124 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



an alien race, the reasons for such a movement are many times 

 increased. The menace to health of a less educated race is also a 

 powerful factor in preventing progress in a mixed community. 1 



The price of products in the United States is based on Ameri- 

 can wages and the American standard of living. If one farmer 

 can get cheap labor so that he can sell on the American wage 

 market but produce on a low wage cost, he may do well for a 

 time ; but when others also get the cheap labor, he is worse off 

 than before. 



The men who do the manual labor inherit the land. This has 

 been true even of the Negro. Much of the richest land of the 

 South is in the hands of the Negroes. They do not yet own 

 much of the land ; but what difference does it make, whether they 

 own or rent, if they are the persons who make up the rural com- 

 munity ? Omitting Oklahoma, there are 222 counties in the South 

 where the number of black farmers exceeds the number of white 

 farmers. In 15 of these counties less than 1 in 10 of the 

 farmers are white. In 53 of the counties there are more Negroes 

 than whites who own their farms. In all these 222 counties the 

 hired labor is nearly all black. As a result of these conditions the 

 white population is very scattered. The better the land, the more 

 likely are the white persons to move to town. If the land is good 

 enough, it can be farmed by Negro tenants and the owner thus 

 allowed to live in a town or a village. It takes good land to stand 

 this treatment. The poorest land has required the intelligence of 

 a white operator in order to make it yield a living. The black 

 prairie soils of Alabama and Mississippi are striking examples. 

 These are very fertile limestone soils. They readily grow alfalfa, 

 corn, oats, wheat, cotton, and many other crops. In all this region 

 there is a tendency for the white population to move to the towns 

 and villages, where schools are available. The white and the 

 black population of Montgomery, Alabama, are almost equal, but 

 in Montgomery County outside the city there are nearly 6 blacks 

 to 1 white. A large proportion of these few white persons live 

 in small villages, so that the proportion on farms is still less. In 



1 Dr. Charles T. Nesbitt, " The Health Menace of Alien Races," World's Work, 

 November, 1913, p. 74. 



