The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1899-11-01
THE QUESTION OF LABCn
Correspondence Home and Farm.

Correspondence Home and Farm.
Among all the difficult problems
that confront the Southern planter l
know Of none more serious than the
question of hired labor. The over
production of cotton is secondary
matter by the side of that. There is
remedy and a good one, too, if our
people could be induced to see it, for
the trouble with cotton; but 1 see no
solution of the help problem-no solu-
ton that appears at all likely of full
fillment.
1t is we'll known that the mainstay
on many of our Southern plantations
is in the help derived from the old
negro slaves and those whom they can
influence. These old slaves had been
trained, not only " work, hut to work
we'll and with judgment and care.
They will all soon be gone, and there
will remain as field hands only the
coming generations of blacks.
So far as my observation has extend
ed in travels over half dozen of the
old slave States, it has shown me clear
ly that there is no hope of ever MAX
ing reliable fold hands out of the pres
ent generation of young negroes.
Those who seem to have any ambition
to succeed in life get little smatter-
'ing-as it is called--of "education,n -
and this leads them to believe that
there are other ways Of making money
in the world besides working hard for
it. They look with scorn and con-
tempt Oh the plow and the hoe and the
chopping aX-and especially the ak.
1 cannot recall the day or the time
when have seen negro under forty
years of age hunting work with an ak.
All thu chopping that is done about
this town and other towns where 1
have visited recently is done almost
entirely, 80 l am advised, by old me-
eroes. The young fellows will carry
notes for schoolboys and get nlckle
or SO, and then they lilo around the
homes of their mothers and smoke Gig
arettes and play cards, while the moth
er is wearing herself out at the wash
tub in efforts to support the gangs that
live off Of her earnings.
The country farms are being desert
ed at fearful rate by the negroes
nearly all Of them wanting to get close
to the towns. The younger set can't
be induced to take hold of any regular
work, They prowl around and live
after fashion off the crumbs from
somebody's table until they are caught
in some crime, and then away they gt
to the penitentiary or chain.gang. The
statistics show that the great majority
of our criminals now in Southern pen
itentiaries are negro BOYS from fifteer
to thirty. The brutes that have beer
Ilynched were nearly all young villain,
without trade or profession or regula
employment. Very few young negroe
are trying to learn any trade.
We have no hope of securing foreig,
laborers that are desirable.
: 1t has long been the policy of tn
dominant party in the North to kee]
all the best class of the foreigners tha
/ come to our shores away from tn
Southern States. The minds of th
t immigrants are filled with the horribl
| pictures of Southern barbarism, and th
> newcomers are hurried away to sem
, Western country, where they can )
t easily converted into material thu
1 votes and fights against the Soutl
q Some time ago was looking over I'll
Y statistics of the Federal army--stati
o tics showing the nationalitiea of I'll
q troops. The publication statd tn
over 100000 of the Federal soldie
# who helped whip the South In The WI
II over secession were Of foreign birth
s this is actually more men than all Il
W South put into the held in her own
70 fense. The Southern Confedetlcy d