Competency is a prerequisite to all occupations. I have alluded to this
above, but I desire to treat it more at length here, and especially in
its relation to the Negro of the South.
In consequence of former conditions, incompetency has been the normal
standard of both employer and employe. The conditions being changed,
and new relations existing between these two classes in the South,
the standard must be changed--must be raised. I shall put aside
sentimentalism, and view the subject in its true light.
What is the "Negro Labor Problem" of the future?
Simply the ability on the part of the Negro to remain in the market as
a laborer, and the ability of the Southern white man to meet the labor
complications of the future, which will be developed in the necessity
for better skilled labor, and the desire of the white man to get this
superior labor at the old prices.
Leaving competency and skill out of the question, it will be readily
admitted that the Negro is the most desirable of all races as a
laborer. He is kind, forgiving, and easily understood and managed.
He is willing to work and at almost any price. This is shown in the
fact that there is a larger per cent. of bread winners in the Southern
States than any other section, except in the far West and East. But he
is ignorant, improvident and unskilled; and it is to be regretted that
his progress is slow in the cultivation of skill in the industries, but
there are fruitful and encouraging signs in this direction.
There are two causes which tend to demand a higher standard of labor
qualification in the South:
1. The more free intermixture of northern and southern people--thereby
bringing the southern people in contact with the superior white labor
of the North.
2. The immigration of northern people who have been accustomed to
cultivated, free labor.
We do not pretend to hint that the Negro laborer will not improve, but
will he do so sufficiently and rapidly enough to meet the heavy demand?
He must be able to compete with the skilled white labor, ready to
crowd the South, or he must go to the rear. This is a stern fact,
becoming more and more patent daily.
I am not speaking only of the Negro as a domestic servant, carpenter,
brick-mason, and other occupations of the cities, but of him as a
farmer. Sentimentality, which has had much to do with holding the Negro
and white man together in their relation of employer and employe, is
fast giving way to business principles which are to govern the future
South. If my forty acres can be made to produce more by A's method of
farming than by B's, A is a more scientific, skilled and desirable
tenant, so B must stand aside. This is the "Negro problem", in its
relation to labor, in a nut shell.
I wish I could impress you with the importance and the opportunity of
monopolizing the cotton production of the South. I wish I could arouse
every Negro in the South to seize this opportunity which may pass
away in the next decade. Scientifically cultivated, there is money in
cotton. For two hundred years it was the South's only source of income.
It now brings to the South $300,000,000 per annum.
The white people of the South, if they were inclined, are as illy
prepared to part from the Negro as a laborer, as the Negro is to
seek service elsewhere. A breaking of the present relations and the
introduction of white servants, would necessitate a change of the
social system of the South, which southern people hold as sacred as
life. So, while there are some things which seem to demand an exchange
of labor, there are certain other things which appear to be able to
hold haste in check. But, how will the Negro remain in the market?
How will he keep himself from being elbowed from the brick walls,
the forge, the bench, the embankment, the kitchen, the dray, and
other places? This brings me, in answering these questions, to the
consideration of