The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-11-08
SHORTAGE OF LABOR
Menaces Progress Of Many
Industries in the South.
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
Presented Through the Columns ef
The Manufacturers Record-Thea
&
Fields Neglected and the
Railroads Handicapped.

Correspondence 10 The Manufactur-
ers' Record (Baltimore) dwelling upon
the extent of material developments
row under way in the south, describes
the widespread scarcity of labor ham,
pering that development. 1t says, in
l.art:
"Probahly the most striking illus.
traticn of the scarcity of laborers in
the south is seen in the cotton fields.
During trip of over hundred miles
through an important cotton region IN
Georgia and Alabama very careful
coun. was made of the number OF cot
ton pickers seen, and the total was
fourteen, when, judging by the dis,
tance travelled, and the condition OF
the cotton needing immediate picking,
there ought to have been more nearly
1,400. -.
Another illustration is given in the
fact that the proposed exposition in
Atlanta scheduled for 1910 has been
abandoned, not because of the inabil-
ity to secure the money, but because
il was made clear to the organizers
of it that it would be practically i'm.
POSSIBLE to secure laborers to erect
the buildings. Every contractor In the
city is crowded 70 the utmost to take
care of regular work, every manufac-
turing ,enterprise is likewise short OF
laberers and the country at large IS
so busy that laborers could not pc
brought in from elsewhere.
"Thfs scarcity of labor is most pro-
nounced in the inability of railroads
to carry out much needed improve
ments. There is scarcely a railroad
in the south that is not swamped
with business. Of some of the leading
systems it might almost be said that
ttey are practically broken down from
Inability to hanile with any degree
of promptness either passenger or
freight traffic. Many thousands OF cars,
r,any hundreds of locomotives and
nanv thousands Of miles OF double
track are needed if the railroads OF
ths. south are in any way whatever
to measure up to the growing busi-
ness ahead of them.
$50 rapid has been the growth
of the coal mining industry in the
fields of southeastern kentucky, south
western Virginia and northeastern
Tennessee that operators are now con-
fronted with the serious problem OF a
scarcity of labor. Within the past year
many miles of railroad have been
| constructed in this mountainous re-
g:on, numerous undeveloped coal areas
have been opened and a great IN.
crease in coal tonnage has been reg.
istered. Probably 100 new operations
have been started within the past
year in the region centering ABOUT the
| meeting point of these. states, IND
Notwithstanding the fact that several
thousand foreign laborers have been
brought into the mining camps the
mast summer, the supply of miners
| is still inadequate.
"Given 4 fair supply of labor, the
railroads could increase 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 rail:
roads of the central south can begin
to catch up with the development and
| increase of travel and traff1c through
out that section"