The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-10
A FALSE POSITION.

| duStry In the South is one of the great
features of American economic life which
| has just become visible within the past
decade. So many of the constituents of
certain line of manufactured article are
! provided by nature in the South that the
wonder has, been for many years why the
! Southern states continued to export their
| raw material rather than devote them
selves to it's transformation into manu-
| featured form. The cotton crop of the
South has found its way mostly to the
manufacturing centers of old England
! and New England; but, until during the
! present generation no one appears to
have thought seriously of utilizing that
crop in producing cotton fabrics in the
South. The change has come and now
the South promises to successfully COM
pete with New England in manufactured
cotton fabrics
The great barrier which history shows
to have stood in the path of manufac-
turing development is showing itself to-
day in the South. It is the barrier of the
demands of those who labor in such in
dustries. Whether those demands be
| reasonable or unreasonable they have
always been resisted by employers as be-
ing inconsistent with the cheap and eff
fective supply of the necessary market.
II is a condition of our Industrial sys-
tenn that cheapness of production is the
e.
this that cotton manufacturers have
sought the South, and in all lines OF
manufacture the great desideratum to
| cheapness of production is cheap Ia
| Dor.
! Organized labor has made its appear
ance in the South to dispute with en-
! ploying capital the means by which
cheapness of production is to be accom-
| plished. The result is apparent in the
development of the strike and lockout in
Southern Industrial centers. One of the
chief arguments used to tempt capital
into the South was that there were no
labor organizations to make trouble.
! That inducement no longer exists, and
| the most immediate result Of the appear
| ance of organized labor in the South is,
as we say, frequent strikes and lockouts.
In the state Of North Carolina alone,
| cotton mills have been shut down in sue
| cession, and thousands of men, women
and children have, as result, been de-
| prived of their employment. The issue
in all those cases was fairly and square
! ly made and met. Employing capital
adopted the policy on the formulation
| of the new demands dictated by organiz-
ed labor of at once shutting down their
works and discharging all of their en-
ployes
| The condition thus created has imme-
diately resulted in the defeat of the de-
mands of labor organization, but to the
great detriment of Southern industry
What the ultimate outcome will be re-
mains to be seen. Whatever it is, this
| much remains true, that In many indus
tries, especially in that of cotton manu-
facture the South has natural advan-
1
nence in that line of activity She has
the coal as New England had originally
the water power. She has superior nat
ural facilities for reaching tide water
She has the staple product itself, grow
ing in her fields, and she has a super
abundance of unemployed humanity.
There is one respect in which the posi-
ton of the manufacturers Of the South
the general employment of children of
tender years in the new factories Everv
consideration of humanity and of good
social policy have caused Northern COM
munities to restrict the employment of
youth below fourteen or sixteen years
of age in Industrial employment. That
requirement Southern manufacturers
must respect, whether they viii or no.
The Southern people are essentially a.
humane people. They are not animated
by love Of gain to anything like the
same extent as prevails In all other Sec
lions OF this country, and they will not
submit to having their young made the
slaves Of modern industrialism.
SO far as labor organization insists
upon abolishing child labor in the South
It's demand will receive sanction and en-
forcement. 1t may be left to fight out
this battle in other directions with those
whose capital has Of late been invested
In Southern industrial enterprises; but If
it makes child labor indispensable to the
requirement of cheap production It will
surely fail, and it ought to fail
| EXPLOITING HAWAII.
The United States government has fa1-