The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-14
HOSIERY
w WHE1N
LABOR INTERESTS.
The Condition and Prospects of the Laborer
in the South.

The Condition and Prospects of the LabOrer
in the South.
New YORK, Sept. 13.-John G. Calhoun, OF
South Carolina, grandson of the famous
statesman OF The same name, and who is now
a resident of Arkansas, was a witness before
the Senate committee on labor and educa-
ton this morning. He was called to testify
in regard to the condition and prospects of
labor In the South. He stated that since 1869
he had been engaged in cotton raising in
Arkansas, and had abundant opportunities
for observing the condition of labor at the
South. The laborers in the Mississippi val
ley are entirely agricultural. Few white
men are employed, as they soon become
landowners or tenants. The condition of
the negroes was good as compared with few
years ago. There were three methods of en-
ploying laborers-for wages, working on
shares and as tenants Large farmers, besides
furnishing the laborers with shelter,
fuel and other advantages, divide
the gross proceeds of the crops
among their employees. Under this system
thrifty and industrious laborers ought to be-
,,ome soon landowners but the negroes are
on ,sadolent that they fail to take advantage
of the opportunities afforded them, and will
onlv de s0te so much of their time to work
as will enable them to procure the necessi-
ties of life Under the renting system the
hest land of the country can be obtained for
S8 to $40 per acre and with the rental get
many privileges Or his own farm witness
used all these methods of employing labor,
but preferred the tenant sSstem. 1t was his
object to raise the standard ct colored labor
to that of the small white t9rmer. This
could only be done gradually on account OF
Al. NV E fl1n mo- a
portion of the cotton crop Is now raised ~
small farmers, and the number of these is
increasing every year. The relations between
planters and employees are friendly and har-
monious, and there is little danger of strikes.
The laborers felt that they had an interest in
the soil, and a strike would be as injurious
to them as to employers.
There was much greater tendency to
conflict between the races than between
labor and capital. The best interests of the
laborers of the South would be sustained by
the establishment of industrial schools and
by the total elimination from federal
politics of the so-called negro question: and
by leaving its solution to time, and a reduc-
tion of taxation. For many years the negroes
regarded themselves as wards of the federal
government, and it were well for them to
understand that they have nothing more to
expect from the federal government than
the white man, and that like him, their fu-
ture depends upon their own energy and in
dustry. Nothing, probably, would contrib
ute so Immediately to their prosperity
as a reduction of the tariff. Witness
thought the South offered the greatest
inducements to immigration. Race feeling
ia dying out and if the South was left to
itself there was no more danger to be feared
from it. Capital could then find secure in
vestment. In politics the negro vote was by
no means as solid for the Republican ticket
as SO many in the North supposed, but was
- Hakxx flaf fxxyo lava
tion voting with the planters, their employ
ers not from coercion, but by preference
Witness advocated government control of
the improvement of the Mississippi. In re-
gard to education he suggested that the for
mer cotton, tax of 0,000, 900 should be ap-
propriated to the education of the negro in
the South, as the rest of the States could
take care of their colored citizens, and he
recommended that the settlement of all diff
ficulties be left to time.