THESEGREGATIONERA
rated by paternalist farmers; at worst, they were victims of systematic
exploitation.
Before World War II, white farmers were just beginning to mechanize
their operations. In 1937,
they still owned more animal-drawn wagons
than automobiles, trucks, and tractors combined.v" Even so, the volume
and value of their produce doubled between the wars. Not only did the
government make it possible for them to use coerced black labor; it also
provided them with massive financial assistance. Between 191
I and 1936,
the government spent £ I 12 million on agriculture, in the form of direct
assistance and subsidies, tariff protection, research, administration,
and
the dissemination of information. In addition, the state railways charged
exceptionally low rates on farm produce. Nearly all of this assistance went
to white farmers; scarcely any went to Africans in the reserves.V
More and more South Africans, meanwhile, were moving to the cities,
especially Johannesburg,
Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, and Port Eliz-
abeth. Most were Whites who were squeezed out by the increasing com-
mercialization of agriculture and Africans who could not survive in the
reserves. By 1936,
according to the official census of that year, the urban