The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-14
A SCARCITY OF LABOR.

! There Is almost constant complaint
among the farmers OF this state that they
are unable to get all of the labor they
need TO plant. cultivate and harvest their
| crops They have not been able to give
! the attention to their cotton fields since
the June rains that the cotton requires
and the consequence is that the cotton
crop promises to be very small one in
most parts of the state. In Middle Geor-
gia some cotton fields have been aban-
doned altogether TO the grass.
No doubt there is the same scarcity Of
labor in most of the other Southern states
that there is in this. 1t is noticeable that
ia Alabama there has been rise in the
wages OF laborers in mines and at The
mills, and when 1t was announced a few
days ago that labor agents were on their
way from Hawaii TO New orleans. in
search of laborers for the Hawaiian sugar
plan la tons, it was said in that city that no
laborers were 10 be he'd, either in Louis
lana or Texas. In this state the scarcity
is due largely to the extraordinary labor
demand at saw mills and on turpentnc
farms. The rise in the price OF lumber
last year caused hundreds of small saw
mills to be established, and the high prices
OF naval stores have greatly increased the
labor demand of naval stores operators.
The small saw mills are still being operat-
ed notwithstanding the decline in the
price Of humber. Better wages are paid
at the saw mills, and on the naval stores
farms than on the cotton and grain farms.
That accounts in large measure for the
scarcity of labor from which the Geor-
gia farmers are now suffering.
But there is another reason A very
the country are not remaining there. They
are seeking the cities. In all of the cities
there are thousands of them who are
barely able to keep from starving. In
this city, for instance, dozens of them
are seen summing themselves in comforta-
bic places on pleasant days. 1t Is no Sc
cret that they are kept alive by the oc-
casional meals handed to them from the
back gates or Kitchen windows of the
residences of the white people They
get little work occasionally, but thay
do not want steady employment. They
have no ambition to improve their mate
rial condition. All they seem to care for
IS enough food to satisfy their hunger,
and clothes enough 10 hide their naked
ness. OF this class of people Prof. Book
er T Washington. in his address in this
city on Thursday said:
Every idle person In this community
is supported by the community. That
is true and the people who work are sup
porting the idlers. You never saw a
starving colored man. Somebody feeds
him. There are DOT of idle negroes IN
this town who get their food out of the
white mans kitchen, and the white peo-
pie are largely responsible for this state
of affairs. They should cut off the sup
ply. Let them lock their kitchens and
their pantries and make the idle scoun-
dres go to work. Our women want to
stop supporting these idle rascals. Let
them cease this sort of thing and there
will be less idleness and 9ess immortality"
There ought to be some way of getting
oilers from the city into the. country,
where they are needed. The change
would be better for the city, the country
and for the oilers. Here in the city they
| furnish most of the criminals, and are
a heavy burden on the taxpayers. In the
country the great majority of them would
be workers. There would be no one there
to feed them out of back gates and kitchen
windows, and they would have to work
Besides, there is a steady demand for
their labor in the country, and there is
not in the cities. The supply of labor
in the cities greatly exceeds the demand