The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-07-16
Impending Conflict.

Impending Conflict.
Nothing is moro astonishing than Tho
rapidity with which the public loses in
terest in old issues and becomes absorb.
ed in new ones. Such q transition state
is now being undergone at the North. in
which the negro is fast being lost sight
of in the magnitude of the great labor
and trade problems. From present ap-
rearances, the old and never to be ended
war between labor and capital is, in
new form, to supercede all other ques-
tions of partisan policy in this country,
for at least score of years to come. If
any confirmation of these views were
wanting, we can readily discover it in
the avidity with which prominent politi-
clans, always first to feel the public pulse,
are now seizing every occasion offered,
in Congress or out Of it, to array them
selves as leaders on one or the other sides
of the question. Nor are the public
journals behind in the race. For once
an issue comes before the country supe-
rior to, and entirely independent of any
political organization, and possessed Of
elements requiring al entirely new di-
vision of parties-and one purely sec
tional in its nature. The consequence
is, that we find the great lights of Rad
icalism and Democracy about equally di-
vided in their councils, and everything
indicates their absorption by an entirely
fresh division. Already tho papers of
the Eastern and Middle States boldly
charge the West with fomenting rebel
lion, because the latter insist upon anew
apportionment of representation, which
will largely increase their strength in
Congress. The East does not hesitate
to say that this must be resisted; that
commercial and manufacturing interests
must not be left subject to the control of
o mere plurality Of numbers. OF the
temper in which this controversy is con-
Quoted, the following extract from n
prominent Pennsylvania radical journal
will afford IN illustrations:
1--WE called attention to the extreme
danger of this Western fanaticism at the
outset of the trouble, and said that it
bade fair to be as ultra as that of the
South had ever been. Our views were
endorsed by influential Eastern journal
lists; but the Pittsburg press seemed to
think we we're making danger, rather
than guarding against it. Nevertheless,
i! has all happened just as we foresaw.
The Chicago Tribune braves the power
of the National Government, dGres Con-
gress to be governed by the regular laws
Of apportionment rather than by West
ern dictation, and threatens that the
West will not submit. Of course, it
hopes to be backed up in this by the re-
bellious element at the South, in which,
we think, it will be mistaken. The
South has had an ample trial mt electing
representatives on its own account, and
then daring Congress to reject them.
Congress has dared over and over again,
and will dare do it again in the case Of
the Western rebels. Tho middle States,
which resist this scheme, arc all gamers
in the representation under the new
census, or what it is expected to be-"
AS the prosperity of the South and
West now depends mainly upon q boun-
tiful supply of cheap labor, and as cheap
labor is entirely inconsistent with high
revenue duties and oppressive taxation,
both of which are of vital necessity to
the welfare Of the East-the policies OF
the two sections are necessarily opposed.
For time, owing to the vast resources
Of our country, and the patience OF our
people, the conflict has been delayed.
But the necessity of constant increase
in protection, to meet the constantly in
creasing demands of labor organizations,
was all the while tending toward that
point where the balance could no longer