Okolona messenger., 1905-05-24


!. !. . . ]. !. 81. !: j: !. :
ssASHIfRs and Industrial, commercial and
'If,ENa8 A1s agricultural bodies in the South to
II M 8sfeS8 bring capital and labor TO the
IaSSt0(SfA, Southern states naturally
TRHTb$IB courages suggestions as to how this
SS9GglESEllJ can be best accomplished. That
there is a great need for intelligent
labor in the South is quite true. A Georgia mill
operator recently said
every mill know near me is short OF labor, and
the advance in the price Of cotton likely to follow
the eurtaied acreage will make this scarcity acute
in the future To succeed in cotton manufacturing
we must have hands for the mills cannot obtain
enough weavers to run all looms goods for China
and this new Chinese demand accenUuates the con-
ditiOns. Cotton manufacturing in the cotton states
has outgrOwn the supply Of native labor"
This condition Of affairs applies not only to
the cotton mills but to industrial enterprises gen.
orally, while the agricultural interests in many
sections are suffering for the need OF intelligent
labor. The South needs laborers and homeseekers
But the South does not want shiftless and lawless
elements dumped into this section by the hundreds
and thousands to become drones and objects OF
charity upon our people. These non producers not
only become burden, but their example and in
fuence are more or less demorazing to whole com
munites where they settle The South needs and
wants thrifty, law.abiding people who save their
earnings and build homes and educate their chill
dren. Already milling towns in Mississippi are
importing trained laborers from New England to
work in their mills. These are energetic people
who are not only producers, but they good citi
zens as we'll. They intelligent, economical and
law.abiding.
The South needs more Of these settlers. How
are we to get themf The advantages of the South
must be properly set before them so that they can
recognize the benefits offered by this section to the
man who is willing to work and behave himself.
There is nothing like udeiOus advertising to build
up towns and rural regions as well as stores and
factories.
But just here one important thing must be serious
ly considered. You cannot induce desirable people
to settle in large numbers in communities where the
laws are disregarded and where lawlessness holds
high carnival. They do not want to rear their
children in such communities, and they naturally
shun districts where life and property are in dan.
ger. Nearly every murder nearly every lynching
nearly every serious crime committed in the South
is exaggerated by some Of the Northern newspapers
who devote good deal Of their time and space to
such methods ofkeeping capital and desirable home.
seekers from pulling up stakes in the North and
central West and coming South. OF vast impor-
tance is it then, from material stand point as well
as from a moral point OF view, that the Southern
people should insist upon the suppression Of crime
and lawlessness in this section.
Murders and other crimes must be punished in
the Southern states in accordance with the laws
without fear or favor and without reference to the
money, political influence or social connections of
the accused and conditions will become more favor
able to the bringing in OF desirable hOmeseekers and
labOrers to this section II we expect to attract the
right kind OF settlers to Mississippi we must insist
by largely improve our criminal record.