The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-26
Forum, Of The People
A Great Reserve Labor Force.
Editor of The Age-Herald

| ID IHS huilOF OI Iuc hSe-I1cTdlu Incidentally Mir. w. E. Leake of the Southern Mineral Land Company, has dis covered laboring force in Alabama that if of untold value, and one apt to contribute to the solution of an existing problem. Not only has he made the discovery, but has demon strated its practical utility. In addition still, he has opened a way of relieving the state of the inertness of a large class of our people, and while turning them to valuable account to themselves and to the public, has sug- gested the possibility of vast philanthropy.
 Labor becoming scarce after the close of stlSe late war; and much, which Mr. Leake had not being dependable, he hit on the plan of soliciting it from the source of the poor, struggling, and improvident classes in the back districts where many muscular men were wasting their energy on small, unrenumera- tive patches and farms in the hills, scarcely eking out a bare living for themselves and their families MT. Leake brought many of these into employment at Parrish and in Tus- caloosa county, paid them wages in propor- tion to their efficiency, and put them in the way of promotion correspondent to the de- velopment of their ability both physical and mental.
 With what result? These people with a much larger income than they ever before had, have better homes, their families have greater means of comfort in every way, aspi- ration has been awakened, energy on the part of the different members of the families has been stimulated, better schools and churches have resulted, and general anima- tion has been given to the communities thus touched to the degree of general transforms tion.
 That which has been done in the instances named, is capable of being done through out the state, by the employment of this unused force in all the various industries prevailing. These people are in every of this unused force in all the various indus tries prevailing. These people are in every county, more in some of the counties than in others, in the hills and of-the-way re- gions, and why not reach them in a way similar to that adopted by MT. Leake, and transmute them into usefulness as well as into happiness?
 For generations they have been largely an inactive group of population, living apart, and living, too, from hand to mouth, without stim- ulation of ambition, each generation going the same jogtrot of the one preceding. They are an unschooled people, and worse still, indif- ferent, condition induced by their anteced- ents, surroundings, and outlook. But in the instances named above they have proved re- sponsive not only to the demand for energy, but for intelligent efficiency and dependable ness, while animated by brighter outlook on the future of life.
 It is well known that much of the coarse lawlessness, including not a little of boot logging. is directly traceable to regions like those described. Is it not better to induce these people to a course of profitable useful ness and to the promotion of material, men tai, and moral usefulness, than to have them inactive, alienated, and often a public ex- pense through the courts, a source of de- moralization, and an encumbrance to local and general progress? While the engagement of this class of society in industry would aid in dissolving the labor question, it would tend to lessen illiteracy, to say nothing of the so- cal and virtuous side of the question.
 The testimony of Mir. Leake is that they prove to be reliable and depandable, and are susceptible to development and encourage ment. While to Mir. Leake it is primarily a question of labor, the results named are natural consequences the significance of which appeals to the higher public in more ways than one.
 This is mere hint of great seeming pos sibility that pertains to every county in Alabama. While it relates first and directly to an unemployed force that is available, it involves many questions of increased happi- ness, industry, and usefulness, which ques- tions would seem possible of being answered by attention given to their enlistment. B. F. RILEY.
 Rirminpham Ala