The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-27
LABOR SCARCITY
sOUTu,--~ UNEMPLOYMENT IS BE-
 Dg,Y HAMPERED.
Cotton Pickers Were .roducfive Region of In Alabama and
 Georgia.


 et., 2S-(Special.) )--Cor,
 n this weeks issue or
 urers' Record from At
 Ieyelopment now under
 uth, describes the wider
 of labor hampsSing,.
 ent. It, says;
 he most, striking ,ilits- 20, scarcity of laborers in
 cen in the cotton fields.
 of over hundred miles
 portant' cotton region Tn
 Alabama, a very careful
 ie of the number of cot ron pIckers "a very carefulshrdluauu ton pickers seen, and the total Wfs fourteen. when, judging by the disr tance travelled and the conditiop oi the cotton needing immediate picking there ought to have been more near Another illustration is given In the fact that the proposed exposition Tn Atlanta scheduled for 1910 has been abandoned not because or the inap. T., ty to secure the money, but because IL was made clear to the organizers ot It that it would be practically impos- sib1e to secure laborers to erect the buildings. Every contractor ih the city Is crowded to the utmost to take turing enterprise is likewise snort of laborers and the country at large Is so busy that laborers could nut Us brought in from elsewhere.
 tl This scarcity of labor IS most pro- noudced in the inability of railroads to carry out much needed Improvements. There is scarely railroad in the South that is not swamped with business. Of some of the leading systems It might almost be said that they are practically broken down from lntblli- ty to handle with any degree of prompt ness either passenger or freight traf- fife. Many thousands of cars, many hundreds. of locomotives and many thousands of miles or double tracE aEe needed if the railroads of the south are in any way whatever to measure up to the growing business ahead oi them.
 rs o rap.d has been the growth of of Southeastern Kentucky. Southwes- tern Virginia and Northeastern Ten nessee that operators are now co con, scarcity of labor. Within the past year many miles of railroad have been constructed in this mountainous reg ion, numerous undeVeloped coal areas have been opened and great increase in coal tonnage has been registered. Probably 100 new operations have been started within the past year Tn the standing the fact that several thou point of these States. and nutwitn- standing the fact that several thou sand foreign laborers have been brought into the mining camps the past summer. the supply of miners is still inadequate.
 Given a fair supply of labor the railroads could inc rease their facili- ties to such an extent as to be able to. handle business, but to do this not simply millions. but tens of millions, possibly some hundreds Of millions. must be expended before the railroads of the Central South can begin to catch up with the development and in- crease of travel and traffic through out that section. Given the same falr supply of labor. it is entirely possible for the South to increase the consump- tion of cotton in it's own mills 50O,0O0 bales next year and steadily expend this industry far more rapidly than IL has done during the part, and with the same fair supply ol labor the irou trades of Birmingham could se doubled in five years, ya,,a ana an the e9pooV ,ts,n tons that period to very nearly, il not quite S,ov0,00O tons. and the coal production of 100000 tons, to 20.000.000 or more. Broadly speaking, the general throughout the South with whom the subject has been discussed in rather extended trip covering several weeks Is that the price of labor has advanced pt least 50 per cent. and efficiency Of labor has decreased at least ..a0 per gent. within the past five years. Tn and Mississippi. This situation has awakened the farmer, the merchant tine manufacturer and the railroad op- fTdtOT to tHe supp hcSu VI tiS hour--the need of immigration. "EX- perience with foreigners is emphasiI- Ing that conviction. One iron compa- hy in Alabama, which for six months has been working about thirty-five italians and Greeks, has found that they do about twice as much work as the negroes at the same plant anc that they seem to know nothing bu: work and thrift and the saving of money They have made it possible to keep running an important indus try which otherwise would have had to close down for a time. The very competition of the foreign laoorer with the negro will stimulate the ne- gro and be his best help toward portunity. The work for immigra- lion must be done by Individual States and must be carried forward with the most liberal expenditures"