H 5 ] ECONOMIC WORKINGS OF THE SYSTEMS n 5 



There has been much complaint on account of the \ 

 scarcity of farm labor in Georgia within recent years. 

 There are two leading causes for this migration of labor- 

 ers from the farm. One is the recent rapid development 

 of the cotton-manufacturing industry in the state. This 

 has given rise to a large stream of white labor from the 

 farms into the factories. In all probability most of these 

 factory laborers have come from the class of tenants 

 and croppers. They have gone to the factories and 

 placed themselves under the control of efficient managers 

 because they could make more under the factory wages 

 system than in self-directed farming. The other stream 

 has been that of black labor moving into the towns and 

 cities, sometimes in answer to an economic motive, some- 

 times in obedience to social instincts and sometimes in 

 response to a combination of the two stimuli. The two 

 motives meet in the case of many of the wages employ- 

 ments into which they have entered. For instance, this 

 is true of the mining industry of Alabama, which has 

 carried away from Georgia, especially from the western 

 counties, many of the negro tenants and croppers. 

 The plantation-wages system will tend to reverse this 

 stream, or at least to counteract the tendency of negroes 

 to leave the farms. For, in addition to the economic 

 inducements which it will offer, it is also calculated to 

 respond more adequately to the negro's social instincts 

 than does the cropping system. The croppers are usu- 

 ally isolated on the plantation, and do not work together 

 In the plantation-wages system the work rs conducted / 

 for the most part in groups under supervision. ^1 



Finally, it should be noted that the plantation-wages 

 system subjects the laborer to an industrial training of 

 great educational value. All who think know that it is 

 worse than folly to attempt to give any people an educa- 



