The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-06-27
Tho wan OF tho unemploys

--E l. rt. i
The working mancwho is without work
finds it difficult to understand the potent
reason why. No chop-logio can fill his
empty stomach, and he will not be con-
vinoed that the fEm which employed
him only g week ago cannot proftably en-
rloy him to-day. If left 10 his own devices
he gruubles and means till the coming of
better times; Il, as is the case in Charles
ton, he has counsellors who can only keep
on the surface while the cauldron Of trouble
is bubbling and who take to mischief as
narursny as . ouasvy duss sO's''.st..5nu :. '1
becomes at once q prosecuted mortal, and
demands that somebody shall give him work
or take the terrible consequences.
About one hundred of the city hands,
who had been employed in different ways,
have been discharged. For,s little while
they contented themselves with lounging
around the City Hall, but they have now
learned another lesson, and require the
Mayor to find them employment or give food
to them and their families. This innocent
demshd cannot be complied with, if the city
affairs are to be discreetly and justly man
aged. If the one hundred unfortunstes
were re-engsged this morning they would
feel thst they had permanent and never
ending claim upon the city treasury. One
concession would entail another, and soon
Charleston would be paying wages to
large body Of men, not because there waa
any need of their services, but because
they declared. that unless the city hired
them they would starve, all private objec-
tions to the contrary notwithstanding. This
course would encourage the ennuyt country
negro to migrate to generous Charleston.
Every colored boy who found that plantation
life, with half work and double pay, was
uncomfortable, would be off to the city; every
man who was too indolent to take work from
an individual, or who had made his house
too warm for him, would try to squeeze q
liberal per diem out of our suffering corpo-
ration. The evil would grow rapidly and
steadily, and the city would have to choose
at last between bankruptcy and riot.
For the support Of the aged and infrm,
who are regular residents within hor limits,
Charleston is of course responsible, and
this responsibility her Council have never
sought to evade. In the Aims House, which
now costs the city about forty thousand dol
lars per annum, there are from one hundred
and fifty to two hundred infrm men and
women-white and oolored-who are wholly
supported at the municipal expense, and
besides these there are nearly two thousand
persons who are receiving outdoor relief.
This-the support Of those who cannot
works all that the city can be expected
TO do,-all that she can do with justice to
herself and her creditors.
To us, and to the whole South, pauper-
ism is becoming question Of tho first mag
nitude. It will require careful and delicate
treatment, for any false step will bring down
upon US swarm Of lazy negroes who pre-
fer not TO earn their bread by the sweat of
of their brow. The usual system is to re-
quire the able-bodied to support themselves
If they will not do it Of their own accord,
they must be treated as vsgrants and made
to do work fully equal in value to the ra-
tions and shelter which they receive. The
infrm may be taken charge of by the civil
authorities of the town or district in which
they live, but the mere fact Of their having
been twenty-four hours in one place should
not entitle them to obtain in that place en-
during shelter, clothing and nourishment.
II this were allowed Charleston would soon
be houored by the presence of all the old
colored men, women and children in the
State, and would become the general poor
house of all Carolina
At present the danger is but small, for
those who are making the most noise have