The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-07-08
Civ. Land to Mako Money.

All our difficulties social, political and
industrial be overcome by proper
use Of the land lever. With this We can
gradually increase our white strength,
until the State government is once more
controlled by white men. With this We can
overturn the politicians who would force
the negro into our private schools, give him
a seat at our tables and make him our social
superior. With this We can obtain lsborers
for our fields, artisans for our factories,
all that We need to make our State pros
porous and strong. The power is ours; if
we fail to exercise it, ours will be the fault.
No offer can be made to the laboring
classes Of Europe that will have 80 much
effect as an offer Of land. Take, for in
stance, the agricultural laborers Of Eng
land, ireland and Scotland, and consider
what would be the feelings excited in them
by the absolute gift Of small farm. The
peasantry Of the three countries which we
have named have no future but the grave.
rn1l. iirV /. VI L-.i, r<sai-s t0ii, bvi"o
without hope or expectation Of improving
their condition as long as they remain at
home. In England and Scotland, few
years sgo, the average wages Of the oom-
mon agricultural laborer were ten shillings
, 9 week, without quarters or rations. Two
dollars and half in gold, for working six
days from dawn to dark. Out Of this pit
tance the family must be fed and clothed.
The wife may earn something in harvest
time, and so may the children; but at the
best, all that the family osu earn is only
enough to save them fromactual starvation.
They have no domestic comfort, no relaxs.
tion but pot.house, no sufficient food or
clothing. These white men-crushed down
by capital and swsrming populstion-live
in hovel and die in . workhouse. Very
much the same state Of affairs exists in
Ireland. However frugal and patient and
industrious the laborer may be, he dare not
in England hope to be able to rent small
patch of few acres for himself. Nor without
q miracle or revolution can he become
the owner Of farm. No wonder, then,
that he is attracted by the immigration
agent, and persuaded to move to the West
ern States of America, bribed by an offer
Of high wages or cheap land, tempted by
the promise Of emancipation from the
slavery Of capital and competition.
But the landowners of South Carolina
can offer more than any Western immigrant
agent can give. Our landowners cam OF
promise wages as high as those which rule
in the North; but THEY oAs GIVE THE I'M
MIGRANT A Farm. They can give the immi-
grant the thing he most desires-lsnd Of his
own. They can give him what the West
cannot give-a tract Of cleared land in
settled country, within reach Of market.
They can, by giving away one-fourth or one
third of their rich acres, make the rest
more valuable than the whole is worth to-
day. They can make their land magnet
to attract and hold the white man with ever
increasing force.
Few will deny that We have more land
than we can make use Of, and few will deny
that the value Of the land, when certain
point is reached, increases in the square
of the increase Of the population. In 1860,
the number Of inhabitants to the square
mile was in England and Wales, 307; in
ireland, 205; in Belgium, S97; in the New
England States, so: in the Middle States,
SO; in the coast planting States, including
South Carolina, 15 The difference between
the value Of the land in the North and in
this State is not the difference Of natural
fertility, but the measure Of the difference
Of the population. The South can be de-
veloped as rapidly as the Northwest has
been developed. Take the City Of Chicago,
whose population in 1880 was thirty, and
in 1867 was 24l,3 1854. What wonder is it
that land around the city which could be
bought for song thirty years ago is held
now at almost fabulous prices? The South
can DO more for her cities than the North
west can do for Chicago. The West makes
grain; the South makes cotton, sugar and
rice. This is the whole matter in nut
shell. All that We need Is population.