Year: 1874

a SIOry and its H.FsNo1s-


The fernando Press states that Hen
ry Rogers and Burrell Mitchell. colored,
Of DeSoto county, of considerable infiu-
enee among their people, handed into
the Office for publication, an appeal TO
the land owners, setting forth the follow
ing points: That at the present rent Of
land the colored people could mol possibly
make living, school their children, pay
the merchant, doctor, and other biiis.
Thev desire the landowners attention 10
this point. and demand a reduction Of
rent on land. so that they can secure an
honest living, saying they have striVen
hard since the war and are 10 better OH
in the world than when first freed.
There is food for reflection in this simple
statement. Ii is reflex Of the condition
of large majority of the freed people.
And now turn from that picture to the
other. Has the condition OF the land
owner improved, as general rule, since
the new order commenced? Is he not
still impoverished and in debt, and his
landed estate worse dilapidated than when
the war closed The ledgers Of the mer-
chants, and the mortgages and deeds OF
trust, which are of record and are held
bv hair. like the sword Of Damocles,
Il. l. g 20 4r,.-+r Iahfor
class, who toll from years end to years
end, only TO sink deeper under the bur
den, tell the story palmer than words can
| express.


Unless it can be shown that the land
owners are accumulating fortunes, and
are living in magnifcence and luxury,
and are not in the condition we have de
scribed, the remedy sought by the freed
men, az above explained, cannot come
from them The thought reveals another
picture. The country is going down, the
to,g,ls are going up! The farmers are
living in dilapidated dwellings, on which
the dust and mould of nearly a genera
ton have settle /, unrelieved by the reno


waiting touch of the carpenters tool o.
painters brush, while the trading CLASSES
have reared palaces and adorned then
with improvements and decorations which
art and wealth alone are capable Of pro
ducing.


The substance of the country has gone
to build up the towns. There is enough
of the chief staple OF the South raised
at present prices, to remunerate botl
classes Of producers-the landowner anc
tenant-on the present system of divi
ding the crops, if the proceeds were no
absorbed in the profits derived by the
carriers and the middle men The cos
of supplies, to say nothing of the enor
nous tax which is levied to feed the off
cial vampires, are the principal causes OF
the burdens under which the laboriug
classes are suffering. Not one producer
in ten can say that his crop is his own, OF
that it is at his discretion to say whether
or not he will sell his cotton for II, Is,
A or ID cents per pound, aud to put a
price on the fruits of his labors as the
| tradesman puts his valuation on his own
wares. The inexorable mortgage by
which his wife and children are liable to
be turned out of doors on thirty days no
tice, frowns him into submission to what
ever greed or avarice may demand.
Who will not say that the system at
the bottom of all this is Fundamentally
wrong, and ought to be discarded? The
remedy is to be found in the establish
ment of more direct communication be-
tween the cotton grower and the manu-
facturer on the one hand, and between
the cotton grower and the producer of his
supplies on the other. The class who
cultivate the soil and do not intend to re-
main bond-slaves, must make arrange
ments to dispense with the hordes of
middlemen who are realizing their profits
out of the labor of the former. And to
achieve this reform, the men who till the
soil and wear themselves out to enrich
others,


who labor gratis "a grinders wheel,
and blunt themselves, give each 10 others


STEEL"


must cooperate. They have common
interest and must make common cause.
They must work to the same end. The
fable of the faggots which, separately,
could be broken without effort, but,
bound together, were strong enough to
resist any force that could be brought to
bear upon them, teaches the lesson they
should learn. In union there is strength
The New Phase Of the V5rSiniu~


fair.