The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-07-19
New Series-Vol. XIV. No. SO
His Office and the work is now bet

ter organized and he has stablished
an Office in New York with a first
class man in charge for the purpose
of engaging laborers. The fee has
been reduced to 81 a head and every
care is exercised in selecting the men
sent to this state. He has also an
agent working in Holland and will
soon have one in Germany. He has an
Office in GLASGOW with agents working
in Scotland. He is endeavoring to
draw immigrants from the rural dis
tricts from among the agricultural
classes, who will be best adapted to
the conditions in this state. He ex-
pressed confidence that his Office will
soon be in a position to supply all calls
for labor and he hopes. for good re-
suits when these immigrants begin to
come in.
For immediate calls the only source
is New York, Philadelphia and other
large northern cities where the labor
ers must be recruited from the for
eigners who have been some time in
the country. The scale of wages for
men from those cities is, as rule.
s1.75 to $3.50 day for common la
borers. But he has made arrange
ments whereby he can secure men
who will work for from s125 to $3.50
per day for 10 to II hours work.
He said that he expected better re-
suits would be obtained, however,
from the immigrants who come direct
from Holland, Germany and Scotland
as the result of the work of his agents
in those countries, but he did not ex-
pect many to arrive until the crop sea-
son closed, as the. element he was
looking to secure would not leave until
the crops were made.
Mr.. D. w. Alderman of Alcolu, said
that labor was the great need Of the
hour. That at present his mill was
not working more than two-thirds Of
the time and unless conditions i'm
proved and more laborers can be OBJ
tained he would have to go out Of
business. Labor conditions have been
growing worse for several years, but
this year they have been more unsat-
isfactory than ever. In reference to
the foreigners he had brought down
to work he would say that it had been
a failure AS to the misunderstanding
with Mr.. Watson's Office he would say
that both were probably to blame. He
had not understood that he would
have to pay any SssSaad had wanted
raw agents He under.
stood that he would have to advance
railroad fare. He had engaged thirty
men at $1.25 a. day. When they
came they were mostly. Hungarians,
with few Germans and other nation
alities in the crowd When they ar
rived they said they understood all
about the kind Of labor they We're to
perform and the character Of the log
camp, his letter explaining these mat
ters having been read to them in New
York. They had made contracts with
the labor agent for ten hours work for
S1.25 a day. The matter of hours he
had arranged satisfactorily, for while
they We're on duty more than ten
hours, owing to Interruptions, they
actually performed less than eight
hours work day. They had good
quarters and an abundance of good
food prepared for them three times a
day. Yet the experiment was signal
failure and within few days all ex-
cept four Of them left. The trouble
was with the debt they owed for
transportation and they seized the op-
portunity to get out of paying it. The
four Hungarians who remained were
all raw immigrants and were good
workers. Recently he had sent one
Of these mer to New York to engage
more Iaborers. He picked out fifteen
and sent them to Alcolu. They un-
derstood all about the place and the
work before they came, and so stated
when they arrived, but nine of them
quit the next day.
He thought that if the raw immi-
grants who We're accustomed to hard
labor could be secured, better results
might be obtained, but the experiment
with present conditions was a failure.
Going into a general discussion of
the labor situation Mr.. Alderman re-
lated his experience with the negro
labor A few years ago there was no
trouble in getting all he needed for
the mill, but it was difficult to get
farm hands now II is no fr,,uhle to -at