The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-12-02
a9aSsrspl, ynteuiget1tsr,
(ooNr1NuED FROM FIRST PAGE.)

lnatlOnS anu pfeSoHtthoHGo VI o"S
tion of the prisoners and jails. would
recommend that a ration OF good aaahty
be established by law, and that 1t should
be.furnished by contract, as it is but too
eyidont from the fact Of their frequent
detention of prisoners in Jail, that the
ration is a matter of speculation to the
TAILOR. The ration at the Penitentiary
costs but IS cents, while so cents each is
allowed to the sheriffs for prisonersin the
jails. There are other abuses connected
with the office of sheriff which require in
vestigation and reform.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Among the evils of civilization may bo
deemed the antagonism of capital and
labor. and the strites+ and conflicts which
generally accompany it. Perhaps in no
portion Of our Republic has this antago,,
nism been moro imperiously enforced and
more distinctly recognized than in South
Carolina, where, among theSarge landed
proprietors, who owned to great extent
the soil and controlled its legislation, the
laborer, whether white or oolored, was
considered Oh level with the slave, and
if there was any Discrimination it was in
favor of the slave, who generally had an
owner, and, therefore, a protector in tho
controlling class, while the white iaborcr
owned himself and had to care for HIM
self, and no solicitude was felt for him,
except upon the eve of an election, when
his vote was wanted. If tainted with the
blight of labor, it was of no consequence
how intelligent or worthy in other re-
spects the individual m; ght be, an inter-
dict like that which expelled our first
parents from Eden, rested on him, and
The remark OF some rosy,lipped maiden,
no is only mechanic, has been the fiat
Of ostraeisns to many promising young
man from the charmed circle of good So
eiety, and frequently of exile from friends
and home to community where labor
was not disgrace, nor being a mechanic
disreputable. Of the extent of this vital
loss to the South, some estimate may be
made from the tact that, in addition to
the many thousands scattered through
out the West, there are upwards of SOW
enteen thousand Southerners, a goodly
portion of whom are from South Carolina,
at the present moment devotlng their
talents and energies to the building up
and extending the already enormous bus
incss of the city of New York.
And yet many of the class whose for
mer dominance wss so baleful to the
general interest and prosperity of the
State, insensible to the affective lessons
OF the ordeal through which they have
so recently passsd-learning nothing, for
getting nothing-not realizing that they
are only the shadows of the power they
once exercised, still "assumo the god,
affect to nod" while not only their scep-
tire but their dominion is rapidly passing
from them into the hands of the specula-
tor and the money lender, and OF those
who feed and fatten upon the vices, the
weaknesses and the misfortunes Of man.
kind
But Notwithstanding the dccrepitude
and decay of so large a portion of our
former property holders, the moneyed
influence still wages its strength in op-
position to the rights of labor, and avail
ing itself Of the resources at its command
has assumed not only to determine the
wages of the laborer, but to fix his social
status and to treat him as subordinate,
and as an inferior and dependent, to be
coerced into submission by the dread that
resistance would result in the loss of en-
ployment to himself and of bread to his
family. And the working man, like the
bridled horse, unconscious of his strength,
has been content to occupy the abject
position assigned to him of toll and
drudgery, of penury and degradation, for
tho scanty means of subsistence doled
out to him, while his children have grown
up uneducated and unre6ned, without the
means of improving their condition, reck-
less of the past, hopeless of the future.
But although in these struggles hther-
to the advantage has generally been with
the capitalist, the workingmen, by real
lying the Importance of concentrated
effort and of proper organization, are
Meeting their employers on more equal
grounds, insisting that they shall have q
voice in determining the value of their
labor, and in many instances these de-
mands have been complied with. Sue
cess has encouraged othcrs who are
pressing toward tho samo goal, and am
cheered in the hope that the day is not
distant when employer and employed
will realize that they are mutually dc
pendent on each other; that the rights Of
the one and the interests of the other are
perfectly compatible and equally deserv-
ing of recognition and respect, and that
aii will acquiesee in the sentiment that a
fair day . work is entitled to o fair Gays
wages. In communities where the sys-
Tern of compulsory labor existed the an
.agonism OF labor and capital was great
ly aggravated, the capitalist beng the
master and the laborer his slave. whose
labor and person alike were under his con-
troll, and who regarded him but teo fire.
quently only in his legal relation of Il
1La.toi In whom lie had NO othcr In terest