SOUTH

HOLLAND THOMPSON

George StJohn Sheffield

THE NEW SOUTH

ABRAHAM LINCOLN EDITION
VOLUME 42
THE CHRONICLES
OF AMERICA SERIES
ALLEN JOHNSON
EDITOR
GERHARD R. LOMER
CHARLES W. JEFFERYS
ASSISTANT EDITORS

WADE HAMPTON
Photograph by Brady.

THE NEW SOUTH
A CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL
AND INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
BY HOLLAND THOMPSON

LVXET

LVXET

NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO.
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1919

Copyright, 1919, by Yale University Press

CONTENTS
I. THE BACKGROUND Page 1
II. THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES
CHARGE " 9
III. THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN " 31
IV. THE FARMER AND THE LAND " CO
V. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT " 86
VI. LABOR CONDITIONS " 106
VII. THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE " 129
VIII. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS " 157
IX. THE SOUTH OF TODAY " 191
THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS ' 227
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE '• 235
INDEX " 243

ILLUSTRATIONS
WADE HAMPTON
Photograph by Brady. Frontispiece
L. Q. C. LAMAR
From a photograph. Facing page S8
BENJAMIN R. TILLMAN
At about the time of his election as Governor of '
South Carolina in 1890. Photograph by Schloss,
NewYork. " " W
A FIELD OF TOBACCO
From a photograph taken near Lexington,
Kentucky, in the famed Blue Grass Region.
Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, New
York. " " 6i
THE WARPING ROOM OF A TEXTILE MILL
AT COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA
Photograph. Copyright by Underwood and
Underwood, New York. " " ^i
COTTON PICKERS AT WORK IN A TEXAS
FIELD Photograph. Copyright by Underwood and
Underwood, New York. " " IIS

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 ex
pression has been more often misused in super
ficial discussion. Men have written as if the phrase
indicated a new land and a new civilization, utterly
unlike anything that had existed before and involv
ing a sharp break with the history and the tradi
tions 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 develop
ment from the Old South. The civilization of the
South today has not been imposed from without

2 THE NEW SOUTH
but has been an evolution from within, though in
fluenced by the policy of the National Govern
ment. The Civil War changed the whole organiza
tion of Southern society, it is true, but it did not
modify its essential attributes, to quote the ablest
of the carpetbaggers, Albion W. Tourgee. Re
construction 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 else
where. ' A combination of two ideas — high-
minded altruism and a vindictive desire to humil
iate a proud people for partisan advantage —
wrought mischief which has not been repaired in
nearly half a century. It is to be doubted, how
ever, 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
' See The Sequel of Appomattox, by Walter Lynwood Fleming (in
The Chronicles of America}.

THE BACKGROUND S
social equal. The attempt to force the barrier be
tween the races by legislation with the aid of bayo
nets 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.
Economic and industrial development was hin
dered by Reconstruction. Men of vision had seen
before the War that the South must become more
nearly self-suflBcient; and the results of the conflict
had emphasized this idea. The South believed,
and believes yet, that it was defeated by the block
ade 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 wUl 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 Re
construction came; but during that period the
people had to devote all their energies to living

4 THE NEW SOUTH
day by day, hoping for strength to endure. When
property was being confiscated under the forms of
law, only to be squandered by irresponsible legisla
tors, there was little incentive to remake the indus
trial system, and the ventures of the Reconstruction
government into industrial aflfairs were not en
couraging. Farm property in the South — and lit
tle was left except farm property after the War —
depreciated in value enormously in the decade fol
lowing 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 for
eign 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

THE BACKGROUND 5
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 deter
mine the limits of the South. The census classifi
cation 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 dif
ference of opinion, though it is difficult to justify the
inclusion of the former. West Virginia is certainly
not Southern, socially, politically, or economi
cally. Kentucky is doubtful, and it is difficult to
see why Missouri should be excluded from any list
which includes Kentucky. Oklahoma is difficult

6 THE NEW SOUTH
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 usu
ally considered to be far down in the South, and yet
the distance from Atlanta to Boston or Minneapo
lis 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, eco
nomic 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

. THE BACKGROUND 7
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 sup
posed. White planters found that the net returns
from their farms on which they themselves had
labored were greater than when a larger force of ne
groes had been employed; shrewd men began to put
their scanty savings together to take advantage of
convenient water power. Securing the bare neces
sities 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 hope
fulness 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 expres
sion in a way which sent it vibrating through the
whole nation was Henry W. Grady, the gifted edi
tor of the Atlanta Constitution. In a speech made

8 THE NEW SOUTH
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 be
tween the States was war and not rebellion, revolu
tion 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 spir
it of the South, a trifle enthusiastic perhaps, but
still recognizable.
Today a New South may be said to be every
where apparent. The Old South still exists ia
nooks and corners of many States, it is true : there
are commimities, counties, groups of counties,
which cling to the old ideas. In the hearts of
thousands of men and women the Old South is en
shrined, 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 na
tion. To trace the development of the new spirit
and to discuss its manifestations is the purpose of
this book.

CHAPTER n
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 con
testants in Florida had already yielded to a deci
sion 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 Recon
struction. The Democratic claimants then took
undisputed possession of the executive and legis
lative departments of these States. The native
whites were again in entire charge of all the States

10 THE NEW SOUTH
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 ma
jorities. Obviously, if the whites could be in
duced 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

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 11
might seriously disagree must be placed in the
party platform, if any way to avoid such insertion
could be foimd. 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 re
strained, 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 con
tests 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 politi
cal organization to which allegiance was demand
ed 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

12 THE NEW SOUTH
especially because the name Democrat was obnox
ious to so many old Whigs. It was not untU 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
civU government of the Confederacy. But for the
humiliations of Reconstruction, some of these men
might have been discredited, but the bitter experi
ences of those years had restored them to popular
favor. As the Federal soldier marched out of the
public buildings everywhere, the Confederate sol
dier 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 consolidat
ing the white South was measurably achieved. As
some one flippantly put the case, there came to be
in many sections "two kinds of people — Demo
crats and negroes." It was the general feeling on
the part of the whites that to faU to vote was shame
ful, to scratch a ticket was a crime, and to attempt

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 13
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 mUitary 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 Col
quitt, 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

14 THE NEW SOUTH
Conservative sea. The largest and most impor
tant 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 Mis
sissippi Valley. Students of the mountain people
maintain that so small an accident as the breaking
of a linchpin fixed one family forever in a moun
tain 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, folk
songs, superstitions, manners, customs, and habits
of mind of Stuart England, as they were brought

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 15
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 ne
groes are not welcome in many mountain counties.
But though these mountain people have missed
contact with the outside world and have been de
prived of the stimulus of new ideas, they seldom
give evidence of anything that can fairly be classed
as degeneracy. Ignorance, illiteracy, and suspend
ed 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

16 THE NEW SOUTH
the War of 1812, But back to theu- 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 moun
taineers held to the Union. They did not volim-
teer 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 isy the
dominant party. In spite of the social stigma at
taching 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.

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 17
During the War they were abused without stint,
but this criticism had only the effect of making
them more stubborn. They naturally became Re
publicans 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 sala
ries 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 gangers," and petty postmasters attempted
to keep up a local organization. The collectors of
internal revenue. United States marshals, other offi
cers 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,

18 THE NEW SOUTH
but the contest was unequal from the beginning.
On one side was intelligence, backed by loyal fol
lowers fiercely determined to rule. On the other
was a leadership on the whole less intelligent, cer
tainly more selfish, with followers who were ig
norant and susceptible to cajolery or intimidation.
Before the downfall of the Reconstruction govern
ments, 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 ma
jority, stronger measures were adopted. Around
election time armed bands of whites would some
times 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
himting after they had voted, gathered around
the polls. An occasional random shot might kick

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 19
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 im
pression that it was unwise to attempt to vote
gained ground.
Less crude but no less effective methods were
employed later. As candidates or party organiza
tions furnished the ballots, the "tissue ballot"
came into use. Half a dozen of these might easUy
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 imdue proportion of Republican votes. Usu
ally 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 inten
tional 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 Re
publican, white or black, left the polling place the
boxes were shifted, and the illiterates whose tickets
he had carefully arranged deposited their ballots

20 THE NEW SOUTH
in the wrong boxes. White boys of eighteen, if
well grown, sometimes voted, whUe 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 ap
pointed 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 vot
ing 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

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 21
negro prosecuting attorneys were not unknown,
and many of the black counties had negro officers.
Some States, such as North Carohns , 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 con
trolled 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 ordy
six months in one district and then moves on to an
other. 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 RepubUcan organization
became a skeleton, if indeed it continued at all.
There was always the possibility of a revival, how
ever, 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 possibUity of the negro's holding the
balance of power seemed dangerous and ultimately

22 THE NEW SOUTH
led to attempts to disfranchise him by law, which
wUl be considered in another chapter.
The relation of the races was not the only ques
tion which confronted the whites when they re
gained control of the state governments. The prob
lem of finance was equally fundamental. The in
crease 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.' In proportion to the total
wealth of these States, this debt was extremely high.
Not all of this increase was due to carpetbag
government. WhUe, of course, the debts incurred
for mihtary purposes had been repudiated in ac
cordance 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
¦ See W. A. Scott, The Repudiation of State Debts, p. 276. Texas
had practically no debt when it passed under Reconstruction govern
ment, but added $4,600,000 in the period. The total increase in the
debt of all these Southern States was then nearly $140,000,000.

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 23
in building raUroads, canals, or levees made up the
greater part of the total. These bonds, however,
had been sold at a large discount, and only a smaU
part of the money realized was apphed to actual
construction. Some of the States had escaped almost entirely
any considerable increase of debt; others were bur
dened far beyond their abiUty to pay, especially as
property valuations had decUned 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 gov
ernments imposed by miUtary force; that many of
the bonds were fraudulent on their face; and that
those who purchased them at a great discount were
simply gambUng upon the chance that the govern
ments issuing them would endure; that the greater
part of these bonds were stolen by the officers; and
that Uttle 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 un
doubtedly valid obligations on the part of the
'¦ See page 227 ff.

24 THE NEW SOUTH
States. The repudiation of these bonds was ex
cused on the ground that they were generally is
sued to aid raUroads which had been practically
seized by the Confederate or the United States gov
ernments and had been worn out for their bene
fit; 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 pay
ment 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 car
petbag regime. The new governments were neces
sarily 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 smaU figures. Inade
quate 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

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 25
and a heavier burden of taxation might easily have
been borne, the belief that the efficiency of a gov
ernment was measured by its parsimony had be
come a fixed idea. There was little scandal any
where. 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 Reconstruc
tion period. A few treasurers defaulted, but in
most cases their difficulties rose from financial in
competence rather than from dishonesty, for a good
soldier did not necessarily make a good treasurer.
Few fortunes were founded on state contracts.
The pubUc buUdings erected were honestly buUt
and were often completed within the limits of the
original appropriations. So small an amount was
aUowed that there would have been Uttle to steal,
even had the incUnation been present.
The decline in the prices of agricultural products
after 1875 made Uving harder. The Greenback
agitation' found some foUowers, and in a few scat
tered rural districts Greenbackers or Greenback
Democrats were nominated. In a few districts the
white men ventured to run two tickets, and in a
' See The Agrarian Crusade, by Solon J. Buck (in The Chronicles qf
America) .

26 THE NEW SOUTH
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 quaUfying words in
tended to catch votes, but they had Uttle 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 accom
plished 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. Some
times they failed to control their tempers and their
tongues and played into the hands of their op
ponents. They advocated no great reforms and
showed Uttle 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 ponder
ous speeches upon the Constitution, "viewing with

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 27
alarm" the encroachments of the Federal Gov
ernment upon the sphere of action marked out for
the States.
Partly because of constitutional objections, part
ly 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 Fed
eral Government, the distribution to be made in
proportion to UUteracy. 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 pleas
ant, and many feared that the measure might re
sult in another Freedmen's Bureau.' Not aU
Southerners, however, were opposed to the project.
Dr. J. L. M. Curry, agent of the Peabody Fund,
did vaUant service for the bUl, and some mem
bers of Congress were strong advocates of the
measure. Today we see a measure for national
' See The Sequel of Appomattox, by Walter Lynwood Fleming (in
The Chronicles of America).

