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of a spool of thread will not incon
venience many people and will be
paid without protest. Let us see,
however, what the effect will be wi;h
respect to results from the view
point of the thread manufacturers.
Before the increased price was an
nounced the thread manufacturer
priced his goods at 55 cents per doz
en spools. This price, however, was
subject to several discounts whereby
the dealer finally secured his thread
from the manufacturer at 45.12
cents per dozen. There are 5 1-3
dozen spools to the pound of Gotten,
hence the manufacturer sold his fin
ished product at the fat price of
" $2.40 per pound.
The new price which has caused
the retailer to add a cent to th *
price of each spool is given as 67
cents per dozen, but being subject
to the usual three discounts is fina'-
ly found to be 54.97 cents per doz
en, or $2.93 per pound for the fin
ished product. When compared to
the price of other cotton goods this
price seems extraordinarily exorbitant
notwithstanding the fact that the besr
thread is manufactured from the fin
est grades of long staple cotton. At
6 cents per spool, the present re p
price of thread, the farmer is buy
ing his cotton back at $3.4S p r
pound.—Augusta Herald.
GROWING CROPS AND LABOR
CONDITIONS IN GEORGIA.
According to The Herald’s special
dispatches from Atlanta the planters
in many sections of the state are an
ticipating the same serious labor con
ditions which constituted such a men
ace to profitable farming in Georgia
last year and during previous sea
sons. The trouble seems to originate
from the old complaint of ‘‘labor
that won’t work.” The Herald's
correspondent recently wrote as fel
lows concerning one instance in
point:
“One planter and lumber dealer,
who is prominent in the central part
of the state, declares that much of
his crop is in a poor condition
ply because the negroes that infest
his territory won’t do the farm work.
He declares that there is no lack of
farm hands, but lack of enforcement
of the law which requires all able
bodied men to work. Conditions
surrounding him are not at all pe
culiar to his section. They are prac
tically the same in many parts of the
state and are described as much the
same as those with which Richmond
county has for some time been fa
miliar. It is evident that the best
informed among the planters are of
the opinion that the cities and towns
throughout the state are not makin
a serious and conscientious effort to
co-operate with the rural districts
by properly handling the question of
vagrants. They are of the opinion
that a great deal of good would re
sult should the cities inaugurate a
revival of the recent agitation against
vagrants and thus serve in part to
drive out both the loafer and his bad
influence. The more worthless ele
ments are inclined to congregate in
the more thickly settled districts,
and, unless a vigorous movement is
at once set on foot to discourage this
inclination, the same difficulties ex
perienced last season in harvesting
the crops will be repeated again
throughout the state.”
WATSON’S WEEKLY' JEFFERSONIAN.
The condition of affairs to which
this planter alludes should be one in
which every municipality in Georgia
should earnestly interest itself. The
south has many times through the
press complained that it can handle
its labor and negro problems, two
questions that cannot be separated,
if other sections would only cease
to interfere and meddle with matters
in which they have no interest and
knowledge. Doubtless this is true,
but we cannot hope to successfull '
deal with this serious question un
less those laws already on tb n
statute books are rigidly enforced
throughout the country. There is a
way to make men work in Georgia.
There are laws sufficient and officers
to enforce them. What we app
to need is a better realization of the
consequences of inactivity along tins
line, and unless we do realize the
harm that may result the effect may
be even worse than is anticipated by
those who are most affected.
Here in Augusta we are not im
mune from the same conditions that
obtain in other parts of Georgia. The
Herald believes that many more loaf
ers might be caught in the net of
our vagrancy laws if a serious and
continuous effort in that direction
were made. One of the best ways in
which Augusta can help the farmers
of Richmond county and the sur
rounding territory will be Io inaugu
rate in this city an energetic cam
paign against vagrants and loafers,
lasting from July to July or from
December to December. It is the
long period of “let up” that makes
loafing possible. It is easy enough
for the vagrant to hide out or dis
guise his laziness for a few short
weeks, but it cannot be done the year
round.
There is plenty of labor in the
state right now. What is needed is
to make it efficient. The Herald be
lieves that this can be done if the
authorities go about it with enough
determination. If the farmers in
Richmond county fail to secure’
enough cotton pickers this season it
will be because the vagrancy laws
are not enforced in a manner which
will make them efficient. —Augusta
Herald.
NEGRO DEVELOPMENT, RIGHT.
Tallahassee this week is the meet
ing place of the Negro Business Men’s
League. It may not be called the
Negro Business League. It may be
called the Colored Men’s Business
League or the Afro-American Busi
ness Men’s League. Notwithstanding
the peculiarity of the appellation that
may be used to designate this meet
ing, it is in fact a meeting of a Bus
iness Men’s League composed of ne
groes.
I regard this meeting of the negro
business men in the Capital City of
more than local importance. It is
of state importance—in-fact, it may
with propriety be regarded as of im
portance to the entire country. It
is indicative of the development of
the negro along the lines that the
Southern white man, who is his best
friend, is ENTIRELY WILLING for
him to develop, and in which devel
opment the Southern white man will
ENCOURAGE the negro.
