Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-17
rHE SOUTHERN IABoR herrArror

other prominent citizens Of tho South.
for convention to be held at Vicks-
burg on Monday, the jth of May, to
take into consideration the present
agitation of the labor question. Every
county, parish and city in the Missis-
sippi valley is invited to send dele
gates Of both races. The colored
people are earnestly requested to send
delegates Of their own choosing to
participate in the deliberations Of
the convention. Such confer
ence will no doubt result in a
free interchange of views and
better understanding between land
owners and their tenants. The exodus
of colored people toward Kansas is a
foolish movement which can only
result in their misery aud degradation.
The people there do not want them,
and the climate is too severe for them.
Their places can be supplied here after
a time by white laborers, and perhaps
in the end this would be better for the
South. If the planters have been in
the habit Of making contracts too
largely in their own favor, they will
see that such policy eventually
creates dissatisfaction and that it
is sure to produce reaction.
But the world has yet to
see class of, capitalists, landlords,
manufacturers or large property own
ers who do not, as a rule, make the
most out Of the classes who live by
daily labor. 1t is so in every country
in Europe, it is so in New England, in
the Middle States, in the West, and
even in Kansas, where the negroes
expect to find peace and plenty with
out much work being necessary to
secure these blessings. In the North,
where they have free schools and
bOasted social equality of all races,
the roads TEEN with tramps, and
it is not long since serious labor
strikes occurred, during which Pitts
burg was the scene of the widest mob
violence, and it was feared that the
spirit of communism would sweep
over and desolate the land. The
negroes constitute the great body of
the labOring classes at the South, and
it can safely be said that they get
more for their work, and are more
comfortable than the corresponding
classes in the Northern States, or in
any part of Great Britain or CONT
mental Europe. The real trouble
lies in their thriftlessness and a lurk-
ing suspicion of all who formerly
owned slaves. They are credulous,
superstitious and full of prejudice,
which no amount Of education eeems
to eradicate They have a vague, un-
defined idea that there is a happy.
easy time coming, when they will have
all their physical wants supplied in
unceasing abundance, and have high
old camp-meeting time without much
trouble, toll or anxiety This is
never to be realized, of course,
and they become inpatient and dis.
satisfied when they find that they
have acquired some necessities and re
sponsibilities along with their free
dom. Intelligence and enlightenment
dawn upon them slowly. They arc
easily duped by strangers, especially
those who pretend to be their friends
from the North. All that can be done
by the Southern white people is to
treat them fairly, give them justice in
the courts and in the everyday trans
actions of life. 1t is not likely
that the masses can be reached
through the resolutions of public
meeting held in Vicksburg or any
where else. 1t is useless and is bad
policy to try to stop this immigration
movement. Let them so until the
people Of Kansas have a surfeit of the
thriftless thousands that have been
the objects of so much tender solci-
tude in the North. 1t will learn the
people of the West something, and the
negroes themselves will find at last
that their old masters were their
best friends. Our dispatches to-day
state that seventeen hundred colored
refugees are in a helpless, suffering
condition at Wyandotte, Kansas, and
a committee there appeals to the pub
lie at large for financial aid. Some
money will be subscribed no doubt,
but people will soon get tired of this
sort of thing, and the negro will find
out that go where he will on this con
tinent he must work for a living
or starye, and that to enjoy the
comforts and luxuries of life he must
earn them by the sweat of his brow.
The South can afford to lose all who
are likely to go, and we hope our peo-
pie will not interfere with the move
ment any further thaa to explain the
facts and to defend ourselves against
false accusations made by unscrupu-
lous agitators for political effect.
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