The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-07-17

The Labor question is at present engaging
the south more intently even than reconstruc-
ton or negro suffrage. The south is just
realizing what cool headed men had told the
abolitionists a5 years ago, that should they
succeed in having slavery abolished, the ne:
gro as free laborer must prove failure. 1t
is not necessary to review the history of the
blacks since the war to show how fully this
prediction has been realized. Instead of I'M
proving the social condition of the blacks, or
elevating them, mentally or morally, to the
standard set upon them by the crazy en-
thusiasts whose accursed mission it was to
breed diseord and dissention between sections
and races, it has wrought the ruin of the
negro, and sunk him far below the level to
which, as slave, he had risen. Relieved from
the necessity for labor, both by his emancipa-
ton from state Of servitude, and by the mis-
taken policy Of the government in supporting
hundreds Of thousands in voluntary idleness
in the south, who might have found perma-
nent and profitable employment there or else
where, had they been disposed to seek it, the
blacks, as race, have proved themselves to
be practically useless for purposes other than
those Of reconstruction" and the mainten-
ance of carpet-bag government throughout
the south. Unwilling even under the most
favorable circumstances, to perform any con-
tinued labor beyond that which is necessary
to supply their few physical necessities, they
have shown that il the south depends on them
for the development of her resources, she will
progress Backward with rapidity unequal
ed in the history Of nations.
The south has therefore dropped politics for
the nonce to grapple the mighty "labor pro-
blem." A convention of planters from all
parts of the south has been in session at Mem
phis, Tenn, since Monday, to consider OF this
great question: The negro having failed as
lsborer, what is to be done' The proceedings
OF the convention, as far as they have yet been
reported, show the answer to be at hand, and
indicate Enthusiastically the resolve the conven-
ton will adopt. The determination arrived
at will be to try the experiment of substitu-
ting tor the negro Chinese or Coolie labor A
contractor for this sort Of laborers, whose
name lis variously printed Koopmanship, Koop-
manoch and Koopmanchan, was in attendance
at the convention and offered to take the con-
tract to furnish for the south Chinese laborers
at the rate of 1000 per month, binding him
self that they should be entirely reliable and
industrious ss field hands, and at half the
wages the planters were obliged to pay the
negro. This man knew what lie could do
for he had already imported over 10000
Coo.ie laborers into California, furnishing
10000 for the Central Pacific railroad alone
and they had given perfect satisfaction. Nor
is, indeed, the employment of Coolie labor in
the south, according to statements made in
the convention, wholly an experiment. Such
labor has been in use in Louisiana for over
year past, and with the most encouraging re-
suits. The decision Of the Memphis couyen-
ton, it may therefore be taken for granted,
will be in favor of Chinese labor and the &C.
ceptance OF the Koopmanoch proposition. In
a year 100000 Chinese will have taken the
place of at least an equal number of negroes
in the south, and in ten years the negro viii
be virtually crowded out and his services as
II laborer dispensed with. Thus John China
man becomes pre-eminently the coming man,
while as for the poor darkey, for whose wei
fare the country has suffered untold affection,
heaven only knows what Is to become of him
in the end