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diff --git a/16810.txt b/16810.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2944e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16810.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8785 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Black and White, by Timothy Thomas Fortune + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Black and White + Land, Labor, and Politics in the South + +Author: Timothy Thomas Fortune + +Release Date: October 7, 2005 [EBook #16810] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK AND WHITE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer, and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +BLACK AND WHITE + +_LAND, LABOR, and POLITICS in the SOUTH_ + +By + +TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE + + +1884 + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + +In discussing the political and industrial problems of the South, I +base my conclusions upon a personal knowledge of the condition of +classes in the South, as well as upon the ample data furnished by +writers who have pursued, in their way, the question before me. That +the colored people of the country will yet achieve an honorable status +in the national industries of thought and activity, I believe, and try +to make plain. + +In discussion of the land and labor problem I but pursue the theories +advocated by more able and experienced men, in the attempt to show +that the laboring classes of any country pay all the taxes, in the +last analysis, and that they are systematically victimized by +legislators, corporations and syndicates. + +Wealth, unduly centralized, endangers the efficient workings of the +machinery of government. Land monopoly--in the hands of individuals, +corporations or syndicates--is at bottom the prime cause of the +inequalities which obtain; which desolate fertile acres turned over to +vast ranches and into bonanza farms of a thousand acres, where not one +family finds a habitation, where muscle and brain are supplanted by +machinery, and the small farmer is swallowed up and turned into a +tenant or slave. While in large cities thousands upon thousands of +human beings are crowded into narrow quarters where vice festers, +where crime flourishes undeterred, and where death is the most welcome +of all visitors. + +The primal purpose in publishing this work is to show that the social +problems in the South are, in the main, the same as those which +afflict every civilized country on the globe; and that the future +conflict in that section will not be racial or political in character, +but between capital on the one hand and labor on the other, with the +odds largely in favor of nonproductive wealth because of the undue +advantage given the latter by the pernicious monopoly in land which +limits production and forces population disastrously upon subsistence. +My purpose is to show that poverty and misfortune make no invidious +distinctions of "race, color, or previous condition," but that wealth +unduly centralized oppresses all alike; therefore, that the labor +elements of the whole United States should sympathize with the same +elements in the South, and in some favorable contingency effect some +unity of organization and action, which shall subserve the common +interest of the common class. + + T. THOMAS FORTUNE. +New York City, July 20, 1884. + + + + + CONTENTS + + I--Black 1 + II--White 6 + III--The Negro and the Nation 13 + IV--The Triumph of the Vanquished 19 + V--Illiteracy--Its Causes 28 + VI--Education--Professional or Industrial 38 + VII---How Not to Do It 55 + VIII--The Nation Surrenders 62 + IX--Political Independence of the Negro 67 + X--Solution of the Political Problem 79 + XI--Land and Labor 89 + XII--Civilization Degrades the Masses 96 + XIII--Conditions of Labor in the South 107 + XIV--Classes in the South 120 + XV--The Land Problem 133 + XVI--Conclusion 145 + Appendix 151 + + +On a summer day, when the great heat induced a general thirst, a Lion +and a Boar came at the same moment to a small well to drink. They +fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were soon +engaged in the agonies of a mortal combat. On their suddenly stopping +to take breath for the fiercer renewal of the strife, they saw some +vultures in the distance, waiting to feast on the one which should +fall. They at once made up their quarrel, saying, "It is better +for us to be friends, than to become the food of crows or +vultures."--_AEsop's Fables_. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Black_ + + +There is no question to-day in American politics more unsettled than +the negro question; nor has there been a time since the adoption of +the Federal Constitution when this question has not, in one shape or +another, been a disturbing element, a deep-rooted cancer, upon the +body of our society, frequently occupying public attention to the +exclusion of all other questions. It appears to possess, as no other +question, the elements of perennial vitality. + +The introduction of African slaves into the colony of Virginia in +August, 1619, was the beginning of an agitation, a problem, the +solution of which no man, even at this late date, can predict, +although many wise men have prophesied. + +History--the record of human error, cruelty and misdirected +zeal--furnishes no more striking anomaly than the British Puritan +fleeing from princely rule and tyranny and dragging at his heels the +African savage, bound in servile chains; praying to a just God for +freedom, and at the same time riveting upon his fellow-man the gyves +of most unjust and cruel slavery. A parallel for such hypocrisy, such +sacrilegious invocation, is not matched in the various history of +peoples. + +It did not matter to the early settlers of the American colonies that, +in the memorable struggle for the right to be represented if taxed, a +black man--Crispus Attucks, a full-blooded Negro--died upon the soil +of Massachusetts, in the Boston massacre of 1770, in common with other +loyal, earnest men, as the first armed protest against an odious +tyranny; it did not matter that in the armies of the colonies, in +rebellion against Great Britain, there were (according to the report +of Adjutant General Scammell), on the 24th day of August, 1778, 755 +regularly enlisted negro troops; it did not matter that in the second +war with Great Britain, General Andrew Jackson, on the 21st day of +September, 1814, appealed to the "free colored people of Louisiana" as +"sons of freedom," who were "called upon to defend _our_ most +inestimable blessing," the right to be free and sovereign, and to +"rally around the standard of the eagle, to defend all which is dear +in existence;" it did not matter that in each of these memorable +struggles the black man was called upon, and responded nobly, to the +call for volunteers to drive out the minions of the British tyrant. +When the smoke of battle had dissolved into thin air; when the +precious right to be free and sovereign had been stubbornly fought for +and reluctantly conceded; when the bloody memories of Yorktown and New +Orleans had passed into glorious history, the black man, who had +assisted by his courage to establish the free and independent States +of America, was doomed to sweat and groan that others might revel in +idleness and luxury. Allured, in each instance, into the conflict for +National independence by the hope held out of generous reward and an +honest consideration of his manhood rights, he received as his portion +chains and contempt. The spirit of injustice, inborn in the Caucasian +nature, asserted itself in each instance. Selfishness and greed rode +roughshod over the promptings of a generous, humane, Christian nature, +as they have always done in this country, not only in the case of the +African but of the Indian as well, each of whom has in turn felt the +pernicious influence of that heartless greed which overleaps honesty +and fair play, in the unmanly grasp after perishable gain. + +The books which have been written in this country--the books which +have molded and controlled intelligent public opinion--during the +past one hundred and fifty years have been written by white men, in +justification of the white man's domineering selfishness, cruelty and +tyranny. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson's _Notes on Virginia_, down +to the present time, the same key has been struck, the same song as +been sung, with here and there a rare exception--as in the case of +Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, Judge Tourgee's _A Fool's Errand_, +Dr. Haygood's _Our Brother in Black_, and some others of less note. +The white man's story has been told over and over again, until the +reader actually tires of the monotonous repetition, so like the +ten-cent novels in which the white hunter always triumphs over the red +man. The honest reader has longed in vain for a glimpse at the other +side of the picture so studiously turned to the wall. + +Even in books written expressly to picture the black man's side of the +story, the author has been compelled to palliate, by interjecting +extenuating, often irrelevant circumstances, the ferocity and +insatiate lust of greed of his race. He has been unable to tell the +story as it was, because his nature, his love of race, his inborn, +prejudices and narrowness made him a lurking coward. + +And so it has been with the newspapers, which have ever been the +obsequious reflex of distempered public opinion, siding always with +the strong and powerful; so that in 1831, when the "Liberator" +(published in Boston by the intrepid and patriotic Garrison) made its +appearance, it was a lone David among a swarm of Goliaths, any one of +which was willing and anxious to serve the cause of the devil by +crushing the little angel in the service of the Lord. So it is to-day. +The great newspapers, which should plead the cause of the oppressed +and the down-trodden, which should be the palladiums of the people's +rights, are all on the side of the oppressor, or by silence preserve a +dignified but ignominious neutrality. Day after day they weave a false +picture of facts--facts which must measurably influence the future +historian of the times in the composition of impartial history. The +wrongs of the masses are referred to sneeringly or apologetically. + +The vast army of laborers--men, women, and even tender children--find +no favor in the eyes of these Knights of the Quill. The Negro and the +Indian, the footballs of slippery politicians and the helpless victims +of sharpers and thieves, are wantonly misrepresented--held up to the +eyes of the world as beings incapable of imbibing the distorted +civilization in the midst of which they live and have their being. +They are placed in the attic, only to be aired when somebody wants an +"issue" or an "appropriation." + +There are no "Liberators" to-day, and the William Lloyd Garrisons have +nearly all of them gone the way of all the world. + +The part played by the ministry of Christ in the early conflict +against human slavery in this country would be enigmatical in the +extreme, utterly beyond apprehension, if it were not matter of history +that the representatives of the Christian Church, in conflicts with +every giant wrong, have always been the strongest supporters, the most +obsequious tools of money power and the political sharpers who have +imposed their vile tyrannies upon mankind. They have alternately +supplicated and domineered, crawled in the dust or mounted the +house-top, as occasion served, from Gregory to the Smiths and Joneses +of the present time. So that it has passed into a proverb, that the +ministers of the gospel may be always counted upon to take sides with +the strongest party--always seeking to conciliate "King Cotton," "King +Corporation," "King Monopoly," and all the other "Kings" of modern +growth--swaying, like the reed in the wind, to the powers that be, +whether of tyranny reared upon a thousand years of usurpation, +military despotism of a day's growth, or presumptuous wealth +accumulated by robbery, hypocrisy and insidious assassination. Instead +of leading in the reformation of leviathan wrongs, the ministry waits +for the rabble to applaud before it commends.[1] It was not in this +manner that the great Christ set the world in motion, sowed broadcast +the dynamite which uprooted long-established infamies, and prepared +the way for the ultimate redemption of the world from sin and error. + +If the Christian ministry of the United States did at last recognize +the demoralization and iniquity of slavery, it was because the heroic +band, headed by William Lloyd Garrison, first fired the heart of the +people and forced the ministry to take sides with the righteous cause. +I speak not of the few heroic exceptions, but of the mass of the +American clergy. If in the evangelization of the black man since the +rebellion, the ministry have largely furthered the work, they have +done so because there were hundreds and thousands of brave men and +women ready to give their time and money to the upbuilding of outraged +humanity and the cause of Christ. They have simply put in operation +movements conceived and nurtured by the genius and philanthropy of +others, and no one of them will claim that he has not reaped an +abundant pecuniary harvest for his labors. Yet, I would accord to the +ministry of the United States full meed of praise for all that they +have done as the agents of the humane, intelligent and philanthropic +opinions of the times; and, too, there have been good men who fought +the good fight simply because the cause was just. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Be thou the first true merit to befriend, + His praise is lost who waits till all commend._ + _Pope's_ Essay on Man. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_White_ + + +It is my purpose in writing this work to show that the American +Government has always construed people of African parentage to be +aliens, not only when the Constitution was tortured by narrow-minded +men to shield the cruel, murderous slave-holder in the possession of +his human property, but even now, when the panoply of citizenship is, +presumably, all-sufficient to insure to the late slave the enjoyment +of full manhood rights as a sovereign citizen. + +The conflict of law and the moral sentiment of the country has been +long and bloody, and the end is not yet. Political parties in this +country do not lead, but follow, public opinion. They hang upon the +applause of the rabble, and succeed or fail in their efforts to +administer the affairs of Government in proportion as they interpret +the wishes of the rabble. Not alone do parties defer to the wishes of +the illiterate, the "great unwashed" majority, but individuals as +well, who prefer to ride upon the wave of success as the champions of +great wrongs rather than to go into retirement as the champions of +just principles. The voice of the Charmer is all too powerful to be +successfully resisted. + +Republics have always been fruitful of demagogues. Such vermin find +the soil of democratic government the most fertile and congenial for +their operations, because the audiences to which they speak, the +passions to which they appeal, are not always of the most reflective, +humane or enlightened. Demagogues are the parasites of republics; and +that our country is afflicted with an abnormal number of them is to be +expected from the tentative nature of our institutions, the extent of +our territory and the heterogeneity of our vast population. + +Under our government all the peoples of the world find shelter and +protection--save the African (who was formerly used as a beast of +burden and now as a football, to be kicked by one faction and kicked +back by the other) and the industrious Chinaman, who was barred out by +the over-obsequiousness of the Congress of the nation, in deference to +the Sand-Lot demagogues of the Pacific coast, headed by Denis Kearney, +because it was desirable to conciliate their votes, even at the +expense of consistency and the unity of the Constitution. That great +document, while constantly affirmed to be the most broad and liberal +compact ever devised for the governance of man, has always been found +to be narrow enough to serve the purposes of the slave oligarch and +the make-shifts of the party in power; and has always afforded ample +shelter and protection to the lazzaroni of Italy, the paupers of +Ireland, and the incendiary spirits of other countries, but yet cannot +shield a black man, a citizen and to the manor born, in any common, +civil or political right which usually attaches to citizenship. + +A putative citizen of the United States commits murder in the +jurisdiction of a friendly power, and the Chief Executive of fifty +millions of people deems it incumbent upon him as the head of the +faction to which he belongs to "call the attention of Congress" to the +fact, ostensibly in the interest of justice and fair-play, but +obviously to court the good will of the American sympathizers of the +assassin. While on the contrary, within a few hundred miles of the +National capital, an armed mob of citizens shoot down in cold blood a +dozen of their fellow-citizens, but the Chief of the Nation did not +deem it at all pertinent or necessary to "call the attention of +Congress" to the matter. And why? Because, forsooth, the newspapers, +voicing the wishes of the rabble and the cormorants of trade, cry down +the "Bloody Shirt," proclaiming, with brazen effrontery, that each +State is "_sovereign_," and that its citizens have a _perfect right_ +to terrorize and murder one another, if they so desire. The Bible +declares that "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach +to any people." God save the Union! + +But such argument is indicative, not only of American politics but of +Caucasian human nature as well--that human nature which seldom rises +above self-interest in business or politics. If you have abundance of +money, the merchant is all accommodation, the lawyer all smiles; if +you have votes that count, politicians cannot be too obsequious, too +affable, too anxious to serve you. But if you simply have common +humanity, clothed in the awful majesty of a just cause, you appeal in +vain to the cormorants of trade, the harpies of law, or the demagogues +of power. Unless you are of the salt salty, unless you are clothed in +broadcloth and fine linen, you cannot obtain even a respectful +hearing. + +It took the Abolitionists full thirty years to convince the American +people, the ministry of Christ included, that slavery was, pure and +simple, a "Covenant with death and an agreement with hell;" and then, +sad to say, they were convinced against their wills. Their sense of +justice had become so obtuse as to wholly blunt the sense of reason, +the brotherly sympathy of a common race-feeling, and the broad, +liberal and just inculcations of Jesus Christ. The nation was sunk to +the moral turpitude of Constantinople; and not even a John crying in +the wilderness could arouse it to a sense of the exceeding foulness in +the midst of which it grovelled, or of the storm gathering on the +distant horizon. + +Although the abolition of slavery had been agitated for more than +thirty years, the nation, which was ruled by politicians of the usual +mental caliber, was startled at the defiant shot upon Fort +Sumter--the shot that echoed the downfall of the foulest institution +which has sapped the vitality of any modern government, and that +aroused the people to a sorrowful realization that the power which +defied them was strong enough and desperate enough to stop at nothing +short of the disintegration of the American Union. So the nation, +still sympathizing with slavery, still playing with a coal of fire, +grappled with the monster, feeling itself powerful to crush it in a +few short months. + +It was not because the people of the nation hated slavery and +oppression that they rushed upon the field of battle; no such +righteousness moved them: it was because the slave-power, which had +for so long dictated legislation and the interpretation of the laws, +would tolerate no adverse criticism or legislation upon the foul +institution it championed, and appealed from the forum of reason to +the forum of treasonable rebellion to enforce the right so long and (I +blush to say it!) _constitutionally_ conceded to it. + +I do not believe that, in 1860, a majority (or even a respectable +minority) of the American people desired the manumission of the slave; +it is evident, from the temper of the political discussions of that +time, that the combination of parties out of which, in 1856, the +Republican party was formed, desired to do no more than to confine the +institution of slavery within the territory then occupied. There was +certainly very little comfort for the black man in this position of +the "party of great moral ideas." + +The overtures[2] made by President Lincoln to the slave-power during +the first year of the war were all made in the interest of the +perpetuation of the Union, and not in the interest of the slave. + +His reply to Mr. Horace Greeley, who urged upon him the importance of +issuing an emancipation proclamation is conclusive that he was more +concerned about the Union than about the slave: + + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + _August 22, 1862_ + + HON. HORACE GREELEY:--Dear Sir: I have just read yours of + the 19th, addressed to myself through the _New York + Tribune_. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of + facts which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and + here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences + which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and + here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an + imperious and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to + an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be + right. + + As to the policy I seem to be pursuing, as you say, I have + not meant to leave any one in doubt. + + I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way + under the constitution. The sooner the national authority + can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union it + was. + + * * * If there be those who would not save the Union, + unless they could at the same time _destroy slavery, I do + not agree with them_. My paramount object in this struggle + _is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to + destroy slavery_. If I could save the Union _without_ + freeing _any_ slave _I would do it_, and if I could save it + by freeing _all_ the slaves I would do it; and if I could + save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would + also do that. _What I do about slavery and the colored race, + I do because I believe it helps to save the Union_; and what + I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would help + to save the Union. I shall do _less_ whenever I shall + believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do + _more_ whenever I shall believe doing more will help the + cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be + errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall + appear to be true views. + + I have here stated my purposes according to my view of + _official_ duty; and I intend no modification of my + oft-expressed _personal_ wish that all men, everywhere, + should be free. + + Yours, + A. LINCOLN + +Everything--humanity, justice, posterity--was placed upon the +sacrificial altar of the Union, and the slave-power was repeatedly and +earnestly invited to lay down its traitorous arms, be forgiven, and +keep its slaves. With Mr. Lincoln, as President, it was the Union, +first, last, and all the time. And he but echoed the prevailing +opinions of his time. I do not question or criticise his _personal_ +attitude; but what he himself called his "view of official duty" was +to execute the will of the people, and that was _not_ to abolish +slavery, at that time. + +As the politicians only took hold of the great question when they +thought it would advance their selfish interests, they were prepared +to abandon it or immolate it upon the altar of "expediency," when the +great clouds of treason burst upon them in the form of gigantic +rebellion. The politicians of that time, like the politicians of all +times, were incapable of appreciating the magnitude of the questions +involved in the conflict. + +But the slave-power had been aroused. It was not to be appeased by +overtures; it wanted no compromise. It would brook no interference +inimical to its "peculiar institution." In the Congress of the nation, +in the high places of power, it had so long been permitted to dictate +the policy to be pursued towards slavery, it had so inoculated the +institutions of the government with the virus of its vicious opinions, +that, to be interfered with, to be dictated to, was out of the +question. It was Ephraim and his idol repeated. + +The South forced the issue upon the people of the country. The +Southerners marched off under the banner of "States Rights"--a +doctrine they have always championed. They cared nothing for the Union +_then_; they care less for the Union _now_. The State to them is +sovereign; the nation a magnificent combination of nothingness. The +State has in its keeping all option over life, individual rights, and +property. The spirit of Hayne and Calhoun is still the star that +lights the pathway of the Southern man in his duty to the government. +He recognizes no sovereignty more potential than that of his State. + +Long years of agitation and bloody war have failed to decide the +rights of States, or the measure of protection which the National +government owes to the individual members of States. We still grope in +the sinuous by-ways of uncertainty. The State still defies the +National authority; and the individual citizens of the Nation still +appeal in vain for protection from oppressive laws of States or the +violent methods of their citizens. The question, "Which is the +greater, the State or the Sisterhood of States?" is still undecided, +and may have to be adjudicated in some future stage of our history by +another appeal to arms. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and +Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim +and declare * * * that, on the first day of January, in the year of +our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held +as slaves within any State, or designated part of the State, the +people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall +be then, and thenceforward, and forever free; * * * That the Executive +will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, +designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people +thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United +States.--" President Lincoln's _"Conditional" Emancipation +Proclamation_. