The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-11-20
The Labor Question.
MONTHLY, OR DAILY WAGES, IN LIEU OF SHARE OF TIKI

4 " z Hdse suO0u Tue uccSsStGy LOT u REDUCTION o.
hands and the advantages resulting from it. The
proofs Of this necessity it unnecessary to partcu
iarse, they form part of the bitter experience OIL
every planter for the last two years His LOSSES are
the proofs, and to them we confidently appeal for the
value OF our suggestion to abandon the employment
of gangs and to reduce the number of his hands to
that minimum force which is sufficient to keep up the
repairs, fencing &c, of his place. at the minimum OF
expense By this reduction of hands, and the payment
OF wages by the day or by the month"; instead of the
system new in vogue of giving share in the crop,
feel assured that palliative against the inevitable
bankruptcy of the share system is secured-ahough
as we have before remarked, have no faith what.
ever In rendering, by any system, the labor of the
gro permanently profitable either to his employer or to
the national resources. We mean, of course, profta-
BILE on the same scale as it was before the war, or
any proximate scale. The great problem of the day.
by the side of which African suffrage is but ephe-
eral trick is the reconciliation of capital and labor
upon compromise as to terms, which shall secure, if
possible the consent of both, or at least the ultimate
advantage of both.
1t is absolutely necessary for their self preser-
walton that the employers of this country and partio-
uary the upland proprietors, should recognise the
fact that speedy bankruptcy is the inevitable result of
the attempt to cultivate crops as they were cultivated
before the war, by hands in gangs, and payable by
share in the crops
They must contemplate the fact, and deal promptly
with it. before the advent of another year shall intro
duce and continue the SYSTEM aud with it the losses
the present year. followed by such exhaustion of ma
| ais apl fbato
perish of necessity. They must teach the freedman
that partnership in the crop is utterly ruinous and
that is to his interest to readust his wages for Ia
Dor. If, through the oficious interneddling of his
Hewfound friends and protectors or his own persist
ent and runous exacons, he should refuse to work
for wages, let him then take his own course, find en-
poyment where he can, and subsistence he may If
the Government afford it, let him be fed at its
expense 1t is able far better aoe to feed and clothe
him in his ideness, than his employer is to furnish
him hcuserent ratons and fuel and give him third
of his CROP in the shape of wages for labor that not
worth its board 1t better, too that the lands
Of the country should remain untitled for one year
than system of perpetual loss should be permanently
fixed upon the owners of the soi-and merely to pro-
vide homes for idle and thriftless negroes.
Our planters, and especially those upon the uplands
then, must take this matter in their own hands and
refuse to share their crops for it is demonstrabe that
if cotton were worth fifty cents per pound in the end
the planter would be ruined by it, in consequence of
the neglect of repairs, extraordinary prices of sub
sisence, and the continued losses from pillage Be-
sides the insuperable objections arising from the ne
groes indifference to material acquisitions resulting
from continued employment, and his simple content
ment with lodg ng and subsistence the Inequality
of such partnerships where all the capital is furnished
by an intelligent partner and its direction confded to
legal minor" under the guardianship of the freed
mems bureau-besides the neglect of all fences and
repairs absolutely essential to good husbandry and the
constant depredations upon the planters stock-the
system is wholly wrong it gives false idea of in
dependence to the meres paupers in the land, and
courages self:importance at variance with the mate
rial and the true relations of the races and above ALL
dangerous to the best interests Of both For teaches
the negro to think, he deal terms of equality
and partnership with the white man, that he ought to
be equal and partner to the extent of the adop-
ton of the share system; and the belief to which it
has led, that the negro is entitled to share in the
ands well a share in the crops, the planters of
the South have not been far behind the Radicals them
selves, in the instruction and the mseducation of the
negro. Equality of land and equality of political rights
ire two ideas that always in pairs in the negro's
'ran. To cure him of one is to cure him of both.
Now half savage as he is, the negro has sense
nough to know he is alike unworthy of suffrage and
share In the crop, but his keen instincts and keener
ecesstes have taught him to profit by the folly of
thers and the greater the concession the greater has
cen his demand in every case. Last year he de-
handed share of the crop It was unwisely con-
eded to him. This year he demands not only share
the Government, but supremacy. He enjoys it
Louisiana. In word, and we ask our readers to s
onder we'll the significance of the fact he controls {
9th the political power of the State and the labor of
lie State This sudden elevation-enough in all con-
'ence, to make dizzy his bran-has been reached by
lie audacity of the demands made by him and for /
i'm, and by the timdity of the concessions granted
rom this pinnacle he must toppe and fall. He would
III from his own inability to sustain his position but l.
this elevation is reached only by reposing his dead
eight upon the Radical party for political power, and "
pom the industrial energy and the capital of the
1uthern planter for his subsistence his independence
ID Importance, his fall will be preciptated by the C
VI
Sc him suffrage and refuse him share of the crop I
lis is the beginning of his education in the right d.
cton, for it teaches him, not equality, political Or $
cal, but his own inferority and dependence.
We do not expect that he will willingly descend G
ON the supreme elevation, of occupying "he high a,
stump for the time being, but in the light of re- m
political events he will at least understand that
e Radical party is not omnpotent, and he will see b.
own fate if, at the time our planters, by SC
norng partnership with him and by reducing the
mber of the employed, impress upon him the great 81
son that the "bottom rail" cannot and shall not fa
ntro the capital and work the lands of the State as
partner in the profits which never be realised 60
rough his industry. ~
He must not therefore, be expected voluntarily and Dc
mediately to join the movement for solving the N
obem of the day. the reconstruction of capital and 10
or upon compromise to terms, that would ena- no
the employer and laborer while adding to the ma pa
nal wealth, to secure individually, the first proper CO
crest, and the second adequate compensation But
h without his consent, our planters must inau- ha
ate this movement for their own preservation and wi
ection, follow the of the slave and gang d
TEN over the shooting Niagara" of their for a