Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1879-09-20
THE LABOR QUESTION.


Every year we are becoming more and
more convinced of the utter unreliability
Of the negro as q laborer to depend upon
for the cultivation of cotton and other
southern products. The colored popula-
ton, If let alone and worked by the wag-
es system, we are satisfied, would have
proven the best factor in the cultivation
OF southern lands, for the reason that he
was already schooled in the art; but he
was contaminated during the first few
years of his emancipation to such an eX-
tent (by evil disposed men from the north)
that nothing now satifies him. and he is
continually looking for the wealth, with
out work, which was so literally promis-
ed by his seducers, for the persecution of
his former master and only friend.
At the commencement of the present
year the willingness with which freedmen
Went to work was very encoura ging to ev-
cry one, and it was believed that his sus-
ceptible mind had been thoroughly freed
from the wild hallucinations of ''fOrty
acres and mule" ''fine carriage and
white drivers" &C., &c. But the colo
nization scheme of the astute Window
and his unfeeling co-workers, has again
thrown the colored population into a de-
moralizing state of excitement, and when
sutficiency of the present crop is gath
cred, it is by means improbable, very
large portion of this benighted race will
seek the promised land" of Kansas, not
withstanding the bitter experience of rep
resentatives gone before them. Every
intelligent white man and q large num-
Der Of the more intelligent blacks know
the inevitable result of this proposed mi.
grafton to an already ovcrstocked State
of paupers during the season when every
industry Is stagnated by the bitter cold
weather, to which even the hardy pio-
neer is forced to yield. 1t is the hard
ships unavoidably compelled to attend
this foolhardy exodus that arouses our
spmpathies, more than the fol ced separa-
ton with class whose interests the
southern people can alone successfully
guard, rather than the loss of the negro
! as a laborer; for, as we have said before,
free colored labor, under the present sys-
| tem;of controlling it, is extremely unpro-
fitable and unreliable, especially to the
land owner.
But in their sympathy for the negro,
our people should not forget their own
welfare. Some method by which to fill
the ANTICIPATED vacuum should be devised.
The problem, if rightly studied, is an easy
ore to solve. In Ireland; England, Scot
land, and even the land of negro felicity,
the "beautifnl and free State of Kansas, )"
there are thousands upon thousands of
the best farm laborers ready and anxious
to come and make their homes with us,
and are only awaiting the bidding. These
people, however, are intelligent beings,
with some solicitude for the social posi-
ton and domestic comforts that would be
offered them in their new homes. They
could not be expected to share the hum
bic status that contents the negro. Cheap
but comfortable house, and an opportuni-
ty to finally become independent farmers
and land owners are privileges that will
be required, and with these vouchsafed no
trouble would it he to turn the other wise
unattainable tide of immigration into our
State. The labor question should demand
an early and active consideration at the
hands of our people, for there is no ques-
ton that the bold advocates Of central:-
cation will use every means in their pow
er to weaken the representative strength
of the South as we'll as to work its fnan-
cial ruin before the next national election.