Year: 1866

The necessity for greater diversity Of


Southern labor, in view Of the changes which
our industrial system has undergone, is so
apparent as to justify strong hope that it will
at once be recognized and conformed to. 1t


has long been wonder with shrewd men at


the North why we did not develop and put


into the fullest operation the unrivalled re-


sources that we enjoy. The remarks of the


Boston Post copied below from % of its


late financial articles, give expression to this


astonishment, and refer to some of the causes


that have retarded manufacturing enterprises


at the South. To some of them-especial-


ly the alleged insecurity which Northern
mechanics have heretofore felt among US


the Post attaches perhaps too much impor-


tance. But the difficulties spoken Of have


now been removed, and the crippled condi-


tion of our people affords still weightier


reasons for the starting of every enterprise


by which employment may be given to the


numerous classes thrown upon their own ex-


ertions for support and incompetent to main


tain themselves by any branches of business


now in operation among us.


The Post says st has long been a wonder
that the South never manufactured its own
principal staple, cotton. The State of Geor-
gia did something both before the war and
during the lamentable hostilities, in the way
Of manufacturing coarse cotton cloths, but
the quantity of cotton used, as compared
with the product of the State, was very
small but South Carolina has done almost
nothing in manufacturing cotton goods.
Large amounts of money have been raised
within twenty years to establish factories at
or near Charleston and Columbia. The
buildings were erected, machinery was pro-
vided, and even operatives were imported
from the North, but the experiments did
not succeed. In the great cotton planting
States Of the Gulf there never was any man
ufacturing worthy of mention. So far as
the machinery required for manufacturing
was concerned, the South could procure it in
equal abundance and facility with any other
part of the country. So far as water power
was required, nearly every Southern State
furnished it in superabundance.. Capital
also, on more than one occasion, exhibited
its willingness to migrate to the South, to
the full extent to which it could be en-
ployed in this way, and about the only thing
wanted to make success out of manufac- |
turing in the South was the proper kind of
labor and superintendence. 1t was proved
that slave labor was quite unadapted to the |
processes and operations Of manufacturing. |
The working classes even among the white |
population never were disposed to engage
steadily in labors of this kind. 1t was also
found that Northern operatives could not be
retained at the South, for they found them
selves suspected and kept under constant
watch as dang trous persons, to which humil-
ating treatment the independent workmen
IF the North were not inclined to submit
Il was mainly in consequence of this impos-
,ibility of obtaining and retaining intelligent
md skilled labor that the cotton growing
States, each and all, always failed in all their
Efforts to establish and maintain cotton facto-
lies. Under the new system of free labor,
hese objections are likely in time to be es-
,entially removed.n