies. + +There is a brighter side to this picture, however. Of all the cultivated +land in the South 65 per cent is worked by owners (white 60.6 per cent; +colored 4.4 per cent) and this land is on the whole much better tilled +than that let to tenants. It is true that some of the landowners are +chronically in debt, burdened with mortgages and with advances for +supplies. Some of them probably produce less to the acre than tenants +working under close supervision, but the percentage of farms mortgaged is +less in the South than in any other part of the country except the +Mountain Division, and unofficial testimony indicates that few farms are +lost through foreclosure. + +For years the agricultural colleges and the experiment stations offered +good advice to the Southern farmer, but they reached only a small +proportion. Their bulletins had a small circulation and were so full of +technical expressions as to be almost unintelligible to the average +farmer. Recently the writers have attempted to make themselves more +easily understood, and the usefulness of their publications has +consequently increased. The bulletins of the Department of Agriculture +are read in increasing numbers, and several agricultural papers have a +wide circulation. The "farmer's institutes" where experts in various +lines speak on their specialties are well attended, and the experimental +farms to which few visitors came at first are now popular. + +Two other agencies are doing much for agricultural betterment. One is +the county demonstrator, and the other boys' and girls' clubs. Both are due +to the foresight and wisdom of the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, of the United +States Department of Agriculture. As early as 1903 Dr. Knapp had been +showing by practical demonstration how the farmers of Texas might +circumvent the boll weevil, which was threatening to make an end of +cotton-growing in that State. He was able to increase the yield of cotton +on a pest-ridden farm. The idea of the boys' corn club was not new when +Dr. Knapp took it up in 1908 and made it a national institution. The girls' +canning club was soon added to the list, and then came the pig club for +boys and the poultry club for girls. + +The General Education Board, which, with its large resources, had been +seeking the best way to aid education in the South, was forced to the +conclusion that any educational development must be preceded by economic +improvement. The farm production of the South was less than that of +other sections, and until this production could be increased, taxation, +no matter how heavy, could not provide sufficient money for really +efficient schools. After a study of the whole field of agricultural +education, the ideas of Dr. Knapp were adopted as the basis of the work +and, by arrangement with the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Knapp himself +was placed in charge. The appropriations to the Department of Agriculture +had been made for the extermination or circumvention of the boll weevil +and could not be used for purely educational work in States where the +weevil had not appeared. A division of territory was now made: the +Department financed demonstration work in those States affected by the +pest and the General Education Board bore the expense in the other States. +Entire supervision of the work was in the hands of the Department of +Agriculture, which made all appointments and disbursed all funds. The Board +furnished funds but assumed no authority. The history issued by the +General Education Board says: "Dr. Knapp endeavored to teach his hearers +not only how to raise cotton and corn, but how to conduct farming as a +business--how to ascertain the cost of a crop, how to find out whether they +were making or losing money. As rapidly as possible the scope was broadened +for the purpose of making the farmer more and more independent. He was +stimulated to raise stock, to produce feed and forage for his stock, and +to interest himself in truck gardening, hog-raising, etc." + +The method used was to appoint county, district and state demonstration +agents who would induce different farmers to cultivate a limited area +according to specific directions. As these agents were appointed by the +Department of Agriculture, the farmer was flattered by being singled out by +the Government. In most cases the results of the experiments were far +superior to those which the farmer had obtained merely by following +tradition, and he usually applied the successful methods to his whole farm. +Some of his neighbors, who visited the demonstration plot to scoff at the +idea that any one in Washington could teach a farmer how to grow cotton or +corn, were wise enough to recognize the improvement and to follow the +directions. Every successful demonstration farm was thus a center of +influence, and the work was continued after Dr. Knapp's death under the +charge of his son, Bradford Knapp. + +The idea of the boys' corn club was vitalized in 1908 by Dr. Knapp, who +planned to establish a corn club in every neighborhood, with county and +state organizations. Each boy was to cultivate a measured acre of land +in corn, according to directions and keep a strict account of the cost. +The work of his father, or of a hired man, in ploughing the land must be +charged against the plot at the market rate. Manure, or fertilizer, and +seed were likewise to be charged, but the main work of cultivation was to +be done by the boy himself. The crop was to be measured by two +disinterested witnesses who should certify to the result. Local pride was +depended upon to furnish prizes for the county organization, but the most +successful boys in every State were to be taken on a trip to Washington, +there to shake hands with the Secretary of Agriculture and the President. +This appeal to the imagination of youth was a master touch. + +Thousands of boys were interested and achieved results which were truly +startling. In every State the average yield from the boys' acres was +larger than the state average, in some cases almost five times as great. +One South Carolina boy produced on his acre in 1910 over 228 bushels, +and in 1913 an Alabama boy reached high-water mark with nearly 233 +bushels. Hundreds of boys produced over 100 bushels to the acre, and the +average of the boys in South Carolina was nearly 69 bushels, compared +with an average of less than 20 for the adult farmers. The pig clubs +which followed have likewise been successful and have stimulated an +interest in good stock and proper methods of caring for it. Many country +banks have financed these operations by buying hogs by the carload and +selling to the club members on easy terms. + +Girls' canning clubs were organized by Dr. Knapp in 1910. Girls were +encouraged to plant a tenth of an acre in tomatoes. Trained +demonstrators then traveled from place to place and showed them how to +use portable canning outfits. The girls met, first at one house and then +at another, to preserve their tomatoes, and soon they began to preserve +many other vegetables and fruits. Two girls in Tennessee are said to +have preserved 126 different varieties of food. Some of these clubs have +gained more than a local reputation for their products and have been +able to sell their whole output to hotels or to institutions. Though the +monetary gain has been worth something, the addition to the limited +dietary of the homes has been worth more, and the social influence of +these clubs has been considerable. The small farmer in the South is not +a social being, and anything which makes for cooperation is valuable. +The poultry clubs which were an extension of the canning club idea have +been successful. The club idea, indeed, has been extended beyond the +limits of the South. Congress, recognizing its value, has taken over and +extended the work and has supported it liberally. Today market-garden +clubs for the manufacturing cities, potato clubs, mother-and-daughter +clubs, and perhaps others have grown out of the vision of Dr. Knapp. + +Though these activities have had a great effect in improving the South, +that section has not yet been transformed into an Eden. In spite of farm +demonstrations, experiment stations, and boys' and girls' clubs, the +stubborn inertia of a rural population fixed on the soil has only been +shocked, not routed. Much land is barely scratched instead of being +ploughed deep; millions of acres bear no cover crops but lose their +fertility through the leaching of valuable constituents during the +winter. Fertilizer is bought at exorbitant prices, while the richness of +the barnyard goes to waste, and legumes are neglected; land is allowed +to wash into gullies which soon become ravines. Farms which would +produce excellent corn and hay are supplied with these products from the +Middle West; millions of pounds of Western pork are consumed in regions +where hogs can be easily and cheaply raised; butter from Illinois or +Wisconsin is brought to sections admirably adapted to dairying; and +apples from Oregon and honey from Ohio are sold in the towns. In several +typical counties an average of $4,000,000 was sent abroad for products +which could easily have been raised at home. In Texas some of the bankers +have been refusing credit to supply merchants who do not encourage the +production of food crops as well as cotton.[1] + +[Footnote 1: An illuminating series of studies of rural life is being +issued by the Bureau of Extension of the University of North Carolina.] + +Throughout the South there are thousands of homes into which no +newspaper comes, certainly no agricultural paper, and in which there are +few books, except perhaps school books. The cooking is sometimes done +with a few simple utensils over the open fire. Water must be brought +from a spring at the foot of the hill, at an expenditure of strength and +endurance. The cramped house has no conveniences to lighten labor or to +awaken pride. The overworked wife and mother has no social life, except +perhaps attendance at the services at the country church to which the +family rides in a springless wagon. Such families see their neighbors +prosper without attempting to discover the secret for themselves. Blank +fatalism possesses them. They do not realize that they could prosper. +New methods of cultivation, they think, are not for them since they have +no capital to purchase machinery. + +On the other hand, one sees more Ford cars than teams at many country +churches, and many larger automobiles as well. Some Southern States are +spending millions for better roads, and the farmer or his son or +daughter can easily run into town in the afternoon carrying a little +produce which more than pays for any purchases. Tractors are seen at +work here and there, and agricultural machinery is under the sheds. Many +houses have private water systems and a few farmers have harnessed the +brooks for electric lights. The gas engine which pumps the water runs +the corn sheller or the wood saw. The rural telephone spreads like a web +over the countryside. Into these houses the carrier brings the daily or +semi-weekly paper from the neighboring town, agricultural journals, and +some magazines of national circulation; a piano stands in the parlor; +and perhaps a college pennant or two hang somewhere, for many farm boys +and girls go to college. In spite of the short terms of the public +schools, many manage to get some sort of preparation for college, and in +the South more college students come from farm homes than from town or +city. This encouraging picture is true, no less than the other, and the +number of such progressive farm homes is fortunately growing larger. + +A greater range of products is being cultivated throughout the South, +though more cotton and tobacco are being produced than ever before. The +output of corn, wheat, hay, and pork has increased in recent years, though +the section is not yet self-sufficient. The growing of early vegetables and +fruits for Northern markets is a flourishing industry in some sections +where land supposedly almost worthless has been found to be admirably +adapted for this purpose. An increasing acreage in various legumes not +only furnishes forage but enriches the soil. Silos are to be seen here and +there, and there are some excellent herds of dairy cattle, though the +scarcity of reliable labor makes this form of farming hazardous. The cattle +tick is being conquered, and more beef is being produced. Thoroughbred +hogs and poultry are common. + +With the great rise in the price of the farmer's products since 1910, +the man who farms with knowledge and method is growing prosperous. +Farmers are taking advantage of the Federal Farm Loan Act and are paying +off many mortgages. The necessity of asking for credit is diminishing, +and men have contracted to buy land and have paid for it from the first +crop. While the things the farmer must buy have risen in price, his +products have risen even higher in value; and in those sections of the +South suited to mixed farming there need be comparatively little outgo. + +One is tempted to hope that the lane has turned for the Southern farmer. +Partly owing to his ignorance and inertia, partly to circumstances +difficult to overcome, his lot after 1870 was not easy, and from 1870 to +1910 is a full generation. An individual who grew to manhood on a +Southern farm during that period may be excused for a gloomy outlook +upon the world. He finds it difficult to believe that prosperity has +arrived, or that it will last. The number who have been convinced of the +brighter outlook, however, is increasing. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT + + +Though the Old South was in the main agricultural, it was not entirely +destitute of industrial skill. The recent industrial development is +really a revival, not a revolution, in some parts of the South. In 1810, +according to Tench Coxe's semi-official _Statement of Arts and +Manufactures_, the value of the textile products of North Carolina was +greater than that of Massachusetts. Every farmhouse had spinning-wheels +and one loom or several on which the women of the family spun yarn and +wove cloth for the family wardrobe. On the large plantations negro women +produced much of the cloth for both slaves and family. Except on special +occasions, a very large proportion of the clothing worn by the average +Southern community was of household or local manufacture. Hats were made +of fur, wool, or plaited straw. Hides were tanned on the plantations or +more commonly at a local tannery and were made into shoes by local +cobblers, white or black. + +Local cabinet-makers made furniture, all of it strong, and some of it +good in line and finish. Many of the pieces sold by dealers in antiques +in the great cities as coming from Europe by way of the South were made +by cabinet-makers in Southern villages in the first half of the +nineteenth century. Farm wagons as well as carriages with some +pretensions to elegance were made in local shops. In fact, up to 1810 or +1820 it seemed that the logical development of one or two of the South +Atlantic States would be into frugal manufacturing commonwealths. Few of +the thousands of small shops developed into real manufacturing +establishments, however, though many continued to exist. The belief in +the profits apparently to be made from the cultivation of cotton and +tobacco changed the ideals of the people. To own a plantation on which +he might lead a patriarchal existence became the ambition of the +successful man. Even the lawyer, the doctor, or the merchant was likely +to own a plantation to which he expected to retire, if indeed he did not +already live on it while he engaged in his other occupation. As the +century went on, the section began to depend more and more upon other +parts of the country or upon Europe to supply its wants, and general +interest in Southern industries began to wane. + +Textile establishments had appeared early in the century. The first +cotton mill in North Carolina was built in 1810 and one in Georgia about +the same time. Much of the machinery for the former was built by local +workmen. Other mills were built in the succeeding years until in 1860 +there were about 160 in the Southern States, with 300,000 spindles, and +a yearly product worth more than $8,000,000. The establishments were +small, less than one-third the average size of the mills in New England, +and few attempted to supply more than the local demand for coarse yarn +which the country women knit into socks or wove into cloth. The surplus +was peddled from wagons in adjoining counties or even in a neighboring +State. Little attempt was made to seek a wider outlet, and many of these +mills could supply the small local demand by running only a few months +in the year. + +During the Civil War, however, these mills were worked to their full +capacity. At the cessation of hostilities many mills were literally worn +out; others were destroyed by the invading armies; and fewer were in +operation in 1870 than before the War. During the next decade, hope of +industrial success began to return to the South. The mills in operation +were making some money; the high price of cotton had brought money into +the section; and a few men had saved enough to revive the industry. Old +mills were enlarged, and new mills were built. The number in operation +in 1880 was about the same as in 1860, but the number of spindles was +nearly twice as great. + +The Cotton Exposition at Atlanta in 1881 and the New Orleans Exposition +in 1884 gave an impetus to the construction of mills. There were +prophecies of future success in the industry, though some self-appointed +guardians of the South proved, to their own satisfaction at least, that +neither the section nor the people were adapted to the manufacture of +cotton and that all their efforts should be devoted to the production of +raw material for the mills of New England. Difficulties were magnified +and advantages were minimized by those whose interests were opposed to +Southern industrial development, but the movement had now gained +momentum and was not to be stopped. Timidly and hesitantly, capital for +building mills was scraped together in dozens of Southern communities, +and the number of spindles was doubled between 1880 and 1885 and continued +to increase. + +In developing this Southern industry there were many difficulties to be +overcome, and mistakes were sometimes made. Seduced by apparent +cheapness, many of the new mills bought machinery which the New England +mills had discarded for better patterns, or because of a change of +product. Operatives had to be drawn from the farms and needed to be +trained not only to work in the mills but also to habits of regularity +and punctuality. The New England overseers who were imported for this +purpose sometimes failed in dealing with these new recruits to +industrialism because of inability to make due allowance for their +limitations. Accustomed to the truck system in agriculture, the managers +often paid wages in scrip always good for supplies at the company store +but redeemable in cash only at infrequent intervals. The operatives +therefore sometimes found that they had exchanged one sort of economic +dependence for another. Another difficulty was that a place for Southern +yarn and Southern cloth had to be gained in the market, and this was +difficult of accomplishment for the product was often not up to the +Northern standard. + +Managing ability, however, was found not to be so rare in the South as +had been supposed. Some of the managers, drawn perhaps from the village +store, the small town bank, or the farm, succeeded so well in the +broader field that others were encouraged to seek similar industrial +success. As the construction of new mills went on, the temper of the +South Atlantic States began to change. The people began to believe in +Southern industrial development and to be eager to invest their savings +in something other than a land mortgage. An instalment plan by which the +savings of the people, small individually but large in the aggregate, +were united, furnished capital for mills in scores of towns and +villages. In 1890 there were nearly a million and three-quarters +spindles in the South compared with less than six hundred thousand ten +years before. + +It seemed as though nearly every mill was profitable, and the occasional +failures did not seriously check the movement, which developed about +1900 almost into a craze in some parts of the South. In these sections +every town talked of building one mill or more. The machine shops of the +North, which had been cold or at least indifferent to Southern +development, woke up, as Southern mills began to double or triple their +equipment out of their profits. Agents were sent to the South to +encourage the building of new mills, and to give advice and aid in +planning them. The new mill-owners were good customers. They had learned +wisdom by the mistakes of the pioneers, and they demanded the best +machinery with all the latest devices. Long credit was now freely +offered by Northern manufacturers of machinery, and some of them even +subscribed for stock--to be paid, of course, in machinery. + +The Northern textile manufacturers also woke up. They found that in +coarse yarns the Southern mills were successfully competing with their +products. Some pessimistic representatives of the industry in the North +prophesied that the Southern mills would soon control the market. Some +New England mills built branch mills in the South; some turned to the +finer yarns; and some sought to throw obstacles in the way of their +competitors. It has been freely charged by many Southerners that New +England manufacturers bore the expense of labor organizers in an +unsuccessful attempt to unionize the Southern mill operatives. It has +also been charged that the propaganda for legislation restricting the +hours of labor and the age of operatives in Southern mills was financed +to some extent by New England manufacturers, and that the writers of +the many lurid accounts purporting to describe conditions in Southern +mills received pay from the same source. + +The system of paying for stock on the instalment plan permitted the +construction of many mills for which capital could not have been raised +otherwise and had also certain distinct social consequences. According +to this plan, the subscriptions to the stock were made payable in weekly +instalments of 50 cents or $1.00 a share, thus requiring approximately +two or four years to complete payment. Those having money in hand might +pay in full, less six per cent discount for the average time. Since +almost or quite a year was usually necessary to build the mill and the +necessary tenements for the hands, the instalments more than paid this +item of expense. The weekly receipts and the payments in full were kept +in a local bank, which also expected future business and was therefore +likely to be liberal when credit was demanded. Often the officers and +directors of the bank were also personally interested in the new +enterprise. The machinery manufacturers gave long credit and often took +stock in the mill. Commission houses which sold yarns and cloth also +took stock with the expectation of controlling the marketing of the +product. + +Many mills built on this plan were so profitable that they were able to +pay for a considerable part of the machinery from the profits long +before the last instalment was paid, and some even paid a dividend or +two in addition. Such mills started operations with many things in their +favor. The ownership was widely distributed, since it was not at all +uncommon for a hundred thousand dollar mill to have a hundred or more +stockholders, some of whom held only one or two shares. Further, since +the amount of money paid in the immediate neighborhood for wages, fuel, +and raw material was large, every one was disposed to aid the enterprise +in every way possible. Town limits were often changed almost by common +consent in order to throw a mill outside so that it would not be subject +to town taxes. Where the state constitutions permitted, taxes on the +mill were even remitted for a term of years. Where this could not be +done, assessors were lenient and usually assessed mill property at much +less than its real value. + +Not only did some Northern corporations build branch mills in the South, +but a considerable amount of Northern capital was invested in mills +under the management of Southern men. It is of course impossible to +discover the residence of every stockholder, but enough is known to +support the assertion that the proportion of Northern capital is +comparatively small. The greater part of the investment in Southern +mills has come from the savings of Southern people or has been earned by +the mills themselves. Lately several successful mills have been bought +by large department stores and mail-order houses, in order to supply +them with goods either for the counter directly or else for the +manufacture of sheets, pillowcases, underwear, and the like. Marshall +Field and Company of Chicago, for example, own several mills in North +Carolina. + +The mills of the South have continued to increase until they are now +much more numerous than in the North. They are smaller in size, however, +for in 1915 the number of spindles in the cotton-growing States was +12,711,000 compared with 19,396,000 in all other States. The consumption +of cotton was nevertheless much greater in the South and amounted to +3,414,000 bales, compared with 2,770,000 bales in the other States. This +difference is explained by the fact that Southern mills generally spin +coarser yarn and may therefore easily consume twice or even three times +as much cotton as mills of the same number of spindles engaged in +spinning finer yarn. Some Southern mills, however, spin very fine yarn +from either Egyptian or sea-island cotton, but time is required to +educate a considerable body of operatives competent to do the more +delicate tasks, while less skillful workers are able to produce the +coarser numbers. + +Southern mills have paid high dividends in the past and have also +greatly enlarged their plants from their earnings. They had, years ago, +several advantages, some of which persist to the present day. The cost +of the raw material was less where a local supply of cotton could be +obtained, since freight charges were saved by purchase in the +neighborhood; land and buildings for plant and tenements cost less than +in the North; fuel was cheaper; water power was often utilized, though +sometimes this saving was offset by the cost of transportation; taxes +were lower; the rate of wages was lower; there was little or no +restriction of the conditions of employment; and there were +comparatively few labor troubles. + +With the great growth of the industry, however, some of these early +advantages have disappeared. Many mills can no longer depend upon the +local supply of cotton, and the freight charge from the Lower South is +as high as the rate by water to New England or even higher; the +transportation of the finished product to Northern markets is an +additional expense; wages have risen with the growth of the industry and +are approaching closely, if they have not reached, the rate per unit of +product paid in other sections. The cost of fuel has increased, although +in some localities the development of hydro-electric power has reduced +this item. All the States have imposed restrictions upon the employment +of women and children in the mills, particularly at night. On the other +hand, taxes remain lower, the cost of building is less, and strikes and +other forms of industrial friction are still uncommon. When well +managed, the Southern mills are still extremely profitable, but margin +for error in management has become less. + +The Southern mills are chiefly to be found in four States, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and in the hill country +of these States, though a few large mills are situated in the lowlands. +North Carolina, with over three hundred mills, has more than any other +State, North or South, and consumes more cotton than any other Southern +State--over a million bales. + +South Carolina, however, has more spindles, the average size of its +mills is larger, and it spins more fine yarn. North Carolina is second +only to Massachusetts in the value of its cotton products, South +Carolina comes third, Georgia fourth, and Alabama eighth. Virginia and +Tennessee are lower on the list. In quantity of cotton consumed, the +cotton growing States passed all others in 1905; and in 1916 the +consumption was twenty-five per cent greater, in spite of the fact that +New England had been increasing her spindles. Some Southern mills are +built in cities, but usually they are in the smaller towns and in little +villages which have grown up around the mills and owe their existence to +them. There is some localization of industry: a very large number of +mills, for instance, may be found in a radius of one hundred miles from +Charlotte, North Carolina, and one North Carolina county has more than +fifty mills, though the total number of spindles in that county is not +much greater than in some single New England establishment. + +In the allied knitting industry the production of the South is +increasing in importance. North Carolina led the South in 1914, with +Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, following in the order named. Though most +of the establishments are small, some are important and are +establishing a wide reputation for their product. Generally they are +situated in the towns where cotton mills have already been located. + +The textile industry, though it is the most important, is not the only +great industrial enterprise in the New South. Two others, both in a way +the by-products of cotton, deserve attention. Only a few years ago +cotton seed was considered a nuisance. A small quantity was fed to +stock; a somewhat larger quantity was composted with stable manure and +used for fertilizer; but the greater part was left to rot or was even +dumped into the streams which ran the gins. Since the discovery of the +value of cottonseed products, the industry has grown rapidly. The oil is +now used in cooking, is mixed with olive oil, is sold pure for salad +oil, and is an important constituent of oleomargarine, lard substitutes, +and soap, to name only a few of the uses to which it is put. The cake, +or meal from which the oil has been pressed, is rich in nitrogen and is +therefore valuable as fertilizer; it is also a standard food for cattle, +and tentative experiments with it have even been made as a food for +human beings. The hulls have also considerable value as cattle food, and +from them are obtained annually nearly a million bales of "linters," +that is, short fibers of cotton which escaped the gin. Since the seed is +bulky and the cost of transportation is correspondingly high, there are +many small cottonseed oil mills rather than a few large ones. Texas is +the leader in this industry, with Georgia next, though oil mills are to +be found in all the cotton States, and the value of the seed adds +considerably to the income of every cotton grower. In 1914 the value of +cottonseed products was $212,000,000. + +The industry of making fertilizer depends largely upon cottonseed meal. +More than a hundred oil mills have fertilizer departments. The phosphate +deposits of the South Atlantic States are also important, and the +fertilizer industry is showing more and more a tendency to become +sectional. Georgia easily leads, Maryland is second, and no Northern +State ranks higher than seventh. + +From the standpoint of values lumbering is a more important industry +than the manufacture of fertilizers. In this respect Louisiana is the +second State in value of products, and the industry is important in +Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina. The South furnishes nearly +half of the lumber produced in the United States. This industry is, of +course, only one step from the raw material. The manufacture of wood +into finished articles is, however, increasing in some of the Southern +States. The vehicle industry is considerable, and the same may be said +of agricultural machinery, railway and street cars, and coffins. North +Carolina especially is taking rank in the manufacture of furniture, most +of it cheap but some of it of high grade. So far, ambition has in few +cases gone beyond utilization of the native woods, some of which are +surprisingly beautiful. Many small establishments in different States +make such special products as spokes, shuttle blocks, pails, broom +handles, containers for fruits and vegetables, and the like, but the +total value of these products is small compared with the value of the +crude lumber which is sent out of the South. + +The iron industry is important chiefly in Alabama, of the purely +Southern States. This State is fourth in the product of its blast +furnaces but supplied in 1914 only a little more than six per cent of +the total for the United States. Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia +produce appreciable quantities of pig iron; no Southern State plays a +really important part in the steel industry, though Maryland, Alabama, +and West Virginia are all represented. Birmingham, Alabama, is the +center of steel manufacture and has been called the Pittsburgh of +the South, but though the industry has grown rapidly in Birmingham, it +has also grown in Pittsburgh, and the Southern city is gaining very +slowly. There are great beds of bituminous coal in the South, but only +in West Virginia and Alabama is the production really important, though +Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia produce appreciable quantities. + +In the total value of the products of mines of all sorts, West Virginia +and Oklahoma are among the leaders, owing to their iron, coal, and +petroleum output. Other Southern States follow in the rear. Alabama, +Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Louisiana all have a +mineral output which is large in the aggregate but a small part of the +total. The sulphur mines of Louisiana are growing increasingly +important. North Carolina produces a little of almost everything, but +its mineral production, except of mica, is not important. In this State +large aluminum works have been constructed and the quantity of precious +and semiprecious stones found there is a large part of the production +for the United States. + +The tobacco industry is growing rapidly in the South. There have always +been small establishments for the manufacture of tobacco, and many of +these during the last three decades have grown to large proportions. New +establishments have been opened, some of which are among the largest in +the world. The development of the American Tobacco Company and its +affiliated and subsidiary organizations has greatly reduced the number +of separate establishments. Many were bought by the combination; their +brands were transferred to another factory; and the original +establishments were closed as uneconomical. Many other small factories, +feeling or fearing the competition, closed voluntarily. But the total +production of tobacco has steadily increased. Plug and smoking tobacco +are largely confined to the Upper South. North Carolina easily leads, +while Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri (if it be classed as a Southern +State) also have factories which are known all over the world. Richmond, +St. Louis, Louisville, and New Orleans, and Winston-Salem and Durham in +North Carolina are the cities which lead in this industry. Winston-Salem +probably now makes more plug, and Durham more smoking tobacco, than any +other cities in the United States, and the cigarette production of the +former is increasing enormously. Some factories supply export trade +almost exclusively. There has been little development of the fine cigar +industry except in Louisiana and Florida, though in all cities of the +Lower South there are local establishments for the manufacture of cigars +from Cuban leaf. Richmond is a center for the manufacture of domestic +cigars and cheroots and has one mammoth establishment. + +Twenty years or thirty years ago scattered over the South there were +thousands of small grist mills which ground the farmer's wheat or corn +between stones in the old-fashioned way. These are being superseded by +roller mills, some of them quite large, which handle all the local wheat +and even import some from the West. However, as the annual production of +wheat in the South has decreased rather than increased since 1880, it is +obvious that the industry has changed in form rather than increased in +importance. + +There are other less important manufacturing enterprises in the South. +The census shows about two hundred and fifty distinct industries pursued +to a greater or less extent. Maryland ranked fourteenth in the total +value of manufactured products in 1914. Only seven Southern States were +found in the first twenty-five, while Minnesota, which is generally +considered an agricultural State, ranked higher in manufactures than any +of the Southern group in 1914. The next census will undoubtedly give +some Southern States high rank, though the section as a whole is not yet +industrial. The manufacturing output is increasing with marvelous +rapidity, but it is increasing in other sections of the country as well. +Although the South was credited in 1914 with an increase of nearly 72 +per cent in the value of its products during the decade, its proportion +of the total value of products in the United States as a whole increased +only from 12.8 per cent in 1904 to 13.1 per cent in 1914. The section is +still far from equaling or surpassing other sections except in the +manufacture of textiles. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LABOR CONDITIONS + + +The laborer employed in the manufacturing enterprises of the South, +whether white or black, is native born and Southern born. Sporadic +efforts to import industrial workers from Europe have not been +successful and there has been no considerable influx of workers from +other sections of the Union. A few skilled workers have come, but the +rank and file in all the factories and shops were born in the State in +which they work or in a neighboring State. Speaking broadly, those +dealing with complicated machines are white, while those engaged in +simpler processes are white or black. We find, therefore, a +preponderance of whites in the textile industries and in the shops +producing articles from wood and iron, while the blacks are found in the +lumber industry, in the tobacco factories, in the mines, and at the +blast furnaces. There are some skilled workmen among the negroes, +especially in tobacco, but generally they furnish the unskilled labor. + +The textile industry employs the greatest number of operatives, or at +least concentrates them more. From the farms or the mountain coves, or +only one generation removed from that environment, they have been drawn +to the mills by various motives. The South is still sparsely settled, +and the life of the tenant farmer or the small landowner and his family +is often lonely. Until recently, roads were almost universally bad, +especially in winter, and a visit to town or even to a neighbor was no +small undertaking. Attendance at the country church, which sometimes has +services only once a month, or a trip to the country store on Saturday +afternoon with an occasional visit to the county-seat furnish almost the +only opportunity for social intercourse. Work in a cotton mill promised +not merely fair wages but what was coveted even more--companionship. + +During the period of most rapid growth in the textile industry, +agriculture, or at least agriculture as practiced by this class, was +unprofitable. During the decade from 1890 to 1900 the price of all kinds +of farm produce was exceedingly low, and the returns in money were very +small. Even though a farmer more farsighted than the average did produce +the greater part of his food on the farm, his "money crop"--cotton or +tobacco--hardly brought the cost of production. The late D.A. Tompkins, of +Charlotte, North Carolina, a close student of cotton, came to the +conclusion, about 1910, that cotton had been produced at a loss in the +South considered as a whole, at least since the Civil War. Many farmers, +however, were in a vicious economic circle and could not escape. If they +had bought supplies at the country store at inflated prices, the crops +sometimes were insufficient to pay the store accounts, and the balance was +charged against the next year's crop. Men who did not go heavily into debt +often handled less than $200 in cash in a year, and others found difficulty +in obtaining money even for their small taxes. To such men the stories of +$15 to $25 earned at a mill by a single family in a week seemed almost +fabulous. The whole family worked on the farm, as farmers' families have +always done, and it seemed the natural thing that, in making a change, +all should work in the mill. + +To those families moved by loneliness and those other families driven by +an honest ambition to better their economic condition were added the +families of the incapable, the shiftless, the disabled, and the widowed. +In a few cases men came to the mills deliberately intending to exploit +their children, to live a life of ease upon their earnings. There were +places for the younger members of all these families, but a man with +hands calloused and muscles stiffened by the usual round of farm work +could seldom learn a new trade after the age of forty, no matter how +willing. Often a cotton mill is the only industrial enterprise in the +village, and the number of common laborers needed is limited. Too many +of the fathers who had come to the village intending themselves to work +gradually sank into the parasite class and sat around the village store +while their children worked. + +During the early expansion of the industry, the wages paid were low +compared with New England standards, but they were sufficient to draw +the people from the farms and to hold them at the mills. In considering +the wages paid in Southern mills, this fact must never be forgotten. +There was always an abundance of land to which the mill people could +return at will and wrest some sort of living from the soil. For them to +go back to the land was not a venture full of unknown hazards. They had +been born on the land and even yet are usually only one generation removed, +and the land cries out for tenants and laborers. It must also be remembered +that though the wages measured in money were low, the cost of living was +likewise low. Rents were trifling, if indeed the tenements were not +occupied free; the cost of fuel and food was low; and many expenses +necessary in New England were superfluous in the South. + +With the increasing number of mills and the rising price of agricultural +products, the supply of industrial laborers became less abundant, and +higher wages have been necessary to draw recruits from the farms until +at present the rate of wages approaches that of New England. The +purchasing power is probably greater for, while the cost of living has +greatly increased in the South, it is still lower than in other parts of +the country. This does not mean that the average Southern wage is equal +to the New England average. While there is a growing body of highly +skilled operatives in the South, the rapid growth of the industry has +made necessary the employment of an overwhelmingly large number of +untrained or partially trained operatives, who cannot tend so many +spindles or looms as the New England operatives. Again, much yarn in the +North is spun upon mules, while in the South these machines are uncommon. +For certain purposes, this soft but fine and even yarn is indispensable. +Only strong, highly skilled operatives, usually men, can tend these +machines. The earnings of such specialists cannot fairly be compared with +the amounts received by ordinary girl spinners on ring frames. Again the +weekly wage of an expert weaver upon fancy cloth cannot justly be compared +with that of a Southern operative upon plain goods. Where the work is +comparable, however, the rates per unit of product in North and South are +not far apart. + +From the standpoint of the employer it may be possible that the wages +per unit of product are higher in some Southern mills than in some New +England establishments. In the case of an expensive machine, an +operative who gets from it only sixty to seventy-five per cent of its +possible production may receive higher wages, or what amounts to the +same thing, may produce at a higher cost per unit than a more highly +paid individual who more nearly approaches the theoretical maximum +production of the machine. There is much expensive machinery in the +Southern mills. In fact, on the whole, the machinery for the work in +hand is better than in New England, because it is newer. The recently built +Southern mills have been equipped with all the latest machinery, while +many of the older Northern mills have not felt able to scrap machines +which, though antiquated, were still running well. However, the advantage +in having a better machine is not fully realized if it is not run to its +full capacity. Both spinning frames and looms have generally been run at +a somewhat slower speed in the South than in the North. This fact was noted +by that careful English observer, T.M. Young: "Whether the cost per unit +of efficiency is greater in the South than in the North is hard to say. But +for the automatic loom, the North would, I think, have the advantage. +Perhaps the truth is that in some parts of the South where the industry +has been longest established and a generation has been trained to the work, +Southern labor is actually as well as nominally cheaper than Northern; +whilst in other districts, where many mills have sprung up all at once +amongst a sparse rural population, wholly untrained, the Southern labor at +present procurable is really dearer than the Northern[1]." This does not +mean that Southern labor is permanently inferior; but a highly skilled body +of operatives requires years for its development. + +[Footnote 1: T.M. Young, _The American Cotton Industry_, p. 113.] + +In the beginning there were no restrictions upon hours of work, age, or +sex of operatives, or conditions of employment. Every mill was a law +unto itself. Hours were long, often seventy-two and in a few cases +seventy-five a week. Wages were often paid in scrip good at the company +store but redeemable in cash only at infrequent intervals, if indeed any +were then presented. Yet, if the prices at the store were sometimes +exorbitant, they were likely to be less than the operatives had been +accustomed to pay when buying on credit while living on the farms. The +moral conditions at some of these mills were also bad, since the least +desirable element of the rural population was the first to go to the +mills. Such conditions, however, were not universal. Some of the +industrial communities were clean and self-respecting, but conditions +depended largely upon the individual in charge of the mill. + +As the years went on and more and more mills were built, the demand for +operatives increased. To draw them from the farms, it was necessary to +improve living conditions in the mill villages and to increase wages. +Today the mill communities are generally clean, and care is taken to +exclude immoral individuals. Payment of wages in cash became the rule. The +company store persisted, but chiefly as a matter of convenience to the +operatives; and in prices it met and often cut below those charged in +other stores in the vicinity. The hours of labor were reduced gradually. +Seventy-two became the maximum, but most mills voluntarily ran sixty-nine +or even sixty-six. The employment of children continued, though some +individual employers reduced it as much as possible without seriously +crippling their forces. This was a real danger so long as there were no +legal restrictions on child labor. Children worked upon the farm as +children have done since farming began, and the average farmer who moved +to the mill was unable to see the difference between working on the farm +and working in the mill. In fact, to his mind, work in the mill seemed +easier than exposure on the farm to the summer sun and the winter cold. + +Men who were not conscious of deliberately exploiting their children +urged the manager of the mill to employ a child of twelve or even ten. +If the manager refused, he was threatened with the loss of the whole +family. A family containing good operatives could always find employment +elsewhere, and perhaps the manager of another mill would not be so +scrupulous. So the children went into the mill and often stayed there. If +illiterate when they entered, they remained illiterate. The number of young +children, however, was always exaggerated by the muckrakers, though +unquestionably several hundred children ten to twelve years old, and +possibly a few younger, were employed years ago. The nature of the work +permits the employment of operatives under sixteen only in the spinning +room; the girls, many of them older than sixteen, mend the broken ends of +the yarn at the spinning frames, and the boys remove the full bobbins and +fix empty ones in their stead. The possible percentage of workers under +sixteen in a spinning mill varies from thirty-five to forty-five. In a +mill which weaves the yarn into cloth, the percentage is greatly reduced, +as practically no one under sixteen can be profitably employed in a weaving +room. + +Public sentiment against the employment of children became aroused only +slowly. Crusades against such industrial customs are usually led by +organized labor, by professional philanthropists, by sentimentalists, +and by socialistic agitators. The mill operatives of the South have +shown little disposition to organize themselves and, in fact, have +protested against interference with their right of contract. The South is +only just becoming rich enough to support professional philanthropists, and +an outlet for sentimentality has been found in other directions. There has +been as yet too little disproportion of wealth among the Southern whites +to excite acute jealousy on this ground alone, and the operatives have +earned much more money in the mills than was possible on the farms. In +comparatively few cases does one man, or one family, own a controlling +interest in a mill. The ownership is usually scattered in small holdings, +and there is seldom a Croesus to excite envy. This wide ownership has had +its effect upon the general attitude of the more influential citizens and +hindered the development of active disapproval. + +The chief reason for the inertia in labor matters, however, has been the +fact that the South has thought, and to a large extent still thinks, in +terms of agriculture. It has not yet developed an industrial philosophy. +Agriculture is individualistic, and Thomas Jefferson's ideas upon the +functions and limitations of government still have influence. Regulation +of agricultural labor would seem absurd, and the difference between a +family, with or without hired help, working in comparative freedom on a +farm, and scores of individuals working at the same tasks, day after day, +under more or less tension was slow to take shape in the popular +consciousness. It was obvious that the children were not actually +physically abused; almost unanimously they preferred work to school, just +as the city boy does today; and the children themselves opposed most +strongly any proposed return to the farm. The task of the reformers--for +in every State there were earnest men and women who saw the evils of +unrestricted child labor--was difficult. It was the same battle which had +been fought in England and later in New England, when their textile +industries were passing through the same stage of development. Every +student of industrial history realizes that conditions in the South were +neither so hard nor were the hours so long as they had been in England and +New England. + +The attempt to apply pressure from without had little influence. Indeed +it is possible that the resentment occasioned by the exaggerated stories +of conditions really hindered the progress of restrictive legislation, +just as the bitter denunciation of the Southern attitude toward the +negro has increased conservatism. Every one knew that the pitiful +stories of abuse or oppression were untrue. No class of laborers +anywhere is more independent than Southern mill operatives. It has been a +long while since a family of even semi-efficient operatives has been +compelled to ask for employment. Runners for other mills, upon the +slightest hint of disaffection, are quick to seek them out and even to +advance the expense of moving and money to pay any debts. It is well known +that families move for the slightest reason or for no reason at all except +a vague unrest. Self-interest, if nothing else, would restrain an overseer +from an act which might send a whole family or perhaps half a dozen +families from his mill. + +Gradually the States imposed limitations upon age of employment, hours +of labor, and night work for women and children, which practically meant +limiting or abolishing night work altogether. These restrictions were +slight at first, and the provisions for their enforcement were +inadequate, but succeeding legislatures increased them. Mild compulsory +attendance laws kept some of the children in school and out of the mill. +A more or less substantial body of labor legislation was gradually +growing up, when state regulation was stopped by the action of the +Federal Government. Since the first Federal Child Labor Act was declared +unconstitutional, several States have strengthened laws previously +existing, and have further reduced the hours of labor. + +Until comparatively recently whatever provision was made for the social +betterment of the operatives depended upon the active manager of the +particular mill. Some assumed a patriarchal attitude and attempted to +provide those things which they thought the operatives should have. +Others took little or no responsibility, except perhaps to make a +contribution to all the churches represented in the community. This +practice is almost universal, and if the term of the public school is +short, it is usually extended by a contribution from the mill treasury. +During recent years much more has been done. Partly from an awakening +sense of social responsibility and partly from a realization that it is +good business to do so, the bigger mills have made large expenditures to +improve the condition of their operatives. They have provided reading +rooms and libraries, have opened many recreation rooms and playgrounds, +and have furnished other facilities for entertainment. Some of the mills +have athletic fields, and a few support semi-professional baseball +teams. At some mills community buildings have been erected, which +sometimes contain, in addition to public rooms, baths, and a swimming +pool, an office for a visiting nurse and rooms which an adviser in +domestic science may use for demonstration. The older women are hard to +teach, but not a few of the girls take an interest in the work. Nothing +is more needed than instruction in domestic science. The operatives +spend a large proportion of their income upon food--for the rent they +pay is trifling--but the items are not always well chosen, and the +cooking is often bad. To the monotonous dietary to which they were +accustomed on the farms they add many luxuries to be had in the mill +town, but these are often ruined by improper preparation. Owing to this +lack of domestic skill many operatives apparently suffer from +malnutrition, though they spend more than enough money to supply an +abundance of nourishing food. + +Not many years ago the improvidence of the mill operatives was +proverbial. Wages were generally spent as fast as they were earned, and +often extravagantly. Little attempt was made to cultivate gardens or to +make yards attractive, with the result that a factory village with its +monotonous rows of unkempt houses was a depressing sight. The "factory +people," many of whom had been nomad tenant farmers seldom living long +in the same place, had never thought of attempting to beautify their +surroundings, and the immediate neighborhood of the mill to which they +moved was often bare and unlovely and afforded little encouragement to +beauty. + +The improvident family is still common, and many ugly mill villages yet +exist, but one who has watched the development of the cotton industry in +the South for twenty-five years has seen great changes in these +respects. Thousands of families are saving money today. Some buy homes; +others set up one member of the family in a small business; and a few +buy farms. More than seventy-five families have left one mill village +during the last ten years to buy farms with their savings, but this +instance is rather unusual; comparatively few families return to the +land. Efforts have been made to develop a community spirit, and the +results are perceptible. Many mill villages are now really attractive. +Scores of mills have had their grounds laid out by a landscape +architect, and a mill covered with ivy and surrounded by well-kept lawns +and flower beds is no longer exceptional. In scores of mill communities +annual prizes are offered for the best vegetable garden, the most +attractive premises, and the best kept premises from a sanitary +standpoint. + +The Southern operative is too close to the soil to be either socialistic +in his views or collectivistic in his attitude. The labor agitator has +found sterile soil for his propaganda. Yet signs of a dawning class +consciousness are appearing. As always, the first manifestation is +opposition to the dominant political party or faction. This has not yet, +however, been translated into any considerable number of Republican +votes, except in North Carolina. In the other States, the votes of the +factory operatives seem to be cast in something of a block, in the +primary elections. The demagogic Blease is said to have found much of +his support in South Carolina in the factory villages. + +Employees in other industries show so much diversity that few general +statements can be made concerning them. The workers in the furniture +factories--who are chiefly men, as few women or children can be employed +in this industry--are few in number compared with the male employees in +the cotton mills and, except in the case of a few towns, can hardly be +discussed as a group at all. Both whites and negroes are employed, but +the white man is usually in the responsible post, though a few negroes +tend important machines. The general average of education and +intelligence among the whites is higher here than in the cotton mills, +and wages are likewise higher. Conditions in other establishments making +articles of wood are practically the same. + +Lumber mills range from a small neighborhood sawmill with a handful of +employees to the great organizations which push railroads into the deep +woods and strip a mountain side or devastate the lowlands. Such +organizations require a great number of laborers, whom they usually feed +and to whom they issue from a "commissary" various necessary articles +which are charged against the men's wages. As the work is hard, it has +not been at all uncommon for employees who had received large advances +to decamp. The companies, however, took advantage of various laws +similar to those mentioned in the chapter on agriculture to have these +deserters arrested and to have them, when convicted, "hired out" to the +very company or employer from whom they had fled. Conditions resulting +from this practice in some of the States of the Lower South became so +scandalous about 1905 that numerous individuals were tried in the courts +and were convicted of holding employees in a state of peonage. In 1911 +the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional the +law of Alabama regarding contract of service.