The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-02

evarv mart of the South. It appears
 too that the worst is yet to come. A
 rose of Southern prosperity 7eems no'
 to be without vexing thorns. Tne zen
 eraI opinion Is that sometning has so'
 to be done to meet the fiagSins reNsn
 of negro labor for farm ire ana iarn .,n
 work The buildiig of railroads, the
 growth of the cities and the increase
 In manufacturing enterprise which em-
 brace nearly the entire South arc
 causes that have grievously depleteo
 corn and cotton fields of the requisite
 number of hands on many a farm anu
 plantation. In some parts of the South
 labor of the black sort seems to ne
 almost dcmoralized. while this deter
 ioration of willing hands among the
 males has naturally. and. If anything
 even more seriously. affected the re- liability and readiness of the servant class of female blacks. We must either get immigration or induce our people of both sexes to do their own work" said Representative Wiley, of Alabama, discussing tho spondent. ..".** ~.- Colonel Wiley cited instances of un. supplied demand for labor in his dis trict, which had been drawn from the farms to work in the lumber regions of South Alabama, where the wage earned in cash proved a most allurinS temptation to negro labor to quit tho
 growing fields for the lumber camp and the gregarious felicities which the life afforded to the light hearted and his "honey-bud." It is common | understanding now that no negro wo- man whose husband gets as much as | a dollar a day will work as servant | Such an income encourages her to go | to keeping house From all reports. | coming from every part of the South | ern States the mission of Professor | Booker Washington to persuade the negro to industry and frugality anI | persistence of energy in practical | direction has developed anything but good for the agricultural country | southward
 Southern men who gather here oc- | casionally at the hotels discuss this
 question of loss of negro labor more | than any other. and are beginning to
 debate what Is best to supply the de- 1 fcfency It seems agreed that the so- l lution of the trouble must come | through immigration, but here comes | the question as to what sort of immi- | grafton is most desirable. Two classes | of foreigners are most favored-ltal- | ians and Chinese.
 | The difficulty as to Italian immigra- l ton Is that most of 1t comes from
 Sicily and Southern Italy. the least l thrifty and orderly class from the sun l lit penisular. The trouble about the | Chinese is that the Chinese exclusion | act is in the way and the eternal op- position of the Pacific Slope States to
 any change in the law looms om- | pously.
 For all that. the labor problem in
 the south merits and is receiving im- | mediate attention which must. in or der to be effectual, be presented 10 | Congress in some practical way.
 we could use for immediate em-
 ployment in my State. as official re- | ports show, as many as 60,000 labor CTS" said Senator Simmons. of North | Carolina, discussing this question to-
 day.
 II doubt very much" he added.
 whether this army of wage earners would satisfy the urgent demand for help which comes from the farm, the factory. the lumber camps and dozen other sources. In every one of the
 ninety-seven counties of North Caro- | lima the cry for men goes up and is un- l answered It is not because our pop
 ulation has diminished, for it has
 grown at healthy rate. The short l aee of labor simply arises from | changed conditions. Twenty years
 ago the people of North Carolina and other Southern States were busy In | only one or two ways: today they are
 working in many different directions.
 Industries have sprung up and multi piled and new employments nave been 1 created. A class of our white popu- | lation has left the farms to work in
 the cotton mills: the whole industrial
 situation has changed.
 '"The hope of the South at this mo-
 ment appears to lie in getting Euro
 mean immigration. Heretofore the | thrifty and industrious homeseekers | from the Old World have turned their