Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-16
BnAzIL,s "ALL CorrEI. rnopLEM.


The course of commerce and its hard, un-
escapable laws, is taking out OF the old
slavery question the strange sort of glamour
with which it was long surrounded. Where
the institution subsists, outside of house SER
wants, it has to stand the stern, practical
question, Does 1t pay? 1t does not, and the
countries that retain it a mode of field
cultivation are embarrassed. How to get
rid of it is not easy to see, while to retain it
is to suffer serious inconvenience and no little
loss. In Brazil the slavery system is re-
tanned on the great coffee plantations, and
the planters find themselves reduced to the
"all coffee" system, which is no less ruinous
than the GALL cotton" system among our
selves. This system makes the planter, to
great extent, the creature of the merchant.
The merchant finds the plantation in all
it wants, from mules and negroes to the
strings that tie little miss's shoes. The
planter oversees and directs, and makes
a show of respectabiity out of the share
that remains to him after the merchant has
repaid himself proftably. This dependence
upon the merchant arises in a great measure
from the practical impossibility Of making
the unplastic, unintelligent slave vary his
ideas and practice enough to be capable of
turning his hand as readily to one sort OF
crop as to another. The slave can just
pillow and hoe in the coffee plantation, and
gather, clean and sack the berries, and that
is all. The Brazil Assembly has had its at
tention turned to this subject, but it is easier
to detect the evil than to cure 1.-THE tran
sition leap from the bond TO the free system
involves a problem it has not yet solved.
That body has made some investigations,
however, and can find facts enough to DEM
onstrate where the difficulty lies but not to
indicate the way out of it. For in
stance, it was found that during the
year 1880 the rich ground. where the
excess of vegetation constantly proves
an obstacle to clearing and cultivation, had
not produced sufficient of several of the
simplest products TO supply the wants of the
people. Among the imports of land with
some of the most productive soil in the uni
verse, was 195,900 sacks of rice, 101 500
packages OF lard, DDS, 900 packages of Irish
potatoes, 100000 packages of onions, $4,000
EdCho VI OAdhy -c-DOO baOho VI bSaho1 AOOICOO
sacks of corn, besides immense quantities of
butter, amounting to a value for productions,
every one of which, or its equivalent, can
readily be produced in Brazil, of So 900.
To meet the difficulty which is becoming
more serious every year, it is proposed to
establish small farmers who shall cultivate
the necessaries of life for man and beast,
while the great coffee planters slide along as
easily as the very difficult circumstances in.
which they are placed will permit. But these
small farmers must be Tree, and must have
sufficient intelligence to put in crops that will
pay and TO buy and sell with advantage. But
where are they to be found? the big plantation
system has not reared such men. Immigrants
have been invited and strong inducements
offered, but where there is slavery there is
feeling with respect to labor that immi- |
grants from free countries will not endure,
and attempts to form colonies have given
satisfaction to neither one party nor the
other. We know in this country very well
how that is. In this way slavery stands in
the way of any amelioration to its own I'M
favorable results as a system Of labor. In the
free countries of the La Plata Italians, Ger
mans, Sicilians, and others, have colonized
successfully But Brazil, that so much re-
quires the industrious small farmer, cannot
keep that class of population. 1t is with no
little interest observers are noting any at
tempts of Brazil to escape from The dilemma
in which it is placed. Emancipation APP
pears to be a necessary prerequisite to i'm
provement, but under existing habits and
prejudices how is that contamination TO be
secured? Must there be violence in Brazil
also to accomplish that end?