The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-09-16
Capital and Labor.


suggestions upon the subject of capital
and labor to workers in any department
of ife
Byain manure is our great want; celuca-
ton for young and old, especially in mat
ters pertaining to agriculture. We don't
so much need laborers as proper utillza-
ton of that we have. Instead of croak-
ing so much at the negroes we should
work little more ourselves. At every
depot and CROSSROADS in the State, you
may see any day crowds of idlers stand
ing around loose, whiting sticks and
splitting at mark, abusing the negro as
laborer, lamenting the scarcity of money,
and hoping for that issue of S44 100000
of reserve lately discussed in Congress
and cusscd elsewhere. There is really no
ground for dependency anywhere. Not
withstanding our great losses by war,
substantially all that we had before is
here Our mother earth is here, and our
tiIlers of it are undisturbed the early
and latter rains still fall according to the
promise and the genial sunshine still
warns and fructifies as of old, whilst the
goodness of God still bestows the in
crease. The strength and courage of our
people are still with them; and though
alas many of our bravest and best are
not here, yet all the glorious recollections
of CIR history remain to cheer and bless
us. And the negro, too is here, as good
or better than he was before, if we know
how to work him. Don't despair of find
ing a Way to do that. You say he won't
work unless he is compelled-very well,
neither will white men. But compulsion
is of different sorts. Formerly you COM
PEELED him by virtue of being his master
now, compel him to work by force of
his neeessiiics. Show him that you can
live without him, put your own hand to
the plough and say to him, if you will
help, we'll; if not, well again; enforce
the laws against vagabondage, and he
will gladly work when he can do no bet
ter. At present he thinks he can make a
living by roting, but be will come out of
that in due season. On the whole, | am
inclined to think he is the best laborer
we are likely to get in the South as he
is the best tool we have with which to
cultivate the soil, let us sharpen and i'm
prove him in every possible way. And
for this great Anglo-SaXon people, whose
blood has filled the earth with the most
bencficent and u.ilitarian civilization it
has ever witnessed, and strewed the
shores of its oceans with mighty cities,
reticulatcd its surface with steam roads,
covered the wild seas with the white
wings Of commerce, and even invaded
their unknown depths with the iron-shod
pathways of the lightning, for these men
to acknowledge that the wheels of their
progress are stopped because the negroes
won't work and keep contracts, Is sorry
spectacle indeed Shame to us, If it be
so !
And as to capital, the want of which
makes us complain so loudly-are we
really suffering for that? | say not.
We are suffering from want of capacity
to use what we have, rather. What re-
lief would fresh issue of government
currency do us, unless we had the equiv
alent to give for it? Suppose that forty
four millions were given to us, how long
would we keep it, if our consumption
annually exceeded our sales as far as 1T
does now? Like water seeking its level
it would soon find its way to those who
had surplus to give for it. What is
the use of an idle fellow lounging around
with his hands in his pockets, without
thing in the world to sell, but who buys
his very axe handle and his cabbage
seed from the North, abusing Eastern
capitalists for grabbing all the currency?
Let him raise bale of cotton, and sec
if he don't rob that Yankee of some OF
his ill-gottcn gains? Let him grow his
own pork, flour, corn, and hay, and see
if that bloated bondholder don't have to
shell out? To give you some idea of our
condition as to capital, would refer you
to two or three points in our State. In
Charlotte, which is the biggest town of
its size in the United States, we have
five chartered banks, with a capital paid
in of SS5 1000. Their deposits will exceed
81 800, 900, on which they pay 6 per
cent-total, $3.50 900. Raleigh has, |
learn, over $GOO,OO0 on deposit, and
Wilmington some 100000, and their
banking capital is about half their de-
posits-total bank capital in three towns,
about 81 $4,000; deposits S2,9OO,O0O'
Now, sevcn-t tenths of these deposits be-
long to our farmers-such men rs you,
down on middle men, and clamorous for
more capital. What do they do with it?
Will they lend to their neighbors who
arc in straits and haven't got well on
their feet since the war, and secure 1t by
mortgage at 6, s, or 10 per cent. :?
Not one in ten. You haven't confidence
in your neighbor, though he mortgages
his farm but you put it in one OF these
banks on long call at per cent, and
YOUR neighbors go to the bank and bor-
row it at IS per cent, to raise the wind
for the next crop. Or he goes to acom-
mission merchant and buys his supplies
on a credit, at cost Of over 80 per cent
over cash prices, and mortgages his crop
in advance to pay for them; and when
that mortgage is. torecloscd, your crop
gone, no supplies on hand, and the same
process to be gone over again the next
wear, you say, its want of more capital.
., nv brother, take 10 offence, | pray
YOU. at the wounds of 4 friend, when l
say it is want of common sense anu
common charity toward each other;
Make your own supplies, and you VIII
not have to borrow SO much money: ii
you have any to loan, let your nelghbor
have it, unless you had rather see the
banker speculate on your money IMAM
him. Nobody blames the banker or the
commission merchant. If they can run
a machine on yoU money, who should
abuse them for it? Not tor one.
+ o,rn IN usc y0ur capital wisely before