The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-02-28
[For the Dispatch.l
The Labor Question.

Mr. Editor wish TO notice one or two
points only in your reply to my article In
YOUR issue Of the 21st, and I am done. And
principally in regard to the relative cost Of
white asd negro labor. You express the
opinion that the former costs no more than
the latter.
In an article in the Southern Planter for
February, written by myself, and on which
you commented, and which led to my article
in your paper just alluded to, will be found
the following:
Gin the report of the Massachusetts
Board of Agricultural for 1871 and 1872
(pages 227 to 249) will be found statements
| of the cost Of labor and the cost of different
crops produced-principaly Of corn. We
| find here that these northern farmers pay
Sl.75 per day for their hands, including
board. For tobacco-feld hands they pay
g.. so, including board. The cost of planting
10 acres of corn was-4a days, at $1.75 per
day-S7S7a; the cost of hoeing 3 1-9 acres of
earn was-5s days, at Sl.75 per day-S9.62t
the cost of topping stalks of 3 l-9 acres OF
corn was-4} days, at Sl.75 per day-SS31. !.
This, of course, does not include the whole
cost of cutiyating the three and one ninth
acres, as / have omitted the cost of plough
ing, &c. The cost of cultivating and hoeing
| another half acre was $40: the cost of plant
ing same $3.50. We scarcely
think one of our negro bands would take
four and half days to plant three and one
ninth acrea, or five and half days to hoe it,
or four and three-quarter days for topping.
Indeed, we are certain they would not, a.
| though we pay for such work not more than
fifty cents per day. Added to the larger
wages white hands demand, there is de.
IL in n ~
them. We have tried both white and negro
hands.
Do you expect the removal of the negro to
be gradual, or sudden in a body? If the
former, then it need be the part of wisdom
to encourage gradual immigration of white
laborers, but you oppose any Immigrants to
the State unless they have money-in other
words, you want men who can buy land and
farm for themselves. This might seem as if
you expected an exodus Of the whole race,
as in the case of the Israelites from Egypt.
But where is the promised land and the
Moses to lead them forth! You think they
must 60, but when, or how, or where, un-
less by the "Southern Pacific railroad"
you do not tell us. You think they ought
to 90, and this may influence your mind to
believe they will 60. Thus was influenced the
judgment of large portion Of the southern
people in the late war to firmly believe that
we could not be conquered, for God could
never, thought they, permit the destruction
of the institution of slavery, which was so
clearly sanctioned by the Bible, and could
never permit just cause to yield to might.
II there is any promised land In reserve
for the negro we should sooner believe 1t to
be Africa. This has been the hope and be.
lief of many intelligent and philanthropic
men, and that thus would Africa be civilized
and ChristiaDized, and the ultimate design OF
God in permitting the African to be brought
to this continent be made manifest.
Time alone can solve the problem. We, 1t
would seem from your editorials, are at least
agreed on one point: that the negro must
remain where he is for length of time (un-
less by divine interposition), and We should
be still further agreed that while we have
the negro, to be supported from the soil, we
should endeavor to make the best laborer Of
him we can. As we have before said, this
must be done by treating him kindly and
fairly and paying him punctually, and not
permitting prejudice to condemn him before
thus giving him fair trial and opportunity.
Under all the circumstances, We think he has
done we'll since the war; for principally by
his labor have all the standard crops of the
South except rice been brought to the ave-
rage production before the war, and In the
mean time, too, the South has been DIVERSE
flying her crops and adding to her produc-
tions in other things. T.