The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-10-23
BLUNDRRs OF srATIsrICIANs--
THE NKGROss VALUE.


clan, tells the New York Herald that
the last ten crops OF cotton are six and
q half millions bales greater than the
ten last produced by slavery, aad this
increase of productiveness of free la
Dor isconstantly progressive. Mr.. At
kinson might have gone much further
and stated that the wheat, corn and
hog crops of the South have increased,
relatively, with much greater rapidity
than the production of cotton. But
when Dir. Atkinson or ine Herald de-
duces the conclusion from these facts
that negro industry, when free, is more
productive than when enslaved, he for
gets the fact that since the extinction
of slavery the great volume of South
ern crops is drawn from the hills and
valleys and not from the broad low
land plantations of 1850 and 1860.
Where negroes most do congregate the
number of cotton bales produced and
number of pounds saved per capita is
lessened nearly one-third. Formerly,
the force that planted and cultivat-
ed broad cotton fields also gathered
the crop; but now the contemplating
season draws heavily upon the popula-
ton Of. towns and villages, often inter-
fering sadly with the plans of munich
pal politicians. There are ten times
as many colored people in towns and
villages and sauntering about railway
stations as prior to 1860, and it is
notorious fact that while the number of
colored people has not increased, those
born since 1860 are of the least possible
service; when, under the old system of
serYitude, the young negroes were of,
infinite value in gathering the crop.
When, therefore, Mr.. Atkinson con-
cludes that the South should retain by
all means and deal most generously
with population which begets such
wealth he does not state false conclu-
sion, but exaggerates the practical rea-
son for it, When "planters" lost their
servants they Snd their sons became
"tarmers." They abandoned the
swamps and went into the up
lands. Sandy valleys along little
streams are cultivated by white la
Dor, and the negroes are concentrated
in the black and alluvial lands. Not
only In Texas is this the gene raj
leading conspicuous fact, but it OBJ
tains everywhere IN Louisiana, Missis-
sippi, Alabama and in the Carolinas
and Florida. Not only is the great
bulk of the cotton crop the product of
small farms cultivated as in Northern
and Central Georgia and Alabama,
mainly by white labor, but one acre of
sandy hill sides in Georgia, as
now enriched and carefully cultivated,
produces more than five under the
reckless, wasteful and starving modes
of cultivation in vogue in 1860. Mr..
Edward Atklnson's conclusions are
correct but he exsggerstes the value of
negro toll and has failed to measure
accurately, for want of personal OBJ
servstion, the force of causes that
have driven white men from ''planta-
tions" to ''farms," and aggregated ne
gro populations in the lowlands and on
badly cultivated estates once consti-
tutIng the petty kingdom of slave
holders. Peonage of to-day pays
as we'll perhaps, but more negroes are
required to accomplish given result,
and Mr.. Atkinson should not be Ia
such hot haste to conclude that be-
cause each annual cotton crop exceeds
the preceding in value, that therefore
the negro is a better producer when
free than when enslaved. On thee
trary, the volume of the cotton crop
of the South grows because more and
more FARMERS" each year be-
come more and more sklllful
in making fewer acres produce larger
crops and the number of white farmers
grows annually, as the number of ne
gro lsborers does not.
Mr.. Atkinson is careful, thoughtful
and just writer, singularly free from
cant and prejudices that commonly
distinguish Bostonians. He exsggcr-
-ates the virtues of the colored people
IN nothing, and the South confesses
their industrial value, and it is only
because they are victimized and duped
and herded together and voted by
party leaders, and are thus agencies of
public mischief, that the South does
not object when the negro would leave
the cotton fields of the South for the
wheat fields of the North. The South,
TOO, has learned from the very facts
collected by Mr.. Atkinson that South
ern whites can produce more cotton
and more successfully ON small farms
we'll cultivated by their own toll than
on the great plantations on which
the negroes are gathered. The process
of segregation of races is slow, but
progressive. As the rich planters
of the antedeluvian age of slavery
seek the uplsnds and become 'farm-
ers," so the negroes cross their path
and move steadily into the rich, allu-
ulal districts, and if the course of me-
gro emigration be diverted from its
natural course into Kansas or Illinois,
the vacuum left here will be filled by
whites displaced in the North. The
South will surely not be the loser by