Will he till
in the future the best lands or will he be forced to the less fertile?
With the knowledge of the present regarding yellow fever, malaria and
typhoid the dread of the lowlands is disappearing. If the indications
point, as many believe, towards the South as the seat of the next great
agricultural development these questions become of vital importance to
the Negro. Can he become economically secure before he is made to meet a
competition which he has never yet faced? Or does the warmer climate
give him an advantage, which the whites can not overcome? I must confess
that I doubt it. In "The Cotton Plant" (page 242), Mr. Harry Hammond
states that in 39 counties of the Black Prairie Region of Texas, in
which the whites predominate, the average value of the land is $12.19
per acre, as against $6.40 for similar soil in twelve counties of the
Black Prairie of Alabama, in which the Negroes are in the majority. He
says further: "The number and variety of implements recently introduced
in cotton culture here, especially in the prairies of Texas, is very
much greater than elsewhere in the cotton belt." This would indicate
that heat alone is no insurmountable obstacle.

If these things be true, then as the late Mr. J. L. M. Curry said:

"It may be assumed that the industrial problem lies at the heart of
the whole situation which confronts us. Into our public and other
schools should be incorporated industrial training. If to
regularity, punctuality, silence, obedience to authority, there be
systematically added instruction in mechanical arts, the results
would be astounding."

The question of classical education does not now concern us. The
absolutely essential thing is that the Negro shall learn to work
regularly and intelligently. The lesson begun in slavery must be
mastered. As Dr. E. G. Murphy puts it:

The industrial training supplied by that school (slavery) is now
denied to him. The capacity, the equipment, and the necessity for
work which slavery provided are the direct cause of the superiority
of the old time darkey. Is freedom to have no substitute for the
ancient school? * * * The demand of the situation is not less
education, but more education of the right sort.

I would not say that I thought all Negroes should be farmers, but I do
feel that the farm offers the mass of the race the most favorable
opportunity for the development of solid an