Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-04-22
agricultural department.
TOrIsITuI J
CONSUMERS vs.. PRODUCERS.

anything in the South, is the farmer. Thi
results from the fact that the South produces
nothing but raw.material. In the South W.
have no manufactures, aud in many sections
of the South we never can be extensively en-
gagged in manufacturing. Nature has marked
out the South as an agricultural country
Such being the case, why, it may be asked, il
not the South, in an agricultural point Of
view, more prosperous? When we say more
prosperous, we do not wish to be understood
as intimating that the South is in an absolute
ly languishing condition. Such is not the
case There is as little suffering, and as little
embarrassment in the South, as in the North
or West. But why any embarrassment in the
South? One reason is, in the South there are
in proportion to the number Of the population
a vast multitude of consumers and but few
producers. The population of the South
that is of the cotton growing States-is di'
vided into whites and blacks. The blacks
are, from the simple fact that up to ten years
ago they were slaves and had no control Of
their time or labor, poor. No sensible man
who has any knowledge of the state of the
case, will dare censure the negro for being
poor; but the system of labor adopted by the
negro, or thrust upon him, will keep him poor
an indefinite number of years. In fact, Ia
boring as the negro does, he would starve out
in any other country except the South, or the
sunny plains of his native Africa. Not that
some of them do not work hard and with a
reasonable amount of skill, out too few OF
them labor. Leaving out the children and
old persons who, on account of age, are not
able to labor, and of the able-boded men and
women, not more than one-fourth of the whole
number are, in any sense, producers. Some
are wasting their time in seeking some little
insignificant government office, which serves
them as the worm on hook does the fish
Others are jobbipg about, doing days work
here and another there, working little and
playing a great deal. Some of the colored
people, it is frankly admitted, have made some
advances, pecuniarily, since they We're freed
but the great multitude of them are just as
poor now as they ever we're, or ever can be-
Honesty requires us to say that one cause Of
the continued poverty of the negro is this
In many cases he is cheated and swindled out
of the proceeds of his labor, by dishonest and
designing white men His corn and cotton
crops are bartered for whisky and shoddy
goods and brass jewelry.
The negro, however, forms only one part
of the population of the South. If the white
population was faithful in the discharge of its
duties, things in the South would not be as
they are. Twenty years ago it was regarded
disreputable for Southern white man to la
Dor. The man who made living in the
shade, by hook or by crook, was regarded
equally as reputable as the man who toiled
in the sun and made an honest living. That
old notion is not completely banished from
the minds of Southern white men yet. There
are multitudes of men who feel that they are
poor, and are ready to acknowledge the fact,
and who are regarded as poor by every one
who knows anything about them; still they will
not work. They will not engage in any avoca
ton in the exercise Of which they can pro-
duce something. Take out the professional
characters doctors, the lawyers, the
preachers the school teachers, the store keep
ers and their clerks-from the white men of
the South, and there will be but few left
Did one not know the facts in the case, ii
might be concluded that the South is a very
sckly country, there are so many doctors
that the citizens are very lawless people
there are 50 many lawyers; that the inhabi
tants are very religious people, there are SC
many preachers; that they are well educa'
ted people, there are so many school teachers
a great mercantile and manufacturing people,
there are so many stores and store keepers
with so many clerks; but never would it bf
concluded that the South was an agriculture
country. We will admit that the best talen
of the country is engaged in practicing medi
cine, pleading law, preaching. teaching school
and selling corn, bacon and calico, and tha
only second rate men: intellectually, are fol
lowing the plow. This does not better the
condition of things. 1t is only acknowledg
ing that the wise are committing the welfare
of the country to the fools. Bad as the thing
is, it is not so bad as this supposition woule
make it. There are multtudes in bomb-proo
positions who, if they had received their in
tellectual dues would have been placed in tn
ranks. Many a good farmer has been lost t.
the country by placing him in the pulpit; ane
there are any amount of men behind counter
dragging out precarious pecuuiary life tha
might have amassed fortune had they gon
to the plow. The simple point we wish t.
present this. The South has too many con
sumers, and too few producers in proportion
to the number of consumers. There nev
er was time more favorable to the farmer
than the present. In fact, notwithstanding
all that has been said and written to the con
trary, notwithstanding the enormous take
and bad governments in the South generally
since the close of the war has been a COLDER
period to those who worked. The resource
of the South never were known before. Th
recuperative powers of the South are marvel
Gus. On an average, one laboring man sup
ports about fifteen idlers. There once was
law in South Carolina which required ever.
man to plant and properly cultivate at leas
two acres of corn, or peas, or both for eac
member of his family, and caused loiters to b
taken up and placed under the control olson
industrious planter who would compel then
! .o 1,hor \Vora ercb q law as this enacted a