28 THE NEW SOUTH
aid to education fathered by Southerners and al
most unanimously supported by their colleagues.
Though rotation in office was the rule in the rep
resentation in the House, the poUcy 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 dignffied 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 occasion
al bits of patronage and items of legislation were
granted. Often, it is said, politicians who were ac
customed to assail one another in public sought
each other's society and were the best of friends
in private. These Southern men were almost in
variably a frugal lot who lived from necessity with
in 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

L. Q. C. LAMAR
From a photograph.

¦.zrs A- :s.-5ffyi-xiaA Co. // y

CONFEDERATE SOLDIER TAKES CHARGE 29
Cabinet, from which the scholarly Lamar was
transferred to the Supreme Court. John G. CarUsle
of Kentucky was Speaker, and Roger Q. Mills of
Texas became Chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee of the House to succeed WUUam 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 friend
liness to their section, the Southern poUticians,
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 op
posed 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 briga
diers" had controlled their States a new generation
had arisen which began to make itseff 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 bor
der States particularly, had been organized. The
Greenback craze had created a distrust of the

30 THE NEW SOUTH
capitalists of the East. The fear of negro domina
tion 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 be
ginning to talk of cliques and rings. The Farmers'
Alliance was spreading like wildfire, and its mem
bers 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 m
THE REVOLT OP 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 agricul
tural 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 be
gan to feel helpless and hopeless. Though usually
suspicious of every movement coming from the
North, he turned readUy 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 turmoU
of Reconstruction, the organization appeared in
South Carolina and Mississippi in 1871. Tennessee,
31

32 THE NEW SOUTH
Missouri, and Kentucky had abeady 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 popula
tion 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 ques
tion of the position of their States in the Union
and the desire to preserve white supremacy pre
vented any great independent movement. In a
few instances, men ran for Congress as Independ
ents 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

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 83
was not at that time in the South the same op
position to raUroads that prevailed in the West.
The need of raUroads was felt so keenly that the
practice of baiting them had not become popu
lar. Some railroad legislation was passed, largely
through Granger influence, but it was not yet radi
cal. 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 eco
nomic 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 rem
edy 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' AUiances, and in 1879 a Grand State Al-
Uance was formed in Texas. The purposes were
simUar to those set forth by the Grange. In

34 THE NEW SOUTH
Arkansas appeared the Agricultural Wheel and the
Brothers of Freedom, which were soon consoli
dated. The Farmers' Union of Louisiana and the
Alliance of Texas were also united under the name
of the National Farmers' AlUance and Cooperative
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
beUefs was put forth. This platform called for the
issue of more paper money, aboUtion of national
banks, free coinage of silver, legislation to prevent
trusts and corners, tariff reform, government owner
ship of railroads, and restriction of pubUc lands to
actual settlers.
The next year, the annual convention of the
AlUance was held at Ocala, Florida, and the Oca-
la platform was pubUshed. This meeting recom
mended the so-called sub-treasury plan by which
the Federal Government was to construct ware
houses for agricultural products. In these the farm
er might deposit his non-perishable agricultural

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 36
products, and receive 80 per cent of their market
value in greenbacks. Surely the Southern farmer
had shaken off much of his traditional conserva
tism in approving such a demand as this! The
explanation is not far to seek.
The high price of cotton in the years immedi
ately following the War was the economic salvation
of the South. Whatever may have been the diffi
culties in its production, the returns repaid the
outlay and more. The quantity was less than
the world demanded. Not untU 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 stUl lower. When middUng
cotton brought less than seven cents a pound in
New York, the small producer got Uttle 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 seU 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

36 THE NEW SOUTH
been much increased before the cereals reached the
Southern consumer. The Southern farmer was con
sequently becoming desperate and was threatening
revolt against the estabUshed 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 de
mands of the Alliance. Perhaps some could do
this without reservation; others. Senators parti
cularly, 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 op
pressed threatened to develop into an obsession.
His hatred of "money-power," "trusts," "corners,"
and the "hirelings of Wall Street" found expres
sion in his opposition to the local lawyers and mer
chants, and, in fact, to the residents of the towns in

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 37
general. The idea began to grow up that any one
Uving 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 pro
ducer, 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 bitter
ness the farmer extended to the old poUtical 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' AlUance, including
the sub-treasury "or some better system." Sena
tor John B. Gordon, however, refused to pledge him
self and was reelected nevertheless. The leader of
the AlUance was nominated and elected gover
nor. In Alabama, Reuben F. Kolb, the Commis
sioner of Agriculture, almost obtained the Demo
cratic 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 Jefferson-
ian Democracy. On the face of the returns, the
regular candidate was elected, but Kolb pointed

38 THE NEW SOUTH
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 Jeff ersonian Democracy behind him but also the
endorsement of the Republicans and the Populists.
Undoubtedly the controlling influence in Demo
cratic councils in some of the Southern States had
been exercised by a very small element in the popu
lation. A few men, almost a "Family Compact"
either held the important offices themselves, or de
cided who should hold them, and fixed the party
policy so far as it had a policy other than the main
tenance 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 part
ly because they believed that the voters would op
pose any extension, had prevented any constructive
legislation. Events showed that they had misun
derstood their people. When the revolt came, the
farmer legislators showed themselves wUling to
vote money liberally for education and for other
purposes which were once considered outside the
sphere of government.

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 89
South Carolina furnished the most striking ex
ample of this revolt. In that State the families
which had governed before the War continued the
direction of affairs. By a rather unusual compro
mise, the large western population of the State
had been balanced against the greater wealth of
the east. Consequently there was overrepresenta-
tion 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 cluster
ing around Charleston exercised an entirely dispro
portionate 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 de
voted 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, TUlman
won easily in the convention in September. The
"straight outs," dazed and humiliated, ran an in
dependent candidate. TUlman and his followers
accepted the challenge and the conflict took form as
a struggle between mass and class. The farmers'

40 THE NEW SOUTH
leader, though not himself illiterate, obscure, or
poor, raged up and down the State frankly and
brutally preaching class war. He held up Charles
ton as a sink of iniquity, and he promised legis
lation 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 Demo
cratic 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
TUlmanites, the opposition adopted the name
"Cleveland Democracy" and sought to undo the
revolution. The result was never doubtful. Till
man was reelected 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 Car-
olma toward TUlman affords a parallel to that

BENJAMIN R. TILLMAN
At about the time of his election as Governor of South Carolina
in 1890. Photograph by Schloss, New York.

Jlcuvur-B J\iiiiii-±''iE-a-La.!n.a j-d il i'

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 41
of Tory England toward Lloyd George twenty
years later. The paraUel may be extended fur
ther. TiUman, in time, modified some of his
extreme opinions, won over many of his oppo
nents, 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 regime. 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 humU-
iate what had been the ruling portion of the popu
lation. The liquor traffic was made a state mo
nopoly by the dispensary system modeled on the

42 THE NEW SOUTH
Gothenburg plan: no liquor was sold to be drunk
on the premises, and the amount allowed a pur
chaser 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 nor
mal 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, al
ways inclined to independence, the combined Re
pubUcan and Populist vote was larger than that
cast for Democratic electors. It was obvious that

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 43
Democratic supremacy was imperUed, if the new
party continued its amazing growth.
The poUticians, 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 RepubU-
cans were generaUy successful. In many States
there was more or less cooperation in state and
coimty tickets, in spite of the disfavor with which
the RepubUcan party had been regarded in the
South. In North CaroUna J. C. Pritchard, a regu
lar RepubUcan, was elected to the United States
Senate, to fill the unexpired term of Senator Vance,
but the PopuUst 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 Uls 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 cooperating with
a party in which the number of white voters
was small.
The doctrine of free silver had been making con
verts among the Democrats, however, and early in

44 THE NEW SOUTH
1896 it was clear that a majority of the Southern
delegates to the national convention would favor
a sUver plank. The action of the convention in
nominating Bryan and Sewall is told in another
volume. ' Bryan was also endorsed by the Popu
list convention, but that convention refused to en
dorse 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 mani
festly 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 cooperation with Republi
cans on local legislative and state tickets often oc
curred. In North Carolina, a fusion legislature
was elected, and a RepubUcan 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 di
vided. The apparent inconsistency of voting for
Bryan for President and at the same time support
ing Republicans who might be expected to oppose
' The Agrarian Crusade, by Solon J. Buck (in The Chronicles of
. America).

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 45
him in Congress was accepted without ffinching.
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
PopuUst votes. Senator Pritchard was reelected.
The experience of North CaroUna with fusion
government was a reminder of the Reconstruction
days. The Republicans had dUated upon "local
self-government" and the Populists hadswaUowed
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 poUticians were chosen to office, and lawless
ness 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 cooperation between the RepubUcan and
Populist organizations again in 1900, but too many
Populists had returned to their former allegiance.
The restrictive amendment, of which more will be

46 THE NEW SOUTH
said presently, was carried by an overwhelming ma
jority 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 agri
cultural products killed the PopuUst party in the
South, but ihe infiuence of the movement remains
to this day. It has had some effect in lessening
poUtical intolerance, for those of the Populists who
returned to the Democratic party came back with
out apology, whUe others have since classed them
selves as Republicans. The Populist attitude to
ward pubUc 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 move
ment was the overthrow of the old political organ
izations. In some States a few men had ruled al
most 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

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 47
agrarian movement took them unawares. They
were unable to reaUze 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 smaU farmer, who had come to feel
that he had been wronged and struck out bUndly 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 AlUance or else bitter tongues.
Though the Populists, for the most part, re
turned to the Democratic party, and the suffrage
amendments, which wiU be mentioned present
ly, made the possibiUty of RepubUcan success ex
tremely 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 in
troduced elsewhere, and the man who is the choice
of the majority in the Democratic primary wins.

48 THE NEW SOUTH
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 states
manship; 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 influ
ence its numbers warranted aroused the North to
demand a Federal elections law, which was voiced
by bills introduced by Senator Hoar of Massa
chusetts and by Henry Cabot Lodge, then a mem
ber of the House of Representatives. Lodge's bUl,
which was passed by the House in 1890, permitted
Federal officials to supervise and control congres
sional elections. This so-called "Force BiU" 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.

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 49
In this same year (1890) Mississippi framed a
new constitution, which required as a prerequisite
for votmg 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 aU other taxes due for the two previ
ous 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
coUected by legal process, and to pay the tax for
two years, four dollars or more, eight months in ad
vance of an election, seemed to the average negro
to be rank extravagance. Moreover, few politi
cians are reckless enough to arrange for the pay
ment 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 qualffications mentioned above, a
person desiring to vote must be able to read any

50 THE NEW SOUTH
section of the constitution, "or he shaU be able to
understand the same when read to him, or give
a reasonable interpretation thereof." Even when
fairly administered, this section operated to dis
franchise more negroes than whites, for fewer can
read and fewer can understand a legal instrument.
But it is obvious that the opportunities for dis
crimination are great: a simple section can be read
to an iUiterate white, whUe a more difficult section,
fiUed with technicalities, may be read to a negro
applicant; and the phrase "a reasonable interpre
tation" 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 RepubU
can 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' resi
dence 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

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 51
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 pre
ceding year on property assessed at three hundred
doUars or over. The list of disqualifying crimes is
long, including those of which negroes are most
commonly found guUty, such as larceny, false pre
tence, bigamy, adultery, wife-beating, and receiv
ing 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 intro
duced the famous "grandfather clause" into her
constitution. Other requirements were simUar to
those already mentioned. Two years' residence in
the State, one year in the parish, and six months
in the precinct were preUminary conditions; in

52 THE NEW SOUTH
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 owner
ship of property was waived, however, in case of
foreigners naturalized before January 1, 1898, who
had Uved 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 poU
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 suf
frage was open to white but barred to negro illiter
ates. 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

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 53
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 per
son 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 pre
scribed: Provided he shall have registered in ac
cordance with the terms of this section prior to
December 1, 1908." In other words, any white il-
Uterate thirteen years old or over when the amend
ment 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 un
tU 1835, and under the terms of the clause any negro
who could prove descent from a negro voter could
not be debarred because of UUteracy. 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 negU-
gible, and the clause accomplished precisely what

54 THE NEW SOUTH
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 amend
ment 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 obUgations of citi
zenship 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 per
sonal property assessed at not less than three hun
dred dollars. A long list of disqualifying crimes
was added, including wife-beating and conviction
for vagrancy. As if this were not enough, after

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 55
1903 an appUcant for registration might be re
quired to state where he had lived during the pre
ceding 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 ne
groes was very small. An attempt was made per
manently to disfranchise the ilUterate negro by
the "grandfather clause," whUe allowing ilUterate
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 disfran
chised. Oklahoma sought to keep suffrage perma
nently open to UUterate whites, while closing it to
iUiterate negroes. This amendment was declared
unconstitutional by the United States Supreme
Court in June, 1915, on the ground that a State can
not reestablish conditions existing before the rati
fication of the Fifteenth Amendment, even though
the disfranchising amendment contained no "ex
press words of exclusion" but "mherently brings
that result into existence."' What the Court wUl
' Guinn vs. United States, 238 U. S.. 347.

