The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-09-05
A Review OfNOPtherm Prosper
ity and Its Rise.
TIL WAY TO REBUILD THE SOUTH AND
GIVE TONE TO ITS WEAKNESS.
THE DIGNITY OF LABoR-HoW TO pop
ULARIZE IT.
From the New Orleans Times.

E@A1SJ NSpf VII III Ivy CFS4 h4AN4S
evidenced i'll the Northern section, and
the want of it as shown throughout the
South. If he ask one of our Northern
cOnfreres, "Why this is 500" the an
sWer, in all probability, would be.
We'll, | guess we are q more 'go-ahead'
people than the S~Outherners; we can't
stand still and besides they had slaves
to wait on them and were cOntented to
live a life of idle elegance; and now
they are sort of proud, and poor, and
just a little lazy. If they don't wake
up and be doing, why their late slaves
Will make more material progress than
they eel determined on"
The Southern answer to the same ques-
ton would he most likely "Well sir,
the best government the world ever saw
made wal Oh us, took away OF manu-
mltted Il slaves, leaving us poor as
you see us. We can't get the negro to
work because the carpet-bagger has
completely demOralized him, and poll
ties is the sole thought and care of his
life. If the Yankees had let the negro
alone he could have been controlled by
lis, and we now should have been a
prosperous people, STRIP
Much more, probably, would be said
by both, but the gist of it all might be
found III The foregoing remarks. AS a
matter OF course grave errors exist on
both sides i'll the views offered by each.
Let us look back for q limited period.
1t must be borne i'll mind that it was
only a few short years before the great
war of sections, that the North could
claim to be more prosperous than the
South. Up to a. given time the national
wealth was conferred here; the agricul-
tural products of the South gave tone
to the finances of the whole country,
and the people lived in ease and secu-
rity. The mass of the people of the
North were poor, they enyied the ease
and advantages of their Southern cOun-
trymen envy begat restlessness anddiS-
content they determined to win equal
lty and surpaSs the South in prosperity.
They invited emigration, opened
avenues to trade by settling upthe waste
places Of the great West, commenced
manufacturing everything needed in
the land, and generally made them
selves so useful that the remark was Of
ten heard in the South:
1--WE can't do without negroes and
Yankees"
In commencing manufactures, in ap-
plying art and science to mechanical
pursuits, in developing and making the
wilderness of the great West to con-
ceive and bring forth towns, and cities,
and wealth, they progressed even a
step further-they did on an extended
scale what no people as a body ever
before attempted they dignifed labor.
They taght in schools, in colleges, that
to work in factories, to become skilled
in mechanical arts, to invent labor-sav-
ing machines, was the sure way to be-
come pOWerfulandp prosperous. Thisidea
had SO seized on the public mind that
the papers OF not O. than a quarter
Of a century ago were filed with edito-
rails urging the Importance of children
being taught the mechanical arts. and
that none should neglect so important a.
part of a child's education, whether des-
tined for n of the professions or NOT.
This foresight was the foundation of
the rise and progress of the North: this
fostering Of trades and manufactures
taught the young that labor was res
pectable; and at this day the idea is so
we'll lnculCated in the minds of the peO-
pie, that 1t has become a necessity for
parents to have their children taught a
trade not only boys but girls are taught
to be independent and to RELY on some
calling, trade Or profession recurring
skill and labor combined. They were
always, however, opposed to act in the
capacity OF servants, and in early DAYS.
when service was embraced as q means
OF livelihood, the euphoniOus name of
help" was adopted, rather than be rest
i've under that of a servant.
There Is a large and growing class,
however, who veaccumrllated wealth,
either before or during the war, who
look upon trades and mechanics as nm
worthy OF pursuit Or attention thew
are the forerllnners of that luxury, and
ldleness, which IS the ~festesing sore un-
derm1nlng the dignity of labor. That
feeling, in time, will be as damaging
there as it was, and, it may be said. Is
now with us in the South. We were al
ways taught to look on labor as mental .
we have not got Over the error of orr
education yet; "and that's what's the
matter with us nOW.n We cannot for
get u lifelong education: we cannot
get 1t into u minds that it is not the
calling, or the work we do, that de-
grades. We all may and do recognize
the Importance of labor in our fields. in
our workshops, in all departments If
mechanics, but we cry aloud for immi-
grants to come in, when we should first
take hold ourselves, Then call on Her
cules.
Are our fields titled as they might he
by white labor in Our midst? Are our
youth bound apprentices in workshops,
or Our daughters taught to dignity labor
by engaging in it? We want to see the
attention of the people, now undergo
ing that restlessness which once so pow
erfully affected the Northern mind,
grow to the necessity Of having
then, children taught trades. Our
people must learn to enoble labor
by adopting it, then with the u
teOus manners of the Southern peo-
pie, even the pr0yerbiad pillow boys I'M
cOuthness will disappear.
The wealth of our fair and lovely Sec
ton is to be developed by her children.
immigration is desirable as one Of tbe
means of development, and it can he
encouraged when those coming here see
that the people are not adverse to
working side by side with the immi-
grants; and when skilled labor from
abroad seeks our shores for a n
it should be met at the threshold with
and offer of our children as willing Ia
borers in the new field.
We have every thing at hand suited to
the manufacturing Of furniture, blows,
axes and hoe handles, clothes pins,
spokes for wheels, and the Thousand
and One small items that require SO it,
tie capital to manufacture, and which
are sent here by Northern hands made
from wood cut in Northern forests,
Skilled labor in any of these articles
will come in If assurance be given
that help will be afforded by proper
encouragement and by apprentfcing our
children, who with Willingness viii
start out to learn here to be independ-
ent. Nearly all the manufacturing in
~terests of the North were built np by
degrees; they were commenced In q