Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1883-02-01

THE LABOR QUESTION.
ALEXANDRIA. Va, Jan. 81, 1855

THE LABOR QUESTION.
ALEXANDRIA. Va, Jan. 81. 1885.
10 the editor Of The .licrand,ia Gazette:
| have heard turner's speak Of late of the
difficulty and almost impossibility of pro-
curing reliable hired labor to cultivate their
crops. This uncertainty discourages agri-
culture. and, the land owner or renter.
turns away from the soil and seeks TO make
living in other occupations.
While on recent visit to the Northern
Neck of Virginia, was surprised to hear
farmers say that the oysters in the Rappa-
hammock river and the fish in the Chesapeake
bay, were 4 curse to the State They ex-
planned their remark. Fish for feltiiiz-
ing factories and oysters for canning estab-
lshnents must be supplied. The tish-mcn
and oystermen offer, for brief season,
much larger wages to laborers than farmers
can afford to promise, and, as consequence,
the colored people and laboring white men,
desert the farmers and take to the water.
Even when bargains are made for yearly
labor on the farm. the inducements are such
as TO cause the farm hands, in many cases.
to break their contracts and leave the farm
er with unpitched or ripe and ungathered
crops. The same difficulty preyiled in the
counties adjacent to Suffolk when was a
resident of that town. But the men in those
counties who own farms and raise corn,
wheat. cotton and peanuts, are making
themselves independent of the coorcd
man and his caprices by importing from
the North reliable and skilled German la
borers. The following from recent issue
ofthe Suffolk Herald, under the caption of
Of "The Labor Question" may be of inter-
esl TO many Of your country readers. Mr.
J. RI. Wright is very prominent lawyer of
the Suffolk bar. Let me add that he has
just returned from New York with the Sec
ond instalment of laborers. Both employ
ers and employees are mutually pleased.
0. F. +.
Editor Herald As the fact OF nv going
North i'll search of furm labor has been noted
in the Herald and favorable comment made
thereon, it may be matter ofsome interest
to know the result and probability of secur-
ing permanent supply Of laborcls for the
future vi course the undertaking was ex-
detrimental, but the success was beyond my
expectations. In less than six hours after
landing in New York city had secured ten
people, including two men with their wives
The next day secured four others, and i'm
mediately started the entire party for Suf.
folk in charge Of Charles I.enhart, while
remained to make arrangements for further
supplies as they might be needed.
The centres of population in the old
world are finding relief by pouring into
America thousands oftheir surplus annually,
| The peculiar circumstances surrounding
the Southern people heretofore have pre-
vented any Of these people from finding their
way into the rural districts of the South.
Necessity is now driving the Southern farm
Ell to seek q different system Of labor from
that to which he has been accustomed. Ex-
perience has taught rs that neither slavery
nor the negro is essential to the cultivation
OF the Southern fields. Five millions of
bales was the largest cotton crop slave la
Dor ever produced in the South. while the
crop Of 1882, the product Of free labor is rs
tlinated by some at seven millions of bales.
Facts are stubborn things, to which theo-
ry must yield when the two disagree. The
DRY argued the necessity Of negro labor for
the South; fact demonstrates the superiority
of white labor-a labor generally directed
by discriminating intelligence. The only
unsolved problem in connection with the
white labor is how and where it is to be OBJ
tanned. The North and West have geDer
ally Offered q demand equal to the supply.
but the climate OF those sections is inhospit-
able, and many of the foreigners coming to
our shores prefer warmer climate found
no difficulty i'll persuading these people to
come to Virginia. In fact, could have
brought one hundred as easily as did the
| fourteen. But it is necessary to use dscre-
tlon III making selections BY the aid OF
Charles Lenhart and some other Germans
IN New York, who seemed interested in con-
trlbutlng TO the success Of my trip, had no
difficulty in making selections Many who
applied and who seemed really anxious lo
| come to Virginia had 10 decline.
The wages paid are very moderate. The
highest price for any man | brought
was Sl2 per month. Good farm hands can
be secured Mt from SIS for boys fifteen to
eighteen years old, up to $l2 for good, stout
men. Or course they expect house rent, TT.
ell and board i'll addition, and in return they
promise faithful and intelligent service. We
must determine in advance. however, to ey.
tend to these people kind treatment, PROMPT
P'S nChI anu ColAIOTtdDle quarters. They
require somewhat different food from our
negro laborers. They want rye or brown
bread mot rye whiskey) and less of salt pork.
The Germans are natural farmers, and will
make our low lands, thin aud poor as many
OF them are, blossom with plentiful harvests,
If We will give them the opportunity. They
are Il prudent. provident and orderly people
and make valuable citizens In introducing
new people it is not we'll to mix different
nationalities, as there are likely to arise
some jealousies, and we should seek to avoid
this. The Germans are most highly es
teemed, and they, chiefly, have built up the
great West
Laborers in other departments can be Oh
tanned without difficulty but as was look.
ing for farm labor chiefly, brought no 9TH
er Where they can be accommodated it is |
best to take them in families, or at least
man and wife, with some sin gle men or bows
II needed. Single women are harder to Sc
cure: but if we can secure the men and |
boys and make them comfortable and con.
tented, the women will soon follow after:
for the world over the women follow the
men.
But an0UOh fnr TN. 4 a.,