The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-07-03
Causes Of the Exodus

Representative w llLLnOTue, Oh
Tennessee, has forwarded to Chair
man Goode, of the House Commit
tee on Education and Labor, a pa
per on the propriety of lnvestiga-
ting the recent migration to Kan
sas. He speaks of the relations OF
master and slave, and then of the
good feeling existing between the
races at the close of the waT-some-
thing which has been forgotten
Until the internal policy of the Re-
publican party sowed the seeds OF
/ discomfort, there was every
sign of a gradual adjustment of the
relations of the races, which would
long before this have clothed the
negro with all tie rights of free
men without that distrust which is
to continue for years to come -
Animosity between the two was
the sole means of preserving Radical
power, and the plan was laid with q
devilish ingenuity.
Mr.. Whitthorne shows the loss in
the value of farms alone in the
South TO have been $77l,750,905, to
which must be added the loss OF
hands, live stock, mills and facto-
ries, personal property. Thus the
100000 of whites were situated,
while the negro, emancipated, with
no protection against starvation, or
restraint from crime, had no means
of support but labor. From this
point he demonstrates the untruth
of charges OF denial in the South of
his legal or political rights and the
just proceeds of his labor, He
shows that since the war, from
1853 to 1878, there has been an in
crease of 100000 head of cattle
and swine. For eight years pre-
ceeding 1851, 27,142,2S5 bales of
cotton were produced. while the
past eight years have furnished
33,2I6,5 S1 bales.
In 1871 there were 1857 ,559
acres in cotton, in 1876 there were
10000, 900 acres. All this could not
have been accomplished by labor
denied cherished rights, hunted by
shot-guns and subjected to the per
secutions described by Republi-
cans, and too often by credulous
people who scarcely know as much
of one half of their own country as
they do of France or Germany
Mr.. Whitthorne shows that 5000,
100000 of Southern products enter
into the manufactures of New Eng
land, New York and Pennsylvania
and other Northern States, and
they may well begin to consider
whether they are willing to destroy
the source of supply, which being
destroyed turns their labor loose to
tramp or to riot, 20 become a bur-
den if not destroying agency.
He also gives statistics which
show that while labor is paid IN the
North and West at the rate of
about 81 per capita of popula ion,
of about 100000 $97, 907,174 is
paid 10 labor in the South,
while in population of
100000 in the North only S114,-
100000 are paid.
He asks if it Is possible that the
labor of the South is so disturbed
that it Is compelled to seek a new
home, He finds production indica-
ting the reverse. He finds them
better paid than labor elsewhere,
and to speculation in Kansas rail
way lands and to politics he looks
to find the cause for the movement,
and urges a candid non partisan in
vestigation.
1t would be wise if we could have
a thorough report upon the econo
mic causes OF this movement, if all
could abandon politics long enough
TO give this question a thorough /
sitting. 1t is of vital interest to
the North, for this is the field for
supplies of raw material on which
heir industries rest. Let them de-
stroy tbe source of their supplies
lnd we can live but not prosper,
while they cannot live. Political
lights and civil liberty are not in
7olved in it and form no part of the
causes, and the more the question
9 sifted the more it appears that
The sole connection of politics with
his question is the political aspect
.he Republicans seek to give the
movement American.