urts. There is no justice unless the
negro has a case against another negro. When he has a case
against a white man, you can tell what the decision will be
just as soon as you know the nature of the case, unless some
strong white man will come to the negro's rescue. This, too,
is generally known and the negro does not expect justice.

As yet, there has been no concerted action on the part of the
white people to stop mob violence. I know a few plantations,
however, where the owners will not allow their negroes to be
arrested without the officer first consulting them, and these
negroes idolize these white men as gods, and so far not one of
these negroes has gone north. I repeat there are outcroppings
of these oppressions everywhere in this country, but they show
themselves most where the negroes are in the largest numbers.
But all of this the negro is perfectly willing to endure, and
they all may be classed as the secondary cause of this great
exodus.

The primary cause is economic. The storms and floods of last
July and August destroyed practically all crops in a large
part of the South, and especially in the Black Belt section.
These people are hungry, they are naked, they have no corn and
had no cotton, so they are without food and clothes. What else
can they do but go away in search of work? There are a great
many wealthy white men here and there throughout the Black
Belt section. They have large plantations which need the
ditches cleared and new ones made to properly drain their
farms. They could have given work to these destitute people;
but what have they done? Nothing. They say that it is a pity
for the negro to go away in such large numbers, and so it is,
but that will not stop them. They have it in their power to
stop them by making the negro's economic condition better
here.

Thus far the average white man of the South has been
interested in the negro from a selfish point of view; he must
now become interested in him from a humanitarian point of
view. He must be interested in his educational, moral and
religious welfare. We know that we have many ignorant, vicious
and criminal negroes which are a disgrace to any people, but
they are ignorant because they have not had a chance. Why, I
know one county in this State today with 10,000 negro
children of