The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1873-04-18
TIE FuruRE COTTON GROWERS.

THE FUTURE COTTON GROWERS.
A correspondent of the Rural
New Yorker, wiring from Selma,
Ma, says: A
1.-The negroes are so demoralized
that the running Of large planta-
tions has become precarious and I'M
profitable. If they get little mon
ey they are restless till they spend
it. and no matter how imperatively
the crops need their labor, If they
have an idea of frolic, it must be
had, and lasts as long as their
money holds out. This we have
fnund characteristic of those we
have employed North. Freedom
is a new thing to them, and but
few know how to use it judiciously.
Unaccnstomed by habits and educa
ton to work themselves, the planters
here are at the mercy Of their EN-
ployes."
Judging (says the Nashville Ban
ner) from personal observation on
farm, our opinion is that collored
boys and girls now growing up with
the largest liberty, will never ac-
auire the industrious habits Of their
race. raised before the war, when
! steady employment excluded many
i vices. and developed taste for
honest, plantation labor. This taste
dies out with the death of our old
anG reliable servants and the
young fry are not likely to have
virtues that belong to another sys-
ten of labor and education. Our
society and Industry are in a pretty
aclive state OF transition, the begin>
ming Of which we know, but not the
end. 1t is unwise in Alabama
planters to remain long the mer-
cs Of their employees"
The general force and justice Of
the above remarks of the Banner
will be admitted by all observant
Southern men. The habits of in
dusty in the negro, resulting from
compulsory labor, arc wholly lack
ing in the first incoming generation
of young freedmen. and as a race
they are constitutionally more given
to self indulgence and the dolce far
Riehte than the whites, while their
tastes are mare simple and their
wants fewer, and more easily sup
piled. The young negro man, there
fore, will not, as general rule,
take the place Of his father, either
as field Iaborcr. on his own ac-
count, or for wages.
But accepting this fact, what is to
followi The popular talk about
foreign immigration assumes that
tho labor supply is still to be kept
up by contributions of whites from
foreign lands to take the places Of
the negro labortrs for wages. This
assumption, in our judgement, will
prove untounded. Land is too
cheap ia this vast Southern country
of ours, and products too valuable,
long to permit any ambitions, able
bodied cultivator of the soil to be
a mere field hand. Bring them to
the South by thousands, if you will,
and yon will not solve the question
Of supply Of mere farm laborers on
wages. In "a year or two every one
Of them worth q button will own his
little farming patch and cultivate
his own crops mot those of an en-
ployer. And no better result than
this could be desired either for the
interests of the State or for those of
the immigrant.
What then7 If this generation
Of negro cotton growers will leave
no successors, and if you cannot i'm
mort field hands hat is to become
OF The great American cotton crop
We say have no anxieties about the
great American crop. That will go
on increasing with aceelerating pro-
gress, Cotton Yes cotton enough
aud more than enough. We have
raised 1890, 900 bales in one year
since the war. and after this year it
is doubtful whether the crop will ev-
er get below tour millions. In ten
years from now it will be six millions
and upwards.
But who are to grow it i-where
is the labor to come from 7 1t is TO
come out of the Brains, Bones and
Sinews of the Native Born Southern
Whites. In a few more years all Of
them are going to learn that
"he VINO by the Plow would thrive
Must either hold himself or drive"
Our farmers have been attempt
ing, ever since the abolition of sla-
very, to run their agriculture as
nigh after the old pattern as they
could, and they have at last run it
into the ground. They have turned
out oy it two thousand to twenty
five hundred million dollars worth of
cotton since the war, with this result
as 10 themselves-that about two
thirds of them are helplessly hank
rupt. 1t is the opinion of shrewd
men that this proportion of them
mus, 90 under the sheritf's hammer
Ia a short titue--in spite OF all the
arts Of evasion--rslief laws, home
stead laws and every other contri-
vance to enable bankrupt debtor