o expect
justice in Georgia?

When the negro is gone, his loss will be felt in every large
agricultural section and every industrial community of the
South. For the average white man can not do the heavier work
at the sawmills, naval stores plants and in many lines
of manufacture, that is now being done by the negro. As a
consequence, these plants and many large plantations must
stand idle or import a class of white labor that will be a
great deal worse than the black. Confronted with cheap
white labor, and white men of a race of which they have no
understanding--then will the South have its labor problems.

But at present, it seems, little can be done. Unless southern
white people who have their all invested in agriculture or
manufacturing take care of their own interest by seeing that
the negro gets justice when suspected and a fair trial when
accused, and assured that so long as he behaves he will be
guaranteed safety of life and property, it is perhaps as well
to let the negro go. It will mean an industrial revolution
for the South, but the present condition of affairs has become
intolerable.[178]

The negroes of the South used both the white and negro newspapers of
that section in carrying on the discussion of the migration movement.
The substance of what the negroes said through the press was that,
first of all, the negroes wanted to stay in the South and were going
north not only because there they could secure better wages than
were generally paid in the South, but also because they would, in the
North, get protection and have privileges not accorded in the South.
Concerning the negro wanting to stay in the South, it was pointed
out that in the South he did have economic opportunity and received
encouragement. "The truth is that the negroes who are leaving the
South in large numbers, and others who are thinking of going, do not
want to go. They prefer to remain here."[179]

It was pointed out that the passing of stringent labor laws would not
stop the exodus. The negro could not be kept in the South by force.

Various communities [said a negro] are passing stringent
laws with the view of making the business of agents either
impracticable or impossible. This will ultimately have the
very opposite effect of what was intended. I am a negro and
know the deeper thoughts and feelings of my own people. I know