56 THE NEW SOUTH
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 educa
tional and property qualifications will be substitu
ted. In fact, if the Court disapproves the perma
nent roll but allows the remainder to stand, educa
tional and property qualifications will prevail in
several States.
All these plans for disfranchisement have accom
plished the desired results up to the present time.
The negro vote has been greatly reduced and elec
tions 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 de
cided in the primary elections. Since a Democrat
ic nomination is practically equivalent to election,
many voters who have taken part in the primaries
neglect to vote on election day. Only in North
CaroUna is there evidence of the growth of a strong
Republican opposition. In 1908, Taft received
over 114,000 votes, and the Republican candidate

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 57
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 at
tempt to take from him other things than the bal
lot? The answer must be in the affirmative. Men
advocated segregation in common carriers, in pub
lic places, and even in places of residences. An at
tempt 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 plat
form of practical serfdom for the negro. But
although some few have achieved temporary suc
cesses — 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 ap
parent. 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 Siuthern people very soon
after the end of Reconstruction. The great problem

58 THE NEW SOUTH
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 op
tion 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 Okla
homa 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 submis
sion of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitu
tion, forbidding manufacture or sale of intoxicants
in the nation. Every Southern State promptly
ratified the Amendment when it was submitted
by Congress. m
Unfortunately many negroes when deprived of

THE REVOLT OF THE COMMON MAN 59
alcohol began to use drugs, such as cocaine, and the
effect morally and physicaUy 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 prob
lem. 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 con
sumption 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 undoubted
ly 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 sys
tem 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
60

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 61
maintain themselves for a year and hence no capi
tal 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 land
owners, white or black. They buy from him, dur
ing 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 seUing to hundreds of thousands

62 THE NEW SOUTH
of farmers over a wide area, it is of course impos
sible to state the average difference between credit
and cash prices. Investigations made in different
sections show a wide variation depending upon cus
tom, 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
consequentiy the high interest rates, may be paid
not only upon food, clothing, and other personal
goods, but also, occasionally, upon tools, farming
implements, fertUizers, and work animals.
The merchant is supposed to be protected against
loss by the institution of the crop lien and the chat
tel 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 land
owner, 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

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 63
price, or seek a better market for any part of it,
until all his obUgations have been settled. Dis
posing 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 ob
tained in a market absolutely free. If the crops a
farmer raises bring less than the advances, the bal
ance is carried over to the next year and no other
merchant wiU 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.
NaturaUy 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 deteri
oration; neither is Uable to a total faUure; a ready
market for both is always available; and neither
tempts the thief until it is ripe. Only winter

64 THE NEW SOUTH
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 con
sumed 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 per
centage 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

A FIELD OF TOBACCO
From a photograph taken near Lexington, Kentucky, in the
famed Blue Grass Region. Copyright by Underwood and Under
wood, New York.

r

1

^^ . ^¦^.

-.'^'^'•f.i

i'i?<^??.iit4';

.(^¦ak^'

"^ii

^^'^•na.^^

¦¦•¦ ,^^^^ .;. .:¦'. ¦<;
¦*.,..¦¦¦'¦¦¦¦•¦.:'. >s'-> '
>-^'^-#BiS
THE FARMER AND THE LAND 65
the hope of reducing their loss, or else charge the
whole to profit and loss. The Ulness 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 accu
mulate 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
modffied 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 un-
reliabUity. These plans, as well as combinations of
these with some others to be mentioned, have now
practically died out. There remain the foUowing
alternatives: land may be rented for a fixed sum of

66 THE NEW SOUTH
money per acre, to be paid when the crops are
sold, or for a fixed quantity of produce, so many
bushels of com 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 xmderstanding 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 un
der which the negro in the cotton belt now works

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 67
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 fertUizers
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 part
nership. Both embark in a venture the deferred
results of which are dependent chiefly upon the in
dustry and good faith of the laborer. By a seem
ing paradox it is only the laborer's unreliabUity
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 can
not be depended upon to be faithful, he is giv
en 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 man
agers exercise close supervision. The horses or,
more generally, the mules are housed in large com
mon stables or sheds and are properly looked after.

68 THE NEW SOUTH
Some attempt is made to see that tools and imple
ments 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 at
tempts to apply to agriculture some of the principles
of industrial organization. The success of such at
tempts 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 re
turn. 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 deteri
orated 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 wiU not really compensate him for

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 69
the depreciated value of his property, for land
rented without supervision is likely to decrease in
fertiUty and to bring in meager returns.
A more successful arrangement between the two
extremes is often seen in sections where the popu
lation 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
famUy may work an occasional day for the land
lord, receiving pay either in kind or in cash. Rela
tions between such famiUes 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. Some
times such a tenant idtimately purchases the land
upon which he has worked or other land in the
neighborhood. The plantation owner may be a merchant-land
lord 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 smaU sums of money on occa
sion. The tenants are not aUowed to buy as much
as they choose either in the plantation store or in

70 THE NEW SOUTH
the local store at the crossroads. At the beginning
of the year the landlord or the merchant generaUy
aUows 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 per
mitted, many, perhaps a large majority of the ten
ants, 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 his 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 per
centage of them must eat and wear their crops
before they are gathered — a circumstance which
wUl 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 skUled trades, could exist without credit if
their wages were paid only once a year? How

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 71
many of them would have prudence or foresight
enough to conserve their wages when finaUy paid
and make them last untU the next annual pay
ment? 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 con
siderable part of the food he consumes; and sec
ond, to struggle persistently to become independ
ent of the merchant. Thousands of tenants have
achieved their economic freedom, and all could if
they would only make an intelUgent 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

72 THE NEW SOUTH
fancy suggests, while the crop to be made must
take care of itself, or be taken care of by the
'white-folks.'"' 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.
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 dis
ingenuous apologists for the negro, but this belief
cannot be defended. The merchants usually pre
fer 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 pay
ment. It is true that some are cheated by the
merchant or the landlord. Prices charged for sup
plies are too high, and the prices credited for crops
are too low, but the debtors are hardly swindled to
' Stone, Studies in ihe American Race Problem, p. 188.

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 73
a greater extent than the ignorant and illiterate
elsewhere. The condition of the white tenant is sometimes
Uttle 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 owner
ship is greater among the negroes than among the
whites, who are in many cases UUterates. This il-
Uteracy 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 re
searches conducted by the United States Govern
ment, the state boards of health, and the Rocke
feller 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

74 THE NEW SOUTH
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, at
tempts 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 diges
tion 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 in
troduced the curse is less susceptible to the infec
tion 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.

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 75
burdened with mortgages and with advances for
supplies. Some of them probably produce less to
the acre than tenants working under close super
vision, but the percentage of farms mortgaged is
less in the South than in any other part of the coun
try except the Mountain Division, and unofficial
testimony indicates that few farms are lost through
foreclosure. For years the agricultural colleges and the ex
periment stations offered good advice to the South
ern farmer, but they reached only a small propor
tion. 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
pubUcations has consequently increased. The bul
letins of the Department of Agricidture are read
in increasing numbers, and several agricultural
papers have a wide circulation. The "farmer's
institutes" where experts in various Unes speak
on their specialties are well attended, and the ex
perimental farms to which few visitors came at
first are now popular.
Two other agencies are doing much for agricul
tural betterment. One is the county demonstrator.

76 THE NEW SOUTH
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 Agricijlture. 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 nation
al 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 con
clusion 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 in
creased, 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 FARMER AND THE LAND 77
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 wee-
vU 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 Depart
ment financed demonstration work in those States
affected by the pest and the General Education
Board bore the expense in the other States. En
tire supervision of the work was in the hands of
the Department of Agriculture, which made aU
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 pos
sible 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.

78 THE NEW SOUTH
and state demonstration agents who would in
duce 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 direc
tions 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

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 79
market rate. Manure, or fertiUzer, and seed were
likewise to be charged, but the main work of culti
vation was to be done by the boy himself. The crop
was to be measured by two disinterested witnesses
who should certify to the result. Ix)fcal pride was
depended upon to furnish prizes for the county or
ganization, 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 Agri
culture 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 startUng. 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 CaroUna 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 CaroUna 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 stimiUated an interest in good
stock and proper methods of caring for it. Many
country banks have financed these operations by

80 THE NEW SOUTH
buying hogs by the carload and selUng 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 valu
able. The poultry clubs which were an exten
sion 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

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 81
clubs for the manufacturing cities, potato clubs,
mother-and-daughter clubs, and perhaps others
have grown out of the vision of Dr. KJnapp.
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 de
monstrations, experiment stations, and boys' and
girls' clubs, the stubborn inertia of a rural popula
tion 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 suppUed with
these products from the Middle West; miUions 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 easUy

82 THE NEW SOUTH
have been raised at home. In Texas some of the
bankers have been refusing credit to supply mer
chants who do not encourage the production of
food crops as well as cotton.'
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 utensUs 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 serv
ices 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 pos
sesses 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
' An illuminating series of studies of rural life is being issued by
the Bureau of Extension of the University of North Carolina.

THE FARMER AND THE LAND 83
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 easUy 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 daUy 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 prepara
tion for college, and in the South more college stu
dents 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

84 THE NEW SOUTH
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 indus
try 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 farm
ing 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 aire 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 FARMER AND THE LAND 85
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 ignor
ance 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 in
dividual 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
beUeve that prosperity has arrived, or that it wUl
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 skiU.
The recent industrial development is really a revi
val, 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 plan
tations negro women produced much of the cloth
for both slaves and famUy. Except on special oc
casions, 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

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 87
tannery and were made into shoes by local cobblers,
white or black.
Local cabinet-makers made furniture, aU 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 South
ern vUlages in the first half of the nineteenth cen
tury. 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 smaU
shops developed into real manufacturing establish
ments, however, though many continued to exist.
The beUef 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 Uve on it while he en
gaged in his other occupation. As the century
went on, the section began to depend more and

88 THE NEW SOUTH
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 Caro
Una was built in 1810 and one in Georgia about
the same time. Much of the machinery for the
former was buUt by local workmen. Other miUs
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
miUs 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 miUs were
worked to their full capacity. At the cessation of
hostiUties many miUs were literally worn out; others
were destroyed by the invading armies; and fewer

INDUSTRLVL DEVELOPMENT 89
were in operation in 1870 than before the War.
During the next decade, hope of industrial success
began to return to the South. The mUls in opera
tion 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 mUls were enlarged, and new nulls were buUt.
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 im
petus to the construction of mUls. 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 manu
facture 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 devel
opment, but the movement had now gained mo
mentum and was not to be stopped. Timidly and
hesitantly, capital for building mills was scraped
together in dozens of Southern communities, and

90 THE NEW SOUTH
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 pat
terns, or because of a change of product. Opera
tives 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 pur
pose sometimes failed in dealing with these new
recruits to industrialism because of inability to
make due allowance for their limitations. Accus
tomed to the truck system in agriculture, the man
agers 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. An
other 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

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 91
so rare in the South as had been supposed. Some
of the managers, drawn perhaps from the vUlage
store, the small town bank, or the farm, succeeded
so well in the broader field that others were encour
aged to seek simUar industrial success. As the
construction of new nulls went on, the temper of
the South Atlantic States began to change. The
people began to believe in Southern industrial de
velopment and to be eager to invest their savings
in something other than a land mortgage. An in
stalment plan by which the savings of the peo
ple, small individuaUy 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 profit
able, 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 mUls
began to double or triple their equipment out of

92 THE NEW SOUTH
their profits. Agents were sent to the South to
encourage the buUding of new mills, and to give
advice and aid in planning them. The new miU-
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 prod
ucts. Some pessimistic representatives of the in
dustry 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 mUl operatives. It has also been
charged that the propaganda for legislation restrict
ing the hours of labor and the age of operatives in
Southern mUls was financed to some extent by New

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 93
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 approxi
mately 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
buUd 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, wliich also ex
pected future business and was therefore Ukely to
be liberal when credit was demanded. Often the
officers and directors of the bank were also per
sonally interested in the new enterprise. The
machinery manufacturers gave long credit and
often took stock in the mUl. Commission houses
which sold yams and cloth also took stock with

94 THE NEW SOUTH
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 Umits 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 per
mitted, 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

THE WARPING ROOM OF A TEXTILE MILL AT
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA
Photograph copyright by Underwood and Underwood.if
New York.

INDUSTRML DEVELOPMENT 96
ujider 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 in
vestment in Southern mills has come from the sav
ings of Southern people or has been earned by the
mills themselves. Lately several successful mills
have been bought by large department stores and
maU-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 Uke. MarshaU Field and Company of
Chicago, for example, own several nulls 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-grow
ing 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 mUls gener
ally spin coarser yarn and may therefore easUy

96 THE NEW SOUTH
consume twice or even three times as much cotton
as mUls of the same number of spindles engaged in
spinning finer yarn. Some Southern mills, how
ever, 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 buUdings 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

mDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 97
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 addi
tional 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 employ
ment of women and children in the mills, particu
larly 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 uncom
mon. When well managed, the Southern mills are
stUl extremely profitable, but margin for error in
management has become less.
The Southern mUls are chiefly to be found in
four States, North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor
gia, 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.

