New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-07-31
THE WAR ON LABOR.

THE WAR ON LABOk'
There is o small, but very vecomous
paper, which We had nearly m'sread the
Patent Democrat, published near the Mis-
sissippi line. 1t is enraged nearly to the
degree of singing itself by an article in
which we stated the ability Of the Re-
publican party, black and white, to take
care of themselves. Commenting on the
ingratitude Of the colored citizens, this
Patriot Democrat says:
The black race have neither the political
nor the agricultural power. Who has fed
and clothed and housed and warmed them
since the war! Do they NOT, as a mass, &C.
cupy the land of the white man! Do they
not live in the houses of the white man!
Do they not work with the utensils and
use the mules and wagons of the white
man! And has it not been by the occupan-
cy and use Of the white mans property
that they have been enabled to feed and
clOthe themselves and their children! Can
it be denied!
Certainly it will not be denied that the
colored man, in many instances, occupies
the land, lives in the houses, works with
the tools and drives the mule Of the white
man. Suppose the question be varied
and we should ask, does he not make the
cotton and sugar Of the white man
Does be not maui the rails and dig the
bitches of the white man? Do not the
colored helps cook the dinner and wash
the clothes, and scrub the floor, and nurse
the children Of the whites? What would
both these admitted propositions prove?
That these two races are reciprocally use
full to each other. Land is without value
excep. by labor. Fences and buildings
rot down, fields grow up and bitches over
flow, unless labor be constantly employed
to improve and repair them. Only one
in twelve arabic and open acres of Lou
isiana is in cultivation now. Suppose
this war upon labor inaugurated; suppose
as this indignant Democrat suggests
Patriotism, in the day of extremity, should
require the white man, in order to protect
himself and family from degradation and
infamy, to make the sacrifice, by saying to
the cOlOred man we will not employ you
for the next year; you must vacate and de-
part, what fate would be that Of the black
man other than despair and starvation:
We reply by asking what would be the
condition Of the white man in debt and
without labor to cultivate his land? The
sheriff and the auctioneer would soon let
him know. While he, unused TO work.
might be reduced to great necessity the
"black man" would merely carry his labor
across the line into Mississippi, Texas OF
Arkansas, where he would be welcomed
with reclamation. But it is said Of the
black man thus driven away. 'his place
can be easily filed with white laborers,
who are better. on the same terms" If
this feformer would confer with Mr..
Daniel bennett, now trying to attract
these white laborers, twill be found more
easy to drive away one class of laborers
than TO replace them with another. The
first question asked these white laborers
on arriving would be. how do you intend
to vote: If they preferred, as almost all
immigrants do, the Republican ticket, they
would be denounced..as ''carpet-baggers."
No one would invite them to their houses,
OF visit them in sickness OF health. with
out the camp their habitation would be-
like the lepers Of old. No. Mr.. Patent
Democrat, cotton won't grow without la
Dor. nor will weeds wilt under political
maledictions. You propose to conduct
the culture of those great staples. sugar
and cotton. by regulating the politics Of
the landowner and laborer. Drop this
war Of land against labor, borrow & little
hoe. 60 early into the field and do days
work in scraping down cotton. The
next day you anoint your sun blisters with
milk and honey. and open the blisters in
your fair hands. It will begin to seep
through the sutures Of your sinciput, that
the colored man had better stay where he
is. The goose quill is better for your
tender fingers and the pillow handle for his.