Year: 1875




LOUISIANA LABOR.


The remonstrance of the London cor
respondent of Governor Kellogg against
"the bitter spirit of intolerance and
"the animus of party" which strives to
break down the credit of your State and
destroy utterly the best interests and
prospects of her citizens" is very wise
and very natural. The consequence of
this policy of Matchmaking" our trou-
bles has been appreciated and pointed
out by those of our citizens who are de-
pendent upon business and credit.


The most unreasonable feature in the
scheme of the agitators is the persistent
Misrepresentation of the colored citizens
of the State. They are published abroad
as idle, dishonest and turbulent. Not
only is every offense committed by COL
ored person headlined by their enemies
as proof of these charges, but not one
word or sentiment is expressed in their
favor.


Profound quiet exists in the country
from the first of March until the middle
of August. During this period the plan
ters are employing the negroes to culti-
vate their crops. The negro land owners
or tenants are making their own crops.
All is peaceful and kindly. Once assured
that the crops are safe, and the politicians
begin to ride through the plantations and
to canvass for shotgun suffrage. The
negroes are then said to have formed as
sociations for the massacre of the men,
and the robbery of the crops when they
have been living and laboring in such
harmony. When the crop reports were
made up it is an extraordinary fact that
the best crop made since the war was
claimed for the planters of Louisiana
while not one word of commentator or
acknowledgement was uttered to the
colored laborers who had made almost
the entire crop. A similar injustice was
shown to the colored people who had
performed the greater part Of the do
mestic service of tie city and country.


The performance of this great labor,
the production Of these great industrial re-
suits, proved that the operatives could not
have been the idle, vicious and turbulent
mass represented by the politicians who
wished to nationalize the miseries of Louis
lana.


In contrast to this orderly and indus
trious people We have cited the labor
strife of foreign countries and of our own.
We have had an organization of the Penn
sylvania miners, with the usual incidents
of murders, houseburning, and the order
Of military suppression. Then there has
come the Fall River strife between the
mill owners and the operatives, with the
Intervention of the military authorities.


All these disturbances demonstrate the
superiority of our labor and social ele-
ment over that of the communities in
Europe and the United States to which
we have referred. This is to be attributed,
first, to the conservative nature of the
colored people; to their obedience to the
law from their habit of subordination,
and to the fact that our genial climate and
fertile sell enable the laborer here to live
in more comfort upon his daily wages than
he can elsewhere, at the same time that
our profitable staples justify the employer
in paying better share of the produc-
tions to the laborer than can be done else.
where.


This invaluable agency should be en-
ployed in other industrial pursuits, and
we would counsel those who possess the
entire confidence of the colored people,
and who direct their thought and action,
that they do not limit their courses to the
sole subject of their social relations.
These in time adjust themselves, but
these relations will be powerfully pro
NOTED by demonstrating the capacity Of
the colored people for the industrial and
mechanical enterprises upon which the
prosperity Of society depends. The RE.
PUBLICAN has cited some striking evidences
of the mechanical and maritime capacities
of the colored people. Let them be fur.
ther qualified for these and other pursuits,
and they can furnish to the South services
for which other citizens have not thus fal
shown themselves competent, either from
defects of constitution or indisposition te
engage in these pursuits. Addressing
ourselves still to those charged with the
especial conduction OF the race relations,