Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-01
sOmeihInk About KING Cotton The Labor
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AutbNhuu IN AnB Oottuu
A rise is almost inevitable, says the New
York Eeeaing Post and with It not only In
dian cotton but Algerian cotton, Brazil cot
ton, African cotton, West India cotton, Cen
tTal American, cotton, may all undersell
American cotton in Liverpool. We DO not
believe that the cessation of slavery in cur
southern States would strike the fatal blow
at the success Of our cotton culture which is
often supposed. The experience of the Brit
ish planters In the West Indies shows that
the question of proftably growing great
staple such as sugar or cotton is not a question
Of compulsory labor, but Of density of popuId-
tiCn. Slavery in fact succeeds only because
it forcibly creates an artificial populousness
in certain small sections of a great and other
wise poorly populated region. Barbados,
which has population of one and half TO
the acre, and where land is worth on the
average FIVE hundred dollars per acre. grows
much more sugar now, with free labor, than
it ever did or could under slave labor.
Jamaica, on the contrary, which has but
population of eleven to the square mile, and
where land may be had at S. per acre, has
an immense deficit in its sugar crop, but
happy population of small farmers. So it
will be in our Cotton States when the era of
free labor sets in-with this advantage, how.
ever, TO our planters, that their proximity to
the market, their hold on that market, and
the immense advantages of an intimate and
unrestricted commercial intercourse with all
parts of the Union, will enable them to pay
| higher wages than are paid in any other
country which grows cotton-or paying less,
still to undersell all others at profit them
selves. In the Cotton States negroes hired
last yesr for from $3.50 to 5000 per annum,
including food, clothes and medical attend
ance.
In no part of the country does agricultural
| labor cost so dearly to the employers as in
| the slave States; and as the price of negroes
| has gone up steadily, it has already reached
| apointw here itceases to be profitable TO grow
rice or sugar by S rave labor-whie every sem
| sible Southerner must perceive that steady
| decline in the price of cotton of even two
cents per pound would ruin every cotton
| planter in the six States. But this decline
must come, because the world is doing the
best to share in our monopoly. 1t is too
! rich prize TO be left much longer in our
hands, even if the slave. owners were quiet
| and industrious. By their mutiny they
only bring down their own ruin,
by giving their competitors an op-
| portunily. "'It is worth rejecting" says
the London Times, "that if the agriculture
of the slave States should he ruined, there
| win be trade of 5000 900, 900 year to be
picked up by some other countries"
| ENGLAND WILL NOT SUBMIT TO KING CO.. TON
Lastly, of the present prospects, and OF
Englapd's course and duty, the same paper,
of the 18th of April, says:
Any intelligent study of history will show
that the negro. slavery of America can not
go on for ever, and is not likely now to con-
tinue much longer, and that policy based
on the institution of slavery has no chance
of apTosperous and permanent existence.
Are we to fold our arms and wait to see what
comes TO pass2 Knowing that by an appli-
cation of capital in one place, and oflsbor in
another, and of public works in third, we
can in few seasons get all we want in 8
safe way, are we to trust TO American shift.
ness, and handiness, and enterprise, while
the very frame of society is falling to pieces
in the planting States2 The export duty on
cotton will do us good in its way, by quick.
enipg our recourse to other cotton-felds
than the American.
We trust there is now no longer doubt
OF our enterprise and vigilance. We see tht
importance of the crisis as plainly as the
Governor General at Calcutta and cur citi
zens are going to work in all directions tc
try what can be done. But while there are
persons among US who are not only willing
to get our cotton from America-as every
body is-whiie it is TO be had on reasonable
terms, but persuade themselves that we may
trust to getting it thence in time to come al
10 times past 1t is necessary to avOw the
truth that the American supply is precari-
ous in the extreme, and that all reason aud
experience warn US that it must fail before
long, and may, be extinguished at any mo
| ment. .
If our capitalists have hitherto left it tc
American capitalists to grow cotton, and
''to fate or Providence, or something" tt
protect the supply from accident, the time
has certainly arrived for trusting to our.
selves, instead of American destinies. How.
ever little we may know of differences il
cotton produce, we still believe that it would
have been wise TO have ascertained before
now whether we can rival the American ar
tice, or how nearly we can approach it. A
provision of the export duty of the South
eTn Ocnfedertion would have been grea
stimulus-as the increasing danger of serv
lie was, from Charleston to San Antonio
ought to be now.