The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-02-16
The Tea Party.

The attempt by one branch OF the Admins
tration to revive the old Whig party in the
South having failed, another branch is now
bending its energies to the organization of
new party, the Tea-party. The Commissioner
of Agriculture proposes to introduce the Gu
tivation of the tea-plant into the South, to
make tea-growing a great national indus
try,-national according to the Southern idea,
being product which the South shall raise
and the North shall buy. Thus the two Sec
tions will meet in friendly intercourse over
the cup which is warranted not to intoxicate,
and the querulous cry of 'Its long time be-
tween drinks" will no longer be heard in the
land. The South will be able to despoil the
oppressor, while raising no apprehensions in
the suspicious Northern mind. At the same
time great international problem will be
settled: raising our own tea we shall DO longer
be dependent upon China and SO can close
our ports to the Mongolian hordes. Thus
the Pacific Slope as we'll as the South will be
conciliated. A very pretty sum will be saved
to our people, too. We pay the Celestials
about thirty millions of dollars year for tea.
OF course the industry in this country will
need protection for awhile. So the thirty mil
lions will naturally be paid to the South uu-
til the culture be firmly established. This
viii be merely taking money out of one
pocket and putting'it into another, so there
will be actually no expense. The South can
claims, and Northern susceptibilities will not
be touched.
There are it is true some objections to the
scheme. The growing of tea necessitates
labor, and the South is strongly averse to la
Dor. If the negro should be of the opinion
that he didn't care to raise tea where would
the harvest be? However he might be in
duced, by that method of moral suasion which
the Southerner knows so we'll how to employ,
to take an interest in the subject. Since the
sickly sentimentalism so long prevalent in
the North has gone out of fashion that mat
ter can be easily arranged. But an objection
of much greaIer weight presents itself. The
drinking of the fragrant decoction has always
been connected with the diffusion of scandal.
So long as scandal is current there can be no
true reconciliation between the North and
South. Only the other day wee bit of sto-
ry about the completion of the electoral count
temporarily broke up the Democratic party
| in the House, that great party upon which,
as every one knows, the salvation of the coun
try depends. rs leaders fell 10 calling each
other liars and knayes. The quarrel has been
traced to indulgence in ''cold tea", of the
hrov, fhof La old in, ft,a
taurant. Clearly the cultivation of an herb
that leads to so dire consequences is not to be
encouraged. Then, too, tea leads to wakeful-
ness, and men that cannot sleep O. nights are,
we are assured on high authority, not to be
trusted. 1t may be urged as an objection that
the experiment has once been tried, and was
not strikingly successful, the plants costing
about million dollars apiece before they
could be made to put forth leaves. But the
experiment was not tried under conciliatory
| policy. That is what was the matter with
l the tea-plant. The scheme anyhow is one
l of great Importance. The argus has dis
cussed it and takes up position of dignified
reserve. If tea will break up the Republican
party it goes for tea; but if the scheme is only
an intrigue to detach the South from its alli-
ance There is a squint that way, all must
l confessl it will be compelled to go into oppo-
I sition.
After all, the great trouble is not in raising
tea, but in curing it. The climate is favora-
BILE for production, and there is no doubt that
the plant will grow in the South. All at
tempt to put the leaves into shape for market
have however been failures. Evidently if
the South wishes to make success Of the
new industry it must become like unto the
original cutivators, the Chinese. 1t must
leave off numbering and take to working. 1t
must exchange the bowie knife for the hoe.
1t must respect the rights of its laborers. 1t
must afford protection to life and property.
1t must bring offenders against the laws to
sure and prompt justice. Then when it has
become civilized, or at least got so far forward
in civilization as the Mongoians, it will be
1 prepared to undertake the cultivation of tea,