The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-12
I'ER.N.S-IN -ADFANCE

VIM. Moore, Abbcvillc c. H.
julius Poppc, Anderson c. II.
The Future of Southern Labor.
We take the following from an az
ticle i'll the New Orleans Picuy,me:
We cannot fail to see that all other
people, situated rs we are, have failed
to receive prompt aid to their indus
try, either from emancipated slaves
OF from immediate immigration of
laborers from other regions The
West India Islands afford ample illus
tration of this. 1t is true, that in the
Island of Barbados, the negro works
h ard and well but there he is encom-
passed by water, and the population
is dense. The better Off Of his own
class, as well as the white man, in
sists upon his supporting himself by
his labor or means, and this he must
do, or compulsion is used to induce
it, a rule which is applied to black
and white alike; but here, in this
open country, and with institutions
SO excessively free as ours, this is i'm
possible.
This we say irrespective of civil
rights acts and constitutional enact
ments intended to dignity and pro-
tect laziness. All the orders of Banks
and Butler, which were infinitely
more severe than the labor laws en-
acted by Southern legislatures since
the war, could not get steady, uni
form and saving work out of the ne
gro, nor c.ln any reliance be placed
on his contracts for future labor AS
it has been found in Jamaica, Trini-
dad, British Guiana and elsewhere,
;'ear by year the old habit of work
will wear away from the older ones,
and the younger will never acquire
it, unless a new system of employ
ment be devised. It is of this we
wish to speak now
The whole system Of labor in the
past has been one Of life, or, at least,
yearly employ of the laborer. We
have never planted our corn and cot
ton us the Western and Northern
farmer his corn and wheat, by labor
ers employed from month to month,
week to week, or by the day. We
have never thought it practicable so
to do. Yet their crops, including an
infinitude of things which we hardly
tihnk OF, require, to the space cult
waited, at least rs much labor as does
ours, and they get along exceedingly
well, though there are more proprie-
tors of the soil in proportion to our
population with them than with us.
The objection made to this course
among us is, that large plantations
cannot be thus cultivated; yet there
are farms in the West of over 10000
acres in actual cultivation and tillage,
where labor-saving machinery sup
plies additional arms to two hundred
men, who, from time to time, are
there employed. Yet, if it should
prove true that large plantations
could not be so cultivated, can the
labor be otherwise secured TO cult
vate them? Much the better plan
would seem to be to plant less land
at less risk of entire failure or great
pecuniary loss, and thus be secure OF
some gain, If it be not of fortune.
The chief end to be secured by
short terms o. labor is, that this
course will tent! TO make the laborer
more honest III work. If he does
not do the work he is hired to do, he
VIII be discharged and another hired
IN his stead. He will como upon the
land, not as Il tenant, with an idea
that it is his home, whether he work
or not, but with the knowledge that
he must work or leave. Paid for his
labor by the day, week or month, as
he may be employed, his term ended.
he must go elsewhere, unless he give
satisfaction. He has himself the same
right to leave, if not pleased, and no
sullen, unwilling labor, diversified,
perhaps, by chopping off the crop,
or stealing it from the ground, will
render his prolonged stay an injury
rather than benefit.
The truth is, the effort to adapt
free labor to the old plantation sys-
tenn makes the employer the slave of
the employee, and the longer the
former regards it as a necessity, the
more dependent he becomes But if