Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1865-09-07
sHIpMENT OF cRoPs.

sIOner bureau OF Refugees, ITeeainen
and Abandoned Lands in this State,
has issued recently an order forbid
| ding shipments Of cotton or other
crops from plantations, unless under
certain restrictions and guarantees,
which has created no little commo-
| ton among the parties most interested.
1t is nothing more than just and
| proper, as every honest person must
concede, that the freedmen employed
| on plantations should be paid Tor
their labor to the uttermost tarthlng,
when it is shown that the laborers
have honestly fulfilled their part OF
the labor contract. Neither can it
be deemed otherwise than reasonable
and right, that mutual obligations
should be entered into beforehand by
the contracting parties to the end
that planters may be secured the
services required to be performed in
the cultivation of their crops, and
the parties performing those services
guaranteed the full payment of their
wages therefor. But why, as we
understand Mr.. CoNwAY's order to
imply, make it obligatory on plant
ers, after they shall have shown to
the Provost Marshals satisfactory
compliance with the acquisitions of
the Bureau in regard to the contract,
why, we repeat, make it obligatory
on planters to 60 to the trouble and
perhaps expense, of procuring au-
thority from the chief of the Planta-
ton Bureau at New Orleans before
they can be allowed to make ship
| ment Of any portion of their crops?
1t seems to us that where planters
| can bring satisfactory evidence to
the Provost Marshals of their respect
i've districts, that they have been
| acting and will continue to act in
good faith in the matter Of paying
their employees for services faithfully
rendered, that this thing.of compel
ing them to make application to a
distant official for authority to ship
their crops is a hardship which can
hardly be justified by any principle
Of necessity.
| This policy, if persisted in, must
work to the injury of the planter,
subiecting him to vexatious delays
in shipments at times when, perhaps,
from the state of the markets, those
shipments would prove much more
advantageous to him than at others ;
to say nothing Of the trouble and
expense he must necessarily incur in
the endeavor to effect his arrange
ments by the circumlocutory process
| designated III the order of the Asst.
| Commissioner.
/ We hear of planters who, having
shipped cotton to New Orleans with
out previously knowing Of the exist
ence of the order referred to, have
had their cotton seized-this being
the first intimation they had received
that any such order was promulgated.
We trust that the Assistant Commits
sioner may not find it necessary or
expedient to enforce the rigorous
measures he has seen fit to adopt to-
ward the planters. They have diff
culties enough to contend with in
making their crops, and managing
to realize something out Of them by
which to live and meet their obliga-
lions toward their employees and
others. The revenue tax of two per
cent. on cotton is Of itself an onerous
burden on planters, and if possible,
ought to be modified by the Govern
ment. Where the producer is obliged
to pay an average tax Of eight dol,
lars, per bale on his crop, it is par
ticularly discouraging to him, III
view of the numerous other draw.
backs which he has to contend with