THE NEGRO AS A WORKER.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12682, 29 October 1909, Page 4

THE NEGRO AS A WORKER.

Judge Dickson in "Hampton's Magazine" says: The average black man does the least possible amount of work in the most indifferent manner. The interest* of his employer are nothing to him. He leaves his job at a moment's notice; it is quite common in the South for .black servants to take summary leave of their employers, and cooks delight in doing this when their mistresses are ill or have their houses full. Many negroes, if they find they can live on a dollar a week with the help of their wives' earnings, will work one day in the week for a dollar, and loaf the other six. A largo planter who gives work to thousands of negroes says that tho greatest time spent in work by any negro in his estates last year was 138 days, and the average was 112 days. The proportion of cotton raised by negro labour is steadily dwindling; that iraised by white labour is increasing. In the Yazoo-Mississippi delta one of the most fertile regions in the world, where "the farmer tickles the surface and the crops tickle him," it is rare to see .a negro cabin with a flower ot vegetable garden. The negro will not take the trouble to raise pigs or chickens. His pork comes from Chicago, and his hominy from the West; living on "the richest loam of the globe, the negro eats his dinner from a sardine can, and condensed milk from another can." The black labourer gets good wages, but he fas no idea of saving. His money too often goes in inordinate railway travelling, riding in merry-go-rounds, banjos, confectionery, and cheap jewellery. The 'Northern, business man who invests his money In Southern enterprises; begins:' with -the idea common in the North, that the negroes have been. badly treated, and should be trusted: and encouraged. He finds instead- that his negroes take no intelligent interest in their work, that they have no" capacity to plan, and that they are shirkers. Not possessing the Southern -ciiairity:for. the blook man, he becomes, more rabid than theSoutherner. : But;. when he teUs his. Northern friend's. . of his experienoes : they shrug their shoulders,, and say ; he is tainted by Southern prejudice. ■'- .