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Negro and the Nation_ + + +The war of the Rebellion settled only one question: It forever settled +the question of chattel slavery[3] in this country. It forever choked +the life out of the infamy of the Constitutional right of one man to +rob another, by purchase of his person, or of his honest share of the +produce of his own labor. But this was the only question permanently +and irrevocably settled. Nor was this _the_ all-absorbing question +involved. The right of a State to secede from the so-called _Union_ +remains where it was when the treasonable shot upon Fort Sumter +aroused the people to all the horrors of internecine war. And the +measure of protection which the National government owes the +individual members of States, a right imposed upon it by the adoption +of the XIVth Amendment[4] to the Constitution, remains still to be +affirmed. + +It was not sufficient that the Federal government should expend its +blood and treasure to unfetter the limbs of four millions of people. +There can be a slavery more odious, more galling, than mere chattel +slavery. It has been declared to be an act of charity to enforce +ignorance upon the slave, since to inform his intelligence would +simply be to make his unnatural lot all the more unbearable. Instance +the miserable existence of AEsop, the great black moralist. But this is +just what the manumission of the black people of this country has +accomplished. They are more absolutely under the control of the +Southern whites; they are more systematically robbed of their labor; +they are more poorly housed, clothed and fed, than under the slave +regime; and they enjoy, practically, less of the protection of the +laws of the State or of the Federal government. When they appeal to +the Federal government they are told by the Supreme Court to go to the +State authorities--as if they would have appealed to the one had the +other given them that protection to which their sovereign citizenship +entitles them! + +Practically, there is no law in the United States which extends its +protecting arm over the black man and his rights. He is, like the +Irishman in Ireland, an alien in his native land. There is no central +or auxiliary authority to which he can appeal for protection. Wherever +he turns he finds the strong arm of constituted authority powerless to +protect him. The farmer and the merchant rob him with absolute +immunity, and irresponsible ruffians murder him without fear of +punishment, undeterred by the law, or by public opinion--which +connives at, if it does not inspire, the deeds of lawless violence. +Legislatures of States have framed a code of laws which is more cruel +and unjust than any enforced by a former slave State. + +The right of franchise[5] has been practically annulled in every one +of the former slave States, in not one of which, to-day, can a man +vote, think or act as he pleases. He must conform his views to the +views of the men who have usurped every function of government--who, +at the point of the dagger, and with shotgun, have made themselves +masters in defiance of every law or precedent in our history as a +government. They have usurped government with the weapons of the +coward and assassin, and they maintain themselves in power by the most +approved practices of the most odious of tyrants. These men have shed +as much innocent blood as the bloody triumvirate of Rome. To-day, +red-handed murderers and assassins sit in the high places of power, +and bask in the smiles of innocence and beauty. + +The newspapers of the country, voicing the sentiments of the people, +literally hiss into silence any man who has the courage to protest +against the prevailing tendency to lawlessness[6] and bare-faced +usurpation; while parties have ceased to deal with the question for +other than purposes of political capital. Even this fruitful mine is +well-nigh exhausted. A few more years, and the usurper and the man of +violence will be left in undisputed possession of his blood-stained +inheritance. No man will attempt to deter him from sowing broadcast +the seeds of revolution and death. Brave men are powerless to combat +this organized brigandage, complaint of which, in derision, has been +termed "waving the bloody shirt." + +Men organize themselves into society for mutual protection. Government +justly derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. But +what shall we say of that society which is incapable of extending the +protection which is inherent in it? What shall we say of that +government which has not power or inclination to insure the exercise +of those solemn rights and immunities which it guarantees? To declare +a man to be free, and equal with his fellow, and then to refrain from +enacting laws powerful to insure him in such freedom and equality, is +to trifle with the most sacred of all the functions of sovereignty. +Have not the United States done this very thing? Have they not +conferred freedom and the ballot, which are necessary the one to the +other? And have they not signally failed to make omnipotent the one +and practicable the other? The questions hardly require an answer. The +measure of freedom the black man enjoys can be gauged by the power he +has to vote. He has, practically, no voice in the government under +which he lives. His property is taxed and his life is jeopardized, by +states on the one hand and inefficient police regulations on the +other, and no question is asked or expected of him. When he protests, +when he cries out against this flagrant nullification of the very +first principles of a republican form of government, the insolent +question is asked: "What are you going to do about it?" And here lies +the danger. + +You may rob and maltreat a slave and ask him what he is going to do +about it, and he can make no reply. He is bound hand and foot; he is +effectually gagged. Despair is his only refuge. He knows it is useless +to appeal from tyranny unto the designers and apologists of tyranny. +Ignominious death alone can bring him relief. This was the case of +thousands of men doomed by the institution of slavery. _But such is +not the case with free men._ You cannot oppress and murder freemen as +you would slaves: you cannot so insult them with the question, "What +are you going to do about it?" When you ask free men that question you +appeal to men who, though sunk to the verge of despair, yet are +capable of uprising and ripping hip and thigh those who deemed them +incapable of so rising above their condition. The history of mankind +is fruitful of such uprisings of races and classes reduced to a +condition of absolute despair. The American negro is no better and no +worse than the Haytian revolutionists headed by Toussaint l'Overture, +Christophe and the bloody Dessalaines. + +I do not indulge in the luxury of prophecy when I declare that the +American people are fostering in their bosoms a spirit of rebellion +which will yet shake the pillars of popular government as they have +never before been shaken, unless a wiser policy is inaugurated and +honestly enforced. All the indications point to the fulfillment of +such declaration. + +The Czar of Russia squirms upon his throne, not because he is +necessarily a bad man, but because he is the head and center of a +condition of things which squeezes the life out of the people. His +subjects hurl infernal machines at the tyrant because he represents +the system which oppresses them. But the evil is far deeper than the +throne, and cannot be remedied by striking the occupant of it-_the +throne itself must be rooted out and demolished_. So the Irish +question has a more powerful motive to foment agitation and murder +than the landlord and landlordism. The landlord simply stands out as +the representative of the real grievance. To remove _him_ would not +remove the evil; agitation would not cease; murder would still stalk +abroad at noonday. _The real grievance is the false system which makes +the landlord possible._ The appropriation of the fertile acres of the +soil of Ireland, which created and maintains a privileged class, a +class that while performing no labor, wrings from the toiler, in the +shape of rents, so much of the produce of his labor that he cannot on +the residue support himself and those dependent upon him aggravates +the situation. It is this system which constitutes the real grievance +and makes the landlord an odious loafer with abundant cash and the +laborer a constant toiler always upon the verge of starvation. +Evidently, therefore, to remove the landlord and leave the system of +land monopoly would not remove the evil. Destroy the latter and the +former would be compelled to go. + +Herein lies the great social wrong which has turned the beautiful +roses of freedom into thorns to prick the hands of the black men of +the South; which made slavery a blessing, paradoxical as it may +appear, and freedom a curse. It is this great wrong which has crowded +the cities of the South with an ignorant pauper population, making +desolate fields that once bloomed "as fair as a garden of the Lord," +where now the towering oak and pine-tree flourish, instead of the corn +and cotton which gladdened the heart and filled the purse. It was this +gigantic iniquity which created that arrogant class who have exhausted +the catalogue of violence to obtain power and the lexicon of sophistry +for arguments to extenuate the exceeding heinousness of crime. How +could it be otherwise? To tell a man he is free when he has neither +money nor the opportunity to make it, is simply to mock him. To tell +him he has no master when he cannot live except by permission of the +man who, under favorable conditions, monopolizes all the land, is to +deal in the most tantalizing contradiction of terms. But this is just +what the United States did for the black man. And yet because he has +not grown learned and wealthy in twenty years, because he does not own +broad acres and a large bank account, people are not wanting who +declare he has no capacity, that he is improvident by nature and +mendacious from inclination. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment +for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall +exist within the United States, or any place subject to their +jurisdiction.--Art. XIII. Sec. 1 of the Constitution. + +[4] All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject +to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of +the State in which they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law +which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the +United States; _nor shall any State deprive any person of life, +liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any +person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the +laws_--XIVth Amendment, Section 1. + +[5] The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be +denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account +of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.--XVth Amendment, +Sec. 1. + +[6] While I write these lines, the daily newspapers furnish the +following paragraph. It is but one of the _waifs_ that are to be found +in the newspapers day by day. There is always some _circumstance_ +which justifies the murder and exculpates the murderer. The black +always deserves his fate. I give the paragraph: + +"SPEAR, MITCHELL CO., N.C., March 19, 1884.--Col. J.M. English, a +farmer and prominent citizen living at Plumtree, Mitchell County, +N.C., shot and killed a mulatto named Jack Mathis at that place +Saturday, March 1. There had been difficulty between them for several +months. + +"Mathis last summer worked in one of Col. English's mica mines. +Evidence pointed to him being implicated in the systematic stealing of +mica from the mine. Still it was not direct enough to convict him, but +he was discharged by English. Mathis was also a tenant of one of +English's houses and lots. In resentment he damaged the property by +destroying fences, tearing off weather boards from the house, and +injuring the fruit trees. For this Col. English prosecuted the negro, +and on Feb. 9, before a local Justice, ex-Sheriff Wiseman, he got a +judgment for $100. On the date stated, during a casual meeting, hot +words grew into an altercation, and Col. English shot the negro. +Mathis was a powerful man. English is a cripple, being lame in a leg +from a wound received in the Mexican war. + +"A trial was had before a preliminary court recently, Col. S.C. Vance +appearing for Col. English. After a hearing of all the testimony the +court reached a decision of justifiable homicide and English was +released. The locality of the shooting is in the mountains of western +North Carolina, and not far from the Flat Rock mica mine, the scene of +the brutal midnight murder, Feb. 17, of Burleson, Miller, and Horton +by Rae and Anderson, two revenue officers, who took this means to gain +possession of the mica mine." + +My knowledge of such affairs in the South is, that the black and the +white have an altercation over some trivial thing, and the white to +end the argument shoots the black man down. The negro is always a +"_powerful fellow_" and the white man a "weak sickly man." The law and +public opinion always side with the white man. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Triumph of the Vanquished_ + + +There are those throughout the length and breadth of our great country +who make a fair living by traducing better men than themselves; by +continually crying out that the black man is incapable of being +civilized; that he is born with the elements of barbarity, +improvidence and untruthfulness so woven into his very nature that no +amount of opportunity, labor, love, or sacrifice can ever lift him out +of the condition, the "sphere God designed him to occupy"--as if the +great Common Parent took any more pains in the making of one man than +another. But those who utter such blasphemy, who call in the +assistance of the Almighty to fight the battles of the devil, are the +very persons who do most by precept and example to make possible the +verification of their blasphemy. They carry their lamentations into +the pulpit, grave convocations, newspapers, and even into halls of +legislation, State and Federal. They are the false prophets who blind +the eye of reason and blunt the sympathies of honest, well-meaning +men. They are the Jonases on board the ship of progress. They belong +to that class of men who would pick flaws in the finest work of art. +They find fault with the great mass of ignorance around them, +contending that the poor victims have only themselves to blame for +their destitute and painful condition, and, therefore, are not +entitled to the sympathy or charity of their more fortunate +brethren--unmindful that the great Master, judging by the false laws +of men, declared that "the poor ye have always with you;" while the +very rich are held up as monsters of selfishness, rapacity and the +most loathsome of social vices. It is, therefore, hardly to be +expected that this class of persons would find anything good in the +nature of the lately enslaved black man, or any improvement in his +condition since a generous Government had made him an ignorant voter +and a confirmed pauper--the victim of his former master, to be robbed +outright by designing and unscrupulous harpies of trade, and to be +defrauded of his franchise by blatant demagogues or by outlaws, to +whom I will not apply the term "assassins" for fear of using bad +English. + +When the American Government conferred upon the black man the boon of +freedom and the burden of the franchise, it added four million men to +the already vast army of men who appear to be specially created to +labor for the enrichment of vast corporations, which have no souls, +and for individuals, whom our government have made a privileged class, +by permitting them to usurp or monopolize, through the accepted +channel of barter and trade, the soil, from which the masses, the +laboring masses, must obtain a subsistence, and without the privilege +of cultivating which they must faint and die.[7] It also added four +millions of souls to what have been termed, in the refinement of +sarcasm, "the dangerous classes"[8]--meaning by which the vast army of +men and women who, while willing and anxious to make an honest living +by the labor of their hands, and who--when speculators cry +"over-production," "glutted market," and other clap-trap--threaten to +take by force from society that which society prevents them from +making honestly. + +When a society fosters as much crime and destitution as ours, with +ample resources to meet the actual necessities of every one, there +must be something radically wrong, not in the society but in the +foundation upon which society is reared. Where is this ulcer located? +Is it to be found in the dead-weight of illiteracy which we carry? The +masses of few countries are more intelligent than ours. Is it to be +found in burdensome taxation or ill-adjusted tariff regulations? Few +countries are burdened with less debt, and many have far worse tariff +laws than curse our country. Is it to be found in an unjust pension +list? We hardly miss the small compensation which we grant to the men +(or their heirs) who, in the hour of National peril, gave their lives +freely to perpetuate the Union of our States. Where, then, is secreted +the parasite which is eating away the energies of the people, making +paupers and criminals in the midst of plenty and the grandest of +civilizations? Is it not to be found in the powerful monopolies we +have created? Monopoly in land, in railroads, telegraphs, fostered +manufactures, etc.,--the gigantic forces in our civilization which +are, in their very nature, agents of public convenience, comfort and +absolute necessity? Society, in the modern sense, could not exist +without these forces; they are part and parcel of our civilization. +Naturally, therefore, society should control them, or submit to the +humiliation of being ruled by them. And this latter is largely the +case at the present time. Having evolved those forces out of its +necessities, made them strong and permanent, society failed to impose +such conditions as wise policy should have dictated, and now suffers +the calamitous consequences. The tail wags the dog, instead of the dog +wagging the tail. + +No government can afford, with any degree of safety, to make four +million of citizens out of so many slaves. And when it is remembered +that our slaves were turned loose upon their former masters--lifted by +one stroke of the pen, as it were, from the most degraded condition to +the very pinnacle of sovereign manhood--the equals in unrestricted +manhood, with the privileges and immunities of citizens who had been +born to rule, apparently, instead of being ruled--it will be seen +readily how critical was the situation. + +But the condition having once been created by the strong arm of the +Federal Government, based upon a bloody and costly war in open +defiance of the Constitution as designed by the compromising Fathers +of the Republic; the slave once made a free man the same as his former +master, and given the ballot, the highest privilege of government a +man can exercise;--the Government having once gone so far, there was +absolutely nothing for it to do but to interpose its omnipotent +authority between the haughty and arrogant free man on the one hand +and the crouching and fearful freed man on the other--the lion and the +lamb. To do less would be more than cruel, it would be murderous;--the +agency which created the condition was bound by all law and precedent +to see that those conditions were maintained in their entirety. It +could not evade the issue except at the expense of dignity, +consistency and humanity. There was but one honorable course to +pursue. Any other would be a horrible abandonment of principle. If it +were powerful to create, to make free men and citizens, it must, +manifestly, be powerful to insure the enjoyment of the freedom +conferred, and protect the inviolability of the franchise granted. Any +other conclusion would make government a by-word and a scoffing to the +nations; any other conclusion would make its conferring of freedom and +citizenship absurd in the extreme, a mere trick of the demagogue to +ease the popular conscience. To do such a thing would sink a decent +government lower in the estimation of the world than the miserable +apology of government represented by the Khedive of Egypt. + +No patriotic American would admit to himself, or to a foreigner, that +the United States Government, through its accredited representatives +in Congress, possessed constitutional power to confer a benefit and +did not possess power to make that benefit available; to contract an +obligation, pecuniary or other, which it had not inherent power to +liquidate. The validity of a contract, as a matter of fact, depends +upon the ability of the parties to enter into it, for no court can +enforce a contract when it is shown that the principals to it had not +legal right to make it or to fulfill the conditions of it. It is +accepted as a surety of power to observe the conditions when a +sovereign government makes itself a party to a contract. The people +are bound by their agents, to whom they delegate authority. Nothing is +regarded in a more obnoxious light than the repudiation of their +honest debts by sovereign States. It is regarded in financial circles +as the crime of all crimes the blackest. The credit of the State is +reduced to a song, and moneyed men shun it as they would a +rattlesnake. The State and its people are held up as monsters of +depravity. It matters not how unjust the debt, how poor the people; +the mere fact that they repudiate an obligation which they entered +into in good faith is sufficient to destroy their credit in New York +or London and make them the target of every virtuous newspaper which +voices the sentiment of the class that deals in "futures" and +"corners." As an illustration, take the State of Virginia. The people +of that State contracted large debts to aid and abet the cause of the +so-called Confederate Government, a thing which crystallized around +the question: "Have the Sovereign States absolute, undivided authority +to regulate their own internal concerns, slave and other, or is this +authority vested in the Federal or National Government?" When the +people of Virginia contracted those large debts, drawing upon her +future resources, and placing burdens upon men yet unborn, to +propagate theories at variance with sound doctrines of government, and +to perpetuate an institution too vile to be mentioned with respect, in +1860, and immediately subsequent thereto, when the State of Virginia +contracted the debts in question for the perpetuation of slavery, she +had a population of 1,047,299; 65.6 per cent of which was white +(free), and 34.4 per cent was colored (slave). Virginia, therefore, in +contracting debts in 1860, did not calculate that twenty-two years +thereafter the obligations would be repudiated, and the credit of the +State depreciated, by the assistance of the very class of persons to +bind whom to a cruel and barbarous servitude those debts were +contracted. It is one of the most striking instances of retributive +justice that I ever knew. Nothing was more natural, when the question +came up for final settlement a few years ago, than that the black +voters of Virginia should take sides with those who opposed the full +settlement of the indebtedness. It is too much to expect of sensible +men that they will assent, in a state of sovereign citizenship, to +cancel debts contracted when they had no voice in the matter, and +when, as a matter of fact, the debts were contracted to rivet upon +them the chains of death. And yet for the part the black men of +Virginia took upon the settlement of her infamous debt, they have been +abused and maligned from one end of the country to the other. Because +they refused to vote to tax themselves to pay money borrowed without +their consent, and applied to purposes of death and slaughter, no man +has been found to commend them or to accept as sufficiently +extenuating, the peculiar circumstances surrounding the question. +Shylock must have his pound of flesh, though the unlucky victim bleed +his life away. But there are laws "higher" than any framed in the +interest of tyrannical capital. In my opinion, the man who +deliberately invests his money to perpetuate so vile an institution as +slavery deserves not only to lose the interest upon his investment but +the principal as well. I therefore have not a grain of sympathy for +the greedy cormorants who invested their money in the so-called +Confederate Government. Neither have I any sympathy for the people of +the South who, having invested all their money in human flesh, found +themselves at the close of the Rebellion paupers in more senses than +one--being bankrupt in purse and unused to make an honest living by +honest labor--too proud to work and too poor to loaf. + +In a question of this kind, no one disputes the power of Virginia to +contract debts to propagate opinions, erroneous or other, but it is a +question whether the people of one generation have the right to +tax--that is, enslave--the people of generations yet unborn. The +creation of public debts is pernicious in practice, productive of more +harm than good. What right have I to create debts for my grandson or +granddaughter? I have no right even to presume that I will have a +grandson, certainly none that he will be able to meet his own debts in +addition to those I entail upon him. The character of the people +called upon to settle the debt of Virginia, contracted in 1860, before +or immediately after, differed radically from the character of the +people who were called upon to tax themselves to cancel that debt. Not +only had the character of the people undergone a radical change; the +whole social and industrial mechanism of the state had undergone a +wonderful, almost an unrecognizable, metamorphosis. The haughty +aristocrat, with his magnificent plantation, his army of slaves, and +his "cattle on a thousand hills," who eagerly contracted the debt, +had been transformed into a sour pauper when called upon to honor his +note; while the magnificent plantation had been in many instances cut +into a thousand bits to make homes for the former slaves, now freemen +and citizens, the equals of "my lord," while "his cattle on a thousand +hills" had dwindled down to a stubborn jackass and a worn out milch +cow. True, the white man possessed, largely, the soil; but he was, +immediately after the war, utterly incapable of wringing from it the +bounty of Nature; he had first to be re-educated. + +But, when the bloody rebellion was over, the country, in its sovereign +capacity, and by individual States, was called upon to deal with grave +questions growing out of the conflict. Mr. Lincoln, by a stroke of the +pen,[9] transferred the battle from the field to the halls of +legislation. In view of the "Emancipation proclamation" as issued by +Mr. Lincoln, and the invaluable service rendered by black troops[10] +in the rebellion, legislation upon the status of the former slave +could not be avoided. The issue could not be evaded; like Banquo's +ghost, it would not down. There were not wanting men, even when the +war had ended and the question of chattel slavery had been forever +relegated to the limbo of "things that were," who were willing still +to toy with half-way measures, to cater to the caprices of that +treacherous yet brave power--the South. They had not yet learned that +Southern sentiment was fundamentally revolutionary, dynamic in the +extreme, and could not be toyed with as with a doll-baby. So the +statesmen proceeded to manufacture the "Reconstruction policy"--a +policy more fatuous, more replete with fatal concessions and far more +fatal omissions than any ever before adopted for the acceptance and +governance of a rebellious people on the one hand and a newly made, +supremely helpless people on the other. It is not easy to regard with +equanimity the blunders of the "Reconstruction policy" and the +manifold infamies which have followed fast upon its adoption. + +The South scornfully rejected and successfully nullified the +legislative will of the victors. + +Judge Albion W. Tourgee says of this policy in his book called _A +Fool's Errand_: "It was a magnificent sentiment that underlay it +all,--an unfaltering determination, an invincible defiance to all that +had the seeming of compulsion or tyranny. One cannot but regard with +pride and sympathy the indomitable men, who, being conquered in war, +yet resisted every effort of the conqueror to change their laws, their +customs, or even the _personnel_ of their ruling class; and this, too, +not only with unyielding stubbornness, but with success. One cannot +but admire the arrogant boldness with which they charged the nation +which had overpowered them--even in the teeth of her legislators--with +perfidy, malice, and a spirit of unworthy and contemptible revenge. +How they laughed to scorn the Reconstruction Acts of which the wise +men boasted! How boldly they declared the conflict to be +irrepressible, and that white and black could not and should not live +together as co-ordinate ruling elements! How lightly they told the +tales of blood--of the Masked Night-Riders, of the Invisible Empire of +Rifle clubs and Saber clubs (all organized for peaceful purposes), of +warnings and whippings and slaughter! Ah, it is wonderful! * * * +Bloody as the reign of Mary, barbarous as the chronicles of the +Comanche!" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] We of the United States take credit for having abolished slavery. +Passing the question of how much credit the majority of us are +entitled to for the abolition of Negro slavery, it remains true that +we have only abolished one form of slavery--and that a primitive form +which had been abolished in the greater portion of the country by +social development, and that, notwithstanding its race character gave +it peculiar tenacity, would in time have been abolished in the same +way in other parts of the country. We have not really abolished +slavery; we have retained it in its most insidious and widespread +form--in the form which applies to whites as to blacks. So far from +having abolished slavery, it is extending and intensifying, and we +made no scruple of setting into it our own children--the citizens of +the Republic yet to be. For what else are we doing in selling the land +on which future citizens must live, if they are to live at all.