The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-29

or. The towns and cities were practically
dead The only business in the smaller
communities was that of the supply
merchants and the only employment was
that of clerks in supply stores and ,Aose
were limited to as small number as
possible for the most rigid and niggardly
economy was the rule. the towns did
net grow. they were at a standstill; there
was no capital or credit for any purpose
other than making cotton. [ reiterate
that the South was torced-driyen into
the one employment OF making cotton
The whole farming population of seven
States worked early and late in the
fio Ids.
This condition has passed away, and
with it the bumper crops. The South
kas money and is investing it In home
Industries that give employment 70 many
thousands of men and women who a few
years ago were laborers in cotton fields
for the sole reason that there was no
other employment.
Field labor IS distatetul to many peo--
pie, and many have gone to towns ami
cities to find employment that is more
congenial in the factories, foundries, Ium-
Der mills, railroads, building trades, cot
ton oil mills and the new industries that
prosperity has given the South Never
again will these people return to the cot
ton fields and at present there seems to
be no source from which to fill their
places This applies to the negro as
well as the white laboror, for the negro
locks upon plantation work as but one
degree removed from slavery, and once
his local attachments are broken he be-
comes wanderer from one railroad camp
to another. Finally he reaches the North,
or Northern or Western cities, where re
gets higher wages, or settles in the
Southern cities, finding employment wher
he wants it in the mills or factories, or
else living off the bounty dispensed
through cooks and washerwomen Many
ere good mechanics who made crops and
built cabins on plantations. They now
find it more congenial to rent houses il
town and work at their trades; SO in this
way the cotton fields have. continued 70
lack efficient labor. Nor do these men
return to the farms to aid in the harves.
IS they did few years ago. They avoid
farm work as beneath them, and in tact
they can do as well in town in a financial
way.
The new order is better for ali cor
cerned. The planters and farmers VIII
b. able to pay their help better wages
and realize some profit for themselves.
During the regime of five and six cent cot
ton the farm laborer of the South was
ground down to bare subsistence. At one
time the wages sunk TO fifty cents
day for mon working from dawn to dusk,
snd thirty cents fer women from seven
in +bo All o-,l- Tho
CHOPPERS were allowed four pounds Of fat
PORK, one peck Of corn meal and one
sixth of pound of tobacco week for
each hand During tho year all of their
allowances Of clothing consisted of two
pair OF coarse shoes, costing one dollar q
pair, two pair CT jean pants and two
tctton shirts. At the wind-up of the
season they PERHAPS received q little
money, from five to twenty-five dollars.
the whole allowance not exceeding sew
erty-fve dollars for years work, and
still with this cheap labor the planter
and farmer could not make both ends
meet. A .,
Those were dreadful times, and it.
makes me shudder to recall the despera-
ton that prevailed. But, thank God. it
has all passed never to return, for the
high wages paid in all industrial enter
prises will act as a balance to regulate
the price Of cotton by taking labor from
the fields when the production Of the
staple fails 10 pay profit. # is utter
folly TO say that cotton can be grown
for less than ten cents at present. TIL
world may just as well recognize the fact
that cotton is valuable product ard
will have to be paid for. Let the South
rejoice, but with dignity, for it has only
come into its own"