The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-28

mace of unfavorable legislation.
 Negro Labor in Alabama. 1 Generally speaking, the colored worker 1 of Alabama is not a success when he is l taken from the cotton fields and haf- l messed to the chariot of coal and iron. l The boss who can get the best work
 from crew of southern aarkies must i be man of unusual natural gifts \ l hortherner is seldom, if eyer, successful. l Captain John D. Hanby, a born-and- bred southerner, superintendent of the Sloss mine near Bessemer. has made hls gang | of five hundred negroes as efficient as any equal number of whites could be; but cap Hanby is an exception. He is the oldest mine superintendent in Alabama in point of service, and probably the
 most popular man in the whole district. Generous, bluff, conYiVial one minute knocking a negro down for disobedienee and the next minute picking him up, Hanby Is an ideal southern mine boss, delivering the ore at the furnace at d total cost of siXty-three cents a ton. If all mine bosses had his rough-and-reaGy mastership the labor problem of Alabama
 would be soved-at least so far as tae
 interests of the corporations are con eerned.
 But four-hfths of the employers report trouble.
 with twice as many men as we need said President Maben. of the Sloss- Shef- 1 field company, "because negro refuses to work more than half of the tlme Whenever l can put a white man in the place of a negro. 1 do. The only final solution is white labor. and | expect that
 We shall be driven To bring in Italians and Hungarians from the north" Alabama miners, white and black, work only thirteen days a month. on an aver age. This is not n guess but the result of an official Inquiry. Not one negro h twenty saves any money. As long as a negro has money in his pocket work IS 1 for him remote necessity. When he IS i in the mine, any fantom of an excuse will induce him to quit. He will stop work for revival. for Il circus for his grand- mothers birthday.
 There are no skilled negro workers Tn i the steel mills. but d few have risen to be sub-contractors in the mines having l from eight to sixteen negroes under them. It is not uncommon for these men to make forty dollars a week or 1 more when there are no accidents They. Of course have money in the bank and
 own their own homes A negro drillel can make two dollars day. In two days he earns enough to pay a months rent for his two-room shack: six days
 more buys a months supply of corn meal and pork; then comes a few days for debts, and a few days for whisky, and
 his months labor is happily ended
 The average negro mining camp is scene of squalor and desolation. The work is hard and dangerous. and the negroes react from it into rioting and drunkenness. Alternate drudgery and dissipation make them physical wreeks ] before middle age. SD that if it were not
 for the constant influx of new laborers from the cotton fields they would soon
 become extinct. few are joining trade
 unions and trying heroically to better
 their condition but the great mass are
 slowly, steadily sinking beneath the in- creased pressure of industrialism
 The present lack of sufficient water IS drawback which Birmingham Is com pelled to admit A Philadelphia water company has the city largely at it's mercy ! controlling the only nearby sources of supply Sooner or later however and probably with state aid conduit will be built from river thirty-fiVe miles distant, which will meet the present and future wants of the city
 There is no insuperable obstacle in the path of the Alabama iron aud steel men
 They have behind them the omnipotence
 of eastern capital, and the expensive ex- perience of Pittsbufg can save them
 from making a great many mistakes
 They are served by seven railroads and
 will soon have three more With the
 completion of the Panama canal which
 will put Birmingham In close touch with
 the ports of the Pacific ocean, the men
 of Alabama will move quickly on to their golden age.