The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-08
The Cry for More Labor at the South

The high price to which cotton has
risen gives new impulse to the cultiva-
ton of the great staple of the South; but
complaint is made that this natural dis
position to extend the area Of cotton
planting and increase the production is
seriously restrained by new labor con-
ditions in important cottop-growing
States
This year, writes a Georgia Farmer"
to the Atlanta Constitution, II shall mar
ket about three hundred bales of cot
ton. Though l have land enough and
can command capital enough to have
made crop of 1000 bales just as easily,
it is absolutely impossible to command
either the quantity or the quality Of labor
to make that crop" His own experience
he gives, too, as that of most of the pro-
gressive cotton planters of the South.
Other crops suffer from the same cause
The scarcity of farm labor he attributes
to "the natural tendency Of the laboring
classes to drift to the cities and to the
exodus Of white agricultural labor from
the fields to the cotton mills This refer
ence to white labor seems to Justify the
assertion of Mr. RICHARD Fl EDMoNDs Of
Baltimore, in recent paper, that the
white laborer has become every year
more important and the negro less i'm
portant as a factor in the production Of
cotton Everywhere throughout the
South" saws MIR. EDMoNDs. except in
sections similar to the Yazoo Delta, the
amount of cotton raised by negro labor
in proportion to the whole crop is steadily
declining.
This being so, the withdrawal of white
labor from the plantations to the mills
and factories is a serious matter. In
North Carolina, according to sober
report by prominent citizen of that
State, nearly 10000 people have left
farms to go into cotton mills and other
manufacturing plants, and 10000 more
have left farms to 60 into factories such
~ cottonseed-oil mills, sawmills, fur
niture factories, DO. This diversion of
labor from the farms, he assumes, ex-
tends TO other cotton States, and his
assumption is supported by the Georgia
farmer we have quoted.
Both of these writer's reach tho con-
clusion that further development Of cot
ton production is dependent on finding
new element" to take the place of the
labor diverted TO the factory, but they
differ as to the element 10 bc sought
and obtained The Georgia farmer sug-
gests Chinese coolies" Give us the
Chinese, he SAYS "and not only will the
Acids they cultivate blossom and bear
fruit, but the value Of their industrious
example will be felt by other labor, black
and white. He recognizes that the
Chinese Exclusion law stands III the
way, but he contends that It was made
At the dictatlon Of politicians on the
Pacific slope" and that in the interest
Of the South its prohibition ought 10 be
relaxed to the extent, at least, Of giving
rs the right to engage Chinese labor even
il there is a limitation Ia farm labor"
Open the door Ia cOolie immigration and
the productive capacity Of the South ern
states, he predicts will be multiplied
ten, twenty and, IN time Fifty fold"
The North Car0linan takes the ground
hat the needed supply must rather be-
drawn from European immigration He
argues, with the facts of the situation
tending to support him that the South
Is by far IN" most atlrnctiy" part II the
United States ioi that class vi European