98 THE NEW SOUTH
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 Massa
chusetts in the value of its cotton products. South
CaroUna 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 CaroUna county has more
than fifty mills, though the total number of spin
dles in that county is not much greater than in
some single New England estabUshment.
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

INDUSTRML DEVELOPMENT 99
are important and are establishing a wide reputa
tion for their product. Generally they are situ
ated in the towns where cotton mills have already
been located.
The textile industry, though it is the most im
portant, 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 nui
sance. A small quantity was fed to stock; a some
what 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 oU is now used in cooking, is
mixed with oUve oil, is sold pure for salad oU, 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

100 THE NEW SOUTH
nearly a milUon bales of "linters," that is, short
fibers of cotton which escaped the gin. Since the
seed is bulky and the cost of transportation is cor
respondingly high, there are many small cotton
seed oil miUs 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 oU
mills have fertilizer departments. The phosphate
deposits of the South Atlantic States are also im
portant, 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 im
portant in Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Caro
Una. The South furnishes nearly half of the lum
ber produced in the United States. This industry
is, of course, only one step from the raw material.

INDUSTRML DEVELOPMENT 101
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 CaroUna especiaUy is
taking rank in the manufacture of furniture, most
of it cheap but some of it of high grade. So far, am
bition has in few cases gone beyond utiUzation of
the native woods, some of which are surprisingly
beautiful. Many smaU 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 smaU compared with the value of
the crude lumber which is sent out of the South.
The iron industry is important chiefly in Ala
bama, of the purely Southern States. This State
is fourth in the product of its blast furnaces but
suppUed in 1914 only a Uttle more than six per cent
of the total for the United States. Virginia, Ten
nessee, 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 Vu-ginia are aU
represented. Birmingham, Alabama, is the center
of steel manufacture and has been called the Pitts-

102 THE NEW SOUTH
burgh 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 oiUy in West Virginia and Alabama
is the production really important, though Ken
tucky, Tennessee, and Virginia produce appreciable
quantities. In the total value of the products of mines of aU
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 littie of almost everything, but its min
eral production, except of mica, is not important.
In this State large aluminum works have been con
structed and the quantity of precious and semi
precious 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 estabhsh
ments for the manufacture of tobacco, and many

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 103
of these during the last three decades have grown
to large proportions. New estabhshments have
been opened, some of which are among the largest
in the world. The development of the American
Tobacco Company and its affiUated 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 estabhshments
were closed as uneconomical. Many other small
factories, feeUng or fearing the competition, closed
voluntarUy. But the total production of tobacco
has steadUy increased. Plug and smoking tobacco
are largely confined to the Upper South. North
CaroUna easUy 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, LouisvUle, 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 exclu
sively. There has been little development of the

104 THE NEW SOUTH
fine cigar industry except in Louisiana and Florida,
though in all cities of the Lower South there are
local estabhshments 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 miUs
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 de
creased rather than increased since 1880, it is ob
vious 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 four
teenth in the total value of manufactured prod
ucts 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

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 105
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 mar
velous rapidity, but it is increasing in other sec
tions of the country as weU. 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 equahng or surpassing
other sections except in the manufacture of textiles.

CHAPTER VI

LABOR CONDITIONS

The laborer employed in the manufacturing en
terprises of the South, whether white or black,
is native born and Southern born. Sporadic ef
forts 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 deal
ing with complicated machines are white, whUe
those engaged in simpler processes are white or
black. We find, therefore, a preponderance of
whites in the textile industries and in the shops pro
ducing 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,
106

LABOR CONDITIONS 107
especially in tobacco, but generally they furnish the
imskiUed labor.
The textUe industry employs the greatest num
ber of operatives, or at least concentrates them
more. From the farms or the mountain coves, or
only one generation removed from that environ
ment, they have been drawn to the mUls 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 so
cial 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
textUe industry, agriculture, or at least agriculture
as practiced by this class, was unprofitable. Dur
ing the decade from 1890 to 1900 the price of aU
kinds of farm produce was exceedingly low, and the
returns in money were very small. Even though

108 THE NEW SOUTH
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 vi
cious economic circle and could not escape. If
they had bought supplies at the country store at
inflated prices, the crops sometimes were insuffi
cient 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 mUl
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 natu
ral 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 109
famUies of the incapable, the shiftless, the disabled,
and the widowed. In a few cases men came to
the mUls deliberately intending to exploit their
chUdren, to live a life of ease upon their earnings.
There were places for the younger members of aU
these famUies, 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 vUlage, and
the number of common laborers needed is limited.
Too many of the fathers who had come to the vil
lage intending themselves to work gradually sank
into the parasite class and sat around the village
store whUe their chUdren 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
mUls. In considering the wages paid in Southern
nulls, this fact must never be forgotten. There
was always an abundance of land to which the mUl
people could return at will and wrest some sort of
Uving from the soU. For them to go back to the
land was not a venture full of unknown hazards.
They had been bom on the land and even yet are

110 THE NEW SOUTH
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 triffing, 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 Uv
ing has greatly increased in the South, it is stiU
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 overwhelming
ly 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 111
in the South these machines are uncommon. For
certain purposes, this soft but fine and even yarn is
indispensable. Only strong, highly skUled opera
tives, usually men, can tend these machines. The
earnings of such speciaUsts cannot fairly be com
pared 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, how
ever, 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 nulls than in some New
England estabhshments. In the case of an expen
sive machine, an operative who gets from it only
sixty to seventy-five per cent of its possible pro
duction 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 pro
duction 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

112 THE NEW SOUTH
recently buUt Southern mUls have been equipped
with all the latest machinery, whUe many of the
older Northern mUls have not felt able to scrap
machines which, though antiquated, were still run
ning weU, However, the advantage in having a
better machine is not fully realized if it is not run
to its fuU 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 ef
ficiency 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. Per
haps the truth is that in some parts of the South
where the industry has been longest estabUshed
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 un
trained, the Southern labor at present procur
able is really dearer than the Northern."' This
does not mean that Southern labor is perma
nently inferior; but a highly skilled body of
¦ T. M. Young, The American Cotton Industry, p. 113.

LABOR CONDITIONS 113
operatives requires years for its development.
In the beginning there were no restrictions upon
hours of work, age, or sex of operatives, or condi
tions of employment. Every null 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 re
deemable 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 ac
customed to pay when buying on credit while liv
ing on the farms. The moral conditions at some of
these nulls were also bad, since the least desirable ele
ment of the rural population was the first to go to
the mills. Such conditions, however, were not uni
versal. 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 vUlages and
to increase wages. Today the mill communities
are generally clean, and care is taken to exclude
immoral individuals. Payment of wages m cash

114 THE NEW SOUTH
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 be
came the maximum, but most mills voluntarily ran
sixty-nine or even sixty-six. The employment of
chUdren continued, though some individual em
ployers reduced it as much as possible without seri
ously crippling their forces. This was a real dan
ger so long as there were no legal restrictions on
chUd 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 ex
ploiting 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 else
where, and perhaps the manager of another mill
would not be so scrupulous. So the children went

LABOR CONDITIONS 115
mto the mUl and often stayed there. If illiterate
when they entered, they remained iUiterate. The
number of young children, however, was always
exaggerated by the muckrakers, though unques
tionably several hundred children ten to twelve
years old, and possibly a few younger, were em
ployed 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 fuU
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 yam 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
chUdren 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

116 THE NEW SOUTH
contract. The South is only just becoming rich
enough to support professional phUanthropists,
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 com
paratively few cases does one man, or one famUy,
own a controlling interest in a mill. The owner
ship 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 atti
tude 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 stUl thinks, in terms
of agriculture. It has not yet developed an in
dustrial philosophy. Agriculture is individualistic,
and Thomas Jefferson's ideas upon the functions
and limitations of government stiU have influence.
Regulation of agricultural labor would seem ab
surd, 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 117
same tasks, day after day, under more or less ten
sion was slow to take shape in the popular conscious
ness. It was obvious that the chUdren were not
actuaUy 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 indus
trial history reaUzes 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
Uttle influence. Indeed it is possible that the re
sentment occasioned by the exaggerated stories of
conditions really hindered the progress of restric
tive legislation, just as the bitter denunciation of
the Southern attitude toward the negro has in
creased conservatism. Every one knew that the
pitiful stories of abuse or oppression were untrue.
No class of laborers anywhere is more independent

LABOR CONDITIONS 119
previously existing, and have further reduced the
hours of labor.
Until comparatively recently whatever provision
was made for the social betterment of the opera
tives depended upon the active manager of the
particular miU. Some assumed a patriarchal atti
tude and attempted to provide those things which
they thought the operatives should have. Others
took Uttie or no responsibiUty, except perhaps to
make a contribution to all the churches represented
in the community. This practice is almost uni
versal, and if the term of the pubUc 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 responsibUity and partly from a realiza
tion that it is good business to do so, the bigger
nulls have made large expenditures to improve the
condition of their operatives. They have pro
vided reading rooms and Ubraries, have opened
many recreation rooms and playgrounds, and have
furnished other facUities for entertainment. Some
of the nulls have athletic fields, and a few support
semi-professional baseball teams. At some miUs
community buUdings have been erected, which
sometimes contain, in addition to public rooms.

120 THE NEW SOUTH
baths, and a swimming pool, an office for a visit
ing 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 tri
fling — but the items are not always well chosen,
and the cooking is often bad. To the monoto
nous 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 im
proper preparation. Owing to this lack of domes
tic 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 gener
ally spent as fast as they were earned, and often
extravagantly. Little attempt was made to culti
vate 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 121
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 en
couragement 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-flve 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
famiUes have left one mill village during the last
ten years to buy farms with their savings, but this
instance is rather unusual; comparatively few fami
lies 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 oiit 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 miU
communities annual prizes are offered for the best
vegetable garden, the most attractive premises, and
the best kept premises from a sanitary standpoint.

122 THE NEW SOUTH
The Southern operative is too close to the soil to
be either socialistic in his views or coUectivistic 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, how
ever, 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 pri
mary 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 di
versity 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 123
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, how
ever, 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

124 THE NEW SOUTH
law of Alabama regarding contract of service.'
This law regarded the nonfulfillment of a contract
on which an advance had been made as prima fade
evidence of intent to defraud and thus gave em
ployers immense power over their employees. Con
ditions 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.
The manufacture of tobacco shows as much di
versity of labor conditions as the lumber industry.
There are small establishments with little machin
ery 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 ne
groes 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
' Bailey vs. Alabama, 219 U. S., 219.

LABOR CONDITIONS 125
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 smaUer factories labor is usually paid by
the day, but in the larger estabhshments 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
smaUer factories the work is regarded somewhat in
the Ught of a summer hoUday, as the tasks are
simple and the operatives talk and sing at their
work. This social element largely disappears, how
ever, 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 tend
ing complicated machines, there is little soUdarity.
An organized strike including any large percentage
of the force in a tobacco factory is a practical im-
possibiUty. Those engaged in a particular process
may strike and in consequence tie up the processes

126 THE NEW SOUTH
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 ne
gro operatives in the textUe industry, so far with
little success, though the capacity of the negro
for such employment has not yet been disproved.
Though several cotton mUls which made the experi
ment failed, in every case there were difficulties
which might have caused a similar failure even
with white operatives. Negroes have been em
ployed 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

LABOR CONDITIONS 127
of negroes in these occupations is their charac
teristic 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 suc
ceed also in textUes, 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 de
mand 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 strike
breakers, 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 de
votion to their lodges shows the loyalty of which
they are capable, and their future organization is

128 THE NEW SOUTH
not beyond the range of possibility. Generally
the South has afforded little encouragement to or
ganized 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 differenti
ated 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 bf
the larger towns one does not hear of "class con
ffict"; 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 estabhsh
ments, though the tobacco industry and public
utilities were Ukewise 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. Com
munities which had known of such disputes only
from hearsay stood amazed. The workers gener
ally gained recognition of their right to organize,
and their success may mean greater industrial
friction in the future.

CHAPTER VII
THE PROBLEM OP BLACK AND WHITE
For a century, the presence of the negro in the
United States has divided the nation. Though the
Civil War finaUy 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 un
limited 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. More
over, this discussion about ten mUlion people has
produced an effect upon them, and the negroes are
beginning to feel that they constitute a problem.
Differing attitudes toward the negro general
ly arise from fundamentally different postulates.
o 129

130 THE NEW SOUTH
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 en
dured. At the other extreme are those who hold
that the negro is fundamentaUy 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, that the negroes of Georgia
would soon surpass the whites in education, cul
ture, and wealth. Other predictions, similar in
tone, were common in the reports of various phil
anthropic associations. Obviously these prophe
cies 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 gen
eralization 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 some
thing 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

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 131
incomplete in the South, and in consequence the
census of 1880 seemed to show a phenomenal in
crease in the negro population. Upon this sup
posed increase was based the theory that the South
would soon be overwhelmingly black. From the
historical standpoint, Albion W. Tourgee'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 de
finitely establish the fact that the net increase of
negro popidation 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 steadUy, though
slowly, smaller. '
' 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 5 1,000 negroes, comprising less

182 THE NEW SOUTH
Between 1900 and 1910, the native white popu
lation increased 20.9 per cent whUe the negro pop
ulation 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 ex
cessive 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 en
gaged 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 pro
portions 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
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 com
ponent (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.