--Henry +George, _Social Problems_, p. 209. + +[8] Although for the present there is a lull in the conflict of races +at the South, it is a lull which comes only from the breathing-spells +of a great secular contention, and not from any permanent pacification +founded on a resolution of the race problem presented by the Negro +question in its present aspects. So long as the existing mass of our +crude and unassimilated colored population holds its present place in +the body politic, we must expect that civilization and political +rights will oscillate between alternate perils--the peril that comes +from the white man when he places civilization, or sometimes his +travesty of it, higher than the Negro's political rights, and the +peril that comes from the black man when his political rights are +placed by himself or others higher than civilization--President James +C. Willing, on "Race Education" in _The North American Review_, April, +1883. + +[9] By virtue of the power and for the purposes aforesaid, I do ordain +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States, are and henceforth shall be free; and that +the Executive Government of the United States, including the military +and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom +of said persons.--Abraham Lincoln's _Emancipation Proclamation_. + +[10] From Williams's _History of the Negro Race in America_ I +construct the following table showing the number of colored troops +employed by the Federal Government during the war of the Rebellion: + + Colored Troops Furnished 1861-65 + Total of New England States 7,916 + Total of Middle States 13,922 + Total, Western States and Territories 12,711 + Total, Border States 45,184 + Total, Southern States 63,571 + ------- + Grand Total States 143,304 + At Large 733 + Not accounted for 5,083 + Officers 7,122 + ------- + Grand total 156,242 + +This gives colored troops enlisted in the States in Rebellion; besides +this, there were 92,576 colored troops (included with the white +soldiers) in the quotas of the several States. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Illiteracy--Its Causes_ + + +At the close of the rebellion there were in the Union (according to +the census of 1860) 4,441,830 people of African origin; in 1880 they +had increased to 6,580,793. Of this vast multitude in 1860, it is safe +to say, not so many as one in every ten thousand could read or write. +They had been doomed by the most stringent laws to a long night of +mental darkness. It was a crime to teach a black man how to read even +the Bible, the sacred repository of the laws that must light the +pathway of man from death unto life eternal. For to teach a slave was +to make a firebrand--to arouse that love of freedom which stops at +nothing short of absolute freedom. It is not, therefore, surprising +that every southern state should have passed the most odious +inhibitary laws, with severe fines and penalties for their infraction, +upon the question of informing the stunted intelligence of the slave +population. The following table will show the condition of education +in the South in 1880: + + COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF EDUCATION AT THE SOUTH +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + White Colored + -------------------------- ------------------------- +States School Enroll- [A] School Enroll- [A] [B] + population ment population ment +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Alabama 217,590 107,483 49 170,413 72,007 42 $375,465 +Arkansas [b]181,799 [c]53,229 29 [b]54,332 [c]17,743 33 238,056 +Delaware 31,505 25,053 80 3,954 2,770 70 207,281 +Florida [b]46,410 [c]18,871 41 [b]42,099 [c]20,444 49 114,895 +Georgia [d]236,319 150,134 64 [d]197,125 86,399 45 471,029 +Kentucky [e]478,597 [c]241,679 50 [e]66,564 [c]23,902 36 803,490 +Louisiana [c]139,661 [d]44,052 32 [c]134,184 [d]34,476 26 480,320 +Maryland [f]213,669 134,210 63 [f]63,591 28,221 44 1,544,367 +Mississippi 175,251 112,994 64 251,438 123,710 49 850,704 +Missouri 681,995 454,218 67 41,489 22,158 53 3,152,178 +N.Carolina 291,770 136,481 47 167,554 89,125 53 352,882 +S.Carolina [g]83,813 61,219 73 [g]144,315 72,853 50 324,629 +Tennessee 403,353 229,290 57 141,509 60,851 43 724,862 +Texas [h]171,426 138,912 81 [h]62,015 47,874 77 753,346 +Virginia 314,827 152,136 48 240,980 68,600 28 946,109 +W.Virginia 202,364 138,799 68 7,749 4,071 53 716,864 +District of + Columbia 29,612 16,934 57 13,946 9,505 68 438,567 + ------------------------------------------------------------ +Total 3,899,961 2,215,674 1,803,257 784,709 12,475,044 +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +[Table Header A: Percentage of the school population enrolled] +[Table Header B: Total Expenditure for both races[a]] + +[a] In Delaware the colored public schools have been supported by +the school tax collected from colored citizens only; recently, +however, they have received an appropriation of $2,400 from the State; +in Kentucky the school-tax collected from colored citizens is the only +State appropriation for the support of colored schools; in Maryland +there is a biennial appropriation by the Legislature; in the District +of Columbia one-third of the school moneys is set apart for colored +public schools, and in the other States mentioned above the school +moneys are divided in proportion to the school population without +regard to race. + +[b] Several counties failed to make race distinctions. + +[c] Estimated. + +[d] In 1879. + +[e] For whites the school age is 6 to 20, for colored 6 to 16. + +[f] Census of 1870. + +[g] In 1877. + +[h] These numbers include some duplicates; the actual school +population is 230,527. + +Speaking in the Senate of the United States June 13, 1882, the bill +for National "Aid to Common Schools" being under consideration, +Senator Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire, said: + + Excluding the states of Maryland and Missouri and the + District of Columbia, and the total yearly expenditure for + both races is only $7,339,932, while in the whole country + the annual expenditure is, from taxation, $70,341,435, and + from school funds $6,580,632, or a total of $76,922,067, + (see tables 2 and 7,) or one-tenth of the whole, while they + contain one-fifth of the school-population. The causes which + have produced this state of things in the Southern States + are far less important than the facts themselves as they now + exist. To find a remedy and apply it is the only duty which + devolves upon us. Without universal education, not only will + the late war prove to be a failure, but the abolition of + slavery be proved to be a tremendous disaster, if not a + crime. + + The country was held together by the strong and bloody + embrace of war, but that which the nation might and did do + to retain the integrity of its territory and of its laws by + the expenditure of brute force will all be lost if, for the + subjection of seven millions of men, by the statutes of the + States is to be substituted the thraldom of ignorance and + the tyranny of an irresponsible suffrage. Secession, and a + confederacy founded upon slavery as its chief cornerstone, + would be better than the future of the Southern + States--better for both races, too--if the nation is to + permit one-third, and that the fairest portion of its + domain, to become the spawning ground of ignorance, vice, + anarchy, and of every crime. The nation as such abolished + slavery as a legal institution; but ignorance is slavery, + and no matter what is written in your constitutions and your + laws, slavery will continue until intelligence, handmaid of + liberty, shall have illuminated the whole land with the + light of her smile. + + Before the war the Southern States were aristocracies, + highly educated, and disciplined in the science of polities. + Hence they preserved order and flourished at home, while + they imposed their will upon the nation at large. Now all is + changed. The suffrage is universal, and that means universal + ruin unless the capacity to use it intelligently is created + by universal education. Until the republican constitutions, + framed in accordance with the Congressional reconstruction + which supplanted the governments initiated by President + Johnson, common-school systems, like universal suffrage, + were unknown. Hence in a special manner the nation is + responsible for the existence and support of those systems + as well as for the order of things which made them + necessary. That remarkable progress has been made under + their influence is true, and that the common school is fast + becoming as dear to the masses of the people at the South as + elsewhere is also evident. + + The Nation, through the Freedmen's Bureau, and perhaps to a + limited extent in other ways, has expended five millions of + dollars for the education of negroes and refugees in the + earlier days of reconstruction, while religious charities + have founded many special schools which have thus far cost + some ten millions more. The Peabody fund has distilled the + dews of heaven all over the South; but heavy rains are + needed; without them every green thing must wither away. + + This work belongs to the Nation. It is a part of the war. + We have the Southern people as patriotic allies now. We are + one; so shall we be forever. But both North and South have a + fiercer and more doubtful fight with the forces of ignorance + than they waged with each other during the bloody years + which chastened the opening life of this generation. + +The South lost in the destruction of property about two billion +dollars and in prosecuting the war two billion more. No people can +lose so much without seriously disarranging the entire mechanism of +their government. It is for this reason, therefore, that the measure +of "National Aid to Education" has so many and so persistent +advocates. I wish to place myself among them. If the safety of +republican government abides in the intelligence and virtue of the +people, it can very readily be seen how much safety there is in the +South at present. If it be true that an ulcer will vitiate the entire +body, and endanger the life of the patient, we can see very plainly to +what possible danger the spread of illiteracy may lead us. + +Illiteracy in the South is one of the worst legacies which the +rebellion bequeathed to the nation. It has been the prime cause of +more misgovernment in the South than any other one cause, not even the +insatiable rapacity of the carpet-bag adventurers taking precedence of +it. It has not only served as a provocation to peculation and +chicanery, but it has nerved the courage of the assassin and made +merry the midnight ride of armed mobs bent upon righting wrongs by +committing crimes before which the atrocities of savage warfare pale. +Wholesale murders have been committed and sovereign majorities awed +into silence and inaction by reason of the widespread illiteracy of +the masses. The very first principles of republican government have +been ruthlessly trampled under foot because the people were ignorant +of their sovereign rights, and had not, therefore, courage to maintain +them. + +That there should be in sixteen States and the District of Columbia a +population of 5,703,218 people to be educated out of $12,475,044 is +sufficient to arouse the apprehension of the most indifferent friend +of good government. The State of New York alone, with a school +population of only 1,641,173 spent, in 1880, $9,675,922. + +But I base my argument for the establishment and maintenance of a +comprehensive system of National education upon other grounds than the +"safety of the Union," which is the same argument used by Mr. Lincoln +when he emancipated the slaves. This argument is strong, and will +always greatly influence a certain class of people. And, naturally, it +should, for the perpetuation of the Union is simply the perpetuation +of a republican form of government. But there are stronger grounds to +be considered. + +1. The United States government is directly responsible for the +illiteracy and the widespread poverty which obtain in the South. Under +its sanction and by its connivance the institution of slavery +flourished and prospered, until it had taken such deep root as to be +almost impossible of extirpation. It was the _Union_, and not the +_States_, severally, which made slavery part and parcel of the +fundamental law of the land. If this be a correct statement of the +case, and I assume that it is, the _Union_ (and not the _States_, +severally) is responsible for the ignorance of the black people of the +South. Slavery could not have existed and grown in the Union save by +permission of all the States of the Union. It is therefore obvious +that the agency which created and fostered a great crime is obligated, +not only by the laws of God but of man as well, to assume the +responsibility of its creation and to remedy, as far as possible, the +evil results of that crime. The issue cannot be evaded. The +obligation rests upon the Union, not upon the several States, to +assume the direction of methods by which the appalling illiteracy of +the South is to be diminished. + +2. There have not been wanting men and newspapers to urge that the +United States should reimburse the slave-holders of the South for the +wholesale confiscation, so to speak, of their property. True, these +men and newspapers belong to that class of unrepentants who believed +that slavery was a _Divine institution_ and that the slave-holder was +a sort of vicegerent of heaven, a holy Moses, as it were. But when we +leave the absurdity of this claim, which lies upon the surface, there +is much apparent reason in their representations. It was the _Union_ +which legalized the sale and purchase of slave property, thereby +inviting capitalists to invest in it; and it was the _Union_ which +declared such contracts null and void by the abolition of slavery, or +confiscation of slave property. As I said before, I have no sympathy +with those who invested their money in slave property. They not only +received their just deserts in having their property confiscated, but +they should have been compelled to make restitution to the last penny +to the poor slaves whom they had systematically robbed. But perhaps +this would have been carrying justice too near the ideal. For the +great debt to the slave, who was robbed of his honest wage, we go +behind the slave-holder, who had been invited by the government to +invest his money in blood; we go to the head of the firm for the +payment of debts contracted by the firm, for each member of the +government is, measurably, an agent of the government, contracting and +paying debts by its delegated authority. Thus the law holds him guilty +who willfully breaks a contract entered into in good faith by all the +parties to it. Instead of holding the slave-holder responsible for the +robbery of the black man through a period of a hundred years, we hold +the _government_ responsible. + +What man can compute the dollars stolen from the black slave in the +shape of wages, for a period of a hundred years! What claim has the +slave-holder against the government for confiscation of property by +the side of the claim of the slaves for a hundred years of wages and +enervated and dwarfed manhood! A billion dollars would have bought +every slave in the South in 1860, but fifty billions would not have +adequately recompensed the slave for enforced labor and debased +manhood. The debt grows in magnitude the closer it is inspected. And +yet there are those who will laugh this claim to scorn; who will be +unable to see any grounds upon which to base the justice of it; who +will say that the black man was fully compensated for all the ills he +had borne, the robbery to which he had been subjected, and the +debasement--not to say enervation--of his manhood, by the great act by +which he was made a free man and a citizen. + +But there is, or should be, such a claim; it rests upon the strongest +possible grounds of equity; while the conference of freedom and +citizenship was simply the rendering back in the first instance that +which no man has any right to appropriate, law or no law; and, in the +second, bestowing a boon which had been honestly earned in every +conflict waged by the Union from Yorktown to Appomatox Court House--a +boon, I am forced to exclaim, which has, in many respects, proved to +be more of a curse than a blessing, more a dead weight to carry than a +help to conserve his freedom; and to aid in the fixing of his proper +status as a co-equal citizen. I deny the _right_ of any man to enslave +his fellow; I deny the _right_ of any government, sovereign as the +Union or dependent as are the States in many respects, to pass any +regulation which robs _one man or class_ to enrich _another_. +Individuals may invest their capital in human flesh, and governments +may legalize the infamous compact; yet it carries upon its face the +rankest injustice to the man and outrage upon the laws of God, the +common Parent of all mankind. There are those in this country--men too +of large influence, however small their wit, who, aping miserably the +masterly irony of _Junius_, speak of the black man as the "ward of the +nation"--a sort of pauper, dependent upon the charity of a generous +and humane people for sustenance, and even tolerance to dwell among +them, to enjoy the blessing of a civilization which I pronounce to be +reared upon quicksand, a civilization more fruitful of poverty, misery +and crime than of competence, happiness and virtue. Those who regard +the black man in the light of a "ward of the nation," are too +narrow-minded, ignorant or ungenerous to deserve my contempt. The +people of this country have been made fabulously affluent by legalized +robbery of the black man; the coffers of the National Government have +overflowed into the channels of subsidy and peculation, enriching +sharpers and thieves, with the earnings of slave labor; while nineteen +out of every twenty landowners in the South obtained their unjust hold +upon the soil by robbing the black man. When the rebellion at last +closed, the white people of the South were poor in gold but rich +indeed in lands, while the black man was poor in everything, even in +manhood, not because of any neglect or improvidence on his part, but +because, though he labored from the rising to the setting of the sun, +he received absolutely nothing for his labor, often being denied +adequate food to sustain his physical man and clothing to protect him +from the rude inclemency of the weather. He was a bankrupt in purse +because the _government_ had robbed him; he was a bankrupt in +character, in all the elements of a successful manhood, because the +_government_ had placed a premium upon illiteracy and immorality. It +was not the individual slave-owner who held the black man in chains; +it was the _government_; for, the government having permitted slavery +to exist, the institution vanished the instant the government declared +that it should no longer exist! + +I therefore maintain that the people of this Nation who enslaved the +black man, who robbed him of more than a hundred years of toil, who +perverted his moral nature, and all but extinguished in him the Divine +spark of intelligence, are morally bound to do all that is in their +power to build up his shattered manhood, to put him on his feet, as +it were, to fit him to enjoy the freedom thrust upon him so +unceremoniously, and to exercise with loyalty and patriotism the +ballot placed in his hands--the ballot, in which is wrapped up the +destiny of republican government, the perpetuity of democratic +institutions. It is the proper function of government to see to it +that its citizens are properly prepared to exercise wisely the +liberties placed in their keeping. Self-preservation would dictate as +much; for, if it be considered the better part of valor to discretely +build and maintain arsenals and forts to bar out the invader, to +prepare against the assaults of the enemy from without, how much more +imperative it is to take timely precautions to counteract the mischief +of insidious foes from within? Are our liberties placed more in +jeopardy by the assaults of an enemy who plans our destruction three +thousand miles away than of the enemy within our very bosoms? Was it +the puissance of the barbarian arms or the corruption and enervation +of the character of her people which worked the downfall of Rome? Was +it influences from _without_ or influences from _within_ which +corrupted the integrity of the people of Sparta and led to their +subjugation by a more sturdy people? Let us learn by the striking +examples of history. A people's greatness should be measured, not by +its magnificent palaces, decked out in all the gaudy splendors of art +and needless luxuries, the price of piracy or direct thievery; not in +the number of colossal fortunes accumulated out of the stipend of the +orphan and widow and the son of toil; not in the extent and richness +of its public buildings and palaces of idle amusement; not in vast +aggregations of capital in the coffers of the common treasury--capital +unnecessarily diverted from the channels of trade, extorted from the +people by the ignorance of their "wise men," who seek in vain for a +remedy for the evil, _because they do not want to find one_.[11] A +people's greatness should not be measured by these standards, for +they are the parasites which eat away the foundations of greatness and +stability. On the contrary, such greatness is to be found in the +general diffusion of wealth, the comparative contentment and +competency of the masses, and the general virtue and patriotism of the +_whole_ people. It should, therefore, manifestly be the end and aim of +legislators to so shape the machinery placed in their hands as to +operate with the least possible restraint upon the energies of the +people. It should not be the studied purpose to enrich the few at the +expense of the many, to restrain this man and give that one the +largest possible immunity. No law should be made or enforced which +would abridge my right while enlarging the right of my neighbor. That +such is the case at this time--that legislatures are manipulated in +the interest of a few, and that the great mass of the people feel only +the burdens placed upon them by their servants, who are more properly +speaking become their masters--that to such perversion of popular +sovereignty we have come, is admitted by candid men. + +Therefore, that the people may more clearly know their rights and how +best to preserve them and reap their fullest benefits, they should be +instructed in the language which is the medium through which to +interpret their grand _Magna Charta_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] Since all sensible men know that the evil lies in a protective +tariff and the bulky catalogue of monopoly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Education--Professional or Industrial_ + + +The "Religious Training of the Freedmen" and the "Education of the +Freedmen" have raised up an army of people more _peculiar_ in many +respects than any other like class in all the history of mankind. They +stand off by themselves; they are not to be approached by any counter +method of "advocating a cause" or "building up the Kingdom of Christ" +in _their_ field. Millions of dollars have been "raised" to root out +the illiteracy and immorality of the Freedmen, and to build up their +shattered manhood. Indeed, there have been times when I have seriously +debated the question, whether the black man had any manhood left, +after the missionaries and religious enthusiasts had done picturing, +or, rather, caricaturing his debased moral and mental condition. He +has been made the victim of the most exalted panegyric by one set of +fanatics, and of the most painful, malignant abuse and detraction by +another set. The one has painted him as a sort of angel, and the other +as a sort of devil; when, in fact, he is neither one nor the other; +when, simply, he is a _man_, a member of the common family, possessing +no more virtue nor vice than his brother, the brother who has managed +to so impose upon himself that he is pretty thoroughly convinced that +nature expended all its most choice materials in the construction of +his class. But this is simply the work of the devil, who delights in +throwing cayenne pepper into the eyes of good men. + +The aspects of the work which has been done in the South for the +colored people by "missionaries," so to term them, by the assistance +of large sums of money donated by philanthropic men and women, are +very many-sided indeed. I would in no wise underrate the magnitude of +the work performed, nor attribute to those who have been the agents in +disbursing these unparalleled benefactions motives other than of the +purest and loftiest, in a majority of cases; but I think the time has +arrived when we may disrobe the matter of the romance which writers +have industriously woven about it. In the early stages of the work a +few men and women of large fortunes, who had been "born with a silver +spoon in their mouths," may have gone South to labor for humanity and +the Master, may have left comfortable firesides and congenial +companionships to make their homes among strangers who shut them out +from their affections and sympathies because they had come to labor +for the poor and the despised. Examples of this lofty devotion to a +good cause there undoubtedly were in the days long ago; but the bulk +of the work was performed by persons, male and female, to whom +employment, an opportunity to make an honest living in an honest way, +was a godsend. That they possessed much bravery to undertake a work +which shut them out from the sympathy and social recognition of those +who may be called their equals, is not denied; but that they were the +pampered children of fortune, laboring simply for God and humanity, +which zealous persons have painted them to be in newspapers and +magazines, religious and other, is simply making a mountain out of a +mole-hill. They were neither millionaires nor paupers, but they were +educated men and women, like thousands throughout the North and West, +who went into the field to labor because it was rich unto the harvest +and the laborers were few. To say that salaries offered were not +accepted always with promptness would be to get on the wrong side of a +correct statement of fact. There are hundreds and thousands of +educated men and women in the North and West to-day "waiting for +something to turn up," and who would not hesitate a moment to embrace +an opportunity, honorable and lucrative, which should present itself. +There was little romance in the undertaking; there was far less in the +work to be performed. I simply desire to protest against the +correctness of the distorted pictures drawn ostensibly to magnify the +sacrifices, which were many, and to belittle the rewards, which were +great, in the performance of an ordinary piece of work, by a class of +persons now rapidly disappearing from the scenes that once knew them. +Their work is fast being transferred to the hands of colored men and +women--the pupil is taking the place of the master; the demand drawing +upon the colored--not the white--supply, because "birds of a feather +flock together," more especially when one class is composed of +chickens and the other of chicken-hawks. When lines are drawn, men +unconsciously, as it were, keep on their own side. So, in colored +churches and schools the whites are at a discount because it is easier +and more congenial to employ colored help. Colored people are like +white people. When they see nothing but white ministers in the white +churches they conclude that it is best to have nothing but colored +ministers in their own pulpits, and they are perfectly consistent and +logical in their conclusion; the rule which actuates mankind in such +matters being, not the biblical one, which enjoins that we do unto +others as we _would have them_ do unto us, but, rather, do unto others +as _they do_ unto us; and this latter rule would seem to be better +adapted for worldly success than the former, because it has more of +the practical than the theoretical about it, and is more earthly than +heavenly in its observance. The same is true of schools and school +teachers. The colored people everywhere are constantly clamoring for +colored teachers, since the rank injustice of _separate_ schools is +forced upon them. + +I would interject just here a few words on the _separate-school +system_. Aside from the manifest injustice of setting up two +schoolhouses in the same ward or district--injustice to the children +in the spirit, false from every standpoint, that one child is