[1] This law regarded the +nonfulfillment of a contract on which an advance had been made as _prima +facie_ evidence of intent to defraud and thus gave employers immense +power over their employees. Conditions have therefore undoubtedly +improved since the peonage trials, but the lumber industry is one in +which the labor has apparently everywhere been casual, migratory, and +lawless. + +[Footnote 1: Bailey _vs._ Alabama, 219 U.S., 219.] + +The manufacture of tobacco shows as much diversity of labor conditions +as the lumber industry. There are small establishments with little +machinery which manufacture plug and smoking tobacco and are open only a +few months in the year, as well as those which cover half a dozen city +blocks. In the smaller factories the majority of the laborers are black, +but in the larger establishments both negroes and whites are employed. +Sometimes they do the same sort of work on opposite sides of the same +room. In some departments negro and white men work side by side, while +in others only whites or only negroes are found. The more complicated +machines are usually tended by whites, and the filling and inspection of +containers is ordinarily done by white girls, who are also found in +large numbers in the cigarette factories. Not many years ago the +tobacco industry was supposed to belong to the negro, but with the +introduction of machinery he has lost his monopoly, though on account of +the expansion of the industry the total number of negroes employed is +greater than ever before. + +In the smaller factories labor is usually paid by the day, but in the +larger establishments every operation possible is on a piecework basis. +These operations are so related in a series that a slacker feels the +displeasure of those who follow him and depend upon him for a supply of +material. In the smaller factories the work is regarded somewhat in the +light of a summer holiday, as the tasks are simple and the operatives +talk and sing at their work. This social element largely disappears, +however, with the introduction of machinery. As might be expected in a +labor force composed of men, women, and children, both white and black, +with some engaged in manual labor and others tending complicated +machines, there is little solidarity. An organized strike including any +large percentage of the force in a tobacco factory is a practical +impossibility. Those engaged in a particular process may strike and in +consequence tie up the processes depending upon them, but any sort of +industrial friction is uncommon. The general level of wages has been +steadily rising, and among the negroes the tobacco workers are the +aristocrats of the wage earners and are content with their situation. Since +the larger factories are almost invariably in the cities, the homes of the +workers are scattered and not collected in communities as around the cotton +mills. + +Experiments have been made in employing negro operatives in the textile +industry, so far with little success, though the capacity of the negro +for such employment has not yet been disproved. Though several cotton +mills which made the experiment failed, in every case there were +difficulties which might have caused a similar failure even with white +operatives. Negroes have been employed successfully in some hosiery +mills and in a few small silk mills. The increasing scarcity of labor, +especially during the Great War, has led to the substitution of negroes +for whites in a number of knitting mills. Some successful establishments +are conducted with negro labor but the labor force is either all white +or all black except that white overseers are always, or nearly always +employed. + +An important hindrance in the way of the success of negroes in these +occupations is their characteristic dislike of regularity and punctuality. +As the negro has acquired these virtues to some extent at least in the +tobacco industry, there seems to be no reason to suppose that in time he +may not succeed also in textiles, in which the work is not more difficult +than in other tasks of which negroes have proved themselves capable. So far +the whites have not resented the occasional introduction of black +operatives into the textile industry. If the negroes become firmly +established while the demand for operatives continues to be greater than +the supply, race friction on this account is unlikely, but if they are +introduced in the future as strikebreakers, trouble is sure to arise. In +the mines, blast furnaces, oil mills, and fertilizer factories the negroes +do the hardest and most unpleasant tasks, work which in the North is done +by recent immigrants. + +The negroes are almost entirely unorganized and are likely to remain so +for a long time. Few negroes accumulate funds enough to indulge in the +luxury of a strike, and they have shown little tendency to organize or +support unions. However, their devotion to their lodges shows the +loyalty of which they are capable, and their future organization is not +beyond the range of possibility. Generally the South has afforded little +encouragement to organized labor. Even the white workers, except in the +cities and in a few skilled trades, have shown until recently little +tendency to organize. In the towns and villages they are not sharply +differentiated from the other elements of the population. They look upon +themselves as citizens rather than as members of the laboring class. +Except in a few of the larger towns one does not hear of "class conflict"; +and the "labor vote," when by any chance a Socialist or a labor candidate +is nominated, is not large enough to be a factor in the result. + +During 1918 and 1919, however, renewed efforts to organize Southern +labor met with some success particularly in textile and woodworking +establishments, though the tobacco industry and public utilities were +likewise affected. The efforts of employers to prevent the formation of +unions led to lockouts and strikes during which there was considerable +disorder and some bloodshed. Communities which had known of such +disputes only from hearsay stood amazed. The workers generally gained +recognition of their right to organize, and their success may mean +greater industrial friction in the future. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE + + +For a century, the presence of the negro in the United States has +divided the nation. Though the Civil War finally decided some questions +about his status, others affecting his place in the social order +remained unsettled; new controversies have arisen; and no immediate +agreement is in sight. Interest in the later phases of the race question +has found expression in scores of books, hundreds of articles, thousands +of orations and addresses, and unlimited private discussions which have +generally produced more heat than light. The question has kept different +sections of the country apart and has created bitterness which will long +endure. Moreover, this discussion about ten million people has produced +an effect upon them, and the negroes are beginning to feel that they +constitute a problem. + +Differing attitudes toward the negro generally arise from fundamentally +different postulates. + +Many Northerners start with the assumption that the negro is a black +Saxon and argue that his faults and deficiencies arise from the +oppression he has endured. At the other extreme are those who hold that +the negro is fundamentally different from the white man and inferior to +him: and some go so far as to say that he is incapable of development. +Fifty years ago General John Pope predicted, with a saving reservation, +hat the negroes of Georgia would soon surpass the whites in education, +culture, and wealth. Other predictions, similar in tone, were common in the +reports of various philanthropic associations. Obviously these +prophecies have not been fulfilled; but it is just as evident that the +predictions that the former slaves would relapse into barbarism and starve +have also not been realized. Practically every prophecy or generalization +made before 1890 with regard to the future of the negro has been +discredited by the events of the passing years. + +It is perhaps worth while to take stock of what this race has +accomplished in America during something more than fifty years of +freedom. The negro has lived beside the white man and has increased in +numbers, though at a somewhat slower rate than the white. The census of +1870 was inaccurate and incomplete in the South, and in consequence the +census of 1880 seemed to show a phenomenal increase in the negro +population. Upon this supposed increase was based the theory that the South +would soon be overwhelmingly black. From the historical standpoint, Albion +W. Tourgée's _Appeal to Caesar_ is interesting as a perfect example of this +type of deduction, for he could see only a black South. The three censuses +taken since 1880 definitely establish the fact that the net increase of +negro population is smaller than that of the white. This seems to have been +true at every census since 1810, and the proportion of negroes to the total +population of the nation grows steadily, though slowly, smaller.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Though the negro increase is smaller than the white, +nevertheless the 4,441,930 negroes in 1860 had increased to 9,827,763 in +1910. Of this number 8,749,427 lived in the Southern States, and +1,078,336 in the Northern. That is to say, 89 per cent of the negroes +lived in the three divisions classed as Southern, 10.5 per cent in the +four divisions classed as Northern and 0.5 per cent in the two Western +divisions. Since 1790 the center of negro population has been moving +toward the Southwest and has now reached northeast Alabama. Migration to +the North and West has been considerable since emancipation. In 1910 +there were 415,533 negroes born in the South but living in the North, +and, owing to this migration, the percentage of increase of negro +population outside the South has been larger than the average. Between +1900 and 1910 the increase in the New England States was 12.2 per cent +and in the East North Central 16.7 per cent. The mountain divisions show +a large percentage of increase, but as there were in both of them +together less than 51,000 negroes, comprising less than 1 per cent of +the population, it is evident that the negro is not a serious factor in +the West. The negroes form an insignificant component (less than 5 per +cent) of the population of any Northern State, though in some Northern +cities the number of negroes is considerable. See _Abstract of the +Thirteenth Census of the United States,_ p. 78.] + +Between 1900 and 1910, the native white population increased 20.9 per +cent while the negro population increased only 11.2 per cent. This +smaller increase in the later decade is due partly to negro migration to +the cities. It is believed that among the city negroes, particularly in +the North, the death rate is higher than the birth rate. The excessive +death rate results largely from crowded and unsanitary quarters. + +Since 1910, the migration of negroes to the North has been larger than +before. The increase was not unusual, however, until the beginning of +the Great War. Up to that time the majority had been engaged in domestic +and personal service, but with the practical cessation of immigration +from Europe, a considerable number of negro laborers moved to the +Northern States. Indeed, in some Southern communities the movement +almost reached the proportions of an exodus. Until the next census there +is no means of estimating with any approach to accuracy the extent of +this migration. The truth is probably somewhere in between the published +estimates which range from 300,000 to 1,000,000. The investigations of +the United States Department of Labor indicate the smaller number. + +The motives for this northward migration are various. The offer of +higher wages is the most important. The desire to get for their children +greater educational advantages than are offered in the South is also +impelling. The belief that race prejudice is less strong in the North is +another inducement to leave the South, for "Jim Crow" cars and political +disfranchisement have irritated many. Finally the dread of lynch law may +be mentioned as a motive for migration, though its actual importance may +be doubted. Not all the negroes who have moved to the North have +remained there. Many do not allow for the higher cost of food and +shelter in their new home, and these demands upon the higher wages leave +a smaller margin than was expected. Others find the climate too severe, +while still others are unable or unwilling to work regularly at the +speed demanded. + +The overwhelming mass of the negro population in the South, and +therefore in the nation, is still rural, though among them, as among the +whites, the drift toward the cities is marked. The chief occupations are +agriculture, general jobbing not requiring skilled labor, and domestic +service, although there is a scattered representation of negroes in +almost every trade, business, and profession. In 1865 the amount of +property held by negroes was small. A few free negroes were upon the +tax-books, and former masters sometimes made gifts of property to +favorites among the liberated slaves, but the whole amount was trifling +compared with the total number of negroes. In 1910, in the Southern +States, title to 15,691,536 acres of land was held by negroes, and the +equity was large. This amount represents an increase of over 2,330,000 +acres since 1900 but is nevertheless only 4.4 per cent of the total farm +land in the South. As tenants or managers, negroes cultivated in addition +nearly 27,000,000 acres. In other words, 29.8 per cent of the population +owned 4.4 per cent of the land and cultivated 12 per cent of it. The total +value of the land owned was $273,000,000, an average of $1250 to the +farm.[1] + +[Footnote 1: It must be noted, however, that during the decade ending in +1910, the percentage of increase in negro farm owners was 17 as against +12 for the whites, and of increase in the value of their holdings was +156 per cent as against 116 per cent for whites, while the proportion of +white tenants increased. The other property of the negro can only be +estimated, as most States do not list the races separately. The census +for 1910 reports 430,449 homes, rural and urban, owned by negroes, and of +these 314,340 were free of encumbrance, compared with a total of 327,537 +homes in 1900, of which 229,158 were free. Further discussion of the +part of the negro in agriculture will be found in another chapter.] + +Speaking broadly, the right of the negro to work at any sort of manual +or mechanical labor is not questioned in the South. Negroes and whites +work together on the farm, and a negro may rent land almost anywhere. In +thousands of villages and towns one may see negro plumbers, carpenters, +and masons working by the side of white men. A negro shoemaker or +blacksmith may get the patronage of whites at his own shop or may share +a shop with a white man. White and negro teamsters are employed +indiscriminately. Hundreds of negroes serve as firemen or as engineers +of stationary steam engines. Thousands work in the tobacco factories. +Practically the only distinction made is this: a negro man may work with +white men indoors or out, but he may not work indoors by the side of +white women except in some subordinate capacity, as porter or waiter. +Occasionally he works with white women out of doors. Lack of economic +success therefore cannot be charged entirely or even primarily to racial +discrimination. Where the negro often fails is in lack of reliability, +regularity, and faithfulness. In some occupations he is losing ground. Not +many years ago barbers, waiters, and hotel employees in the South usually +were negroes, but they have lost their monopoly in all these occupations. +White men are taking their place as barbers and white girls now often +serve in dining-rooms and on elevators. On the other hand, the number of +negro seamstresses seems to be increasing. A generation ago, many +locomotive firemen were negroes, but now the proportion is decreasing. +There are hundreds, even thousands, of negro draymen who own teams, and +some of them have become prosperous. + +White patronage of negroes in business depends partly upon custom and +partly upon locality. Negroes who keep livery stables and occasionally +garages receive white patronage. In nearly every community there is a +negro woman who bakes cakes for special occasions. Many negroes act as +caterers or keep restaurants, but these must be for whites only or +blacks only, but not for both. A negro market gardener suffers no +discrimination, and a negro grocer may receive white patronage, though +he usually does not attempt to attract white customers. There are a few +negro dairymen, and some get the best prices for their products. Where a +negro manufactures or sells goods in a larger way, as in brickyards, +cement works lumber yards and the like, race prejudice does not +interfere with his trade. + +Negro professional men, on the other hand, get little or no white +patronage. No negro pastor preaches to a white congregation, and no +negro teaches in a school for whites. Negro lawyers, dentists, and +doctors are practically never employed by whites. In the past the number +engaged in these professions has been negligible, and that any increase +in the total of well trained negro professional men will make an +immediate change in the attitude of whites is unlikely. The relation of +lawyer and client or physician and patient presumes a certain intimacy +and subordination to greater wisdom which the white man is not willing +to acknowledge where a negro is involved. Negro women, trained or +partially trained, are employed as nurses, however, in increasing +numbers. + +In 1865, the great mass of negroes was wholly illiterate. Some of the +free negroes could read and write, and a few had graduated at some +Northern college. Though the laws which forbade teaching slaves to read +or write were not generally enforced, only favored house servants +received instruction. It is certain that the percentage of illiteracy +was at least 90, and possibly as high as 95. This has been progressively +reduced until in 1910 the proportion of the illiterate negro population +ten years old or over was 30.4 per cent, and the number of college and +university graduates was considerable though the proportion was small. +Since the percentage of native white illiteracy in the United States is +but 3, the negro is evidently ten times as illiterate as the native +white. This comparison is not fair to the negro, however, for illiteracy +in the urban communities in the United States is less than in the rural +districts, owing largely to better educational facilities in the cities; +and 82.3 per cent of the negro population is rural.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In New England negro illiteracy is 7.1 per cent in the +cities and 16.9 per cent in the rural communities. Then, too, the great +masses of negroes live in States which are predominantly rural and in +which the percentage of white illiteracy is also high. The percentage of +native white illiteracy in the rural districts of the South Atlantic +States is 9.8 and in the East South Central is 11.1 per cent. Negro +illiteracy in the corresponding divisions is 36.1 per cent and 37.8 per +cent. In the urban communities of these divisions, illiteracy on the +part of both whites and negroes is less. Native white illiteracy is 1.1 +per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively, while negro illiteracy in the +towns was 21.4 and 23.8 per cent respectively.] + +The negroes along with the whites have suffered and still suffer from +the inadequate school facilities of the rural South. The percentage of +illiterate negro children between the ages of ten and fourteen in the +country as a whole was only 18.9 per cent compared with the general +average of 30.4 for the negroes as a whole. It is evident, then, that as +the negroes now fifty years old and over die off, the illiteracy of the +whole mass will continue to drop, for it is in the older group that the +percentage of illiterates is highest. It must not be concluded from +these figures that negro illiteracy is not a grave problem, nor that +negro ability is equal to that of the whites, nor that the negro has +taken full advantage of such opportunities as have been open to him. It +does appear, however, that the proportion of negro illiteracy is not +entirely his fault. + +The negro fleeing from discrimination in the South has not always found +a fraternal welcome in the North, for the negro mechanic has generally +been excluded from white unions and has often been denied the +opportunity to work at his trade.[1] He has also found difficulty in +obtaining living accommodations and there has been much race friction. +It is perhaps a question worth asking whether any considerable number of +white men of Northern European stock are without an instinctive dislike +of those manifestly unlike themselves. + +[Footnote 1: The American Federation of Labor in 1919 voted to take +steps to recognize and admit negro unions.] + +The history of the contact between such stocks and the colored races +shows instance after instance of refusal to recognize the latter as +social or political equals. Indian, East Indian, and African have all +been subjected to the domination of the whites. There have been many +cases of illicit mating, of course, but the white man has steadily +refused to legitimize these unions. The South European, on the contrary, +has mingled freely with the natives of the countries he has colonized +and to some extent has been swallowed up by the darker mass. Mexico, +Brazil, Cuba, the Portuguese colonies in different parts of the world, +are obvious examples.[1] + +[Footnote 1: How much of this difference in attitude is due to lack of +pride in race integrity and how much to religion is a question. The +Roman Catholic Church, which is dominant in Southern Europe, does not +encourage such inter-racial marriages, but, on the other hand, it does +not forbid them or pronounce them unlawful. Yet this cannot explain the +whole difference. There seems to be another factor.] + +In the Southern States the white man has made certain decisions +regarding the relation of blacks and whites and is enforcing them +without regard to the negro's wishes. The Southerner is convinced that +the negro is inferior and acts upon that conviction. There is no +suggestion that the laws forbidding intermarriage be repealed, or that +separate schools be discontinued. Restaurants and hotels must cater to +one race only. Most of the States require separation of the races in +common carriers and even in railway stations. The laws require that +"equal accommodations" shall be furnished on railroads, but violations +are frequently evident, as the railways often assign old or inferior +equipment to the negroes. In street cars one end is often assigned to +negroes and the other to whites, and therefore the races alternate in +the use of the same seats when the car turns back at the end of the +line. The division in a railway station may be nothing more than a bar +or a low fence across the room, and one ticket office with different +windows may serve both races. + +Some of these regulations are defended on the ground that by reducing +close contact they lessen the chances of race conflict. That such a +result is measurably attained is probable, and the comfort of traveling +is increased for the whites at least. William Archer, the English +journalist and author, in _Through Afro-America says_, "I hold the +system of separate cars a legitimate means of defence against constant +discomfort," and most travelers will approve his verdict. The chief +reason for such regulations, however, is to assert and emphasize white +superiority. Half a dozen black nurses with their charges may sit in the +car reserved for whites, because they are obviously dependents engaged in +personal service. Without such relationship, however, not one of them would +be allowed to remain. It is not so much the presence of the negro to which +the whites object but to that presence in other than an inferior capacity. +his is the explanation of much of the so-called race prejudice in the +South: it is not prejudice against the individual negro but is rather a +determination to assert white superiority. So long as the negro is plainly +dependent and recognizes that dependency, the question of prejudice does +not arise, and there is much kindly intimacy between individuals. The +Southern white man or white woman of the better class is likely to +protect and help many negroes at considerable cost of time, labor, and +money, but the relationship is always that of superior and inferior. If +a suggestion of race equality creeps in, antagonism is at once aroused. + +It is the fashion to speak of the "old-time negro" and the "new negro." +The types are easily recognizable. One is quiet, unobtrusive, more or +less industrious. He "knows his place"--which may mean anything from +servility to self-respecting acceptance of his lot in life. The other +resents more or less openly the discrimination against his race, and this +resentment may range from impertinence to sullenness and even to dreams of +social equality imposed by force. Some have a smattering of education +while others, who have been subjected to little training or discipline, +are indolent and shiftless. The thoughtless, however, are likely to +include in this classification the industrious, intelligent negro who +orders his conduct along the same lines as the white man. + +This last type, it is true, is sometimes regarded with suspicion. Many +men and women in the South fear the progress of the negro. They do not +realize that the South cannot really make satisfactory progress while +any great proportion of the population is relatively inefficient. Some +fear the negro's demand to be treated as a man. On the other hand, many +negroes demand to be treated as men, while ignoring or perhaps not +realizing the fact that, to be treated as a man, one must play a man's +part. As Booker Washington put the matter, many are more interested in +getting recognition than in getting something to recognize. Many are +much more interested in their rights than in their duties. To be sure +the negro is not alone in this, for the same attitude is to be found in +immigrants coming from the socially and politically backward states of +Europe. The ordinary negro, however, apparently does not think much of +such problems of the future, though no white man