The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-09-09
PIcKINK THE COTTON CROP.
The Mexican Supply of Labor Cut Off
This Season-The Earnings OF
Some Negro Pickers Enough To
Support Them in 1dleness For the
Rest of the Year.

spent the past nine months IN the
towns in idleness are now going into
the cotton fields to pick the feecy
product. They will work hard for
the next ten or twelve weeks and lay
up enough money to support them
through another winter and summer
in idleness.'
This is the glad season for the
southern negro. 1t is the season of
work and frolic. The fun which the
cotton pickers mix with their work is
of great variety. Old-time break
down dances are of almost nightly oc-
crrrence on some plantations.
The demand for labor in the cot
ton fields causes the average town
negro to be independent just at this
time. The house servants are treated
with great consideration to prevent
them from leaving to 60 to the cot
ton patch
'What fur I stay here an work in
your kitchen fur $40 mont, when I
can go an make $18 week a-pickin'
cotton?" asked young negro cook
of her mistress, and the next morning
her place in the household was vac
ant and recruit had been added to
the cotton Dickers' force.
Stable boys who are working un-
der written contracts become restless
and disappear without notice to their
employer
"Look here, George, I saw you talk
ing with that niger from Whites
plantation today and I suspect he
wants you to quit me and 60 out there
to pick cotton" said citizen to his
carriage driver the other day.
"Yassir, yassir; that's whut he
wanted, boss, but done tole him Use
kwine ter stay wild you"
"You had better stay here; if I
catch you quitting me I'll beat you
half to death,' threatened the citizen
half seriously.
The next morning his driver was
gone. He had left word with the
house servant that he had been hired
to pick cotton on Whites plantation
for 90 cents hundred pounds. It is
practically certain that he will re-
turn in two or three months and will
get his old place as carriage driver.
"I have been working negroes all
my 1ife," said an old citizen, "and they
are all alike when the cotton picking
season rolls around. You simply
can't keep them in town then. The
best of them will leave good jobs to
go into the country and pick cotton.
The best plan is to give them two
or three months vacation this time
Of year. If you don't do that they
will quit you anyway"
Although there are thousands of
Mexican and white men employed in
picking cotton in Texas each fall, the
planters prefer negro laborers for
the work The negro is at home in
the cotton field The sun is never
too hot for him and the days never
too long. =
s There is a shortage of cotton pick
ers in Texas and throughout the south
this season Some of the railroads
which run through the cotton belt of
this state are advertising in the north
that 5000 laborers are needed along
the lines to pick cotton.
1t has been the practice for many
years for labor agents to import
thousands of Mexicans from the Rio
Grande border to the plantations of
this and other southern states to work
during the cotton picking season. The
Mexican government advised against
this practice and the supply Of Mexi-
can laborers is therefore shut off this
year. The effect is already being felt
in the southern part of the state,
where the cotton picking season is at
its height.
Picking cotton in Texas beats har-
vesting wheat in Kansas SO far as
wage earning is concerned. Cotton