The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-12-07
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, December Z, 1855.
The Labor Question.

very Wcll III Ine1r way, DuC tnaG mel
ther the one nor the other, nor all
of them, will supply the great void of
labor, while we ourselves continue to
talk, grumble, loaf and brag about
what we used to be.
The stubborn truth of the matter
is this, that Southern men and wo-
men and their children, have to go
to work, If they may reasonably ex-
pect to repair their shattered fortunes,
or to save their section from the fate
of Jamaica or Hayti. The age of
idleness is past. We must all work,
or all sink. We haveIno longer 60 IA
theirs plantation and niggers to fall
back upon" The farmer is .well-nigh
worthless, and the s'niggers'' are
free; there is nothing left for lis but
brains and hands, and there is plenty
of work for both.
Is not the truth Of this self-evident
to every thinking mind? The scanty,
half performed work Of the few freed
men who evince desire to work,
should be supplied by the young men
of the other race, who know the value
of industry and labor in the great
work of recupcration. The freed
negro knows little about this, and
cares less; his highest ambition, in
his new condition, being to do rs lit
tie rs he can, and get enough to eat
and something to cover him. And
this is more natural, and should be
considered more excusable than many
OF us are ready to concedc. The
transition from slavery and compul-
sory labor, be that labor never so
light, was too sudden, not to have
just such an effect upon an ignorant
and uneducated class, who knew
comparatively little of the value Of
labor and industry to the welfare of
society, or the prosperity of a coun-
try. They performed this task, were
led and clad, and enjoyed themselves;
beyond this they never thought or
cared for.
All this has passed away, and the
negro is no longer compulsorily
under our control The services of
the race, either in the field, or in do
mestic service, are comparatively
worthless. This state of affairs hap
pens when we require increased
labor--whcn our fields and homes
laid desolate, require the largest
amount of manual labor and untiring
industry. There is nothing loft to
us, but to go to work ourselves; and
when we say cork, we mean work
not in the learned professions, not
behind the counter, not speculating
in politics-the course of the radicals
or the policy of the President In
days gone by, we had no objection to
college education, or to the numerous
candidates for learned professions;
but it did strike us with surprise to
see, the other day, such long list of
admissions to the bar, granted by
our Court of Appeals. 1t may be all
right-the prospect is that tho prac-
tice Of the law will be lucrative for
some years to come; but wo cannot
avoid thinking, that the palmer or
more practical paths of industry,
would be more conducive to the re-
cuperation of the South, and the
rotrieval OF our past prosperity.
Brains and hands The former
qualification is very good for politics,
the pulpit, bar, or medical profession
but these arc pretty we'll filed for the
present, and will answer our pur-
poses for some years to come. Let.
then, the hands Of our grown-up
young men go to the more practical
duties Of industry-the mechanics
and machine shops, the plough-auy
branch Of industry that will contri-
butte to real, material wealth, and to
the development of our resources.
The learned professions may be lu-
crative and yield living; but their