The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-10-17
THE NEEDS OF OUR FARMERS.

WAY TO EMPLOY HIM.
The following address was made by
Mr.. i. j. Merriam at the summer
meeting Of the Georgia State Agricul-
tural Society, and 1t IS worth reading
by every farmer IN the South :
Mr.. President and FellOW Farmers:
| am well aware that this question
of farm help is one which agitates
your minds for q considerable portion
of the year. 1t a9itates my mind all
The year round, sometimes with con-
siderable VIOLENCE, as we keep between
ten and twenty men employed all the
time. This matter is, however, one Of
very great Importance, for 1t means
your success OF failure in many in
stances. Can | get sufficient help to
work my farm properly? Will they be
efficient? Will they work for my in
terest? These are questions which
arc Of constant recurrence, and while
their successful solution depends in Il
great measure on the supply of avail
able help, it also depends largely on
the ability of the former himself, to
manage this help.
With us at the South the question of
farm labor is essentially q question of
negro labor. There are some among
you, / know, who would like to see the
negro cl%earedlout of the country but if
he we've, who would take his place q?
Probably you think you could cultivate
your farms yourself, with what white
help you could pick up. And this Is
abe ut what it would come to: You
wr ,,ll haun To lnt,nnI o1n,nof ontirn1,
or your own efforts until the foreign
element came in to take the place of
the blacks-a calamity | trust we shall
never be called upon to endure. The
South is today almost the only part of
our country which is truly American,
and | hope we shall learn to keep it so.
You go North, and in city and coun-
try you hear almost any language on
the globe spoken, except the English.
1t is true that the North shows a
larger agricultural wealth than the
South; but this is not because they hire
white help, but because of the greater
enterprise and education of the land
owners. l tell you, | can take my ne
groes and do as much or more work
and do ii az we'll as with any lot of
white men you can pick up. You take
the black mar and pay him wages, then
expect him to earn them and he will
not disappoint you. The negro is the
natural labor of the South, and with
the proper management he can be
made TO pay.
] have had some experience in the
employment of white help, and this ex-
periencing has not been encouraging.
The first white man | hired was John
son, l believe. We gave HIM so cents
per day and his board. He was about
the longest wasted man | evcr saw
and the way he could hide provisions
WAS a caution. | remember he had
recently recovered from an attack of
chills and fever. If you ever had the
chills you know what an appetite a
man has when he is in the GONZALES
cent state. We'll that man ate until
he actually could not work.
Then we had John Brunson, an En-
glish peasant. John was a very good
hand, but slow, and when | tried to
hurry him up oae day, he told me if
did not like the way he worked l could
give him his money, which | immedi-
ately did. After tins we were FORUM
ate in obtaining a bright young man
from North Carolina. lie was a hust-
Ter and knew how to get over work
and a very nice fellow all around, the
only trouble being that he was soon
offered a better job with a larger sal
airy than we could afford to pay.
Since we moved to Georgia | have
hired negroes exclusively until last
year, when a white man came to Our
place from the city looking for work.
lie had been out of employment for a
long time, except for a few odd Jobs,
and was in a %deplorably destitute con
dition. l was in need of help at the
time and thought it only far that a
white man who was willing to work
shculd have an equal show with the
negroes. So | { decided to give him a
trial. He and his two boys worked
trstrate for the fist month or two,
until they recovered from their hun
ger, as you might say, and he bought
a few new clothes and some furniture.
Then | found that my man had been
drinking when L sent him to the city
with vegetables to sell. Reports, not
the best, of his character had come to
me, and l determined to have a talk
with him. 1 told him of the reports,
but also that so long as he treated me
straight | would give him q chance. |
also told him that | knew he had been
drinking, and while l did not propose
TO dictate to him in any way, still if
his drinking intelfered with my bust
ness he must see that / should not be
able to keep him.
Things went along better after this
until one day | heard that the family
had been taking vegetables without
permission. Then II of the BOYS
stopped work in the middle of the
forenoon and lied to me when accused
of it. So l turned him off, when, to
my surprise, the old man got mad and
asked for his and the other bows
money. So off they went, and have
been living from hand to mouth ever
since.
We have one white man who is
tolerably respectable, but he is a poor
farm hand and cannot begin to hold
his W with the negroes on the place.
He is n of the mild kind who stand
around and seem to forget what they
are doing. But he is honest, and this
covers a multitude of shortcomings.
Since this man has been with us he
has been bringing in his relations n
by one. First there came in a cousin,