The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-05-17
THE COMPLAINTS OF COLONEL
MEN,

The speech of Hon. James Hill, winch 10
nrblishod on our first page, has some good
points in it, and abounds in several solid
trutbs. It is, upon the. whole, creditable
and readable production. He is, perhaps,
about half right in his assignment of the
reasons for the restlessness of the colored
people, but he is more than half wrong IN
hisimplied causes which lead to the negro
poverty. There is nothing better establish
ed than the fact that laborers in this coun'
try are better paid than in any other. Inc
colored man at the end of the year can't
buy Christmes presents for his wife and
children because he has been thriftless,
thoughtless and extravagant. In majority
of instances he not only can't buy Christ
mas presents, but he can't pay his debts.
Possibly he has been charged too much
for rent and gouged by the merchant, but
the true reason of his poverty is traced to
other causes Let him cease to go in debt.
If the planter charges him too much for
rent let ulln ueClllo w NC q 'Oh"h" ~ 80
idle TO saw that he is bound to submit to
any extortion. If he has no land or mule,
and no planter OF merchant will supply him
without squeezing all the lemon juice out of
him, then why don't he go to work for
wages, and economize until he is able TO
buy mule, and forty acres of land at l23
cents per acre?
We are very heartily opposed to any i'm
position on the poor colored man or the
poor white man. We are disposed to argue
the case of the negro from the same plane
of reasoning that we do the laboring white
man. We can draw no color-line, nor see
any material difference in the treatment of
the two, so far as business goes. A poor
white man can. He can get credit as read
ilv. And the poor white man is cheated as
cheerfully as the negro is. Whence this
howl, then, about the wrongs upon the
negro? If it is just cause of complaint,
it applies as well to the poor of one race as
to the other, and the needy darkey has no
cause of complaint which the needy white
man does not also have. There is no ques-
ton or sentiment of race in it.
We are quite sure that numberless in
stances of extortion could be cited, but the
better sentiment of the country IS emf
phatically against such practices, and it is
undeninble that needy white men have sut-
fered as much by these extortions as
the destitute negro. These evils will corN
rect themselves, and they would exist in
any country on earth under the same cir
cumstances.
In reference to the matter of bull-dozing,
which Mr.. Hill assigns as one of the causes
of the exodus, it may be proper to say that
some few excuses of this kind have occur
ed in some parts of the State, but there is
not Judge on the bench, and not single
District Attorney, who has not used his ut
most power officially to suppress it, and the
fact is, the evil is virtually suppressed.
There is no party here now in favor of put
ing any restraint upon the free exercise of
suffrage. In 1875 the white people found
the State suffering under disease that was
rapidly destroying her vital energies. They
used severe antidotes to cure that disease,
lsd they did cure it; but as the patient got
there is no longer any necessity for admin
STEERING the medicine, 1t would be worse
than folly to keep on dosing well man
with the strong medicine he had to take
when he was very sick. There is no longer
any occasion nor inclination to inaugurate
shotgun campaign. So the real or pre-
tended fears of the darkies in this respect
ire entirely groundless.