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 133
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 va
rious. The offer of higher wages is the most impor
tant. The desire to get for their children great
er educational advantages than are offered in the
South is also impelling. The beUef that race prej
udice is less strong in the North is another in
ducement to leave the South, for "Jim Crow" cars
and poUtical disfranchisement have irritated many.
Finally the dread of lynch law may be mentioned
as a motive for migration, though its actual impor
tance may be doubted. Not aU 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 cUmate too severe,
while still others are unable or unwUling 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

134 THE NEW SOUTH
requiring skiUed labor, and domestic service, al
though there is a scattered representation of ne
groes in almost every trade, business, and profes
sion. 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 com
pared 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 ten
ants 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 to
tal value of the land owned was $273,000,000, an
average of $1250 to the farm. '
' 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 ot
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

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 135
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 vUlages 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 pat
ronage of whites at his own shop or may share a
shop with a white man. White and negro team
sters are employed indiscriminately. Hundreds of
negroes serve as firemen or as engineers of station
ary steam engines. Thousands work in the tobac
co factories. Practically the only distinction made
is this : a negro man may work with white men in
doors 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 en
tirely or even primarily to racial discrimination.
Where the negro often fails is in lack of reliability,
regularity, and faithfulness. In some occupations
327,537 homes in 1900, of which 229,158 were free. Further dis
cussion of the part of the negro in agriculture will be found in another
chapter.

136 THE NEW SOUTH
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
aU 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 locomo
tive 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. Ne
groes who keep livery stables and occasionally gar
ages 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 dairy
men, and some get the best prices for their prod
ucts. Where a negro manufactures or sells goods

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 137
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
Uttle or no white patronage. No negro pastor
preaches to a white congregation, and no negro
teaches in a school for whites. Negro lawyers, den
tists, 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 profes
sional men will make an immediate change in the
attitude of whites is unUkely. The relation of
lawyer and client or physician and patient pre
sumes a certain intimacy and subordination to
greater wisdom which the white man is not wilUng
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
UUterate. Some of the free negroes could read and
write, and a few had graduated at some Northern
college. Though the laws wliich forbade teaching
slaves to read or write were not generally enforced,
only favored house servants received instruction.
It is certain that the percentage of UUteracy was at

138 THE NEW SOUTH
least 90, and possibly as high as 95. This has been
progressively reduced until in 1910 the proportion
of the UUterate 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 UUterate
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 educa
tional facUities in the cities; and 82.3 per cent of
the negro population is rural. '
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 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 2.2
per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively, while negro illiteracy in the
towns was 21.4 and 23.8 per cent respectively.

THE PROBLEM OP BLACK AND WHITE 139
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
UUteracy of the whole mass wUl continue to drop,
for it is in the older group that the percentage of
UUterates 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
fuU advantage of such opportunities as have been
open to him. It does appear, however, that the pro
portion 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. '
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 instinc
tive dislike of those manifestly unUke themselves.
' The American Federation of Labor in 1919 voted to take steps
to recognize and admit negro unions.

140 THE NEW SOUTH
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 aU
been subjected to the domination of the whites.
There have been many cases of Ulicit mating, of
course, but the white man has steadUy 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 ex
tent has been swallowed up by the darker mass.
Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, the Portuguese colonies in
different parts of the world, are obvious examples. '
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 convic
tion. There is no suggestion that the laws forbid
ding intermarriage be repealed, or that separate
schools be discontinued. Restaurants and hotels

' How much of this difiFerence in attitude is due to lack of pride in
race integrity and how much to religion is a question. The Ro
man 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 can
not explain the whole difference. There seems to be another factor.

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 141
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 equip
ment 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.
WilUam 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 ap
prove his verdict. The chief reason for such regu
lations, however, is to assert and emphasize white
superiority. Half a dozen black nurses with their

142 THE NEW SOUTH
charges may sit in the car reserved for whites, be
cause they are obviously dependents engaged in
personal service. Without such relationship, how
ever, 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. This 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 superior
ity. So long as the negro is plainly dependent and
recognizes that dependency, the question of prej
udice does not arise, and there is much kindly inti
macy 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 sugges
tion 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 rec
ognizable. One is quiet, unobtrusive, more or
less industrious. He "knows his place" — which
may mean anything from servility to self-respect
ing acceptance of his lot in life. The other resents

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 143
more or less openly the discrimination against his
race, and this resentment may range from imperti
nence to sullenness and even to dreams of social
equality imposed by force. Some have a smattering
of education while others, who have been subject
ed to little training or discipline, are indolent and
shiftless. The thoughtless, however, are likely to
include in this classification the industrious, in
telligent 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 satis
factory 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 rec
ognition 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

144 THE NEW SOUTH
immigrants coming from the socially and politically
backward states of Europe. The ordinary negro,
however, apparently does not think much of sueh
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 reaUze their ambi
tions than do the whites. They do not aspire to
high position, and discrimination does not burn
them quite as deeply as the sometimes too sym
pathetic 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 abUity, educa
tion, and aesthetic appreciation often comparable
to those of the whites, and with more than normal
sensitiveness, they find the color Une 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

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 145
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 in
timate 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 de
mand for full poUtical and social rights for aU ne
groes has for its basis not so much the welfare of the
race as a whole, as the possibiUty of obtaining for
themselves special privileges and positions of leader
ship. They are not satisfied merely with full legal
rights. In those States where there is no legal dis
crimination in public places, their denunciation of
social prejudice is bitter. They are not content to
take their chances with other groups but sometimes
are Ulogical enough to demand social equaUty en
forced 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 num
ber of this class, there is a section of negro society

146 THE NEW SOUTH
in which social Unes 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 formal
ity 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 re
main 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. Wash
ington's bitterest enemies. His theory that the
negro should first devote himself to obtaining eco
nomic independence and should leave the adjust
ment of social relations to the future was de
nounced as treason to the race. Washington's op
portunism was even more obnoxious to them than
is the superior attitude of the whites. They de
nounced him as a trimmer, a time-server, and a

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 147
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 Uttle harm for they have
not been read by those to whom they were ad
dressed. Perhaps, indeed, they may not have been
meant entirely seriously, for the negro, Uke 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 Uve
a long time in many parts of the South without
realizing that the most important problem of the
United States Ues all about him. Then an explo
sion comes, and he reaUzes 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 atti
tude never was universal nor was it consistently
maintained, for there is hardly one of the older ne- •
groes who does not have a white man to whom he
goes for advice or help in time of trouble — a sort

148 THE NEW SOUTH
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 posi
tively 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 wel
fare of the negro. The negro quarters of the
towns, so long neglected, are receiving more atten
tion 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 de
plorable. 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 con
cerned. Socially minded citizens are forcing im
provement of the disgraceful conditions which have
often prevailed on chain gangs and in prisons. Nor

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 149
is this all. More white men and women are teach
ing negroes than ever before. The oldest univer
sity 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 universi
ties 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 encour
aged to aid in Red Cross work. Negroes have
been appointed members of city or county com
mittees 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

150 THE NEW SOUTH
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 compe
tent observers beUeve it to be decreasing. Though
the percentage of mulattoes has increased since
1890, according to the census, the figures are con
fessedly 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 mu
latto wife, and their chUdren 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 de
nunciations come from those nearest to him in
economic status. The town loafers, the cotton
miU operatives, the small farmers, particularly the
tenant farmers, are those who most frequently
clash with both the impertinent and the self-re
specting 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

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 151
appeal to these types of whites. The negro on the
other hand may resent the assumption of superior
ity 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 repu
tation 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 com
munity 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 popu
lation from stamping out such lawlessness; perhaps
some lingering feeling of mistaken loyalty to the
white race restrains them from strong action; per
haps the individualism of the Southerner has inter
fered with general acceptance of the idea of the
inexorable majesty of the law which must be vin
dicated at any cost. Yet, in spite of all these
undercurrents of feeUng, sheriffs and private citi
zens 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

152 THE NEW SOUTH
as elsewhere, but occasionally a jury convicts.
The tradition that, years ago, lynching was oiUy
invoked in punishment of the unspeakable crime is
more or less true. It is not true now. The statist
tics 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 allow
ance 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 shame
fully 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 hover
ing. In some sections an unaccompanied white
woman dislikes to walk through an unlighted vil
lage 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

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 153
poorly poUced and the ears of the farmer working
in the field are always alert for the sound of the beU
or the horn calUng for help, perhaps from his own
home. OccasionaUy, in spite of aU 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 per
sists an uncontroUable morbid dread. The news
of another victim sometimes turns men into fiends
who not only take life but even inffict torture be
forehand. The mere suspicion of intent is some
times enough to deprive such a community of its
reason, for there are communities which have
brooded over the possibUity 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, op
poses mob violence, and this opposition is growing
stronger and more purposeful. Associations have

154 THE NEW SOUTH
been formed to oppose mob rule and to punish par
ticipants. Where reputable citizens are lukewarm
it is largely because they have not reaUzed 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 opposi
tion 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. '
Though mob fury has broken out on occasion in
every Southern State, Maryland, West Virginia,
' 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 Fear* 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.

THE PROBLEM OF BLACK AND WHITE 155
Kentucky, and North Carolina are measurably
free from such visitations. Over considerable per
iods of time, Georgia comes unenviably first, fol
lowed 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 ele
ment in its population Oklahoma has had a dispro
portionate share. It may be said that the lynch
ings occur chiefiy 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 re
quire an immediate and radical change in human
nature. As the proportion of negroes able to read
and write grows larger, they wUl certainly demand
full political rights, which the mass of the whites,
so far as any one can judge, will be unwilling to al
low. Deportation to Africa — proposed in aU seri
ousness — is impossible. Negro babies are born
faster than they could easUy be carried away, even
if there were no other obstacle. The suggestion
that whites be expelled from a State or two, which

156 THE NEW SOUTH
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 to
ward 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, the negro must take his place on equal terms
in the American poUtical 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 prob
lem much like that of the United States and is
succeeding no better in solving it. The move
ment of negroes to the North and West, if con
tinued 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 as
serted 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 ui 1860, it
is true, was not satisfactory, and the percentage of
UUteracy was high. Any attempt to distract at
tention from these facts by pointing out the great
proportion of the Southern white population in
colleges and academies is as much to be depreca
ted as the denial of the existence of public schools
at aU.'
' Some States had done little for public schools before 1860, but
others had made more than a respectable beginning. Delaware es
tablished a "literary fund" in 1796, Tennessee in 1806, Virginia in
157

158 THE NEW SOUTH
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 ques
tioned whether the training which the pupUs re
ceived compensated them for the humiliating ac
knowledgment of poverty which their attendance
implied. The amount of money available was
smaU, 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
1810, Maryland in 1813, and Georgia in 1817. Kentucky and Mis
sissippi soon followed their example; North Carolina began to create
such a fund in 1825; Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Mary
land, North Carolina, and South Carolina appropriated a part or the
whole of their shares of the " surplus ' ' distributed by the Federal Gov
ernment under tbe 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.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 159
given from the income of the literary fund. With
the election of Calvin H. WUey as state superinten
dent 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 actu
ally, and ten years more of uninterrupted work
would have done much to remove the stigma of
UUteracy. 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
untU 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 admir
able. Usually they were modeled after the system
in the State from which some influential carpet
bagger came, and under normal conditions, if
honestly and judiciously administered, they would

160 THE NEW SOUTH
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 con
fiscation. 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 communi
ties 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 demand
ed, 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 edu
cating negro children with white children than in
the real process of education. Though in but four
States — South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana,

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 161
and Arkansas — were mixed schools the only
schools, such an arrangement was tind^rstood 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, severa^ 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 opportuni
ties 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

162 THE NEW SOUTH
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 en
dowment 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 con
clusion to which the negro had already jumped
that educational and manual labor were an im
possible combination. Then, too, in order to
prove the sincerity of their belief in the brother
hood of mankind, they entered into the most inti
mate association with their pupils and their fami
Ues. Some of them, we know, were compelled to

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 163
struggle hard to overcome their instinctive repug
nance 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 proportion
ately, however. In 1870, when the whites secured
control in North Carolina, the expenditure for pub
Uc 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 in
struction, but the school term was only ten weeks.
The negro seems to have received in the first years
of the new regime 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

164 THE NEW SOUTH
one efficient system, it now attempted to main
tain 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 in
struction in at least half a dozen subjects to a group
of children of all ages during a period of ten to fif
teen 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 accom
plished. 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 reestab
lished 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

