Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-07-03
LABOR PROBLEM UP
FOR DISCUSSIONS
IN PART OF SECTION.

Leading contractors in all parts of
the South and Southwest discuss in
this weeks issue of the Manufacturers
Record the general conditions of con-
ditions 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
ard whites. Many of these contract
ors, employing in the aggregate many
thousands of negro hands, with ex-
perience running over many years, re-
gard the negro as one of the great
labor asets of the South, and some
claim that for rough contract work
the negro as one ar the great
laborers in the world and far super
ior to foreigners.
The broad discussions has been
called forth by the following ques-
tons presented by the Manufacturers
Record to the largest contracts Of
the South and Southwest.
Is the supply of labor ample for all
contract work in sight, or is it pos
sible that that there will be short
age of labor, with a 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, anc |
how efficient relatively do you find
them in the kind of work in which
you are engaged?
These letters bring out very forcibIy
that contract work over the South, out
to Texas and oklahoma, is much
more active than for several years;
that there is a tendency to higher
rate of wages, and here and there an
indication of 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 preference for negroes
for rough labor, while others are
strong in their commentator Of !
whites for the higher class of mech
anical work In view of these condi- |
tons, 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 learn 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 Eng
land concern having a branch in
North Carolina has been sending
large number of negroes to it's New
England plant to help to meet the
demand. Many other letters call at
tention to this tendency TO seek to
fill up the vacuum in other sections
by drawing labor from the South.
1t is to be hoped that the develop
opment of the South will be sufficient
ly rapid to enable all of its own peo-
pie to find employment at home, and
that instead of the rough labor of
this section going North and West be-
cause of the demand there will be
such a demand in the South as to
equalize the situation and indeed
draw laboring people from other sec
tions.
These letters indicate widespread
construction activity in the South.
They show that the movement al
ready under way, though not as ac-
lively as it was prior to the panic Of
1907, is still so much broader than az
any time since that year that the lah-
oring people of the South are likely