The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-09
EetterS tc tbe G0ftor
Editor The Advertiser:
Gurley. Ala. Dec. 2. 1904.

| Several days ago there was two l column article in The Advertiser from
 Booker Washington on the labor ques- | ticn. His reasons for the scarcity Of
 negro farm laborers and their over
 crowding the towns, obtained from them and inferentially concurred in by him, are calculated to produce great discomfort among the negro farm la Dcrers and create a very urgent pre1u- dice against the white people of the South. First, he says there Is a great
 scarcity of farm labor. That Is only | partly true. If the negroes would do three-fourths the work they could do, 1 there would be but little scarcity. l l think my experience with negro labor or farms enables me to know as much about them as most men and far more than he does. I was born on a small | negro plantation and worked in the fields with them half the time until
 the war, going to school the other half.
 Since the war, have had employed at farm work from five to ten negro | Families and from five to ten white l families and as hired hands two to four
 constantly lived upon the farm and been in close touch with them. Before
 the war a negro man cultivated eigh-
 teen acres. half cotton and half corn, | woman twelve acres, children from | nve to twelve. The first fifteen years I | ting them to cultivate three-fourths of that, the next fifteen about two-thirds or that, and the last few years not ex-
 ceeding one-half. To illustrate, I now nave four negro families on shares, be- sides others on other terms. Each has one man, one boy about Is, one boy IA, one girl F, besides the wife, who does the cooking. These ought to make two and a half good hands. They only cul- tivate twenty-two acres to the family. Before the war they would have cul- tivated forty five acres. Each family has made about 4,S00 pounds of seed cotton. From September 4 to Novem- Der 20 they did nothing but pick that cotton. There were fifty-nine bright working days, about eighty-two pounds per day, or about thirty-three pounds forl each hand Before the war they wodld have averaged 15O pounds per now. l would not exchange these me- gro tenants for any that I know. I nave had some of them twenty and all over ten years. This shows that it is numbers. Ills first reason for negroes leaving the farm is, Poor houses ." How can land owner be expected to build costly houses and outhouses just 10 get twenty or twenty-five acres cul- tivated. I have several times put glass windows In their houses, and in a year or two they are all broken, and never knew one to put in pane of glass. They will not protect shade trees nor Keep up yard fences. They seldom sweep the front yard and never the back yard.
 His next reason is Loss of earnings py interruptions employers" When a whoie Soa Family of six or eight have to be twenty-two acres, there is nothing left 10 defraud them of have never known but four or five years that I f9uId nave defrauded a negro tenant, tber naa naao, been disposed to do so, for tney generally come out in debt. His next ne. reason Is High priced provisions" Ihere Is rule of trade-the greater the risk, the higher the credit price. thn nne landlord and the merchant knows out In debt. Their indolence produces thls want of confidence It would he useless to charge extortionate prices when one knows it Is doubtful about collecting reasonable profits. His next reason is, Poor schooIhouses ; Their school houses are better than the coun- try school houses of whites before inc war. 'io
 The white people in the rural dis school houses; why not the negroes do the same? In fact, the white neonIe contribute literally to help them build Alter thd the white people have taxed dolIaSs ngSeiyes> fer several G . hundred thousand several hundred thousand for their own. and then build their own school housas Is 1t to be expected that they must build fine school houses for the ne groes? Ten years ago I gave them an acre of land, furnished the lumber and noards and got them to build A school house on my place. It is now diIapi- aatea' window glass all out, and leaks ln the roof. They have never struck one Ilck towards repairing it. Next reason, short terms and poor teach CTS This can not be avoided either by whites or blacks in sparsely settled nfeighnorhoods; ne d9aan9 Why do they not sup longer terms. If they are not able if is their own fault. At the end of the war so per cent. of the white people in this section were as poor as the ne groes' and many did not have the ad- vantage of Knowing how to work and many having lost everything, were dis heartened. The negroes ought to be as well off as at least 70 per cent. of the white people.
 His next reason Is, Bad treatment generally" That is very indefinite and unless 1t means refusal to asso- clate on equal terms, 1t is not true in this part of the country.
 His next reason Is. Fear of lynch ing. The guilty flee when no man pursueth.' No negro Is afraid of be- Ing lynched unless he is guilty of some heinous crime. Probably not one in nocent one in thousand Has ever been lynched.
 His next reason is "whitecappihg. :" don't know that I understand what that means, but if 1t means driving negroes away to prevent competition in labor, have noticed but little of 1t Tn the South. It Is chiefly confined tn the North and mostly there in towns.
 Ills next reason Is Fear of peou- age. The negro is no more afraid of peonage than the white man is That Is not a respectable myth. His next reason is, Lack of police protection. :" That Is another myth. He is protected when right and punished like the white man when he does wrong
 His next and last reason is Want of encouragement. That Is the most unkind cut of all." After going on their bonds. paying their fines. giving them lands for schoolhouses and churches and helping them to build houses upon them and taxing ourselves to death for their public schools and colleges. to be chided with want of en- couragement is the basest ingratitude. He mentions number of isolated cases or injustice calculated to produce A bad impression. One can always find an isolated case to fit anything Az last as the influence and presence of the old slaves die out, the new gen eration of negroes become more in doient, more unreliable, more untruth tul more addicted to petty thefts and thousand times more dangerous to our women. It Is the Smart Alecks" chiefly that drift to the towns After we give them little education many Of them think they are too smart or too good to work on the farms. and go to the towns to live by their wits Education renders many of them dis eontented as farm laborers, and no-