The Hawaiian gazette., 1902-12-23

!
that in the most favored section of the
South and under the most auspicious
surroundings, the negro produces less
cotton in the aggregate and per capita
than he did under slavery. ] might
say further that this decline has been
constant since slavery. The planters
say that they are not making money
with negro labor. That the negroes
are not growing richer is shown by
the fact that the total assessment of
all property held by them is only $780,
1872, or little over So per capita
have spoken of cotton because 1t
is the crop in which the negro appears
to the greatest advantage. In other
agricultural departments the showing
is much worse. The 20 parishes con-
shutting the sugar district of Louis
lana have population today of
274O06 whites and ,G49 negroes. and
II out Of the % are white parishes
In 1870 they had only 1866 whites
and 1868 negroes, and only five of the
parishes had white majorities. This
is simply stating statistically that the
negroes are being crowded out of work
on the sugar plantations by white
labor, such as Acadians, Creoles. An
glo-SaXon Americans and Italians.
Twenty years ago negroes constituted
IS per cent of the sugar plantation
labor; today barely half. The planters
who have tried Italian labor say the
Sicilian peasant who has never seen
sugar cane proves a better laborer
than the Louisiana negro, who has
been cultivating cane for half dozen
generations.
In the other crop of this section
rice--the negro Is absolutely unknown,
and does not produce / per cent of il.
There is plenty of cheap negro laboi
offered but the farmers prefer white
labor, even if they have to pay high
er. The utter failure of the negro in
the rice district is well shown in the
rich rice parish of Calcasieu. This is
the most prosperous parish in LOuis-
ana, the richest and most progressive,
in which the largest fortunes have
been made by farming, yet the 1856
negroes reported by the census own
only s3,405, or a little over half a dol
lar apiece.
Such is the negro in the field of
agriculture, where he appears to the
greatest advantage. In manufactures
10 one claims anything for him; in
the mechanical trades he is losing
ground steadily. In spite of the OPP
timism that you and others feel, the
industrial horizon of the negro Is
growing steadily narrower, and is now
actually more limited than in the days
OF slavery. To those who look only at
the surface it seems different, for they
see new industrial schools established
for negroes, and the old ones enlarged
and better endowed. The New Or
leans school board has abolished the
higher grades in the negro public
schools and will use the money for in
dustrial education of the negro youth,
which Is proclaimed the panacea for
all negro ills.
But when we study the trades.
very different condition of affairs is
found. The negros field of labor is
each day more circumscribed. Slavery,
as is well known, is not conducive to
manufactures, and it was inimical to
mechanical work by the whites. Me
chanic" became word of reproach to
a white man in the South of old; in
addition to which he found himself
placed at a great disadvantage in COM
peting with negro and perhaps with
slave labor. As a consequence. nearly
all the mechanical work in the South
west in ante-bellum days was done by
negroes. The gas company imported
white mechanics from Philadelphia,
but discharged them and replaced them
with negro slaves, finding that the
raising OF pckaninnies paid 20 per
cent on the investment In addition to
getting the work done cheaper. Most of
the mechanical work, however, was
done by the free man and woman of
color They were the mechanics, the
carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, tail
ors. drcssmakers, etc, and originally
the policemen and fremen OF New Or
leans. Their descendants have been
crowded more and more out OF the
trades, until now their main source Of
ircome Is shop work for the clothing
factories They have refrigerated i'm
mensely during the last 40 years In
health, education, labor and social
standing and have drifted back almost
10 the condition OF the plantation
darkoy Those who believe that the
negro IS advancing have hut to wander
through the rear Of the Second dis
trict Of New Orleans, whore probably
20 600 mulattOcs and qualroOus, gre
ole negroCs," descendants Of the free
people ~ color Of auta-bollum days,
live today he win rec at once rot
repression 90 the African Typo, for
these negroes, having ceased an Iptfr-
course Win the whites, ana marrying
among tho pure blacks, arc growing
darker Some 0f them Wer0 wealthy
in old days, nearly all bad independent
mrans, scarcely apy nf Them have
aythlnR worth mrnt.nulnF to-day
nnHng ihis ported. as compared with
GNrn iha da}s nf sllFrrY Mo negroes
have lnfi Wnuni indHfTllly IlN
have rwfri ip he HrpaHI0m Ulnfnu.
mH.nrru HiiuF rIHiTmHsfn. ahH
W iuu nwu "a frN Rl. Sous mHlHlY
HWnHH ihr.T HNH U.IH|H Ihr|r lANuI
l.H become WHII 400 mH. IHa muslr
"a magnet rHh H0d uHn n INa