The Prescott daily news., 1916-07-01
NEGRO LABOR BEST ON
 ROUGH CONTRACT WORK

Leading contractors in all parts of the South and Southwest discuss in this weeks issue of the Manufactur- CTS Record the general conditions of contract work of all kinds, the supply of labor, and give their views as to the relative advantages for rough contract work of negroes and whites. Many of these contractors, employing in the aggregate many thousands of negro hands, with experience running over many years, regard the negro as one of the great labor assets of the South, and some claim that for rough contract work the negro is the best aborer in the world and far superior to foreigners.
 This broad discussion has been called forth by the following ques- tions presented by the Manufacturers Record to the largest contractors of the South and Southwest:
 Is the supply of labor ample for all contract work in sight, or is it pos sible that there will be a shortage of labor, with 6 probability of higher wages, as now seen in the North
 To what extent are you depending upon white labor and to what extent upon negro labor in your work, and how efficient relatively do you find them in the kind of work in which you are engaged?
 These letters bring out very clearly that contract work all over the South, out to Texas and Oklahoma, is much more active than for several years; that there is a tendency to a higher rate of wages, and here and there an indication of a scarcity of labor. The majority of the contractors who eX- pressed their opinion as to the rela- tive value of white and negro labor expressed I preference for negroes for rough labor, while others are strong in their commendation of whites for the higher class of mechan- ical work. In view of these condi- tions, one contractor suggests the great need of industrial schools for white boys throughout the South to enable them to thoroughly learn trades unhampered by conditions which now exist in some places, where at present they would only be able to lea1n under negro help.
 So great is the demand for labor, skilled and unskilled, throughout the North Atlantic and Middle States and in the Lake region that efforts are being made in many cases to draw labor from the South. One New England concern having a branch i'm North Carolina has been sending large number of negroes to its New England plant to help to meet the demand. Many other letters call at tenton to this tendency to seek to fill up the vacuum in other sections by drawing labor from the South
 It is hoped that the development of the South will be sufficiently rapid to enable all of it's own people to find employment at home, and that in- stead of the rough labor of this sec tion going North and West because of the demand there will be such de- mand in the South as to equalize the situation and indeed draw laboring people from other sections.
 These letters indicate widespread construction activity in the South They show that the movement already under way, though not as active as it was prior to the panic of 1907, is still so much broader than at any time since that year that the laboring peo- pie of the South are likely to be em- ployed more fully than they have been in profitable work for some years. Contract work on streets and road building is especially active, and this will doubtless increase during the coming months.