Article "The War and Southern Problems"

Article "The War and Southern Problems"

In this article, Dr. W.D. Weatherford addresses issues brought about by World War I, particularly focused on "the supply of labor." Munitions factories are employing many men and women, and Weatherford notes that "places of manual labor vacated by these white workers have been filled by colored people," and that half a million black people have gone to the north in the last 18 months to two years to fill these vacancies. This has led to agriculture and farming labor resources to be short, leaving "thousands of acres of land in the South...lying idle," leading to millions of dollars in losses. Weatherford notes that Dr. Branson from the University of North Carolina stated that a quarter of a billion dollars has been lost because of the "Negro Migration" in 1917, often referred to as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)" target="_blank">Great Migration</a> in modern terms. This lack of labor has also lead to higher wages. Weatherford also includes an expert from a letter from a black man from Georgia to a Governor Brown, and in this letter the writer notes racism and violence in the South including mob violence and lynching, injustice in the courts, segregation on railroads, etc. Weatherford ends by calling on college men to learn about these issues to "help your nation in an hour of need."

Weatherford, W.D. "The War and Southern Problems." The Richmond Collegian IV, no. 14, (February 1, 1918): 2. http://collegian.richmond.edu/cgi-bin/richmond?a=d&d=COL19180201.2.12&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

The Collegian, University of Richmond

1918-02-01

English

RichmondCollegianIV.14.2-19180201.jpg

Richmond (Va.)