The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-04-17

! Of hands in reconstruction and extern
sion.
| Along the Yadkin River in North
! Carolina, and in Tennessee, Georgia
! ana south Carolina, plants for the
/ electrical transmission Of water power
! are in process Of construction that
! involve the expenditure Of some SIS. :
| 100000, chiefly for labor, within the
! next two years. i. II. Edmonds, Of
! the Manufacturers Record of Balti-
| more, says that cone little town in
! North Carolina, scarcely heard Of ten
years ago is now the site Of over forty
! furniture factories, whose annual pro-
duct, aGGTegating several million dol
lars a year finds market all over the
world"
If, in addition to these few enter
pfiSes coming under my personal OBJ
| &efNaton IS augment.ng the demand
| for labor in the South, there be con-
sldered the increase Of nearly 200 per
cent in the cotton spinales OF the
South since 1899. and the marvellous
industrial expansion in almost every
other direction from ice manufacture
to petroleum wells and aluminium
production, some idea may be had Of
the importance Of the labor factor
as affecting the cotton production Of
the South.
Gets but few Emigrants.
10 fully understand it, however, it
- IItCCS@oCtlN y 10 icIlIcII1DtI tfIdI tIGc-
tIcal1y none OF the enormous immt-
grafton pouring into this country in
the last decade has been directed to
the South.
There, as in ante-bellum times, the
labor OF the negro remains the chief
reliance Of the cotton planter. The
latest figures that | have been able
to obtain Of the Southern population
ana its distribution indicate a maxi
mum increase of about 500, GOO in the
negro population of the cotton States
during the six years ended with 1905.
Applying the usual rule Of one in five
to this increase, it is plain that not
moro than 100, 900 able-bodiad negro
men have beep added to the available
labor Of the cotton States during the
period under review.
In the same time the wages paid to
this unshilled labor in the mines lum-
ber camps, on the railroads and at the
factories, have practically doubled
and average 20 cents to 80 cents an
hour, or $50 to $500 per day. earn
ed under conditions which adTnit of
the enjoyment of city life, while the
cotton ''hand'' is still supposed to be
content With $500 month, isolation
in a log cabin and little pork, corn
meal, and molasses, OF the alternative
of a ''tenant' share in a crop of
doubtful value payable at the end of
the season. after deduction has been
made, at exorbitant prices and usur-
ious interests for the supplies fur
nisned on credit.
Consumption Expands Enormously.
Small wonder then that the cotton
production of the South has become
pra ctically stationary. It is to be
borne in mind that the seven years be
tween 1S9S-'99 and 1905-'96, between
the crop of 1850 bales produced
from about 25,000,00G acres and a
crop of 10,690,0 600, produced from
about 2S,000.000 acres, are the years
of the marvellous prosperity following,
the Spanish-American war. the ire
VOcable adoption of the gold standard
in America, and the enormous increase
in the worlds gold production.
This period which will probably be
known in history as the Mckinley era
records the most stupendOuS material
progress the world has ever known.
AS was inevitable under such condi-
tiOnS, the expansion III the conSunp-
ton of cotton has been enormous, and
foresha adoWs a demand for an annual
production of 25,000,000 bales even
sooner than the most Sanguine had an
ticipated. How is this production to
be secured? In India and in Egypt
the production, as in America, seems
almost stationary.
From the South alone, for the next
decade at least the increase must
come; but with industry bidding
against industry to attract the labor
from the cotton field. q substantial.
sustained, and an almost sensational
advance in price seems to be neces-
saly to draw and to hold the labor es-
sential to even a sutticlency of cotton
for the next few years.
THEODORE H. PRICE.