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 165
grown men and women studying the regular high
school subjects. Some had previously ^ught ru
ral 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 attend
ance that they did not feel embarrassed by the
contrast in ages.
In the eighties there were scores of these acade
mies, institutes, and seminaries in the towns of the
South. They were not well graded; the teachers
may never have heard of pedagogy. Their libra
ries were smaU or altogether lacking, and their appa
ratus was scanty; but in spite of these drawbacks
an unusuaUy large proportion of the students were
desirous to learn. Many teachers loved mathe
matics 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

166 THE NEW SOUTH
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 presi
dent'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 mis
chievous. Yet the whole tone of college Ufe 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 to
day 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 condi
tion of rural education at this time was disheart
ening. The percentage of negro UUteracy was fall
ing, because it could not easily be raised, but the re
duction 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 quaUty of the teachers was im
proving. The short term of the schools was being
lengthened by private subscription in some dis
tricts, and new and adequate buildings appeared in
others. Progress was evidently being made, even

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 167
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 Massachu
setts 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
wliich those States refused to recognize as vaUd
obUgations. The chairman of the trustees for
many years was Robert C. Winthrop of Massa
chusetts, 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 compre
hended 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 wUUng to modify his plans to
fit changing conditions. The income of the Fund
appears small in this day of munificent founda
tions, but it seemed large then; and its effects were

168 THE NEW SOUTH
far-reaching. Sears was not an educational re
former 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 stand
ard. 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 sum
mer 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 Pea
body Normal College at Nashville, Tennessee, was
founded, and no effort was spared to develop a
general interest in pubUc 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 Mexi
can and the Civil War. He had first practiced law
and had sat in the House of Representatives of the

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 169
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
CoUege, Virginia, and a minister of the Baptist
Church. He had a magnetic personaUty, an un
yielding 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."
WhUe 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 op
posing forces were strong. Among these forces pov
erty was perhaps the strongest. It is difficult to
convince a people who must struggle for the bare

170 THE NEW SOUTH
necessities of life that taxation for any purpose is a
positive good; and a large proportion of the fami
Ues 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 inter
feres 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 shel
ter. 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 taxpay
ers have been more ready to vote higher taxes
for schools than the poor and illiterate, whose mor
bid dread of taxation has been fostered by the
poUtician.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 171
There were others who were cold to the extension
of public education on account of the schools al
ready existing. In many towns and villages there
were struggling academies, often nominally under
church auspices. Towns which could have sup
ported 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 sUghting references to "godless
schools." There was still another class of people
who really opposed public schools because they did
not beUeve 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 pubUc education was the question of its
influence upon the negro. The apparent effects of
negro education were not likely to make the aver
age white man feel that the experiment had been

172 THE NEW SOUTH
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 caU it more — seemed to have
improved neither their efficiency nor their morals.
As a result there were many white people so short
sighted 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 in
variably 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 Umitations as the rural dis
tricts, and in time it became easier to levy sup
plementary 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

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 173
became the rule and not the exception, teachers'
salaries were raised, and the percentage of attend
ance cUmbed upward, though there was still a rem
nant of the population which did not attend at all.
The school term was not proportionately extended,
since a positive mania for smaU districts developed
— a school at every man's door. In the olden days
large districts were common, and many of the chil
dren walked four or five mUes to school in the
morning and back home in the afternoon. No one
then dreamed of transporting the children at pub
lic expense. The school authorities were often un
able to resist the pressure to make new districts,
and necessarily a contracted term followed. In
1900 the average school term in North CaroUna was
not longer than in 1860, though much more money
was spent, and the salaries were Uttle higher. It
must be remembered, of course, that no appropria
tions were made for negro education before the
CivU War.
Both during and after the War many schools were
opened for negroes by Freedmen's Aid Societies,
various phUanthropic associations, and denomina
tional boards or committees. As public schools
were estabUshed for negroes, some of these organi
zations curtailed their work and others withdrew

174 THE NEW SOUTH
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 re
cent monumental report of the Bureau of Educa
tion reports 653 schools for negroes other than regu
lar public schools.' 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 smaU
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.
During the first years after the downfall of the
Reconstruction governments the negro received a
fair proportion of the pittance devoted to pubUc
schools. Governor Vance of North Carolina, in
recommending in 1877 an appropriation to the
^ Negro Education, Bureau of Education Bulletins 38 and 39
(1916). This work supersedes all previous collections of facts upon
negro education.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 175
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 estabUshed 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 appro
priation of equal amount was made for negroes and
similar allowances have been continued to the pres
ent. 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

176 THE NEW SOUTH
education displayed just after emancipation gradu
ally 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 sur
prising 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

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 177
to take the negro, fresh from slavery and with no
cultural background, through the course generaUy
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 "univer
sity." 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

178 THE NEW SOUTH
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. Accord
ing 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 in
dustrial 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 effi
cient; but in the great majority of negro schools the
old curriculum is still followed, and the students
gladly submit to its exactness. Why study some
thing so plebeian as carpentry when one may study
such scholarly subjects as Latin or Greek?
Most institutions for negroes desire to do work
of coUege grade. Some With not a single pupil
above the elementary grades nevertheless proudly
call themselves colleges. Other so-called colleges
have secondary pupUs but none in college classes.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 179
Thirty-three institutions do have a total of 1643
students in college classes and 994 students in pro
fessional courses, but these same schools enroll
more than 10,000 pupils in elementary and second
ary grades. Some of them are attempting to main
tain coUege classes for less than 5 per cent of their
enrollment, and the teaching force gives a dispro
portionate 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 CoUege at Nashville, Tennessee.
WhUe several of the Southern States have greatly
increased their expenditures for schools since 1910,
in some cases more than doubUng them, the pro
portion devoted to negro schools has not been
greatly increased, if indeed it has been increased
at aU. For example, in North CaroUna, which as
signs for negro education much more than the aver
age of the States containing any considerable pro
portion 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

180 THE NEW SOUTH
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 re
ceived 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 addi
tional local taxes are usually those in which there
are comparatively few negroes. The average sal
ary 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 abiUty 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 abil
ity, 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. There
fore, the proportion of the total funds spent for
negro education might properly be less than their

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 181
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 major
ity of negro private schools, no matter by what
name they are caUed, are reaUy doing only elemen
tary or secondary work. These schools, however,
oxUy touch the beginnings of the problem and have
served in some degree to lessen the sense of re
sponsibUity for negro education on the part of the
Southern whites. Where there is one of these
schools supported by outside philanthropy, the pub
lic school is Ukely 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

182 THE NEW SOUTH
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 in
come is devoted to the encouragement of training
schools. No schools are established by the Fund

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 183
itself, but it cooperates 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 w^omen, who work
under the direction of the county superintendents
and visit the rural schools. They give simple
talks upon hygiene and sanitation, encourage bet
ter care of schoolhouses and grounds, stimulate in
terest in gardening and simple home industries, and
encourage self help. Their work has been exceed
ingly 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. JuUus Rosen-
wald of Chicago offered to every negro rural com
munity wishing to erect a comfortable and ade
quate 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

184 THE NEW SOUTH
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 super
visors of negro schools in several States and has
cooperated with the Jeanes Fund in maintaining
county supervisors of negro schools. It has appro
priated over half a million dollars to industrial
schools and about one-fourth as much to negro col
leges. 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 ex
tended, often by means of local taxes levied in addi
tion 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 develop
ing into a real community center. Good buUdings
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

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 185
new school a day has been built from plans ap
proved by the educational department. More
and more attention is being paid to the surround
ings of the buUdings. School gardens are com
mon, and some schools even cultivate an acre or
two of ground, the proceeds of which go to furnish
apparatus or suppUes. Many of the Southern
towns and cities have schools which need not fear
comparison with those in other sections.
The crjdng need is more money which can come
only in two ways, by reforming the system of taxa
tion, and by increasing the amount of taxable prop
erty. 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 val
ue varies widely, but on the average it can hard
ly be more than fifty per cent; and, as invariably
happens, the assessment of the more valuable prop
erties is proportionately less than that of the small
farm or the mechanic's home. The South is grow
ing richer, but the conffict with the North set the
section back thirty or forty years, whUe the re
mainder of the country was increasing in wealth.
Even today the South must build two school sys
tems without the aid of government land grants.

186 THE NEW SOUTH
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 cur
riculum, but a new institution known as the "farm
life school " is now being developed. Many other
schools have such a department attached and usu
ally 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 contri
butions of the Board. These men, chosen by the
institutions themselves as regular members of the
faculty but with their salaries paid by an appro
priation from the Board, may give a course or two
in the university, but their chief duties are to co
ordinate the work of the high schools and to serve
as educational missionaries. They go up and down
the States, exhorting, advising, and stimulating

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 187
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 in
stitutions were kept open during War and Recon
struction 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 con
sidering, and the so-called state institutions re
ceived very small appropriations or none at all.
Good preparatory schools were few and, since the
coUeges were dependent upon tuition fees, many
students with inadequate preparation were leni
ently admitted. Preparatory departments were es
tabUshed for those students who could not possi
bly be admitted to college classes. Necessarily the
quality of work was low, though many institutions
struggled for the maintenance of respectable stand
ards. One college president frankly said: "We
are Uberal about letting young men into the Fresh
man class, but particular about letting them out."

188 THE NEW SOUTH
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 prepara
tion for entrance, though it was compelled to or
ganize a sub-freshman class in the beginning. Its
policy had considerable influence both upon college
standards and upon the growth of private prepara
tory schools. The development of public schools,
for a time, had made the work of colleges in general
more difficult, because they supplanted scores of pri
vate academies which had done passably well the
work of college preparation and yet were not them
selves 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 estabUshed high schools or high
school departments has since increased rapidly,

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 189
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 mUUons for new
buUdings. Many of the denominational colleges
have obtained substantial endowments. The Gen
eral Education Board up to 1914 had subscribed
over $3,000,000 to Southern colleges and universi
ties on condition that the institutions raise at least
three times as much more. Southern men who have
accumulated wealth are reaUzing their social respon
sibUity. Several recent gifts of a milUon 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 increas
ing income. As elsewhere the effect of the reports
of the Carnegie Foundation has been patent. The
stronger institutions have brought up their require
ments to the minimum, on paper at least, and to a
great extent in fact. Some of the weaker institu
tions have dropped the pretense of doing college

190 THE NEW SOUTH
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 super
vision 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 in
creased, and no schools are exercising more whole
some 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 OIS. 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 antipa
thies 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 conversa
tion with them is difficult unless one instinctively
understands their psychology and is wilUng to
avoid certain subjects. The past has made so
191

192 THE NEW SOUTH
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 South
erner is becoming free. There are individuals who
will always be bound by the past; there are some
men, and more women, who are yet "unrecon
structed"; there are neighborhoods and villages
where men and women yet Uve 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 Uttle 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 pro
portion 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 dis
cussing it is not likely to be successful in his busi
ness or profession. The men of the New South
spend little time in discussing the relative wisdom
of Jefferson Davis and Robert Toombs or the

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 198
reasons for the faUure 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 beUeve, partly through knowledge
but more largely through absorption, that the Con
federate 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 feeUng is now purely emotional.
AU the Southern States have felt, though un-
equaUy, 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 Mis
sissippi, North Carolina, and South CaroUna each

194 THE NEW SOUTH
had less than 10,000 at that time. The highest
percentage of foreign born was 8.6 per cent in Dela
ware, 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 to
day 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. Com
paratively 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 in
crease of population is less for the South, if Okla
homa 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 ac
tion. Labor unions have made small progress ex
cept in a few skUled 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

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 195
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 con
siderable quantity of the cloth it weaves. The
greater part of both yarn and cloth is coarse,
though some nulls 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 bf lumber but works up comparatively
little, and this mainly into simple forms. It pro
duces 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 elabo
rate. It can furnish a cotton shroud, each year of
finer quaUty. The knitting miUs of the South are

196 THE NEW SOUTH
able to supply an increasing proportion of the pop
ulation 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 CivU 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 mUls 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 like
wise 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

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 197
greatiy increased supply of labor for cotton manu
facturing though the towns can supply some adidt
labor for other forms of industry.
The labor question is beginning to grow serious
in some locahties, though it is difficult to discover
whether the problem is chiefly one of getting labor
at aU or of getting it at something like the wages
formerly paid. Apparentiy, however, the indus
trial growth of the South has been more rapid than
that of population. Heretofore the farmer has had
Uttle difficulty in obtaining some sort of assist
ance in cultivating his land, and this abundance of
labor has lessened the demand for agricultural ma
chinery. Now the migration of the negro to the
North has created a shortage of labor wliich 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
fanuly can plant and cultivate after a fashion

198 THE NEW SOUTH
much more cotton than it can pick. Many at
tempts 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 por
tion of the year, but in that short period the need
is extreme. Such a machine would revolutionize
the tenant system, would permit a larger produc
tion of food, and at the same time would set labor
free for other occupations. MeanwhUe 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 conclu
sions from observation of life as well as from books
realizes how large a part custom plays in determin
ing 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 con
ditions of agriculture were also discussed. Im
provement, however, is already becoming evident.
Cotton furnishes two-fifths of the value of all farm
products, with corn, hay, tobacco, and wheat fol
lowing in the order named. Gradually the W^est

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 199
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 pros
perity, but many have not yet realized that they
are no longer objects of commiseration. Though
the high prices of war times have brought pros
perity 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 in
novation. 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 det
riment to a political candidate of today. Some of
the successful poUticians, as might be expected, are

200 THE NEW SOUTH
demagogues. States differ in the number of poU
ticians 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. '
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 tradi
tions 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 en
vironment. They are honest financially, if not in
tellectually, 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
' North Carolina, for example, had in the 65th Congress, the chair
manship 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.

