New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-16

and draws against them. Civilization is
puzzled with this steady increase of cot
ton production. 1t asks:
If Sambo is a savage; if he drinks all the
| whisky, steals all the pige, and has nothing
to sell except vote biennially, where the
deuce does all this cotton come 'front.'
And civilization, from the incidental
disclosures of the Cotton Exchange, learns
that the cotton crop is slow or short be-
cause Sambo is sick, or has been run to
camp in the cypress swamp, Or has
gathered with his terrified fellows to
shelter themselves like sheep from the
marauding and murderous political wolves
who pursue them. We boldly say that
those who represent the productive inter-
ests of agriculture should give labor its
due. They should intervene to bring
capital and labor into harmony. These
great and indispensable interests are in
harmony until the political element is in
terjected to the great injury of both.
Where else in the civilized world is
labor content with that portion of it's own
product known as wages What then
disturbs this peaceful and profitable friend
ship here? The politicians order the
planters to discharge their laborers. For
what? Because they are idle or dishonest?
No. at all. Because they may give vote
not satisfactory to the politician. Well,
must the planter lose crop that the poll
tician may get an office? We really can
not see a necessity for any such alternative
We then call on those who are deeply
interested in the prospects of our cotton
and sugar crops to give labor its due.
Suppose the consumers of cotton accept
the political theory that the negroes are
"dying out"-with an increase of ten per
cent in the last decade-and that they are
demoraliZed and idle-with a crop of
cotton equal to that made before the war
what should the consumers do? Look
out Cor some other cotton field where labor
is more uniform and may be relied on for
continuous production. May not the con-
sumers send colonists to Africa or Brazil,
or lay down some more thousands of miles
of railway in India?
1t really seems to US strange that our
cotton factors, men of known intelli-
gence, should permit this hostility to Ia
Dor to exclude migration from the valley
of the Mississippi, and to compel the
consumers, as our civil war did, to de-
velop other and rival productions. The
owners of mills neither know nor care
about Louisiana politics. They would as
soon spin Dhollerah cottons as Yazoo cot
tons, if they paid as well, but they would
abandon both if their supply was irreg-
ular, and patronize Egypt or Hindostan
if either assured a supply to keep the
spindles turning. Our factors suffer
greatly from the diversion of cotton from
this market. How can they prevent it By
encouraging labor to plant itself in the
alluvial lands above and below our
city. Concentrate this labor, and its
product will be under our control. Give
the laborer home and few acres. He
will be attached to the soil. Give him an
asylum and friends, and he will make that
cotton here which he may otherwise be
driven to make elsewhere and for another
market. If there be any man in the |
United States who should be the friend
and protector of the negro, it is the factor
and merchant Of New Orleans. They
prosper exactly in proportion to the crop
values produced by the labor of the negro.
With this view we hope the Cotton Ex-
change of this and other Southern cities
will publish justice to the negro laborer.
1t is not only right in itself as measure
of good faith and humanity, but upon the |
true representation and maintenance of |
this labor in all its political and property
rights will depend the future development
of the valley, and, to great extent, the
consequent prosperity of our merchants
and property holders.