Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
| WORKMEN ARE WANTED
Southern Plans to Encourage
immigration.
STATES SEND OUT AGENTS
Alien Stream Should Be Directed
From Ellis Island.
COTTON RAISED BY WHITE MEN
Remarkable Increase in Wealth in
South Carolina-How a Senator
Was Gold Bricked.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
ATLANTA, February %, 1907.
All the southern states are going in for
immigration. Conventions are being held
in the large cities to organize co-opera-
tive movements to take advantage of the
liberal construction Of the immigration law
by the new Secretary Of Commerce and
Labor. Commissioner Sargent of the immi
grafton bureau has been down, and in his
earnest way, has explained to the people
how they can do it without infringing on
the contract labor law. In GeorSia the
other day the mayors Of thirty cities met
and organized. The executive committees
of the boards of trade are pooling their
issues and are trying to raise money to
pay the expenses of immigration agents In
Europe, as was done in the case OF South
Carolina. Mr.. Sargent has explained that
as long as the money is expended by an
official representative of the state govern
ment no questions will be asked as 10
where it comes from or what is done with
it. The funds used by Commissioner Wat
son of South Carolina were contributed
by planters millowners and other employ
ers who need labor. and a good deal OF II
was used to pay the steamship fare OF I'm
Immigrant was promised permanent en-
ployment at stated wages, and, while there
were no written agreements, this would
have been clearly violation OF the con-
tract labor law If 1t had been zone by an
Individual But under the ruling Of Secre-
tary Straus state commissioner can use
any inducements he pleases to secure i'm
migrants, and can pay their expenses with
funds contributed by their future en-
ployers.
Seeking Labor Abroad.
North Carolina Georgia. Florida and
Maryland have already taken steps to FOL
low the example of South Carolina. and
are sending agents to Europe to solicit i'm
migrants in the same manner. No leglsla-
ture of a southern state has yet appropriat-
ed any money for this purpose. All the
funds are raised by private subscription,
and the subscribers have the privilege OF
selecting the cream of the immigrants when
they come. The commissioners are instruct
ed to seek intelligent married men with
families if possible, because they are more
apt to be sober, serious, industrious and
contented and to settle down permanently
and also, because women operatives are
needed in the factories. -
1t is strange that the state authorities do
not establish agencies at Ellis Island and
nick the cream of the immigrants there.
1t would be easy to divert to the southern
states a considerable number of the mil
lions
couraxement or invitation. Last year about
l. 100 COO homeSeekers arrived in this coun-
try; within the last ten years more than
1000 600 of aliens have been added to our
population, and the most of them settle
where they are not wanted. 1t is difficult
to persuade them to go where they are
wanted, and half the states of the Union
are crying out for more labor. One of the
largest cotton manufacturers in South Caro-
lima told me yesterday that 10000 white
farm hands and 10000 white factory hands
are imperatively needed In that state ana
as many more in each of the South At
lantic states, where the limit of Industrial
development has been reached. he says,
with the existing labor supply. Plenty of
capftal can be obtained. Labor is scarcer
than money.
Colored Labor Not Skilled.
Colored labor is not counted any more.
Colored labor is not employed in the manu-
factories only on the farms, as servants
in the households and for rough work on
the railroads and the streets. Yet, in olden
times, all the plantation mechanics were
colored.
My friend explained that there has been
a steady decadence in the quality of colored
labor throughout the south since the race
was admitted to citizenship, notW1thstand-
ing all that Booker Washington has done
and is doing to train colored men and wom-
en-. He said the greatest difficulty was that
they will not stick to their work. Every
time they get little ahead they quit until
their money is gone. They are not reliable;
they lack a sense of responsibility, and, in
the factories, colored operatives cannot be
trusted with machinery-nelther women nor
men, No colored help is employed in any
of the cotton factories of the south for that
reason. A few years ago party of we'll
TODD colored citizens of North Carolina
organized company and built factory in
which none but colored hands were to be
employed. The chief object was to demon
strate that they are capable and trust
worthy when they are properly treated, out
that factory was failure: My friend in
sisted that 1t demonstrated the reverse OF
what was intended.
Cotton Raised by White Labor.
You often hear it asserted that a white
man cannot work under southern and
yet l am assured that more than half the
cotton crop of the south is now raised by
white men without the aid of colored labor.
and that the proportion is growing larger
very rapidly. 1t is asserted that all the
increase in the cotton crop of late years
represents white labor; that the amount of
cotton raised by colored labor is decreasing
every year, chiefly because the colored
hands are drifting from the farms to the
cities and white men from the north and
other sections arc taking up land and till
ing the fields themselves. / went into this
question very thoroughly in Alabama and
nlSSiSS!ppl tWO yedIS dSO, anu SIOWeu ny
the official figures that similar assertions
concerning those states were not true. The
census returns from Mississippi and Ala
bama demonstrated that more land is cult
waited by colored people and more cotton is
raised by that race than ever before, but
cannot find the returns for the south At
lantic states down here.
Growth of Southern Wealth.
l have not finished the story of the ex-
traordinary growth of wealth in the south
ern states Many of my readers complain
of too much statistics, but they will forgive
me printing them because they are unusual,
and certainly everybody is interested in
knowing that South Carolina is increasing
In wealth faster than any other state IN
the Union.
The following table shows the wealth of
various kinds in South Carolina, according
to the census returns for 1904, and the in
crease during the four years from the wear
1900.