The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-18
rHr kArrrna or Arn1oA.

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 rHr KAFFsns or AFRICA.
 In the current issue of The National Review there Is an exceedingly inter- estins paper on "The Labor Problem in South Africa" contributed by "A Member Of Winchester College" who is evidently . well informed English man. His article Is largely confined to the uncertainty and inefsiciency of the kafirs ss lsborers. and as these people are near akin to the negro race os America, # Is perhaps not surprising to nnd that much thai he says sounds very much as if It had been written about our Southern negroes. speaking of the trouble in Johannesberg and ad- Jacent regions arising from the difa- culty of getting labor he says
 The root Of the evil Is not political nor financial, but racial. It lies in the incompatfbility of the white mans dogma with the black mans nature, Is dropped. or the nature of the other is changed, the difficufty will remain The Kafiir Is like the Gibeonite of old wster sws This s 0GS aSe aao doga 0tawsr tSss the English colonist has Inherited from the Boer. a dogma which Influences all his actions action in deaIins with @ natives n and s,a political and social creed.
 The writer then goes on to show how the Kaflrs are naturally indoiens. averse to labor and very much given to taking their ease as soon as they can get enough ahead to allow them to quit work. and then nothing but com pulsion can get him to do stroke of work and eompulsion was used when nothing else would do. He gives us this further insight into Kafhr habits and practices:
 A Ksfir on the mines could indulg in the vices of both idleness and drink more easily than one who worked on spell of hard work, but to any long ns 5ss sSs asvs s was sgss ss rsssy sS % to drunk on the proceeds for the remain. ing four. And this was the regular practice of the natives. and no excep- iy profitable to the liquor trade. and perfectly satisfactory to the mines. as long as there were enough Kaff1rs on each to supply an adequate sober con tingent for actual work.
 One more extract win sufice for the present:
 The situation was further compiicat- wholly devoid of avarice or desire for wealth. Having earned enough to sup. ply his few wants. and to pay. his hut. tax he content to rstrs .s. to as x kras year. Consequently the higher wages become. the sooner he earns the re- uuired amount, and the less work he ed already to be trembling in the bal ance, could not possibly afford any substantial increase in wages. They vaai. so 70 they were forced to look else where, and for a time they found re- lief in the importation of indertured native laborers from Portuguese terri tory.
 The entire article. which is evidently from the pen of an accurate but dis interested observer. goes to show that the Kafir nature Is very much like the nature of all the negrold races when left to themselves Nothing but dire and present necessity will induce them to work If 1t can be shirked or avoid ! ed in any possible way. In the days of slavery in the South the negroes worked because they were forced to do so. and as & genera, proposition they worked for no other reason. In most instances the few free negroes in the South were a nuisance. a bad and dis duieting example for the slaves and disturbing element of the population. The slaves were generally we'll fed and cared for and were a contented and happy people, as a mass. They laborcd because they knew they would be pun ished for likeness, and were satisfac- tory and reliable laborers.
 This was the negro in slavery. but the negro in freedom Is quite differ ent being. Even here in the South. l where they have continually the stim- ulus of the white example before them they are continually becoming less re- liable The scarcity and unreIiability of labor is getting to be one of the se- rious problems confronting Southern farmers, and they see no hope of it's solution through the negroes. When they can avoid work they will do 1t, and if they can get away from the farms they do so. The negro of the United States and the Kafhr of South Africa are very much alike. and, as our n.