Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-11-11
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our Constitution and Government have
removed all local internal causes of distur-
bance and excitement, and have given US
opportunity to devote our undivided at
tention to our material prosperity, will be
that concerning labor. ...
Hitherto the negro race have supplied
land owners with all their available labor
beyond that afforded by themselves and
families It is evident that the negro
race, as q race of laborers, is diminishing
both in numbers and eficiency-The drain
, TO the extreme Southern States constantly
going on. and the withdrawal of all the
| women from field labor and the unwilling
ness on the part OF both parents and chill
dren for the rising generation to become
| field laborers; the necessarily Increasing
mortality among the grown people, are
sufficient causes to make us seriously con-
| slider how we are to obtain labor to cult
vate our lands. However much our early
preiudices and associations may make us
deplore the fact, it is none the less fact
| that the proclamation Of the emancipation
| of our slaves was also their death kneH. -
Surely and not slowly they ara disappear
| from North Carolina. It is also painfully
true that other labor is not coming In to
| supply the places of the colored people.
| The disproportion between the supply OF
| labor and the demand for it will constant
| Iy increase. In five years, if the present
state OF things continues, the scarcity of
| hirelng labor will be so great that no
l. L. Loo frnr q town
be cultivated, for the reason that the Ami
can will have disappeared and neither the
European nor the Asiatic will have taken
his place It is the habit and the fashion
of European emigration to go TO the
Northwest It will take us full five years
to break up that habit and to persuade the
European, tired Of war, and violence, and
taxes, that our State is not the prolific hot
bed of murder that it is represented to be
by q portion OF our own and the Northern
press With the European doubt III this
matter damns us and he follows his friends
to the Northwest.
Our own people, some of them We know
well-meaning and in other matters saga
cious, have delayed the arrival Q: the
Asiatic for full five years by, it seems t. US,
an untimeIy and short-sighted opposition
to the introduction OF the Chinese amorg
us. That they will come in tho course of
time, no sane man can now doubt The
late amendments to the Constitu; on OF the
United States puts it beyond the power OF
any association of laborers or politicians in
any part of the country to prevent by un
friendly legislation Asiatic immigration.
The experiments, now being SO successful
ly tried in Massachusetts, to use the CHI
nese as shoemakers, and in Mississippi and
Alabama as railroad hands, and in L0ulsi-
ana as field hands, show beyond oil doubt
that they are admirably adapted 10 every
department of industry. Coming to lis
from these different directions, with the
recommendations Of efficiency aud econo-
my in their favor, there can be no doubt
that they sill eventually till our fields
We have some time ago given our views
upon the question of Chinese immigra
ton. We have seen no reason to change
them, nor do We propose ID repeat them
this morning.
1t seems plain to US that we can get nei..
ther Europeans nor Asiatics in time to !
supply the places of our African laborers,
and we propose rather to consider how |
best to prepare for the years that must in
tervene between the time when Our present |
supply of labor shall become 50 small as
seriously to make itself felt in every in
dustrial pursuit and the time when that |
supply shall be reinforced by other labor.
That this period of scarcity, this gap be-
tween the outgoing African and incoming
European or Asiatic labor, promises to ex-
tend over years enough to make it we'll
worth the consideration of the present
generation, we entertain no doubt At the
present rate of progress We who now play
parts on the stage of action will lag super
huous veterans before we can expect to in
troduce supply of foreign labor equal to
the demand of the country, and before our
employers can adapt their new employees
to the new order of things the next gener
alton will be treading close upon our
heels. The rice planters of the South
can at once appreciate the gloomy condi-
ton of affairs that stares Us in the face.
|
sion has been able to induce
colored laborers to work the rice lands,
and in consequence thereof perhaps the
finest lands in the Carolinas and Georgia
have gone almost literally to ruin. What
has happened to the rico lands because Of
the special aversion OF the negro iaborers
to rice cultivation, and which they were
able to crafty only because of the scarcity
of labor will, because Of the greater and
continued scarcity of labor, in due course
of time, happen to cotton lands and to corn
lands Every planter knows that with the
scarcity of labor comes disposition on the
part of the laborer to dictate the kind and
quantity of crops, and the mode Of cultiva-
ton. Every man who has since the close
OF the war given the subject any SORT of
attention, knows that year by year the sup