better +than another--the _double expense_ of maintaining two schools is +obvious, and is sufficiently absurd to repel the sympathy or practical +philanthropy of any man, Christian or Infidel. Why should the people +be called upon to support _two_ schools within speaking distance of +each other to preserve an infamous distinction, a sneaking caste +prejudice? Why! Because the people are wise in their own +conceit--perfectly rational upon all other questions save the _color +question_. The South is weighted down with debt, almost as poor as the +proverbial "Job's turkey," and yet she supports a dual school system +simple to gratify a _prejudice_. I notice with surprise that among the +bills pending before Congress to give national aid to education it is +not proposed to interfere with the irregular and ruinous dual caste +schools; thereby, in effect, giving the national assent to a system +repugnant to the genius of the constitution. But it is nothing new +under the sun for the Congress of the Nation to aid and abet +institutions and theories anti-republican and pernicious in all their +ramifications. + +Perhaps no people ever had more advantages to dedicate and prepare +themselves for the ministry of Christ than the colored people of the +South. The religious "idea" has been so thoroughly worked that other +branches of study, other callings than the ministry, have paled into +insignificance. The Cross of Christ has been held up before the +colored youth as if the whole end and aim of life was to preach the +Gospel, as if the philosophy of heaven superseded in practical +importance the philosophy of life. The persistence with which this one +"idea" has been forced upon colored students has produced the reverse +of what was anticipated in a large number of cases, and very +naturally. It is a false theory to suppose all the people of any one +class to be specially fitted for only one branch of industry: for I +maintain that preaching has largely become a trade or profession, in +which the churches with large salaries have become prizes to be +contended for with almost as much zeal and partisanship as the prizes +in politics. This is true not only of colored ministers but white ones +as well. It is no disparagement of colored ministers to say that day +by day they grow more and more in favor of serving churches with fair +salaries than in carrying around the cross as itinerants, without any +special place to lay their heads when the storms blow and the rains +descend. In this they do but pattern after white clergymen, who do not +always set examples that angels would be justified in imitating. + +Colored people are naturally sociable, and intensely religious in +their disposition. Their excellent social qualities make them the best +of companions. They are musical, humorous and generous to a fault. +Coupled with their strong religious bias, these attractive qualities +will in time lift them to the highest possible grade in our dwarfed +civilization, where the fittest does not always survive; the +drossiest, flimsiest, most selfish and superficial often occupying the +high places, social and political. But I have still higher aspirations +for my race. There is hope for any people who are social in +disposition, for this supposes the largest capacity for mutual +friendships, therefore of co-operation, out of which the highest +civilization is possible to be evolved; while a love of music and the +possession of musical and humorous talent is, undeniably, indicative +of genius and prospective culture and refinement of the most approved +standard. + +Indeed, the constant evolution of negro character is one of the most +marked and encouraging social phenomena of the times; it constantly +tends upwards, in moral, mental development and material betterment. +Those who contend that the negro is standing still, or "_relapsing +into barbarism_," are the falsest of false prophets. They resolutely +shut their eyes to facts all around them, and devote columns upon +columns of newspaper, magazine and book argument--imaginary +pictures--to the immorality, mental sterility and innate improvidence +of this people; and they do this for various reasons, none of them +honorable, many of them really disreputable. In dealing with this +negro problem they always start off upon a false premise; their +conclusions must, necessarily, be false. In the first place, +disregarding the fact that the negroes of the South are nothing more +nor less than the laboring class of the people, the same in many +particulars as the English and Irish peasantry, they proceed to regard +them as intruders in the community--as a people who continually take +from but add nothing to the wealth of the community. + +It is nothing unusual to see newspaper articles stating in the most +positive terms that the schools maintained by the State for the +education of the blacks are supported out of the taxes paid by _white +men_; and, very recently, it was spoken of as a most laudable act of +justice and generosity that the State of Georgia paid out annually for +the maintenance of colored schools more money than _the aggregate +taxes paid into the treasury_ of the State by the Negro property +owners of the State; while the grand commonwealth of Kentucky only +appropriates for the maintenance of colored schools such moneys as are +paid into the State treasury by the colored people. Can the philosophy +of taxation be reduced to a more hurtful, a more demoralizing +absurdity! + +Suppose the same standard of distribution of school funds should be +applied to the city or the State of New York; what would be the +logical result? Should we appropriate annually from nine to twelve +millions of dollars to improve the morals of the people by informing +their intelligence? Would the State be able, after ten years of such +an experiment, to pay the myriads of officials which would be required +to preserve the public peace, to protect life and insure proper +respect for the so-called rights of property? Such an experiment would +in time require the deportation to New York of the entire male adult +population of Ireland, to be turned into the "finest police in the +world," to stem the tide of crime and immorality which such premium +upon ignorance would entail. Since even under the present munificent +and well ordered school system, it is almost impossible to elect a +Board of Aldermen from any other than the _slum_ elements of the +population--the liquor dealers, the gamblers, and men of their kind, +the President of the New York Board of Aldermen at this very writing +being a liquor-dealer, who can estimate the calamity which the +inauguration of the Kentucky system would bring upon the people of New +York--appropriating to the support of the public schools only such +taxes as were paid by the parents of the children who attend them! + +And, yet, there is hardly an editor in the South who does not regard +it as so much robbery of the tax-payers to support schools for the +colored people--for the proletarian classes generally, white and +colored. They stoutly maintain that these people really add nothing to +the stock of wealth, really produce nothing, and that, therefore +charity can become no more magnanimous than when it gives, places in +reach of, the poor man the opportunity to educate his child, the +embryo man, the future citizen. + +They think it a sounder principle of government to equip and maintain +vast penal systems--with chain gangs, schools of crime, depravity and +death, than to support schools and churches. Millions of money are +squandered annually to curb crime, when a few thousand dollars, +properly applied, would prove to be a more humane, a more profitable +preventive. The poor school teacher is paid _twenty-five dollars per +month_ for three months in the year, while the prison guards is paid +_fifty dollars per month_ for twelve months--ninety days being the +average length given to teach the child in the school and three +hundred and sixty-five being necessary to teach him in the prison, +whence he is frequently graduated a far worse, more hopeless enemy of +society than when he matriculated. + +And the brutality of the convict systems of Southern States is equaled +by no similar institutions in the world, if we except the penal system +enforced by Russia in Siberia. The terms of imprisonment for minor +offenses are cruelly excessive, while the food and shelter furnished +and the punishments inflicted would bring the blush of shame to the +cheeks of a savage. The convict systems of Alabama, Georgia, South +Carolina and Arkansas are a burning disgrace to the Christian +civilization which we boast. Nothing short of a semi-barbarous public +opinion would permit them to exist. Governors have "called attention" +to them; legislatures have "investigated" and "resolved" that they +should be purified, and a _few_ newspapers here and there have held +them up to the scorn and contempt of the world; yet they not only grow +worse year by year, but the number of them steadily multiplies. And so +they will. How is it to be otherwise? To prevent such ulcerations upon +the body you must purify the blood. You cannot root them out by +probing; that simply aggravates them. + +A system of misrepresentation and vilification of the character and +condition of the Southern Negro has grown up, for the avowed purpose +of enlisting the sympathies of the charitable and philanthropic people +of the country to supply funds for his regeneration and education, +which the government, State and Federal, studiously denies; so that it +is almost impossible to form a correct opinion either of his moral, +mental or material condition. Societies have organized and maintain a +work among that people which requires an annual outlay of millions of +dollars and thousands of employees; and to maintain the work, to keep +up the interest of the charitable, it is necessary to picture, as +black as imagination can conceive it, the present and prospective +condition of the people who are, primarily, the beneficiaries. The +work and its maintenance has really become a heavy strain upon the +patience and generosity of the liberal givers of the land--whose +profuse behests have no parallel in the history of any people. They +have kept it up wellnigh a quarter of a century; and it is no +disparagement to their zeal to say the tax upon them is becoming more +of a burden than a pleasure. They have done in the name of humanity +and of God for the unfortunate needy what the government should have +done for its own purification and perpetuity for the co-equal citizen. +And it is high time that the government should relieve the individual +from the unjust and onerous tax. + +I do not hesitate to affirm, that while the work done by the +charitable for the black citizen of this Republic has been of the most +incalculable benefit to him, it has also done him injury which it will +take years upon years to eradicate. The misrepresentations resorted +to, to obtain money to "lift him up," have spread broadcast over the +land a feeling of contempt for him as a man and pity for his lowly and +unfortunate condition; so that throughout the North a business man +would much rather _give a thousand dollars_ to aid in the education of +the black heathen than to give a black scholar and gentleman an +opportunity to honestly _earn a hundred dollars_. He has no confidence +in the capacity of the black man. He has seen him pictured a savage, +sunk in ignorance and vice--an object worthy to receive alms, but +incapable of making an honest living. So that when a black man +demonstrates any capacity, shows any signs of originality or genius, +rises just a few inches above the common, he at once becomes an object +rare and wonderful--a "Moses," a "_leader_ of his people."--It is +almost as hard for an educated black man to obtain a position of trust +and profit as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The +missionaries, the preachers, and the educators, assisted by the +newspapers and the magazines, have educated the people into the false +opinion that it is safer to "donate" a thousand dollars to a colored +college than it is to give one black man a chance to make an honest +living. + +Let us now look at the system of education as it has been operated +among the colored people of the South. + +It cannot be denied that much of the fabulous sums of money lavishly +given for the education of the Freedmen of the South, has been +squandered upon experiments, which common sense should have dictated +were altogether impracticable. Perhaps this was sequential in the +early stages of the work, when the instructor was ignorant of the +topography of the country, the temper of the people among whom he was +to labor, and, more important still, when he was totally ignorant of +the particular class upon whom he was to operate--ignorant of their +temperament, receptive capacity and peculiar, aye, unique, +idiosyncrasies. Thus thousands upon thousands of dollars were expended +upon the erection and endowment of "colleges" in many localities where +ordinary common schools were unknown. Each college was, therefore, +necessarily provided with a primary department, where the child of ten +years and the adult of forty struggled in the same classes with the +first elements of rudimentary education. The child and the adult each +felt keenly his position in the college, and a course of cramming was +pursued, injurious to all concerned, to lessen the number in the +primary and to increase the number in the college departments. No man +can estimate the injury thus inflicted upon not only the student but +the cause of education. Even unto to-day there are colleges in +localities in the South which run all year while the common school +only runs from three to eight months. + +Indeed, the multiplication of colleges and academies for the "higher +education of colored youth" is one of the most striking phenomena of +the times: as if theology and the classics were the things best suited +to and most urgently needed by a class of persons unprepared in +rudimentary education, and whose immediate aim must be that of the +mechanic and the farmer--to whom the classics, theology and the +sciences, in their extremely impecunious state, are unequivocable +abstractions. There will be those who will denounce me for taking this +view of collegiate and professional preparation; but I maintain that +any education is false which is unsuited to the condition and the +prospects of the student. To educate him for a lawyer when there are +no clients, for medicine when the patients, although numerous, are too +poor to give him a living income, to fill his head with Latin and +Greek as a teacher when the people he is to teach are to be instructed +in the _a b c's_--such education is a waste of time and a senseless +expenditure of money. + +I do not inveigh against higher education; I simply maintain that the +sort of education the colored people of the South stand most in need +of is _elementary and industrial_. They should be instructed for the +work to be done. Many a colored farmer boy or mechanic has been +spoiled to make a foppish gambler or loafer, a swaggering pedagogue or +a cranky homiletician. Men may be spoiled by education, even as they +are spoiled by illiteracy. Education is the preparation for a future +work; hence men should be educated with special reference to that +work. + +If left to themselves men usually select intuitively the course of +preparation best suited to their tastes and capacities. But the +colored youth of the South have been allured and seduced from their +natural inclination by the premiums placed upon theological, classical +and professional training for the purpose of sustaining the reputation +and continuance of "colleges" and their professorships. + +I do not hesitate to say that if the vast sums of money already +expended and now being spent in the equipment and maintenance of +colleges and universities for the so called "higher education" of +colored youth had been expended in the establishment and maintenance +of primary schools and schools of applied science, the race would have +profited vastly more than it has, both mentally and materially, while +the results would have operated far more advantageously to the State, +and satisfactorily to the munificent benefactors. + +Since writing the above, I find in a very recent number of + +Judge Tourgee's magazine, _The Continent_, the following reflections +upon the subject, contributed to that excellent periodical by Prof. +George F. Magoun of Iowa College. Mr. Magoun says: + + May I offer one suggestion which observation a few years + since among the freedmen and much reflection, with + comparisons made in foreign countries, have impressed upon + me? It is this, that the key of the future for the black men + of the South is _industrial_ education. The laboring men of + other lands cannot hold their own in skilled labor save as + they receive such education, and this of a constantly + advancing type. The English House of Commons moved two years + since for a Royal Commission to study the technical schools + of the continent, and the report respecting France made by + this commission has been republished at Washington by the + United States Commissioner of Education. In our two leading + northwestern cities, St. Louis and Chicago, splendid manual + training-schools have been formed, and east and west the + question of elementary manual training in public schools is + up for discussion and decision. All this for _white_ + laboring men. As long ago as December, 1879, the Legislature + of Tennessee authorized a brief manual of the Elementary + Principles of Agriculture to be "taught in the public + schools of the State," for the benefit of _white_ farmers + again. The Professor of Chemistry in the Vanderbilt + University, Nashville, prepared the book--107 pages. Where + in all this is there anything for the educational + improvement of the black laborer just where he needs + education most? The labor of the South is subject in these + years to a marvelous revolution. The only opportunity the + freedman has to rise is by furnishing such skilled labor as + the great changes going on in that splendid section of the + land require. How can he furnish it, unless the education + given him is chiefly industrial and technical? Some very + pertinent statements of the situation are made in the + _Princeton Review_ for May. They confirm all that you have + said.[12] As to the various bills before Congress, the + writer says: "Immediate assistance should be rendered to the + ex-slave States in the development of an education suited to + their political and _industrial_ needs." Can this be an + education in Latin and Greek?"(The writer contends earnestly + for retaining these studies in classical college and academy + courses for students of all colors.) Can it be anything else + than training in elementary industry, such as is now + demanded for our Northern common-schools? If the + denominational freedmen's schools find this a necessity, is + it anything less for the Southern public schools act which + is contemplated in the bills before Congress? + +Mr. Magoun reasons wisely. If the colored men of the South are to +continue their grip as the wage-workers and wealth-producers of that +section they must bring to their employments common intelligence and +skill; and these are to be obtained in the South as in the North, by +apprenticeship and in schools specially provided for the purpose. +Instead of spending three to seven years in mastering higher +education, which presupposes favorable conditions, colored youth +should spend those years in acquiring a "common school education," and +in mastering some trade by which to make an honest livelihood when +they step forth into the world of fierce competition. + +Some may ask: Shall we, then, not have some scholars, men learned in +all that higher education gives? Of course; and we should have them. +Men fitted by nature for special pursuits in life will make +preparation for that work. Water will find its level. Genius cannot be +repressed. It will find an audience, even though the singer be Robert +Burns at his plow in the remoteness of Ayr, or the philosophic AEsop in +the humble garb of a Greek pedant's slave. Genius will take care of +itself; it is the mass of mankind that must be led by the hand as we +lead a small boy. It is therefore that I plead, that the masses of the +colored race should receive such preparation for the fierce +competition of every day life that the odds shall not be against them. +I do not plead for the few, who will take care of themselves, but for +the many who must be guided and protected lest they fall a prey to the +more hardy or unscrupulous. + +Mr. Magoun follows out his train of thought in the following logical +deductions: + + Plainly, if this opportunity for furnishing the skilled + labor of the South hereafter (as he has furnished the + unskilled heretofore) slips away from the black man, he can + never rise. In the race for property, influence, and all + success in life, the industrially educated white + man--whatever may be said of Southern white men "hating to + work"--will outstrip him. Before an ecclesiastical body of + representative colored men at Memphis, in the autumn of + 1880, I urged this consideration, when asked to advise them + about education, as the one most germane to their interests; + and preachers and laymen, and their white teachers, + approved every word, and gave me most hearty thanks. I + counseled aspiring young men to abstain from unsuitable + attempts at merely literary training; from overlooking the + intermediate links of culture in striving after something + "beyond their measure;" from expecting any more to be shot + up into the United States Senatorships, etc., by a + revolution which had already wellnigh spent its first + exceptional force (as a few extraordinary persons are thrown + up into extraordinary distinction in the beginning of + revolutions); from ambitious rejection of the steady, + thorough, toilsome methods of fitting themselves for + immediate practical duties and nearer spheres, by which + alone any class is really and healthfully elevated. To shirk + elementary preparation and aspire after the results of + scholarship without its painstaking processes is THE + _temptation of colored students_, as I know by having taught + them daily in college classes. I rejoice in every such + student who really climbs the heights of learning with + exceeding joy. But a far greater proportion than has thus + far submitted to thorough-going preparation for skilled + labor must do so, or there is no great future for them in + this land as a race. + +But already the absurdity of beginning at the apex of the educational +fabric instead of at the base is being perceived by those who have in +hand the education of colored youth. A large number of colleges are +adding industrial to their other features, and with much success, and +a larger number of educators are agitating the wisdom of such feature. + +Perhaps no educational institution in the Union has done more for the +industrial education of the colored people of the South than the +Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Agricultural Institute under the +management of General S.C. Armstrong. The success of this one +institution in industrial education, and the favor with which it is +regarded by the public, augurs well for the future of such +institutions. That they many multiply is the fervent wish of every man +who apprehends the necessities of the colored people. + +In a recent issue of the _New York Globe_, Prof. T. McCants Stewart of +the Liberia (West Africa) College, who is studying the industrial +features of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute for use in +his capacity as a professor among the people of the Lone Star +Republic, photographs in the following manner the great work being +done at Hampton. Prof. Stewart says: + + The day after my arrival, I was put into the hands of an + excellent New England gentleman, who was to show me through + the Institute. He took me first to the barn, a large and + substantial building in which are stored the products of the + farm, and in which the stock have their shelter. We ascended + a winding staircase, reached the top, and looked down upon + the Institute grounds with their wide shell-paved walls, + grassplots, flower-beds, orchards, groves and many + buildings--the whole full of life, and giving evidence of + abundant prosperity, and surrounded by a beautiful and + charming country. We came down and began our rounds through + "the little world" in which almost every phase of human life + has its existence. + + We went into the shoe-making department. It is in the upper + part of a two-story brick building. On the first floor the + harness-making department is located. We were told that + Frederick Douglass has his harness made here. One certainly + gets good material and honest work; and reasonable prices + are charged. In the shoe department several Indian boys and + youths were at work. There were also three or four colored + boys. They make annually for the United States government + two thousand pairs of shoes for the Indians. They also look + after outside orders, and do all the repairing, etc., of + boots and shoes for the faculty, officers, and + students--making fully five thousand pairs of shoes a year, + if we include the repairing in this estimate. At the head of + this department is a practical shoemaker from Boston. Each + department has a practical man at its head. We visited, not + all the first day, the blacksmith, wheelwright and tin + shops, and looked through the printing office, and the + knitting-room, in which young men are engaged manufacturing + thousands of mittens annually for a firm in Boston. These + two departments are in a commodious brick edifice, called + the "Stone Building." It is the gift of Mrs. Valeria Stone. + + One of the most interesting departments is located also in + the "Stone Building"--the sewing-room. In it are nearly a + score, perhaps more, of cheerful, busy girls. The rapid + ticking of the machine is heard, and the merry laugh + followed by gentle whispers gives life to the room. These + young girls are the future wives and mothers; and the large + majority of them will be married to poor men. In the + kitchen, the laundry, and the sewing-room, they are + acquiring a knowledge and habits of industry that will save + their husbands' pennies, and thus keep them from living from + hand to mouth, making an everlasting struggle to save their + nose from the grindstone. In the schoolroom, they are + gathering up those intellectual treasures, which will make + them in a double sense helpmeets unto their husbands. + + Standing in the carpenter and paint shops, and in the saw + mill, and seeing Negro youths engaged in the most delicate + kind of work, learning valuable and useful trades, I could + not help from feeling that this is an excellent institution, + and that I would like to have my boys spend three years + here, from fourteen to seventeen, grow strong in the love + for work, and educated to feel the dignity of labor, and + get a trade: then if they have the capacity and desire to + qualify for a "top round in the ladder," for leadership in + the "world's broad field of battle," it will be time enough + to think of Harvard and Yale and Edinburgh, or perhaps + similar African institutions. + + Mr. George H. Corliss, of Rhode Island, presented to the + school in 1879 a sixty-horse power Corliss engine. Soon + after Mr. C.P. Huntington, of the Missouri & Pacific R.R., + gave a saw mill, and as a result of these gifts large + industrial operations were begun. The saw mill is certainly + an extensive enterprise. Logs are brought up from the + Carolinas, and boards are sawn out, and in the turning + department fancy fixtures are made for houses, piazzas, etc. + + There are two farms. The Normal School farm, and the + Hemenway farm, which is four miles from the Institute. On + the former seventy tons of hay and about one hundred and + twenty tons of ensilaged fodder-corn were raised last year, + besides potatoes, corn, rye, oats, asparagus, and early + vegetables. Five hundred thousand bricks were also made. The + Hemenway farm, of five hundred acres, is in charge of a + graduate and his wife. Its receipts reach nearly three + thousand dollars a year, and the farm promises to do + invaluable service in time towards sustaining this gigantic + work. All of the industries do not pay. For example, the + deficit in the printing office last year was about seven + hundred dollars. This is due to the employment and training + of student labor. The primary aim is not the making of money + but the advancement of the student. After they learn, they + are good, profitable workmen; but they then leave the + Institute to engage in the outside world in the battle of + life. On the farm is a large number of stock, milch cows and + calves, beef cattle, horses and colts, mules, oxen, sheep + and hogs--in all nearly five hundred heads. + + In these various industries, the farm, saw mill, machine + shop, knitting, carpentering, harness making, tinsmithing, + blacksmithing, shoe-making, wheel-wrighting, tailoring, + sewing, printing, etc., over five hundred students were + engaged in 1883. They earned over thirty thousand + dollars--an average of seventy dollars each. There is no + question about the fact that this is a "beehive" into which + a bee can enter, if accepted, with nothing but his soul and + his muscle, and get a good education! + +Professor Stewart's article carries upon its face the proper reply to +Mr. Magoun's apprehensions and my own deductions, and is the very +strongest argument for a complete and immediate recasting of the +underlying principles upon which nearly all colored colleges are +sustained and operated. + +Money contributed for eleemosynary purposes is a sacred trust, and +should so be applied as to net the greatest good not only to the +beneficiary but the donor. The primary object of educational effort +among the colored people thus far has been to purify their perverted +moral nature and to indoctrinate in them correcter ideas of religion +and its obligations; and the effort has not been in vain. Yet I am +constrained to say, the inculcation of these principals has been +altogether a too predominant idea. Material possibilities are rightly +predicated upon correct moral and spiritual bases; but a morally and +spiritually sound training must be sustained by such preparation for +the actual work of life, as we find it in the machine shop, the grain +field, and the commercial pursuits. The moralist and missionary are no +equals for the man whose ideas of honest toil are supplemented by a +common school training and an educated hand. This is exemplified every +day in the ready demand for foreign-born skilled labor over our own +people, usually educated as gentlemen without means, as if they were +to be kid-gloved fellows, not men who must contend for subsistence +with the horny-handed men who have graduated from the machine shops +and factories and the schools of applied sciences of Europe. Indeed, +the absence of the old-time apprentices among the white youth of the +North, as a force in our industrial organization to draw upon, can be +accounted for upon no other ground than that the supply of +foreign-born skilled help so readily fills the demand that employers +find it a useless expenditure of means to graduate the American boy. +Thus may we account for the "grand rush" young men make for the +lighter employments and the professions, creating year after year an +idle floating population of miseducated men, and reducing the +compensation for clerical work below that received by hod-carriers. +This is not a fancy picture; it is an arraignment of the American +system of education, which proceeds upon the assumption that boys are +all "born with a silver spoon in their mouths" and are destined to +reach--not the poor-house, but the Senate House or the White House. + +The American system of education proceeds upon a false and pernicious +assumption; and, while I protest against its application generally, I +protest, in this connection, against its application in the case of +the colored youth in particular. What the colored boy, what all boys +of the country need, is _industrial not ornamental_ education; shall +they have it? Let the State and the philanthropists answer. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Judge Tourgee has for years been urgently and admirably writing +in advocacy of National Aid in Southern Education. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_How Not to Do It_ + + +Revolutions are always the outgrowth of deepest wrongs, clearly +defined by long and heated agitation, which inflame the mind of the +people, and divide them into hostile factions. The field of battle is +simply the theater upon which the hostile factions decide by superior +prowess, or numbers, or sagacity, the questions at issue. In these +conflicts, right usually, but not invariably, triumphs, as it should +always do. Revolutions quicken the conscience and intelligence of the +people, and wars purify the morals of the people by weeding out the +surplus and desperate members of the population; just as a +thunderstorm clarifies the atmosphere. + +But the problems involved in the agitation which culminated in the War +of the Rebellion are to-day as far from solution as if no shot had +been fired upon Fort Sumter or as if no Lee had laid down traitorous +arms four years thereafter. + +The giant form of the slave-master, the tyrant, still rises superior +to law, to awe and oppress the unorganized proletariat--the common +people, the laboring class. Even when slavery was first introduced +into this country, Fate had written upon the walls of the nation that +it "must go," and go it must, as the result of wise statesmanship or +amid the smoke of battle and the awful "diapason of cannonade." No man +can tell whether wisdom will dictate further argument of peaceful, or +there must be found a violent, solution; but all men of passable +intelligence know and feel that justice will prevail. Progress goes +forward ever, backward never. + +That human intelligence has reached higher ground within the present +century than it ever before attained, goes without saying. That we +have marvelously improved upon all the mechanism of government is +equally true. But whether we have improved upon the time-honored rules +of dealing with rebels by extending to them general amnesty for all +their sins of commission is seriously to be debated. If we may judge +of the proper treatment of treason by the example which, according to +Milton, High Heaven made of Lucifer, amnesty is a failure; if we may +judge by the almost absolute failure of the results of the war of the +Rebellion, we may emphatically pronounce amnesty to be a noxious weed +which should not be permitted to take too firm a rooting in our +dealing with traitors. Human, it may be, to err, and to forgive +Divine; but for man to extend forgiveness too far is positively fatal. +Examples are not wanting to show the truthfulness of the reasoning. + +There is no error which has been productive of more disaster and death +than the stupid plan adopted by the Federal government in what is +known as the "Reconstruction policy." This _policy_, born out of +expediency and nurtured in selfishness, was, in its inception, +instinct with the elements of failure and of death. Perhaps no piece +of legislation, no policy, was ever more fatuous in every detail. How +could it be otherwise? How could the men who devised it expect for it +anything more than a speedy, ignominous collapse? All the past history +of the Southern states unmistakably pointed to the utter failure of +any policy in which the whites were not made the masters; unless, +indeed, they were subjected to that severe governmental control which +their treason merited, until such time as the people were prepared for +self-government by education, the oblivion of issues out of which the +war grew, the passing away by death of the old spirits, and the +complete metamorphosis of the peculiar conditions predicated upon and +fostered by the unnatural state of slavery. + +At the close of the Rebellion, in 1865, the United States government +completely transformed the social fabric of the Southern state +governments; and, without resorting to the slow process of educating +the people; without even preparing them by proper warnings; without +taking into consideration the peculiar relations of the subject and +dominant classes--the slave class and the master class--instantly, as +it were, the lamb and the lion were commanded to lie down together. +The master class, fresh from the fields of a bloody war, with his +musket strapped to his shoulder and the sharp thorn of ignominious +defeat penetrating his breast; the master class, educated for two +hundred years to dominate in his home, in the councils of municipal, +state and Federal government; the master class, who had been taught +that slavery was a divine institution and that the black man, the +unfortunate progeny of Ham, was his lawful slave and property; and +the slave class, born to a state of slavery and obedience, educated in +the school of improvidence, mendacity and the lowest vices--these two +classes of people, born to such widely dissimilar stations in life and +educated in the most extreme schools, were declared to be _free, and +equal before the law_, with the right to vote; to testify in courts of +law; to sit upon jury and in the halls of legislation, municipal and +other; to sue and be sued; to buy and to sell; to marry and give in +marriage. In short, these two classes of people were made co-equal +citizens, entitled alike to the protection of the laws and the +benefits of government. + +I know of no instance in the various history of mankind which equals +in absurdity the presumption of the originators of our "Reconstruction +policy" that the master class would accept cordially the conditions +forced upon them, or that the enfranchised class would prove equal to +the burden so unceremoniously forced upon them. On the one hand, a +proud and haughty people, who had stubbornly contested the right of +the government to interfere with the extension of slavery, not to say +confiscation of slave property--a people rich in lands, in mental +resources, in courage; on the other, a poor, despised people, without +lands, without money, without mental resources, without moral +character--these peoples _equal_, indeed! These peoples go peaceably +to the ballot-box together to decide upon the destiny of government! +These peoples melt into an harmonious citizenry! These peoples have +and exercise mutual confidence, esteem and appreciation of their +common rights! These peoples _dissolve into one people!_ The bare +statement of the case condemns it as impracticable, illusory, in the +extreme. And, yet, these two peoples, so different in character, in +education and material condition, were turned loose to enjoy the same +benefits in common--to be one! And the _wise men_ of the nation--as, +Tourgee's _Fool_ ironically names them--thought they were legislating +for the best; thought they were doing their duty. And, so, having made +the people free, and equal before the law, and given them the ballot +with which to settle their disputes, the "_wise men_" left the people +to live in peace if they could, and to cut each other's throats if +they could not. That they should have proceeded to cut each other's +throats was as natural as it is for day to follow night. + +I do not desire to be understood as inveighing against the manumission +of the slave or the enfranchisement of the new-made free man. To do +so, would be most paradoxical on my part, who was born a slave and +spent the first nine years of my life in that most unnatural +condition. What I do inveigh against, is the unequal manner in which +the colored people were pitted against the white people; the placing +of these helpless people absolutely in the power of this hereditary +foeman--more absolutely in their power, at their mercy, than under the +merciless system of slavery, when sordid interest dictated a modicum +of humanity and care in treatment. And I arraign the "Reconstruction +policy" as one of the hollowest pieces of perfidy ever perpetrated +upon an innocent, helpless people; and in the treatment of the issues +growing out of that policy, I arraign the dominant party of the time +for base ingratitude, subterfuge and hypocrisy to its black partisan +allies. With the whole power of the government at its back, and with a +Constitution so amended as to extend the amplest protection to the +new-made citizen, it left him to the inhuman mercy of men whose +uncurbed passions, whose deeds of lawlessness and defiance, pale into +virtues the ferocity of Cossack warfare. And, for this treachery, for +leaving this people alone and single-handed, to fight an enemy born in +the lap of self-confidence, and rocked in the cradle of arrogance and +cruelty, the "party of great moral ideas" must go down to history amid +the hisses and the execrations of honest men in spite of its good +deeds. There is not one extenuating circumstance to temper the +indignation of him who believes in justice and humanity. + +As I stand before the thirteen bulky volumes, comprising the "Ku Klux +Conspiracy," being the report of the "Joint Select Committee, to +inquire into the condition of affairs in the late Insurrectionary +States," on the part of the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States, reported February 19, 1872, my blood runs cold at the +merciless chronicle of murder and outrage, of defiance, inhumanity and +barbarity on the one hand, and usurpation and tyranny on the other. + +If the shot upon Fort Sumter was treason, what shall we call the +bloody conflict which the white men of the South have waged against +the Constitutional amendments from 1866 to the murder of innocent +citizens at Danville, Virginia, in 1883--even unto the present time? +If the shot upon Fort Sumter drew down upon the South the indignation +and the vengeance of the Federal government, putting father against +son, and brother against brother, what shall we say the Federal +Government should have done to put a period to the usurpation and the +murders of these leagues of horror? + +The entire adult male population of the South, though no longer in +armed "Rebellion," appeared to be in league against the government of +the United States. The arm of State authority was paralyzed, the +operation of courts of justice was suspended, lawlessness and +individual license walked abroad, and anarchy, pure and simple, +prevailed. Under the name of the "Ku Klux Klan," the South was bound +by the following oath, ironclad, paradoxical and enigmatical as it is: + + I, [name] before the great immaculate Judge of heaven and + earth, and upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, do, of + my own free will and accord, subscribe to the following + sacred, binding obligation: + + I. I am on the side of justice and humanity and + constitutional liberty, as bequeathed to us by our + forefathers in its original purity. + + II. I reject and oppose the principles of the radical + party. + + III. I pledge aid to a brother of the Ku-Klux Klan in + sickness, distress, or pecuniary embarrassments. Females, + friends, widows, and their households shall be the special + object of my care and protection. + + IV. Should I ever divulge, or cause to be divulged, any of + the secrets of this order, or any of the foregoing + obligations, I must meet with the fearful punishment of + death and traitor's doom, which is death, death, death, at + the hands of the brethren. + +Murderers, incendiaries, midnight raiders on the "side of justice, +humanity and Constitutional liberty"! Let us see what kind of +"justice, humanity and Constitutional liberty" is meant. In Volume I, +page 21, I find the following: + + Taking these statements from official sources, showing the + prevalence of this organization in every one of the late + insurrectionary States and in Kentucky, it is difficult now, + with the light that has recently been thrown upon its + history, to realize that even its existence has been for so + long a mooted question in the public mind. Especially is + this remarkable in view of the effects that are disclosed by + some of this documentary evidence to have been produced by + it. That it was used as a means of intimidating and + murdering negro voters during the presidential election of + 1868, the testimony in the Louisiana and other + contested-election cases already referred to clearly + establishes. + + Taking the results in Louisiana alone as an instance, the + purpose of the organization at that time, whatever it may + have been at its origin, could hardly be doubted. + + A member of the committee which took that testimony thus + sums it up: + + The testimony shows that over 2,000 persons were killed, + wounded, and otherwise injured in that State within a few + weeks prior to the presidential election; that half the + State was overrun by violence; midnight raids, secret + murders, and open riot kept the people in constant terror + until the Republicans surrendered all claims, and then the + election was carried by the Democracy. The parish of Orleans + contained 29,910 voters, 15,020 black. In the spring of 1868 + that parish gave 13,973 republican votes. In the fall of + 1868 it gave Grant 1,178, a falling off of 12,795 votes. + Riots prevailed for weeks, sweeping the city of New Orleans, + and filling it with scenes of blood, and Ku-Klux notices + were scattered through the city warning the colored men not + to vote. In Caddo there were 2,987 Republicans. In the + spring of 1868 they carried the parish. In the fall they + gave Grant one vote. Here also there were bloody riots. + + But the most remarkable case is that of St. Landry, a + planting parish on the River Teche. Here the Republicans had + a registered majority of 1,071 votes. In the spring of 1868 + they carried the parish by 678. In the fall they gave Grant + no vote, not one; while the democrats cast 4,787, the full + vote of the parish, for Seymour and Blair. + + Here occurred one of the bloodiest riots on record, in + which the Ku-Klux killed and wounded over two hundred + Republicans, hunting and chasing them for two days and + nights through fields and swamps. Thirteen captives were + taken from the jail and shot. A pile of twenty-five dead + bodies was found half buried in the woods. Having conquered + the Republicans, killed and driven off the white leaders, + the Ku-Klux captured the masses, marked them with badges of + red flannel, enrolled them in clubs, led them to the polls, + made them vote the Democratic ticket, and then gave them + certificates of the fact. + +It is not my purpose to weary the reader with tedious citations from +the cumbersome reports of the "Ku Klux conspiracy." Those reports are +accessible to the reading public. They tell the bloody story of the +terrible miscarriage of the "Reconstruction policy;" they show how +cruel men can be under conditions favorable to unbridled license, +undeterred by the strong arm of constituted authority; they show how +helpless the freed people were; how ignorant, how easily led by +unscrupulous adventurers _pretending to be friends_ and how easily +murdered and overawed by veterans inured to the dangers and the toils +of war; and, lastly, they show how powerless was the national +government to protect its citizens' rights, specifically defined by +the Federal constitution. _Was_, do I say? It is as powerless to day! + +In this brief review, then, of the history and present political +condition of the American Negro I cannot omit, though I shall not +detail, the horrors of the Ku Klux period. They are a link in the +chain: and though today's links are different in form and guise, _the +chain is the same_. Let the reader, then, be a little patient at being +reminded of things which he has perhaps forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_The Nation Surrenders_ + + +The mind sickens in contemplating the mistakes of the "Reconstruction +policy;" and the revolting peculation and crime--which went hand in +hand from 1867-8 to 1876, bankrupting and terrorizing those +unfortunate States--plunging them into all but anarchy, pure and +simple. + +A parallel to the terror which walked abroad in the South from 1866, +down to 1876, and which is largely dominant in that section even unto +the present hour, must be sought for in other lands than our own, +where the iron hand of the tyrant, seated upon a throne, cemented with +a thousand years of usurpation and the blood of millions of innocent +victims, presses hard upon the necks of the high and the backs of the +low; we must turn to the dynastic villanies of the house of Orleans or +of Stuart, or that prototype of all that is tyrannical, sordid and +inhuman, the Czar of all the Russias. The "Invisible Empire," with its +"Knights of the White Camelia," was as terrible as the "Empire" which +Marat, Danton and Robespierre made for themselves, with this +difference: the "Knights of the White Camelia" were assassins and +marauders who murdered and terrorized in defiance of all laws, human +or divine, though claiming allegiance to both; while the Frenchmen +regarded themselves as the lawful authority of the land and rejected +utterly the Divine or "higher law." The one murdered men as highwaymen +do, while the other murdered them under the cover of law and in the +name of _Liberty_, in whose name, as Madame Roland exclaimed on the +scaffold of revolutionary vengeance, so many crimes are perpetrated! +The one murdered kings and aristocrats to unshackle the limbs of the +proletariat of France; the other murdered the proletariat of the South +to re-rivet their chains upon the wretched survivors. And each class +of murders proclaimed that it was actuated by the motive of _justice +and humanity_. Liberty was the grand inspiration that steeled the arm +and hardened the heart of each of the avengers! + +And thus it has been in all the history of murder and plunder. +Liberty! the People! these are the sacred objects with which tyrants +cloak their usurpations, and which assassins plead in extenuation of +their brazen disregard of life, of virtue, of all that is dear and +sacred to the race. The dagger of Brutus and the sword of Cromwell, +were they not drawn in the name of Liberty--the People? The guillotine +of the French Commune and the derringer of J. Wilkes Booth, were they +not inspired by Liberty--the People? + +The innocent blood which has been spilt in the name of liberty and the +people, which has served the purposes of tyranny and riveted upon the +people most galling chains, "would float a navy." + +By the side of the robbery, the embezzlement, the depletion of the +treasury of South Carolina, and the imposition of ruinous and +unnecessary taxation upon the people of that state by the Carpet-Bag +harpies, aided and abetted by the ignorant negroes whom our government +had not given time to shake the dust of the cornfield from their feet +before it invited them to seats in the chambers of legislature, we +must place the heartless butcheries of Hamburgh and Ellenton. + +By the side of the misgovernment, the honeycomb of corruption in which +the Carpet-Bag government of Louisiana reveled, we must place the +universal lawlessness which that state witnessed from 1867 to 1876. + +The whole gamut of states could be run with the same deplorable, the +same sickening conclusion. + +The Federal authority had created the wildest confusion and retired to +watch the fire-brand. The "wise men" of the nation had made possible a +system of government in which robbery and murder were to contend for +the mastery, in which organized ignorance and organized brigandage +were to contend for the right to rule _and_ to ruin. + +It is not complimentary to the white men of the South that their +organized brigandage proved to be more stubborn, more far-sighted than +was unorganized ignorance. In a warfare of this disreputable nature +very little honor can be accorded to the victorious party, be he +brigand or ignoramus. The warfare is absolutely devoid of principle, +and, therefore, victory, any way it is twisted, is supremely +dishonorable. + +The South, therefore, although she rooted out the incubus of +_carpet-baggism_ (one of the most noxious plants that ever blossomed +in the garden of any nascent society), and stifled the liberties and +immunities of a whole people, turning their new-found joy into sadness +and mourning--although the South succeeded in accomplishing these +results, she lies prostrate to-day, feared by her fellow-citizens, who +will not trust her with power, and shunned by the industrious aliens +who seek our shores, because they will not become members of a society +in which individualism and absolutism are the supreme law--for was it +not to escape these parasites that they expatriated themselves from +the shores of the Volga, the Danube and the Rhine? Men will not make +their homes among people who, spurning the accepted canons of justice +and the courts of law, make themselves a community of _banditti_. +Thus, the South lies prostrate, staggering beneath a load of +illiteracy sufficient to paralyze the energies of any people; dwelling +in the midst of usurpation, where law is suspended and individual +license is the standard authority; where criminals and suspected +criminals are turned over to the rude mercy of mobs, masked and +irresponsible; where caste corrupts every rivulet that issues from the +fountain of aspiration or of chastity;[13] where no man is allowed to +think or act for himself who does not conform his thoughts and shape +his actions to suit the censorious and haughty _dictum_ of the +dominant class. + +"You must think as we think and act as we act, or you must go!" This +is the law of the South. + +In each of the late rebellious states the ballotbox has been closed +against the black man. To reach it he is compelled to brave the +muzzles of a thousand rifles in the hands of silent sentinels who +esteem a human life as no more sacred than the serpent that drags his +tortuous length among the grasses of the field, and whose head mankind +is enjoined to crush. + +The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal +constitution which grew out of the public sentiment created by thirty +long years of agitation of the abolitionists and of the "emancipation +proclamation"--issued as a war measure by President Lincoln--are no +longer regarded as fundamental by the South. The beneficiaries of +those amendments have failed in every instance to enjoy the benefits +that were, presumably, intended to be conferred. + +These laws--having passed both branches of the Federal legislature, +having received the approval and signature of the Chief Executive of +the nation, and having been ratified by a majority of the states +composing the sisterhood of states--these laws are no longer binding +upon the people of the South, who fought long and desperately to +prevent the possibility of their enactment; and they no longer +benefit, if they ever did, the people in whose interest they were +incorporated in the _Magna Charta_ of American liberty; _while the +Central authority which originated them, has, through the Supreme +Court, declared nugatory, null and void all supplementary legislation +based upon those laws, as far as the government of the United States +is concerned!_ The whole question has been remanded to the +legislatures of the several states! The Federal Union has left to the +usurped governments of the South the adjudication of rights which the +South fought four years in honorable warfare to make impossible, and +which it has since the war exhausted the catalogue of infamy and +lawlessness to make of no force or effect. The fate of the lamb has +been left to the mercy of the lion and the tiger. + +The "party of great moral ideas," having emancipated the slave, and +enfranchised disorganized ignorance and poverty, finally finished its +mission, relinquished its right to the respect and confidence of +mankind when, in 1876, it abandoned all effort to enforce the +provisions of the war amendments. That party stands today for +organized corruption, while its opponent stands for organized +brigandage. The black man, who was betrayed by his party and murdered +by the opponents of his party, is absolved from all allegiance which +_gratitude_ may have dictated, and is to-day free to make conditions +the best possible with any faction which will insure him in his right +to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." + +The black men of the United States are, today, free to form whatever +alliances wisdom dictates, to make sure their position in the social +and civil system of which, in the wise providence of a just God, they +are a factor, for better or for worse. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] "Southerners fire up terribly, as has been noted in these columns +again and again, when the subject of intermarriage between whites and +negroes is discussed. But the terrible state of immorality which +exists there, involving white men and colored women, is something upon +which the papers of that region are silent as a rule. Not so the grand +jury that met recently at Madison, Ga., which thus spoke out in its +presentment with all plainness of the Old Testament: + +"After several days of laborious investigation we have found the moral +state of our country in a fair condition, and the freedom of our +community from any great criminal offenses is a subject for +congratulation to our people. But the open and shameless cohabitation +of white men with negro women in our community cries to heaven for +abatement. This crime in its nature has been such as to elude our +grasp owing to the limited time of our session. It is poisoning the +fountains of our social life; it is ruining and degrading our young +men, men who would scorn to have imputation put on them of +equalization with negroes, but who have, nevertheless, found the +lowest depths of moral depravity in this unnatural shame of their +lives." + +"The despatch chronicling the presentment adds: 'The reading of this +presentment in court aroused a great feeling of indignation among men +who declare that the private affairs of the people should not be +intruded upon.' It strikes the Northern mind that until these 'private +affairs' do not need to be 'intruded upon,' Southern newspapers and +Southern clergymen would with better grace bottle up their indignation +upon the terrible evils likely to result from the legitimate +intermarriage of the two races."--_Newspaper waif._ + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Political Independence of the Negro_ + + +The following chapter is, in the main, a reproduction of an address +delivered by me before the Colored Press Association, in the city of +Washington, June 27, 1882:-- + + * * * * * + +In addressing myself to a consideration of the subject: "The colored +man as an Independent Force in our Politics," I come at once to one of +the vital principles underlying American citizenship of the colored +man in a peculiar manner. Upon this question hang all the conditions +of man as a free moral agent, as an intelligent reasoning being; as a +man thoughtful for the best interests of his country, of his +individual interests, and of the interests of those who must take up +the work of republican government when the present generation has +passed away. When I say that this question is of a most complex and +perplexing nature, I only assert what is known of all men. + +I would not forget that the arguments for and against independent +action on our part are based upon two parties or sets of principles. +Principles are inherent in government by the people, and parties are +engines created by the people through which to voice the principles +they espouse. Parties have divided on one line in this country from +the beginning of our national existence to the present time. All other +issues merge into two distinct ones--the question of a strong Federal +Government, as enunciated by Alexander Hamilton, and maintained by the +present Republican party, and the question of the rights and powers of +the States, as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson, and as maintained by +the present Democratic party,--called the "party of the people," but +in fact the party of oligarchy, bloodshed, violence and oppression. +The Republican party won its first great victory on the inherent +weakness of the Democratic party on the question of Human Rights and +the right of the Federal Government to protect itself from the +assumption, the aggression, the attempted usurpation, of the States, +and it has maintained its supremacy for so long a time as to lead to +the supposition that it will rule until such time as it shall fall to +pieces of itself because of internal decay and exterior cancers. There +does not appear to exist sufficient vitality outside of the +Republican party to keep its members loyal to the people or honest to +the government. The loyal legislation which would be occasioned by +dread of loss of power, and the administration of the government in +the most economical form, are wanting, because of the absence of an +honest, healthy opposing party. + +But it is not my purpose to dwell upon the mechanism of parties, but +rather to show why colored Americans should be independent voters, +independent citizens, independent men. To this end I am led to lay it +down: (1.) That an independent voter must be intelligent, must +comprehend the science of government, and be versed in the history of +governments and of men; (2.) That an independent voter must be not +only a citizen versed in government, but one loyal to his country, and +generous and forbearing with his fellow-citizens, not looking always +to the word and the act, but looking sometimes to the undercurrent +which actuates these--to the presence of immediate interest, which is +always strong in human nature, to the love of race, and to the love of +section, which comes next to the love of country. + +Our country is great not only in mineral and cereal resources, in +numbers, and in accumulated wealth, but great in extent of territory, +and in multiplicity of interests, out-growing from peculiarities of +locality, race, and the education of the people. Thus the people of +the North and East and West are given to farming, manufacturing, and +speculation, making politics a subordinate, not a leading interest; +they are consequently wealthy, thrifty and contented: while the people +of the South, still in the shadow of defeat in the bloodiest and most +tremendous conflict since the Napoleonic wars, are divided sharply +into two classes, and given almost exclusively to the pursuits of +agriculture and hatred of one another. The existence of this state of +things is most disastrous in its nature, and deplorable in its +results. It is a barrier against the progress of that section and +alien to the spirit and subversive of the principles of our free +institutions. + +It is in the South that the largest number of our people live; it is +there that they encounter the greatest hardships; it is there the +problem of their future usefulness as American citizens must have full +and satisfactory, or disastrous and disheartening demonstration. +Consequently, the colored statesman and the colored editor must turn +their attention to the South and make that field the center of +speculation, deduction and practical application. We all understand +the conditions of society in that section and the causes which have +produced them, and, while not forgetting the causes, it is a common +purpose to alter the existing conditions, so that they may conform to +the logic of the great Rebellion and the spirit and letter of the +Federal Constitution. It is not surprising, therefore, that, as an +humble worker in the interest of my race and the common good, I have +decided views as to the course best to be pursued by our people in +that section, and the fruits likely to spring from a consistent +advocacy of such views. + +I may stand alone in the opinion that the best interests of the race +and the best interests of the country will be conserved by building up +a bond of union between the white people and the negroes of the +South--advocating the doctrine that the interests of the white and the +interests of the colored people are one and the same; that the +legislation which affects the one will affect the other; that the good +which comes to the one should come to the other, and that, as one +people, the evils which blight the hopes of the one blight the hopes +of the other; I say, I may stand alone among colored men in the belief +that harmony of sentiment between the blacks and whites of the +country, in so far forth as it tends to honest division and healthy +opposition, is natural and necessary, but I speak that which is a +conviction as strong as the Stalwart idea of diversity between Black +and White, which has so crystallized the opinion of the race. + +It is not safe in a republican form of government that clannishness +should exist, either by compulsory or voluntary reason; it is not good +for the government, it is not good for the individual. A government +like ours is like unto a household. Difference of opinion on +non-essentials is wholesome and natural, but upon the fundamental idea +incorporated in the Declaration of Independence and re-affirmed in the +Federal Constitution the utmost unanimity should prevail. That all men +are born equal, so far as the benefits of government extend; that each +and every man is justly entitled to the enjoyment of life, liberty and +the pursuit of happiness, so long as these benign benefits be not +forfeited by infraction upon the rights of others; that freedom of +thought and unmolested expression of honest conviction and the right +to make these effective through the sacred medium of a fair vote and +an honest count, are God-given and not to be curtailed--these are the +foundations of republican government; these are the foundations of our +institutions; these are the birthright of every American citizen; +these are the guarantees which make men free and independent and +great. + +The colored man must rise to a full conception of his citizenship +before he can make his citizenship effective. It is a fatality to +create or foster clannishness in a government like ours. Assimilation +of sentiment must be the property of the German, the Irish, the +English, the Anglo-African, and all other racial elements that +contribute to the formation of the American type of citizen. The +moment you create a caste standard, the moment you recognize the +existence of such, that moment republican government stands beneath +the sword of Damocles, the vitality of its being becomes vitiated and +endangered. If this be true, the American people have grave cause for +apprehension. The Anglo-African element of our population is classed +off by popular sentiment, and kept so. It is for the thoughtful, the +honest, the calm but resolute men of the race to mould the sentiment +of the masses, lift them up into the broad sunlight of freedom. +Ignorance, superstition, prejudice, and intolerance are elements in +our nature born of the malign institution of servitude. No fiat of +government can eradicate these. As they were the slow growth, the +gradual development of long years of inhuman conditions, so they must +be eliminated by the slow growth of years of favorable conditions. Let +us recognize these facts as facts, and labor honestly to supplant them +with more wholesome, more cheering realities. The Independent colored +man, like the Independent white man, is an American citizen who does +his own thinking. When some one else thinks for him he ceases to be an +intelligent citizen and becomes a dangerous dupe--dangerous to +himself, dangerous to the State. + +It is not to be expected now that the colored voters will continue to +maintain that unanimity of idea and action characteristic of them when +the legislative halls of States resounded with the clamor of +law-makers of their creation, and when their breath flooded or +depleted State treasuries. The conditions are different now. They find +themselves citizens without a voice in the shapement of legislation; +tax-payers without representation; men without leadership masterful +enough to force respect from inferior numbers in some States, or to +hold the balance of power in others. They find themselves at the mercy +of a relentless public opinion which tolerates but does not respect +their existence as a voting force; but which, on the contrary, while +recognizing their right to the free exercise of the suffrage, forbids +such exercise at the point of the shotgun of the assassin, whom it not +only nerves but shields in the perpetration of his lawless and +infamous crimes. And why is this? Why is it that the one hundred and +twenty thousand black voters of South Carolina allow the eighty +thousand white voters of that State to grind the life out of them by +laws more odious, more infamous, more tyrannical and subversive of +manhood than any which depopulate the governments of the old world? Is +it because the white man is the created viceregent of government? The +Scriptures affirm that all are sprung from one parental stem. Is it +because he is the constitutionally invested oligarch of government? +The magna charta of our liberties affirms that "all men are created +equal." Is it because the law of the land reserves unto him the +dominance of power? The preamble of the Federal Constitution declares +that "We" and not "I," constitute "the people of the United States." +If the law of God and the law of man agree in the equality of right of +man, explain to me the cause which keeps a superior force in +subjection to a minority. Look to the misgovernment of the +Reconstruction period for the answer--misgovernment by white men and +black men who were lifted into a "little brief authority" by a mighty +but unwieldy voting force. That black man who connived at and shared +in the corruption in the South which resulted in the subversion of the +majority rule, is a traitor to his race and his country, wherever he +may now be eking out a precarious and inglorious existence, and I have +nothing to heap upon his head but the curses, the execrations of an +injured people. Like Benedict Arnold he should seek a garret in the +desert of population, living unnoticed and without respect, where he +might die without arousing the contempt of his people. + +The love of Liberty carries with it the courage to preserve it from +encroachments from without and from contempt from within. A people in +whom the love of liberty is in-born cannot be enslaved, though they +may be exterminated by superior force and intelligence, as in the case +of the poor Indian of our own land--a people who, two hundred years +ago, spread their untamed hordes from the icebergs of Maine to the +balmy sunland of Florida. But to-day where are they? Their love of +freedom and valorous defense of priority of ownership of our domain +have caused them to be swept from the face of the earth. Had they +possessed intelligence with their more than Spartan courage, the wave +of extermination could never have rolled over them forever. As a man I +admire the unconquerable heroism and fortitude of the Indian. So brave +a race of people were worthy a nobler and a happier destiny. As an +American citizen, I feel it born in my nature to share in fullest +measure all that is American. I sympathize in all the hopes, +aspirations and fruitions of my country. There is no pulsation in the +animated frame of my native land which does not thrill my nature. +There is no height of glory we may reach as a government in which I +should not feel myself individually lifted; and there is no depth of +degradation to which we may fall to which I should not feel myself +individually dragged. In a word, I am an American citizen. I have a +heritage in each and every provision incorporated in the Constitution +of my country, and should this heritage be attempted to be filched +from me by any man or body of men, I should deem the provocation +sufficiently grievous to stake even life in defense of it. I would +plant every colored man in this country on a platform of this +nature--to think for himself, to speak for himself, to act for +himself. This is the ideal citizen of an ideal government such as ours +is modelled to become. This is my conception of the colored man as an +independent force in our politics. To aid in lifting our people to +this standard, is one of the missions which I have mapped out for my +life-work. I may be sowing the seed that will ripen into disastrous +results, but I don't think so. My conception of republican government +does not lead me to a conclusion so inconsistent with my hopes, my +love of my country and of my race. + +I look upon my race in the South and I see that they are helplessly at +the mercy of a popular prejudice outgrowing from a previous condition +of servitude; I find them clothed in the garments of citizenship by +the Federal Government and opposed in the enjoyment of it by their +equals, not their superiors, in the benefits of government; I find +that the government which conferred the right of citizenship is +powerless, or indisposed, to force respect for its own enactments; I +find that these people, left to the mercy of their enemies, alone and +defenseless, and without judicious leadership, are urged to preserve +themselves loyal to the men and to the party which have shown +themselves unable to extend to them substantial protection; I find +that these people, alone in their struggles of doubt and of prejudice, +are surrounded by a public opinion powerful to create and powerful to +destroy; I find them poor in culture and poor in worldly substance, +and dependent for the bread they eat upon those they antagonize +politically. As a consequence, though having magnificent majorities, +they have no voice in shaping the legislation which is too often made +an engine to oppress them; though performing the greatest amount of +labor, they suffer from overwork and insufficient remuneration; though +having the greater number of children, the facilities of education are +not as ample or as good as those provided for the whites out of the +common fund, nor have they means to supply from private avenues the +benefits of education denied them by the State. Now, what is the +solution of this manifold and grievous state of things? Will it come +by standing solidly opposed to the sentiment, the culture, the +statesmanship, and the possession of the soil and wealth of the South? +Let the history of the past be spread before the eyes of a candid and +thoughtful people; let the bulky roll of misgovernment, incompetence, +and blind folly be enrolled on the one hand, and then turn to the +terrors of the midnight assassin and the lawless deeds which desecrate +the sunlight of noontide, walking abroad as a phantom armed with the +desperation of the damned! + +I maintain the idea that the preservation of our liberties, the +consummation of our citizenship, must be conserved and matured, not by +standing alone and apart, sullen as the melancholy Dane, but by +imbibing all that is American, entering into the life and spirit of +our institutions, spreading abroad in sentiment, feeling the full +force of the fact that while we are classed as Africans, just as the +Germans are classed as Germans we are in all things American citizens, +American freemen. Since we have tried the idea of political unanimity +let us now try other ideas, ideas more in consonance with the spirit +of our institution. There is no strength in a union that enfeebles. +Assimilation, a melting into the corporate body, having no distinction +from others, equally the recipients of government--this is to be the +independent man, be his skin tanned by the torrid heat of Africa, or +bleached by the eternal snows of the Caucasus. To preach the +independence of the colored man is to preach his Americanization. The +shackles of slavery have been torn from his limbs by the stern +arbitrament of arms; the shackles of political enslavement, of +ignorance, and of popular prejudice must be broken on the wheels of +ceaseless study and the facility with which he becomes absorbed into +the body of the people. To aid himself is his first duty if he +believes that he is here to stay, and not a probationer for the land +of his forefathers--a land upon which he has no other claim than one +of sentiment. + +What vital principle affecting our citizenship is championed by the +National Republican party of to-day? Is it a fair vote and an honest +count? Measure our strength in the South and gaze upon the solitary +expression of our citizenship in the halls of the National +Legislature. The fair vote which we cast for Rutherford B. Hayes +seemed to have incurred the enmity of that chief Executive, and he and +his advisers turned the colored voters of the South over to the +bloodthirsty minority of that section. + +The Republican party has degenerated into an ignoble scramble for +place and power. It has forgotten the principles for which Sumner +contended, and for which Lincoln died. It betrayed the cause for which +Douglass, Garrison and others labored, in the blind policy it pursued +in reconstructing the rebellious States. It made slaves freemen and +freemen slaves in the same breath by conferring the franchise and +withholding the guarantees to insure its exercise; it betrayed its +trust in permitting thousands of innocent men to be slaughtered +without declaring the South in rebellion, and in pardoning murders, +whom tardy justice had consigned to a felon's dungeon. It is even now +powerless to insure an honest expression of the vote of the colored +citizen. For these things, I do not deem it binding upon colored men +further to support the Republican party when other more advantageous +affiliations can be formed. And what of the Bourbon Democratic party? +There has not been, there is not now, nor will there ever be, any good +thing in it for the colored man. Bourbon Democracy is a curse to our +land. Any party is a curse which arrays itself in opposition to human +freedom, to the universal brotherhood of man. No colored man can ever +claim truthfully to be a Bourbon Democrat. It is a fundamental +impossibility. But he can be an independent, a progressive Democrat. + +The hour has arrived when thoughtful colored men should cease to put +their faith upon broken straws; when they should cease to be the +willing tools of a treacherous and corrupt party; when they should +cease to support men and measures which do not benefit them or the +race; when they should cease to be duped by one faction and shot by +the other. The time has fully arrived when they should have their +position in parties more fully defined, and when, by the ballot which +they hold, they should force more respect for the rights of life and +property. + +To do this, they must adjust themselves to the altered condition which +surrounds them. They must make for themselves a place to stand. In the +politics of the country the colored vote must be made as uncertain a +quantity as the German and Irish vote. The color of their skin must +cease to be an index to their political creed. They must think less of +"the party" and more of themselves; give less heed to a name and more +heed to principles. + +The black men and white men of the South have a common destiny. +Circumstances have brought them together and so interwoven their +interests that nothing but a miracle can dissolve the link that binds +them. It is, therefore, to their mutual disadvantage that anything but +sympathy and good will should prevail. A reign of terror means a +stagnation of all the energies of the people and a corruption of the +fountains of law and justice. + +The colored men of the South must cultivate more cordial relations +with the white men of the South. They must, by a wise policy, hasten +the day when politics shall cease to be the shibboleth that creates +perpetual warfare. The citizen of a State is far more sovereign than +the citizen of the United States. The State is a real, tangible +reality; a thing of life and power; while the United States is, +purely, an abstraction--a thing that no man has successfully defined, +although many, wise in their way and in their own conceit, have +philosophized upon it to their own satisfaction. The metaphysical +polemics of men learned in the science of republican government, +covering volume upon volume of "debates," the legislation of +ignoramuses, styled statesmen, and the "strict" and "liberal" +construction placed upon their work by the judicial _magi_, together +with a long and disastrous rebellion, to the cruel arbitrament of +which the question had been, as was finally hoped, in the last resort, +submitted, have failed, all and each, to define that visionary thing +the so-called Federal government, and its just rights and powers. As +Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson left it, so it is to-day, a +bone of contention, a red flag in the hands of the political matadors +of one party to infuriate those of the other parties. + +No: it is time that the colored voter learned to leave his powerless +"protectors" and take care of himself. Let every one read, listen, +think, reform his own ideas of affairs in his own locality; let him be +less interested in the continual wars of national politics than in the +interests of his own town and county and state; let him make friends +of the mammon of unrighteousness of his own neighborhood, so far as to +take an intelligent part among his neighbors, white and black, and +vote for the men and for the party that will do the best for him and +his race, and best conserve the interest of his vicinity. Let there be +no aim of _solidifying_ the colored vote; the massing of black means +the massing of white by contrast. Individual colored men--and many of +them--have done wonders in self-elevation; but there can be no general +elevation of the colored men of the South until they use their voting +power in independent local affairs with some discrimination more +reasonable than an obstinate clinging to a party name. When the +colored voters differ among themselves and are to be found on _both +sides_ of local political contests, they will begin to find themselves +of some political importance; their votes will be sought, cast, _and +counted_. + +And this is the key to the whole situation; let them make themselves a +part of the people. It will take time, patience, intelligence, +courage; but it can be done: and until it is done their path will lie +in darkness and perhaps in blood. