The Dawson journal., 1883-02-08
The COitOn-TFe Robbery and
the Negro.

The COitOn-E7e Robbery and
the Negro.
atlanta Constitution.
The excuse the Constitution Of
fers for returning again aud again to
the consideration of the cotton tie ques-
tion is the fact that it touches at
vital point the principal industry of
Georgia and the south, It is propo-
sition to rob the cotton-planters of this
section in the interest of Il few manu-
facturers in Ohio and Pennsylvania,
and it is so outrageous that public
journal sincerely interested in the well
fare of the people in Georgia is bound
to discuss it in all its bearings.
When, at the last session of con-
gress, the Mckinley amendment made
its appearance in the midst of the con-
fused mass of leg station, the Constitu-
zion singled it out and exposed its pur-
rase. 1t was claimed then that the
farmer sold ties md bagging for the
same price he received for his cotton.
We showed that this cain had 70
other basis than the effrontery with
which the monopol lists push their en-
terprises for plundering the people.
The same claim has been renewed in
defense of the Mckinley proposition
in the tariff bill of tho ways and means
committee, and we have been compell-
ed to renew our exposure.
Every person of average intelligence
knows that the price of American spot
cotton-not futures, which are simply
the nature of bets as to what the price
will be hereafter-is regulated by the
price of spot cotton in Liverpool, and
In the adjustment of this price, the fare
to which each bale is subjected in Liv-
erpool is estimated and allowed. This
tare amounts to an average of twenty
five pounds deducted from the weight
of each bale.
Fortunately every planter can test
the matter for himself. Let him car
| ry to market two bales, one bound
with four ties and the other with eight
the amount of cotton in each bale be-
ing the same, and the classification the
same. He will discover when his cot
ton is sold that the bale with the eight
ties has brought no more than the
bale with the four ties. If it WERE
otherwise-lf the cotton-buyer paic
for the ties and the bagging we should
behold, as the Chicago Tribune sug-
gests, the sanity republicans of New
England, snch as Chase and Grape
engaged in ferocious fight in bebalI
Of New England manufacturers to pre-
vent an increase of the tax.
There is another view of this sub
ject TO which the Constitution called
atteu ion when the Mckinley scheme
of robbery was first discussed, and that
is, If the proposed tax will oper tie tC
cripple the white cotton planters, what
is to be said of its effect Upon the thou
sands and tens of thousands of negroes
who, with more than the ordinary thrift
Of their race, are ende4voring to run
modest little farms of their own
These negroes are supposed to be re
publlcans and The men who are now
irving to rob them are the very men
who, with the persistence of genuine
| hypocrites, pretend to be their best
friends. The same spirit of dishonest
greed that invented the Freedmen's
bank Swindle is engineering this pro-
ject to rob southern negroes who have
managed, by the exercise of an econo-
my pitiful to think about, to reach the
point o. farming on their own account.
There are thousands of negroes in
this state who have reached this point.
They are the pioneers of their race in
it's new conditions, and their efforts are
still in the nature of an experiment.
They deserve to be encouraged and
they are encouraged by all honest men.
They receive the sympathy of every
body except the representatives of the
republican party in congress, and the
greed of these men is blind and relent-
less.
There are number of intelligent COL
ored men in Georgia who read the
newspapers and keep themselves jn-
formed in regard to current events +;
there are a number who read the Con
stitutipn. We desire to call the atteu-
ton of these to the significant fact that
the speech of republican congress-
man, in which he advocated large
and unjustifable increase in the price
that the poor negro farmers are com
elled to pay for their cotton-ties, was