is likely to know +precisely what he does think. He goes about his business or his pleasure +seemingly at peace with the world, though perhaps he sings somewhat less +than he once did. He attends his church and the meetings of his lodge or +lodges, and works more or less regularly. Probably the great majority of +negroes more nearly realize their ambitions than do the whites. They do +not aspire to high position, and discrimination does not burn them quite +as deeply as the sometimes too sympathetic white man who tries to put +himself in their place may think. + +There are, however, some individuals to whom the ordinary conditions of +any negro's life appear particularly bitter. With mental ability, +education, and æsthetic appreciation often comparable to those of the +whites, and with more than normal sensitiveness, they find the color +line an intolerable insult, since it separates them from what they value +most. They rage at the barrier which shuts them out from the society +which they feel themselves qualified to enter, and they are always on +the alert to discern injuries. These injuries need not be positive, for +neglect is quite as strong a grievance. + +These individuals all spell negro with a capital and declare that they +are proud of their race. They parade its achievements--and these are not +small when enumerated all at once--but they avoid intimate association +with the great mass of negroes. They are not at all democratic, and in a +negro state they would assume the privileges of an aristocracy as a +matter of right. It would seem that their demand for full political and +social rights for all negroes has for its basis not so much the welfare +of the race as a whole, as the possibility of obtaining for themselves +special privileges and positions of leadership. They are not satisfied +merely with full legal rights. In those States where there is no legal +discrimination in public places, their denunciation of social prejudice +is bitter. They are not content to take their chances with other groups +but sometimes are illogical enough to demand social equality enforced by +law, though by this phrase they mean association with the whites merely +for themselves; they do not wish other negroes less developed than +themselves to associate with them. + +In any city where there is any considerable number of this class, there +is a section of negro society in which social lines are drawn as strictly +as in the most aristocratic white community. To prove that the negroes are +not emotional, these aristocrats among them are likely to insist upon rigid +formality in their church services and upon meticulous correctness in all +the details of social gatherings. Since many of these individuals have a +very large admixture of white blood, occasionally one crosses the barrier +and "goes white." Removal to a new town or city gives the opportunity to +cut loose from all previous associations and to start a new life. The +transition is extremely difficult, of course, and requires much care and +discretion, but it has been made. The greater part of them nevertheless +remain negroes in the eyes of the law, however much they strive to +separate themselves in thought and action from the rest of their kind. +It is this small class of "intellectuals" who were Booker T. +Washington's bitterest enemies. His theory that the negro should first +devote himself to obtaining economic independence and should leave the +adjustment of social relations to the future was denounced as treason to +the race. Washington's opportunism was even more obnoxious to them than +is the superior attitude of the whites. They denounced him as a trimmer, +a time-server, and a traitor, and on occasion they hissed him from the +platform. From their safe refuges in Northern cities, some negro orators +and editors have gone so far as to advocate the employment of the knife and +the torch to avenge real or fancied wrongs, but these counsels have done +little harm for they have not been read by those to whom they were +addressed. Perhaps, indeed, they may not have been meant entirely +seriously, for the negro, like other emotional peoples, sometimes plays +with words without realizing their full import. + +On the whole there is surprisingly little friction between the blacks +and the whites. One may live a long time in many parts of the South +without realizing that the most important problem of the United States +lies all about him. Then an explosion comes, and he realizes that much +of the South is on the edge of a volcano. For a time the white South +attempted to divest itself of responsibility for the negro. He had +turned against those who had been his friends and had followed after +strange gods; therefore let him go his way alone. This attitude never +was universal nor was it consistently maintained, for there is hardly +one of the older negroes who does not have a white man to whom he goes +for advice or help in time of trouble--a sort of patron, in fact. Many a +negro has been saved from the chain gang or the penitentiary because of +such friendly interest, and many have been positively helped thereby +toward good citizenship. Nevertheless there has been a tendency on the +part of the whites to remain passive, to wait until the negro asked for +help. + +Undoubtedly there is now developing in the South a growing sense of +responsibility for the welfare of the negro. The negro quarters of the +towns, so long neglected, are receiving more attention from the street +cleaners; better sidewalks are being built; and the streets are better +lighted. The sanitary officers are more attentive. The landowner is +building better cabins for his tenants and is encouraging them to plant +gardens and to raise poultry and pigs. The labor contractor is providing +better quarters, though conditions in many lumber and construction camps +are still deplorable. Observant lawyers and judges say that they see an +increasing number of cases in which juries evidently decide points of +doubt in favor of negro defendants, even where white men are concerned. +Socially minded citizens are forcing improvement of the disgraceful +conditions which have often prevailed on chain gangs and in prisons. Nor is +this all. More white men and women are teaching negroes than ever before. +The oldest university in the United States points proudly to the number of +Sunday schools for negroes conducted by its students, and it is not alone +in this high endeavor. Many Southern colleges and universities are studying +the negro problem from all sides and are trying to help in its solution. +The visiting nurses in the towns spend a large proportion of their time +among the negroes, striving to teach hygiene and sanitation. White men +frequently lecture before negro schools. Since the beginning of the Great +War negro women have been encouraged to aid in Red Cross work. Negroes have +been appointed members of city or county committees of defense and have +worked with the whites in many branches of patriotic endeavor. Negroes +have subscribed liberally in proportion to their means for Liberty Bonds +and War Savings Stamps and have given liberally to war work. + +The growth of a sense of responsibility for the welfare of the negro +upon the part of the more thoughtful and more conscientious portion of +the white population has reduced racial friction in many communities. +White women are evincing more interest in the morals of black women than +was usual fifteen or twenty years ago. Ostracism is more likely to visit +a white man who crosses the line. There is no means of knowing the +actual amount of illicit intercourse, but the most competent observers +believe it to be decreasing. Though the percentage of mulattoes has +increased since 1890, according to the census, the figures are +confessedly inaccurate, and the increase can be easily accounted for by +the marriage of mulattoes with negroes, and the consequent diffusion of +white blood. An aspiring negro is likely to seek a mulatto wife, and +their children will be classed as mulattoes by the enumerators. + +Except for the demagogues, whose abuse of the negro is their stock in +trade, the most bitter denunciations come from those nearest to him in +economic status. The town loafers, the cotton mill operatives, the small +farmers, particularly the tenant farmers, are those who most frequently +clash with both the impertinent and the self-respecting negro. In their +eyes self-respect may not be differentiated from insolence. If a negro +is not servile, they are likely to class him as impertinent or worse. +The political success of Blease of South Carolina, Vardaman of +Mississippi, and the late Jeff. Davis of Arkansas is largely due to +their appeal to these types of whites. The negro on the other hand may +resent the assumption of superiority on the part of men perhaps less +efficient than himself. Obviously friction may arise under such conditions. + +The mobs which have so often stained the reputation of the South by +defiance of the law and by horrible cruelty as well do not represent the +best elements of the South. The statement so often made that the most +substantial citizens of a community compose lynching parties may have +been partially true once, but it is not true today. These mobs are +chiefly made up from the lowest third of the white community. Perhaps the +persistence of the belief has prevented the wiser part of the population +from stamping out such lawlessness; perhaps some lingering feeling of +mistaken loyalty to the white race restrains them from strong action; +perhaps the individualism of the Southerner has interfered with general +acceptance of the idea of the inexorable majesty of the law which must be +vindicated at any cost. Yet, in spite of all these undercurrents of +feeling, sheriffs and private citizens do on occasion brave the fury of +enraged mobs to rescue or to protect. Attempts to prosecute participants in +such mobs usually fail in the South as elsewhere, but occasionally a jury +convicts. + +The tradition that, years ago, lynching was only invoked in punishment +of the unspeakable crime is more or less true. It is not true now. The +statistics of lynching which are frequently presented are obviously +exaggerated, as they include many cases which are simply the results of +the sort of personal encounters which might and do occur anywhere. There +is a tendency to class every case of homicide in which a negro is the +victim as a lynching, which is manifestly unfair; but even though +liberal allowance be made for this error, in the total of about 3000 +cases tabulated in the last thirty years, the undisputed instances of mob +violence are shamefully numerous. Rape is by no means the only crime thus +punished; sometimes the charge is so trivial that one recoils in horror at +the thought of taking human life as a punishment. + +Yet it must not be forgotten that over certain parts of the South a +nameless dread is always hovering. In some sections an unaccompanied +white woman dislikes to walk through an unlighted village street at +night; she hesitates to drive along a lonely country road in broad +daylight without a pistol near her hand; and she does not dare to walk +through the woods alone. The rural districts are poorly policed and the +ears of the farmer working in the field are always alert for the sound of +the bell or the horn calling for help, perhaps from his own home. +Occasionally, in spite of all precautions some human animal, inflamed by +brooding upon the unattainable, leaves a victim outraged and dead, or +worse than dead. Granted that such a crime occurs in a district only once +in ten, or even in twenty years; that is enough. Rural folks have long +memories, and in the back of their minds persists an uncontrollable +morbid dread. The news of another victim sometimes turns men into fiends +who not only take life but even inflict torture beforehand. The mere +suspicion of intent is sometimes enough to deprive such a community of its +reason, for there are communities which have brooded over the possibility +of the commission of the inexpiable crime until the residents are not quite +sane upon this matter. Naturally calmness and forbearance in dealing with +other and less heinous forms of negro crime are not always found in such +a neighborhood. This fact helps to explain, though not to excuse, some of +the riots that occur. + +The better element in the South, however, opposes mob violence, and this +opposition is growing stronger and more purposeful. Associations have +been formed to oppose mob rule and to punish participants. Where +reputable citizens are lukewarm it is largely because they have not +realized that the old tradition that lynching is the proper remedy for +rape cannot stand. If sudden, sharp retribution were inflicted upon +absolute proof, only for this one cause, it is doubtful whether much +effective opposition could be enlisted. Yet wiser men have seen defiance +of law fail to stop crime, have seen mobs act upon suspicions afterward +proved groundless, have seen mob action widely extended, and have seen +the growth of a spirit of lawlessness. Where one mob has had its way, +another is always more easily aroused, and soon the administration of +the law becomes a farce. In some years hardly a third of the victims of +this summary process have been charged with rape or intent to commit +rape. As a consequence the sentiment that the law should take its course +in every case is steadily growing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The statistics on lynching do not always agree. Those +compiled at Tuskegee Institute list 38 cases for 1917 and 62 for 1918. +The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in its +report _Thirty Years of Lynching_ (1919) reports 67 cases for 1918, and +325 cases for the five-year period ending with 1918, of which 304 are +said to have occurred in the South.] + +Though mob fury has broken out on occasion in every Southern State, +Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina are measurably +free from such visitations. Over considerable periods of time, Georgia +comes unenviably first, followed by Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana. +These four States have furnished a large majority of the lynchings. The +other States range between the two groups, though in proportion to the +negro element in its population Oklahoma has had a disproportionate +share. It may be said that the lynchings occur chiefly in those sections +or counties where the numbers of whites and negroes are nearly equal. +They are fewer in the black belt and in those counties and States where +whites are in an overwhelming majority. + +No man has been wise enough to propose any solution of the negro +question which does not require an immediate and radical change in human +nature. As the proportion of negroes able to read and write grows +larger, they will certainly demand full political rights, which the mass +of the whites, so far as any one can judge, will be unwilling to allow. +Deportation to Africa--proposed in all seriousness--is impossible. Negro +babies are born faster than they could easily be carried away, even if +there were no other obstacle. The suggestion that whites be expelled +from a State or two, which would then be turned over to negroes, is +likewise impracticable. Amalgamation apparently is going on more slowly +now, and more rapid progress would presuppose a state of society and an +attitude toward the negro entirely different from that which prevails +anywhere in the United States. There is left then the theory that, with +increasing wealth and wider diffusion of education, or even without them, + he negro must take his place on equal terms in the American political +and social system. This theory, of course, requires an absolute reversal +of attitude upon the part of many millions of whites. + +Color and race prejudice are stubborn things, and California and South +Africa are no more free from such prejudices than the Southern States. +In fact, South Africa is today wrestling with a problem much like that +of the United States and is succeeding no better in solving it. The +movement of negroes to the North and West, if continued on any large +scale, seems likely to mean simply the diffusion of the problem and not +its solution. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS + + +Apologists for Reconstruction have repeatedly asserted that the +Reconstruction governments gave to the South a system of public schools +unknown up to that time, with the implication that this boon more than +compensated for the errors of those years. The statement has been so +often made, and by some who should have known better, that it has +generally been accepted at its face value. The status of public +education in the South in 1860, it is true, was not satisfactory, and +the percentage of illiteracy was high. Any attempt to distract attention +from these facts by pointing out the great proportion of the Southern +white population in colleges and academies is as much to be deprecated +as the denial of the existence of public schools at all.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Some States had done little for public schools before 1860, +but others had made more than a respectable beginning. Delaware +established a "literary fund" in 1796, Tennessee in 1806, Virginia in + 1810, Maryland in 1813, and Georgia in 1817. Kentucky and +Mississippi soon followed their example; North Carolina began to create +such a fund in 1825; Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, +North Carolina, and South Carolina appropriated a part or the whole of +their shares of the "surplus" distributed by the Federal Government +under the Act of 1836 to increase these funds or establish new ones for +the support of schools; and some States levied considerable taxes for +the support of educational institutions.] + +In general the public schools of the South began as charity schools, but +this was also the case in several of the older States in other parts of +the country. These schools were generally poorly taught in the early +years, and it has been questioned whether the training which the pupils +received compensated them for the humiliating acknowledgment of poverty +which their attendance implied. The amount of money available was small, +and the teacher was generally inefficient or worse, but these "old field +schools" did help some men on their way. Several States went beyond the +idea of charity in education, and some of the towns and cities +established excellent schools for all the people. + +The literary fund in North Carolina, for example, amounted to nearly +$2,250,000 in 1840. The rapid increase of this fund had led to the +establishment of public schools in 1839. To every district which raised +$20 by local taxation, twice that amount was given from the income of the +literary fund. With the election of Calvin H. Wiley as state superintendent +of education in 1852, substantial progress began. In 1860 there were over +3000 schools, and the total expenditure was $279,000. The number of +illiterates had fallen proportionately and actually, and ten years more of +uninterrupted work would have done much to remove the stigma of illiteracy. +The school fund was left intact during the Civil War, and most of the +counties continued to levy school taxes. A part of the fund was lost, +however, through the failure of the banks in which it was invested, and the +remainder was squandered by the Reconstruction government. In spite of all +discouragements, Superintendent Wiley held on until deposed by the +provisional governor in 1865. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that +the schools of this State were better in 1860 than they were in 1880. + +During the Reconstruction period a system of schools was established in +every one of the seceding States. On paper these schemes were often +admirable. Usually they were modeled after the system in the State from +which some influential carpetbagger came, and under normal conditions, +if honestly and judiciously administered, they would have answered their +ostensible purposes and would have done much to raise the intellectual +level of the population. Conditions, however, were not normal. The +production of wealth was hindered, and taxes had been increased to the +point of confiscation. In States which had been ravaged by war, and of +which the whole economic and social systems had been dislocated, an undue +proportion of the total social income was demanded for the schools. Under +existing conditions the communities could not support the schemes of +education which had been projected. This fact is enough to account for +their failure, for when an individual or a community is unable to pay the +price demanded, it matters little how desirable or laudable the object +may be. + +As if to make failure doubly certain, the schools were neither honestly +nor judiciously administered. Much money was deliberately stolen, and +much more was wasted. Extravagant salaries were paid to favorites, and +unnecessary equipment was bought at exorbitant prices. The authorities +in several States seemed more interested in the idea of educating negro +children with white children than in the real process of education. +Though in but four States--South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Arkansas--were mixed schools the only schools, such an arrangement was +understood to be the ultimate goal in several other States. Several of the +state superintendents were negroes, and others were carpetbaggers dependent +upon negro votes. Before the end of Reconstruction, several of these were +forced to flee to avoid arrest for malfeasance in office. In those States +where mixed schools alone were provided, white children did not attend and +were thus cut off from educational opportunities at public expense. Where +separate schools were provided, the teachers were often carpetbaggers who +strove "to make treason odious." It is hardly surprising that some parents +objected to having their children forced to sing _John Brown's Body_ and +to yield assent to the proposition that all Southerners were barbarians and +traitors who deserved hanging. + +Just after the close of the Civil War, thousands of white women went +South to teach in schools which were established for negroes by Northern +churches or benevolent associations. Every one who reads the reports of +such organizations now, fifty years after, must be touched by the lofty +faith and the burning zeal which impelled many of these educational +missionaries; but he must also be astonished by their ignorance of the +negro and their blindness to actual conditions. They went with an ideal +negro in their minds, and at first, they treated the negro as though he +were their ideal of what a negro ought to be. The phases through which +the majority of these teachers went were enthusiasm, doubt, +disillusionment, and despair. Some left the South and their charges, +holding that conditions were to blame rather than their methods; but others +were clearsighted enough to realize that they had set about solving the +problem in the wrong way. + +Beginning with the assumption that the negro was equal or superior to +the white in natural endowment and burning with resentment against his +"oppressors," they attempted to bridge the gap of centuries in a +generation. They were anxious to bring the negro into contact with the +culture of the white race and thereby they strengthened the conclusion +to which the negro had already jumped that educational and manual labor +were an impossible combination. Then, too, in order to prove the +sincerity of their belief in the brotherhood of mankind, they entered +into the most intimate association with their pupils and their families. +Some of them, we know, were compelled to struggle hard to overcome their +instinctive repugnance to such intimacy. All of them taught by +implication, and some by precept as well, that the Southern whites who held +themselves apart were enemies to the blacks. That these teachers did some +good is undoubted, but whether in the end a true balance would show more +good than harm is not so certain. + +When the native whites resumed control after the days of Reconstruction, +their first thought was to reduce the expenses of the State. Tax levies +were cut to the bone, school taxes among them. The school funds did not +always suffer proportionately, however. In 1870, when the whites secured +control in North Carolina, the expenditure for public schools in that +State was $152,000. In 1874, the school revenue was over $412,000, and +the number of white pupils was almost the same as in 1860; in addition +55,000 negroes were receiving instruction, but the school term was only +ten weeks. The negro seems to have received in the first years of the +new régime a fair share of the school money, but that share was not +large. The reaction from Reconstruction extravagance was long-continued, +and perhaps has not disappeared today. + +Though the South was unable properly to support one efficient system, it +now attempted to maintain two, one for whites and the other for blacks. +Necessarily both systems were inadequate. The usual country school was only +a rude frame or log building, sometimes without glass windows, in which one +untrained teacher, without apparatus or the simplest conveniences, +attempted to give instruction in at least half a dozen subjects to a group +of children of all ages during a period of ten to fifteen weeks a year. +Often even this meager period was divided into a summer and winter term, on +the plea that the older children could not be spared from the farms for the +whole time or that bad roads and stormy weather prevented the youngest from +attending during the winter. + +Though it seems almost incredible under such conditions, something was +nevertheless accomplished. Many children, it is true, learned little or +nothing and gave up the pretense of attending school. Others, however, +found something to feed their hungry minds and, when they had exhausted +what their neighborhood school had to offer, they attended the academies +which had been reëstablished or had sprung up in the villages nearby or +at the countyseat. Between 1875 and 1890, it was not at all uncommon to +find in such academies grown men and women studying the regular high school +subjects. Some had previously taught rural schools and now sought further +instruction; and others had worked on the farms or had been in business. +Men of twenty-five or thirty sat in classes with town children of fifteen +or sixteen, but made such a large proportion of the total attendance that +they did not feel embarrassed by the contrast in ages. + +In the eighties there were scores of these academies, institutes, and +seminaries in the towns of the South. They were not well graded; the +teachers may never have heard of pedagogy. Their libraries were small or +altogether lacking, and their apparatus was scanty; but in spite of +these drawbacks an unusually large proportion of the students were +desirous to learn. Many teachers loved mathematics or Latin, and some of +the students gained a thorough if narrow preparation for college. An +examination of college registers of the period shows a considerable +proportion of students of twenty-five or thirty years of age. There is +even a case where a college student remained out a term in order to +attend a session of the Legislature to which he had been elected. The +college students of the late seventies and early eighties were serious +minded and thought of questions as men and not as boys. Though the +clapper of the college bell was sometimes thrown into the well or the +president's wagon was transferred to the chapel roof, these things were +often done from a sort of sense of duty: college students were expected +to be mischievous. Yet the whole tone of college life was serious. There +were no organized college athletics, no musical or dramatic clubs, no +other outside activities such as those to which the student of today +devotes so much of his attention, except, of course, the "literary +societies" for practice in declamation and debating. + +Though many towns established graded schools before 1890 by means of +special taxes, the condition of rural education at this time was +disheartening. The percentage of negro illiteracy was falling, because +it could not easily be raised, but the reduction of white illiteracy was +slow. The school terms were still short, and many of the school +buildings were unfit for human occupation. On the other hand, the +quality of the teachers was improving. The short term of the schools was +being lengthened by private subscription in some districts, and new and +adequate buildings appeared in others. Progress was evidently being +made, even if it was not obtrusive, and in that progress one of the +leading factors was the Peabody Fund. + +In 1867 George Peabody, a native of Massachusetts but then a banker of +London, who had laid the