The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-08-28
PASSING OF NEGRO SERVANT.
Creates Difficult Problem Already in
Lodging Houses in Many South
ern Towns.
j. IT. Salter in Manufacturers Rec

While the industrial world of the
South is chatting at the restraint i'm
posed by. a dearth Of skilled labor in
the shop, mill and factory, the lack
of domestic help in the conduct of the
household is breaking up the home and
creating a problem in another direc-
tion equally as difficult of solution.
So far no organized effort to solve
it by immigration or otherwise has
been attempted, as in the case of
skilled labor, nor, in fact has it been
generally discussed with view of
adopting remedy of any kind, but
as it becomes more acute some plan
must be tried to improve the condi-
lions. Already in many Southern
cities and towns, bording houses, lodg-
ing houses and hotels are crowded
with families who are incapacitated
to do household drudgery and unable
to have it done at any price within the
reasonable bounds of economy. They
are forced to accept al, sorts of incon-
veniences and discomforts in con-
sequence, not as a makeshift, but rs
permanent thing, while the dream of
a home and its freedom becomes more
vague; and unreal as domestic help
grows more mythical.
An Important Question.
is there any wonder that the uues-
tion Of race suicide should become
so important when the very founda-
ton Of large families is crumbling
into decay SO fast7 Without house
and without domestic help the rear
ing of children becomes burden
which many people are all too glad
To escape by doping their conscience
with the excuse of no home.
But what are we going to do about
it? People must eat and they can
not all cook, so what will the end
be? So long as the negro woman
could be coaxed and cajoled to- work
for double the wages earned the
Southern house wife put up with her
slouchy ways and slipshod methods
or lack of methods, for the average
negro woman is about as innocent of
any system and method in her work
as she is of ambition and purpose
in life. But now that no amount Of
persuasion and pay can induce them
to ego into service,' as they call it,
9TH II ho fc,n hot
it shall be is an open question. The
Southern people, as a whole, have a
happy faculty Of adjusting themselves
to the conditions with storic fortitude
and complaisance which stand them in
great need now, for under the trying
circumstances they have ample oppor-
tunity to call into exercise all Of their
reserve power in this line.
Less Work for a Living.
1t is not that the negro servant
has grown more shiftless, indolent
and unreliable than formerly that
this elimination of idlcncss has been
reached. but is largely due to the
greater ease Of making living here
how by less work than formerly. I'M
providence and irresponsibility are
dominant characteristics in the ne
gro s makeup, and no amount Of edu-
cation and training will eradicate it.
They are. however. clannish in brut-
ish sort Of. way, whether from natural
instinct or general perversity no one
san say, and will occasionally accept
service to help out others who are hun
CRY, but it is pretty well known fact
among house keepers that when one
negro woman works a dozen eat, and
often this is the dominant incentive
b. induce them to work at all. This
statement seems to be coAroborHted
by the ratio of those who work to
those who idle. When the average
negro woman servant has been fur
tunate to escape the police court fines
for fighting, disorderly conduct, steal
ing or the furniture installment man,
whom she invariably tries to beat, long
enough to accumulate few dollars,
she usually becomes so unbearably in
different to her work and careless OF
her duties as to either compel her dis
charge by the employe or pave the way
for an excuse to quit on account OF
"Ah s'ry n d. spine o. nah
ba'k," No matter if there is sick
ness, or even death in the house hold,
when this notion of quitting seizes her
she cannot be prised loose.