The southern press., 1850-10-30

that class to have time, or even inclination, for
much mental improvement. The force of pecu-
liar genius may raiss one in ten thousand 10 q
higher place in society, but such cases become
more ana more lntrequent, e. wages diminish
with the progress Of popul1fion. and the care Of
providing food grows more engrossing. The
whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this:
Shall the laborng class be of an inferior race 50
controlled and directed by the superior minds of
the whites, as continually TO progress in material,
and moral well being, far beyond any point i has
ever shown power Of attaining in freedom i--or
shall that laboring class be Of whites and equals,
capable of becoming .sgods, as one Of U.S." and
yet condemned TO slow, but sure increase Of
want and poverty--the slaves OF society instead
Of individuals--isoated from their employers by
the invisible, but impossible, barriers Of custom,
aliens from their hearts, and utterly separated in
manners, information, opinions and tastesi Be-
tween the Southern master and his slave, there is
q fellow-feeling in sorrows and Joys, mutual de-
pendence and affection, which calls into play all
the finer feelings Of mans nature. What Of all
this is there between the Northern capitalist and
his day laborer! They have not known each other
from infancy, nor been partners through good
and through ill-fortune. Perhaps the tide Of enI-
igration brought them together yesterday, and
will hurry them apart Tomorrow. The laborer
does not look TO his employer as his natural pro-
tector against the injustice Of the powerful, or
his refuge in sickness, or in old age. He must
factory operative-perhaps girl or even child,
for in manufacturing societies the children ofthe
poor never know the plays or freedom Of childhood
--he is regarded as but part OF the loom he att
tends to. Factory labor beomes more and more
divided, the employments more and more mon
otonous with each improvement in machinery.
There is none Of that variety of occupation, and
those frequent calls upon the discretion and intel
ligence Of the laborer, which make the work on a
plantation in the South at once the most inn
proving, the healthiest and the most delightful spe-
ccies Of manual labor. The factory operative, on
the contrary, is chained to some single minute en-
ployment, which must be repeated thousands Of
| times without the least variation. Nothing worse
| for the intellect can be imagined.
idiocy and insanity multiply under their infu-
ences In 1S40, while the proportion Of idiots
and insane, 10 the whole population, was only l
in 100 in the slave States it was IN 300 IN all
the free States, and as much as in $40 in New
England alone. The effects of factory life on
dyeing and bleaching factories, are hot-beds Of
consumption and disease of the lungs. Al Shelf
field, a dry-grinder, no matter how vigorous his
constitution, is never known TO live beyond the
fated age Of thirty-fve. In Massachusetts, &C.
cording to her own Statistics factories shorten the
life Of the operative one-third! According to the
evidence before the committee OF the House of
| Commons, it has taken but thirty-two years to
change the operatives Of Manchester from race
j more vigorous than those Of New Englaad now
area well fed, well clothed, moral population
! into demoralized, eneryated, feeble beings. As
one of the Witnesses says, ther life has been pass
ed In turning the mule.jenny; their minds have
weakened and withered lik a tree" How many
years will it require to produce these effects in the
North, when the span Of mans life is already so
much shortened The very severity of the labor