foundation of his fortune in Baltimore, placed +in the hands of trustees $2,100,000 in securities to be used for the +encouragement of education in the Southern States. The Fund was +increased to $3,500,000 in 1869, though a considerable part consisted of +bonds of Mississippi and Florida which those States refused to recognize +as valid obligations. The chairman of the trustees for many years was +Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, and the other members of the board +were distinguished men, both Northern and Southern. The first general +agent, as the active administrator was called, was Barnas Sears, who at +the time of his election was president of Brown University. + +Dr. Sears was an unusual man, who comprehended conditions in the South +and was disposed to improve them in every feasible way by using the +resources at his command. He had no inflexible program and was willing +to modify his plans to fit changing conditions. The income of the Fund +appears small in this day of munificent foundations, but it seemed large +then; and its effects were far-reaching. Sears was not an educational +reformer in the modern sense. He seems to have had no new philosophy of +education but took the best schools of the nation as a standard and strove +to bring the schools of the South up to that standard. Through the aid of +the Fund model schools were established in every State. The University of +North Carolina opened its doors to the teachers of the State for +professional training during the summer and was apparently the first of the +summer schools now so numerous and popular. Direct appropriations in aid of +schools were made out of the Fund, provided the community by taxation or +subscription raised much larger sums. The Peabody Normal College at +Nashville, Tennessee, was founded, and no effort was spared to develop a +general interest in public education. Advice to legislatures, trustees, or +communities was given when asked but so tactfully that neither resentment +nor suspicion was aroused. + +Before his death, Dr. Sears had chosen Dr. J.L.M. Curry as his +successor, and the choice was promptly ratified by the trustees. Dr. +Curry was a thorough Southerner, a veteran of both the Mexican and the +Civil War. He had first practiced law and had sat in the House of +Representatives of the United States and of the Confederate States. At +the time of his election to the management of the Peabody Fund he was a +professor in Richmond College, Virginia, and a minister of the Baptist +Church. He had a magnetic personality, an unyielding belief in the value +of education for both white and black, and the temperament and gifts of +the orator. As a Southerner, he could speak more freely and more +effectively to the people than his predecessor, who had done the pioneer +work. During the years of his service, Curry therefore gave himself +chiefly to the development of public sentiment, making speeches at every +opportunity before societies, conventions, and other gatherings. As he +himself said, he addressed legislatures "from the Potomac to the Rio +Grande." + +While the influence of the Peabody Fund and its agents was large, it was +not the only influence upon the educational development of the South. +There were throughout that section men who saw clearly that the main +hope centered in education for black and white. They talked in season +and out, though sometimes with little apparent result, for the opposing +forces were strong. Among these forces poverty was perhaps the +strongest. It is difficult to convince a people who must struggle for +the bare necessities of life that taxation for any purpose is a positive +good; and a large proportion of the families of the rural South handled +little money. This was true even for years after the towns began to feel +the thrill of growing industrialism. It has sometimes seemed that the +poorer a man and the larger the number of his children, the greater his +dread of taxes for education. + +Then, too, the Southern people had followed the tradition of Jefferson +that the best government is that which assumes the fewest functions and +interferes least with the individual. Many honest men who meant to be +good citizens felt that education belonged to the family or the church +and could not see why the State should pay for teaching any more than +for preaching, or for food, or clothing, or shelter. There were, of +course, those claiming to hold this theory whose underlying motives were +selfish. They had property which they had inherited or accumulated, and +they objected to paying taxes for educating other people's children. It +must be said, however, that as a class, the larger taxpayers have been +more ready to vote higher taxes for schools than the poor and +illiterate, whose morbid dread of taxation has been fostered by the +politician. + +There were others who were cold to the extension of public education on +account of the schools already existing. In many towns and villages +there were struggling academies, often nominally under church auspices. +Towns which could have supported one school were trying to support two +or three. In few cases was any direct financial aid given by the +religious organization, but the school was known as the Methodist or the +Presbyterian school, because the teaching force and the majority of the +patrons belonged to that denomination. The denominational influence +behind these schools was often lukewarm toward the extension of public +education, and the ministers themselves had been known to make slighting +references to "godless schools." There was still another class of people +who really opposed public schools because they did not believe that the +masses should be educated. This class was, however, small and is perhaps +more numerous in other sections of the Union than in the South. + +Last, but by no means the least, of the obstacles to general public +education was the question of its influence upon the negro. The apparent +effects of negro education were not likely to make the average white man +feel that the experiment had been successful. The phrase that "an educated +negro was a good plough-hand spoiled" seemed to meet with general +acceptance. The smattering of an education which the negroes had +received--it would be difficult to call it more--seemed to have improved +neither their efficiency nor their morals. As a result there were many +white people so shortsighted that they would starve their own children +rather than feed the negro. + +To all of these obstacles in human nature were added the defects of the +tax system. Almost invariably the tax was levied by the Legislature upon +the State as a whole or upon the county, and the constitutions or the +laws in some cases forbade the progressive smaller division to levy +special taxes for any purpose. Graded schools began, however, to appear +in the incorporated towns which were not subject to the same tax +limitations as the rural districts, and in time it became easier to levy +supplementary local taxes by legislative act, judicial interpretation, +or constitutional changes. + +Gradually public sentiment in favor of schools grew stronger. The +legislatures raised the rate of taxation for school purposes, normal +schools were established, log schoolhouses began to be replaced by frame +or brick structures, uniform textbooks became the rule and not the +exception, teachers' salaries were raised, and the percentage of +attendance climbed upward, though there was still a remnant of the +population which did not attend at all. The school term was not +proportionately extended, since a positive mania for small districts +developed--a school at every man's door. In the olden days large +districts were common, and many of the children walked four or five miles +to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon. No one then +dreamed of transporting the children at public expense. The school +authorities were often unable to resist the pressure to make new districts, +and necessarily a contracted term followed. In 1900 the average school term +in North Carolina was not longer than in 1860, though much more money was +spent, and the salaries were little higher. It must be remembered, of +course, that no appropriations were made for negro education before the +Civil War. + +Both during and after the War many schools were opened for negroes by +Freedmen's Aid Societies, various philanthropic associations, and +denominational boards or committees. As public schools were established +for negroes, some of these organizations curtailed their work and others +withdrew altogether. Others persisted, however, and new schools have been +founded by these and similar organizations, by private philanthropy, and +also by negro churches. As a result there are independent schools, state +schools, and Federal schools. The recent monumental report of the Bureau +of Education reports 653 schools for negroes other than regular public +schools[1]. Of these 28 are under public control, 507 are denominational +schools (of which 354 are under white boards and 153 under negro +boards), and 118 are classed as independent. This last group includes +not only the great national schools, such as Tuskegee and Hampton, but +small private enterprises supported chiefly by irregular donations. +These private and independent schools owned property valued at +$28,496,946 and had an income of over $3,000,000. State and Federal +appropriations at the date of the report reached about $963,000. + +[Footnote 1. _Negro Education_, Bureau of Education Bulletins 38 and 39 +(1916). This work supersedes all previous collections of facts upon +negro education.] + +During the first years after the downfall of the Reconstruction +governments the negro received a fair proportion of the pittance devoted +to public schools. Governor Vance of North Carolina, in recommending in +1877 an appropriation to the University for a "professorship for the +purpose of instructing in the theory and art of teaching" went on to +state that "a school of similar character should be established for the +education of colored teachers, the want of which is more deeply felt by +the black race even than the white.... Their desire for education is a +very creditable one, and should be gratified so far as our means will +permit." Instead of establishing the chair of pedagogy recommended by +Governor Vance, the Legislature appropriated the money to conduct the +summer school for teachers at the University. An appropriation of equal +amount was made for negroes and similar allowances have been continued +to the present. Proportionately larger appropriations have been made for +the whites in recent years. Other States have established normal schools +for negroes, but in none of them is the supply of trained negro teachers +equal to the demand. + +The negro public schools were organized along the same lines as the +white, so far as circumstances permitted, but the work was difficult and +remains so to this day. The negro teachers were ignorant, and many of +them were indolent and immoral. In only a few places in the South do +whites teach negroes in public schools. The enthusiasm for education +displayed just after emancipation gradually wore off, and many parents +showed little interest in the education of their children. Education had +not proved the "open sesame" to affluence, and many parents were unwilling +or unable to compel their children to attend school. As a contributory +cause of this reluctance the poverty of the negro must be considered. It +was difficult for the negro to send to school a child who might be of +financial aid to the family. To many negro parents it seemed a matter of +little moment to keep a child away from school one or two days a week to +assist at home. It must also be remembered that the negro tenant farmer is +migratory in his habits and that he often moved in the middle of the short +term. Consequently the whole value of the term might easily be lost by the +transfer. It is not surprising that the final product of such unstable +educational conditions was not impressive. + +The idea of the first educational missionaries to the negroes of the +South was to turn them into white men as soon as possible by bringing +them into contact with the traditional culture of the whites through the +study of Latin, Greek, mathematics, and sometimes Hebrew, especially in +the case of students for the ministry. The attempt was made to take the +negro, fresh from slavery and with no cultural background, through the +course generally pursued by whites. Numerous "universities" and "colleges" +were founded with this end in view. Hampton Institute with its insistence +upon fitting education to the needs of the race was unique for a time, +though later it received the powerful support of Tuskegee Institute and +its noted principal and founder, Booker T. Washington. The influence of +this educational prophet was great in the North, whence came most of the +donations for private schools. In imitation many mushroom schools have +recently added "rural" or "industrial" to their names, but few of them are +doing work of great value. Where the school appeals chiefly to the negro +for support, liberal use is made of such high-sounding names as "college" +and "university." The negro still thinks that the purpose of education is +to free him from manual labor, and he looks with little favor upon a +school which requires actual industrial training. For the same reason he +is quick to protest when the attempt is made to introduce manual training +into the public schools. + +Partly because of this opposition on the part of the negroes themselves, +partly because industrial training is more expensive than purely +academic training, and partly because such training has only recently been +recognized as part of education, the South has made little provision for +the industrial education of the negro at public expense. According to the +_Report on Negro Education_, few of the agricultural and mechanical schools +maintained partly by the Federal land grants and partly by the States are +really efficient. A few state or city schools also give manual training. +About one-third of the private schools for negroes offer industrial +courses, but much of this work is ineffective--either so slight as to be +negligible or straight labor done in return for board and tuition and +without regard to educational value. Hampton and Tuskegee are known to do +excellent work, and a few of the smaller schools are to be classed as +efficient; but in the great majority of negro schools the old curriculum is +still followed, and the students gladly submit to its exactness. Why study +something so plebeian as carpentry when one may study such scholarly +subjects as Latin or Greek? + +Most institutions for negroes desire to do work of college grade. Some +with not a single pupil above the elementary grades nevertheless proudly +call themselves colleges. Other so-called colleges have secondary pupils +but none in college classes. + +Thirty-three institutions do have a total of 1643 students in college +classes and 994 students in professional courses, but these same schools +enroll more than 10,000 pupils in elementary and secondary grades. Some +of them are attempting to maintain college classes for less than 5 per +cent of their enrollment, and the teaching force gives a +disproportionate share of time to such students. Two of these +thirty-three institutions have nearly all the professional students, and +two have nearly half the total number of college students. Only three +can properly be called colleges--Howard University at Washington, Fisk +University, and Meharry Medical College at Nashville, Tennessee. + +While several of the Southern States have greatly increased their +expenditures for schools since 1910, in some cases more than doubling +them, the proportion devoted to negro schools has not been greatly +increased, if indeed it has been increased at all. For example, in North +Carolina, which assigns for negro education much more than the average +of the States containing any considerable proportion of negroes, the +total paid to negro teachers in 1910-11 was $340,856, as against +$1,715,994 paid to white teachers. Five years later, negro teachers +received $536,272, but white teachers received $3,258,352. In other words, +in the former year all the negro teachers received one-fifth as much as all +the whites, while five years later they received about one-sixth; that is, +something less than one-third the total number of children received about +one-seventh of the money expended for instruction. A part of this wide +difference in expenditure may be explained or even defended. The districts +or townships which have voted additional local taxes are usually those in +which there are comparatively few negroes. The average salary paid to negro +teachers, although low, is as large as can be earned in most of the +occupations open to them, and any sudden or large increase would neither +immediately raise the standard of competency nor insure a much larger +proportion of the ability of the race. The percentage of school attendance +of negro children is lower than in the case of white children. Very few +negro children, whether because of economic pressure, lack of ability, or +lack of desire for knowledge, complete even the fifth grade. Among negroes +there is little real demand for high school instruction, which is more +expensive than elementary instruction. Therefore, the proportion of the +total funds spent for negro education might properly be less than their +numbers would indicate. If the proportionate amount spent today for the +instruction of certain racial groups of the foreign population could be +separated from the total, it would be found that less than the average is +spent upon them for the same reasons. However, when all allowances have +been made, it is obvious that the negro is receiving less than a fair share +of the appropriations made by the Southern States for education. + +The inadequate public schools for negroes have been excused or justified +upon the ground that private and church schools are supplying the need. +This is true in some localities, for the great majority of negro private +schools, no matter by what name they are called, are really doing only +elementary or secondary work. These schools, however, only touch the +beginnings of the problem and have served in some degree to lessen the +sense of responsibility for negro education on the part of the Southern +whites. Where there is one of these schools supported by outside +philanthropy, the public school is likely to be less adequately equipped +and supported than in the towns where no such school exists. But at +best, these schools can reach only a small proportion of the children. + +The difficulty lies in public sentiment. As a rule the tax rate is fixed +by the State but collected by the county, and the county board divides +the amount plus any local taxes levied, among the schools. Districts of the +same number of pupils may receive widely varying amounts, according to the +grade of instruction demanded. Generally, a part of the fund is +apportioned per capita, and the remainder is divided according to the +supposed special need of the districts. A white district which demands +high grade teachers is given the necessary money, if possible. Few colored +schools have advanced pupils, and only sufficient funds for a cheaper +teacher or teachers may be provided. Colored districts are often made too +large. The white districts ask so much that little more than the per +capita appropriation is left for the colored schools. The negroes are +politically powerless and public sentiment does not demand that money be +taken from white children to be given to negroes. + +Mention should be made of several funds which have been established by +philanthropists for the education of the negro. The John F. Slater Fund, +founded by a gift of $1,000,000 in 1882, has now reached $1,750,000. The +greater part of the income is devoted to the encouragement of training +schools. No schools are established by the Fund itself, but it coöperates +with the local authorities and the General Education Board. The Jeanes +Fund of $1,000,000 established by a Quaker lady, Miss Anna T. Jeanes of +Philadelphia, expends the greater part of its income in helping to pay +the salaries of county supervisors for rural schools. These are usually +young colored women, who work under the direction of the county +superintendents and visit the rural schools. They give simple talks upon +hygiene and sanitation, encourage better care of schoolhouses and grounds, +stimulate interest in gardening and simple home industries, and encourage +self help. Their work has been exceedingly valuable. The Phelps Stokes +Fund of $900,000, founded by Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes, is not wholly +devoted to the negroes of the South. It has been expended chiefly in the +study of the negro problem, in founding fellowships, and in making +possible the valuable report on negro education already mentioned. In 1914, +Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago offered to every negro rural community +wishing to erect a comfortable and adequate school building a sum not to +exceed $300, provided that the community would obtain from private or +public funds at least as much more. + +The interest of the General Education Board is not limited either to negro +or even to Southern education, but it has done much for both. This great +foundation has paid salaries of state supervisors of negro schools in +several States and has coöperated with the Jeanes Fund in maintaining +county supervisors of negro schools. It has appropriated over half a +million dollars to industrial schools and about one-fourth as much to negro +colleges. Farm demonstration work, of which more is said elsewhere, is +also of aid to the negroes. The Board has realized, however, that the +development of negro schools is dependent upon the economic and educational +progress of the whites, and has contributed most to white schools or to +objects of a nature intended to benefit the whole population. + +All testimony points to the conclusion that there is now real enthusiasm +for education among the Southern whites. The school terms are being +extended, often by means of local taxes levied in addition to the +minimum fixed by the State; the quality of the teaching is improving; +and popular interest is growing. In many sections, the school is +developing into a real community center. Good buildings are replacing +the shacks formerly so common. North Carolina is proud of the fact that +for more than fourteen years an average of more than one new school a day +has been built from plans approved by the educational department. More +and more attention is being paid to the surroundings of the buildings. +School gardens are common, and some schools even cultivate an acre or two +of ground, the proceeds of which go to furnish apparatus or supplies. Many +of the Southern towns and cities have schools which need not fear +comparison with those in other sections. + +The crying need is more money which can come only in two ways, by +reforming the system of taxation, and by increasing the amount of +taxable property. All through the South the chief reliance is a general +property tax with local assessors who are either incompetent or else +desirous of keeping down assessments. The proportion of assessment to +value varies widely, but on the average it can hardly be more than fifty +per cent; and, as invariably happens, the assessment of the more +valuable properties is proportionately less than that of the small farm +or the mechanic's home. The South is growing richer, but the conflict +with the North set the section back thirty or forty years, while the +remainder of the country was increasing in wealth. Even today the South +must build two school systems without the aid of government land grants, +which have had so much to do with the successful development of the +schools of the Western States, and without the commercial prosperity +which has come to the East. The rate of taxation levied for schools in +many Southern communities is now among the highest in the United States. + +During the past ten years, hundreds of public high schools have been +established, more than half of which are rural. Some still follow the +old curriculum, but a new institution known as the "farm life school" is +now being developed. Many other schools have such a department attached +and usually give instruction in household economics as well. The General +Education Board estimates that $20,000,000 has been spent for improved +buildings since the appointment of professors of secondary education in +Southern universities. This, by the way, is one of the most useful +contributions of the Board. These men, chosen by the institutions +themselves as regular members of the faculty but with their salaries +paid by an appropriation from the Board, may give a course or two in the +university, but their chief duties are to coordinate the work of the +high schools and to serve as educational missionaries. They go up and +down the States, exhorting, advising, and stimulating the people, and +the fruits of their work are present on every hand. + +The South has a superabundance of colleges. Some of them have honorable +records; others represent faith and hope or denominational zeal rather +than accomplishment. Some of the older institutions were kept open +during War and Reconstruction but others were forced to close. With the +return of white supremacy old institutions have been revived and new +ones have been founded. The number of students has increased, but the +financial difficulties of the institutions have hardly diminished. Few +had any endowment worth considering, and the so-called state +institutions received very small appropriations or none at all. Good +preparatory schools were few and, since the colleges were dependent upon +tuition fees, many students with inadequate preparation were leniently +admitted. Preparatory departments were established for those students +who could not possibly be admitted to college classes. Necessarily the +quality of work was low, though many institutions struggled for the +maintenance of respectable standards. One college president frankly +said: "We are liberal about letting young men into the Freshman class, +but particular about letting them out." It was not uncommon for half of a +first year class to be found deficient and turned back at the end of the +year, or dismissed as hopeless. Obviously this was a wasteful method of +determining competency. + +Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1873 by the +gifts of "Commodore" Vanderbilt, was the first Southern institution with +anything approaching an adequate endowment and was the first to insist +upon thorough preparation for entrance, though it was compelled to +organize a sub-freshman class in the beginning. Its policy had +considerable influence both upon college standards and upon the growth +of private preparatory schools. The development of public schools, for a +time, had made the work of colleges in general more difficult, because +they supplanted scores of private academies which had done passably well +the work of college preparation and yet were not themselves able to +prepare students for college in the first years of their existence. For +years it was difficult in many localities for a young man to secure +proper preparation, and the total of poorly prepared students applying +for admission to the colleges increased. The number of towns and cities +which have established high schools or high school departments has since +increased rapidly, and today a larger and larger proportion of college +students comes from public schools. + +Since 1900, the resources of the colleges have greatly increased. States +which appropriated a few thousand dollars for higher education in the +early nineties now appropriate ten or even twenty times as much to their +universities, agricultural colleges, and normal and technical schools +for women, and have appropriated millions for new buildings. Many of the +denominational colleges have obtained substantial endowments. The +General Education Board up to 1914 had subscribed over $3,000,000 to +Southern colleges and universities on condition that the institutions +raise at least three times as much more. Southern men who have +accumulated wealth are realizing their social responsibility. Several +recent gifts of a million dollars or more are not included in the sum +mentioned above, and many smaller gifts or bequests likewise. + +Standards of work have been raised with increasing income. As elsewhere +the effect of the reports of the Carnegie Foundation has been patent. +The stronger institutions have brought up their requirements to the +minimum, on paper at least, and to a great extent in fact. Some of the +weaker institutions have dropped the pretense of doing college +work; others have accepted the position of junior colleges doing two +years of college work and giving no degrees. The States exercise little +or no supervision over the quality of work done for college degrees, and +some institutions continue to grant diplomas for what is really +secondary work, but the fact that they are not up to the standard is +known and the management is generally apologetic. + +No other phase of Southern life is more hopeful and more encouraging +than the educational revival. True, judged by the standards of the +richer States, the terms of the rural schools are short and the pay of +the teachers is small; but both are being increased, and no schools are +exercising more wholesome influence. The high schools are neither so +numerous nor so well equipped as in some other States, but nowhere else +is such evident progress being made. There are no universities in the +South which count their income in millions, but the number of +institutions adequately equipped to do efficient work is already large +and increasing. The spirit of faculty and students is admirable, and the +contact of the institutions and the people of the Southern States is +increasingly close and full of promise. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SOUTH OF TODAY + + +The South of the present is a changing South with its face toward the +future rather than the past. Nevertheless the dead hand is felt by all +the people a part of the time, and some of the people are never free +from its paralyzing touch. Old prejudices, the remembrance of past +grievances, and antipathies long cherished now and then assert +themselves in the most unexpected fashion. The Southerner, no matter how +much he may pride himself upon being liberal and broad, is likely to +make certain reservations and limitations in his attitude. There are +some questions upon which he is not open to argument, certain subjects +which he cannot discuss freely and dispassionately. Some Southerners +have so many of these reservations that conversation with them is +difficult unless one instinctively understands their psychology and is +willing to avoid certain subjects. The past has made so powerful an +impression upon them that it has affected their whole attitude of mind. + +Time, travel, association, engrossing work, and economic prosperity have +weakened many of these prejudices and antipathies, however, and the +Southerner is becoming free. There are individuals who will always be +bound by the past; there are some men, and more women, who are yet +"unreconstructed"; there are neighborhoods and villages where men and +women yet live in the past and absolutely refuse to attempt to adjust +themselves cheerfully to changed and changing conditions. This is not +true of the Southern people as a whole. In fact there is danger that the +younger generation will think too little of the past. Much of the Old +South is worthy of preservation, and it is never safe for a country or a +section to break too abruptly with its older life. + +Economically the South has prospered in proportion as the new spirit has +ruled. The question of secession is dead, and the man who refuses today +to treat it as past history but grows excited in discussing it is not +likely to be successful in his business or profession. The men of the +New South spend little time in discussing the relative wisdom of +Jefferson Davis and Robert Toombs or the reasons for the failure of the +Confederacy. The Southerners accept the results of the War, and all except +a negligible minority are convinced that the preservation of the Union was +for the best. To be sure they believe, partly through knowledge but more +largely through absorption, that the Confederate soldier was the best +fighting man ever known and that the War might have been won if the +civil government had been wiser, but on the whole they are not sorry that +secession failed. They thrill even today to _Dixie,_ and _The Bonnie Blue +Flag,_ but this feeling is now purely emotional. + +All the Southern States have felt, though unequally, the effects of +industrialism. The South Atlantic States have been most influenced by +this movement, but even Mississippi and Arkansas have been affected. In +many sections the traveler is seldom out of sight of the factory +chimney. Some towns, in appearance and spirit, might easily seem to +belong to a Middle Western environment but for the presence of the negro +and the absence of the foreign born. The population in these Southern +towns is still overwhelmingly American. In no States except Maryland and +Texas did the foreign born number as many as 100,000 in 1910, and +Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina each had less than 10,000 +at that time. The highest percentage of foreign born was 8.6 per cent in +Delaware, the lowest 0.3 per cent in North Carolina. In the South as a +whole the proportion of foreign born whites was only 2.5 per cent. + +The laborers in the Southern shops and mills today are not only native +born but almost altogether Southern born. The South has been a great +loser through interstate migration. Other sections also have lost but +the excess of those departing has been replaced by the immigration of +foreign born. Comparatively few have come to the South from other +sections except in Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and fewer +foreign born have settled in the South. As a result, the percentage of +increase of population is less for the South, if Oklahoma be omitted, +than for the United States as a whole. Many of the laborers are of rural +origin or are only a generation removed from the farm. They preserve the +individualistic attitude of the rural mind and have learned little of +collective action. Labor unions have made small progress except in a few +skilled trades and class consciousness has not developed in the South. + +The important industries have thus far been few and they have kept +rather close to the original raw material. The South does not spin all +the cotton it produces, does not weave all the yarn it spins, and does not +manufacture into clothing any considerable quantity of the cloth it weaves. +The greater part of both yarn and cloth is coarse, though some mills do +finer work. Little bleaching or printing, however, is done. The South is +a land of curious economic contrasts. It produces sugar but buys +confectionery. It produces immense quantities of lumber but works up +comparatively little, and this mainly into simple forms. It produces iron +and steel in considerable quantities but has few machine shops where really +delicate work can be done. It does not manufacture motor cars, electric or +even textile machinery or machine tools, nor does it make watches or +firearms in appreciable quantities. In short, the South carries some of the +most important raw materials only a step or two toward their ultimate form +and depends upon other parts of the country for the finished article. + +Years ago the story was told of a Georgia funeral at which that State +furnished only the corpse and the grave. Georgia, and other States too, +can do much more today, if the funeral be not too elaborate. It can +furnish a cotton shroud, each year of finer quality. The knitting mills +of the South are able to supply an increasing proportion of the +population with hose and underclothing, and a number of the mills are +gaining a national trade through advertising. If demanded, Southern-made +shoes may be found, and a Southern-made coffin may be drawn on a +Southern-made wagon by Southern-bred horses and perhaps, though +improbably, in harness of local manufacture also. + +The South was once the richest section of the Union. The vicissitudes of +the Civil War rendered it poor, but now it is rapidly growing richer and +since the beginning of the Great War has shown a phenomenal accumulation +of new capital. During this great struggle some of the cotton mills made +in a single month profits as large as they were formerly accustomed to +make in a year. Even though the farmer received for his cotton much more +than usual, the price of cloth would still have yielded a profit to the +manufacturer if cotton had been twice as high. Other enterprises have +likewise been profitable, and when normal conditions are restored this +capital will seek new investment. While prophecy is dangerous it seems +probable that manufacturing in the South will grow as never before; and +new forms of investment must be found, as the rural districts cannot +furnish any greatly increased supply of labor for cotton manufacturing +though the towns can supply some adult labor for other forms of industry. + +The labor question is beginning to grow serious in some localities, +though it is difficult to discover whether the problem is chiefly one of +getting labor at all or of getting it at something like the wages +formerly paid. Apparently, however, the industrial growth of the South +has been more rapid than that of population. Heretofore the farmer has +had little difficulty in obtaining some sort of assistance in +cultivating his land, and this abundance of labor has lessened the +demand for agricultural machinery. Now the migration of the negro to the +North has created a shortage of labor which must force the farmer to +purchase machinery. Too much man and horse power has been employed upon +Southern farms in proportion to the results achieved. The South has been +producing a large value per acre but a small value per individual. If +the South is to become permanently prosperous, fewer persons must do the +work and must even increase the production. + +A practical cotton-picking machine would help to solve some of the +South's problems, as any family can plant and cultivate after a fashion +much more cotton than it can pick. Many attempts to produce such a +machine have been made, but simplicity, efficiency, and cheapness have +not yet been attained. Like the reaper and binder, a machine of this +sort is needed for only a small portion of the year, but in that short +period the need is extreme. Such a machine would revolutionize the +tenant system, would permit a larger production of food, and at the same +time would set labor free for other occupations. Meanwhile the general +rate of wages in agriculture has risen and must rise still further, as +it has done in other occupations. Any student of economics who draws his +conclusions from observation of life as well as from books realizes how +large a part custom plays in determining wages, and hitherto farm wages +have been very low and labor has been inefficient in the South. + +The economic future of the South must rest upon the advance of the +farmer. This thesis has already been developed at length in another +chapter, where the present unsatisfactory organization and conditions of +agriculture were also discussed. Improvement, however, is already +becoming evident. Cotton furnishes two-fifths of the value of all farm +products, with corn, hay, tobacco, and wheat following in the order +named. Gradually the West is ceasing to be the granary and the smokehouse +of the Southern farmer, but the South does not yet feed itself. In 1917 +only Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Oklahoma produced a surplus of +wheat, though it is estimated that the South as a whole reduced its +deficiency by more than 35,000,000 bushels. The abnormal prices of +agricultural products since 1915 have brought many farmers out of debt and +set them on the road toward prosperity, but many have not yet realized that +they are no longer objects of commiseration. Though the high prices of +war times have brought prosperity to the farmer, the crying necessity today +is a larger production per man employed. + +The political, as well as the economic, condition of the South today is +full of interest. Politically the common man is in control, and as a +rule he selects men of his own type to represent him. The primary was +almost universal in the South when the West was only thinking of it as a +radical innovation. The day of aristocratic domination is over, if +indeed it ever really existed. In many instances descent from well-known +ancestors who have held high positions has proved a positive detriment +to a political candidate of today. Some of the successful politicians, +as might be expected, are demagogues. States differ in the number of +politicians of this type, and the same State may vary from year to year. +It may at the same time send a demagogue and a statesman to the Senate. Men +are permitted to hold offices, both national and state, for longer periods +than formerly, and, as a result, in recent Democratic Congresses Southern +men have held the most important chairmanships.[1] + +[Footnote 1: North Carolina, for example, had in the 65th Congress, the +chairmanship of the Committees on Finance and on Rules in the Senate, +and on Ways and Means, Rules, Judiciary, and Rivers and Harbors in the +House, besides other chairmanships of less account. Seldom in the whole +history of the country has the representation of any State been so +powerful.] + +That the Southern representation in Congress is equal in ability, +culture, and character to that of the Old South or to that of even +thirty years ago can hardly be seriously maintained. There are in +Congress a few men today who recall the best traditions of Southern +leadership; there are more who are mediocre and parochial. For the most +part they come from law offices in country towns, and have the virtues +and the limitations of their environment. They are honest financially, +if not intellectually, and do not consciously yield to "the interests." +They are correct in their private lives and likely to be somewhat +bigoted. Many are convinced that cities are essentially wicked and +conceive them to be inhabited by vampires and parasites. Few can think +in national terms, and fewer have either knowledge or comprehension of +international relations. For a generation the South was excluded from +any real participation in national affairs and was wholly occupied with +local questions. It is therefore difficult for such men to realize the +present position of the United States in world politics. With much +perturbation of spirit the rank and file followed the President in the +steps leading up to the Great War, though some of the would-be leaders +attempted to rebel. On the other hand, some of the most valuable men in +the great crisis were Southerners. + +The dominant party in the South is called Democratic, but the name has +little of its original significance today. The representative is likely +to follow the sentiment of his district if he can discover it. Some of +the Southern Democrats advocate doctrines which are far removed from +traditional democracy, for Populistic ideas have not entirely died out +and some of the farmers still demand special privileges, which, however, +they would be the first to deny to any one else. Democracy in the South +really means the white man's party, and the Democratic doctrines are +those in which it is thought the majority of the white men of the State +or section believe for the time. Though the negro is no longer a voting +power, the malign influence of the negro question persists. + +Since the South as a whole favors prohibition of the liquor traffic the +representatives of the people are almost unanimously in favor of +prohibition, forgetting all constitutional scruples and all questions of +state rights. The sentiment for woman suffrage is not yet overwhelming +and consequently, as might be surmised, conscientious scruples prevent +representatives from voting for the extension of the franchise. In two +States, however, the friends of woman suffrage, though not strong enough +to pass a constitutional amendment, have realized their aim by a +brilliant _coup_. Since most elections are practically settled in the +primaries, the legislatures of Texas and Arkansas gave women the right +to vote in such elections. In other words, women were given the right to +help nominate candidates, though they are excluded from the formal +elections. Whether these acts will stand in the courts has not been +determined. Missouri and Tennessee have recently given national suffrage +to women, and Oklahoma has given full suffrage. + +The negro has been practically eliminated as a voter, but the decision of +the Supreme Court in the Oklahoma case may make necessary the revision of +some state constitutions. Enough restrictions remain, however, to make +white supremacy reasonably secure for the present. As the aim is one upon +which the white South is practically agreed, some other expedients will be +devised if those now in use must be discarded. There is absolutely no +desire for a wholesale restoration of the negro vote, though, of course, +Republican conventions denounce the disfranchising acts and constitutional +amendments. If the control of the Southern States should be gained by the +Republican party, unlimited negro suffrage would hardly be restored unless +such action were forced by the party in the nation at large. In the last +extremity the South would suffer loss of representation rather than face +the consequences of unrestricted negro suffrage. + +Socially the South is in a state of ferment. Old standards are passing, +some of them very rapidly, and the younger generation is inclined to +smile at some of the attitudes of the old. The "typical Southerner" who +nourishes within the pages of F. Hopkinson Smith and Thomas Nelson Page +is extremely rare outside of them. Most of the real Southern colonels +are dead, and the others are too busy running plantations or cotton mills +to spend much time discussing genealogy, making pretty speeches, or talking +about their honor. Not so many colonels are made as formerly, and one may +travel far before he meets an individual who fits the popular idea of the +type. He is likely to meet more men who are cold, hard, and astute, for the +New South has developed some perfect specimens of the type whose natural +habitat had been supposed to be Ulster or the British Midlands--religious, +narrow, stubborn, and very shrewd. + +A sense of social responsibility is developing in the South. Kindness +has always been shown to the unfortunate and the afflicted, but it has +been exhibited toward individuals by individuals. If a Southerner heard +of a case of distress in his neighborhood, he was quick to respond. Real +neighborliness has always existed, but the idea of responsibility for a +class was slow to develop. Such an idea is growing, however. More +attention has been given to the condition of jails and almshouses during +the last ten years than in the whole preceding century. To be sure, the +section is now becoming rich enough to afford the luxury of paupers, but +the interest in socialized humanitarian endeavor lies deeper. Perhaps +the fact that negroes formed the larger part of the criminal and +dependent classes had something to do with the past neglect. The Old +Testament doctrine that the criminal should suffer the consequences of his +act has had its effect, and the factor of expense has not been forgotten. +Some of the States still permit county commissioners to commit the care of +the poor to the lowest bidder. On the other hand the poorhouse has been +transformed into a "Home for the Aged and Infirm" in some States, and +inspections of public institutions by the grand jury are becoming more +than merely cursory. State boards of charities are being established, +and men have even attacked members of their own political parties on the +charge of incompetence, cruelty, or neglect of duty as keepers of +prisons or almshouses. Hundreds of towns have their associated +charities, and scores have visiting nurses. Where there is only one +nurse, she visits negroes as well as whites, but many towns support one +or more for negroes as well. + +In former days orphans were "bound out," if no relatives would take +them, and in that case they might not always be properly treated. At the +present time not only States and municipalities support asylums, but +religious denominations and fraternal orders manage many well-conducted +institutions. The problem of the juvenile delinquent is being recognized, +as several States already have institutions for his care. So far little +has been done for the young negro offender, whose home training is likely +to be most deficient and who needs firm but kindly discipline; but the +consciousness of responsibility for him also is developing. Increasing +prosperity alone cannot account for the multiplication of these agencies +for social betterment. A new social interest and a new attitude of mind are +revealed in these activities. + +There are still some communities where social position is based upon +birth and where the old families still control; but these regions are +becoming less numerous. The Old South was never quite so aristocratic as +the North believed, and today the white South is much more nearly a +democracy than New England. Even in 1860 this was true of some parts of +the South, as compared with some parts of New England. The rural South +was always democratic except in comparatively limited areas, and it is +so everywhere today. In those communities which have felt the new +industrial spirit the question of birth plays little part. Any +presentable young man can go where he chooses. In such communities the +tendency--apparently inevitable in industrial societies--to base social +distinctions upon wealth and business success is beginning to show itself. +The plutocrats, however, are not yet numerous enough to form a society of +their own and must perforce find their associates among their fellow +townsmen. + +One does not lose social position in the South by engaging in business +or by working with his hands. It may easily happen that in the afternoon +you may purchase a collar or a pair of shoes from a young man whom you +will meet in the evening at the house of the local magnate. The +granddaughter of a former governor or justice of the Supreme Court comes +home from her typewriter and her brother from the cotton mill or the +lumber yard. Social life in a small town--and most Southern towns are +small--is simple and unpretentious, although here too the influence of +prosperity is beginning to be manifest. Social affairs are more +elaborate than they were ten or fifteen years ago, and there is also +less casual expression of informal hospitality. The higher prices of +food and the increasing difficulties of the servant problem have +doubtless put some restraint upon the spirit of hospitality but perhaps +more important is the fact that more of the men must keep regular hours of +business and that women are developing interests outside the home. + +Social affairs are almost entirely in the hands of women. The older men +come somewhat unwillingly to receptions in the evening, but the presence +of a man at an afternoon tea is unusual. The Southerner of the small +towns and cities puts away play with his adolescence. The professional +man seldom advertises the fact that he has gone hunting or fishing for a +day or a week, as it is thought to be not quite the thing for a lawyer +to be away from his office for such a purpose. Golf has gained no +foothold except in the larger towns, and even there the existence of the +country club is often precarious. Few males except college youths will +be seen on the tennis court, if indeed there be one even in a town of +five thousand people. Professional men keep long hours, though they +might be able to do all their work in half the time they spend in their +offices. + +The theory of the Old South contemplated different spheres of activity +for men and women. The combined influence of St. Paul and Sir Walter +Scott is responsible for a part of this theory, though its development +was probably inevitable from the structure of society in the Old South. +A woman's place was the home. As a girl she might live for enjoyment and +spend her time in a round of visits, but she was expected to give up +frivolity of all sorts when she married. Society in the South was almost +entirely the concern of the unmarried. Women seldom took a prominent +part in any organization, and a woman speaking in public was regarded as +a great curiosity. Not so many years ago the missionary society, and +perhaps the parsonage aid society, were almost the only organizations in +which women took a part. In recent years church and educational +organizations have multiplied, and today there are numerous women's +clubs devoted to many different objects. Southern women are active in +civic leagues, associated charities, and other forms of community +endeavor; they are prominent in various patriotic societies; and there +are many suffrage societies. Where the laws permit, women are members of +school boards; they often head organizations of teachers composed of +both men and women, and at least one woman has been chosen mayor of a +town. + +Women have done more than the men to keep alive in the South the +memories of the past. Perhaps because the women of the older generation +suffered more than the men, they have been less willing to forget, and +their daughters have imbibed some of the same feeling. The Daughters of +the Confederacy have been more bitter than the Sons of Veterans or than +the veterans themselves. The effect of recent events upon their +psychology has been interesting. In the Great War their sons and +grandsons were called to go overseas, and the national government was +brought closer to them than at any other time for more than forty years. +It is idle to insist that before this there had been any ardent +affection in the South for the United States. There had been acceptance +of the national situation, perhaps an intellectual acknowledgment that +all may have been for the best, but no warm nationalism had been +developed before the Great War came. Loyalty was passive rather than +active. + +The closing of the chasm has been hailed many times, notably at the time +of the Spanish War, but no keen observer has been deceived for a moment. +The recent world crisis, however, seems to have swept aside all +hindrances. Perhaps the people, and particularly the women, were +unconsciously yearning for a country to love and were ready for a great +wave of patriotism to carry them with it. During the week following the +declaration of war more national flags were displayed in the South than +had been shown in the memory of the oldest resident, for except on +public buildings the national flag has not been commonly displayed. At +this time houses which had never shown a flag were draped, and merchants +were chided because they could not supply the demand. + +Quite as a matter of course the president of the Daughters of the +Confederacy became president of the Red Cross Auxiliary which was +organized at once. Women were eager to receive instruction in folding +bandages, and knitting became the order of the day. Women threw +themselves with all their energy into various activities. Canteen work +was organized if the town was a junction point, and every instalment of +"selected men"--for the word "drafted" was rejected almost by common +consent--was sent away with some evidence of the thoughtfulness of the +women of their home town. Women have been prominent in raising money for +the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A. and have done valiant service in selling +War Savings Stamps and Liberty Bonds. There has been some shaking of +heads, and some exponents of the sheltered life have criticized this +invasion of what had been supposed to be the sphere of men, but the women +have gone ahead. Indeed their alacrity has seemed to indicate that they are +glad to have an excuse to throw aside the restraints which have hitherto +bound them. Women and girls have approached men whom they did not know on +the streets to ask for contributions or to urge the purchase of stamps or +bonds, and only those who know the South can realize what a departure from +traditional standards of feminine conduct such actions indicate. The +business woman has been a familiar figure for years, but she was sheltered +by the walls of her office or shop. On the street she was held to a +certain code and was criticized if she failed to observe it. But here also +the old order is changing and giving place to new. + +The power of public opinion is very great in the South. While this may +be true of rural or semi-rural communities in any part of the land, +nowhere else does collective opinion exert such overwhelming force as in +the Southern States. Perhaps this phenomenon is a survival from +Reconstruction days and after. Since certain attitudes toward the negro, +for example, were defended on the ground of the necessity of protecting +womanhood, a certain standard must be demanded from women, and every man +claimed a sort of prescriptive right to assist in laying down rules for +such conduct on her part. For a long time the women of the South, +consciously or