THE SUUTH OF TODAY 201
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 na
tional affairs and was whoUy occupied with local
questions. It is therefore difficult for such men to
reaUze the present position of the United States in
world politics. With much perturbation of spirit
the rank and ffie 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 Demo
cratic, but the name has Uttie of its original signifi
cance today. The representative is likely to fol
low 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 PopuUstic ideas have not entirely
died out and some of the farmers still demand
special privUeges, 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

202 THE NEW SOUTH
thought the majority of the white men of the State
or section beUeve 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 ques
tions of state rights. The sentiment for woman
suffrage is not yet overwhelming and consequently,
as niight be surmised, conscientious scruples pre
vent representatives from voting for the exten
sion 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 can
didates, though they are excluded from the formal
elections. Whether these acts wiU 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 eUminated as a

THE SOUTH OP TODAY 203
voter, but the decision of the Supreme Court in the
Oklahoma case may make necessary the revision of
some state constitutions. Enough restrictions re
main, however, to make white supremacy reason
ably secure for the present. As the aim is one
upon which the white South is practically agreed,
some other expedients wiU 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 de
nounce the disfranchising acts and constitutional
amendments. If the control of the Southern
States should be gained by the RepubUcan party,
unUmited 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.
SociaUy 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 flourishes 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

204 THE NEW SOUTH
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 speci
mens of the type whose natural habitat had been
supposed to be Ulster or the British Midlands —
reUgious, 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 neigh
borhood, he was quick to respond. Real neigh-
borliness has always existed, but the idea of re
sponsibility 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 preced
ing century. To be sure, the section is now be
coming rich enough to afford the luxury of paupers,
but the interest in socialized humanitarian en
deavor lies deeper. Perhaps the fact that negroes

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 206
formed the larger part of the criminal and depend
ent classes had something to do with the past neg
lect. The Old Testament doctrine that the crimi
nal should suffer the consequences of his act has
had its effect, and the factor of expense has not
been forgotten. Some of the States stiU permit
county commissioners to commit the care of the
poor to the lowest bidder. On the other hand the
poor house has been transformed into a "Home for
the Aged and Infirm " in some States, and inspec
tions of pubUc 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 par
ties on the charge of incompetence, cruelty, or neg
lect of duty as keepers of prisons or almshouses.
Himdreds 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

206 THE NEW SOUTH
fraternal orders manage many well-conducted in
stitutions. The problem of the juvenile delin
quent 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 conscious
ness of responsibility for him also is developing.
Increasing prosperity alone cannot account for the
multiplication of these agencies for social better
ment. 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 becom
ing 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 demo
cratic except in comparatively limited areas, and
it is so everywhere today. In those communities
which have felt the new industrial spirit the ques
tion of birth plays little part. Any presentable
young man can go where he chooses. In such

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 207
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 theu own
and must perforce find their associates among their
feUow townsmen.
One does not lose social position in the South by
engaging in business or by working with his hands.
It may easUy happ>en 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 granddaugh
ter 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, al
though here too the influence of prosperity is be
ginning 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

208 THE NEW SOUTH
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 unwiU-
ingly 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 hunt
ing 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 precari
ous. 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 differ
ent 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

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 209
structure of society in the Old South. A woman's
place was the home. As a girl she might live for en
joyment 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 al
most entirely the concern of the unmarried. Wom
en seldom took a prominent part in any organi
zation, and a woman speaking in public was re
garded as a great curiosity. Not so many years
ago the missionary society, and perhaps the par
sonage aid society, were almost the only organiza
tions in which women took a part. In recent years
church and educational organizations have mul
tiplied, and today there are numerous women's
clubs devoted to many different objects. South
ern 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 com
posed 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
aUve in the South the memories of the past. Per
haps because the women of the older generation

210 THE NEW SOUTH
suffered more than the men, they have been less
wUling to forget, and their daughters have imbibed
some of the same feeUng. 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 na
tional 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 situa
tion, perhaps an intellectual acknowledgment that
all may have been for the best, but no warm na
tionalism 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

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 211
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 shel
tered Ufe have criticized this invasion of what had
been supposed to be the sphere of men, but the

212 THE NEW SOUTH
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 ap
proached men whom they did not know on the
streets to ask for contributions or to urge the pur
chase of stamps or bonds, and only those who know
the South can realize what a departure from tradi
tional 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 overwhelm
ing 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

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 213
assist in laying dovm 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 de
claring 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 con
tain 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 ex
cuse 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
wUl 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. Dur
ing 1918, several denominations granted full laity

214 THE NEW SOUTH
rights, thougli the bishops of the Southern Method
ist Church referred the action of the General Con
ference back to the Annual Conferences. This is
of course only a temporary delay. An unusually
large percentage of the adult population holds
membership in one or other of the Protestant de
nominations. The Roman Catholics are reported
as being in a majority in Louisiana, as might be
expected owing to French descent, and in Ken
tucky, Delaware, Maryland, and Texas the pro
portion is considerable. It is less in Arkansas,
Oklahoma, and West Virginia. In Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis
sissippi, and Tennessee, the proportion of Catholics
is still smaller, though the latest (1918) official
Catholic statistics for the seven States last named
show 7 bishops, 415 priests, 635 churches, and 211,-
000 Catholics. The principal denominational af
filiations 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 Dela
ware, Maryland, and Louisiana. Presbyterians

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 215
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 Cate
chism 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 unlet
tered 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 prepara
tion for the life to come. One is sometimes tempted
to beUeve that these spiritual guides deprecated

216 THE NEW SOUTH
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.
Years ago the social position of the great majority
of the Methodists and Baptists was distinctly be
low 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 Bap
tist can have none of the former feeling of mar
tyrdom now, when in numbers and wealth his
denomination is so powerful. '
Though the evangelical religious teaching of for
mer days has been modified and softened, it has
been softened only and not superseded. The re
sult of this emphasis upon the other world has been
to make men look somewhat askance at worldly
" Except these five, other church organizations have few members.
There are a few CongregationaUsts, 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 Ten
nessee the Disciples are important. Here and there other denom
inations have gained a foothold, but their numbers are insignificant
in the South as a whole.

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 217
amusement. The idea so prevalent in other sec
tions that the people of the South are convivial and
mercurial in temperament is erroneous. It would
be more nearly correct to say that gravity, amount
ing almost to austerity, is a distinguishing mark of
Southerners. In any Southern gathering repre
senting 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 indulgiag
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

218 THE NEW SOUTH
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 famUiarity 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 organiza
tion alive. They are like engines which can get up
enough steam to turn the wheels slowly and pain
fully 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 condi
tion, however, is not peculiar to the South. Here and
there in the country districts a new type of pastor

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 210
has appeared. He is a good farmer himself, in
terested in better farming and able to discuss ferti
lizers and methods with his parishioners. He is not
afraid that prosperity wUl turn his members away
from their church duties but considers that im
proving the economic conditions of the neighbor
hood is quite as vital a part of his work as minister
ing 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 be
come a serious matter in some localities. The
social level of neighborhoods once attractive be
cause of the presence of families of intelligence
and character has fallen. The land of the fami
lies 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

220 THE NEW SOUTH
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 lar
ceny 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 SOUTH OF TODAY 221
the figures given include the negro, and he is some
what 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. In
dividuals of excellent standing in business or pro
fessional Iffe sometimes shoot to kill their fellows
and in the past have usually escaped the extreme
penalty and often have avoided punishment al
together. 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 abUity 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

222 THE NEW SOUTH
expressing dissent. AU 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 flamboy
ant 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. De
fendants 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 "un
written law, " not realizing that such a defense is
really a reflection upon womanhood. Others allow

THE SOUTH OF TODAY 223
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 per
mit him to think of the law as a majestic, imper
sonal force towering high above the individual. It
is true that the Southerner is law-abiding on the
whole, but he usuaUy 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 ques
tions are in a state of flux, and there is as yet no
point of crystaUization. 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 influ
ence outside the State in which it is published, and
few have a circulation throughout even their entu-e

224 THE NEW SOUTH
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 maga
zines are read in increasing numbers. Good book
stores 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-sell
ers" 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 administra
tion of several of the States is striving to put a
well-selected library into every public school.'
' 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 SOUTH OF TODAY 225
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 dis
tinguished critic to rank them as the most signifi
cant force in American letters. Such a high valua
tion 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 soUd 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

226 THE NEW SOUTH
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 incredi
ble 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, whUe 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 dis
appearing, and the South lifts up its eyes toward
the futm'e.

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 carpet
bag 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.'
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 rfegime, the State had received little or no
benefit. Interest was not paid upon this sum or upon
' W. A. Scott, The Repudiation of StaU Debts, p. 63, but see also
W. L. Fleming, CivU 'War and Reconstruction in Alabama, p. 580 ff.
227

228 THE NEW SOUTH
the previous issues, and the total debt increased rap
idly. Unsuccessful attempts to compromise with the cred
itors 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
doUar. 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 cor
poration 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 re
pudiation 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.'
Not all of the creditors of the State accepted the com
promise 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 pre
sented 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. '^ 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
' J. G. de R. Hamilton, Reconstruction in North Carolina, pp. 448-
449, 659-661.
' South Dakota ». North Carolina, 192 U. S. Rep., p. 286.

THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS 229
Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders in
its annual reports plaintively regrets the perversity of
this and other Southern States.
South Carolina presented such a carnival of incom
petence and corruption that the total amount of bonds
issued has never been accurately determined. Appar
ently there was a vahd debt of about $6,666,000 in 1868,
wliich 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 de
stroyed the vahdity of some miUions more, and finally
the debt, reduced to something more than $7,000,000,
was funded. The debt of Georgia was increased di
rectly 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 raUroad 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 doUar. By action of the courts the
debt was reduced to about $12,000,000 bearing inter
est at seven per cent. The State could not pay the inter
est 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

230 THE NEW SOUTH
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 con
stitutional provision forbidding a citizen to bring an ac
tion against a State. The bondholders stUl 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. MeanwhUe
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 conven
tion of 1884. The total amount repudiated and de
clared void by the courts was nearly $13,000,000. Ten
nessee 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 re
duced by permitting the railroads to pay their debt in
state bonds which they purchased cheaply on the mar
ket. 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

THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS 231
consequentiy voted down proposals which they thought
too hberal to the creditors. The question temporarily
spht 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 in
terest 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 fimded 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
abihty 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 kiUers" were usuaUy declared un
constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United
States. MeanwhUe the contest had split the State.
Some were in favor of paying the whole debt accord
ing to the agreement of 1871; others wished to re
duce 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 pohtical party known as the Readjusters and in 1879

232 THE NEW SOUTH
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 biU, which
the creditors refused to accept, and an ingenious "cou
pon killer." SimUar acts were passed in 1886 and
1887. The United States Supreme Court, before which
these acts were brought, pronounced them unconstitu
tional 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. MeanwhUe 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 ex
changed for about $28,000,000 of the older issue. In
terest 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 improve
ments in Virginia proper, and that one-third was an ex
cessive 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 deci
sion, and in 1914 Virginia asked the Court to proceed to
a final decree. A special master was appointed to take

THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS 233
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 Reconstruc
tion are also valuable for the subject of this volume, as
it is impossible to understand the South today with
out understanding the period which preceded it. Much
enlightening material is to be found in W. L. Flem
ing's Documentary History of Reconstruction (2 vols.,
1906-07) and in the series of monographs on Recon
struction published by the students of Professor W. A.
Dunning of Columbia University, among which may
be mentioned J. W. Garner's Reconstruction in Mis
sissippi (1901); W. L. Fleming's Civil War and Recon
struction in Alabama (1905); J. G. de R. Hamilton's
Reconstruction in North Carolina (1914); C. M. Thomp
son'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 interest
ing are A. W. Tourgee's Appeal to Caesar (1884),
based upon the beUef that the South would soon be
235

236 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
overwhelmingly black. Alexander K. McClure, in
The South; its Industrial, Financial and Political Condi
tion (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) con
tains the observations of a shrewd Pennsylvania poli
tician 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 ques
tion. 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 South
ern South (1910) is the result of more study and in
vestigation 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 Politi
cal and Social Science, vol. 35 (1910). Another co
operative 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 237
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). WiUiam 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. Ham
mond'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), at
tempts to show the influence of cotton upon history.
HoUand Thompson in From the Cotton Field to the Cot
ton Mill (1906) deals with the economic and social
changes arising froin the development of manufactur
ing in an agricultural society. With this may be men
tioned 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 interest
ing 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 Manu
facturer's Record (Baltimore) are indispensable to a
student of the economic progress of the South.

