The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-03
SOME PLAIN FACTS.


 the Montgomery branch of the vir- Carolina Chemical Company with white in place of negro labor. Mir. Izlar. the manager of the Montgomery branch, tells why his concern Is im- porting and employing white laborers and the good. results obtained. We aIlude to this. because facts are better than theories. and The Advertiser has for some time been discussing both the necessity and certainty of discarding coiored labor unless negroes themselves change the situation by showing them selves willing and reliable as laborers.
 The Montgomery incident applies to | shop or manufacturing work, but as is we'll known negroes are not generally employed in mills and factories. except ] in limited numbers, because they have | not been found satisfactory. In the es- l tabiishment we have alluded to here in Montgomery much of the labor is of a kind that negroes can do as well as I any white people can, if they could be relied on. which they cannot be. Now we have another experimental facs. coming from Arkansas. In an address at recent meeting of the American Economic Association. MT. Alfred H. Stone of Mississippi gave some of thc experiments and experiences with white and coiored labor at "sunny Side" a large cotton plantation in Arkansas. He said:
 The present operators of this prop erty are, practical cotton planters and control in isss naa they sni Knew sssusP nothing whatever about the Italian farmer. They .smerely' adopted such labor as they found already on. hand. This con sisted of thirty-eight families of Ital- ians with 200 working hands. and 20s negro families. with 800 working hands. The Itsfians cultivated l.20O acres of l end of 1905. eight years later. the Ital- I ians numbered Ie7 squads, with 300 I working hands, while the negroes have fsilen to the Italians place In lsss. I hands. The cotton acreage has increas- | ed to g. 500 acres, of which the negroes cultivate 800 and the Italians 5000.
 Here are facts and figures which we have no reason to doubt or dispute. and they tell the Same story that is told by the Montgomery mana story that no oId-time Southerner reads with any l pleasure. We venture to assert. with out fear of contradiction. that at least ninety per cent. of the Southern far mers and large cotton planters would prefer negro labor if they could rely on 1t, but that Is just what they cannot do. Occasionally we hear of planters | who are violently opposed to the im- | portation of white labor, and who de- I clare that they have no trouble with | the negroes as farm hands. It may be and we are not disputlng it--that l there are exceptional cases where the | planter has no trouble with his colored 1 employees and is satisfied with them. We shall not deny their contention. but if they get thoroughly satisfactory re- i suits from this kind of labor they are l exceptions to the general rule. or else there are more mistaken people in the South than we had any conception of.
 However. we didn't set out to argue the question. but merely to give two examples of experiment and result The position taken by The Advertiser on the subject of immigration has been bitterly criticised in some quarters. and we have been accused of desiring to ] drive the negroes out of Alabama but this Is not true. We have been giving facts and arguing from those facts. that there must be a material change in the ways of the colored citizens UT they must give place to others. The Southern man Is long-suffering where the negroes are concerned, and will put up with more from them in the way of service and habits than any other people on earth will do. but to most things there Is limit and # has nearly been reached. The land owners of the South do not propose to let their farms lie idle. if 1t can be avoided. and if they caQnot employ and depend on ne- groes they will resort to other labor, That Is certain. and the mills and shops | will do the same. 1 And exactly in this connection. we find paragraph in The New York Age one of the Afro-American organs which is worth copying. though we dc not often flpd anything commendabl. in that sheet. A movement has been started in Atlanta to bring in two or three hundred German girls to takc the place of negresses as house ser wants, and The Independent, another bcolored organ. ridIcules the idea, claim ing that coIored help is indispensable
 to the white people of the South. To
 this The Age responds:
 If we are to hold our own in the
 bread winning occupations in the
 Southern States it must he hy compe-
 tency' and faithfulness in our servics ! and not because We are Indispensable
 And that We have &ot to fight. by com
 potency and faithfulness in service
 to maintain our foothold in the indus
 triaIism of the Southern States. where we have had a monopoly of labor. Is
 so obvious that the most stupid should
 understand it.
 This Is the plain truth. Whenever q man in any position works himself into the belief that he Is indispensable, and
 for that reason may do as he pieases
 that man is heading for a fall. and il
 is equally true of the colored people
 ''Competency and faithfulness" is al
 that will save them.
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