The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-06
NEGRO LABOR IN COTTON MILLS.
Widespread Interest In the Expert
ment in Charleston.
Mobile (Ala.) Register.

Mobile (Ala.) Register.
The substitution of negro labor for white
labor in a cotton mill in Charleston, S. c.,
has probably attracted more attention and
aroused more general comment than any
labor incident in past years. This interest
was caused by more than one feature of
striking Importance. In the first place. it is
looked upon as a revolution in cottOn-mill
labor in the South; secondly, it raises the
question whether the project will be sue
cessful, considering the generally accepted
low order of the labor employed; and last
ly, if successful, will it result in the cheap
ening of the mill product to the extent that
goods and yarns from Southern mills will
more than ever come into successful COM
petition with the mill products of the
North?
The latter proposition appears to be the
one that has the strongest claim on the
Southern manufacturers who have already
employed or are contemplating the employ
ment of negro labor in their mills. 1t is
the boast of the manufacturers of the
United States that they have been enabled
TO pay higher wages Tor labor ana at the
same time compete with goods of foreign
manufacture because of the higher intelli-
gence of the labor employed in this coun-
try. Based upon this theory, the opponents
of the employment of negro labor in the
cotton mills of the South say it cannot
prove remuneratiVe. Tie claim is that
while the negro lator on be employed at
less wages than white labor. the productive
capacity of white operators is so far supe-
rior to that of the negro that this will
more than cOunterbalance the difference in
wages. Whether this theory will hold good
remains to be proved by experience.
The indications point to the conclusion
that the management of other South Caro-
lima mills are watching the experiment
made in Charleston with more than usual
interest, and if it should prove to be as sue
cessful al it is now claimed, negro labor
will be introduced into other cotton mills
The desideratum appears to be cheapness
of production and thereby a broadening of
the market for cotton goods of Southern
manufacture Aside from those directly in
terested in cotton mills the introduction
of negro labor into them is matter of
much concern not only to the white labor
ers of the South, but to those of the North
as well.
1t means the throwing out of employment
of a large number of white people who have
devoted the best years of their life to work
in the various departments of the cotton
mills. 1t means either this or the possible
necessity of accepting the wages paid TO
negro labOrerS. The wages paid to opera
tives in the cotton mills of the South it
has been claimed and generally admitted
have never been as high as the wages paid
the operatives in the mills of New England
While the Southern operatives have re-
ceiyed less wages, it is claimed that this
difference is more than counterbalanced by
the cost of living. which is much less in
the South than in the North. The New
England manufacturers claim that the cost
Of operating these mills in the South has
been the strongest element to competition
that they have been forced to meet.
With a still further reduction in wages of
operatives in Southern mills, through the
employment of negroes, the apprehension
is felt if the new labor proves satisfactory,
that the contest for profitable production of
cotton goods in the East will be placed
upon a narrower margin. This being the
result Eastern mill owners will be forced
to devote their mills to the production of
the finer classes of cotton goods. in the pro-
duction of which the highest class of labor
is needed and which will bear higher
wages. Should the experiment of the en-
oloyment of negro labor in the mills OF the
South as now constituted prove successful,
it may be that it will mean the transference
II n
only machinery for the production of the
finer cotton goods, and in that event the
Southern mills will come into sharp compe-
tition with the same class of mills in New
England as they have in the past in the
manufacture of the lower grades Of goods.
The subject is one full of vast possibilities
and the result will be watched with the
keenest interest by the cotton manLfactur-
ng world