New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-12-23
novurErr II BRAZIL.

An idea has Just started, out in Brazil,
that it has been hard work TO circulate
successfully in this country. Emigrants,
| who are wanted in Brazil, refuse to VEN
ture where their labor is to be opposed by
the competition of slaves. The great
battle Of the West was fought on this pzin-
ciple, and free soil won the victory in the
interest Of emigration. We held the
slaves, and the Northwest got the emil
grants; for the. free and independent la
borers from Europe at all times refused
to settle where their services were liable
to be held at the value Of their board
and clothes. We have not parted with
the evil yet, for q very intelligent and
powerful influence is still at work in the
South to create disadvantage to labor,
by making it as near servile as possible
The demand for Chinese contract laborers
is but branch of that same system which
stripped manhood of its independence,
and made the servant the creature OF the
employer. If it was told in Germany
that the emigrant could select to go to
Kansas, where he would be free to engage
with free men, or he could come to Louis
lana and compete with poems, is there any
question as to where he would select his
home? In Kansas, his chance Of employ
ment would be regulated entirely by the
demand for labor, and by his own ca
pacity. In Louisiana, his chances would
depend on the insuficiency of the peon
force to do the work Of the farm. The
farmer in Kansas is free to employ the
first man that applies at his gate. He
can discharge his hand for better one,
or he can terminate the engagement
when the laborer is no longer necessary.
The hired help can seek better wages or
move to o different locality. There is an
elasticity about business that allows Of
putting on new hands wheH labor is
moving about in search of engagement.
Uuder the system which Chinese poems
enforce, the farmer makes certain fixed
calculations according to the. amount of
his force, and he manages his plantation
on that system through the year. The
newly arrived emigrant can find no OPP
por.unity OF . peon plantation, because
it is rigid and ureiastic estate,
unprepared to enlarge its operations.
And even if the emigrant succeeds in pro-
curing employment on one OF these places,
he soon finds his position SO peculiar that
he is ultimately forced to Quit. The man
who is bound for years always feels that
he is inferior to the independent seryitor,
vino can quit at his own good pleasure.
The South, OF rather certain governing
class in the South, could never compre-
bend, or else its selfshness did not care.
that this system Of slave labor, before the
war, and the constant demand for peon
labor since the war, operated to deter the
intelligent and hardy e,nigrants Of Europe
from seeking homes with Us. They ask
free service, where the best man can get
the best pay, and where the ULfaithful
laborer must drift cut Of the way Of the
faithful. If Brazil comes to understand
this principle, she will probably beat US
yet in the race for emigrants. And that the
idea does not move so slow with the Brazil
ians rs it did with Us, is evidenced by the
fact that slave labor has been ordered out
of the cities of the empire, in order to al
low free labor better opportunities. Such
an idea in New Orleans before the war
would have been secuted as aboEtionislu,
and it's author might have calculated on
"a happy time some very dark night.