unconsciously, were subject to these unwritten rules. Today +in increasing numbers the women, particularly the younger women, are +declaring their independence by their conduct. It has not become a feminist +revolt, for many have not thought out the situation and have not recognized +the source of their restrictions. The statutes of some of the Southern +States, moreover, still contain many of the old common law restrictions +upon women's independence of action. More and more women are asserting +themselves, however, and are demanding the right to guide themselves. The +negro woman has been held up as the reason for denying the vote to the +white woman, but this excuse no longer is accepted willingly. Women are +inquiring why the vote of the negro women should be any more of a menace +than the vote of the negro man, and there seems to be no satisfactory +answer. If the women make up their minds and agree, they will gain their +ends. + +Though women in the South as elsewhere form a majority of the church +membership, they have not had equal rights in church administration. +During 1918, several denominations granted full laity rights, though the +bishops of the Southern Methodist Church referred the action of the +General Conference back to the Annual Conferences. This is of course only + temporary delay. An unusually large percentage of the adult population +holds membership in one or other of the Protestant denominations. The +Roman Catholics are reported as being in a majority in Louisiana, as might +be expected owing to French descent, and in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, +and Texas the proportion is considerable. It is less in Arkansas, Oklahoma, +and West Virginia. In Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, +Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the proportion of Catholics is still +smaller, though the latest (1918) official Catholic statistics for the +even States last named show 7 bishops, 415 priests, 635 churches, and +211,000 Catholics. The principal denominational affiliations of the +Southern people, white and black, are with the various Baptist or Methodist +bodies, with a strong Presbyterian influence. In eleven of the Southern +States the Baptists are by far the largest denomination, though the +Methodists lead in two. These two denominations taken together are in a +large majority in every State except Delaware, Maryland, and Louisiana. +Presbyterians and Episcopalians are well distributed throughout the whole +section and have exercised an influence altogether out of proportion to +their numbers. Presbyterianism came in with the great Scotch-Irish +migration of the eighteenth century, and though many of the blood have gone +over to other denominations, the influence of the Shorter Catechism still +persists. In the older States attempts were made to establish the Anglican +Church in the colonial era, and the governing classes were naturally +affiliated with it. + +Both these organizations had to give way to the great wave of religious +enthusiasm which swept the section early in the nineteenth century. +Baptist and Methodist missionaries, many of them unlettered but vigorous +and powerful, went into the remotest districts and swept the population +into their communions. They preached a narrow, strait-laced, Old +Testament religion, but it went deep. They believed in the verbal +inspiration of the Bible, and so far as they could they interpreted it +literally, laying emphasis upon the future, the rewards of the +righteous, and the tortures of the damned. Life upon this earth was +regarded as simply a preparation for the life to come. One is sometimes +tempted to believe that these spiritual guides deprecated attempts to +improve conditions here on earth lest men should grow to think less of a +future abode. It is easy to understand why such a doctrine of future +reward should have appealed to negroes, and it is perhaps not surprising +that the poor upon the frontier likewise found comfort and solace in it. + ears ago the social position of the great majority of the Methodists and +Baptists was distinctly below that of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians. +In recent years many Methodists and Baptists have grown prosperous. +Instead of being bare barns, their church edifices are often the most +ornate and costly in the town or city. A Methodist or a Baptist can have +none of the former feeling of martyrdom now, when in numbers and wealth his +denomination is so powerful.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Except these five, other church organizations have few +members. There are a few Congregationalists, almost entirely the result +of post-bellum missions to the negroes. White and negro Lutheran +churches are scattered through the Southern States, and in Kentucky and +Tennessee the Disciples are important. Here and there other +denominations have gained a foothold, but their numbers are +insignificant in the South as a whole.] + +Though the evangelical religious teaching of former days has been +modified and softened, it has been softened only and not superseded. The +result of this emphasis upon the other world has been to make men look +somewhat askance at worldly amusement. The idea so prevalent in other +sections that the people of the South are convivial and mercurial in +temperament is erroneous. It would be more nearly correct to say that +gravity, amounting almost to austerity, is a distinguishing mark of +Southerners. In any Southern gathering representing the people as a +whole there is little mirth. There is much more Puritanism in the South +today than remains in New England. The Sabbath is no longer observed so +strictly as twenty years ago, perhaps, but only recently has it been +considered proper to receive visits on Sunday or to drive into the +country. As for Sunday golf or tennis, the average community would stand +horror-struck at such a spectacle. Sermons are frequently preached +against dancing, card-playing, and theater-going, and members have been +dismissed from Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches for +indulging in these forbidden amusements. + +The older generation, however, is losing in the fight to maintain the +old standards of conduct and belief. In spite of disapprobation, bridge +clubs flourish and the young people will dance and go to the theater, +though even yet most Southern cities are known as "poor show towns." +Today men go to the post office on Sunday, read the Sunday papers, and +ride on Sunday trains. The motor car makes its appearance on Sunday, +though it would be interesting to know how many of those riding really +feel conscience free, for many who have liberal ideas still have +Calvinistic nerves. Young ministers occasionally preach sermons for which +they would have been charged with heresy not many years ago and openly +read books which would have been considered poisonous then. Men speak of +evolution now and show familiarity with authors who were anathema to the +older generation. + +Lately some of the town and city churches have been developing the +social and humanitarian side of religious work, but the greatest number +manage to collect only enough money to keep the organization alive. They +are like engines which can get up enough steam to turn the wheels slowly +and painfully but lack sufficient power to do effective work. In fact, +there is strong opposition to any pastor who attempts to influence the +decision of the congregation on any social question. Many towns and +rural communities have several churches, though their population and +wealth may be hardly large enough to support one properly. This +condition, however, is not peculiar to the South. Here and there in the +country districts a new type of pastor has appeared. He is a good farmer +himself, interested in better farming and able to discuss fertilizers and +methods with his parishioners. He is not afraid that prosperity will turn +his members away from their church duties but considers that improving +the economic conditions of the neighborhood is quite as vital a part of +his work as ministering to their spiritual needs. Largely because of the +work of some of these men the exodus to the towns has slackened in some +neighborhoods and contributions to the work of the church have been greatly +increased. + +This movement from country to town has become a serious matter in some +localities. The social level of neighborhoods once attractive because of +the presence of families of intelligence and character has fallen. The +land of the families which have moved to towns has been turned over to +tenants, either whites of a lower status or negroes, the standards of +the community have suffered in consequence, and the atmosphere of some +of these communities has become depressing. Such conditions, however, +are not peculiar to the South but have been observed in central New York +and in New England. Better roads, the motor car, and improvement in +communications have helped to check this cityward movement, and, on the +whole, the educational, economic, and social standards of the country +districts generally are higher than they were ten years ago. + +Generally speaking, the South is a law-abiding section. This is true +even when the negroes are included, and as the prohibitory laws are +enforced more strictly, it is becoming increasingly true. The chain gang +which was so common years ago has been discontinued in hundreds of +counties, chiefly for lack of convicts, though partly for humanitarian +reasons. The offenses of the negro were, for the most part, petty +larceny, gambling, and offenses against public order. Affrays are +certainly less frequent since the spread of prohibition, and larceny +seems to be decreasing, though statistics of crime are few and +unreliable. The gambling is usually nothing more than "craps," or +"African billiards" as they call it now. Among the whites, offenses +against property are few. In many rural counties a white man is seldom +charged with theft, fraud, or forgery. A white man is occasionally +arraigned for "disposing of mortgaged property," or for malicious +mischief, including the destruction of property. + +The homicide rate, however, is high. Generally the figures given include +the negro, and he is somewhat more homicidal than the white, but the white +rate is among the highest in the world. Blood feuds actually exist in the +Southern Appalachians, though perhaps their number is not so large as is +commonly believed. The moonshiner's antipathy to revenue officers leads +him to use firearms upon occasion, but homicide occurs also in intelligent +communities where the general tone is high. Individuals of excellent +standing in business or professional life sometimes shoot to kill their +fellows and in the past have usually escaped the extreme penalty and often +have avoided punishment altogether. It would seem that life is held rather +cheaply in many Southern communities. + +Until recently much of the South has remained a frontier, as some of it +is to this day, and in frontier communities men are accustomed to take +the law into their own hands and are reluctant to depend upon inadequate +or ineffective police protection. Despising physical cowardice, the +individual prides himself upon his ability to maintain his rights and to +protect his honor without calling for assistance. Frontiersmen are quick +to resent an affront, and when their veracity is impugned they fight. +The word "lie" is not considered a polite mode of expressing dissent. All +over the South, in every class of society, one finds this sensitiveness to +an accusation of lack of veracity. Such a theory of life dies hard. The +presence of a less advanced race is perhaps not conducive to self-control. +The dominant race, determined to maintain its position of superiority, +is likely to resent a real or fancied affront to its dignity. A warped +sense of honor, a sort of belated theory of chivalry, is responsible for +some acts of violence. A seducer is likely to be called to account and the +slayer, by invoking the "unwritten law," has usually been acquitted. Such +a case lends itself to the display of flamboyant oratory, and the plea of +"protecting the home" has set many murderers free. Perhaps the South is +becoming less susceptible to oratory; at all events this plea now +sometimes fails to win a jury. Defendants are occasionally convicted, +though the verdicts are usually rendered for manslaughter and not for +murder. + +Public sentiment is not yet ready, however, to declare every intentional +homicide murder. Some point to the low rate of white illegitimacy as a +justification of the deterring force of the "unwritten law," not +realizing that such a defense it, really a reflection upon womanhood. +Others allow their detestation of physical cowardice to blind them to the +danger of allowing men to take the law into their own hands. The +individualism of the imperfectly socialized Southerner does not yet +permit him to think of the law as a majestic, impersonal force towering +high above the individual. It is true that the Southerner is law-abiding +on the whole, but he usually obeys the laws because they represent his +ethical concepts and not because of devotion to the abstract idea of law. + +There is danger, however, in the attempt to state dogmatically what the +Southerner thinks or believes. There is much diversity of opinion among +the younger Southerners, for many questions are in a state of flux, and +there is as yet no point of crystallization. There is no leader either +in politics or in journalism who may be said to utter the voice of the +South. In the earlier part of this period Henry Watterson, of the +Louisville _Courier-Journal_, spoke almost with authority. The untimely +death of Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta _Constitution_, deprived +the South of a spokesman and he has had no successor. There is no +newspaper which has any considerable influence outside the State in +which it is published, and few have a circulation throughout even their +entire State. There are several newspapers which are edited with +considerable ability, on the political side at least, but none has a +circulation sufficiently large to make it a real power. All are more or +less parochial. The country papers, which are frankly and necessarily +local, exercise more influence than the papers of the cities, though the +circulation of the latter is increasing. + +The Southerner is reading more than he once did. Some of the national +weeklies have a considerable circulation in the South, and the national +magazines are read in increasing numbers. Good bookstores are not +common, for the people generally have not learned to buy many books +since they have been able to afford them. The women's clubs, however, +interest their members in the "best-sellers" and pass these books from +one to another. Some members may always be depended upon to purchase +serious books as their contribution to the club. The number of public +libraries in the South is considerable, and the educational +administration of several of the States is striving to put a +well-selected library into every public school[1]. + +[Footnote 1: North Carolina has established over five thousand of these +school libraries. The State pays one-third of the cost, the county +one-third, and the patrons of the school the remainder. Additional +volumes are furnished by the same plan.] + +The Southerner is not only reading more books, but he is also writing +more. A man or woman who has written a book is no longer a curiosity. In +the closing decade or two of the nineteenth century the work of a group +of Southern writers led a distinguished critic to rank them as the most +significant force in American letters. Such a high valuation of the +writers of the present day could hardly be made, but there is a much +larger number than formerly whose work is acceptable. Members of college +faculties, and others, produce annually numerous books of solid worth in +science, history, biography, economics, and sociology. Volumes of +recollections and reminiscences interesting to the student of the past +appear, and much local and state history has been rescued from oblivion. +Some theological books are written, but there is little published on +national questions. The output of verse is small, and few essays are +published. As few Southerners are extensive travelers, there are +necessarily few books of travel and description. Though most of the +people live in a rural or semi-rural environment, very little is printed +dealing with nature. There are many writers of fiction, though few can +be called artists. + +The New South is full of contradictions and paradoxes. It is living +generations of social and economic changes in decades, and naturally all +the people do not keep an even pace. One may find culture that would +grace a court alongside incredible ignorance; distinguished courtesy and +sheer brutality; kindness and consideration of the rights and feelings of +others together with cruelty almost unbelievable. In some sections are to +be found machines belonging to the most advanced stage of industry, while +nearby are in operation economic processes of the rudest and most +primitive sort. One who knows the South must feel, however, that its most +striking characteristic is hopefulness. The dull apathy of a generation ago +is rapidly disappearing, and the South lifts up its eyes toward the +future. + + + + +THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS + +The debt of Mississippi was small and that of Texas was not excessive, +and neither made any attempt to repudiate the obligations. The +$4,000,000 issued in Florida for state aid to railroads was large for +the small population and the scanty resources of that State, but this +issue was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Florida. The +Reconstruction debt of Alabama was large, about $20,000,000, besides +accrued interest which the State could not pay. In 1873, the carpetbag +government attempted to fund these bonds at twenty-five cents on the +dollar. The Funding Act of 1876 repudiated $4,700,000 outright, reduced +the bonds loaned to one railroad from $5,300,000 to $1,000,000, gave +land in payment of $2,000,000 more, scaled other bonds one-half, and +funded still others at par excluding interest. About $13,000,000 in all +was repudiated and the State was left with a debt of less than +$10,000,000[1]. + +[Footnote 1: W.A. Scott, _The Repudiation of State Debts_, p. 63, but +see also W.L. Fleming, _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, p. 580 +ff.] + +During 1868 and 1869 bond issues to the amount of nearly $28,000,000 +were authorized in North Carolina, but not all of this amount was +issued. From the $13,313,000 which was outstanding at the end of the +carpetbag regime, the State had received little or no benefit. Interest +was not paid upon this sum or upon the previous issues, and the total +debt increased rapidly. Unsuccessful attempts to compromise with the +creditors were made in 1874 and 1875, but not until 1879 was the matter +settled. The Reconstruction bonds were repudiated outright, and the +legitimate debt of the State was funded at from fifteen to forty cents +on the dollar. No provision was made for the unpaid interest. This +compromise did not include the pre-war bonds issued to aid the North +Carolina Railroad. This corporation was a going concern, and as the +result of a suit the stock had been sequestrated. A compromise with the +holders of these bonds was made at eighty per cent of par and interest. +As a result of this wholesale repudiation the debt of the State was so +reduced that it could be carried. In all over $22,000,000 besides other +millions of accrued interest were repudiated.[1] + +[Footnote 1: J.G. de R. Hamilton, _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, +pp. 448-449, 659-661.] + +Not all of the creditors of the State accepted the compromise at once, +but the offer was left open and, as the years went on and the State +showed no signs of a change of intention, the bondholders gradually +recognized the inevitable. In 1893, nearly fifteen years after this +offer had been made, more than $1,000,000 of the old bonds were still +outstanding. In 1901, a New York firm presented to the State of South +Dakota ten of the class which had been made convertible at twenty-five +cents on the dollar. That State brought suit in the Supreme Court of the +United States and collected the amount sued for.[1] No progress has been +made in collecting the special tax bonds issued during Reconstruction +though some New York bond houses hope against hope, and the Council of +the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders in its annual reports plaintively +regrets the perversity of this and other Southern States. + +[Footnote 1: South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U.S. Rep., p. 286] + +South Carolina presented such a carnival of incompetence and corruption +that the total amount of bonds issued has never been accurately +determined. Apparently there was a valid debt of about $6,666,000 in +1868, which was increased to about $29,000,000 within three years. The +carpetbag Legislature of 1873 repudiated $6,000,000 of this debt, and +attempted to compromise the remainder at fifty per cent, but the State +could not carry even this reduced amount. Judicial decisions destroyed +the validity of some millions more, and finally the debt, reduced to +something more than $7,000,000, was funded. The debt of Georgia was +increased directly and by indorsement of railroad bonds. The Legislature +of 1872 declared $8,500,000 void and in 1875 repudiated about $600,000 +more. + +Louisiana suffered most from excessive taxation. At the beginning of the +carpetbag period the debt was about $11,000,000, but railroad and levee +bonds were issued rapidly. Though a constitutional amendment in 1870 +forbade the State to contract debts in excess of $25,000,000, the +Legislature went steadily on until in 1872 the debt was variously +estimated at from $41,000,000 to $48,000,000. In 1874, when W.P. Kellogg +was Governor, the State began to fund valid obligations at sixty cents +on the dollar. By action of the courts the debt was reduced to about +$12,000,000 bearing interest at seven percent. The State could not pay +the interest on this sum, and the constitutional convention of 1879 made +drastic reductions in the interest rate. Both New York and New +Hampshire, acting ostensibly for themselves but really in behalf of their +citizens, brought suit, but the Supreme Court threw out the cases on the +ground that the actions were attempts to evade the constitutional +provision forbidding a citizen to bring an action against a State. The +bondholders still refused to accept the reduction, and the Supreme Court +in 1883 described the ordinance as a violation of the contract of 1874 +but a violation without a remedy. Meanwhile the Legislature, after +consultation with the bondholders, had agreed to a slight increase in the +rate of interest; and in 1884, this compromise was ratified by an +amendment to the constitution. + +The debt of Arkansas was not so difficult to settle. The issue of about +$7,500,000 for railroads and levees during Reconstruction was declared +unconstitutional in 1877-78, and the so-called Holford bonds, issued in +aid of banks, were repudiated by the constitutional convention of 1884. +The total amount repudiated and declared void by the courts was nearly +$13,000,000. Tennessee also struggled with a debt which it was unwilling +and perhaps unable to pay. The amount, which in 1861 was about +$21,000,000, incurred principally in aid of railroads and turnpikes, was +largely increased under Republican rule, and most of the money received +for the bonds was stolen or wasted. No interest had been paid during the +War, and the accrued interest was funded in 1865, 1869, and 1873. The +debt was somewhat reduced by permitting the railroads to pay their debt +in state bonds which they purchased cheaply on the market. Other +defaulting railroads were sold, but the State still could not meet the +interest. Many discussions with the creditors were held, but the people +had the idea that much of the debt was fraudulent and they consequently +voted down proposals which they thought too liberal to the creditors. The +question temporarily split the Democratic party, but after much +discussion a long act was passed in 1883 which finally settled the matter. +A part of the debt, with interest, was funded at 76 to 80 cents on the +dollar. The major part was funded at 50 cents on the dollar with interest +thereafter at three per cent. + +The financial difficulties of Virginia excited more interest than did +those of any other commonwealth, for this State had the largest pre-war +debt. Its $33,000,000 with accrued interest had amounted to about +$45,000,000 in 1870. In 1871 the question of settlement was taken up; +one-third of the debt was assigned to West Virginia, and the remainder +was funded into new bonds bearing interest at five and six per cent. The +coupons were made receivable for taxes and other debts due the State. +The amount recognized was beyond the ability of the State to pay, and +many members of both parties felt that some compromise must be made. So +many of the coupons were paid in for taxes that money to keep the +Government going was found with difficulty. Various attacks on the +privilege were made, but these "coupon killers" were usually declared +unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. Meanwhile +the contest had split the State. Some were in favor of paying the whole +debt according to the agreement of 1871; others wished to reduce the +interest rate; while the radicals wished to repudiate part of the debt +and reduce the rate of interest upon the remainder. The last named +faction, under the leadership of H.H. Riddleberger, organized a +political party known as the Readjusters and in 1879 captured the +Legislature. Riddleberger then introduced a bill which scaled down the +debt to less than $20,000,000, but it was vetoed by the Governor. Two years +later the new party captured both Governorship and Legislature and sent +General William Mahone to the United States Senate, where he usually voted +with the Republican party. + +The Legislature repassed the Riddleberger bill, which the creditors +refused to accept, and an ingenious "coupon killer." Similar acts were +passed in 1886 and 1887. The United States Supreme Court, before which +these acts were brought, pronounced them unconstitutional in that they +impaired the obligation of contracts, but the Court also stated that +there was no way in which the State could be coerced. Meanwhile the +credit of the State was nonexistent, and all business suffered. In 1890 +a commission reported in favor of compromising the debt on the lines of +the Riddleberger Act and, in 1892, $19,000,000 in new bonds were +exchanged for about $28,000,000 of the older issue. Interest was to be 2 +per cent for ten years and then 3 per cent for ninety more. + +West Virginia steadfastly refused to recognize the share of the debt +assigned to her on the ground that the principal part had been incurred +for internal improvements in Virginia proper, and that one-third was an +excessive proportion. The matter dragged along until the Supreme Court +of the United States decided in March, 1911, that the equitable +proportion due by West Virginia was 23.5 per cent instead of one-third. +West Virginia, however, made no move to carry out the decision, and in +1914 Virginia asked the Court to proceed to a final decree. A special +master was appointed to take testimony, and on June 14, 1915, the Supreme +Court announced that the net share of West Virginia was $12,393,929 plus +$8,178,000 interest. The State, by a compromise with Virginia in 1919, +assumed a debt amounting to $14,500,000. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Many of the references for the period of Reconstruction are also +valuable for the subject of this volume, as it is impossible to +understand the South today without understanding the period which +preceded it. Much enlightening material is to be found in W.L. Fleming's +_Documentary History of Reconstruction_ (2 vols., 1906-07) and in the +series of monographs on Reconstruction published by the students of +Professor W.A. Dunning of Columbia University, among which may be +mentioned J.W. Garner's _Reconstruction in Mississippi_(1901); W.L. +Fleming's _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_ (1905); J.G. de R. +Hamilton's _Reconstruction in North Carolina_ (1914); C.M. Thompson's +_Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Political, 1865-1872_ +(1915). + + + +GENERAL WORKS + + +Some of the older books are interesting from the historical standpoint, +but conditions in the South have changed so rapidly that these works +give little help in understanding the present. Among the most +interesting are A.W. Tourgée's _Appeal to Caesar_ (1884), based upon +the belief that the South would soon be overwhelmingly black. Alexander +K. McClure, in _The South; its Industrial, Financial and Political +Condition_ (1886), was one of the first to take a hopeful view of the +economic development of the Southern States. W.D. Kelley's _The Old +South and the New_ (1887) contains the observations of a shrewd +Pennsylvania politician who was intensely interested in the economic +development of the United States. Walter H. Page's _The Rebuilding of +Old Commonwealths_ (1902) is a keen analysis of the factors which have +hindered progress in the South. + +No recent work fully covers this period. Most books deal chiefly with +individual phases of the question. Some valuable material may be found +in the series _The South in the Building of the Nation_, 13 vols., +(1909-13) but not all of this information is trustworthy. The _Library +of Southern Literature_ (16 vols., 1907-1913), edited by E.A. Alderman +and Joel Chandler Harris, contains selections from Southern authors and +biographical notes. Albert Bushnell Hart's _The Southern South_ (1910) +is the result of more study and investigation than any other Northerner +has given to the sociology of the South, but the author's prejudices +interfere with the value of his conclusions. The late Edgar Gardner +Murphy in _Problems of the Present South_ (1904) discusses with wisdom +and sanity many Southern questions which are still undecided. A series +of valuable though unequal papers is _The New South_ in the _Annals of +the American Academy of Political and Social Science_, vol. 35 (1910). +Another cooperative work which contains material of value is _Studies in +Southern History and Politics_, edited by J.W. Garner (1914). _Why the +Solid South_, edited by H.A. Herbert (1890), should also be consulted. A +bitter arraignment of the South as a whole is H.E. Tremain's _Sectionalism +Unmasked_ (1907). The best book on the Appalachian South is Horace +Kephart's _Our Southern Highlanders_ (1913). William Garrott Brown's _The +Lower South in American History_ (1902) contains some interesting matter. + + +ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT + +There are several excellent works on cotton and the cotton trade, chief +among which are M.B. Hammond's _The Cotton Industry_ (1897) and C.W. +Burkett and C.H. Poe's _Cotton, its Cultivation, Marketing, Manufacture, +and the Problems of the Cotton World_ (1906). D.A. Tompkins, in _Cotton +and Cotton Oil_ (1901), gives valuable material but is rather +discursive. J.A.B. Scherer, in _Cotton as a World Power_ (1916), +attempts to show the influence of cotton upon history. Holland Thompson +in _From the Cotton Field to the Cotton Mill_ (1906) deals with the +economic and social changes arising from the development of +manufacturing in an agricultural society. With this may be mentioned A. +Kohn's _The Cotton Mills of South Carolina_ (1907). M.T. Copeland's _The +Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States_ (1912) has some +interesting chapters on the South. T.M. Young, an English labor leader, +in _The American Cotton Industry_ (1903), brings a fresh point of view. +The files of the _Manufacturer's Record_ (Baltimore) are indispensable +to a student of the economic progress of the South. + + + +THE NEGRO QUESTION + +The number of books, pamphlets, and special articles upon this subject, +written by Northerners, Southerners, negroes, and even foreigners, is +enormous. These publications range from displays of hysterical +emotionalism to statistical studies, but no one book can treat fully all +phases of so complex a question. Bibliographies have been prepared by +W.E.B. Du Bois, A.P.C. Griffin, and others. W.L. Fleming has appended a +useful list of titles to _Reconstruction of the Seceded States (1905)_. + +F.L. Hoffman, a professional statistician of German birth, in _Race +Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro (1896)_, has collected much +valuable material but all his conclusions cannot be accepted without +question. Special _Bulletins_ on the negro are published by the United +States Census Bureau, of which the issues for 1904 and 1915 should +especially be consulted. Some of the _Publications_ of Atlanta +University contain valuable studies of special localities or +occupations. + +Several negroes have written histories of their race. George W. +Williams's _History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880, 2 +vols. (1883)_, is old but contains material of value. William H. Thomas, +in _The American Negro (1901)_, is pessimistic as to the future +because of the moral delinquencies of his people. Booker T. Washington's +_The Story of the Negro, the Rise of the Race from Slavery (1909)_, on +the other hand, emphasizes achievements rather than deficiencies and is +optimistic in tone. Of this writer's several other books, the _Future of +the American Negro (1899)_ is the most valuable. Kelly Miller has +written _Race Adjustment_ (1908) and _An Appeal to Conscience (1918), +besides many articles and monographs all marked by excellent temper. On the +other hand, W.E.B. Du Bois, in _The Souls of Black Folk_ (1903) and in his +other writings, voices the bitterness of one to whom the color line has +proved an "intolerable indignity." + +Ray Stannard Baker in _Following the Color Line_ (1908) gives the +observations of a trained metropolitan journalist and is eminently sane +in treatment. William Archer, the English author and journalist +expresses a European point of view in _Through Afro-America_ (1910). +Carl Kelsey's _The Negro Farmer_ (1903) is a careful study of +agricultural conditions in eastern Virginia. A collection of valuable +though unequal papers is contained in the _Annals of the American +Academy of Political and Social Science under The Negro's Progress in +Fifty Years_, No. 138 (1913) and _America's Race Problem_ (1901). + +One of the first Southerners to attack the new problem was A.G. Haygood, +later a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who published +_Our Brother in Black, His Freedom and His Future_ (1881). P.A. Bruce, +in _The Plantation Negro as a Freeman_ (1888), has done an excellent +piece of work. Thomas Nelson Page, in _The Negro, The Southerner's +Problem_ (1904), holds that no good can come through outside +interference. William B. Smith's _The Color Line_ (1905) takes the +position that the negro is fundamentally different from the white. +Alfred Holt Stone, in _Studies in the American Race Problem_ (1908), has +given a record of his experiences and reflections as a cotton planter in +the delta region of Mississippi, while Patience Pennington (_pseud._) in +_A Woman Rice-Planter_ (1913) gives in the form of a diary a naïve but +fascinating account of life in the lowlands of South Carolina. Edgar +Gardner Murphy, whose _Problems of the Present South_ has already been +mentioned, discusses in _The Basis of Ascendancy_ (1909) the proper +relations of black and white. The title of Gilbert T. Stephenson's _Race +Distinctions in American Law_ (1910) is self-explanatory. + + +EDUCATION + +No complete history of education in the South has been written. The +United States Bureau of Education published years ago several monographs +upon the separate States. Edgar W. Knight has written an excellent +history of _Public School Education in North Carolina_ (1916). Carter G. +Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ (1915), E.A. +Alderman's _J.L.M. Curry, a Biography_ (1911), and R.D.W. Connor and +C.W. Poe's _Life and Speeches of Charles Brantley Aycock_ (1912) are +illuminating. J.L.M. Curry's _A Brief Sketch of George Peabody and a +History of the Peabody Education Fund through Thirty Years_ (1898) gives +an excellent idea of the situation after Reconstruction. _The General +Education Board; an Account of its Activities, 1902-1914_ (1915) +contains interesting facts on the educational situation of today. The +reports of the state Departments of Education, of the United States +Bureau of Education, of the Conference for Education in the South, and +of the Peabody, Slater, and Jeanes Funds should be consulted. The two +volumes on _Negro Education_, United States Bureau of Education Bulletins +Nos. 38 and 39 (1916) are invaluable. There are also histories of +some of the state universities and of the church and private schools. + + +FICTION + +Some of the best historical material on the changing South is in the +form of fiction. A number of gifted writers have pictured limited fields +with skill and truth. Mary Noailles Murfree (_pseud._, Charles Egbert +Craddock) has written of the mountain people of Tennessee, while John +Fox, Jr. has done the same for Kentucky and the Virginia and West +Virginia mountains. George W. Cable and Grace King have depicted +Louisiana in the early part of this period, while rural life in Georgia +has been well described in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris, better +known from his Uncle Remus books. In _The Voice of the People_ (1900) +Ellen Glasgow has produced, in the form of fiction, an important +historical document on the rise of the common man. In _The Southerner_ +(1909) Nicholas Worth (understood to be the pseudonym of a distinguished +editor and diplomat) has made a careful study of conditions in North +Carolina between 1875 and 1895, while Thomas Dixon in _The Leopard's +Spots_ (1902) has crudely but powerfully drawn a picture of the campaign +for negro disfranchisement in that State. + +In his _Old Judge Priest_ stories, Irvin S. Cobb has described the rural +towns of Kentucky; and Corra Harris from personal experience has given +striking pictures of the rural South principally in relation to +religion. The short stories of Harris Dickson portray the negro of the +Mississippi towns. The stories of Thomas Nelson Page and of Ruth McEnery +Stuart should also be mentioned. Owen Wister has drawn a striking picture +of Charleston in _Lady Baltimore_ (1906), while Henry Sydnor Harrison in +_Queed_ (1911) and his later stories has done something similar for +Richmond. + + + + + +INDEX + + +Agricultural Wheel, 34 + +Agriculture, farmers' revolt, 31 _et seq._; farmer and the land, 60 _et +seq._; county demonstrators, 75-77, 184; Farm Loan Act, 84; influence on +labor, 116; economic future of South in, 198-99 + +Alabama, Conservative party in, 12; Kolb in, 37-38; Populist party, 42; +suffrage amendments, 54-55; boys' corn club, 79; cotton mills, 97; iron +industry, 101; mines, 102; bituminous coal, 102; school fund, 158 +(note); Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 227 + +American Tobacco Company, 103 + +Archer, William, _Through Afro-America_, quoted, 141 + +Arkansas, hill men of, 6; Agricultural Wheel in, 34; election (1896), +44; lumbering, 100; mixed schools, 161; industrialism, 193; migration +to, 194; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, +230-31 + +Atlanta (Ga.), Cotton Exposition (1881), 89 + +Aycock, C.B., Governor of North Carolina, 57 + + +Badeau, General Adam, and expression "New South," 7 + +Baptist Church, 214, 215-16 + +Bayard, T.F., of Delaware, 28 + +Birmingham (Ala.), steel center, 101-02 + +Blair Bill, 27 + +Blease, C.L., of South Carolina, 122, 150 + +Boys' and girls' clubs, 76, 78-81 + +Brothers of Freedom, 34 + +Bryan, W.J., presidential nomination, 44 + +Buck. S.J., _The Agrarian Crusade_, cited, 25 (note), 44 (note) + +Butler, Marion, of North Carolina, 43 + +Butler, M.C., of South Carolina, 13, 41 + + +Calhoun, J.C., agricultural college founded on plantation of, 42 + +Carlisle, J.G., of Kentucky, 29 + +Carnegie Foundation and college standards, 189 + +Carolinas, differing economic conditions, 6; Scotch-Irish in, 6; _see +also_ North Carolina, South Carolina + +Carpetbaggers' rule overthrown, 9, 12 + +Catholic Church, 214 + +Charleston (S.C.), party management in, 39; Tillman and, 40 + +Child labor, state restrictions, 97, 118; in cotton mills, 109, 114-15, +117; Federal Child Labor Act, 118 + +Civil service, Cleveland and, 29 + +Civil War, blockade as reason for South's defeat, 3; effect on South, +196 + +Cleveland, Grover, election (1884), 28; and the South, 29 + +"Cleveland Democracy," 40 + +Congregational Church, 216 (note) + +Congress, ex-Confederate soldiers in, 13, 26; negroes in, 20; reëlection +of Senators, 28; "Force Bill" (1890), 48; Southern representation, +200-01 + +_Congressional Record_, cited, 13 + +Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, 22 + +Corn, price in South, 35; as crop in South, 64; boys' corn clubs, 78-79 + +Cotton, price and production, 35; favorite crop, 63, 197; mills, 88-98, +108-21, 195; cottonseed products, 99-100; "linters," 100; need of +cotton-picking machine, 197-98 + +Coxe, Tench, _Statement of Arts and Manufactures_, cited, 86 + +Curry, Dr. J.L.M., 27, 169-70 + + +Daughters of the Confederacy, 210 + +Debt, _see_ Finance + +Delaware as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; school fund (1796), 157-58 +(note); foreign born in, 194; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; Catholics +in, 214; churches, 214 + +Democratic party, at end of Reconstruction period, 9; called +Conservative party, 11-12; and political consolidation, 12; Farmers' +Alliance and, 36; Georgia convention (1890), 37; controlling influence +of, 38; Populist party and, 42-43, 47, 201; nature of, 201; split in +Arkansas, 231 + +Disciples' Church, 216 (note) + +Durham (N.C.), tobacco industry in, 103 + + +Education, Blair Bill, 27; in South Carolina, 42; Populist attitude +toward, 46; negro schools, 57; agricultural colleges and experiment +stations, 75; county demonstrators, 75-77, 184; boys' and girls' clubs, +76, 78-81; General Education Board, 76-77, 183-84, 186, 189; college +students, 83; mills aid schools, 119; progress, 157 et seq.; country +schools, 164; academies, 164-65, 171; colleges, 165-66, 187; graded +schools, 166; taxation for, 170, 172, 185, 186; opposition to public +schools, 171-172; normal schools, 172; better buildings, 172; small +districts, 173; length of school term, 173, 184; funds for negro, +182-83; secondary schools, 186; preparation for college, 188; +bibliography, 240-41; _see also_ Negroes + +Education, Bureau of, _Report on Negro Education_, 174, 178 + +Elections, intimidation of negroes, 18-19; frauds, 19-20; North +threatens Federal control, 21; (1896), 44; (1900), 45-46; primaries, 47, +199; "Force Bill" (1890), 48 + +Episcopal Church, 215 + + +Farm Loan Act, 84 + +Farmers' Alliance, 30, 33 + +Farmers' Union of Louisiana, 34 Fiction on the South, bibliography of, +241-42 + +Field, Marshall, and Company own mills in North Carolina, 95 + +Finance, problem in South, 22; repudiation of state debts, 22, 227-33; +economies of new state governments, 24-25; platform of National Alliance +and Knights of Labor on, 34; subtreasury plan, 34-35; merchants as +bankers, 61-65; crop lien, 62-63; Farm Loan Act, 84; see also Tariff, +Taxation + +Fisk University, 179 + +Fleming, W.L., _The Sequel of Appomattox_, cited, 2 (note),27 (note); +_Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, cited, 227 (note) + +Florida, end of carpetbag rule in, 9; mines, 102; cigar industry, 104; +bonds as part of Peabody Fund, 167; migration to, 194; debt, 227 + +Freedmen's Aid Societies, schools for negroes opened by, 173 + +Freedmen's Bureau, 27 + +French in Louisiana, 6 + +Friends, Society of, influence in South, 16 + + +Garland, A.H., of Arkansas, 28 + +General Education Board, 76-77, 183-84, 186, 189 + +Georgia, Democratic convention (1890), 37; Populist party (1892), 42; +cotton mills, 88, 97; knitting industry, 98; cottonseed oil industry, +100; fertilizer industry, 100; lynchings in, 155; school fund (1817), +158 (note); imports, 195; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 229 + +Girls' canning clubs, 80 + +Gordon, J.B., 13, 37 + +Grady, H.W., uses expression "New South," 7-8; editor of Atlanta +Constitution, 223 + +Grange movement, 29, 31-33 + +Great War, negroes in knitting mills during, 126; migration of negroes +to North during, 132-33; negro women in Red Cross work, 149; and capital +in South, 196; South and, 201; and nationalism, 210-11 + +Greenback movement, 25, 29-30 + + +Hamilton, J.G. de R., Reconstruction in North Carolina, cited, 228 +(note) + +Hampton, Wade, 13, 41 + +Hampton Institute, 174, 177, 178 + +Hookworm disease, 73-74 + +Howard University, 179 + +Hughes, C.E., North Carolina vote for (1916), 57 + + +Industries, vegetable growing, 84; industrial development, 86 _et seq_.; +textile, 88-98, 106-21, 126-27; manufacture of cottonseed products, +99-100; fertilizers, 100; lumbering, 100, 123-24; iron, 101; wood, 101; +steel, 101-102; mining, 102; tobacco, 102-04, 124-26; roller mills, 104; +close to raw material, 194-95; see also Agriculture, Cotton. + + +Jeanes, Anna T., 183 + +Jeanes Fund, 183, 184 + + +Kelley, O.H., 31 + +Kellogg, W.P., Governor of Louisiana, 229 + +Kentucky, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 38; mines, 102; bituminous coal, +102; tobacco industry, 103; free from lynchings, 155; school fund, 158 +(note); Catholics in, 214; Disciples in, 216 (note) + +Knapp, Bradford, son of S.A., 78 + +Knapp, Dr. S.A., 76-77, 78 + +Knights of Labor, meeting at St. Louis (1889), 34 + +Kolb, R.F., 37-38 + + +Labor, conditions in South, 106 _et seq_.; native, 106, 194; negro, +106-07, 126-27; in textile industry, 106-21; state restrictions, 118; in +furniture factories, 122-23; in lumber mills, 123-24; contract, 123-24; +tobacco manufacture, 124-26; organization of, 127-28; recent problem, +197; see also Child labor + +Lamar, L.Q.C., of Missouri, 28, 29 + +Land, demand for restriction to settlers, 34; tenant system, 60 _et +seq_., 219; different plans of landholding, 65-69; relation between +landlord and tenant, 70; white tenancy, 79; tilled by owners, 74-75; +cultivation, 81; food crops, 81-82 + +Liquor traffic, made State monopoly, 41-42; problem after +Reconstruction, 57-59; see also Prohibition + +Louisiana, negro majority in, 10; Farmers' Union of, 34; election +(1892), 42; election (1896), 44; "grandfather clause" in constitution, +51-52; lumbering, 100; mines, 102; tobacco industry, 103; cigar +industry, 104; lynchings in, 155; mixed schools, 160-61; Catholics in, +214; churches, 214; repudiation of debt, 229-30 + +Lumbering, 100, 123-24 + +Lutheran Church, 216 (note) + + +Mahone, General William, 232 + +Manufactures, _see_ Industries + +Maryland, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; fertilizer industry, 100; +manufactures, 104; free from lynchings, 154-55; school fund (1813), 158 +(note); foreign born in, 193; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; Catholics +in, 214; churches, 214 + +Massachusetts leads in cotton products, 98 + +Meharry Medical College, 179 + +Methodist Church, 214, 215-216 + +Mills, R.Q., of Texas, 29 + +Mining, 102 + +Minnesota, manufactures, 104-05 + +Mississippi, negro majority in, 10; new constitution (1890), 49; +suffrage, 49-50; lumbering, 100; lynchings in, 155; school fund, 158 +(note); mixed schools in, 160--61; bonds as part of Peabody Fund, 167; +industrialism, 193; foreign born in, 193-194; Catholics in, 214; debt, +227 + +Missouri, not included in South, 5; Grange in, 32; election (1896), 44; +tobacco industry, 103; woman suffrage, 202 + +Missouri Compromise and sectionalism, 16 + +Morrison, W.R., 29 + +Mountaineers. 14-16 + +Nashville (Tenn.), Peabody Normal College, 169; Me-harry Medical +College, 179; Vanderbilt University, 188 + +National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, _Thirty +Years of Lynching_ (1919), 154 (note) + +National Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, 34 + +Negroes, suffrage, 2, 18-19, 21,45, 48, 49, 50-55, 202-03; distribution +of, 10; in mountain counties, 15; support Federal officials, 17; sent to +Congress, 20; relation of races, 22, 129 _et seq_.; fear of domination +wanes, 30; not admitted to Grange, 32; politics in North Carolina, 45; +segregation, 57; use of drugs, 59; as share tenants, 67; opportunity for, +71; in furniture factories, 122; in tobacco factories, 124-25; in +textile industry, 126-27; personal characteristics, 126-127,135; +occupations, 127, 133-37; unorganized, 127-128; increase in +numbers, 130-32; migration to North, 132-33, 156,197; farm owners, 134; +illiteracy, 137-139, 166; treatment in North, 139-40; treatment in +South, 140 _et seq_.; "old-time negro," 142-43; "new negro," 142, 143-44; +educated, 144-47; and Great War, 149; mulattoes, 150; and lower classes +of whites, 150-51; lynchings, 151-55; plans for solution of problem, +155-156; problem in South Africa, 156; education, 160-63, +164, 171-72, 173-84; criminals and dependents, 204-05, 220-223; +bibliography, 238-40 + +New England, mill machinery from, 90; mills build Southern branches, 92; +Southern wages compared with, 110-111 + +New Orleans, Exposition (1884), 89; tobacco industry, 103 + +New York, election frauds, 20 + +Newspapers, 223-24 + +North, negroes in, 139; migration of negroes to, 132-33,156, 197; +treatment of negroes in, 139-40 + +North Carolina, Friends in, 16; negroes sent to Congress from, 20: gives +up local self-government, 21; Populist party, 42; revolt from Democratic +party, 43; election(1896), 44; election(1900), 45; fusion government, 45; +suffrage, 52-54; Republican opposition in, 56-57; textile products +(1810),86; first cotton mill (1810),88; Marshall Field and Company owns +mills in, 95; cotton mills, 97; knitting industry, 98; lumbering, 100; +furniture manufacture, 101; minerals, 102; tobacco production, 103; +Republican party, 122; free from lynchings, 155; school fund, 158-159; +public schools, 163,184-185; school term, 173; negro education, 179-81; +school expenditures, 179-81; foreign born in, 193-94; chairmanship of +committees in 65th Congress, 200 (note); Catholics in, 214; school +libraries, 224; repudiation of debt, 227-29 + +North Carolina, University of, 168 + + +Ocala (Fla.), Alliance convention, 34 + +Oklahoma, as Southern State, 5-6; disfranchising amendment, 55-56; +mines, 102; disproportionate number of lynchings in, 155; migration to, +194; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in, +214 + + +Page, Thomas Nelson, and "typical Southerner," 203 + +Patrons of Husbandry, _see_ Grange movement + +Peabody, George, 167 + +Peabody Fund, 167 + +Peabody Normal College, 169 + +People's party, 36; _see also_ Populist party + +Phelps Stokes, Caroline, 183 + +Phelps Stokes Fund, 183 + +Philadelphia election frauds, 20 + +Plantations, system discontinued, 60; in the Old South, 87 + +Politics, consolidation of South, 10-12; Confederate soldiers in, 13; +_see also_ names of parties + +Pope, General John, prediction as to negro development, 130 + +Populist party in South, 42 _et seq._; _see also_ People's party + +Presbyterian Church, 214, 215 + +Prices, decline, 25, 31; of cotton, 35; Populist party and rising, 46; +Southern credit system and, 72; rise of, 84; (1890-1900), 107 + +Pritchard, J.C., 43, 45 + +Prohibition, South and, 58, 202; _see also_ Liquor traffic + + +Quakers, _see_ Friends, Society of + + +Railroads, government ownership, 34 + +Ransom, M.T., 13, 43 + +Readjusters, political party in Virginia, 231-32 + +Reconstruction, 2-4; end of, 9; Union element makes possible, 17; debt, +22-23; and schools, 157, 159-61; bibliography, 235 + +Red Cross, 149, 211 + +Religion, 213 _et seq_. + +Republican party, and end of Reconstruction, 9; called Radical party, +11; and mountaineers, 16; Quakers and, 16; Union element in South, +16-17; organization discontinued, 21; failures, 26; success (1893-95), +43 + +Richmond (Va.), tobacco industry, 103, 104 + +Riddleberger, H.H., 231-32 + +Roads, 107 + +Rockefeller Foundation, researches, 73-74 + +Roosevelt, Theodore, Mississippi vote (1912), 50 + +Rosenwald, Julius, and negro education, 183 + + +St. Louis, session of National Alliance at (1889), 34; tobacco industry, +103 + +Scalawags, Confederate soldiers against, 12 + +Scotch-Irish in South, 6; and Presbyterianism, 215 + +Scott, W.A., The Repudiation of State Debts, cited, 227 (note) + +Sears, Barnas, General Agent of Peabody Fund, 167-68 + +Secession, past issue, 192 + +Sewall, Arthur, candidate for Vice-President, 44 + +Silver, free coinage, 43-44 + +Slater, John F., Fund, 182-83 + +Slavery among mountaineers, 15 + +Smith, F. Hopkinson, and "typical Southerner," 203 + +Social conditions, 82-83, 203 _et seq_.; in mill towns, 119-21 + +Sons of Veterans, 210 + +South, New as distinguished from Old, 1-8; geographical limits, 5-6; +beginning of New, 10; political consolidation, 10-12; character of +people, 11; Republicanism in, 13 _et seq_.; mountaineers, 14-16; +election frauds, 19-20; debt, 22-24; and agrarian revolt, 26; +participation in national affairs, 28; Grange in, 31-33; social +conditions, 82-83, 119-21, 203 _et seq_.; Socialist vote in, 128; +growing sense of responsibility for negro, 148; education, 157 _et +seq_.; of today, 191 _et seq_.; population, 193-94; present political +condition, 199-203; jails and almshouses, 204-05; orphanages, 205-06; +juvenile delinquents, 206; democracy, 206-07; hospitality, 207; +amusements, 208, 217; power of public opinion, 212-13; churches, 213-17; +crimes, 220-21; leaders, 223; newspapers, 223-24; books and libraries, +224-25; contrasts in, 226; bibliography, 235-42 + +South Carolina, inhabitants, 6; negro majority, 10; "eight box law," 19; +negroes sent to Congress from, 20; political revolt, 39; representation +in Senate, 41; suffrage amendments, 50-51; boys' corn club, 79; cotton +mills, 97; Blease in, 122; school fund, 158 (note); mixed schools, +160-61; foreign born in, 193-94; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, +229 + +Stokes, _see_ Phelps Stokes + +Stone, A.H., on Mississippi negro, 71-72 + +Suffrage, _see_ Negroes, Women + +Supreme Court, Oklahoma disfranchisement amendment, declared +unconstitutional, 55-56, 203; Bailey vs. Alabama, 123-24; South Dakota +vs. North Carolina, 228; cases against Louisiana, 230; and Virginia +debt, 231, 232; debt of West Virginia, 232 + + +Taft, W.H., Mississippi vote (1912), 50; North Carolina vote (1908), 56 + +Tariff, South and Cleveland agree on, 29; platform of National Alliance +calls for reform of, 34 + +Taxation, Mississippi, 49; for education, 170, 172, 185, 186 + +Tennessee, Grange in, 31-32; Populist party in, 42; girls' canning club, +80; cotton mills, 98; knitting industry, 98; iron industry, 101; +bituminous coal, 102; mines, 102; school fund (1806), 157 (note); woman +suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; Disciples in, 216 (note) + +Texas, Farmers' Alliance, 33, 34; Populist party (1892), 42; boll +weevil, 76; encouragement of food crops in, 82; cottonseed oil industry, +100; mines, 102; lynchings in, 155; foreign born in, 193; migration to. +194; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; no attempt made to +repudiate debt, 227 + +Tillman, Benjamin R., 39-41 + +Tobacco, a favorite crop, 63; industry, 102-04; labor conditions in +factories, 124-26 + +Tompkins, D.A., on cotton production, 108 + +Toombs, Robert, and New South, 192 + +Tourgée, A.W., 2; _Appeal to Cæsar_, 131 + +Tuskegee Institute, 174, 177, 178; statistics on lynching, 154 (note) + +Vance, Z.B., of North Carolina, 13, 43; and teaching of pedagogy, 174-75 + +Vanderbilt University, 188 + +Vardaman, James K., of Mississippi, 150 + +Virginia, differing economic conditions, 6; cotton mills, 98; knitting +industry, 98; iron industry, 101; mines, 102; tobacco production, 103; +school fund (1810), 157-58 (note); surplus of wheat (1917), 199; +Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 231-32 + + +Wages, in cotton mills, 109, 110, 113; in tobacco factories, 126 + +Washington, Booker T., cited, 143; "intellectuals" enemies of, 146; and +Tuskegee, 177 + +Washington (D.C.), Howard University, 179 + +Watson, T.E., 44 + +Watterson, Henry, of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, 223 + +West Virginia, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; iron industry, 101; +bituminous coal, 102; mines, 102; free from lynchings, 154-55; Catholics +in, 214; Virginia assigns debt to (1871), 231; settlement of +controversy, 232-33 + +Wheat, winter, 63-64; roller mills, 104 + +Whig party dislikes name Democrat, 12 + +Wiley, C.H., superintendent of education in North Carolina, 159 + +Wilmington (N.C.), uprising of whites in, 45 + +Wilson, Woodrow, North Carolina vote (1916), 57 + +Winston-Salem (N.C.), tobacco industry, 103 + +Winthrop, R.C., of Massachusetts, and Peabody Fund, 167 + +Women, in mills, 97; suffrage, 202, 213; position in South, 208-10; and +Great War, 211-12; independence, 213; and churches, 213-14 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New South, by Holland Thompson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW SOUTH *** + +***** This file should be named 13107-8.txt or 13107-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13107/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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