Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-11-22
Labor for the South.

Labor for the South.
We do not know what to say on this sub
ject the labor of freedmen, as the close Of
operations for the season, has proved to be
an utter failure. The experiment of intro
ducing white labor from the North is near
ly as bad, if not worse so that the South
ern planter must be at his wits end to solve
the problem of labor ...
At Beech Island, in this State, they have
an agricultural club, and the information
there developed shows that the great ques
tioD of Southern labor has yet to be solved.
Mr.. Jonathan NJ. Miller made a statement
to the society, which would induce the
planter to believe that foreign white labor
cannot be relied upon. Mr.. Miller says:
CAT tie commencement of the year, |
employed as many negroes as I thought ne
cessary for the cultivation of my lands, but
iu consequence of a portion of them being
dissatisfied, dismissed them, thinking I
could procure others in their places. In
this was disappointed and after repeated
efforts to obtain other negroes, and failing,
Offering to pay them at the rate of $3.50
per month, l was induced to try white la.
bor Consequently, wrote to my brother
in-law, Maj. N, W. Smith, in New York,
to send me fifteen white aborers which he
did-thirteen men and two women. They
arrived at Augusta on the 18th of March,
l paying their passage to Savannah by
steamer, and thence by railroad to Angus
ia, at S25 each, was to pay them at the rate
for men, $3.50 per month, and for the
women, So. At the expiration of the first
month, their wages were paid them, and
they insisted that their wages should be
raised, for the men, SIS, and for the women,
$40; Notwithstanding that they had made a
contract for the first mentioned amount, be-
fore leaving New York. Iagreed to do so,
as they worked very faithfully Their ra
tiops were corn bread aud bacon ; as they
we're unaccustomed to the corn, gave them
occasionally rye and wheat bread, with fresh
beef; also, vegetables, such as peas, tur.
uips, sweet and Irish potatoes, as soon as
l raised them. 1 also furnished them cof
fee, likewise their bedding, they furnishing
their own clothing and paying their doctors
bill. At the end of the second month, seve
raj of the best workers amongst them insis
ted on their wages being increased still
higher, two of them SIT per month, aDd
one who acted as gardener to S25. lput
up the wages of the two to SIT, as they
were the best hands, and the gardener l
dismissed; several of the others left one
of the women I made cook and wash for the
men"
-Mr-Miller goes on to say that the plan
of introducing foreign white labor through
the agencies of New York emigration com
pauies is all humbug. These societies,
when they get orders for laborers, send out
runners and gather up the dregs of the city
of New York, and all such as they can pick
up, and make from three to Ten dollars per
head for each hand furnished. They charge
both parties, the employer aud employee
the former for hiring him laborers, and the
latter for getting situations. They bind both
parties in contracts, which might do in the
North, but as we have no laws to enforce
such contracts in the South, and as there
is no honor in such characters, Mr.. Miller
looks upon these companies and most Of
their laborers as mere swinders-the sole
object being to make all the money they
can out of the South-the societies by fur
nishing them, aud the laborers by obtaining
a free passage to the South
This labor problem is one of the most i'm
portant that the Southern people have to
solve. We believe that the labor of the
freedmen will turn out worthless, and that
some surer mode of securing farming labor,
than exists at present, should be at once
entered upon. Agents should be appointed
to go to Europe direct, and there make
the contracts, shipping the laborers direct
ly to Southern ports. Irish and German
farmers should have leases of farming lots,
and, in time, become proprietors of the
farms they work Foreign labor is what
we have to depend Oh, and the easiest mode
of getting it ought to engage, at once, the
attention of Southern agricuturists.