The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-11-09
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, November 9, 1865
Labor for the South.

aG unc close OF operations 1or lne
season, has proved to be an utter
failure. Tho experiment Of intro
ducing white labor from tie NORTH is
nearly as bad, : not worse; 50 that
the Southern planter must be at his
wits end to solve the problem of
labor
At Beech Island, iu this State, they
have an agricultural club, and the
information there developed shows
that The great question Of Southern
labor has yet to be solved. Mr.. Jo-
nathan M. Miller made statement
to the society, which would induce the
planter to believe that foreign white
labor cannot he relied upon. Mr.
Miller says:
cat the commencement of the
year, [ employed as many negroes as
[ thought necessary for the cultiva-
ton of my lands, but in consequence
of portion of them being dissatis-
fed, dismissed them, thinking 1
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 $12 so per month,
[ was induced to try white labor.
Consequently, I wrote to my brother
in-law, Maj N. W. Smith, in New
York, to send me fifteen white labor
I'D, I,
two women. They arrived at Angus
ta on the 18th of March, 1 paying
their passage to Savannah by steamer,
and thence by railroad to Augusta,
at $25 each, and was to pay them at
the rate-for men, SIZE per month,
and for the women, IS. At the expi-
ration of the first month, their wages
we're paid them, and they insisted
that their wages should be raised, for
the men, S15, and for the women,
$40; Notwithstanding that they had
made a contract for the first men
toned amount, before leaving New
York. / agreed to do so, as they
worked very faithfully Their ra-
tions were corn bread and bacon; as
they were unaccustomed to the corn,
gave them occasionally rye and
wheat bread, with fresh beef; also,
vegetables, such as peas, turnips,
sweet and Irish potatoes, as soon as
raised them. I also furnished them
coffee, likewise their bedding, they
furnishing their own clothing and
paying their doctors bill. At the
end of the second month, several Of
the best workers amongst them in
sisted on their wages being increased
still higher, two of them SIT per
month, and one who acted as o gar
dener to $25. I put up tho wages Of
the two to SIT, as they were the best
hands, and the gardener dismissed; :;
several of the others left; one of the
women l made cook and wash for the
men."
Mr.. Miller goes on to say that the
plan Of introducing foreign white Ia
Dor through the agencies Of New York
emigration companies is all a hum
bug. 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 and employec-thc for
mer for hiring him laborcrs, 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
III such characters, Mr. Miller looks
upon these companies and most of
their Iaborers - mere swindlers-the
sole object being to mako all the mo-
ney they can out of the South-the
societies by furnishing them, and the
laborers by obtaining a free passage
to the South.
This labor problem is one Of the
most important that the Southern
people have to solve. We believe
that the labor of the freedmen will
turn out worthless, and that some
surcr mode of securing farming la
Dor, than exists at present, should be
at once entered upon. Agents should
be appointed to go to Europe direct,
and there make tha controcts shin