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_Solution of the Political Problem_ + + +I have no faith in parties. In monarchical and imperial governments +they are always manipulated by royal boobies, who are in turn +manipulated by their empty-pated favorites and their women of +soporific virtue; while in republics they are always manipulated by +demagogues, tricksters, and corruptionists, who figure in the +newspapers as "bosses," "heelers" and "sluggers," and in history as +statesmen, senators and representatives. These gentlemen, who _rule_ +our government and _ruin_ our people, comprise what Mr. Matthew Arnold +recently termed the "remnant" which should be permitted to run things +to suit themselves, the people, the great mass, being incapable of +taking care of themselves and the complex machinery of government. Of +course, Mr. Arnold, who is necessarily very British in his ideas of +government, intended that the "remnant" he had in his "mind's eye," +should comprise men of the most exalted character and intelligence, +the very things which keep them out of the gutters of politics. Men of +exalted character are expected in our country to attend to their own +concerns, not the concerns of the people, and to give the "boys" a +chance; while the men of exalted intelligence are, by reason of the +great industry and seclusiveness necessary to their work, too much +wedded to their books and their quiet modes of life to rush into ward +meetings and contend for political preferment with the "Mikes" and +"Jakes" who make their bread and butter out of the spoils and +peculations of office. A Clay or Webster, a Seward or Sumner, +sometimes gets into politics, but it is by accident. There is not +enough money in our politics to cause honest men to make it an object, +while the corruption frequently necessary to maintain a political +position, is so disgusting as to deter honest men from making it a +business. + +A love of power easily degenerates from patriotism into treason or +tyranny, or both. As it is easier to fall from virtue to vice than it +is to rise from vice to virtue, so it is easier to fall from +patriotism than to rise to it. + +Before the war the men of the South engaged, at first, in politics as +an elegant pastime. They had plenty of leisure and plenty of money. +They did not take to literature and science, because these pursuits +require severe work and more or less of a strong bias, for a thorough +exposition of their profound penetralia. It may be, too, that their +assumed patrician sensitiveness shrank from entering into competition +with the plebeian fellows who had to study hard and write voluminously +for a few pennies to keep soul and body together. And your Southern +grandees, before the war, were not compelled to drudge for a +subsistence; they had to take little thought for the morrow. Their +vast landed estates and black slaves were things that did not +fluctuate; under the effective supervision of the viperous +slave-driver the black Samson rose before the coming of the sun, and +the land, nature's own flower garden and man's inalienable heritage, +brought forth golden corn and snowy cotton in their season. Southern +intelligence expended its odors in the avenues where brilliance, not +profundity, was the passport to popularity. Hence, Southern +hospitality (giving to others that which had been deliberately stolen) +became almost as proverbial in the _polite_ circles of America and +Europe as the long established suavity and condescension of the +French. And even unto the present time the hospitality of the South, +shorn of its profuseness and grandiloquence, is frequently the theme +of newspaper hacks and magazine penny-a-liners. But the shadow alone +remains; the substance has departed--"There are no birds in last +year's nest." + +If the literary reputation of the United States had been rated, up to +the close of the Rebellion, on the contributions of Southern +men--fiction, prose and poetry, science, art, and invention--the +polite nations of the world would have regarded us as a nation of +semi-barbarians. But, happily, the rugged genius of New England made +up then and makes up now for the poverty of literary effort on the +part of the South. True, a few men since the war have placed the +South in a better light; but even their work, as an index of Southern +genius, is regarded as highly precocious and tentative. + +The South has yet to demonstrate that she has capacity for high +literary effort. In the process of that demonstration, I am fully +persuaded that the Anglo-African--with his brilliant wit and humor, +his highly imaginative disposition and his innate fondness for +literary pursuits--will contribute largely to give the South an +enviable and honorable position. + +What the South lacked in literary effort before the war she made up in +a magnificent galaxy of meteoric statesmen, who rushed into politics +with the instinct of ducks taking to water, and who were forgotten, in +the majority of cases, before they had run out their ephemeral career. +A few names have survived the earthquake, and are remembered for their +cleverness rather than their depth. A few more decades, and they will +be remembered only by the curious student who plods his weary way +through the labyrinth of Congressional records and the musty archives +of States, seeking for data of times which long ago passed into the +hazy vista of history and romance. Before the war the Southern man of +leisure took to politics more as a pastime than as a serious business. +But as the pastime was agreeable, and as it gave additional weight and +distinction, all those who could, strived to make it appear that they +were men of importance in the Nation. They were largely a nation of +politicians, always brilliant, shallow, bellicose and dogmatic, as +ready to decide an argument with the shotgun or saber as with reason +and logic. + +This was the temper of the people who rushed into the war with the +confidence of a schoolboy and who limped out like a man overtaken in +his gymnastic exercise by a paralytic stroke. The war taught the South +a very useful lesson, but did not sufficiently convince it that it was +preeminently a supercilious, arrogant people, who did not and do not +possess all the virtue, intelligence, and courage of the country; +that its stock of these prime elements is woefully small considering +the long years it had posed as America's own patrician class. + +But when the war was over, and the Southern nobility turned its +thoughts once more to social arrogance and political dominion, it +found that Othello's occupation was entirely gone. A revolution had +swept over the country more iconoclastic and merciless than that which +followed in the wake of the French revolution nearly a hundred years +before. The bottom rail had been violently placed upon the top; +industrial adjustments had been so completely metamorphosed as to defy +detection; while the basis and the method of political representation +and administration had been so altered as to confound both the old and +the new forces. + +Aside from the ignorance of the black citizens and the insatiate greed +and unscrupulousness of their carpet-bag leaders--a band of vultures +more voracious and depraved than any which ever before imposed upon +and abused the confidence of a credulous people--the white men of the +South had been educated to regard themselves as, naturally, the +factors of power and the colored people as, naturally, the subject +class, no factor at all. It was these two things which produced that +exhibition of barbarity on the part of the South and impotence on the +part of the government which make us go to Roumania and the Byzantine +court for fit parallel. + +But, as I have said, a love of power easily degenerates into treason. +If we may not call the violence, the assassinations, which have +disgraced the South, _treason_ by what fitter name, pray, shall we +call it? If the nullification of the letter and spirit of the +amendments of the Federal Constitution by the conquered South was not +renewed _treason_, what was it? What is it? + +The white men of the South, to the "manor born," having shown their +superiority in the superlative excellencies of murder, usurpation and +robbery (and I maintain they have gone further in the execution of +these infamies than was true of the Negro-Carpet-bag _bacchanalia_); +having made majorities dwindle into iotas and vaulted themselves into +power at the point of the shot gun and dagger (regular bandit style); +having made laws which discriminate odiously against one class while +giving the utmost immunity to the other; having, after doing these +things, modeled the government they rule upon the pro-slavery doctrine +that it is a "white man's government"--having had time to become +sobered, the white men of the South should be open to reason, if not +to conviction. + +The black men of the South know full well that they were disfranchised +by illegal and violent methods; they know that laws are purposely +framed to defraud and to oppress them. This is dangerous knowledge, +dangerous to the black and the white man. It will be decided by one of +two courses--wise and judicious statesmanship or bloody and disastrous +insurrection. When men are wronged they appeal either to the +arbitrament of reason or of violence. No man who loves his country +would sanction violence in the adjudication of rights save as a last +resort. Reason is the safest tribunal before which to arraign +injustice and wrong; but it is not always possible to reach this +tribunal. + +The black and white citizens of the South must alter the lines which +have divided them since the close of the war. They are, essentially, +one people, and should be mutual aids instead of mutual hindrances to +each other. By "one people" I don't wish to be understood as implying +that the white and black man are one in an ethnological, but a generic +sense, having a common origin. Living in the same communities, +pursuing identical avocations, and subject to the same fundamental +laws, however these may differ in construction and application in the +several States, it is as much, if not even more, the interest of the +white man that the black should be given every possible opportunity to +better his mental, material and civil condition. Society is not +corrupted from the apex but from the base. It is not the pure rain +that falls from the heavens, but the stagnant waters of the pool, that +breed disease and death. The corruption of the ballot by white men of +the South is more pernicious than the misuse of it by black men; the +perversion of the law in the apprehension and punishment of criminals, +by being wielded almost exclusively against colored men, not only +brings law into contempt of colored men but encourages crime among +white men. Thus the entire society is corrupted. Mob law is the most +forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that +society is rotten to the core. When men find that laws are purposely +framed to oppress and defraud them they become desperate and reckless; +and mob law, by usurping the rightful functions of the judiciary, +makes criminals of honest men. As Alexander Pope expressed it: + + _Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, + That to be hated needs but to be seen; + Yet, seen too oft, familiar with his face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace._ + +The South has nothing to gain and everything to lose in attempting to +repress the energies and ambition of the colored man. It is to the +safety as well as to the highest efficiency of society that all its +members should be allowed the same opportunities for moral, +intellectual and material development. "Do unto others as you would +have them do unto you." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." +There is no escape from the law of God. You either deal justly or +suffer the evil effects of wrong-doing. The disorders which have made +the South a seething cauldron for fifteen years have produced the most +widespread contempt of lawful authority not only on the part of the +lawless whites but the law-abiding blacks, who have suffered patiently +the infliction of all manner of wrong _because they were a generation +of slaves, suddenly made freemen_. They permitted themselves to be +shot because they had been educated to bare their backs at the command +of the white oligarch. But that sort of pusillanimous cowardice cannot +be expected to last always. Men in a state of freedom instinctively +question the right of others to impose unequal burdens upon them, or +to deny to them equal and exact protection of the laws. When oppressed +people begin to murmur, grow restless and discontented, the opposer +had better change his tactics, or lock himself up, as does the +cowardly tyrant of Russia. + +A new generation of men has come upon the stage of action in the +South. They know little or nothing of the regulations or the horrors +of the slave regime. They know they are freemen; they know they are +cruelly and unjustly defrauded; and they _question the right_ of their +equals to oppose and defraud them. A large number of these people have +enjoyed the advantage of common school education, and not a few of +academic and collegiate education, and a large number have "put money +in their purse." The entire race has so changed that they are almost a +different people from what they were when the exigencies of war made +their manumission imperative. Yet there has been but little change in +the attitude of the white men towards this people. They still +strenuously deny their right to participate in the administration of +justice or to share equally in the blessings of that justice. + +There must be a change of policy. The progress of the black man +demands it; the interest of the white man compels it. The South cannot +hope to share in the industrious emigration constantly flowing into +our ports as long as it is scattered over the world that mob law and +race distractions constantly interrupt the industry of the people, and +put life and property in jeopardy of eminent disturbance; and she +cannot hope to encourage the investment of large capital in the +development of her industries or the extension of her national system. +Capital is timid. It will only seek investment where it is sure of +being let alone. Again, while the present state continues, no Southern +statesman, however capable he may be, can hope to enjoy the confidence +of the country or attain to high official position. Thoughtful, sober +people will not entrust power to men who sanction mob law, and who +rise to high honor by conniving at or participating in assassination +and murder. They have too much self-respect to do it. + +Only a few weeks since, a narrow-minded senator from the State of +Alabama, speaking upon the question of "National Aid to Education," +said he would rather vote for an appropriation to place the Southern +States in direct communication with the Congo than to vote money to +educate the blacks. There is no ingrate more execrable than the one +who lifts up his hand or his voice to wrong the man he has betrayed. +This senator from Alabama does not represent the majority of the +people of his state. Take away the shot gun and mob law and he would +be compelled to crawl back into the obscurity out of which he was +dragged by his accomplices in roguery. + +The colored man is in the South to stay there. He will not leave it +voluntarily and he cannot be driven out. He had no voice in being +carried into the South, but he will have a very loud voice in any +attempt to put him out. The expatriation of 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 +people to an alien country needs only to be suggested to create mirth +and ridicule. The white men of the South had better make up their +minds that the black men will remain in the South just as long as corn +will tassel and cotton will bloom into whiteness. The talk about the +black people being brought to this country to prepare themselves to +evangelize Africa is so much religious nonsense boiled down to a +sycophantic platitude. The Lord, who is eminently just, had no hand in +their forcible coming here; it was preeminently the work of the devil. +Africa will have to be evangelized _from within_, not _from without_. +The Colonization society has spent mints of money and tons of human +blood in the selfish attempt to plant an Anglo-African colony on the +West Coast of Africa. The money has been thrown away and the human +lives have been sacrificed in vain. The black people of this country +are Americans, not Africans; and any wholesale expatriation of them is +altogether out of the question. + +The white men of the South should not deceive themselves: the blacks +are with them to remain. Whether they like it or not, it is a fact +that will not be rubbed out. + +If this be true, what should be the policy of the whites towards the +blacks? The question should need no answer at my hands. If it were not +for the unexampled obtuseness of the editors, preachers and +politicians of that section, I should close this chapter here. + +The white men and women of the South should get down from the +delectable mountain of delusive superiority which they have climbed; +and, recognizing that "of one blood God made all the children of men," +take hold of the missionary work God has placed under their nose. + +Instead of railing at the black man, let them take hold of him in a +Christian spirit and assist him in correcting those moral abscesses +and that mental enervation which they did so awfully much to infuse +into him; they should first take the elephant out of their own eyes +before digging at the gnat in their neighbor's eyes. They should +encourage him in his efforts at moral and religious improvement, not +by standing off and clapping their hands, but by going into his +churches and into his pulpits, showing him the "light and the way" not +only by precept but example as well. Can't do it, do you say? Then +take your religion and cast it to the dogs, for it is a living lie; it +comes not from God but from Beelzebub the Prince of Darkness. A +religion that divides Christians is unadulterated paganism; a minister +that will not preach the Gospel to sinners, be they black or white, is +a hypocrite, who "steals the livery of Heaven to serve the Devil in." +They should make liberal provision for the schools set apart for the +colored people, and they should visit these schools, not only to mark +the progress made, and to encourage teacher and pupil, but to show to +the young minds blossoming into maturity and usefulness that they are +friends and deeply interested in the progress made. In public, they +should seek first to inspire the confidence of colored men by just +laws and friendly overtures and by encouraging the capable, honest +and ambitious few by placing them in position of honor and trust. They +should show to colored men that they accept the Constitution as +amended, and are earnestly solicitous that they should prosper in the +world, and become useful and respected citizens. You can't make a +friend and partisan of a man by shooting him; you can't make a sober, +industrious, honest man by robbing and outraging him. These tactics +will not work to the uplifting of a people. "A soft answer turns away +wrath." Even a dog caresses the hand that pats him on the head. + +The South must spend less money on penitentiaries and more money on +schools; she must use less powder and buckshot and more law and +equity; she must pay less attention to politics and more attention to +the development of her magnificent resources; she must get off the +"race line" hobby and pay more attention to the common man; she must +wake up to the fact that-- + + _Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow,_ + +and that it is to her best interest to place all men upon the same +footing before the law; mete out the same punishment to the white +scamp that is inexorably meted out to the black scamp, for a scamp is +a scamp any way you twist it; a social pest that should be put where +he will be unable to harm any one. In an honest acceptance of the new +conditions and responsibilities God has placed upon them, and in +mutual forebearance, toleration and assistance, the South will find +that panacea for which she has sought in vain down to this time. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Land and Labor + + +There is more prose than poetry in the desperate conflict now +waging in every part of the civilized world between labor and +capital,--between the dog and his tail, again, for, when the question +is reduced to a comprehensive statement of fact, it will be readily +seen that capital is the offspring of labor, not labor the offspring +of capital. Capital can produce nothing. Left to itself, it is as +valueless as the countless millions of gold, silver, copper, lead and +iron that lie buried in the unexplored womb of Nature. This storied +wealth counts for nothing in its crude, undeveloped state. As it is +to-day, so it was a thousand years ago. Years may add to the bulk, +and, therefore, the richness of its value; but until man, by his labor +of muscle and brain, has brought it forth, it has no value whatever. +To have value, it must become an object of barter, of circulation, in +short, of exchange. As its value depends upon its utility, so when it +can no longer be used it again becomes a useless mass of perishable +wealth. It is the product of labor, pure and simple. Speaking on +"Management of the Banks" (footnote p. 223), in his work on _Labor and +Capital_, Edward Kellogg says:-- + + All who become rich by speculations in bank, state and other + stocks, gain their wealth at the expense of the producing + classes; for no increased production is made by the changing + market value of these stocks. It is clear, that when the + rate of interest is increased, the gains of money-lenders + are augmented, and the money gained will buy a greater + quantity of property and labor. The increased gains of the + lender must be paid by the borrowers, by the productions of + their own or of others' labor. + +So Adam Smith, speaking of "the Origin and Use of Money" (_Wealth of +Nations_, p. 33), says: + + In order to avoid the inconveniency of such situations, + every prudent man in every period of society, after the + first establishment of the divisions of labor, must + naturally have endeavored to manage his affairs in such a + manner as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar + produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one + commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be + likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their + industry. + +Labor is the one paramount force which develops the resources of the +world. It produces all the wealth; it pays, in the last analysis, all +the taxes--National, State and municipal; it produces the wealth which +sustains all the institutions of learning, as well as ministers to the +profligate luxuries of the idlers and sharpers who add nothing to the +wealth of society, but on the contrary constantly take from it, and +who have not inaptly been termed by Dr. Howard Crosby the "dangerous +classes;" it makes the wealth which gives a few men millions of +dollars as their share, either as rental or usurious interest upon +capital invested in the production of wealth; and it creates the vast +surplus which lies in the coffers of the Federal and State treasuries +of our land. + +The producing agency, without which there could be no wealth; without +which the landlord could exact no rent and capital could draw no +interest, the producing agency alone receives an inadequate proportion +of the wealth it produces. The man who conducts any business requiring +labor and capital not only exacts an unjust proportion of the +laborer's hire, but takes more than he justly should as interest upon +his capital and as reward for his own time and labor, often amounting +to no trouble or labor, he delegating to other hands, such as foremen +or overseers, the absolute control of his investment. Yet, the man who +invests capital not only derives, in a majority of cases, a sufficient +income to enable him to live in more than comfort but to have a +healthy bank account; while the laborer, who alone makes capital draw +interest by giving it employment in developing the resources of +nature, derives only a bare subsistence, frequently not sufficient to +meet the absolute necessaries of his daily life. His wife and children +must be content with life simply--bare, cold life--often without any +of the conveniences or the commonest luxuries which make existence +anything more than the curse it is to a large majority of humankind. +This is peculiarly true of the condition of the masses of the Old +World, and is fast becoming true in our own young and vigorous +country. + +In every quarter of the globe the cry of depressed and defrauded labor +is heard. The enormous drain upon the producing agents necessary to +maintain in idleness and luxury the great capitalists of the world who +accumulated their ill-gotten wealth by fraud, perjury and "conquest," +so called, grinds the producing agent down to the lowest possible +point at which he can live and still produce. The millionaires of the +world, so called "aristocracies," and the taxes imposed by sovereign +states to liquidate obligations more frequently contracted to enslave +than to ameliorate the conditions of mankind, are a constant drain +which comes ultimately out of the laboring classes in every case. + +What are millionaires, any way, but the most dangerous enemies of +society, always eating away its entrails, like the cultures that +preyed upon the chained Prometheus? Take our own breed of these +parasites; note how they grind down the stipend they are compelled to +bestow upon the human tools they must use to still further swell their +ungodly gains! Note how they take advantage of the public; how they +extort, with Shylock avarice, every penny they possibly can from those +who are compelled to use the appliances which wealth enables them to +contrive for the public convenience and comfort; how they corrupt +legislatures and dictate to the unscrupulous minions of the law. The +Athenians were wise who enacted into law the principle that when a +citizen became too powerful or rich to be controlled within proper +bounds, the safety of society demanded that he should be exiled--sent +where his power or riches could not be used to the detriment of his +fellow-citizens. Should such a rule be applied to-day, society in +every land could disgorge with much advantage the men who ride the +people as the Old Man of the Sea rode Sindbad the luckless sailor. But +our civilization is built upon a higher conception of individual right +and immunity; there is now no limit to the right of one man to rob +another of the produce of his labor or his natural and conferred +rights. Not only may individuals rob and plunder their fellows with +absolute impunity, but our laws have put breath into that soulless +thing which has become notoriously infamous as a "corporation." Around +this thing, this engine of extortion and oppression, our laws have +placed bulwarks which the defrauded laborer, the widow and orphan, and +even the sovereign public, cannot overleap. Here is where Monopoly +first shows its cormorant head. + +If millionaires are enemies of society, and I assume that they +are--not because they have property, but because, as a rule, they have +acquired it by unjust processes and use it tyrannically--what excuse +have we for aristocracies, an idle class, a privileged class, who toil +not, nor spin? What is a recognized aristocracy, such as England +maintains? From what perennial fountain did it draw its nobility and +wealth? Came they not through Norman conquest and robbery? Who pay the +heavy taxes levied upon the people to support the privileged classes +of England? The royal revenues and princely preserves, are they not +supported out of the sweat of the poorer classes, upon whom all the +burdens of society fall at last? And why should there be royal +revenues and princely preserves? Do they add anything to the wealth of +a nation or the happiness of a people? Let us see. + +Brassey (Sir Thomas), in his book on _Work and Wages_, p. 71, says: + + The Irish Poor Law Commissioners stated that the average + produce of the soil in Ireland was not much above one half + the average produce in England, whilst the number of + laborers employed in agriculture was, in proportion to the + quantity of land under cultivation more than double, viz.: + as five to two. Thus ten laborers in Ireland raised only the + same quantity of produce that four laborers raised in + England, and this produce was generally of an inferior + quality. + +Why is it that ten men in Ireland produce no more than four men +produce in England? + +Henry George says (_Social Problems_, p. 150): + + A year ago I traveled through that part of Ireland from + which these government-aided emigrants come. What surprises + an American at first, even in Connaught, is the apparent + sparseness of population, and he wonders if this can indeed + be that over-populated Ireland of which he has heard so + much. _There is plenty of good land_, but on it are only fat + beasts, and sheep so clean and white that you at first think + that they must be washed and combed every morning. Once, + this soil was tilled and was populous, but now you will find + only traces of ruined hamlets, and here and there the + miserable hut of a herd, who lives in a way that no Terra + del Fuegan could envy. For the 'owners' of this land, who + live in London and Paris, many of them having never seen + their estates, find cattle more profitable than men, and so + the men have been driven off. _It is only when you reach the + bog and the rocks_ in the mountains and by the sea shore, + that you find a dense population. Here they are crowded + together on land on which nature never intended men to live. + It is too poor for grazing, so the people who have been + driven from the better lands are allowed to live upon it--as + long as they pay their rent. If it were not too pathetic, + the patches they called fields would make you laugh. + Originally the surface of the ground must have been about as + susceptible of cultivation as the surface of Broadway. But + at the cost of enormous labor the small stones have been + picked off and piled up, though the great boulders remain, + so that it is impossible to use a plow; and the surface of + the bog has been cut away and manured by seaweed, brought in + from the shore on the backs of men and women, till it can be + made to grow something. + +Sir Thomas Brassey writes from a capitalist's standpoint, while Mr. +George writes from the standpoint of a philosopher who not only sees +gross social wrongs but boldly applies the remedy. But let us see if +the same fester which irritates the body of Irish society has not also +a parasitical existence in our own land, where society is yet in its +infancy, where the people are supposed to enjoy all the advantages of +the competitive system, and where all are, measurably, free to take +and to use the opportunities offered the pioneers, or him who gets +first his grip upon the three natural elements absolutely essential to +man's existence, viz.: air, water, and land. + +Wm. Goodwin Moody says (_Land and Labor in the United States_, p. 77): + + Instead of being able to boast, as could our fathers, that + every man who tilled the soil was lord of the manor he + occupied, owning no master, the last census report made a + return of 1,024,701 tenant farms in our country in 1880. + + A comparison of this showing with the land-holdings of + Great Britain and Ireland will help to a better + understanding of what these things import. The very latest + statistics give the total number of holdings in England and + Wales at 414,804; in Ireland, at 574,222; in Scotland, at + 80,101; total, 1,069,127. Showing that in the whole of Great + Britain and Ireland, counting all the holdings as tenant + occupations, which they are not, there are 200,000 less + tenant farms than in the United States. + +Again: + + Among the owners of the tenant farms in our country are + English, French, and German capitalists, non-residents, who + have bought immense tracts of the railroad lands, and seized + upon the alternate government sections lying within their + railroad purchases, and on those tracts have commenced their + bonanza operations, or planted their tenants on the American + system. + +When it is remembered that the entire network of railroads in the +United States is practically under the absolute control of five or six +men who, having derived their valuable franchises and more than +princely land grants from the people, show the utmost disregard of the +comfort, convenience or rights of the donors; when it is remembered +that one family in the city of New York controls enough land with +enough tenants to constitute an overgrown village; and that what they +do not claim as their own is held by one-fourth of the rest of the +population; when it is remembered that nearly every article which has +become a household necessity has been seized upon and can be obtained +only through some corporation, in the manufacture of which the +government has virtually granted a monopoly, as Charles granted to the +Duke of Buckingham a monopoly in the sale of gold lace; when it is +remembered that, even in this new country, three-fourths of the +population rent their homes and cannot buy them[14]; when these things +are remembered, as they should be, it will be readily seen that the +condition of our work-people is fast becoming no better than that of +the people of Europe, where a thousand years of false social +adjustments, of usurpation and of tyranny, have reduced the +proletariat class to the verge of starvation and desperation. + +True, the immigrant laborers from Europe in the North, and the +colored people at the South tend to crowd into the cities, where their +labor is least needed and the conditions of life for them must be at +the hardest; true, in America if a man _has it in him_ the way is open +for him to mount to the topmost round of the social ladder; true, too, +the operatives in manufactures and the agricultural laborers here live +on a far higher plane than in Europe; but the elements of degradation +as well as of elevation are present in our land, and "easy in the +descent" to the infernal regions. Let us be warned in time. