oats and cotton was
$431,320,000 per annum. The entire cotton acreage of the South would
form an area of 40,000 square miles. Negro labor cultivates 32,000
square miles of this space.

Fifty-seven per cent of the Negro race are engaged in agricultural
pursuits, and 31 per cent are engaged in personal service. Therefore,
88 per cent of the wage-earners of the race in the South are engaged
in these two pursuits, or, in other words, 88 per cent of the
wage-earners of the race have opportunity for profitable employment.

Where the masses of the Negroes are found and can get paying work, as
they can in the South, there we must expect the greatest prosperity
among Negroes. Our expectation is highly gratified in this case in the
South. No doubt if the ninety-two per cent Negro population were to
exchange places with the eight per cent, the opportunities now held
out in the South would be transferred to the North. Our opportunities
over those enjoyed by our Northern brethren are the creatures of
accidents rather than of our meritorious invention.

The opportunities to win character and wealth afforded the Negroes of
the South by agriculture and domestic service are probably better than
are enjoyed by any other class of people in the world. The field is
broad and ripe and the Negro must now see and seize these
opportunities or they will pass from the race forever. No peasant
population ever had more favorable environments. The Negro does not
only do four-fifths of the agricultural labor of the South, but he has
the opportunity to own four-fifths of the land he cultivates. This
opportunity is not enjoyed by any other peasant class in the world. As
I see it, the greatest success for the Negro race in America lies in
the farm. There he meets the least resistance and obtains the greatest
sustenance. There color prejudice is almost unknown, while everywhere
in the mechanic arts, prejudice is bitter, competition is sharp, and
the chances for success are small. This is a matter which the Negro
must seriously consider now, or weep over his procrastination. The
drift to the cities to exchange the free, honest, healthful, plenteous
conditions of farm life for the miserable slums, sin, and squalor of
city life must be checked. Our boys and girls must be educated for the
farm.

It would be hard to find a people better suited for domestic and
personal service than the Negro. In all the elements which are
necessary for personal and dome