The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-11-06
Cotton Pickers Wanted.

MEMPHIS, TENN, October 31.-The
cotton crop of 1890 in the rich, alluvial
lands surrounding Memphis will not be
gathered until late in the season. The
crop is heavier than for years past, and
the labor supply is not equal to the yield.
In Georgia especially it is impossible to
procure colored labor for the Mississippi
bottoms, and it is as much as a mans
life il worth to endeavor to entice labor.
ers from either of the Carolinas. For
the past FIVE years the cotton crop of
North and South Carolina has been away
below the average, and this state of affairs
has also existed in many sections
throughout Georgia. Consequently labor
was plentiful, planters being more than
willing to furnish cotton pickers for
other States.
A very different state of affairs exists
this season. The crop is exceedingly
heavy in North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia. Railroad agents hereto
fore experienced no difficulty in gather.
ing squads of laborers for the Mississippi
bottoms, but this is now attended with
no small! degreeof danger. Planters and
merchants have carried the small plan
ters so long on their books that they now
perceive surety of payment for back
debts. They will brook no interference
from the outside with the labor at hand.
In Georgia any attempt at enticing labor.
ers to other States is punishable by
fine of $500 and imprisonment. Railroad
passenger agents have had but little
trouble in procuring cotton pickers here
tofore, owing to light crops. Their every
move in this direction is now jealously
regarded with disfavor.
The crop is in sight and planters de-
sire it picked at the earliest possible
moment. In the bottom lands of Missis-
sippi contiguous to Memphis it now looks
as if the crop will not be gathered until
the heavy picking in the three States
named has been attended to. Careful
estimates place the crop at one hundred
thousand bales over last seasons yield in
the Memphis district alone.
Mr.. Charles A. Jones, railroad agent
largely experienced in the business of
supplying the river Counties of Missis-
sippi, Louisiana and Arkansas with
hands from the older Southern States,
describes some of the causes preventing
negroes from emigrating this season to
the river bottoms. The negro loves the
right of suffrage on par with his white
brethren far more than any one thing
else. The feeling among the blacks in
Mississippi against the proposed enact
ments of the present Constitutional Con-
vention is exceedingly bitter. They
seem inclined to the belief that the white
voters will tie their hands politically by
the new Constitution. In many regions
of the Carolinas and Georgia, denuded
by the exodus of last year, cotton WAS
gathered as low as thirty-fve and forty
cents per hundred. This year seventy
FIVE and eighty cents is being paid for
the same labor. This will not materially
advance the price, az the abundant yield
will more than atone for this additional
expense. Hundreds upon hundreds of
laborers we're procurable last year. 1t
being an off year in politics every induce.
ment possible is now being made to
retain the vote of negroes in the com.
munities in which they at present reside,
and politicians are making use of every
known and plausible argument to &C.
complish their purpose.
The cotton crop and the business
outlook never before looked brighter.
With continued favorable weather there
is not the slightest danger of cotton
being materially damaged nor gathered
of' Grade. Should rains set in while the
crop is too far advanced to admit of seri-
Gus injury it might be considerably dam
aged by rust and mOldiness.