New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-28
Protecting Rice Planters-EmplOyes In
Rice Culture.


In the United States Senate on Thursday.
the twenty-first instant, the tariff bill being
rnder consideration, Mr. Sawyer, of South
Carolina, said:
Mr. President. l propose at the proper
time to move an amendment to the bill
striking out its provision as to the duty ON
rice.
| feel it to be my duty to move SO to
amend it, in Justice TO those engaged i'll one
of the most important agricultural interests
of the State l have the honor in part to rep
resent and of two or three other Southern
States.
There are few branches of the industry
of the rice growing States of the Union
which feel the benefits of that system of
protective duties which has come to be re-
garded as the settled policy of the country.
Most of the products of those States are
agricultural, and of such nature that
they do not need protection to enable them
to enter on favorable terms into cOmpeti-
ton with similar articles produced else
where. Our manufactures, though lncreas-
ing. vet IN very small degree engage the
labor of our people, and nearly all the
manufactured artlC les We consume are pro
duced elsewhere. 1t thus happens that Of
whatever benefits may attach to the pro-
tective system we have but a small share,
while its burdens are seriously felt.
u
population of the South would favor the ell
tire abolition, or great modification, of the
whole protective system. But at the same
time they feel that while this system is adj
hered to by the government, 1t is but Just
that it's advantages should be extended to
the industries peculiar to them, SO far as 1t
can be done without injustice TO interests
more important. Especially do they feel
that they have a right to demand the fos-
tering protection Of the government for
those interests which, having national as
well as local Importance, would, without
such aid, languish, If not disappear, and
which, with such protection, are sure to be
rendered seifsuStaining and vigorous IN a
comparatively brief period.
Special reasons exist at this time why the
kindcst care and most generous aid should
be extended to the Industries of the South
ern States Their material prosperity is
one of the most certain cures for large
part of the evils under which they suffer So
cially and politically. A large increase of
their productions will render their relations
with the manufacturing and commercial
parts of the Union more close and intimate.
The friction of commercial relations will re-
move many of the barriers which now sepa-
rate the people Of the South from those of
the North in their social and political opin-
ions, will familiarize the people of each sec
ton more and more with each others modes
better opinion of the other No legitimate
process of arriving at a result so desirable
should be left untried.
The war into which. iInpelled by mis-
guided zeal for an institution justly con-
demned by all other civilized peoples, they
madly rushed. left the Southern whites i'm
pOverished to an'eXtent hardly conceivable
except by those who saw how completely
they threw themselves into the struggle,
and who have learned of their condition
atterward by actual contact with it. OF
course there were exceptions, but to the
mass of those who owned the lands there
was nothing else left. Stock agricultural
implements. in numberless cases even
houses to shelter them were gone. Capital
to purchase these, or TO employ labor
i'll cultivation, could be borrowed only
at rates altogether unprecedented in
the South. and often SO large that
there was little hope Of producing enough
on the lands to repay it, without con
siderlng the question OF a surplus. To one
class of the people the war had brought
material wealth; the slave had become a
freeman: he had acquired property in his
own person-an incaculable boon to him.
an immense profit in the long run to the
State. But this boon had been acquired at
the expense of an entire disorganization for
the time being OF the labor system. New
arrangements, a complete change of habits
and modes of action was demanded. and
this a change for which the average planter
was little prepared. With often abundant
will to cope with the difficulties OF the
strange position. there was as often utter
incapacity to do so, and many who, under
the old system. had found the acquisition
of a handsome income easy. found it hard
to secure the accessories OF. lite under the
new.
Yet Mr. President. under all these diff
culties the most of the old Industries re-
vived and are surely gaining ground: new
enterprises have started into life, and we
already see enough to Justify the prophecy
that in free men and free labor the problem
OF the prosperity of the South will be
clearly solved; that the skies OF the future
are brighter than those OF the past in every
way: that the material, economic condition
of that section as well as its social and
political fabric, will show the great bless
ings of the revolution which has passed over
them. We ask now that when one OF our
domestic products comes into competition
with those of other countries. where labor
and provisions and clothing and shelter are
cheaper than with us, the producer of that
article in Carolina or Georgia shall receive
the same protection as is given to the pro-
Queer in other States. The protective sys-
TEN having been established. the doctrines
OF free trade having been repudiated, let
protection be afforded with as much impair
TALLY as is practicable. We do not ask for
permanent retention of the rate duty nov
by law placed on rice. We do not believe
1t will be needed. The aid we ask is but
temporary. We do not ask to have the duty
increased We simply ask to have it stand as
i, Inc time was when our rice planters sent
thelr products to the markets OF the world
IN easy and successful competition with
tnaV any where produced. Its quality then,
AS now, made Il command a higher price