The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-27
The Reward Of Labor in the South

We said, yesterday, that labor is better
remunerated i'll the Southern States than
anywhere else in the world We think
the proposition correct. We do not
speak of the rate of wages alone, but
propose to include all the advantages
that the laborer here enjoys. Of course,
we mean labor that is labor. The saun-
terer and the shirk does poor work, and
gets poor reward, here rs we'll as every
where else. But the energetic and faith
full laborer has rare chance. We know
q colored man, with a wife and three
children, who last year supported his
family, and laid by $1,000, by farm la
bor. We know another, with five chill
dren, none of them large enough to rem
der much of any valuable assistance, who
was not very favorable one, as the land
which he worked did not yield more than
quarter of bale to the acre. This
year he will do better, and will probably
clear $500, besides having corn and pork
enough to carry him through the next
year. Let us see how this is done. ANY
good, reliable man can get all the land
he can work upon shares-that is, mules
farming implements and lands will be
furnished him, and he will get half of
the crop. He con tend twenty or twenty
five acres, and have his garden and
sweet potato patch besides. Suppose he
works Arkansas land or some of the best
Mississippi. He ought to make ten
bales of cotton, half of which is his, and
all the corn he needs. If he has family
to assist him, he can do proportionately
more. He has his rent and fuel free
By ordinary management and economy,
he can live comfortably and save from
5000 to $500 year easily. The whole
cotton crop is estimated this year at
1000, 900 bales. The price promises to
be high, so that we may calculate that
the crop will be worth 100000, 900.
Suppose that this crop was all raised on
shares-and the demand for labor is
such that the most of planters are glad
to make such ngements-there would
be 500. 600, 900 to divide among the la
borers. But this is only about one-half
of what they would earn if they were in
dustrious. because the corn and other
crops, as well as their vegetables and
fruit, would be worth almost as much
more to them. The climate is such that
they can easily make themselves COM
Portable all the year round. Industry,
intelligence and economy would soon
make the laboring population here the
most comfortable and Independent on
the face of the earth. The savings of n
few years, rightly managed, would soon
enable each laborer to become his own
employer. for land is abundant and
cheap. Soon the man can get a little
tract, and have permanent home for
his family, where comfort would always
be present, and where luxury a~d ele-
gance would add to their endowment,
sooner or later, i'll sufficient degree.
The laborer does not know what q
capital he possesses. He can soon &C,
quire at least 100 acres Of land, and then
his possessions steadily increase by
accretion. He will have cows and oxen,
horses and mules, sheep and swine and
poultry, and they will increase SO rs to
add to his wealth more rapidly than the
highest rate of interest would yield Let
him become an intelligent and skillful
farmer, and his land will grow better and
more productive year by year, till old
age overtakes him surrounded with
plenty and affluence. There is SO much
excellent land yet unopeled; it is so
cheap and the staples produced so valua-
bic and in such demand, that the ability
to labor we'll must, for long time, be n
valuable possession to any man. Indus
try is the best aid of virtue and intclli-
SCHCC. 1H0 lulluStTiOuS man is seldom
vicious man, and he need not he m
ignorant man. Labor is the chief hand.
maid of knowledge, for the mind is
healthy and vigorous in n sound and
vigorous body. Let the free schools
everywhere give such education rs will
prepare the mind and give taste fo,
learning, and the leisure hours from
labor are apt to be we'll employed il
storing the mind with knowledge. Bur
ritt, ''the learned blacksmith, " acquired
fifty languages while laboring daily al
the forge. Samuel Drew, sometimes
called the English Plato, wrote his cee
brated treatise on immortality and resur
rection on his shoe makers bench, using
his cutting-board for desk. We have
known many New England boy pursue
aregular course of study while laborine
regularly ut farm work. The writer O
this learned the Greek verb during ,
haayinS season, when eighteen years old
While moving as handsome q swath n:
any of his fathers laborers, and striving
with them for the mastery in pitching
the hay most rapidly. Tupto was wei
moved and raked and pitched into hi
brain in all its variations, and has neye
departed, rs it might have done if fed +,
him with q silver spoon Tabor ;nd,s