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Co ? II Six At i Thi f ADDRESS BEFORE SOCIETIES 1 BY HON. A. F. LE Some time ago, President Harms requested me to discuss on this oc casion some of the conditions and needs of rural life in South Carolina. The relationship which rural life bears to ti e social, political, and economic future of the State does not occupy in the minds of the leaders of thought tnat positionfi its supreme importance would justify. Too few thinkers have given thought to the conditions, hopes, ambitions, and needs of that class of people upon whose prosperity, happiness, contentedness, and conservatism of character and ti- inking, depend so largely the weal or woe of the State. The State Agricultural. Tne State is, and will continue to t>e, agricultural. Eighty-five per cent, of its people find employment direct- j !y in tilling the soil and all classes ! of people, business and professional, mill operative and mechanic, must have an affirmatir e interest in and a positive dependence 'upon the well being of the agricultural class of the State. "Whatever shall fashion the ideals, fix tf:e vision, determine the dreams, and inspire the ambitions of those who toil in the field, inevitably must shape the destiny of the State. It is the rural man and rural woman who ehall conserve for us the best of the inheritance from the past, make for us the best for the present, and project for us tfre best for the future. To him who is given even an elementary understanding of the relative weight of the influences which determine the kind and character of posterity, it is evident, that the conscience of this State, its prosperity, its happiness, and its hope for fche * perpetuation of representative Democracy are to be found in the con-1 science, prosperity, Happiness, and I representative Democratic spirit 'of its rural population. The conditions and needs, therefore of the man and woman of the farm, the boy and girl of the country, constitute the most far reaching and vital problem with j mmencinff 30 Day ka i-foi 1?U M. 1V/J Months to Old; \ l-L~? Li I id ua. i get en for a j s Bargain V HDHBHnHHHHHBi LITERARY BERRY COLLEGE 'VER, CLASS '95. which students, economists, and statesmen are called upon to deal. Neither v your patience nor my strength would endure sufficiently to permit a discussion in detail of the various ramifications which tf':e mere naming of the subject would suggest, ' but to call to your attention a few ! pertinent facts relating to the condi| tions of agriculture in the State, to ! certain very striking tendencies In relation thereto, and to point out a | few of the more insistent needs of j ! the farm man and woman may be | time and effort well spent. Some Facts. That all is not well in the country | is proven by the very noticeable un-' rest among country people, the very positive dissatisfaction with country life. The deserted farm ihome stands out as a tragic and constant warning of the dangerous skoals ahead, and as a reminder that the conditions which make for honor, power, and profit are not as they should be In the rural districts. The tendency of population in this State is emphatically from country to twn. Towns and cities are building up too rapidly at tfce expense of tfie best brains and highest ideals of tfce country. Rural life is affirmatively losing and it is not so certain that the gain to the city keeps the balance even. 5egT0 rs. iTThite Land Ownership Alarming a# this tendency must be to thoughtful men, when it is known that it is confined most largely to the wihito rar.A thp inevitable, resulting ef feet if allowejl to go unchecked, must be appalling to the patriotic and discerning mind. White land ownership Is not keeping pace with negro land ownership in the State.- It is the deserted white home, not the negro cabin, that breaks so constantly and with such appealing force upon the sight. Tfae wftite family mores out and the negro famiiy moves in to become either the dead ening competitor of me neighboring tenant white farmer or the owner of the home, and when once planted in ownership he is as immovable as are 1 J 1 oday, Jur s Only, we raid a and New Subscri in price no >eriod of m rv^vi v A m Last 3U tJ" e rocks of Gibralter. It cannot be too strongly impressed?t^e census figures show it, every day observation emphasizes it, that the agricultural future of this State is positively pasing into the hands of an inferior race. Thoughtful men and women can no longer refuse to take note of such a | fact fraught with so much danger to I j the future. White Tenant Farmers. Every wihite man who moves from the country into town, leaving his I .1 a m J * ? /v ^ n a n laiiu ill tue nctrpiug \jl iuc 11^51^ 1,^11ant or owner, unconsciously, but certainly adds to the already heavy burden of the white tenant class which constitutes approximately 44 per cent of the wl:ite farm population of the State. TTae fierce competition of the negro tenant with the white tenant farmer accounts largely for the pitiable social, political, and economic condition of the latter class, and presents at the same time a problem, the solution of which will tax to the utmost the wisest statesmanship. No statement witfn respect to the ' white tenant class can be suggestive | even which does not take Into consideration the wives and daughters of tnese people, as pure of blood and as rich of family tradition as you or I. There are 35,000 white male tenant , farmers of voting age In this State, living mostly in three or four room houses. Into most of these homes not even the most antiquated type of tf:e coolc stove has made its appearance, and thousands of white farm women, the mothers of our