The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-06
WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS SAY.

we nave Deen looking lnLO our OK
change newspapers with hope Of find
ing out what subject was uppermost In
the public mind; but we have not
been able to come to any conclusion. 1t
is possible the subject Of the freedman"
engrosses a. much attention as any
question just now discussed. Gen. Pal
mer made . speech, on Monday, to four
thousand eolored men at Louisville,
Kentucky. We give Geographic sum-
mary OF 1t, and advise the colored peo-
pie of this section to read what the Gem
eral has to say:
SPEECH TO THE COLoRRD MEN
He congratulated the audience that
slavery was ended forever in the United
States, and that the colored people,
having ceased to be slaves, had no
longer any interests which separated
them from the mass Of the American
people.
He was glad that to this continent had
been reserved the glory Of second ex
ample of the deliverance of whole peo-
pie from slavery; that now for the first
UnO Oulb 10 tuO AhAAu Va bnO AACCe anu
that hereafter the government is to be
maintained by giving full effect to its
own principles; that hereafter, before
ence between the colOred race and
others than that of color; that in the
nature Of things, for years to come, the
colored people Of this country must be
lab0rers, but that their interests and the
far ~ x~.h IN, Ink, mas 20,
teal; that all efforts to degrade the
blacks is to degrade their labor, and in
effect to degrade the labor Of all others,
and those who attempt it are just as
much the enemies Of the white laborer
a. they are Of the colOred laborer.
He that compels the black man to
work for half price compels the white
malt to do the same. The interests of
the black man are therefore the inter-
ssts Of every white man in the country.
Heretofore the legislation Of the coun-
try has been very much in favor of
wealth and the owners Of slaves, but
hereafter, slavery being out Of the way,
1t must be for the lab0rer, no matter
what his coler may be, to protect him
from the despotism of capital.
The shareholders will no longer be
able to control the pfejudices Of the sons
Of toll, and drive them to support sys-
TENS which robbed them of half their
earnings, which deprived them of free
schools for their children and free homes
for themselves.
He expressed his qualification at the
general kindness exhibited by the peo-
pie of Kentucky for their late slaves,
which, he said, was the true state of the
case, Notwithstanding there had been
some cases Of butslity and outrage
committed, the work of abandoned per-
sons in different parts of the state.
He spoke of the right Of colored per-
sons to testify in the courts, predicted
that within = short time all disabilities
would DO removed, and that within q
few years the question to be asked would
bs not "who is the wlaitest, but who is
the most honest, intelligent and indus
trious.n
He urged industry and thrift, and the
cultivation Of kind feelings towards all,
~ the true solution Of all questions be-
tween the races.
THE kILLowNERs OF NEW ENGLAND
The New York Evening Post of We'd
nesday. says
Mr.. Sprague, one of the senators in
Congress, from Rhode Island, whose
wealth has been accumulated by for
tunate management of manufacturing
capital, has laid before Congress sug-
gestion for the benefit of his brother
mill.owners. He has given an example
Of the truth ola remark which we have
often had occasion to make, that the
more of what is called protection the
manufacturers receive, the more they
ask.
On the 10th of December Mr.. Sprague
moved q joint resolution instructing the
proper committees in the Senate and
House Of Representative to inquire, in
substance, into the tax on domestic
manufactures, and that laid on imported
goods, and whether imported goods had
not by this means the advantage over
those manufactured herein other
words, whether some further legislation
is not necessary for the interest OF our
mill-0wners.
In what distressed condition the mill
owners are, and how important it Is that
Congress should interfere to save them
from ruin, the report of the semi-annual
dividends Just declared by the manufac-
tn ring companies in New England will
demonstrate. Looking over the list which
contains the statement of the capital they
employ and the profits they receive, we
find them In the lowest depth ofdistress
The Androscoggin Company, for exam
pie, divided twenty-five per cent. Of its
capital on the first Of the present month.
Its capital is q million OF dollars it's
dividend Is quarter Of million. After
paying liberal salaries to those who SUI
perintend lis concerns, and wages to the
work people employed, the shareholder
touches twenty-five dollars for every
hundred at which his shares are valued.
Here is clear case for the intervention
of Congress. We wonder that Senator
Sprague, who 10 not without oratorical
abilities, did not Introduce his scheme
with patheticoration on the restitution
of his Androscoggin brethren.
But the unfortunate owners Of the An
droscoggin shares are not the only objects
of commisseration. The Appleton mills
divided twenty per cent. on the first of
this month, and five per cent. which
used to be called handsome dividend,
on the first Of June last. The Bates
mills divided thirty-five per cent. for the
whole year. The Chicopee mills, with
4 capital Of $420, 900 divided for the whole
year ending with the first of this month,
fifty per cent. Every hundred dollars
Invested In the Chieopee mills brings in
TO ito miserable owner fifty dollars.
These are hard cases, to be sure, and
we wonder not that Senator Sprague
has stood forth a. the champion of these