Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-11
THE SOUTH.
What One of Its Sons Has to Say
of Its II, dustries.

Messrs Blaine and Sherman, In their re-
cent skeches, have had good deal to say
about the South and its industries. They
have misstated the facts about the cheap
wages paid the negro in the South. The
following from the pen of one of the gifted
sons of the South, will no doubt be read by
the unprejudiced with pleasure;
EDITOR HERALD:--Pror to the 14th, 10th
and 10th Amendments to the Constitution,
in apportioning the representatives IN Con-
gress OF the Southern States, two votes were
ailoWed to every five negroes. Ihat Is ~
state zhad 100000 negroes, representation
was allowed to it as though its white popuI'
latlon were 100000, more numerous thau ~
actually was. OF course it was expecteu
that once enfranchised the negro popula-
tion would stand by the Republican party
and keep it in control of the Feuerai gov
ernment. Such however is not tne S cnse.
Passing over, for moment, Tue reasons ts
therefor, let us talk about Blaine ana Shef,
man. You know they are gifted men, ana
that no one cin say that the texture OF tneir
ambition is not made of stuff suthciently
stern to Challenge the aumraeTn ira ancns 1ae
tion act has proved to have the qualities OF
boomerang they now propose 10 euuc I'VE
the northern mechanic and farmer up TO
the idea that the southern white man In
timidates the negro into voting the Demo
cratic ticket and giving him starvation
wages produces iron and places 1t upon the
of as good quality, as any that can be made
iu Pennsylvania or elsewhere north
of the Potomac or OF the Ohio.
That the negro Is thus used by
to control legislation in Congress. but also
to destroy the Industry OF the Northern
white Garner OF wages Now you under
stand that what addresses itself directly to
the pocket aud to the stomach has most in
fluence with those whose pockets and stom-
achs are empty, or Liable SO to become.
Make the mechanic believe what Blaine,
Sheridan or Ben Butler breaches and you
set ablaze the fires of sectional hatred.
Let us examine how far they speak the
truth. Perhaps you know nothing OF your
own knowledge of the condition OF the
South in 1865, and for years after the close
OF the war. Eighteen years have passed
since l was last in that section, but re-
member full well the air of desolation that
prevdded .it in 1868, the abandoned fields,
the disorganzed industry and the poverty
OF the people, who were left to themselves
with 4,0OO, 900 OF negroes but recently liber-
ated. to take care of. Some few Northern
ing the war, went South, animated by
the benevolent desire OF showing
the impoverished whites whds they could
do in raising cotton, aud how easily the
negro could be managed, and how useful
member OF society he could be made by
those to whom he was Indebted. for his
liberty. They came. They saw, but they
did not conquer. Their ignorance of the
negro character combined with climatic
disadvantages brought them to grief. They
mighi: fight the fever successfully but the
army worms knew no such word as deie IT..
These people gave up the attempt. They
either withdrew from the country and
settled in the towns or returned whence
they came. The Southern people were left
in their poverty and desolation not only to
work but to divert the lab n of their recent
slaves, or to maintain them i'll idleness.
They have managed to live together in
stead of trying to exterm1nate one another,
4. g., ,t,,ta Il
the credit of white and black. AS time
wore on the Southern men of intelligence
saw that If their country was to be again
made fit home for the white race, some
- thing must be done. Tney sought 10
invite northern capital to locate among
them. 1t was long before they could make
even partial success. Capital reasons.
Why, go where there was mixed popula-
tiOu, the one part taught to hate the other?
Where no security was to be found? The
only answer that could be given was to
come, examine and decide. Some bolder
than the rest did so. They found the valley
of the Tennessee, northwestern Georgia
and Alabama rich in coal aud iron, the beds
almost adjoining, SO that the transportation
of fuel could be reduced to a minimum,
and they found labor cheap and those own
ing the lands glad of an opportunity to
sell. They made the venture and they find
that they can produce iron, owing to the
richness of the ore and to the proximity of
fuel, as well as to the cheapness of labor
produced in the Northern States. The
country is wooded. The houses of the peo-
pie are built of logs and covered with
shakes rived with frow. Blaine says that
North Carolina Congressman told him that
they did not cost over $40 piece. Thatwas
almost the cost of the cabin in which and
four others spent the winter OF 1854
near Aqua Fria, in Mariposa county
In this State. and it was comfort
able enough for anybody Nature fur
nished the logs for the walls and the stone
for IN ah q md
fashioned the materials into house which
we covered with cotton drilling.
Now what have told you about iron
.-holds good with regard to manufacturing cot
ton. The conditions of life are easier in the
South than In the North. Water power il to
be had anywhere. Coal beds are abundant.
The people are poor and want to increase
their comforts. They are willing to work
to that end. Factories are springing up.
They are to be found on the James River,
opposite Richmond; at Graniteville. South
Carolina; at Augusta, Macon and Columbus,
Georgia, and doubtless in many other
places. They are managed by skilled me-
chanics who want to live and of course they
will compete with anybody. At the same
time IL seems that it must follow as a re-
suit that they will embrace the New Eng
land ideas with regard to protection. 1t
would not surprise me. when party lines are
again drawn as they once were between the
Democrats and the Wings, to see the States
of Kentut ky, Tennessee, South Carolina,
Georgia ana Alabama, and perhaps all the
States south of the Potomac and Ohio, range
themselves on the Whig side. That will de-
pend simply upon the interests that domi-
aate-those of the manufacturer, or those of
the agriculturist
The animadversions of the Northern press
and politicians are unjust The industrial ria
negro laborer is a matter of selfpreserva-
tion. The negroes are nearly one-third her
population. They are there and not in the
North. They must be kept employed and
Of
counts for the great extension of the local
option principle in Georgia, Alabama and
elsewhere. The. whites have to forego
the pleasures of conviviality in order
that the emotional negro race may not be
driven to frenzy by the use of alcohol. And
now imagine yourself surrounded by 1000
drunken negroes. and then what? III tell
you the whole secret of the Southern people
Controlling the negroes. 1t is the result OF
the fact that, being natives OF the same soil
growing up together, playing marbles and
going coon hunting together as boys the one
learns to understand the shortcomings of
the other and to make allowances therefor.
Experience has taught the negro man that
his old master and missus are as much his
friend now that he is free,as they were when
he was their slave, and therefore he prefers
to act with them politically rather than with
the stranger who gave him liberty for the
purpose OF overcoming his master, and who.
) s9romising him forty acres and mule gave
fim neither.
Now, Messrs. Blaine and Sherman say
that this competition of the negro witt,
northern labor, the cheap production OF
iron, and by the way, the water-pipes OF this
city, am told, were manufactured in Nash
Vile, Tenn, this building up of cotton
mills. this development of desire to make
all they need for themselves, and, more.
over, to compete in the worlds markets, Is
and can only be carried on by treadtng the
negro under foot Whilst saying that they
we'll knew that money as well as labor are
required to run either Iron furnaces or cot
ton mills successfully; that capital is the
secretion OF industry for long years, and
.nwed snas al Il from the North. Thev know full
we'll that Northern mechanics strike when
either the business necessities or the avar-
q arnnlnunrg renIliraS work for less than