Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-01-24
SOUTH CAROLINA EXODUS.
iis Probable Canse-An Argu.
lnent Tor Improved Farming.


The Charleston News and Courier
publishes the following interview with
Senator Butler touching the labor
question in South Carolina and the
effect Of the exodus:
"Do you apprehoud much injury to
the agricultural interests from scarcity
OF labor"
mo, sir. l am not prepared to adj
NIT that the white man in South Car
olina is dependent upon negro labor
for success In agricultural pursuits. 1t
is not so. The negro is an important
factor in agriculture as things now
are, but he is not sine qua non. One
Of our chief troubles is that toe many
people depend upon the negro for
everything, Too much cheap, vaga-
bond, unskilled labor will curse
any country. Labor ought to be
dignified and well remunerated,
and to do that we must have
intelligent, skilled laborers. Those
negroes who work and economic and
take care of themselves are prosperous
and doing well. Some of them are
becoming land owners, and will make
useful citizens; but the idle and thrift
less and improvident will never save
anything wherever they may 90. 1t
happens that the section of country in
Edgefeld that they are leaving is
peculiarly adapted to labor. saving i'm
proved farming implements, and our
people would do much better with
about one-fourth of the labor now en-
ployed aud with labor-saving imple-
ments. Less labor to feed and provide
for, better cultivated crops and better
yields would be the result"
DO you think the people of the
State will ever get out Of their old ruts
in farming and learn to use appliances
of improved agricultural"
We'll, take half the negroes away
from them and they will be compelled
to use them, and that is about the only
way they can be brought to it. l
know a young man in Edgefeld whose
laborers left him in May of last year.
He bought two-horse cultivator, and
with one-armea man to help him,
be cultivated sixty-fve acres and made
fiue crop. 1t was the cultivator or
starvation. Necessity drove him to
it. He has had revelation in farm
ing, and now he is independent of the
negro and everybody else. Another
farmer near Edgefeld makes as much
now with four mules and five hands as
he made under the old system with
eleven mules and nineteen hands. he
breaks his land with four-horse pillow,
beds his cotton with cultivator, drops
his cotton seed with q planter,
Bars it off and cultivates it
throughout with a two-horse cul-
tivator, and never plants more cotton
than he can pick out Do you suppose
it makes mach difference to him
whether the negroes "exode" or not?
Oh no! It is a mistake to make SO
much fuss over these people. They
ought to be treated fairly and honestly
and as a general thing they are SO
treated-but when they get ready to
move to Arkansaw or to Kansas, or to
any other part Of the country, they
ought to be allowed to go, just as other
people are allowed to go. 1t will be
better for them, better for the whites
to break up and scatter the masses OF
black population and make places for
more thrifty and progressive race.
| do not say this in any spirit of un-
kindness for the negroes, for | have
none; but. in my judgment, it would
be better for both races if at least one
third of the colored population would
leave South Carolina and seek homes
elsewhere.