The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1865-12-27
The Labor Question.

J ~
/ Wepublish to-day the several acts re
Gently passed BY the General Assembly reg
ulating labor contracts between employer
and freedmen for the ensuing year. The
acts seem to havebeen carefully drawn, ant
eyince an understanding Of this import
ant subject, as well as a desire to do jus
ltice to both parties to the several contracts
They protect the employer and they protec1
the employee. On the one hand all oppor
ltunities for extortion, oppression, cruelt,
and unfair dealing are curtailed, while, on
the other, the freedmen are forbidden, al
their cost, to pass their time in idleness
lvagrancy and crime. If carried into execu
Ition, our fertile fields would be cultivated
prosperity would again begin to dawn upon
[us, and happiness and contentmentto reign
once more among the Planters, as well as
among those who may be employed to cul-
Itivate their plantations. By the acts am
tple protection is secured to all, and there
certainly exists power among the admins.
traitors of the civil government, to carry
them into execution, and to enforce their
provisions among those who shall invoke
the benefit Of them. They presuppose that
the question of labor in each State belongs
to the law-making power in that State, and
that its civil government is competent to
enforce any law on the subject that may be
enacted BY its Legislature.
But how mistaken are our lawmakers
and the people for whom the laws are
made! Scarcely had the acts been signed
when the inevitable Feedmen's Bureau
comes out with another Of it's absurd circu-
HAIRS, which seem to be issued at stated in
tervals for no other purpose than to annoy
the people Of the South and to put it out
OF their power to do anything for the un-
fortunate race who are unable to do any
thing for themselves. The chief of this
Bureau in Louisiana, instead Of permitting
the Southerners, who understand the ne
| gro, to take care of him, attempts to turn
him into Yankee, and to lay down for.
him rules and regulations more adapted to
a Connecticut farm than to q Louisiana
plantation.
This wiseacre undertakes to tell the PLAN
tiers what kind Of food they must give their
negroes, how much land for garden, how
many cooks must be employed, how many
hospitals fitted up, and winds up by asses.
sing tax for the education Of the negro
and for the payment to the Federal gov
eminent Of the expenses Of this admirable
system! The result Of this system would
be to turn every plantation into negro gar
dens, which would remain uncultivated; to
take up all the time Of the negroes in
cooking, &C.; to cause them to perish for
want Of proper attention in sickness, and
to mulct the proprietor Of . portion Of
his small gains for objects which are inn
practicable at this particular time
It was never intended that the wicked
ness Of men should profit them for any
length Of time. The mock philanthropy Of
the abolitionists is demonstrating every day
who has ever been the true friend Of the
African race. Just at time when the
whites were endeavoring to do justice to
I the unfortunate negro, one Of these mis-
guided men steps in and, while unable to
do anything himself puts It out Of the
lpower Of the negroes friends, to accom-
lplish anything for them. This continual
interference with such matters will in time
drive the Southern people to let the negro
go, and to look to other sources for sup
|ply of labor. Emigration societies will be
formed, the country will soon be filed with
laborers from Europe, who will usnrp the
places Of the negroes, and leave them to
the tender mercies of their pretended
friends. The result must be the extinction
Of the Americo-African race and the cnl-
|mination Of do-philanthropy.
~>~~-caos ~oc-~-
IkrERcEDINa FOR Mr.. DAv1s.The For