The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-03-20
For the Anderson IntelHqencer.

aItlcle ID your paper oia tuo ioeii oii At'ni6'"
ton and Labor" byD. w. Aiken, Esq. Not
agreeing With some of his premises, and still
less with someof his conclusions, thought 1
would give the ideas Of a disinterested observer
on the subject.
Mr.. A. says, Labor is not scarce enough in
the South to demand an influx Of immigrants
to supply the deficiency" Can this be true
when it is asserted, and not contradicted, that
less than so per per cent. of the land in South
Carolina is under cultivation-the remaining
70 per cent. is taxed and unproductive, and
only makes poorer the owners. He says, speak
ing of the white laborer, that "fresh meat as a
daily diet he requires" This may be true in
the South, but / can assure him it is not the
case 10 the North and West |; the majority of
farm laborers there do not require fresh meat,
except occasionally, but live largely on beef
and pork, not smoked, as is the case in this
section, but salted OF picked. How many OF
the myriad iaborers on the new railroads in the
West call for or receive daily diet Of fresh
meat? The, writer has always had the good
fortune to work white men, and he hassent 100
laborers into the lumber camps Of the North.
west in July and September, where they re-
manned until April, and never saw fresh meat
during that time, except such game as they
could kin on Sundays; thsir labor being paid
for from daylight till dark, no time was allowed
during the week for such recreation. They
came out in the spring healthy and uncom- ]
planning, each having done q man'swork, such
as I have never seen accomplished by three
negroes il these days, or in the better ante BEL
ltn, slavery times. NJ e'ts Gei.si1
Mr.. A. says, "But does any Southern planter
know, that the hirelings Of our own race are
any less treacherous, any more worthy or any
more industrious than the negrow This, 1
think, may be Justly considered an insult to
the whole class Of poorer white people in the
South. To compare the white man, whose sole
faults are want of education and his poverty,
unfavorably with the average or even the best
Of the negroes a class proyerbially improve
dent, shiftless and lazy, (let these qualities be
acquired, as they may is unworthy of q man
of Mr.. FAiken's abilities. Il may be true, as
Mr. A. says, "native born whites who have
lived to maturity without accnmulating prop
erty, will never do so in Che future, and as
class, are TIE most Objectionable employees"
but is that a failing of the white man solely,
or does the negro, as soon as placed in posi-
ton to acquire property, 60 to work and secure
"a homestead, and retain it? 1 think expert
enee proves that he does not. 1 must also say
that I have never found that the mere inability
To accumulate property, Ia failing which has
been combined with TIE most exalted genius,
lin some memorable instances,) of necessity
precluded q IMAM from being very valuable
laborer, or was obliged to make him "most
objectionable employee" The infrequency of
the poor white man before the war acquiring
real estate was iu great measure owing to the
of the large landed proprietor
to sell, and his condition was rendered still
less enviable, by the prejudice existing in the
South against the intermediate class, and the
powerful caste which rendered the. "poor white
trashn an object of contempt even to the slave.
The statement shat in many portions of the
North and Northwest farm laborers are exceed
ingly scarce and ten-fold more irreliable than
our coiored laborers" is scarcely correct, or it
would not be the fact Chat the States in the
Northwest have increased in population, in
every case, in ten years more than South Caro-
liua has in half century. That white labor
is unreliable occasionally is fact that no cane
person desires to contradict but that it cannot
under any circumstances prove ten-fold more
unreliable thar colored is equally fact.
Government land cannot be had in South
Carolna, but land that will cost the settler lit
tie more can be had in. quantities, if the sales
reported in the State on March saleday are
true, and settlers would seek this more genial
climate in preference to the Northwest, but for
reasons, some of which Mr.. A. has given, and
Others which he does not give, and think does
nos appreciate.
| Mr. A. says "the successful cultivation of
this crop (cotton) is a science only appreciated
By Southern born planters and their former
slaves )" this is, / think fallacious, as the in.
PRODUCTION Of fertilizers has made revolution
in cotton planting since the war, as learn
from the native planters themselves, necessita-
ting the learning of new process by the
planters as we'll as by their former slaves, and
Mr.. A. will hardly maintain that the average
Northern or Western farmer cannot learn what
may easily be acquired by negro. Again, if
it be tue that none but chose two classes can
successfully plant cotton, why invite capital to
emigrate to this State to engage in the para
mount business of the country, when you de-
clare beforehand that 1t must eyentuate in
| failure.
Mr.. AS remarks In the latter part of the ar
ticle on theicondition of'the people, and some
of the causes thereof, are exceedingly frank