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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. PAGE SEVEN