The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-01
White Labor at the south.

Wntte D0DOT at tne oOuths
From the Tribune. '..-
Liberty" says high authority, sis liberty
TO work" That is the sort we have mainly en-
joyed; and yet we cannot regard the definition
as exhaustive. Liberty to play occasionally
say day or two every ten years-strlkes US as
not necessarily bad thing; though, like all
good things, 1t may be susceptible of abuse.
We have Freedmen's Bureau, which is very
good in its way. Its main object ls to get the
recently emancipated blacks to work for wages
at the earliest practicable moment, meantime
preserving them from starvation; and in both
aspects it has done noby. 1t is easy to say, "Let
every one look out Tor hlmself; but wheL the
neghboring possessors OF property, power, and
intelligence are nearly all hostile, how are the
destitute and ignorant to get start The
Chinese are q most ingenious, efficient, indus
trious race; vet ii four millions of Chinese were
to be wrecked on our coast next week, we fear
many of them would perish, though abundantly
able and willing to work for living. They
would die before they could get a chance to live.
Akin to this is the peril OF the blacks; ana we
have no doubt that the Freedmen's Bureau has
already saved many thousands Of them Hom
death or felony.
But who is doing or devising anything for the
Southern poor whites! Who tells them that
Liberty is liberty to work ?" Notoriously, they
are very needy; undeniabiy, they are less habit
uated TO labor than the blacks Formerly, they
contrived to pick up a few dollars now and tnen
Dy huntlng runaway slave lOr t1lS or tOat
planter, or by selling whisky clandes:inely to
his negroes and getting paid n stolen meal or
bacon. Mean ways these; yet they eked out tlfe
meaere subsistence of many poor white.
The old false pretense that whites can't work
at the South is now discarded--nobody affects
to doubt that they can work there at least as
effectively as the blacks Germany and Ireland
are entreated to send laborers to the South ;
even Coolies from the East Indies have been
talked of; but there seems to be no sort of re-
lance on the labor Of Southern whites. "Will
the negroes contract ~ ''WIll the negroes work p"
were asked till the questions became too palpa-
aohites would work. 1t has been quietly taken
for granted that they would not. We non-concur
in this assumption. r|. ua4..s
Why not give them fair trial? There must
be half million men and boys, say between
sixteen and sixty, in the eX-slave States who can
only live honestly by manual LABOR. They need
TODD, clothes, and nearly every comfort OF life.
They own no land; they have no skill in lawyer
craft or other headwork; they are 100 proud to
beg and must work or steal YeG few of them
are at work this day; not many expect to work
steady through the ensuing genial season. Were
seven.eghths OF them set to work advanta-
geously, they could not fail to add at least one
hundred and fifty millions per annum to the
wealth of our country-equal to the burden OF
our national debt. How long shall this mine
OF wealth remain unproductiVe?
We pray the statesmen and thinkers OF the
South to look to it, 1t is not possible to go
back we must go forward. The poor whites
are the strength and glory of their country. If
they work, the South must rapidly increase in
wealth and comfort; if they remain idle, the
South must remain impoverished, ignorant, i'm
potent. And now is the time-when old things
have forever passed away-to imbue them with
wholesome conceptions of the nobility of labor
and the manlness OF living by your Wn honest
and useful eXerton.
We hope soon to hear that thousands of cotton
and other manufactures are springing up beside
Southern rivers and among the glens of South
ern mountains-the cheap food ready cotton,
infinite water-power, and abundant children o
the Southern hill country rendering that mos1
| favorable region FOR manufactures. But the i'm
mediate want of labor in agriculture cannot bt
supplied by blacks alone. We shall not grow
| half the cotton and food that should be grown
this year unless whites are extensively employed
| therein.
And why should they not be? If any planter
| finds negroes scarce or indolent let him resolve
! to do without them and employ whites instead
| We are confident that tens OF thousands would
| gladly hire out to work by the month for TAI
! wages and good treatment generally. The,
| would probably refuse to work with blacks; ant
| there is no need that they should. Let thos
| planters who are tired of negro labor, or canno
rely on it, give white labor fair trial. Let then
advertise that they want it-that they will hav
no other-and they will be surprised at its abuI
dance and efficiency. And he who gives whit
labor a fair chance and lair wages viii soon fn
il as easily at the South as at the North.
| Idaho.