New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-19
THE SOUTHERN PROBLEM
MATTERS BEYOND THE REACH OF CON-
GRESS
RELATIONS OF LABOR AND OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
FACTORY HANDs-rENANT FARMERs-HlSA
SKILL AND HIGH WAGES UNPOPULAR
INDUSTRIAL RECONSTRUCTION
NECEssARY-wHY COMMON
SCHOOLS DO NOT FLOUR
rnr TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.

bOllOOAo ~ NOI flsCOAF
ISH.
TBr TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE
washington, JAN 1s.--In a recent conversation on
the So called Southern question. Tribune correspond
ent heard some interesting statements from N pu-
mont Northern who has spent dozen years
in one of the Southern States as business man. Ills
lot was cast IN an arstocratic community In which,
however manufacturing industries have begun 10 90
tain foothold 1t is community, too, In which the
question is live one, and whore loyalty 10 the
southS is an obtrusive feature Of business as wen az
social and political life. In reply to question as
TO how labor in the South be utilized and In
dustries diversified In face OF tho free-rade iueas
which dominate. be said
"There arc great difficulties TO be overcome. The
men who have been accustomed to rule yet living
largely in the past and reading the old DOCKS
They think they know what free raw material Is ana
think that they want raw material Free so mat oy
alurng Northern or Western capital they can make
something cheap, and when made they want u pro-
tected by stu tariff which they imagine would cut
of Northern as we'll as foreign competition and give
them big prices. They claim that they have plenty OF
labor, they call 1t the best and most docile common
labor In the world its doclty being the quality which
best recommends to themselves They ignore the fact
though that the capital they hunger much to have
como 10 them must come Wlth' or
DO preceded by, that character and quality
Of practical intelligence which determines
whether not 1t win pay to spend money In such
development as the South insists upon. They have
not yet grasped the proposition that II they had
labor" such sections other than the South require
and VIII have in their development, that there Is
link which connects capital and labor into alliances,
and 1t is tho laboring element in its largest sense
that brings about this alliances
LABOR REQUIRED TO BE "DocuE."
han fbaf stands
in a different relation in the South from that whSh
no occupies in the Northl"
Exactly So No Northern or Western State
makes IL condition that labor or immigrants must
DO doclle.' Those States want labor and population
and by their system Of laws and usage get such
through labor and enterprise become and are SELF
sustaining and upbuIldng. 1t IS not sought to keep
labor docilo in serve condition; the effort IS to
encourage and educate the people TO seek independent
thought and action, pursuits diversity, better
pay in some form for service. and in their social
scope tentatively require that the lsborer as he
grows shall indicate his progress socially by outward
signs Of prosperity and the higher education OF his
family. The South has not such a labor element;
it does not encourage Il and has not
done So It's leaders In politics. business and Affairs
bawl at other sections OF the country TO move thorc
with capital, and ostentstously say that they have
labor enough, that they do not desire more or differ
ent than they have now and when labor does migrate
10 them the conditions OF life imposed so severe
that It speedily leaves them; for example farm labor
ers get IS TO $40 per month, and rations. The "a
lions SIX pounds Of pork, one peck Of oornmeal
and two quarts Of moIasses per week, and DO their
own cooking In the olden days was issued
instead Of meal and the lsboror sheed Il and carried
1t TO the mill himself and paid for grinding.
In the slave days each plantation had ~ black
smith, carpenter, wheelwfight, shoemaker etc. These
knew only the crudest methods, tho ridest tools.
Those who have grown up thoro since then have either
been taught their trades by the old seryltors took
em up, that matter Of fact skilled labor Is
not there except by immigration or by importation
for given purpose. The stay OF the immigrant mo
chanlc Is short, for the crude untsught native mo
chanics arc not able TO command good wages any
where. They live and house poorly, that tho
skilled man, with other notions OF life. finds himself
In community where cheap work Is the chief Gle
mcnt OF wages, and he finds himself In competition
with unskilled force In region without knowl'
edge Of eleganccs, which studies economies and how
do without things rather than rstclass work, and
he who does not TO excel aud VIII work cheap
can get work. while he who desIgs to excel but
have good wages get none. He has TO compete
with a labor which fO ITS best work does not expect
receive above al 80 per day, and 50 a. soon a.
he be takes himself and his ski! away"
THE "pooR wHIrEsn IN THE FACTORIES.
"what was the result of your experience and OBJ
scrvatlon respecting factory labor in the southi7
The labor I'm the Southern factories is drawn from
the poor white population. IL Is claimed that the
fingers Of the colorcd people thick, numb and
undeft; that the hum Of machinery puts them TO
sleep AS a fact tho white girl woman cannot be
had to work with them, and factory proposing 20
employ oolored labor would have hard lines Truly
docIle labor Of the South is compelled TO stay In
drudgery making bricks without straw, without hope
OF lettering its condition. Hence there but few
white farm hircllngs, they called, who engage
themselves for labor plantations farms whore
negro labor Is employed. The labor in tho cotton
factories composed Il is OF tho and children
of the poor white Cracker class, live in poor.
nlbullt houses. II tho factory be In town tho
houses sometimes arc OF handmade brick; II is rare
II theue arc moro than four rooms; these arc
economical Of windows, have low ceilings, ofentimes
the door and windows being merely shutter open
ing outward sidewalk, porch, block for step;
the room Is entered directly from out Of doors, the
floors are bare, tho Furnishings slight. Behind this
tho cooking and eating ROOM, often without ssove,
always open fireplace. Over these rooms aro two
half story rooms unoelod, upholstered. reached by
ladder from within, by steps from outside.
The houses Of the country factory people arc
usually built Of rough boards SET cdgcwse the cracks
battened, two rooms below, two above, no lath nor
plaster, no blinds, porch-often no fence In each
Of these houses IL Is sought TO have large families,
that is, families which give the factory che
greatest number Of spInners other hands in order
that there be less investment I'm house building. In
employing help I'm the factories children from ten
years old and upward are sought, for they como
cheaper arc more 'doce,' can be crowded into less
space The father II they have one is given some odd
Job II he wants and is competent, but more often
he wants place, the family earn his living. he
things easy and Is 'doce' too. These employees
are paid by checks tickets in denominations of five
cents upward, which current the company store
and In the neighborhood for such wares as the com
pany store has for sale. that these factories
In the great majority Of Instances operated with little
expenditure OF money account OF labor
" Thus the system Of repression, almost OF owner
ship, Of labor runs through the system Of native
Southern employment Tho people who work IN
factories splnners get per day ten cents side on
No 20 Yarns aduIl aLtends six sldcs and tins Is