The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-12-23
From the Richmond Examiner, Nov. III
The South Can Continue the War
Longer than the NOrth---The Rea-
sons Why.

sons Why.
The questions of labor cannot fail to
be very serious one at the North, if the
war goes on much longer The country
has already lost a million of able-bodied
men from the business of production.
The drain is still going on, and a half
million more must be added in another
year. This is frightful loss to com
munity whose labor is all performed by
the class from which enlistments to the
army are made. At the South the heavy
labor of the country goes on, in spite of
the drain of young white men for the
war That labor was always sufficient
to provide bread and meat for the popu-
lation, beside performing much of the
work of clothing, sheltering, and other
wise providing for the people.
Except in districts overrun by the
enemy, this labor system is still intact
and organized performing all its usual
offices for society But the North pos
sesses no such system The war makes
a frightful hiatus in the ranks of its pro-
ducing class. A million of men are ta-
ken from the support of their families to
join the army; and probably half mil
lion more are diverted from old product
i've pursuits to the expensive work con-
nected with arming and supplying troops
in the field and vessels on the water.
The labor of the North was always in
sufficient for the vast employments of
that country This deficiency of labor
gave rise to the many inventions of la
bor-saving machines which abounded in
that community. 1t also invited the en-
igration from Europe which assumed
such vast proportions as to introduce the
use of fpreign languages in large districts
of country. This deficiency of labor also
gave rise to the high wages paid at the
North, which were higher than were
known in any other country, or had ever
been known in history.
Upon this scarce condition of labor
has come the war, taking off from one
to one and a half millions of men from
the industry of the North, and furnish
ing a heavy demand for new depart
ments of labor, for maintaing the most
stupendous of all military operations.
Every hour employed by a soldier in the
duties of the camp, and by an artisan in
manufacturing war material, is a dead
loss to the wealth Of the North This
loss cannot fail to be felt sooner or later
in the most intense degree by that peo
pie. 1t will manifest itself in the rise ot
all prices; in the decrease of exports; in
the scarcity and exorbitant prices of for
eign goods; in the depreciation ofmoney;
in the weight of taxation; and in the
lamentable sufFerings of the poor, the
widow and the orphan, for the necessa
ries of life.
The fanatics of the North used to de
nounce the young men of the South fol
idleness and pride; but, if they did moth
ing before, these young men fight now
and if they were idle before the war, theil
employment in the army does not de
crease the labor of our country. In pro
portion as the Northern young men were
industrious before, is their loss to the la
Dor of that country felt now. They were
more industrious in fact than our South
ern young men, but they were so from
necessity, and that very same necessity
which then compelled them to labor
now oppresses the country which has los
their labor by sending them to the army