Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-12-17
[Originnl.l
COLORED LABOR.

CallS poverty upou Ills SuUJooIs'
COLORED LABOR.
Since the freedom of the negro, the COM
plant has been general that this labor can
not be depended upon. This is, no doubt,
absolutely true BY nature, the colored man
is less provident than the white man; but
habit and education have had more to do in
making him improvident than nature. Up
to the spring of eighteen hundred and sixty
6ve-nine years ago-the colored man had
no mind of his own that is, he was so stua-
ted that he could not exercise, only in very
limited degree, his own judgment. House
and home, together with food and clothing,
medical attention and protection, were fur
nished him. Was he sent to work, he was
first told, in a very careful manner, what he
was to do and how he must do it /; and in most
instances, some one watched and directed dur
ing the execution of the work. With such
training, no one should wonder that the COL
ored man is improvident. The reason that
the labor of the colored people is not so prof.
table to the employer as it might be, is not
because slave labor is more profitable than
free labor, but because the colored man has
not yet learned to advance his own interest.
That he is adapted to the climate Of the South
does not admit of doubt; neither can it be
doubted that he is physically able to do the
labor required in our Southern country. In
fact, we have no hesitation in declaring that so
far as labor is concerned, the colored man is
better adapted by nature to fill the position
of laborer in the South than any man in the
world. He has some rare traits of character.
He is kind and obliging, especially to his
white neighbor He will leave his own work
to favor the white man. Really, it does some
times seem that he will do more for the white
man than he will do for those of his own color.
He is easily satisfied. All he asks is plenty
of corn bread and bacon. Another trait of
character is, that he is forgiving to a fault.
Cheated and swindled to-day, he forgets it all
tomorrow. Only when goaded on by mean
white men and vile whisky, does he violate
the public peace by attacking the decent and
sober members of society. Whenever white
man and colored man get into a row, the
white man, in nine cases out of ten, is to blame.
The sins of the colored race, as the Court
House and trial justice records will show, are
lying and pilfering. These sins, however, are
not confined exclusively to the colored race.
White men lie and pilfer, and worse than
that, they aid and abet the colored man in
lying and pifering. Were there no whisky
shops and pin.hook cotton and country-pro-
duce exchange stores, there would be far less
corn and cotton stolen in the country.
Some people say that the negro is no ac-
count under the sun; but these are the very
men that are least of all men prepared to do
without the negro. The negro has his faults,
and egregious ones they are. He is crazy on
politics. Unfortunately, he undertakes to do
things for which he is totally unfit. He has
office on the brain.
The best way on earth to produce a COM
plete reform in the labor of the negro is for
the white man to 60 to work. 1t is folly
madness-to suppose that the white people
of the South can live without labor. 1t is
wicked to suppose that the poor negro can
work for nothing and support himself and
family. 1t is wicked to cheat the negro out
of his hard-earned labor No man ought to
make contract with the negro to work him
all the year and pay him off at the end of the
year with chips and whet-stones. Employers
should be sure that there is no reason on their
part why the negro so often proves faithless'
We are not the advocate Of the negro's faults.
We have nothing to say in extenuation of his
laziness, but we must say that he has some
good points, and is not any more degraded
than a vast multitude of the white race who
have enjoyed far better privileges. All the
fault of the labor system of the South does
not lie at the door of the much blamed negro.
CLOVER HAY FOR HoGs.-The Sacra-
mento Uuion says: "It is a strange-sounding
proposition to feed hogs with hay, but we
have experience in this line, and however
strange or odd it may seem, it is, notwithstand-