238 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The Negro Question
The number of books, pamphlets, and special articles
upon this subject, written by Northerners, Southern
ers, negroes, and even foreigners, is enormous. These
publications range from displays of hysterical emo
tionalism to statistical studies, but no one book can
treat fully all phases of so complex a question. Bib
liographies have been prepared by W. E. B. Du Bois,
A. P. C. Griffin, and others. W. L. Fleming has ap
pended 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 ques
tion. 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 be
cause 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, empha
sizes achievements rather than deficiencies and is opti
mistic 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

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 239
(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 writ
ings, 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. Wil
liam Archer, the English author and journalist ex
presses 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 un
equal papers is contained in the Annals of the Ameri
can 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 prob
lem was A. G. Haygood, later a Bishop of the Meth
odist 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. WiUiam B. Smith's The Color Line
(1905) takes the position that the negro is fundament
ally 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, whUe Pa
tience Pennington {paeud.) in A Woman Rice-Planter

240 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
(1913) gives in the form of a diary a naive but fasci
nating account of life in the lowlands of South Caro
lina. Edgar Gardner Murphy, whose Problems of the
Present South has already been mentioned, discuss
es in The Basis of Ascendancy (1909) the proper re
lations 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 Educa
tion published years ago several monographs upon the
separate States. Edgar W. Knight has written an excel
lent history of Public School Education in North Caro
lina (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 Ay-
cock (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 Activi
ties, 1902-191^. (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 Bulle-

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 241
tins 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 Eg
bert 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 moun
tains. George W. Cable and Grace King have de
picted 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 com
mon man. In The Southerner (1909) Nicholas Worth
(understood to be the pseudonym of a distinguished
editor and diplomat) has made a careful study of condi
tions in North Carolina between 1875 and 1895, while
Thomas Dixon in The Leopard's Spots (1902) has crude
ly 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
i6

242 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
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), whUe 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 el seq.; county demon
strators, 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; Popu
list party, 42; suffrage amend
ments, 54-55; boys' corn
club, 79; cotton mills. 97;
iron industry, 101; mines,
102; bituminous coal, 102;
school fund, 158 (note);
Catholics in, 214; repudia
tion of debt, 227
American Tobacco Company,
103
Archer, William, Through Afro-
America, quoted, 141
Arkansas, hill men of, 6; Agri
cultural Wheel in, 34; elec
tion (1896), 44; lumbering,
100; mixed schools, 161;
industrialism, 193; migration
to, 194; woman suffrage,
202; Catholics in, 214; re
pudiation of debt, 230-31
Atlanta (Ga.), Cotton Ex
position (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 cen
ter, 101-02
Blair Bill, 27
Blease, C. L., of South Caro
lina. 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 Caro
lina, 13, 41
Calhoun, J. C, agricultural
college founded on planta
tion of, 42
Carlisle, J. G., of Kentucky, 29
Carnegie Foundation and col
lege standards, 189
Carolinas differing economic
conditions, 6; Scotch-Irish
in, 6; see also North Caro
lina, South Carolina
Carpetbaggers' rule over
thrown, 9, 12
Catholic Church, 214
Charleston (S. C), party man
agement in, 39; Tillman and,
40
Child labor, state restrictions,
97, 118; in cotton mills, 109,
114-15, 117; Federal Child
Labor Act, 118

243

244

INDEX

Civil service, Cleveland an4,
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 sol
diers in, 13, 26; negroes in,
20; reelection 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); for
eign 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 consoli
dation, 12; Farmers' Alliance
and, 36; Georgia convention

(1890), 37; controlling in
fluence of, 38; Populist
party and, 42-43, 47, 201;
nature of, 201; split in Ar
kansas, 231
Disciples' Church, 216 (note)
Durham (N. C), tobacco in
dustry in, 103
Education, Blair Bill, 27; in
South Carolina, 42; Populist
attitude toward, 46; negro
schools, 57; agricultural col
leges and experiment sta
tions, 75; county demon
strators, 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; opposi
tion 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 ne
groes, 18-19; frauds, 19-20;
North threatens Federal
control, 21; (1896), 44;
(1900), 45-46; primaries, 47,
199; "Force BiU" (1890), 48
Episcopal Church, 215
Farm Loan Act, 84
Farmers' Alliance, 30, 33
Farmers' Union of Louisiana,
34

INDEX

245

Fiction on the South, bibliog
raphy 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, 61-66; 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 indus
try, 104; bonds as part of
Peabody Fund, 167; migra
tion to, 194; debt, 227
Freedmen's Aid Societies,
schools for negroes opened
by, 178
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 conven
tion (1890), 37; Populist
party (1892), 42; cotton
mills, 88, 97; knitting in
dustry, 98; cottonseed oil
industry, 100; fertilizer in
dustry, 100; lynchings in,
156; school fund (1817), 158
(note); imports, 195; Catho
lics in, 214; repudiation of
debt, 229

Girls' canning clubs, 80
Gordon, J. B., IS, 87
Grady, H. W., uses expression
"New South," 7-8; editor
of Atlanta Constitution, 223
Grange movement, 29, 31-88
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., Recon
struction 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; manufac
ture of cottonseed products,
99-100; fertilizers, 100; lum
bering, 100, 123-24; iron,
101; wood, 101; steel, XOl-
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, 32; mines,

INDEX

Kentucky — Continued
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. P., 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; or
ganization 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 sys
tem, 60 et'seq., 219; different
plans of landholding, 65-
69; relation between land
lord and tenant, 70; white
tenancy, 73; tilled by owners,
74-75; cultivation, 81; food
crops, 81-82
Liquor trafiBc, 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; lynch

ings 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; fertili
zer industry, 100; manu
factures, 104; free from
lynchings, 154-55; school
fund (1813), 158 (note);
foreign born in, 193; sur
plus of wheat (1917), 199;
Catholics in, 214; churches,
214
Massachusetts leads in cotton
products, 98
Meharry Medical College, 179
Methodist Church, 214, 216-
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; lumber
ing, 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; toljacco
industry, 103; woman suf
frage, 202
Missouri Compromise and
sectionalism, 16
Morrison, W. R., 29
Mountaineers, 14-16

INDEX

247

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 CoSperative Union of
America, 34
Negroes, suffrage, 2, 18-19, 21,
46, 48, 49, 60-55, 202-03;
distribution of, 10; in moun
tain counties, 16; support
Federal ofiScials, 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, 67; use of
drugs, 69; as share tenants,
67; opportunity for, 71; in
furniture factories, 122; in
tobacco factories, 124-25; in
textile industry, 126-27; per
sonal characteristics, 126—
127, 135; occupations, 127,
133-37; unorganized, 127-
128; increase in numbers,
130-32; migration to North,
132-33, 166, 197; farm
owners, 134; illiteracy, 137-
139, 166;treatmentin North,
139-40; treatment in South,
140 ei ie?.; "old-time negro,"
142-43; "new negro," 142,
143-44; educated, 144-47;
and Great War, 149; mu
lattoes, 150; and lower
classes of whites, 150-51;
lynchings, 151-65; plans for
solution of problem, 155-
166; problem in South Africa,
166; 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 South
ern branches, 92; Southern
wages compared with, 110-
111
NewOrleans,Exposition(1884), 89; tobacco industry, 103
New York, election frauds, 20
Newspapers, 223-24
North, negroes in, 139; migra
tion of negroes to, 132-33,
156, 197; treatment of ne
groes in, 139-40
North Carolina, Friends in,
16; negroes sent to Congress
from, 20; gives up local
self-government, 21; Popu
list party, 42; revolt from
Democratic party, 43; elec
tion (1896), 44; election
(1900), 45; fusion govern
ment, 45; suffrage, 52-64;
Republican opposition in, 56-
57; textile products (1810),
86; first cotton mill (1810),
88; Marshall Field &nd
Company owns mills in, 95;
cotton mills, 97; knitting in
dustry, 98; lumbering, 100;
furniture manufacture, 101;
minerals, 102; tobacco pro
duction, 103; Republican
party, 122; free from lynch
ings, 155; school fund, 158-
159; public schools, 163, 184-
185; school term, 173; negro
education, 179-81; school
expenditures, 179-81; for
eign born in, 193-94; chair
manship 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 conven
tion, 34

248

INDEX

Oklahoma, as Southern State,
6-6; disfranchising amend
ment, 66-56; 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 discon
tinued, 60; in the Old South,
87
Politics, consolidation of South,
10-12; Confederate soldiers
in, 13; see also names of
parties
Pope, General John, predic
tion 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 owner
ship, 34
Ransom, M. T., 13, 43

Readjusters, political party in
Virginia, 231-82
Reconstruction, 2-4; end of,
9; Union element makes
possible, 17; debt, 22-23;
and schools, 167, 159-61;
bibliography, 236
Red Cross, 149, 211
Religion, 213 et seq.
Republican party, and end of
Reconstruction, 9; called
Radical party, 1 1 ; and moun
taineers, 16; Quakers and,
16; Union element in South,
16-17; organization dis
continued, 21; failures, 26;
success (1893-96), 43
Richmond (Va.), tobacco
industry, 103, 104
Riddleberger, H. H., 231-32
Roads, 107
Rockefeller Foundation, re
searches, 73-74
Roosevelt, Theodore, Missis
sippi vote (1912), 60
Rosenwald, Julius, and negro
education, 183
St. Louis, session of National
Alliance at (1889), 34; to
bacco industry, 103
Scalawags, Confederate sol
diers 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," 208

INDEX

249

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, 6-6; _ beginning of
New, 10; political consolida
tion, 10-12; character of
people, 11; Republicanism
in, 13 et seq.; mountaineers,
14-16; election frauds, 19-
20; debt, 22-24; and agra
rian revolt, 26; participation
in national affairs, 28;
Grange in, 31-33; social
conditions, 82-83, 119-21,
203 et «e9.; Socialist vote in,
128; growing sense of re
sponsibility for negro, 148;
education, 157 et seq.; of to
day, 191 et seq.; population,
193-94; present political con
dition, 199-203; jails and
almshouses, 204-05; orphan
ages, 205-06; juvenile de
linquents, 206; democracy,
206-07; hospitality, 207;
amusements, 208, 217; power
of public opinion, 212-13;
churches, 213-17; crimes,
220-21; leaders. 223; news
papers, 223-24; books and
libraries, 224-26; contrasts in,
226; bibliography, 235-42
South Carolina, inhabitants, 6;
negro majority, 10; "eight
box law," 19; negroes sent
to Congress from, 20; politi
cal revolt, 39; representa
tion in Senate, 41; suffrage
amendments, 60-51; 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, 208; Bailey vs. Ala
bama, 123-24; South Da
kota vs. North Carolina, 228;
cases against Louisiana, 230;
and Virginia debt, 231, 232;
debt of West Virginia, 232
Taft, W. H., Mississippi vote
(1912), 60; 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), 167
(note); woman suffrage, 202;
Catholics in, 214; Disciples
in, 216 (note)
Texas, Farmers' Alliance, 33,
34; Populist party (1892),
42; boll weevil, 76; encour
agement 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 re
pudiate debt, 227
Tillman, Benjamin R., 39-41
Tobacco, a favorite crop, 63;
industry, 102-04; labor con
ditions in factories, 124-26
Tompkins, D. A., on cotton
production, 108

250

INDEX

Toombs, Robert, and New
South, 192
Tourgee, A. W., 2; Appeal to
CcBsar, 131
Tuskegee Institute, 174, 177,
178; statistics on lynching,
154 (note)
Vance, Z., B., of North Caro
lina, 13, 43; and teaching of
pedagogy, 174-75
Vanderbilt University, 188
Vardaman, James K.,of Missis
sippi, 160
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; Catho
lics in, 214; repudiation of
debt, 231-32
Wages, in cotton mills, 109,
110, 113; in tobacco fac
tories, 126
Washington, Booker T., cited,
143; "intellectuals" ene
mies 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, 154-65;
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. fi., superintendent
of education in North Caro
lina, 159
Wilmington (N. C), uprising
of whites in, 46
Wilson, Woodrow, North Caro
lina vote (1916), 67
Winston-Salem (N. C), to
bacco industry, 103
Winthrop, R. C, of Massa
chusetts, 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
Young, T. M., The American
Cotton Industry, quoted, 112

YALE UNIVERSITY

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