THERE IS NO COLOR LINE TN
BUSINESS.
All lines of business activity are
open to the negro and he may climb
as high as he desires, not only with
out hindrance from, but also with
the help of, the Southern white man.
I am not acquainted with the de
tails of the business transacted at
this meeting of the negro business
men. They are doubtless the same
as those which are looked after at a
meeting of any other business men.
As a general proposition, it is true
that the South offers UNRIVALED
OPPORTUNITIES for the negro to
develop upon PROPER LINES.
One man with whom I talked,
whom I knew in Jacksonville, show
ed me a statement from his renting
agent for April. There was a list
of some forty or more houses and
the net income from these houses was
over three hundred dollars for one
month.
This man is a doctor. He has made
all of his money in Jacksonville by
attending to his business and not
seeking to force himself in any ob
jectionable way on the white people.
He has had business relations with
the white people of Jacksonville. He
has NOT SOUGHT any other kind.
He has prospered.
It is entirely possible for any oth
er negro who will conduct himself as
this man has done, and who has the
same amount of industry, brains and
frugality, to succeed as well as ho
has. He is by no moans the richest
negro in Jacksonville. There are a
number of them whom I know per
sonally who are worth considerably
more than he is.
I now know MORE THAN FIFTY
who are worth upwards of ten thou
sand dollars, and I do not know all
the negroes in Jacksonville. There
may be as many more. As the city
has grown, it has become impossible
for me to keep up with its citizens
as I used to when it was a village.
There are negroes living in other
cities of the state who have property
which they have acquired themselves,
for very few negroes INHERIT
PROPERTY, and the gathering of
these negroes in Tallahassee from all
parts of the state is an eloquent and
convincing answer to the stories told
of the treatment of the negroes by
Southern people.
There is no obstacle put in the
way of a NEGRO DEVELOPING,
provided he is willing to develop AS
A NEGRO and not as the social or
political equal of the white man.
In the dim far distant future, the
development of the negro may reach
a point where he will be entitled to
POLITICAL equality with the white
man. He has not reached that point
yet, although his development has
been marvelous. Tn forty years he
has risen from a state of slavery to
a state of freedom and responsibility,
and is in the enjoyment of all the
rights and privileges of citizenship
that he has shown himself FITTED
FOR.
He is not allowed to enjoy full po
litical rights because he has not yet
proven his fitness. He will NEVER
BE ALLOWED SOCIAL RIGHTS
EQUAL OR CO-EXISTENT WITH
THE WHITE RACE, because he be
longs to an inferior race and is cen
turies behind the white race in spir
itual progress.
There is no reason for negroes to
seek social and political equality.
They cannot improve the laws if they
were permitted to make them. They
have not the training. They could
not better administer the laws if
they were allowed to administer them,
because of their lack of experience.
The white man has developed suf
ficiently to insure to the negro, and to
all other races, JUSTICE, and that is
all that they should ask until they ar
rive at that stage of their develop
ment which fits them to cope with the
white man along the lines of moral
ity, courage, fidelity to trust, and
SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT, that
will make him the equal of the white
man, which point the negro has
SMALL CHANCE OF REACHING,
because of the centuries that roll be
tween the beginning of his develop
ment and the beginning of the white
man’s.
The negro should have an oppor
tunity to make his own social atmos
phere and to be protected in his rights
by the laws which insure bis ability
to get what he is able to pay for
of EQUAL EQUALITY with the
white man, provided he does not ob
trude upon the social sphere of the
white man.
There was a large delegation of
these negroes en route to Tallahassee
from various parts of the state. A
good many of them started from
Jacksonville. The railroad companies
had noticed that these negroes would
travel along certain routes. They
knew that this meeting was to be
held. It was their duty to provide
accommodations for them. There
should have been a sleeper provided
for those who were willing to pay
for it, and who were entitled to this
accommodation. If it necessitated
the sleeping car company putting
aside one or more of its cars for the
SOLE USE HEREAFTER of ne
groes, this was not too much to re
quire of this company, which enjoys
special privileges from the state.
The population of Florida is nearly
equally divided between negroes and
whites. There are hundreds of ne
groes traveling every day on the rail
roads who are able to pay for sleep
ing accommodations. THEY SHOULD
HAVE THEM. The company oper
ating should be compelled to provide
them.
The day coach given to negroes to
ride in is reported to be inferior in
point of furnishing and cleanliness
to the coach provided for the whites.
My own observation convinces me
that this claim is justly made. The
negro coach should be equal in ev
ery respect to the white coach if the
negro pays the same rate that the
white man does.
This man and most of the other ne
groes who have prospered like him,
DOES NOT SEEK SOCIAL EQUAL
ITY. He does not wish to intrude
himself upon the white people, but
he does wish, and HAS A RIGHT TO
DEMAND, equal accommodations
when he pays the same fare.
This is the negro problem, if there
is one, which I seriously doubt.
See to it that the negro has all the
rights and privileges he is fitted fur.
and can by good conduct earn—
Provided, he doos not ask for po
litical and social equality, which he
is not fitted for and has not earned,
and may never earn.—Th o Sun, Tal
lahassee, Fla.
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