The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-04-18
COLUMBIA.
Thursday Morning, April 18, 1857.
just What is Wanted.


An English writer, who visited and
remained some time in the West In
dies, studying the problem. of free
negro labor, and wrote, as the result
Of his observations, book entitled
"The Ordeal of Free Labor in the
British West Indies," bears rather
exceptional testimony to the fitness
of the emancipated negro to meet
and discharge the duties that devolve
upon him. The following passage
from his book seeks to account for
this state of things, and strikes us as
one of interest to the Southern peo-
pie under the new relation in which
our laboring class are now placed to
the whites of the South and the body
polite. 1t is this:
eff I were asked to point out the
obstruction to satisfactory solution
of the West India labor question, L
should answer, without hesitation,
want of confidence between employer
and employed. The planters cling
unremittingly to the shreds of the
system of coercion"
No moro instructive lesson could
be given to the Southern planter or
employer, as to their conduct to-
wards those who were recently slaves.
Confidence on one side begets conf
dence on the other, and if the freed
man perceives that he has the full
confidence of his employer, he will
very naturally come to the conclusion
that the white man is entitled to his
confidence, and as confidence begets
trust and reliance, the employee will
trust in and rely upon the sincerity
and honesty of the employer. With
such confidence and trust, the two
races will be friends, and work har-
moniously and energetically for the
common good; but without it, mis-
trust. dissensions, petty squabbles
and unworthy suspicion will spring
up, which will be injurious, if not
ruinous, to both.
This line of policy, if there was no
other motive. is peculiarly impera-
tive upon the Southern people at the
present time. That there are tho
roughly organized efforts to turn the
freedmen against us, and to create
among them separate interest, the
daily reports we have of. meetings,
specially convened for that purpose,
leave no room for doubt. But we
believe these efforts can be counter
acted by proper treatment-by kind
ness. by liberal wages, by respecting
their legal rights, by rendering them
every facility for the purposes of
education and improvement. These
people are with us-were with us
from infancy-and we believe the
large majority will remain with US
live and die among the people with
whom they were raised.
How important, therefore, is it
that the obstacle we believe
the English writer has correctly
pointed out-want Of confidence be-
fDeen the employer and employed,
should be removed without delay.
The strolling emissaries and recreant
Southerners who are endeavoring to
create separate interest. and one,
both politically and otherwise, at
variance with our true interests, are
not the employers of the freedmen.
They do not merit, nor do we believe
they will receive, the confidence of
the people they seek to deceive and
delude; but it is, therefore, the more
necessary for our citizens to see to it,
that the interests and destinies of
both races at the South-which, if
we seek prosperity, must be inaisso
lublc-shall not be discovered from
their supineness, or from the shreds
OF ancient prejudices and habits still
clinging around them.
In political point of view. as well
as regards our material interests and
prosperity, the Englishman has
struck the keynote of success-the