The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-15
LABOR FAMINE IN THE SOUTH.

A dispatch from Memphis. Tenn. the CEN
ter of the Southern cotton market, says it
Is clearly recognized throughout the South
that II the cotton crop turns out to be large
II will be next to impossible to gather it
all owing to the scarcity of labor and the
lateness Of the opening of the picking sea-
son. The latter condition is owing to cool
weather. which has made the picking season
so late that the amount of cotton thus far
gathered is less than 10 per cent. Of that
picked by this time last year. The result
will be that the crop will mature all at once
and have to be picked very rapidly. In
view of this situation the cry of more ne
groes" is being heard from all parts Of the
South. 1t is said there is scarcely county
in the whole cotton belt which has enough
labor to gather the crop as rapidly as it
opens, and this in spite of the fact that
than were ever paid before. The scarcity
of negro labor is attributed to the increase
in public work and the rapid strides in man.
ufactures. A few years ago negroes had
no source of income except work on planta-
tons, and labor was plenty at the planters
own rates. Now the large amount of rail-
road building and public improvements and
the great increase IN manufacturing are
inducing negroes to leave the farms for
other work which is more remunerative and
pleasant. Formerly the colored women and
children used to assist in picking cotton in
fI, h,,c tha liot
a woman could do about as much as man.
But it is found that when the men can earn
good wages at other employment the women
and children decline to work in the field be-
cause they have enough to live on without
labor.
All this has some interest for the North
because it is symptomatic of gradually
changing social conditions that may help to
solve one of the most difficult problems of
the age. The existence of the race question
In the South mas been largely due to the
fact that the negro population was in excess
of the demand for it. Southern whites have
no use for negroes except as hired laborers,
and almost every other avenue but this has
been closed to the negroes. Up to the point
that they could be hired and kept at work
they were tolerated as a necessary evil, but
beyond this they were regarded as a nui-
sance to be abated or exterminated. 1t was
the unemployed negro population. that for
which there was no demand as laborers
that caused most of the trouble.
The idea OF labor famine in the South
is of comparatively recent origin, and Is
due largely to the causes above named
There are no statistics at hand to show
what is doing In the South in the way OF
railroad and public building. but those re-
iating to manufactures are instructive. In
Alabama. for instance, the number of man
ufacturing establishments increased from
2.O7o in 1850 to 5,eo2 in 1900, and the number
of wage carriers from 1908 to 81. 902. In 1906
the average number of wage earners in
manufactures constituted per cent. of the
total population of the State as compared
with eight-tenths Of per cent in $780, In
Georgia the number of manufacturing es-
adjustments increased from 1853 in 1850 te
1904 in 1900. and the number of wage earners
from 24.s75 to Ss.s42 In Soath Carolina the
number of manufacturing establishments
increased from 2.o7s in 1880 to 3.762 in 1900
and the number Of wage earners from 15.S
to 4s.ls5. In Mississippi. a leading cotton
growing State. the number of manufacture
ing establishments increased from 1.479 il
1880 to i,I72 In 1900, and the number Of wage
earners from 5.s27 to 2s.4ls. During the dec,
ade from 1890 to 1900 the number of manu-
featuring establishments in Alabama In.
| creased IS per cent, in Georgia IS per cent.
| in South Carolina 81 per cent. In Missis