The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-09-02
From the Evening Post, Aug. "a.
Chinese Labor.
Reasons for introducing it into the soatl.

Vi
Reasons for introducing 1t into the sonth. j.
The patent folly of even the leading
men of the South, in expecting reliet
from their present troubles by means of
cheap Chinese labor, demands a word of
comment: Chinese labor, mea 3ured by
the southern idea of wages, is not cheap.
The pay of the laborers on the Central
ton of that work, usually not less than
$50 month in gold, and not enough of
them were to be had at that. 1t is cer-
tain that as good men will be required
Cor average farm Or plantation work as
for work on railroad track; hence, as
long as the Pacific coast or the West has
a market for such men, the South must be
content to pay what. they pay or go with
out the commodity for sale. Again, com
pare the pay of the Chinese in California
with what the best ot-the southern ne
groes get. Without exact information,
we take it for granted that an average Of
81 month i'll currency woukl express
the wages paid during the present year,
not including a peck of meal and four
pounds of s1de-baCon week to each man..
A negro kindly treated, promptly paid
and intelligently directed, is, being accli
mated and accustomed from infancy to
the tasks to be done, more valuable
hand in a cotton field or sugar plantation
than Chinaman Treated after the
usual antecedent to freedom-the blow
accompanying the curse-he is probably
unsatisfactory and unreliable-as sulky,
logged, obdurate and insensible as a
mule. On the whole, whether well or
badly treated, he is the cheapest laborer
the South can get and were it not for
the unreasoning and astounding personal
and political malgnity of the southern
people, which refuses to make the most
of him-to encourage, elevate and edu-
cuate him-he would answer their pure
pose we'll. Butthe truth is, the South is
not 50 much dissatisfied with the quantity
as with the quality Of the labor at its
command. The dream is for ,laboring
men who will bear the discipline that
slavery enforces-Who have the intclli
gence necessary for effective work and
the insensibiIity required to bear all that
the worst brutality may impose-who can
be cut here, slashcd yonder, cursed alb
the while, and, in the event Of an
unusual fit Of chivalric rage, be shot down
as one would shoot dog. That Is the
southern idea of what labor owes to the
men who pay for it. The g niger" Owe
omit the expletive,) has got beyond the
point in his progress toward higher
civilization, at which he will submit to
the atrocities that he formerly bore.
Blows on his back, nowadays, is not I'M
attended with danger to curse and damn
him too frequently and without reason isl
to cause him to leave the crap in the
grass" and the South has so far advanced
that there is promise that there will
soon be hanging for lnurder In this de
plorable ruin of all that the chivalrY
have held dear, the longing for the more
patient and docile Chinese, is earnest in
deed. We have shown why it is immpos-
slble tor them to respond to the sweet
cooling with which the chivalry wooes.
We can hardly express our regret that
we are compelled to take this view Of the
facts There is a double reason why the
Chinese should go south Without them
in a few years more, the sweet young men
of that raglon will be compelled to work
or .starve. Bit it is to the moral results
to be accomplished by the Chinese move
ment southwark, that we have been spe-
cially invited To have these Asiatic
idolators as the moral instructors of the
men whom slavery has SO wonderfully de
bauched, to the end that the South may
finally become christian-that is what we
hoped for and what we are not willing
to forego. We do not abandon the hope
that the great moral and industrial regen-
Grafton will yet be brought about, the
Chinese with their burnt-peper offer
ings, their kindly, though mistaken faith
being the humble intrument paving the
way to the solid ground on which Chris
tianity can grow. To convert the social
led churches of the southern cities, in
which the horrible atheism Of manselling
was habitually preached, and in which
| treason is yet openly ayowed, into Chi
nese Joss-houses IN which the cardinal
virtues" are inculcated, need not be con-
sidered PROCLAMATION. Anything is bet
ter than the blasphemy that the South
called the worship of the Creator. Let
the Chinese come!