Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1865-12-29
APPLICATION OF CAPITAL AND INDUSTRY
IN THE SOUTH,

If there is any proposition which is susceptible
of complete and easy demonstration it is this that
the Southern States will never hereafter be so ex-
clusivey agricultural in their pursuits and interests
as they have heretofore been. Both the capital
and the labor system of the South were Frustrated,
nay, annihilated by the war. This capital and
labor were invested in and devoted to agriculture
and agriculture has therefore received heavier
blow than any other avocation of our people, du-
ring the war. As "a burnt child breads the fire."
and as men profit by experience, so pursuits are not
likely TO be extensively renewed or followed, when
characterised by losses enormous and dispropurton
ate to those of other interests in the country
Already men, who have all their lives been agri-
culturasts can be found, who are now seeking
othet employment on the ground that they not
only cannot make money, but not even a living by
cultivation of the soil. As 'rnts leave fallen
house." our farmers are fleeing from the ruins Of
agriculture
The profits which in the past attended agricultu-
raj pursuits in the South were not due to the fact
that the planter owned the labor and paid nothing
! for it, but accrued because the ownership of the
labor enabled him always to command it whenever
needed The anticipated loss and failure in agri-
culture hereafter will arise because the farmer has
no capital, and if he had it, could not command
and control the labor needed for the successful pros
ecution of his business. His limited experience has
already taught him that the negro will not work
perssteny even for the best of wages and is
likely 10 select his time for deness when exertiou
and industry are most needed. Under such checks
and discouragements, men will not engage in agri
culture but will turn their attention to some more
stable and reliable employment, not dependent on
the whims and caprices of Cuffee for success anG
prosperity. Hence, the din of manufactures viii
be heard in the South, and the mechanic arts viii
arise and flourish Commerce more than of yort
will engage the attention of our people. Mining
will become n great and important element of pop
ular indstry and the wood and lumber trade of the
South will be great developed in extent and value
In all of these branches of industry capital and
labor are more apt to be directed than in assfcu
ture. Who ever heard of capitalist having fund:
to invest, and seeking agriculture as an investmen
III preference to the avocations we have mentioned
The returns Of the planter are too precarious and
uncertain. In addition to the COTTON fly, joint
worm, chinch bug, rust drohghts, storms and fresh
cts he has'the obstacles of CutTee to contend with
And every one who knows CufTee will admit tina
the problem of his value MS a free laborer is one
which few have any hopes of successfully demon,
strating though having every inclination to give
him a fair trial. In Virginia the days Of black
labor, free MS well as slave, are numbered. The
advancing stream of immigration, from both the
! North and Europe, will appropriate and dedicate
Virginia TO the labor of the white man. Her vast
mineral resources and the facilities for manufac-
lures, in the abundance of water power, must
necessarily cause agriculture, ere long, to be Of
secondary importance. And the labor which has
heretofore been devoted to agriculture, and which,
from its unskillcd character cannot be transferred
to the mechanic arts will seek other fields, where
the products and cultivation of the soil are more
remuncratiye than here, In the cotton and rice
fields of the South, if anywhere, will negro labor
be retained OF prove profitable, North of that
"isothCrmal line Of which politicians used to talk
so much it has not paid for years and there is now
less likelihood of its doing so'