The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1862-06-25
Crime and Labor.

The New York Economist, in an article on tn
subject Of crime, attributes it in great de
gree to Iazness, and says, as all the wealth ofth
world, its comforts and luxuries, depend upol
labor, and that the surplus products Of man
or what he produces beyond his own wants i.
small, it follows that the greater number of pro
ductive Iaborers in community the greater vii
be its actual wealth, and the better the average
condition Of all the people. Nevertheless, il
all civilised countries, the population of cities
and towns embraces great numbers who not
only produce nothing, hanging like dead weights
upon the community, but who spend their lives
in depredating upon the earnings Of the indus
trious, thereby afording a direct discourage
ment to industry. It is also remarkable fact,
ascribed BY some reasoners to the reoaperative
energies of nature that those paupers are more
prolific of children than the Weather classes,
hence it follows that as these pauper children
are brought up only to idleness and infamy, that
the most degraded portion of the community
increases with the greatest rapidity, threatening
ultimately, even in this country of very great re
sources, to engulph the whole The city Of New
York. at this moment, swarms with thousands
of children spawned in the filth and crime of
pauperism, who never witness any mode of life
but the poverty and vice which surround them
until old enough to walk and talk, when they
are then driven forth with blows and threats to
prey upon society at large, to obtain in any
manner the means of nightly debauchery for
cruel parents. 1t is no doubt very pleasant to
shut our eyes TO these facts, and at the same
time soothe our eonsciences and elicit each 9th
er's admiration by the eloquent talk we make
about slavery. The curse Of the blacks may be
upon the south, but the black curses of posterity
will rest upon US who suffer thousands Of youths
to grow up in our midst, the degraded slaves of
the abandoned beings who thrust them upon the
world.
The remedy for this enormous evil seems to
have been marked ont by the "Childrens Aid
society," which has for its object to strike at
the root of the evil by rescung the children
born in such circumstances or have been thrown
upon the world, from the life to which they would
otherwisebe dcstined-tot take their young from
the foul atmosphere of their birth, and trans
plant them. to scenes Of industry and purity
It follows, taatif all the pauper and vicious chill
dren could be SO transplanted, would with the
present generation cease most of the vices.
New York, probably, suffers not more than
other cities, towns and villages in this country,
from viciousness, and every possible exertion
should be pnt in requisition to arrest its rapid
progress, which certainly is making the most
rapid and fearful strides. Idleness may be traced
as the great reservoir from which it flows. La
Dor and industry are not properly appreciated.
Money. no matter how dishonorably obtained, is
worshipped. Labor can never be considered
low but by the mushrooms of nights growth,
whose property and means we're most probably
obtained by dishonorable means. Let virtue
be honored and respected, wherever found
either in the cabin or palace And let the hard
working man be considered as good as the rich
man, if he deports himself as we'll Certainly
the plough-boy is more useful and beneficial to
society than the idler who spends the greater
portion of his time before the looking-gIass.-
Then we say let us have more cultivators of the
hard working mechanics. Let our
daughters be taught house-wifery instead of en-
deayoring to learn Greek. When this is done,
andnot until then. will the morals of our people
improve,
Gov MooRE-This officer has issued another
broadcast proclamation, dated at "0pelousas,