The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-02-05
The eoaGhr.nss Preeema and HIS
FaGare-
No. IL

owing TO the persistence OF our people
in growing nothing but cotton-snd the
| sad consequences of thus annually pur-
chasing more than we sell. Dark as the
picture was, it does not half come up to
the reality.
| In addition to our financial troubles
and difficulties, necessarily proceeding In
a great measure from the terrible revul-
sion following the war, there are other
evils of social character involved in our
present system of lsbor-as tar as We
may be said to have system-that are
paralyzing our efforts, and crushing our
hopes. The only source of permanent
wealth and prosperity to any country
| is its labor-whether on the land or the
water-whether in the field, the forest or
the workshop. Whether on the one or
the other of these theatres of industry,
labor is, after all, the only efectual
means of occurring and amassing wealth.
In obedience to the las of the primeval
cause. all the elements and resources for
acquiring wenlth, and the means of hap
pilless, are offered 10 man in their crude
condition. They require bone and sinew
and muscle to develope their latent pow
ers, for advancing human happiness and
supplying human wants.
Thus it is, the wealth, prosperity and
power of every people and country are in
proportion to the well-regulated, system
attic operation of their labor. Before the
war, there was hardly any such thing
known in the South as the relation be-
tween capital and labor. Our labor, in
the main, was thai of slaves, and these
slaves were also capital, in which nearly
all surplus money sought investment.
That kind of labor was bad enough, but
still it was the growth of centuries-had
become identified with our domestic and
financial relations, and VIC had adapted
ourselves to it as best we could. With the
abolition of slavery, we ceased to have
any thing that could be called system of
/ labor-and we have been, from year to
year, growing from bad to worse. When
| slavery existed, we could not, or did not,
diversity our labor; and it is still more
difficult now. Our labor is, in the main,
colored labor; and that is utterly inefi-
cient. With the cOlored race, new
generation must grow up and outlive the
associations connected with slavery, be-
fore the colored man will work any more
than he chooses. Capital has not that
| influence over this kind of labor here in
the South, that it has over labor of the
North, where the relations between capt.
tai and labor are defined and understood.
With the white race, anotf er generation
must grow up and outlive the associa-
tions connecting labor with personal deg
radiation, before the white race will
readily adapt themselves to the varied
pursuits of labor.
Bad as our system Of labor was before
the war, it is incomparably worse now.
We have been hoping, from time to
time, that according to the laws of sup
ply and demand, labor would naturally
flow into those channels, where it was
needed-that Europe and the Northern
States, and China, even, would furnish
the labor required. Agents have been
sent off-emigration societies organized,
and bright prospects held out, and cheer
ing promises made, that the South woul
soon have capital and labor pouring in to
cultivate their lands, to develOpe their
vast mineral resources, and to manufac-
ture our raw products for the markets of
the world. These sporadic efforts have
all ended in failure; and the South still
founders with its present ill-regulated
system of labor, greatly deficient in
quantity at that.
We may as well, therefore, take
calm and dispassionate survey of our
situation, just as it is. The negro is
here, and here he will continue to be- So
small is the per cent of those who, so
far, prosper as to buy land and become
independent and selfsustaining members
of our social organic ,tion for many long
years to come, the normal condition OF
the negro in the South will be that of
taborer; and, judging from the past, l
fear this is the labor on which we have
mainly to rely for the cultiv Ation of our
lands, the promotion of our prosperity,
the increase of our wealth and the diffu-
sion of the means of happiness.
With such labor and the continuation
of the present existing relations between
the white and black races, is it practi-
cable, is it possible thing, to redeem
and regenerate the South and build up a
great and prosperous and Furnishing
commonwealth out of the present down
trodden, crushed and depressed States of
the South? For myself, do not believe
it is, unless the great mass of Southern land
OsUners O,ld. by some wonderful mental
Development, be brought to appreciate their
real situation.
dare not attempt to measure or assign
limits to those laws regulating human
progress, by which Providence eliminates
light out of darkness, prosperity out of
adversely, good out of evil But, iudg-
ing of the future by the past, it appears
to me that unless there is a sudden halt |
in the present direction of industrial ef- |
fort, and a sudden retracing of our foot
steps, in one year more we shall all be
hurled headlong down that fathomless
abyss, on the brink Of which, we are now |