“WAY DOWN SOUTH.”

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11725, 28 October 1903, Page 10

“WAY DOWN SOUTH.”

A LAND WITHOUT STRIKES,

William Dl'p.bas in the “Pall Mall Gazette. MONTCLAIR. N.J.. June 22. Only those who, like myself, occasionally visit America, can form an adequate idea of the immense difference in public sentiment apparent after a short interval. Three years ago the industrial arena uas not significantly disturbed, and I nowhere found the aspect of affairs ominous. But the great mining strike suddenly inaugurated a new era, and I now realise that the gladiators of the modem labour u or Id have chosen the United States for their batjtle-ground. It is singular, however, that directly we quit the northern section we plunge into a sphere of refreshing calm. Down in Dixie Land, that incarnation of the spirit of industrial mutiny, the walking delegate can find no hospitable shelter, and the incubators of insurrection lack all opportunity for hatching trade strife. Even in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia it is difficult to comprehend that just across the border line, over the Ohio River, and through the Middle Belt; and all the way from Chicago to New York, the masses are seething with the discontent inspired by the persistent efforts of professional agitators. In a sarcastic paragraph. the “Baltimore American 1 ’ remarks that “it is to be hoped that it will not at length be discovered that the fault with the Declaration of Independence ink was that it was not union-made." Throughout the .South labour and capital are us harmonious as in the North they are discordant. 1 note that “The Tradesman," a Chattanooga paper, boasts in an editorial that “there is no section of country in the world embracing so large an amount of territory, employing in proportion to the population .so many wage-earners, and where such extensive money interests are involved, which has been so free from strikes.”. This assertion is perfectly legitimate, being absolutely in accord with facts. All the Southern States have been practically exempt from strikes, boycotts, lockouts, and other labour disturbances during the whole of the past year, for during that time only four minor disagreements have occurred. Why should the Southern industrial realm be like a Pacific Ocean, rarely rippled by even transient unrest, while the whole of the North is all the time a troubled sea ever increasing in turbulence? The factors which contribute to stability are easily assignable. It is an extraordinary fact, that the prime element in this condition of equilibrium is the negro. Though the coloured race is the great cause of social bitterness, industrially considered the black man is the salvation of the' South. There aro more than two millions of negro labourers tilling the cotton, corn, sugar-cane, and rice-fields, and working in tho timber forests and lumbermiils, in the cotton-seed oil factories, in the iron and coal mines, in the brick ana coke making establishments, and in all vccations requiring muscular strength and physical endurance. In all such spheres of labour, under the climatic conditions of the South, these black labourers are superior to the whites. Racial antipathy and social ostracism prevent admission of the negro to white labour organisations. Unsystematic, and not being himself an organiser, the negro is a free-lance in tho labour field: Thus he stands as what the labour unions, with their delight in America for opprobrious epithets, desig- ' nate a “scab.” Indeed, the black artisan is looked on as a constant and irreconcilable menace to trade unionism. Nothing is likely to overcome the negro prejudice in favour of the doctrine of the survival of the fittest as applied to the economics of labour. Of course the average black worker does not formulate tho theory in any scientific manner, but he is no altruist, and stands eimply for number one against all the world. When Sambo is earning by his labour, according to his skill and industry, from one to three, or sometimes even four, dollars a day, with, that labour always in demand, he can never by the persuasive powers of any walking delegate be made to understand why lie should voluntarily tax himself for the benefit of a less thrifty or less qualified - workman.

When wo come to consider the case of the white worker in the South, we quickly ascertain that here also trade unionism is bound to bo at a great discount. The classes pressed into industry by the stress of circumstances since the great Civil War are very much mixed. Multitudes of white women and children belonging to families once very wealthy are now constrained to enlist in the ranks of factory toilers. These do not forget their origin, and they are far too refined to permit themselves to be classed with those whom they still look upon, with excellent reason, as inferior in education, refinement, and social connection. Thousands of mountaineers of the unique section styled “crackers," otherwise known as “piney-woods and sand liill people,” are glad to enlist, in the ranks of the manufacturing wage-earners. Indeed, the working community down South is, to a great extent, constituted of elements entirely unknown in auy other land on earth. . It may be thought that the members of the impoverished aristocratic families who thus gain their daily bread by manual toil are deeply to be commiserated. But in. most cases they bear the reversal of a once proud position nobly enough. The establishments in many parts of the South of great textile factories has opened a fine field for honourable and interesting work. The skilled operatives find themselves, . through employment in the cotton mills, placed in conditions of comfort far superior to the position they could command in their isolated homes with no definite means of subsistence. They had lapsed into circumstances which left them without educational advantages, and now that they are eagerly sought by employers, and are highly paid for their skill and exertion, they are entirely unwilling to antagonise the capitalists who have organised their means of comfortable subsistence. Labour agitators who have essayed to make trouble have been treated with scant courtesy. There is one specific reason why throughout the South the people are hostile to those who would promote alienation between employers and employed. A dollar in the South will go half as far again in purchasing the necessaries of life as an equivalent amount in the North. The wage-earners are only too well aware of this superiority, and are generally well satisfied with their remuneration. The land is usually more fertile, and is everywhere cheaper. Many now work their own farms. That the labour organisations have been unable to make any headway among the agricultural element is attributed to the size of the plantations, and the fact that the farm hands are too widely scattered for co-operation. Besides, these labourers have as yet little education, and are well satisfied with their lot. The majority of Southern workers are located on farms. But even in the mining districts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, attempts at organising anions lave ignominiouslv failed. I have, like other tourists, been impressed with the romantic beauty of the greater part of Western Virginia. All along those lovely elevated valleys and passes, which are being more and more exploited by mining companies and capitalists, I noticed how thriving villages and Jutle towns are . springing up. The summit of the Blue , Mountains is at Clifton Forge. For hundreds of square miles all around that centre the rocky and wooded hills are full of mineral treasures. This is the most beautiful “Black Country" on earth. In every valley is some favourite old resort, such as the White Springs, the Sulphur Springs, etc. It seems incongruous in such exquisite scenes to see at night the furnaces flaring among the mountain forests, and near at liand to find some fashionable beauty spot to which fashionable parties from all parts of the United States year after year come to seek health,' rest, and pleasure. Wherever we go the South Is a land of singular fascination. It is satisfactory that it is enjoying a tide of prosperity with which, so far, the attempts of union'delegates have failed to interfere.