The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-01
The Workings or the COOlie System
Its Operation in the British Colo
mics.

The Chinaman, as an clement of la
Dor, is now fairly upon us. The adj
vanced guard has arrived, and before
long the Pacific Railroad bids fair to
become the line of march of a great
army of Celestial workers intent upon
conquering a living in our Northern
factories and in our Southern fields.
In the former he will have to contend
against race that is far superior to
him i'm intellect and in physical
strength, and one that is ever ready to
work: but i'm the latter his opponents,
if they can be dignified by such a
term, will be a race who are nOtori-
ously lazy, and whose intellectual ca
librc is of very low order. En-; i. b
In the introduction of a new ele-
mcnt into the population of a coun-
try, and especially when the element
consists of a race widely different
from those races which already inhabit
it, there is much to be learned from
experience. What may be the result
of the employment of Chinese labor
in our factories we have yet to learn,
as the little knowledge that has been
already gained i'm this respect in Cali
fornia is insufficient for such purpose.
But we have plenty of data to prove
to us the advantage that will be likely
to accrue to the South by the intro
duction of coolie labor into its agri-
cultural system, in the results that
have been derived from like intro
ductiOn into the British cOlonists,
which, thirty years ago, had to pass
through an ordeal similar to that
which is now being experienced in
the, South. 1t is true that the pre-
dominant class which has been intro
duced into those colonies is somewhat
different to the Chinese, but still the
HindOO is but another variety of the
same race, and sufficiently similar to
warrant us in inquiring into the re-
suits of the introduction of the one
for information as to the prospective
results of the employment of the
other in like field of operations.
And yet, while the coolies of HindOs-
tan have been the mainstay of the CO.
lonial planters for the last three de-
cades, still they have not been their
only source of labor supply; for in
two of the colonies a considerable
number of Chinese have been intro
duced, and they have been found to
work tremendously with their fellow
Asiatics and to have freely subjected
themselves to the same rules and regu-
latiOns.
In view of the looming man," we
publish in other column a cOmprehen-
sive account of the coolie system in
the British commissioning its COM
plete history, setting forth the diff
culties that beset its introduction and
how they have been overcome, des-
cribing the laws and regulations by
which it is at present governed, and
by facts and figures exemplifying the
success of the system by its remarka-
BILE results. 1t is the most complete
review of the entire question of cOolie
labor that has yet been prepared, and
as it is compiled from official papers
its accuracy may be thoroughly relied
upon. The article will afford impor-
tant information to all who are inter
ested in the labor problem of the pres
1
ent day, though as matter of course
from the nature of our government
many of the regulations that are oh.
served i'm the British coOlie system
would not be admissible. here, where
the laborer must be a free agent. The
facts contained in the paper show tina
the Asiatic is not only a willing an(
cheerful, but an industrious worker
and that he has been satisfied witt
the treatment he has received, is evi
denccd in the great number who hav'
been found ready to re-engage at tn,
expiration of their contract period o
industrial residence" and to do thi
they must for some years forego tn
privilege of a free passage to their ma
tive land. Coolies appear to be speci
ally adapted to labor in warm eli
mates. They have turned the howl
ing wilderness" of tropical posses
sion into lands overlooking with su
| gar. rum and mOlasses.s They hay'
in a remarkable degree enriched tn,
British colonial planter. By all mean
let them be recruited for like pur
pose into the service of the planter
of the South. Let US have lively Asf
atics who will work, rather than lazy
Africans who will not work.-Neu
York Herald. i.- 'f.la.;