The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-02-16


Watch them well, my good friends, for they
intend you no good, and will wind up the
whole business as the spider does the fly.
Inquire particularly whether in their pri-
vate lives they devote much of their time or
money to schemes of benevolence, to improve
the condition of those around them. Do they
seek out the poor and give OF their substance
to relieve them, Do they seem to find pleas
ure in aiding their fellow men with their time
they deserve your confidence and Will never
betray VOL IT. on the other hand, they are
liouor swillers and iderS carefully keeping
their own hands from rhc work they require Oh
others, then be sure to aratch ,henl-they are
nothing but spiders singing songs to the flies
The plain people of the country are very con-
fding, too apt to trust In all the professions that
are made to them. If they will take the ad-
vice of an old soldier in the battles OF the world,
they will trust in none of them any farther
than they are proven 10y corresponding WORKS.
If these associations are good for nothing else,
the time of an election, and then. my good
friends, who is elected? Will it be the COM
mon laborers who get the tat Offices :? Not
bit of it! But their heads will do for the be-
nevolent ofice-hunterS to walk upon, in order
get them for themselves. Watch, as well as
pray, for you are in danger OF being cut up ior
fish bait.
The Union Leagues answered very well for
this for awhile. 1t was admirable to see how
the freedmen and their white allies were tied
together and marched to the polls, where they
were taught they would all be ruined If they
did not vote the ticket with the pictures on It.
Well, they voted it, and when they looked
around afterwards they found their benevolent
advisers all snugly in of1ice-some with sal
ary Of five thousand dollars year, some with
six dollars per day, and so on, down to one
dollar and half Now comes another set OF
spiders and tell the flies all this did them no
good-(very true D-that they are still IN dam
ger-lnust have another election and put down
the Capitalists cruel monsters that
won't pay the laborers, as they say. They pro-
pose now to have another fine time oft. Some
more offices are wanted, and as the League is
played out, it will be best to change the name
and call it an Association" to take care OF
the laborers! Who is it, my friends who have
suddenly awaked to the duty of supplying your
wants. Has any one of them ever supplied
your wants heretofore? If not, be sure to
watch them-they want your votes, and the
whole matter will end by giving, them fat
Offices, and they will leave you to founder in
the mud, as they did when they had YOU tied
up in the Leagues.
We were told that the Leagues were to
save the Uaion-very good things, so far as
that went-but if you will look around, you
and no one else. If the freedmen will feel in
their pockc@ they will find not single dollar
that has been put there by the men they voted
f5f,and they never will. They all see this
now, and are done with the Leagues. Old rats
will be cautious about trusting any more to the
name Of ''cat" won't answer the purpose any
longer-calling il association perhaps they
will go into the trap again.
This simile will do carry little further.
What would become Of the private members,
If they were all Gagged up, like rats, and put
well to look about cautiously, and see if some
thing of this sort is not in the wind. Once put
YOUR name in their hands, and then yon are
fairly roped, to be carried wherever the cats
choose to carry you.
The war taught us many useful lesson.
and one of them is, not 10 volunteer" too
soon; for yo,; will soon find you have become
slave, and must consent to be kicked about by
the officers as they choose, or be shot. This Is
''volunteering," as many poor fellow found
out to his sorrow: for some of them were shot
BY the orders of their own dear officers, for no
other crime than wanting to see for a few days
their own suffering wives and children. Ihis
is the consequence of permitting yourself to
be tied up in civiE or military associations.
You are then no longer at liberty to make your
own contracts, with those who wish to en-
ploy you, but you must consult the rules" to
doirg so Ifyou are an honest man, You will
abide by those rules, even ifyou have to sut-
fer greatly; but ere you sure that others will
do so, too? And if they do not, the effect will
be, that whilst they ret all the work they
want, upon terms which "havc not trans
pired," you must lic still and groan with want,
rather than falsify pledge, which others
may use only as u screen for undcrhand trans
actions full of profit to those who would not
permit you to lake the same terms openly.
This is barely possiblc-look you TO it,
Many years ago, willy old merchant, in the
goodness and honesty of his heart, advised a
young beginner in the same village that 1t
would be best for them 10 hold certain articles
at fixed price, and that neither store should
sell for any less. This was agreed to. What
followed excited the curiosity of the young
merchant. for he found his old adviser selling
malned on his shelves The fact was that tic
venerable old cheat, having fixed the prices
for his young friend. went right of and put his
own down below them, and in this way was
taking all the custom to himself. There Is
nothing new under the sun. and honest men
had best look about before they subscribe to
pledges that will prevent them from making
any contracts they please, independent OF
the censrres of any society whatever.
Secondly. So fur as the mechanical employ
,oaris are concerned, it would be well for
th,se 'sassociations" to have large Infusion
of the colored element. or the business VIII
fall entirely into their hands. The whites
must have the colorcd mechanics pledged, or
they will find that white labor can be very
easily dispensed with. There will be very
large crack remaining open, if the field Is left
free to them Indeed, nothing could happen
30 well for them as for the white mechanics to
bind themselves up by rules so that they
would in all cases have TO consult them before
they could go to work, leaving the coorcd
man free to get work when and how he pleased.
Now, will the two races unite, cordially, for
mutual protection-wiii either race sincerely
believe that the other cares very much tor any
but themseves-and would il be good policy
for one to act without the other,
This question, however. is not exclusively
for the mechanics, it is for the dear field labor
ers also; they are more numerous. and have
more votes Take care of their rights. in
deed 1t is said that some have grown rich
by distributing the charities of others amongst
the poor. We arc sure that all those who have
recently shown so much interest in the labor
er have met with an cqnal good fortune. All
these apostolic missionaries sent to us from
the North are either now safely seated in Fat
offices or are trying to get them. The word
''all" may be too comprehensive There are
some unpretending. unoutrllsive ministers of
the Gospel, whose humble and useful lives
should protect them from being included i'm so
general a remark The poticiaus form tho