Year: 1870

The Plantation IS an agricultural paper
published in Atlanta, Ga, and in its last
number considered the Importance OF
encouraging the immigration of white la
bOrers. The editor says:


Every hours experience teaches that.
as organized at present, the disposable ne
gro labor of the South Is broken reed
We need not try longer to lean upon it
The descent since 1865 has been a perfect
inclined plane. First, the women were
Withdrawn from wSrk, then the children
then every man left the field who could
get a Jobblng employment in the towns !;
and to day, so strong is the inclination on
the part OF the negro to get where he can
have the eXcitements of the city, that he
will, other things being near equal, choose
that situation which places him nearest
the clrcEs, the Sunday gathering, or the
grog shop. What can we expect of the
future but the same rapid gravitation to-
ward vagabondism that we have seen for
the last four years? 1t IS no argument to
reply by pointing to the six or seven hun
dred millions of our yearly production and
saying that we had better rlet well enough
alone That splendid exhibit of industry
and thrift is the result of labor and wear
ing sohcitude that should not be exacted
of humanity. That same weary strife
with obstacles, it would seem, should be
enough to create planet.


Here, IN our judgment, is the alterna-
tive. Leave the South to her present
weakness and to the development that de-
pends upon the increase ef population to
the manor born'-Or strengthen its posi-
tion by the importation of foreign aid
We frankly ayow that this discussion in
all its aspects is not one fit to be made in
the face of the world We yet have too
many enemies to take advantage of what
we think and feel, TO be INDUCED in the
luxury of speaking all we think and feel.
But this much we may say. The man
who discusses the question of immigration
from that point of view which allows him
to legislate for labor and field production
alone, sees but one half of the subject, and
we are not sure that that half is the one
most important to US. Iffor the next half
century we were assured of peace, and
that no tyrant's heel would be on our
breasts, we might take vastly different
view of the necessities or conveniences of
our situation, from the one that this
| grim contingency forces upon the mind.


''To waive all this for the present, let
US ask how can cotton production be ex-
tended in the South2 1t might be to the
extent of the yearly increase of the black
population, but for two things First,
the population don't increase at all, and
next, it will not work in the sun if any
other employment can be had The chan
ces are that making constitutions, filling
legislative halls and scholastic professor
ships, will, from this time, engage those
grand powers Just redeemed from thraldom
\ and which were once so valuable in the
| production of the snowy crop. If any in
crease in this regal staple is seen, it must
come from the increase in the native white
population, which will be given to its pro-
duction, and never more we think, by the
aid of the negro. But the subject is one
which is enveloped by the gravest ot
doubts and difficulties, and men of great
minds and forecast may reasonably be ex-
i peeted to differ widely on it,"