t Mississippi much land lay idle, but it
seemed that the shortage of labor there was due to lack of capital. A
heavy migration stream flowed also from South Mississippi and resulted
in cutting short the labor supply of the lumber mills and docks. On
the whole, labor shortage in this State was quite general, inasmuch as
after the movement started employers throughout the State were forced
to advance wages from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

Shortage of labor was a serious problem in Alabama,[75] especially in
those sections of the State designated the "black-belt counties."
Throughout these sections during 1917 much land lay idle, partly
because of the scarcity of tenants and laborers, and partly because of
the reluctance of landowners, merchants, and bankers to supply the
capital necessary for cultivating it. The farm demonstration agent of
Dallas County reported in 1917 a reduction of 3,000 in the number of
plows usually operated. In these same counties farms owned and managed
by lumber companies were for the most part deserted and in many cases
the crops were given very feeble attention. In all parts of the State
the lumber companies complained of a serious labor shortage.

In 1917 it was reported that no acute shortage of labor existed in
either the rural or urban districts of Georgia, but that there could
be found many instances of individual employers who needed more Negro
labor. "If such labor were available," said an investigator, "from 700
to 1,200 (men) could be placed in the saw-mill and turpentine
industries at $1.50 and probably $2.00 per day; perhaps 2,000 at $1.75
and $2.00 per day could be placed in shipbuilding industries; (and)
from 1,500 to 2,000 could be utilized from September to December in
picking cotton at $1.00, $1.50 and $1.75 per hundred pounds."[76]

In North Carolina there was a scarcity of labor before the movement
got well under way. In 1916 eighty-seven counties out of a total of
one hundred counties reported a shortage of labor, and in many parts
of the State farmers adopted the plan of raising live-stock instead of
agricultural crops. Much land lay idle, and where this was not the
case there was a noted increase in the use of farm machinery to
supplement the meager labor supply. Especially acute was the demand
for cotton pickers. On the whole, the labor situation became so
serious that average wages for Negro labor were rapidly advanced
beyond those of former times.[77]

What then was