The herald and news. (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, June 15, 1915, Page TWO, Image 2
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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to offer
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x months.
Subscribe N
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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