St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1906-10-06
THE SCARCITY OF LABOR
Is CAUSING UNEASINESS.

r The scarcity Of labor with Whicl
: to harvest the crop is being felt no
' only in Louisiana, but throughout tht
| United States.
The fields are plenteously lader
| with the result of the years labor
{ and hands can not be had to prepare
the harvest for the market.
In the wheat States laborer is
teeated like a lord in order to induce
him to stay, which latter task is rem
dered the harder by the fact that the
laborer knows that there is work
awaiting him in every field in the
United States.
In Louisiana the commission houses
and labor bureaus are in daily re-
ceipt of scores of letters from plan
ters asking for farm hands with
which to take off their crops, but
they are powerless to render much
aid in this line, as those who are idle
now are not in the market for work.
A systematic campaign has been
inaugurated by the Southern States
to compel it's horde of vagrants to go
to work. The move was started by
Gov. Vardaman, of Mississippi, and
is being taken up by the other States.
Gov. Vardaman has urged that all
vagrants be Immediately taken up
and dealt with severely by the courts,
and as the yagrants Of our neighbor-
| ing State knows full well that the
long-haired chief-executive means ey-
cry word he says, his pronumciamen-
to is having a salutary effect.
The Louisiana immigration Bureau
has also taken steps in that direction,
which is being carried out by Gov.
Blanchard, who has addressed the
following letter to the Sheriffs and
Chiefs-of-Police of the different par
ishes and towns of the State:
Dear Sir:-I am directed by the
Governor to call your attention to the
following letter from the Louisiana
immigration Association, Of New Or
leans, La, which explains itself.
Yours very truly,
G. V. PORTER, JR.,
Acting Private Secretary. |
New Orleans, La, Sept Z, 1906.
Gov. N. G. Blanchard,
Baton Rouge, La,
Dear Sir
The shortage of laborers in the
South is a very serious question to
those persons who are engaged in in
dustrial pursuits and a continuation of
these conditions will be menace to
the development and progress of the
country. The reasons for this short
age is the general prosperity of the
South and also the fact that the in
creased price of wages has made it
possible for the average laborer to
make enough by working three days
in the week, to live in idleness and
loafng the other four. That this is
so is better evidenced by the scores
of able bodied men loafng around
every small town and the hundreds in
large cities and this, Notwithstanding
the fact that those engaged in agri-
pursuits, especially cotton,
have a struggle to hire enough labor
ers to harvest their crops. It is in
your power to ameliorate these con-
ditions, by officially instructing every
Sheriff of every Parish and every
Chief Of Police in every city of your
State, to arrest and imprison loafers
and vagrants, and we ask for the
good of the communities in question
and the South in general that you
help US in this matter SO doing.
Yours truly,
THE LOUISIANA IMMIGRATION |
ASSN.
REGINALD DYKERs, Tecy-Treas.
Per r.
The news comes from Washington,
D. c., that the department of agricul- t
Iure will institute a series of inquiries