The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-11-06
NEGRO LABOR

Test of the Capacity of the Race as
/ Cotton Operatives being Made.
The substitution of negro labor for
white labor in a cotton mill in Charles
ton, S. c., has probably attracted ore
attention and aroused more general
comment han any labor incident of
past years. This interest was caused
by more than one feature of striking i'm
p%ortance. In the first place, it is looked
upon as Il revolution in cotton mill Ia
Dor in the south; secondly, it raises
the question whether the project will
be successful, considering the gener-
ally-accepted low order of the labor
employed: and, lastly, if successful, will
it result in the ch%eapening of the mill
PRODUCTIVE the extent that goods and
yarns from southern mills viii. more
than ever come int successful compe-
tition 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 employment of negro labor in their
mills. Iii is the boast of sle manufactur-
cIS u 1T oAiltA otdlCS INA AlACJ hdNC
been enabled to pay higher wage for
labor and at the same time compete
with goods of foreign manufacture, be-
cause of the higher intelligence of the
labor employed in this country. Based
upon this theory, the opponents of the
employment of negro labor in the cot
ton mills of the south say it cannot
prove r~emunerative. The claim is, that
while the negro labor can be employed
at less wages than white labor, the
productive capacity of white operatives
is so far superior 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 eonclu-
sion hat the management of other
South Carolina mills are watching the
experiment made in Charleston with
more than usual interest, and if it
should prove to be as successful as it is
now claimed, negro labor will be intro
ducea in other cotton mills. The de-
sideratum appears to be cheapness of
production, and thereby n broadening
of the market for cotton goods of south
ern manufacture. Aside from those di-
rectly interested in cotton mills, the in
PRODUCTION of negro labor into them is
a matter of much concern, not only to
the white laborers of the south, but to
those of the north as well.
1t means the throwing out of employ
ment of q 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 his
or the possible necessity of accepting
the wages paid to negro laborers. The
wages paid to operatives in the cotton
mills of the south, it has been claimed
and generally admitted, have never
been as high as the wage paid the OPP
eraNives in the mills of New England.
While the southern operatives have re-
ceived less wages, it is claimed that this
difference is more than counterbal-
anced by the cost of living, which is
much less in the south than in the
north. The New England manufactur-
ers claim that the cost of operating
these mills in the south has been the
strongest element in competition that
they nave have been forced to meet.
With u still further reduction in
wages VI OBCidAlNCS III SOuliCAh h1lliSs /
through the employment of negroes, the
apprehension is felt, If the new labor
satisfactory, that the contest for
profitable production of cotton goods
in the east viii be placed upon a mar
rover 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
of which the highest class of
labor is needed, and which viii bear
wages. Should the experiment
of the employment of negro labor in the
mills of the south as now constituted
prove successful, it may be that it will
mean the transference of the machinery
the production of the liner cotton
and in that event, the southern
mills will come into sharper competi-
ton with the same class of mills in New
England as they have in the past in the
Of the lower grades of
goods. The subject is one fun of vast
possibilities, and the result will be
with the keenest interest by
the cotton manufacturing world.-Mo-
bile Register.