Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-12-22
THE TWO RACES IN THE SOUTH
AND THE LABOR QUESTION.

gro question ass.dentical We might as well
talk Of the labor question of the North as
an Irish question or German question.
Nowhere in this free land has the question
Of labor anvthing to do with the fact that
different races exist within its limits. In
dustry is universal duty, resting as much
upon one race as another. 1t is the basis Of
all civil and social prosperity; and every in-
habitant of the country, whatever his color,
whatever his extraction, is under the same
| abI;-->;..> 20 La aornatbine p.nv@ ti-~-.
mere consumer something else than mere
drone in thei hive. He is bound to eontri-
butte personally in some way to the general
well being.
There were in 1860 about twelve millions
of people in the slave holding States, Of
whom four millions were of Africcn descent
| The war has reduced the numbers of both
races in about the same proportion; so that
still the colored people in these States con
stitute but about one third Of the entire
population. Notoriously before the war
the great bulk of the white population of
the South had no habit Of regular labor.
Those who had property had little enterprise,
| and were little better than idlers. Those
who had not property-the poor white
trash, as they were caIled-instead of woF-
| king to acquire it spent their time mostly in
hunting or other amusements in lounging and
in sleeping. The eight millions of whites iu
the South all combined did not do as much
actual work, from one years end to another
as any million and half Of whites in the
North The great cause Of this was that
labor in the South was the peculiar badge
of a servile class and was deemed dispara
ging to a freeman. Southerners generally
made it matter of pride to do as little of it
as possible. They are not to be specially
reproached for this. 1t came from one Of
the most powerful laws of human nature
the law of association. Slaves being despis
ed, manual labor which was the business of
slaves, must needs be despised also
Slavery is now at an end, The great
Southern question now is how to end the
hatred of work which slavery engendered.
1t is a question which has to do with both
races alike The blacks are ayerse to work
because it has been exacted of them by the
oyerseer lash; their natural impulse is to
make their freedom consist in being free from
both The poor whites, though slavery with
ali its peryerting influences has disappeared
still find their old habits second nature.
Judging by the accounts that are now reach
ing us, it would seem that there is as good
prospect of getting the blacks of the South
to work as the whites; that, though there Is
a vast amount of idleness aud vagrancy and
pauperism in both races the blacks are on
the whole, making as much progress in adap
ting themselvesto the new condition of things
as the whites. In many regions of the South
even now little difficulty is found in inducing
the freedmen to work steadily on plantations
when made certain Of good treatment and
fair wages We hear nowhere of any Of the
many millions of poor whites in the South
letting themselves out as plantation hands.
either for the year month or day. Why is
this? How does it still happen that white
field hands are not found in the South when
they are so multitudinous in the North? The
old pretense that white men are unable to
endure the summer heats has been proved to
be false by the German cottonplanters of
Texas. White men can do plantation work
almost anywhere in the great cotton belt if
they have the will The Southern planters
themselves partially concede it in the efforts
they are even now making to encourage white
migration from the North The plain fact
is thas the white millions in the South don't
put their hand TO the plow because the old
hatred of work is still in their bones.
The most unfavorable feature of Southern
society is this inbred, ingrained contempt of
manual labor among the Southern whites
1t is not only prodigious injury to the
whites themselves, but its indirect influence
upon the blacks is very pernicious. If the
common sentiment of the white people ofthe
South is that labor is curse the black pee-
pie must necessarily imbibe the feeling and
it will constantly incline them to honor their
freedom by doing as little work as possible.
Here in the Sorth, our colored people are
industrious, not only because their personal
necessities require it, but because work is the
general order of the day and nobody regards
it as any special hardship. IF the same
manly sentiment should take possession of
| the Southern whites, and become the domi-
nant Southern feeling, the freedmen would
probably acquire their full share of it and
perform their full part ofthe labor without
trouble.
I There ought to be sense enough in the
South to comprehend, that the destruction
ofthe system of forced servile labor involves
necessity of making free labor respectable
and Incidence disgrace. There never was
a greater chimera than to imagine that the
African race will continue to raise the great
staples of the South by their free toll. while
the other two thirds Of the population arc
doing either fancy work or no work at all
IF laziness is to remain the general habit of
the South, it is certain that the freedmen
viii have his full share of it, The oblga-
ticn to be industrious applies to both races
alike. In the attempt to regenerate the
South it is of prime consequence that this
simple truth shall be brought home to all its
white population. The precepts which are
now poured in upon the freedmen with such
i n. Il 4.