The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-03-18

ton or Of his removal from his present
field of labor. It has been noted that
where the negro forms more than 56 per
cent. of the population he shows a
tendency to decrease, and where ne
forms less than this per centage he
shows a tendency to increase. 1t is not
improbable that there will gradually
supervene general diffusion of the
colored race according to some such law
as this, and every hindrance to the forces
promoting it should be removed.
':But if the negro is not failure how
is the fact to be accounted for that the
territory he occupies is far less pros
porous than 1t formerly WASP"
my answer is that this territory has
become involved in profound social and
industrial problems touching the rela-
tons of labor and capital, and the dis
tribution of wages and profits, problems
which in this generation have become
living issues and are being fought out
man to man on every square mile OF
territory from Russia to California.
Whoever solves these problems and fur
nishes a plan on which free labor and
free capital may be organized so as to
call out the full activities ofeacn, avoid
ing injustice and oppression on the one
hand and waste and pillage on the other,
must abolish labor, as slavery has been
abolished, substituting for it work up to
the iull force and faculty of each man,
and will have transcribed all previous
human achievements. No man will 10
it. But that faith IN human progress
which can never be abandoned inspires
the hope that the people themselves
will in process Of time reach some ap-
proxlmate and practical solution that
will put an end to the present turmoil
and strife, and allow the return OF peace,
security and steady work.
meanwhile, we have already advan-
ced far enough in enr struggle to review
some of the things which have been
done, and to pass judgment on them.
1.-The negro should never have been
projected into politics where without
subscribing any good end, he enabled at
great cost to himself the carpet Dagger
to plunder the community.
1.-THE law. for collecting liens on crops
should be done away with finally and
forever in every form and shape. 1t
has substituted an unreal and artificial
credit for the proper and natural growth
based on character and thrift; it has
forcibly dismissed the intelligence OF the
community from the supervision Of its
industries; it has seduced working men
into speculative undertakings resulting
for them in bankruptcy and has deliver
ed them soul and body by q cheap, sum-
mary process, into the hands of the
cross roads grocery dealers; it is a legacy
OF the carpet Dagger that has drained the
country Of the little he spared.
ssIf we are to have tenant system
our tenants must have means OF their
own. 1t. is believed that. agricultural
depression IN England is. due to the
attempt by tenants to farm with a capl-
tai of only $50 to the acre. Capital is
only accumulated by savings; and Sc
cure savings banks, postal savings
banks, perhaps, would do much to
educate and elevate the negro if he can
unlearn the terrible lesson Of the Freed
mans Saving Bank.p
Mr.. John A. Cobb, of Americus, Ga,
comes out strongly in endorsement OF
Prot. Whites statement that the negro
is failure. Mr. Cobb says:
"In the past twenty years every
branch of industry has advanced, and
In some branches very great improve
ments have been made, except in South
ern agriculture, where the negro is the
principal laborer. This is not confined
to any particular section of the South,
but the same report comes from the
Potomac to the Rio Grand. - -.
s;When the negroes were our slaves
for the purpose of discipline and control
they. were always under the eye and
control of white men. They were
preached to by white men and were
thrown constantly under the control
and in association of white men; being
very initiative and easily impressed,
this association was improving to him.
Now they are under the control of the
white man only when actually at work
under his directions. They are taught
by negro teachers, preached to by negro
preachers, and the white man, being a
restraint on him, is rarely seen at his
gatherings. Their preachers and teach
ers. the best informed among them, tor
the purpose of keeping up their intlu.
ence. instead Of trying to elevate and
enlig ghtcn them, are constantly appealing
to their prejudices and superstitions,
and as result the negro, as q class,
has been going backward for the past
twenty years. F.,
Improved modes Of agriculture and
intensive farming arc impossible with
the negro as the laborer and as tenants
or independent farmers they are worse
failures. AS an evidence, see the
hundreds of plantations in Georgia thai
have gone to ruin that have been turned
over to them as tenants. So thorough
ly satisfied are the people ofthis sectiou
Of the State on this question that we
raised money and had pamphlet printed