The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-07-08
[nE LAnOR pROnLGM IN TAE SCUM


When the war closed and the negro |
had become a recognized freeman, hay
Ing his time TO dispose Of rs no saw |
iii, or os any other freeman, how TO ham
die our farms, became the problem of
the day to southern planters, Many |
of this class gave up in despair, and
their fields grew up in sedge grass,
briam and bushes However many Of
them organized working force out Of
the debris, and leading themselves,
went braycly TO work. 70 this part Of
our planting population the labor prob
lem has given but little bother lnthose
districts Of the south, even now whore
farms are small and the farmer himself
intelligent, industrious and determined
the problem yet retains It's primitive
simplicity, But there oro districts, and
large ones nj that, notably, the coast
counties of South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, the river counties of Mssis,
sippi Arkansas, Louisiana aud Texas,
whore men owning the lands are squares
" confronted with eilhor the labor
trouble or practical abandonment, All
grades, kinds and characters of foreign
help have been tried, but no glimmer
OF encouraging success remains to re-
licye the record of failure. Even the
Coolies and Chinese have been imports
ed TO make up the deficit between sups
ply and demand, but here, too, has fail
ure been experienced
While all this has been going on, the
problem has been quietly settling itself
by natural and very easy process. The
negro was rapidly learning that freedom
did not include clothes, food and fuel,
and altogether might not prove just as
good n "providor" ~ "ole mass or "old
miss" The mule and forty acres
went glimmering in due course of time,
and the immortal "bureau" upon which
they relied 50 implicitly for help fell
to pieces from the weight of lis own cor.
ruption. The idea slowly cropt through
his wool that perhaps freedom did
after ALL carry with it broad and meat
doctor bills and clothes, and later still
Jury and other duties which were att
tended by much expense, and by but
few and very barren honors. They
also learned that if children did 20 to
school they had to eat all the same,
Intellectual food is only wholesome
when used in conf JUNCTION with healthy
and plenty Of provender for the physical
man, They could not HE them OIL Ia
Africa or Mexico. They were fixtures
and whenever the bureau rations
gave out, they were forced into the
country, and free and independent ms
they had become bread could
only he earned in n way
irightlully, to n freedman, like
the old way. A few years of mutual
illhumor and dissatisfaction between
the old landlord and the new freeman
followed, but that has passed away en-
tirely, and now the labor problem is
eilectually solved No class of labor
accessible to us is SO cheap, or so valua-
BILE, in all respects rs that furnished by
the negro. In cotton, rice and sugar
he is simply peerless while in the grain
regions of the south, and more particu
larly Texas we, with our small and per,
iectly organized farms, are in no way
troubled 10y this circumstance.
We deduce the following conclusions
from the foregoing: A kindly>treated
honestl R,paid and perfectly .satished ne
gro is, after all, the best, most reliable
and most profitable laborcr available to
our planters, and for these selfish, if fol
no better reasons, we should endeavol
to keep him, and to discourage the
African exodus by every fair means pos
sibe to our hands. The best results Of
labor, in our sunny fields, are for the
future, as they have been in the past, to
be gathered by the employment of ne,
gro labor directed, encouraged aud
countenanced by the white proprietors