The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-09-17
Tho Tax ON CStton.

The Tax on Cotton.
The following judicious remarks
on the. cotton crop and the cotton
tax ore from the pen of q. w. Griffin,
late editor-in-chief OF the Industrial
and Commercial Gazette: As
There is every indication thass the
cotton crop for 1857 viii be very
small, even smaller than that Of last
year. Although q number of our
contemporaries express o contrary
opinion, our own advices from Ala
bamn, Mississippi, Texas and Louisi-
ana, are anything else but encourag-
ing. In these States the worm and
the overflow have destroyed nearly
two-thirds of the entire crop, while
in other parts of the country, where
the seasons have been more favorable,
the planters have, in many instances,
been wholly unable to procure help.
The freedmen, if they work at all, do
not care to work in any other way
than on shares, and usually demand
one-half of the crop for their SER
vices. This deluded class of human
beings fatter themselves with the be-
lief that day of luxurious ease is
near at hand; that the landed proper
ty of the South will be confiscated
for their especial benefit, and that
they will soon become the sole pos
SCISSORS of untold wealth. Their
imaginations are filled with visions of
splendcr, and dreams of .debasing
servitude for their former masters.
No wonder that they are sullen and
insolent, when asked to labor. But
these are not the only difficulties with
which the Southern planter has to
contend. His taxes are becoming
daily more and more burdensome.
Almost every article of human con-
sumption is taxed. He is obliged
not only to pay an indirect tax on
everything necessary for growing his
crop, but for the clothing he wears,
the light he burns, and the books
and papers he reads; and last, and
meanest of all, has to pay tax of
~ cents on every pound of cotton
he raises. Under these circum-
stances, it is not ut all strange that
cotton is no longer King; thai, in
| stead of sending millions of bales
abroad, we find the supply scarcely
equal to the demand at home, and
that other countries and nations are
cultivating it as well as our own, and
are meeting with success undreamed
of before. England, our greatest
commercial rival, has not been idle.
Her statesmen and political econo-
mists have exerted themselves beyond
all precedent to force the culture of
this indispensable article in her do
minion. They have succeeded in
uniting their country to the Indian
Empire, as it were, "by a bridge of
gold" They have silenced the
gI1mbling of the Sepoys, and quell-
ed every disposition of mutiny and
war. They have widened and deep
ened canals, and constructed new
ones. They have built railroads, and
bridged mountain chasms and mighty
rivers. They have improved naviga-
tion, thrown up highways, and re-
paired common roads, and taught the
ignorant inhabitants industry and
sobriety. The great Peninsular and
East Indian railroads, through which
cotton is made marketable, were pro-
jected and built in q spirit of enter
prise unsurpassed by any nation of
modern times. During tho coming
year, the former will pass from Bonn
bay to Calcutta, distance of fifteen
hundred miles, while the latter has
the longest unbroken line, under the
management of one company, in the
world.
In times gone by, we were able to
boast that we monopolized the cotton
market of England. Now, she is in
dependent of us, with the exception
that our cotton is of a better quality
and better suited for manufacturing
purposes. Shall we remain longer
inactive, and make no effort to re-
cover the supremacy from our aspir-
ing rival? It would seem that there
is no other way to awaken the Ameri-
can people to sense of duty than by
reminding them that we are losing
our greatness as a nation. We have
spoken unpleasant truths, but we
have been compelled to give utter
ance to them.
The tax on our greatest staple
should ut once be repealed, for it is
not only unjust but disgraceful. Our
legislative authorities should go to
work in earnest, and by system of
wise and judicious legislation, en-
courage the DEVELOPMENTS of orr no.