ich is an
effective way to combat it. If a million negroes come here
we will have more negro businesses, better churches, more
professional men and real political power, and the negro in
the North will begin to get a social position not based on
mere charity.

What were the causes of migration? A very large part of the discussion
of the movement was taken up with setting forth the causes. The
Montgomery _Advertiser_ was of the opinion that the chief causes of
the negro's leaving central Alabama were floods and the cotton boll
weevil:

The negro from middle Alabama is going north because of
economic conditions which he can not help and which he can
not overcome. He is not being forced out by pressure from
the white race. The relations between the two races in this
section were never better; the negro is not subjected to
oppression or to any outbreaks of violence, which have induced
the negro to leave certain sections of the South.

The negro is going because he is the most unfortunate of the
victims of the combined disaster this year of the flood and
the boll weevil. There have been actual want and hunger among
some of the negroes on the plantations. The heads of negro
families have been without present resources and without
future prospects. The wise planter and farmer has said to his
negro employes and tenants:

"You have not made anything this year. I have not made
anything this year. But we will do our best and I will see
what resources I can get together to keep you until next year,
when we can all make a fresh start."

Another class of farmers, and we suspect that their number
is too large, has said, "You never made anything this year.
I never made anything this year. I can not afford to feed you
and your family until the beginning of the next crop year. You
must go out and shift for yourselves."

This cold blooded business view of the situation, we suspect,
has been the best assistance that the labor agent has
received. It is not difficult to know what a negro farm hand
will do when he and his family are facing hunger, when a
labor agent offers him a railroad ticket and a promise of two
dollars and a half a day in the industrial works of the North
and East.[176]

Lynching was one of the reasons most often given as a cause of the
migration.

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