Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1912-06-14
Will the SOUTH BECOME IN
DEPENDENT OF NEGRO
LABOR?

lgAVAAVAoou0 ASSASS0 tSNAS - -.
states have made and are making since
the emancipation and certain conclu-
sions as to southern labor that are
Of the greatest interest to the readers
as embodying retrospect based upon
facts and figures that admits of no
controversy an6 q perspective that Is
always problematical and that seldom
justifies In results the forecasts OF
those who make them. The best
laid plans Of men and mice aft gang
aglee." .....1 .M
Mr.. G. Grosvenor Dave, managing
director OF the Southern Commercial
congress, for example, glories In the
fact that the south has $4,000 square
miles OF land and water; 300,000.000
acres OF cultivatable land, half OF
which has not felt the, touch OF the,
plow, with vast mineral wealth and in
comparable climatic conditions trans
forming the vital fluid Of rain through
the chemistry of plant life into gifts
that make glad the heart Of man" Ma
ture has done her part to make the
south veritable garden OF the Lord"
II ~'only man is vile" there, we ask,
whose is the fault? ,.-,..., .
On the other hand. Mr.. Philip K.
Keller, in Uncle Remus' Home Maya
zine, takes no stock in DR.. Washing
toms hopeful outlook, In the North
1American Review. of the negro's fu-
ture In the south, as indicated in 1910,
by his ownership of 100000 farms.
While Mr.. Kellar shows that the south
produces annually $6,01O,0O0 worth OF
agricultural, forest and mineral prod
ucts, with $21, 500, 900 invested in man
ufactures, he Is of the opinion that
negro labor is still necessity In
southern fields, but 1t is not such a
necessity as it was in the years fol-
lowing the close Of the war; and the
last 10 or 20 years show that white
men not only can work in the southern
fields, but that they do better work
and get larger yields than under the
old systems of slave and negro contract
labor" But negro farm owners, by the
same token, are getting better results
under newer systems Of cultivation,
and negro laborers are receiving a
wage as independent workmen, with
right to save their earnings and buy
land, that was not true of the slave
conditions.
THE lazy mans country Is where
the lazy man is. The lazy man is dis
appearing rapidly from the south, and
with him is going the idea that the
south is lazy land" says Mr.. Kellar.
Negroes who are disposed to be lazy,
to work half time, to work half their
land, and to spend most they make
from year to year on their backs and
stomachs, therefore, take warning from
Mr.. Kellar's view Of the lazy man and
lazy country business. The white
south is wideawake; the black south
cannot afford to sleep on its opportuni-
ties w..
The mines and factories of the south
are full Of workmen from Europe who
save their money and buy land in
small parcels. They are agriculturists
by education and preference, and as
soon as they make enough in mine and
factory work to purchase and stock
farms they abandon mine and factory
work to others of their countrymen,
of whom there is always an unfailing
supply. The southern negroes should
study the labor, and saving ways Of
the foreigners among them, and profit
by it.
The south is no longer a lazy mans
country. Its agricultural, forest and
mineral lands will go finally to those
who are not lazy men. The Age de-
sires to impress these facts upon the
minds of It's southern readers now,
in the accepted time, when land is
cheap, wages reasonable and right to
save money and buy is as much their
privilege as of the white man.