Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-13
nAsSxNa AND SPINNING COTTON
THE SOUTH.

We find in the Neio Orleans sfs'scs a
sensible editorial on theimportant SUBJ
iect of raising and spinning cotton IN
the South, from which the following
statements are taken:
The cotton cropof the South. though |
performing so important part - the
commercial and financial economy OF
this country, is yet, as matters now
stand, source of impoverlshment 70
its producers. Every potind which goes
to rake up the four million and odd
bales raised last year within the
limits of our cotton belt represents
a loss to the producers OF two cents
per pound, amounting In the aggre
gate to over thirty millions OF dol
lars. And what is said here OF cot
ton is equally true of sugar. When
the price Of labor, taxes and other eN-
penses are considered sugar cannot be
raised in Louisiana for the rate per
pound at which the last crop has been
sold. and this more especially, II the
cost Of keeping up leyees be assessed
against the planters. either directly
or indirectly. The colored man has ne
idea of Iaboring unless he gets Tor his
labor something beyond its actual
productive value. Hence wages IN
louisiana and, indeed, Throughout
the cotton belt have, since the dawn OF
reconstruction, been greater than CIR
cumstances warranted.
The suggestion that the "colored man
has no idea of laboring unless ne gets
for his labor something beyond its act
ual productive value" points 10 the
real difficulty Of the case. 1t Is
| within the recollection of men who
were familiar with cotton culture and
the price of the staple thirty years ago
that planters did reasonably well by
raising cotton at FIVE and six cents a
pound. Now, when cotton is worth
something over twice six cents pound
in gold, if grown by reconstructed and
nominally improved labor, there is said
to be an average lossOf two cents on the
pound, or ten dollars on the Plan
tiers and other business men nave been
unwilling to look the unpleasant matter
of free negro production and eohsdmp-
ton sauarely in the face. giving to
facts their true and full meaning. 1t
is fifty years since slavery was abolish
ished in Mexico, end freedmen
have participated in the gov
eminent, as now with us
in the planting States How
large is their surplus production over
consumption in that length of times
Almost nothing. 1t is forty-twe years
since slavery was cast out of the fertile
island of Jamaica, while rich Parlia-
ment and wealthy philanthropists have
encouraged in every way the elevation
of the colored race. Their educated
industry is fairly and truthfully Illus
trated by the large increase Of jungle
and forest, and decrease of sugar-cane,
as the fruit of the experiment. Sierra
Leone, the British colony on the west
coast of Africa, has remarkable advan-
tages for raising coffee, cotton, sugar;
cocoanuts, rice, yams and negroes. But
what has been the outcome OF this
philanthropic effort, and of that of Lii
IBERIA? Signal failures.
Political, social and industrial prob
lens are of incalculable moment to the
white race, and to all races. General
ize the facts bearing on the subject,
calmly and searchingly, and then say
in what part of the wide world in the
last three thousand years has free ne
gro labor been success. There is an
unsound public opinion which hopes to
build up prosperity in the Sunny South,
partly, at least, on negro production IN
excess of consumption. If the colored
laborer were a servant for life this
would be practicable. 1t is barely
practicable with the superior free white
race. The tendency in the great eau
casian family is for each family to con-
sumo little more than its own manual
labor calls into existence. Hence
the common desire for hirelings, SER
wants and tenants, and the curious con-
triyance which makes dead metal, ike
gold and silver, steadily accumulate in
terest at the expense of living brain
and muscle, possibly for the benefit of
another mans idle brain, which is said
to be the devils workshop.
To prove the vastly greater profit of
spinning and weaving cotton as COM
pared with growing it, the Ne10 Orleans
Times copies from the Boston CONNER
ciaI Bulletin a recent notice of Fall
River factories and companies, as fol-
lows: 1.-The value of all the stock of all
the old corporations has greatly IN
creased, notably the Merchants, Gran
tie and Union, which are worth $4,000
on a par value of $1,000, the last
named corporation making a dividend
last year of 81, 400 on each share. There
are two new cotton mills to be built
this year, the New Border City, $500
spindles, now under way, and CO.
operative mill of 10000 spindles,
the land for which las been
secured, and the subscription is
now circulating among the working
people" A cooperative Imill of ten
thousand spindles, owned and operated
Interchangeable, Twill be an instruct
i've phenomenon, indicative of substan-
tial progress In human industry. Our
cotton should be raised as well as spun
in the same way. Industrial and sci
entifc combinations are what the South
needs to become fully master of the
situation. Let our thoughtful me-
chanics and merchants, as well as the
thousands of Patrons of Husbandry,
study the problem of annual produc-