CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 123 



percentage of illiteracy among southern whites. If the Negroes 

 in any prosperous county were replaced by white families, the 

 schools would doubtless be as good as in the North, because 

 there would be enough persons within reach of the school to 

 maintain a good school. Transportation of pupils may be sug- 

 gested, but the problem remains the same. If every other house 

 is occupied by a Negro, whatever the school system, there will 

 be only half as many white families in a given area. 



The same point applies to churches, granges, social gatherings, 

 cooperative effort, and all things that have to do with the progress 

 of civilization. The greatest obstacle to all such progress in 

 rural regions is distance. Dividing the population into two non- 

 intermarrying classes doubles the problem by doubling the distance. 



It is well known in the South that whenever a rural community 

 becomes all white, the land values double and treble. This is 

 primarily because there are then enough persons in a rural com- 

 munity to maintain good schools, churches, and other institutions 

 of civilization. The twofold and threefold increase in land values 

 is a measure of the increased desirability as a home. California 

 furnishes a similar example. When a few Japanese buy land in a 

 community, the land values drop. There are then not enough 

 Americans to maintain the American social institutions that must 

 be kept up if life in the country is to be worth living. Probably a 

 settlement of Americans in a farming community in Japan would 

 have an equally bad effect. The Japanese laws indicate that this 

 is the opinion of the Japanese government. 



A high development of the rural community requires a homo- 

 geneous population. In the city there may be enough people of 

 each race so that each may maintain its own institutions and its 

 own social relations ; but in the country there are too few, even 

 when all are one. The farm community must be enough of a unit 

 so that all will work together socially if the highest development 

 is to be secured. 



The primary reasons that lead families to leave the farms 

 and go to town usually are to get the benefit of better schools, 

 churches, and other social institutions and to have better medical 

 attention. Whenever a large part of the population is made up of 



