t as the Negro population increases, in this section, the
appropriation for Negro schools decreases. In many places the schools
have been abolished altogether.

From almost every nook and corner of the South there comes a cry that
the Negro as a laborer is unsatisfactory. It is said that he is
inefficient, unreliable, indolent, lazy, in short, that he is unfit to
do the work the South wants done. Less than two decades ago it was just
the opposite. Then, it was said that the Negro was unfit for everything
else except work. How inconsistent! We admit that there is a labor
problem in the South, but we deny that it is due wholly to the
inefficiency of the Negro as a laborer. In the first place, the natural
increase of the population of the South has not kept pace with the
marvelous growth and development of her industries. This in itself would
explain a scarcity of labor. Furthermore, it should be remembered that
the most industrious, the most frugal, and the most thrifty Negroes of
the South are rapidly changing from the wage hands, to contract hands,
and the day laborers, to the renters of their own farms, while thousands
of Negroes in different parts of the South are establishing independent
business enterprises for themselves. The South cannot hire that class of
Negroes from their work. This, again has a tendency to make labor
scarce. Added to this is the fact that thousands of Negroes are moving
into the cities. Some are going into other states seeking on the one
hand better educational opportunities for their children, and on the
other hand, protection from mobs and lynchers. This again has a
depressing effect upon labor.

While these underlying causes seem sufficient to account for the present
labor troubles of the South, we must admit that there are entirely too
many Negroes, particularly among those who work as wage-hands,
contract-hands, and day laborers, who are ignorant and superstitious,
too many who are gamblers and drunkards. Naturally, their work is not
satisfactory. But they are not wholly to blame since they have had
neither adequate educational opportunities, nor the proper home
training. If they lack character, it is largely because they lack
training. This is, as I understand it, what the President means when he
says that "ignorance is the most costly crop that any community can
produce."

Graduates from Tuskegee, a few years ago, received from our illustrious
Principal the injunction, "Go ye into al