The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-09-12
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
POSTAGE PREPAID.
Tuesday, September II, 1905
WHITE LABOR IN THE SOUTH.

Gastonia has Of late years regularly
celebrated the Fourth of July. This
movement was iE~augurated by and for
the white working people The exer-
cises and entertainments CT Labor a
in Charlotte have been i~Daugurated
and conducted for and ty the white
labor
There was a time when. in the south.
free White labor was dominant in all
occupations. This was O hundred years
ago. The signs seem to Point 0.hrc
and more. as free institutions develop
in the south. to the increasing lnflu-
cnce and importance of white labor.
There wa a time fifty years e
whan the white lab5rer had to leave
this country or be reduced to poverty.
Now if the energetic white man wants
to find the best opportunity for his
KNOWLEDGE and skill the south is the
place for him to cone to. The adverse
conditions Of the olden times are gone.
Surrounded by different conditions
now, everything is favorable for the
man who has knowledge and skill to
sell. The parade of Labor day had
with it a spirit of ~progress and cheer
fulncss which is proof that the south
is getting along all right and that the
old conditions hamDering and handi-
Gaping white labor are all passed and
chronicle.
We believe the time is fast ap-
preaching when white labor will again
be dominant at the south. This will
be from two cause.-the establish
ment of agricultural and industrial col
legeS and the aid to better farming
given by the agricultural departments
30 4I1 c&a+nc aud tho foHopal O0Unrn-
ment and to the rapid development in
the south Of all kinds of industries re-
curing skilled labor and a better class
of the unskilled than the negro race
furnishes.
Negro labor is getting scarcer and
more unreliable and worthless each
year. Also there is a growing DISPOSE
ton on the part of employers to give
the preference to white men, and man
ual labor of all kinds is coming to be
looked upon by those engaged in it as
well as by those not so employed
as a more honorable occupation than
was the case a few years ago. There
is not the same distinction felt between
the man who labOrs with his brain for
q living and the m who supports his
eprisnac Observation-Disclosures
family by the sweat of his face.
There is no denying the fact that in
the past there was a foolish distinc-
ton made in the south between the
white man who had to labor with his
hands and the one who did not have
to do SO. These old times with their
absurdities as to labor have passed
away. Now the man who has the re-
spect and esteem of all classes is he
who 1abOrs diligently at his work, no
matter what it may be so it is an hon
est calling. The farmer behind the
pillow or the mechanic at the forge or
work bench can command as much re-
spect as the lawyer, the doctor OF any
other professional man.
The day laborer who does IN honest
days work in field or industrial plant
can feel as proud of his manhood and
of his independence and self-reliance
as any man who walks the earth. An
honest. industrious man, no matter
what his calling, has no superior in
this country.
These are the conditions we find in
this country today. OF course there |
are some idiots who think it beneath
them to labor and who look down upon |
those who do, who prefer to live upon !.
the labor of others to soiling their
hands with any Kind of work. Such
men deserve the contempt of the very !
men whom they pretend to look down |
upon.
Because of these present conditions |
we expect to see the white men, at no
great distance in the future, monopo- |
lie all branches of skilled and the
more lucrative ones of unskilled labor !
in the south.