on stream did
not stop, but flowed on, and thus swept off a very large part of the
labor that was necessary to carry on production on the farms and in
the various other industries. We may set down labor shortage, then,
as the first effect of the movement upon the South.

Although the South was in direst need of labor as a result of this
movement, yet the danger therefrom was not as extensive and serious as
it was once thought to be. This labor shortage did not have the effect
of plunging the whole section into disaster. For the most part, real
hardships were experienced only in certain sections, especially those
that had contributed heavily to the movement. From the farming and
industrial interests of those States struck hardest by this exodus
came many objections to the movement, and these were taken as
indications of losses and interruptions in these enterprises. It is
said that in every State from the Carolinas to Mississippi there lay
idle thousands of acres of land, which would have been put to use had
labor been available. Even where good crops had been grown, in many
places, there was question as to whether or not sufficient labor could
be secured to harvest them.[72] Again, in some instances, industries
like farming had been completely paralyzed; in others they had been
greatly retarded, owing to the necessity of breaking in new men to
occupy the places of experienced workers who had left for the North.
The lumber mills, mines, docks, and cotton oil mills all suffered from
the effects of labor shortage.[73]

As far as this lack of labor affected the South, these facts indicate
what was true in a general way; but in order to obtain a better view
of the situation let us refer to labor shortage as it existed in a few
of the States that were struck exceedingly hard by the migration. A
study of the labor situation in Mississippi[74] showed that while the
supply of labor was considerably diminished by the migration, the
demand for labor was altered. In some parts of the State the demand
was decreased, in others it was increased. In those sections where
agriculture had had time since the invasion of the boll-weevil to
reorganize itself on a mixed farming basis, with the emphasis placed
on the raising of livestock, the demand for labor was decreased, and
the wages were lowest, because this type of farming required less
laborers a hundred acres than did the old type which emphasized mainly
the raising of cotton. In Eas