EVER since the Division of the Subsistence Homesteads was established by the present administration it has been understood by many Negroes to be a "back-to-the-farm" movement, and consequently, they have been rather wary about it. The Subsistence Homesteads program embraces no such movement. Its purpose is to create social experiment stations that will point the way in the decentralization of our over-populated urban centers and in the creation of a new way of life for low income workers, urban and rural.
A "back - to - the - farm" movement implies sending men back to the same remote country places that they have abandoned; making them eke out a meagre living as best they can on eroded or submarginal land. The present movement, in the first place, aims to establish homesteads, not farms. On his homestead, the homesteader will have a garden, not a farm; that is, he will pro-produce for his own needs and not for the market. It is not intended that the homesteaders should compete with any of the commercial farms. The present experiment will connote farming only in the sense that the homesteader will raise enough for his family's needs; in no sense will he become the primitive farmer relying entirely upon a farm for his livelihood. Since his pro-production will be for home consumption only, it is therefore necessary that he have some other definite source of cash income. The homestead community will be located either near the business or industrial district, or in localities into which industry has been decentralized, thereby making it possible for the homesteader to obtain economic security through the combination of part-time gardening with part-time industrial labor. There is no difficulty in combining the two, especially with the short hour codes that are now in effect, and the necessity for "spread-"spreading" work. Secondly, this experiment cannot be termed a "back-to-the-farm" movement because it would be impractical to require even those under the sternest economic pressure to move away from the city, abandoning the cultural and educational opportunities of the city and town life. Where homesteads are located on the outskirts of large cities, community and recreational centers either will be accessible or easily provided.
The question may arise now as to what is to be done with the present farmer or rural worker, whether or not he can remain on his farm and still combine it with part-time industrial labor. Since the farmers who are on relief are those on worn out and eroded land, the government intends to move them away from this useless land and place them where they can be self-supporting. The submarginal land that cannot be used for farming will be used, to some extent, for forests and pasture land. There is hope that some for the further decentralization of industry, which still is definitely being considered by many industrial captains.
Such social experiment stations as are provided by the Subsistence Homesteads Experiment are needed because they offer permanent relief, not present emergency relief. Past and present experiences have proven that a program of permanent relief is needed. Past experience has proven that it is difficult to make an adequate living on the farm, and hence, there was a movement to the city up until 1929 But it was found that the city was no more economically secure than the country; so from 1930 Up to the present, there has been a trend back to the country. However, this movement, for the most part, has been unguided and has done little to better conditions. Therefore, the Subsistence Homesteads Division is organized primarily to guide these people and to give them definite means by which to raise their economic status. In doing this it can be seen that the Division is not creating anything new but rather is trying to guide a movement that already has begun. Instead of letting these migrants wander about aimlessly, the Division intends to locate them near industrial centers where it will be possible for them to stay permanently.
The Negro, because of his weak economic position, needs these homesteads more than any other group; he needs them because his status, both industrially and agriculturally, is more precarious. Industrially, the Negro has suffered mostly because he is, as a rule, unskilled and unorganized. On account of this, he has been forced to work for the lowest of wages. Even when he has had the same type of work as the white man his salary generally has been lower. Furthermore, he has had to depend entirely upon his low salary for all his needs. It is no wonder that we find him living generally under unsanitary conditions in the tenements and slums of the cities.
Agriculturally, he has suffered generally because of the traditional discrimination that confronts him almost everywhere in the rural South and because of his weak marketing position. Recently he met with another hazard which resulted from the efforts of the AAA to tighten the cotton belt. Where crop reductions have been required in these sections in which Negroes have worked as sharecroppers, generally it has resulted in these workers being expelled from the soil. In other sections, moreover, farm labor is no longer looked upon as Negro work, because the depression has driven so many whites to perform this work.
The above are among the main reasons why the Negro of the low-income strata should participate in the homesteads experiment and thus try to find a clue to civilization through experimentation a different scale of values from those he following at the present. The Subsistence Homesteads demonstrations can point the way in changing his mode of living altogether. Instead of depending solely upon either his pay envelope or his share as a farm hand he will be able to obtain a higher standard of living. through the combination of both of these, and through the purchasing of his home at virtually cost with small monthly payments. Since it has been proven that he can raise at least 73 per cent of his food in his garden he will be able to use his leisure time creatively and his earnings from industry for other needs than food. He will be in no danger of being wholly supplanted by white labor because industry would break faith with the government whenever it curtailed the opportunity of the homesteader to pay his Federal loan. He thus in time will become full owner of his homestead, and these homesteads will be no shacks and hovels, no slums and tenements; instead, they will be modern dwellings, fully equipped and with enough land to carry on all the activities of a homestead.
This, furthermore, is a public experiment where segregation and discrimination are not contemplated. The question of the racial makeup of the units is treated from the point of view of problem-areas; that is, mixed units are established in the areas where mixed groups at present are living; and unmixed units in problem areas that at the present are made up exclusively of one race. It is also intended that the leadership and management of all the projects will be predominantly in the hands of the majority group in the particular unit, regardless of race, creed or color. This will provide an opportunity for Negro leadership in those units where Negroes are the exclusive homesteaders and where Negroes are in the majority.
The Negro should seize every fair opportunity to participate in this experiment so that he will not be left out of the new economic structure that now is emerging. His failure to do this will make him in the revised economic order what he has been in the old capitalistic order, an economic outcast and beggar.
With its limited appropriation it is impossible for the Division to relieve all the destitute; but enough demonstration projects either have been or will be set up to guide the way for further development along this line when sufficient money is provided to convert the present experiment into a real movement. The Negro should have sufficient representation in the experiment to make it possible for him to go into the movement as an economically experienced group rather than as a group of apprentices.
