The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-06
Labor is Honorable.

Of course it is. Who ever affirmed the
contrary? But it is not enough to say 80.
This is not what is wanted. There is an air
of patronage about the phrase, which we
do not like. They who most frequently
give utterance to it, seldom put their own
hands to the plough. And yet this is the
only sure method Of making labor honora-
BILE. Show your faith by your work.
We have frequently of late conversed
with strangers, tourists and business men,
who have passed through the State. They
express great surprise at seeing 80 many
idle persons, whites as well as negroes, con-
gregated at the railroad depots, and about
the villages and country stores. No where
else in civilized Christendom, save perhaps
in Naples and some other parts Of Italy,
can be seen so large a proportion Of the
stout and able-bodied population, lettering
about on week days, perfectly at leisure
1t is not healthy sign, and every patriot,
every right-minded citizen ought to try his
utmost to remove this canker from Our
midst.
In almost every country in Europe, where
population is dense and land high--where
a single acre not unfrequently rents for forty
or fifty dollars year-the great aim and
object of the poor man is to gain home
stead, even though it be on rented land.
He will set to work with will to make
bread for his family; and, unless the rent
is too high, or some unforeseen calamity
befalls him, he generally makes support,
aud "gets on" If otherwise, he emigrates;
goes 10 the United States, to Canada, Brazil,
Australia, or the Cape of Good Hope. He
goes there not because he wishes to eschew
work, but because land is cheap, and he
may have a reasonable hope to obtain the
rewards of his industry.
Our negroes should take example by the
immigrants; and our young white men like
wise should cease to complain of the negro
and of the worthlessness of "labor." The
surest way Of improving the labor of the
country is by going to work ourselves. All
witnesses agree in the statement that
wherever farmer has worked along with
his negroes, the result was favorable, out
of all proportion, in the amount Of cotton
to the hand OF to the acre, to the places that
have been left to negro ''drivers," or have
been "overseed" by hired white man.
Nothing is more common than to hear the
complaint, "What can do? am just one
man; I have no capital and have no labor"
Land can be had everywhere-thati is capi-
tall AS to labor you have your own two
hands; and in the language Of Scripture,
whatsoever thy hand hndeth to DO, do it
with all thy might. No man should COM
plain of the want of "labor," as long as he
has his own strong arms, and perhaps those
of two or three sons to fall back upon. Once
let the idle and inprovident negroes see
you fairly at work, clearing ground, betting
and cutting down trees, rolling logs, split
ting rails, and making fences, and they will
come and beg to be employed on any terms.
Only in this way will you vindicate the
dignity of labor. A very vigorous article
in recent number of the New Orleans
Picayune on "Idlo White Men," concludes
with the following paragraph:
1t is not the idle negro who most curses the
South; it is the idle white man. That he
curses the North also, chiefly it's cities and
towns, does not make it less true Of him here.
There are few men among US who cannot
work, by reason OF age or infrmity: there are
others, like Hood and Semmes, who being
crippled or otherwise unfit for hard labor,
should have lighter OF intellectual tasks, and
who work coura geously and steadily in them;
but multitude Of those who arc cut OF en-
pioyment might find it easily if they were not
either falsely ashamed to work or too lazy to
be useful.
To cure such, and to renovate snd recon-
struct the South, We need to make idleness
dishonorable.