The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-12

The golden opportunity for securing the gradual
sionary societies, anxious 20 psss on to other fields
iof iabQr concluded too hastily that their work IN
every respect"
We have often labored in these columns tO
bring the warning from Jamaica before che
eyes OF our Southern readers. Here is an island
Eltn natural resources quite equal to those of
Georgia or Louisiana, able to support millions
OF lnhaoltants, reduced almost to the condition
OF rabbit-warren, the crops falling of land
oeterlorating, poverty coming like an armed
man on great masses Of the people, 80 that
their dress is SAID TO be almost made IN of raps
and they are boiling over with dis content
while class is pitted against class in fierce and
bitter hatred.
Only recently matters have fairly come 20
head and produced an explosion which must
still more deraEge the island, separate EN-.
pioyers and employed, and keep capital away.
All these evils go oil while other islands of
less natural .weslth are peaceful, prosperous,
ana happy, increasing in production and Adj
vancng In education and morals
=, AS most students of the subject now admit,
the difference between Jamaica and the Bar.
badOes, and the Leeward and Windward
Islands Is due not only to emancipation, but
to the unhappy gap created at the outset be.
aarSa T%seG Ssptss s ,b and labor BY the nqdicous
words. ~"
In the new organization of labor at the South.
IT IS OF immense Importance 10 the interests of
both blacks and whites for coming years that
no permanent estIangement should arise he
tween the class employing labor and the labor.
ing class. The former owners will naturally feel
core and bitter, and the freedmen will be suspi-
cious. Any oppression, or overreaching, or
wrong-dealing by the whites will produce on the
blacks the impression which such acts ALWAYS
DO on any ignorant class: they will exaggerate
them, and become entirely faithless of the honor
or good wishes OF the employers, and will with
draw themselves, either to their own plots of
ground, as they did in Jamaica, or to the Gov
ernment lands offered them, or to other States.
In either case, the separation of labor and capi-
tai Will be entire and most disastrous. The pro-
ducts OF the South will Immediately fall off: the
landowners will become poorer; the shop
keepers and the city population, which depend
on the exchanges connected with a large pro-
cuction, will at once feel the i'll effects; MANY
estates will deteriorate or be abandoned; and,
what IS worse than all, the millions of peasantry
would be in position of hate and distrust to-
wards their former masters, and liable always
either to outbreak and revolution, or, from their
relations with the whites, exposed to the conse-
quences OF fearful war of races--as much
worse than anything Jamaica or San Domingo
has seen, as the Anglo.Saxon white is more in
tense than the French creole, or the American
negro and mulatto is superior to the West
Indian.
Whatever may be the preiudices or bitter feel.
ings of some of the Southern population, the
leaders (who are shrewd and able men) must
remember that the chief wealth of the South is
in labor, and that black labor, by the laws of
climate must be their great resource. They
have already discovered in the experience OF
this war how weak is a community when the
peasantry are hostile to the upper classes.
Let them not increase this weakness for the
future. The leading object now OF all public
men, and wise and sensible citizens in our
southern States should be to gain the confidence
and goodwill of the blacks, and to steadily ele-
Yate them in the moral and educational scale.
They have even greater obligation of interest
and duty upon them TO improve their ignorant
masses and laborers than we have here to raise
up the lowest classes OF our cities: for the sepa
ration of the rich and poor at the North will not
necessarily deprive us of labor and lessen
production, or Increase the chance of q war of
races, while at the South II brings all these dan
gers. So far from the teachers of the Freed
mems Bureau and the Northern missionary
societies being regarded with suspicion and
hostility south OF Mason and Dixon's line they
ought to be looked upon as messengers of pros
perity, peace and Improvement. The South
could wel afford to pay them ALL and many
more, to remain and labor. The present desire
OF the blacks for education and advancement
is the most hopeful sign in their condition;
and yet IT Is important TO remember that this
may not last; 1t may be only temporary fruit
OF this great revolution. If the ignorant, de-
graded whites burn their school houses or for
bid their building, or throw various and many
obstacles in the way of the negros improve
ment, they may themselves finally become dis
couraged and tired of such a difficult pursuit
OF knowledge, and sink down into perma-
nently Ignorant, and therefore lazy and vicious
class.
When the laboring class of the South is this
capital will inevitably avoid it; industry will
anguish, commotion and crime will be rife
black and white will be in perpetual contest
and white immigration will seek safer and more
profitable fields.
The Southern statesmen, journalists, and
clergy, who guide the ignorant masses have
almost the choice 10 make the South Jamaica.
desolate, poor and riotous, or a country where
the white brain shall guide millions OF contented
and industrious aborers-themselve having
ultimately the highest pledge OF their safety,
and the greatest stimulus to their selfmproye-
ment, suffrage based on intelligence country
in which all classes in relations of good will
and wealth and prosperity are increasing day
bV daV. -"