The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-15
NORTHERN HOSTILITY TO BLACK
LABOR.

The employment of negroes in silk
mill in Fayetteville, ". c., is the occa-
sion of bitter articles in some of the
public prints of the North which are pub
lished in towns in which there are silk
mills. In Paterson, particularly, the
feeling against the owners of the Fay
etteville mill is very pronounced 1t
seems that the owners of this mill are
residents OF Paterson, and were at one
time engaged in manufacturing silk in
that city 1t may be that they stilI have
an interest in Paterson silk mills.
At any rate, they conceived the idea of
establishing a mill in North Carolina and
employing negro girls and boys as oper-
atives, not because they preferred negro
labor, but because they got it for about
half what was being paid in Paterson.
1t seems that the Fayetteville mill is
making so much more money than the
Paterson mills that, at least, one mill in
Paterson has had to shut down. That
fact led one of the Paterson papers to
declare that Paterson man had been
the means of taking the bread out of the
mouths of the white boys and girls of
THAI city-that he was filing his pockets
by making negro boys and girls of North
Carolina work for starvation wages and
sending Paterson boys and girls to the
poorhouse. i was also said that in the
North Carolina mill there was a negro
overseer who stood over the negro boys
and girls with a rawhide whip and forced
them to perform tasks beyond their abil-
ity and strength.
No doubt this story of an overseer with
a whip is all fiction. Such a thing would
not be tolerated in North Carolina. 1t
may be that the parents of some of the
children have given the foreman permits
sion to correct them for offenses repeat
eddy committed. but 1t is safe to say that
the negro boys and girls in abe North
Carolina mill are just as sure of protec-
ton from brutality of any sort from mill
employers or overseers as are the opera
tives of the mills of Paterson.
But what strikes the average citizen is
that the persons who are quick to take
advantage of the cheap labor of the negro
in the South are northern men. And
there appears to be some ground for think
ing that they don't care for the welfare
of the negro in the least-that is. for his
elevation to a higher plane of intelli-
gence and morality. They are ready to
crticise the people OF the South for
lynching a bad negro who commits helm
Gus offense, and for not giving the negro
certain social privileges. but they them
selves will do nothing for his improve
ment. They will get his labor as cheaply
as possible however, and think them
selves deserving of praise for giving him
employment.
The outcropping Of bitterness in Pater-
son against the owners of the Fayette-
vile mill and their employees. explains,
in measure, the reason for the recent
race riot in New York City Every
where in the North there is hostility to
the negro among the white working peo-
pie, because he works for lower wages,
and there is prejudice against him among
all classes on account of his color. There
fore when an opportunity offers there is
pretty certain to be a race riot. Here in
the South the negro performs so large a
part of the labor that che feeling among
white workmen against him is less APP
parent.