The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-29
COTTON NOT DEsp AIRED OF.

editorial:
But we do not choose to leave the question here.
We believe, and for the reason that we shall pre-
senty give, that the culture OF cotton, though II
may be temporarily checked, in the Southern
States, will soon be readopted mot on large plan
tatOus, but by small farmers that il viii be found
far more profitable than under the slave system,
because the culture will be more careful, and the
price obtained higher, by reason OF the product
being better; and we believe that OR experience
with free labor cotton will prove what Mr.. Sevell
showed to be true Of the sugar culture 10 the
West Indies-that free labor is cheaper than
slave, even with a sparse population. Mr.. Sewell
shows that in the year in which he wrote, 1860
sugar cost 10 produce in Cuba, with slave labor
three cents per pound; in Jamaica, with free
labor, two cents per pound in Trinidad with free
labor, one and 72-lO0 cents per pound, and in
Barbados, with free labor, one and rs cents per
pound In Jamaica. with slave labor, il cost for
merly four and 37-l00 cents per pound. That is TO
saw free labor, even under the most unfayorable
circumstances, is cheaper than slave labor under
the most fayorable-those Of Cuba, where the
slave force was constantly increased from Africa.
Therefore, we believe that the United States may
raise more and cheaper cotton under free labor
than ever with slave labor.
There is a vast difference between poten-
TALLY in the abstract and practicability
in the concrete. The journal above quoted
does not gainsay demonstrable possibility
when it asserts that "the United States may
raise more and cheaper cotton under free Ia
Dor than ever with slave labor" Potentially,
all the elements adequate to such a result are
present. The freed people have not less work
ing power now than they had before emanci-
patton; and they are at liberty to offer all
this laboring power 10 the enterprise of grow
ing cotton; and there is plenty Of capital, the
owners Of which can invest in this enterprise
if they see fit. Jumping these potentialities,
the sum would doubtless come up to the fore
going assertion of the New York Post. But
how does the case actually stand? To CON-
pare the products of the industry Of the freed
people at this time with the products of their
industry when they were slave laborers, will
show that while about a third formerly en-
ployed in agriculture have withdrawn from
that industry altogether, those who engaged
in the production of cotton have developed
only about one-third Of the working power
which experience proved that they possess.
This lack of development is at the bottom
of the whole difficulty of producing cotton
proftably with freedman labor. Only let
these people work up to their industrial
capacity, and there can be no question that
their free labor would be cheaper than their
slave labor was. Were they to do this, the
cultivation of cotton in the South at the ex-
pense of fifteen dollars a month and subsist-
ence to the field hand could even now be
afforded with the drawback of the cotton tax.
comparison of freedmens wages with the
cost of slave laborers before the war will
make this obvious. The average price of
able bodied field hands at that period was
about twelve hundred dollars. The interest
on this sum was, let us say, eight per cent,
or one hundred dollars. The risk of life and
limb, and health and vigor, was not less than
ten per cent. Deduct three per cent. for
natural increase, and there remains on the
score of risk eighty-four dollars Add to
these items taxes, medical expenses, food
and clothing, and an aggregate is reached Of
not less than two hundred and fifty dollars.
The field hand employed at this rate of cost
was accustomed to make on land of
good quality as much as ten bales of cotton,
which did not average, for a period of ten
years before the war, more than nine cents
per pound. This gave three hundred and
sixty dollars to the hand in gross proceeds, in
proceeds after deducting expenses one hun
bred and ten dollars. All these figures are on
q gold basis Reduce to the same basis the
wages of an able-bodied freedman, and they
amount to one hundred and thirty-four dol
lars a year. His annual subsistence, estimated
in gold, would not exceed seventy-ive dollars.
The whole cost, then, of such laborer, calcu-
lated in the same money as that of the slave
laborer, is two hundred and nine dollars, or
upwards of forty dollars less than the latter.
Suppose that the freedman employed at this
price produces on land of good quality ten
bales of otton. The current gold value of this
cotton is about twelve cents per pound, which
would give in gross proceeds four hundred
and eighty dollars; and less the cost of labor
would give two hundred and seventy-one dol
lars, or an excess of one hundred and sixty
dollars over the profit of the slave laborer to
the cotton planter at former prices.
Such is the abstract possibility. But what
is the present reality? Let the fact that on
the average freedmen laborers employed in
raising cotton have not made more than three
bales on land of good quality, be the answer.
One hundred and forty-four dollars would be
the gold value of this product, against two
hundred and nine dollars of cost in gold.
In the foregoing calculations we make no
pretension to minute accuracy. But they
approximate the actual results of experience
in a sufficient degree to contrast truly the
latent possibilities of labor in the able-bodied
negro with the amount OF. labor developed by
him in state of freedom; and also to show
that, willie with his fec laDvI, aUstraUtly vuu-
sidered, cotton ought to be produced with
unprecedented profit, it cannot be produced jim
reality, with such labor, without ruinous loss
Hence, it is certain that, pending this I'M
developed condition of the working power of
the freedmen laborers, and failing a substi-
tute for the old slave labor, the assertion that
"the United States may raise more and
cheaper cotton under free labor than ever
with slave labor. must be visionary abstrac-
tion-nOthinp mora