cnikLren, the trustees of civilization, are burning their i brains out before the open fire place. No one can depict adequately the awful tragedy of the lives of most of these women. Her work begins long before the sun shows itself In tfae east and continues long after the beasts of the field and Uhe fowls 01 the air have gone to their rest. She knows nothing of the principles of sanitation and rnilv in th#* most elem_ entary way anything of the care of healtfb, or the correct preparation or relative values of food. Her social life is as barren as are her conveniences and comforts few. She is truly '^household slave and drudge." Her life is one long narrow corridor of gloom into which the sun light seldom enters, and yet, into her keeping is so largely entrusted the future of the State. What a prohic-m?insistent, glaring, appalling, and appeal ! iag?the problem of eleviating- the I BBHBHBBBSSgEBBSBBHHa le 15, and ( O rk va rrAinrr aiu guiiig nd Ne ibers for subscriptic lore than si Days Only! condition of ti'e white tenant farmer, his boy, his girl, and his wife! Here, is Che supreme duty of the State, the severest test of its statesmanship and its conscience, Landless White Farmers. According to the census of 1910, 44 j per cent of the white farmers of the State cultivate land they do not own. There are millions of uncultivated ! acres in this State, awaiting tJ':e touch of brains and energy, to yield their abundance of rich harvest, to become the dwelling places of a py, prosperous and contented p*oj;?e. The :uedalistic spirit, heretofore, fas be \i -i. i _ V iUv-a S HICIKXlUy IU w IL1C UJf UU-S5 hinds and to hold back anxious fetrers, to the manor born. Large iard ownership more t'lan any other one thing has retarded the agricultural pi ogress and development of South Carolina. Some wmitt be found i I by which the white tenant farmer of the Sta'.e may have *ha opportunity o! ownership of the~e ;a?i3s if he meri/s them. It is at let- certain that t'p- best of whid': landless people are capable can ne/er be erpocted of them so long as they are without I ai^ect a.ia positive dominion of the | surroundings in which they move and j live and have their heing In which j come their hopes and ideals. T_e I highest form of patriotism arises out ! of tihe most certain kind of ownership, j No man is bo basely cowardly as to j refuse to fight in defense of his home, but it takes a kind of superior and uncanny patriotism which causes a man to shoulder his musket in defense of an ordinary boarding huse. Is tfaereany tope for the tenant white farmer, and help for him, or shall ihe drudge on and on, transmitting his drudgery from generation to generation with its natural discontent and gullibility? TThlte Land Owning Farmers. There are 45,000 land owning white male farmers of Toting age in the State, and while their condition is incomparably better in every respect than that of the tenant class, yet, paradoxical, as it may seem, tJ'ae unrest and discontent, tlhe movement from country to town, will be found to be greatest ami most pronounced in those communities in which is found the largest degree of prosperity, j Recent agricultural surreys in the, State of Illinois demonstrate this fact very conclusively. ' Problem of Rural Life, Bigger Than That of More Money. It is evident, therefore, that the J i / A wm Continuing to offer ws 5fl >n will be t x months. Subscribe N 1 3 ? Southern Premier Carri Announces Low! to Charle / The Southern Railw excursion tickets from a to Charleston, S. CM on return limit June 10, a Benevolent Protective 0 The following fares named: Columbia $4.10; Winnsb Hill $600; Fort Mill $6.25 Spartanburg $6.90; Gieenville $7.50; Greenwood $6.55; Ne\ Johnston $4-70; Aiken $3.85: $2.65; Branchville $2.25; St. & Sumter $3.45; Camden $4.15 ately reduced fares from other These fares are op< and will afford an unusi few days at the seashore For further inform; agents or write to? S. H. McLEA] solution of the rural problem must be predicated upon a broader basis than that of merely increasing the earning capacity of the country people, and yet, fundamental to a bet ter rural life and a sine qua non to it, is the proposition of increasing the earning capacity or credit facilities of the country toilers. Land owners, home building, education, more and better social advantages will not come as a result of the fervid preachments of professional uplifters and magazine revolutionists. The back to the country doctrine of such people will never become a vital :ak- 9 uw: i| Railway! ?_ c mm er oi.uie juuui Round Trip Fares SI ston, S. C. JBj ray will sell low round trip 1H 11 points in South Carolina IH June 6, 7 and 8, with final an ecount State Association 4 rder of Elks. > will apply from pointS-Jj oro $5.25; Chester $6.00; Rock fl , Yorkville $6.50; Union $6.05, J $7.45; Anderson $7.75; Gaffney vberry $5.40; Batesburg $4.85; m ; Blackville $2.95, Orangeburg Iatthews $3.05; Lancaster $5.35; "J ;; Kershaw $4.80. Proportionpoints. -JH sn to the public generally M lal opportunity to spend a m s at small cost. ition apply to, local ticket N, Dist. Pass. Agt., Columbia, S. C. ? force until it separates itself n theoretical dreaming and attaches? self to practical reality. All of tfl sermons, and books and magafl articles, never built a house or bo? . an acre of land, or constructed a r<9 or a school house, or a country chujB nor sent a country boy or girl tjg J educational institution. Their rM lias been largely wasted becausep^B have overlooked the very pros&i|jjfl ivghly important fact tJbat it taj money to do these things. *'j>i A Larger Earning Capacity, m To approximate t&e ideal ramI ^ dition, to approach most nearly cm