The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-20

or for that matter, the poet. The hum-
 blest laborer is worse, that IS, less CT.
 ficient and productive, for. being stupio
 or sodden l profoundly differ from w.
 Fl. MaIiock in the sophistical calculations
 he makes of the nominal contribution or
 elementary labor to modern human prog
 ress. For he ascribes 1t solely, or nearly
 so, to the inventive and organizing ge- nius of industrial leaders; it is that. he argues, and not the improvement Of the laborer himself, which has made labor
 grow more productive since modern times
 began, and has so created the economic
 elories of the twentieth century. If so able leaders in business, who have achiev- ed great results with one body or labor ing men, you shall, in the same business and with all it's advantages precisely the same-if to the very same leaders you give in place of that body, different and inferior body of laboring men, the result will be inferior If labor itself be superior in steadlness, sobriety, se1-re- spect, bouYant and hopeful force, greater results are certain. This necessary lead- ership is certain to appear Everyone knows that in neither agriculture nor mining nor manufacture nor commerce nor any part or any of them, Is it better that labor should be unwilling or indo- lent or vicious or demoralized or with out the self-respect and hope arising out of a general and spontaneous confidence in the fairness and Justice of government and the dominant social forces. Nor can anyone familiar with the industrial de- velopment of my own part of the country or of Europe doubt for a moment that productivity of given body of labor may, by due regard to this consideration, be increased, and increased enormously. The ruling Caucasian will take care-no doubt in the interest of civilization he must take care--to remain dominant. But in order that he shall fully work out the career of industrial empire that belongs to him here he will, beyond a peradVen-
 ture, be seriously concerned for the im-
 provement in industrial intelligence and in the economies and habits of the Work
 for which he must depend upon the negro
 Iaborer Ignorance is never and nowhere
 useful to industrial progress; 1t Is al-
 ways obstructed by incompetence on any
 round of the ladder, whether at the bot
 tom or the top. The more efficient and
 the less wasteful the laborer. the more
 productive must he be for himselr ana
 for white men. The higher his industrial
 fntelligence the less his control by super
 stitions, the less his vices. the more or
 derly and disciplined his conduct or lire,
 no doubt far the better for him; but also far the better for the dominant civiliza- tton and the prosperity of the white man. [ listen with impatience and sometimes intolerance to the failure of some worthy men at the North to realize the ditficulty of this problem. Its solution must, as l have said, rest with the Southern men alone, free of the ignorant meddling Of others. It is not possibie for a senslDie and fair observer from distance to do | otherwise than pay a debt of honor to the sympathetic widening and deepening or | Southern sentiment about the matter. With your economic wisdom and your hu- manitarian and statesmanlike instinct, l believe the solution of this tremendous problem is safe. though inevitably 1t must | he slow. Speculation upon the future | status of the black race may well | be laid aside while the inspired labors of your educators and pub licists encourage the millions of negro I t1Nta Ufrnr-lF r. ter. themselves steadily more intelligent | In industry, and their lives steadily more more | self-restrained and self-respecting Win ' their greater and greater productivity | will go still greater growth in the pro | dnctivity of the higher labors of the white
 man So will come larger and more | notent leverage to the white man. So | will be effected the beneficent adjust,
 ment of labor conditions to the industrial | necessities which the splendid promise or
 the canal must lay upon this Guit coun- l