The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-02-21
SOME OPINIONS.

SOME OPINIONS.
If the testimony of North Carolina negroes
now being taken by the Exodus Committee in
Washington can be depended upon land We
see no reason TO discredit ~ the condition OF
the eX-slaves in that portion OF the South Is
not bv any means uncomfortable SO far Is the
present or discuuraging so far rs the future Is
concerned. As rule they are fully as well, If
not better, off than large proportion OF Their
white fellow citizens OF the same class IN lie
and of the same opportunities IN The Norm.
According To the latest testimony on the sub
iect-the testimony Of negroes-the average
wages Of colorcd farm lahorers are from eight
dollars to ten dollars month, with cabins,
tirewo0d and subsistence. During the cotton
picking season men and women can earn from
one dollar 10 one dollar and quarter per day
Skilled COlOrCd labor of course, commands
higher figures Blacksmiths and carpenters
receive from one dollar and fifty cents to two
dollars per day, and white and black mechan
les work together, although white men get Il
little higher wages. The Cslorcd man who
gives this testimony was formerly Il slave but
now he is a landlord being the owner othouses
which are occupied by white tenants who pay
HIM a rental Of between four and five hundred
dollars year. In the matter of education
there is no discrimination, aud II negroes are
more frequently punished for petty offences
than white men 1t Is because the latter have
more money to employ lawyers At the close
OF the late war distinguished republican jour
nallst, who years later was nominated for the
Presidency, addressed u stirring editorial to
the cmancipated slaves entitled Root Hog, or
Die In North Carolina, at least, large
number of them seem to have been roofing
to some purpose.-Herdtd.
The country beholds the ex.Presdcnt in
new light Having served two terms-as long
as Washington, Jefferson and Jackson thought
it proper to have the Presidency-Grant is
now ready for another, a third term. Not OF
course, because the country needs HIM, for it
has got on uncOmmOnly well without him. 1t
has made more progress toward peace, good
order and prosperity in two years OF Hayes
than in eight years of the eX President Clearly
it must be because he wants the Presidency,
and wants it 50 much that he does not even in
si,t on a unanimous call from his party, but Is
ready to accept the nomination If the COnven-
ton will on any terms, give it to him 1t is a
curious and dubious position for him to place
himself IN, but that, after all is his business.
1t is his business that is to say, until the Chi
cago Convention takes it of his hands. If the
Convention should nominate him, then of
position with the republican party, or rather
that would share 1t with him, and the country
would then have to consider whether party
taking up the eX-President Cor third term I'M
der suck circumstances ought or ought not to
be trusted with the government. That would
be the issue on which the voters would declare
in November.
Meantime, we repeat, "Barkis is wiling
n. y. Heyud Qnd)
AN INIQUITOUs SCHEME EXPOSED" Is the
heading put in the Republican newspapers oy-
er Il despatch concerning South Cardinals pro-
posed Registration law. 1t need not be said
that this scheme is of Democratic origin, the
members of that party, with faulty which
on the eve Of Presidential election is simply
criminal, passing all their nights in the con
cOctlon of ubiquitous schemes and all thclrI
days in the perusal Of "damning disclosures"
of the same. The fendish Democrats of South
Carolina propose to exclude from the register
all voters who cannot write their names. This
is simply deviish--in South Carolina, that is, |
for in Massachusetts,, where the operation OF a
similar provision is supposed to exclude more
Democrats from the polls than Republicans, it |
is thought to be "a safeguard against ignor-
ance. ~. !. Word.
The railroad corporations are calling upon
congress to reduce the duty on steel rails Con-
gress should abolish the duty entirely on both
steel and iron. The present market price of
these articles shows plainly what can be done
under protective tariff. Nine-tenths of the
people of the whole country are compelled tot
pay tribute to the iron interests OF Pennsylva-
MIA and southern Ohio-PekiR Times.