OCR Text |
Show what part of this migration has been white, there is little doubt that white people made up a substantial sub-stantial part of the flow. The mechanical cotton picker will cause changes in the South as profound as those that followed follow-ed the invention of the cotton gin. It is the responsibility of southern south-ern leaders to make sure that the development will work to the improvement im-provement and prosperity of their section. This is a job that will require re-quire intelligent work. MILLIONS TO LEAVE THE SOUTH FOR WAR JOBS ' "'.T An estimated 1,500,000 persons have moved out of the South to secure jobs in war industry and Nat Caldwell, of the Nashville Tennessean, predicts that as many as 2,500,000 persons will leave the South in the first six years after the war. The journalist believes that cotton cot-ton growers will have to adopt the mechanical cotton picker if the great staple is to regain its markets mar-kets and retain something like priority in Southern agriculture. He quotes growers who believe it will reduce cotton picking to sev- en dollars a bale and this will make cotton growing profitable at 12 cents per pound. y The correctness of the writer's conclusions may be challenged but the evidence supports them. Such a migration will have profound pro-found effect upon the nation's social so-cial structure. It will mean the distribution of about two million Negroes into other states where there will arise new problems in adjustments. The Southern states have lost proportion of each generation ever since the War Between the States, through the efforts of individuals to find economic opportunity. While we have no figures as to |