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_Civilization Degrades the Masses_ + + +There are men in all parts of the world, whose names have become +synonyms of learning and genius, who proclaim it from the housetops +that civilization is in a constant state of evolution to a higher, +purer, nobler, happier condition of the people, the great mass of +mankind, who properly make up society, and who have been styled, in +derision, the "_mudsills_ of society." So they are, society rests upon +them; society must build upon them; without them society cannot be, +because they are, in the broadest sense, society itself,--not only the +"mudsills" but the _superstructure_ as well. They not only constitute +the great producing class but the great consuming class as well. They +are the bone and sinew of society. + +It is therefore of the utmost importance to know the condition of the +people; it is not only important to know exactly what that condition +is, but it is of the very first importance to the well-being of +society that there should be absolutely nothing in that condition to +arouse the apprehension of the sharks who live upon the carcass of the +people, or of the people who permit the sharks to so live. There is +nothing more absolutely certain than that the people--who submit to be +robbed through the intricate and multifarious processes devised by the +cupidity of individuals and of governments--when aroused to a full +sense of the wrongs inflicted upon them, will strike down their +oppressors in a rage of desperation born of despair. + +Modern tyrannies are far more insidious than the military despotisms +of the past. These modern engines which crush society destroy the +energy and vitality of the people by the slow process of starvation, +sanctioned by the law, and in a majority of instances, are patiently +borne by the victims. It is only when human nature can endure no more +that protests are first heard; then armed resistance; then anarchy. +Thus it was with the French of the eighteenth century. Thus it is with +the Russian, the German, the English, the Irish peoples of to-day. The +heel of the tyrant is studded with too many steel nails to be borne +without excruciating pain and without earnest protest. + +If in their desperate conflict with the serpent that has coiled its +slimy length about the body of the people the latter resort to +dynamite, and seek by savage warfare to right their wrongs, they are +to be condemned and controlled, for they confound the innocent with +the guilty and work ruin rather than reform. Yet there is another side +to be considered, for when injustice wraps itself in the robes of +virtue and of law, and calls in the assistance of armies and all the +destructive machinery of modern warfare to enforce its right to +enslave and starve mankind, what counter warfare can be too savage, +too destructive in its operations, to compel attention to the wrong? +The difficulty is that vengeance should discriminate, but that is a +refinement which blind rage can hardly compass. + +I believe in law and order; but I believe, as a condition precedent, +that law and order should be predicated upon right and justice, pure +and simple. Law is, intrinsically, a written expression of justice; +if, on the contrary, it becomes instead written _injustice_, men are +not, strictly speaking, bound to yield it obedience. There is no law, +on the statute books of any nation of the world, which bears unjustly +upon the people, which should be permitted to stand one hour. It is +through the operations of law that mankind is ground to powder; it is +by the prostitution of the rights of the masses, by men who pretend to +be their representatives and are not, that misery, starvation and +death fill the largest space in the news channels of every land. + +In New York City--where the intelligence, the enterprise, the wealth +and the christianized humanity of the New World are supposed to have +their highest exemplification--men, women and children die by the +thousands, starved and frozen out of the world! Thousands die yearly +in the city of New York from the effects of exposure and insufficient +nutriment. The world, into which they had come unbidden, and the +fruits of which a just God had declared they should enjoy as reward of +the sweat of their brows, had refused them even a bare subsistance; +and, this, when millions of food rot in the storehouses without +purchasers! The harpies of trade prefer that their substance should +resolve itself into the dirt and weed from which it sprung, rather +than the poor and needy should eat of it and live. + +I have walked through the tenement wards of New York, and I have seen +enough want and crime and blasted virtue to condemn the civilization +which produced them and which fosters them in its bosom. + +I have looked upon the vast army of police which New York City +maintains to protect life and so-called "vested rights," and I have +concluded that there is something wrong in the social system which can +only be kept intact by the expenditure of so much productive force, +for this vast army, which stands on the street corners and lurks in +the alley ways, "spotting," suspicious persons, "keeping an eye" on +strangers who look "smart," this vast army contributes nothing to the +production of wealth. It is, essentially, a parasite. And yet, +without this army of idlers, life would be in constant danger and +property would fall prey not only to the vicious and the desperate, +but to the hungry men and women who have neither a place to shelter +them from the storms of heaven, nor food to sustain nature's cravings +from finding an eternal resting place in the Potter's Field. And, even +after every precaution which selfishness can devise, courts of law and +police officers are powerless to stay the hand of the pariahs whom +society has outlawed--the men and women who are doomed to starve to +death and be buried at the expense of society. The streets of every +city in the Union are full of people who have been made desperate by +social adjustments which prophets laud to the skies and which +philosophers commend as "ideal," as far as they go. + +One-half the producing power of the United States is to-day absolutely +dependent upon the cold charity of the world; one fourth does not make +sufficient to live beyond the day, while the other one-fourth only +manages to live comfortably at the expense of the most parsimonious +economy. + +It is becoming a mooted question whether labor-saving machinery has +not supplanted muscle-power in the production of every article to such +a marvelous extent as to make thoughtful men tremble for the future of +those who can only hope to live upon the produce of their labors. The +machine has taken the place, largely, of man in the production of +articles of consumption, of wear and of ornamentation; but no machine +has, as yet, been invented to take the place of human wants. The +markets of the world are actually glutted with articles produced by +machine labor, but there are no purchasers with the means to buy, to +consume the additional production caused by machinery and the +consequent cheapening of processes of producing the articles of +consumption, ornamentation, etc. When men have work they have money; +and when men have money they spend it. Hence, when the toilers of a +land have steady employment trade is brisk; when business stagnation +forces them into idleness vice and crime afflict the country. + +What avail the tireless labor of the machine and the mountains of +material it places upon the market, if there are no purchasers? One +man at a machine will do as much work in a factory to-day as required +the work of fifty men fifty years ago; but the enhanced volume of +production can have only one purchaser now where there was once fifty, +hence the fitful existence of the one and the desperate struggle for +existence of the forty-nine.[15] As iron and steel cannot compete with +muscle and brain in the volume of production, so iron and steel cannot +compete with muscle and brain in consumption. And, without +consumption, what does production amount to? What does it avail us +that our stores and granaries are overstocked, if the people are +unable to buy? The thing is reduced to a cruel mockery when stores and +granaries are over-gorged, while people clamor in vain for clothing +and food, and drop dead within reach of these prime elements of warmth +and sustentation. + +What does it avail us if the balance of trade be in our favor by one, +or two, or three hundred millions of dollars, if this result be +obtained by the degradation and death of our own people? More; not +only at the expense of the well being of our own people, but of the +people of those countries in whose markets we are enabled to undersell +them, by reason of the more systematic pauperization of our own +producing classes. + +Competition, it is declared, is the life of trade; if this be true, it +is truer that it is the death of labor, of the poorer classes. For +Great Britain has established herself in the markets of the world at +the expense of her laboring classes. While the capitalists of that +country hold up their heads among the proudest people of the world, +her laboring classes are absolutely ground to powder. Because of the +inhuman competition which her manufacturers have been led to adopt, +and the introduction of improved labor-saving machinery, her balance +of trade runs far into the millions of pounds, and political +economists place their hands upon their hearts and declare that Great +Britain is the most happy and prosperous country on the face of the +globe. But the declaration is illusory in the extreme. No country can +be happy and prosperous whose "mudsills" live in squalor, want, +misery, vice and death. If Great Britain is happy and prosperous, how +shall we account for the constant strikes of labor organizations for +higher pay or as a protest against further reduction of wages below +which man cannot live and produce? The balance of trade desire is the +curse of the people of the world. It can be obtained only by +underbidding other people in their own markets; and this can be done +only by the maximum of production at the minimum of cost--by forcing +as much labor out of the man or the machine as possible at the least +possible expense. + +There is death in the theory; death to our own people and death to the +people with whom we compete. When a people no longer produce those +articles which are absolutely necessary to sustain life the days of +such people may be easily calculated. + +Men talk daily of "over production," of "glutted markets," and the +like; but such is not a true statement of the case. There can be no +over production of anything as long as there are hungry mouths to be +fed. It does not matter if the possessors of these hungry mouths are +too poor to buy the bread; if they are hungry, there is no +overproduction. With a balance of $150,000,000 of trade; with +plethoric granaries and elevators all over the land; with millions of +swine, sheep and cattle on a thousand hills; with millions of surplus +revenue in the vaults of the National treasury, diverted from the +regular channels of trade by an ignorant set of legislators who have +not gumption enough to reduce unnecessary and burdensome taxation +without upsetting the industries of the country--with all its +grandiloquent exhibition of happiness and prosperity, the laboring +classes of the country starve to death, or eke out an existence still +more horrible. + +The factories of the land run on half time, and the men, women and +children who operate them grow pinch-faced, lean and haggard, from +insufficient nutriment, and are old and decrepit while yet in the bud +of youth; the tenements are crowded to suffocation, breeding +pestilence and death; while the wages paid to labor hardly serve to +satisfy the exactions of the landlord--a monstrosity in the midst of +civilization, whose very existence is a crying protest against our +pretensions to civilization. + +Yet, "competition" is the cry of the hour. Millionaires compete with +each other in the management of vast railroads and water routes, +reducing labor to the verge of subsistence while exacting mints of +money as tolls for transportation from the toilers of the soil and the +consumers who live by their labor in other industrial enterprises; the +manufacturers join in the competition, selling goods at the least +possible profit to themselves and the least possible profit to those +who labor for them; and, when no market can be found at home, boldly +enter foreign markets and successfully compete with manufacturers who +employ what our writers are pleased to style "pauper" labor. Every +branch of industry is in the field _competing_, and the competition is +ruining every branch of industry. The constant effort to obtain the +maximum of production at the minimum of cost operates injuriously upon +employer and employee alike; while the shrinkage in money circulation, +caused by the competition, reduces, in every branch of industry, the +wages of those who are the great consumers as well as producers; it +produces those "hard times" which bear so hardly upon the poor in +every walk of life. Even the laboring man has entered the race, and +now competes in the labor market with his fellow for an opportunity to +make a crust of bread to feed his wife and child. When things reach +this stage, when the man who is working for one dollar and a half per +day is underbid by a man who will work for a dollar and a quarter, +then the condition of the great wealth producing and consuming class +is desperate indeed. And so it is. + +Frederick Douglass, the great Negro commoner, speaking at Washington, +April 16, 1883, on the "Twenty-first Anniversary of Emancipation in +the District of Columbia," said: + + Events are transpiring all around us that enforce respect of + the oppressed classes. In one form or another, by one means + or another, the ideas of a common humanity against + privileged classes, of common rights against special + privileges, are now rocking the world. Explosives are heard + that rival the earthquake. They are causing despots to + tremble, class rule to quail, thrones to shake and + oppressive associated wealth to turn pale. It is for America + to be wise in time. + +And the black philosopher, who had by manly courage and matchless +eloquence braved the mob law of the North and the organized brigandage +and robbery of the South in the dark days of the past, days that tried +men's souls, standing in the sunlight of rejuvenated manhood, still +was the oracle of the oppressed in the sentiments above quoted. + +All over the land the voice of the masses is heard. Organizations in +their interests are multiplying like sands on the seashore. The +fierce, hoarse mutter of the starved and starving gives unmistakable +warning that America has entered upon that fierce conflict of +money-power and muscle-power which now shake to their very centers the +hoary-headed commonwealths of the old world. In _John Swintons Paper_ +of a recent date I find the following editorial arraignment of the +present state of "Labor and Capital:" + + The cries of the people against the oppressions of capital + and monopoly are heard all over the land; but the capitalist + and monopolist give them no heed, and go on their way more + relentlessly than ever. Congress is fully aware of the + condition of things; but you cannot get any bill through + there for the relief of the people. The coal lords of + Pennsylvania know how abject are the tens of thousands of + blackamoors of their mines; but they grind them without + mercy, and cut their days' wages again whenever they squeal. + Jay Gould knows of the wide-spread ruin he has wrought in + piling up his hundred millions; but he drives along faster + than ever in his routine of plunder. The factory Christians + of Fall River see their thousands of poor spinners + struggling for the bread of life amid the whirl of + machinery: but they order reduction after reduction in the + rate of wages, though the veins of the corporations are + swollen to congestion. The "Big Four" of Chicago, who corner + grain and provisions, and the capitalists here and elsewhere + who do the same thing, know well how the farmers suffer and + the tables of the poor are ravaged by their operations; but + they prosecute their work more extensively and recklessly + than ever. The railroad and telegraph corporations know + that, in putting on "all that the traffic will bear," they + are taking from this country more than the people can stand; + yet their only answer is that of the horseleech.... + + Our lawmakers know how the people are wronged through + legislation in the interest of privilege and plunder; but + they add statute to statute in that same interest. They know + how advantageous to the producers would be the few measures + asked in their name; yet they persistently refuse to adopt + them. The great employers of labor, the cormorants of + competition, know through what hideous injustice they enrich + themselves; but speak to them of fair play, and they flout + you from their presence. The wealthy corporations owning + these street car lines in New York see that their drivers + and conductors are kept on the rack from sixteen to eighteen + hours every day of the week, including Sundays; but when a + bill is brought into the State Legislature to limit the + daily working hours to twelve, they order their hired agents + of the lobby to defeat it. These gamblers of Wall street + know that their gains are mainly through fraud; yet + forever, fast and furious, do they play with loaded dice. + + The landlords of these tenement quarters know by the + mortality statistics how broad is the swathe that death cuts + among their victims; but they add dollar to dollar as coffin + after coffin is carried into the street. * * * + + These owners of the machinery of industry know how it bears + upon the men who keep it flying; but they are regardless of + all that, if only it fills their coffers. These owners of + palaces look upon the men by whom they are built; but think + all the time how to raise the rent of their hovels. These + great money-lenders who hold the mortgages on countless + farms know of the straits of the mortgage-bound farmers; yet + they never cease to plot for higher interest and harder + terms. The gilded priests of Mammon and hypocrisy cannot get + away from the cries of humankind; but when do you ever hear + them denouncing the guilty and responsible criminals in + their velvet-cushioned pews? Harder and harder grow the + exactions of capital. Harder and harder grows the lot of the + millions. Louder and louder grow the cries of the sufferers. + Deafer and deafer grow the ears of the millionaires. _Yet_, + if those who cry would but use their power in action, + peaceful action, they could right their wrongs, or at least + the most grievous of them, before the world completes the + solar circuit of this year. + +Wm. Goodwin Moody (_Land and Labor in the United States_, p. 338), +reverting to the difficulties which beset the pathway of labor +organizations, which have so far been productive of nothing but +disaster to the laboring classes, says: + + Is it not time that new weapons should be adopted, and new + methods introduced? * * * Will not the working men of the + country learn anything from the bitter experiences they have + passed through, and abandon methods that have been so + uniformly followed by the ultimate failure of all their + efforts. But the great evils by which we are surrounded, and + that are destroying the foundations of society, can be + removed by the working-men only. They form the large + majority of its members, and in our country they are + all-powerful. Still it is only by absolutely united action + that the working-men can accomplish any good. By disunion + they may achieve any amount of evil. The enemy they have to + contend against, though few in number, are strong in + position and possession of great capital. Nevertheless, + before the united working-men of the country, seeking really + national objects and noble ends, by methods that are just + and in harmony with the institutions under which we live, + the tyranny of capital will end. The working-men will also + draw to their support a very large part of the best thought + and intelligence of the country, that will be sure to keep + even step with the labor of society in its attack upon the + enemies of humanity and progress. + +There is no fact truer than this, that the accumulated wealth of the +land, and the sources of power, are fast becoming concentrated in the +hands of a few men, who use that wealth and power to the debasement +and enthrallment of the wage workers. Already it is almost impossible +to obtain any legislation, in State or Federal legislatures, to +ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes. Capital has placed +its tyrant grip upon the throat of the Goddess of Liberty. The power +of railroad and telegraph corporations, and associated capital +invested in monopolies which oppress the many, while ministering to +the wealth, the comfort and the luxury of the few, has become +omnipotent in halls of legislation, courts of justice, and even in the +Executive Chambers of great States, so that the poor, the oppressed +and the defrauded appeal in vain for justice. + +Such is the deplorable condition of the laboring classes in the west, +the north and the east. They are bound to the car of capital, and are +being ground to powder as fast as day follows day. They organize in +vain; they protest in vain; they appeal in vain. Civilization is doing +its work. "To him that hath, more shall be given; to him that hath +nothing, even that shall be taken from him." + +Let us turn to the South and see if a black skin has anything to do +with the tyranny of capital; let us see if the cause of the laboring +man is not the same in all sections, in all States, in all +governments, in the Union, as it is in all the world. If this can be +shown; if I can incontestably demonstrate that _the condition of the +black and the white laborer is the same, and that consequently_ _their +cause is common_; that they should unite under the one banner and work +upon the same platform of principles for the uplifting of labor, the +more equal distribution of the products of labor and capital, I shall +not have written this book in vain, and the patient reader will not +have read after me without profit to himself and the common cause of a +common humanity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] W.G. Moody: _Land and Labor in the United States._ + +[15] Wm. Goodwin Moody shows this conclusively in his work on _Land +and Labor in the United States_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_Conditions of Labor in the South_ + + +I am not seriously concerned about the frightful political disorders +which have disgraced the Southern States since the close of the War of +the Rebellion; nor am I seriously concerned about the race-wars in +that section about which so much has been justly said, and about which +so very little is really known, in spite of the vast mass of testimony +that did not more than begin to tell the tale. I know that time and +education will give proper adjustment to the politics of the South, +and that the best men of all classes, the intelligent and the +property-holders will eventually grasp the reins of political or civil +power and give, as far as they can, equilibrium to the unbalanced +conditions. + +The men of natural parts, of superior culture and ambitious spirit +usually, in all societies, manage to rise to the top as the natural +rulers of the people. You cannot keep them down; you cannot repress +them. They rise to the top as naturally as sparks fly upward to the +heavens. Demagogues and quacks manage only to impose upon the ignorant +and confiding, upon men, conscious of their own inability to rule, who +gladly transfer the responsibility to the first loud-mouthed fellow +who comes along claiming, as his own, superior capacity and virtue. +Intelligent men do not permit ignoramuses and adventurers to rule +them; they prefer to rule themselves; and they submit to be ruled by +such interlopers only so long as it takes them to thoroughly +understand the condition of affairs. It is not, therefore, to be +marvelled at that the white men of the South spread death and terror +in their pathway to the throne of power in subverting the governments +of the Reconstruction policy, based as those governments were, upon +_disorganized_ ignorance on the part of the blacks and organized +robbery on the part of the white adventurers, who have become infamous +under the expressive term "carpet-baggers;" although the genuine +Northern immigrants, the "Fools" who came in good faith to cast in +their lot with the Southern people supposing themselves to be welcome, +should not share in the obloquy of that epithet. But, should the white +men of the South continue indefinitely as the rulers of the South, to +the absolute exclusion of participation of the black citizens of those +states, then would my surprise be turned into profound amazement and +horror at what such tyranny would produce as a logical result. Yet I +know the temper of the people of the South too well to base any +deduction upon a proposition so full of horror and despair. And, then, +too, such a proposition would be at variance with all accepted +precedents of two peoples living in the same community, governed by +the same laws and subject to the same social and material conditions. +I submit that I have no fears about the future political status of the +whites and blacks of the South. The intelligent, the ambitious and the +wealthy men of both races will eventually rule over their less +fortunate fellow-citizens without invidious regard to race or previous +condition. And the great-grandson of Senator Wade Hampton may yet vote +for the great-grandson of Congressman Robert Smalls to be Governor of +the chivalric commonwealth of South Carolina. Senator Wade Hampton may +grit his teeth at this aspect of the case; but it is strictly in the +domain of probability. The grandson of John C. Calhoun, the great +orator and statesman of South Carolina, has not as yet voted for a +colored Governor, but he has for a colored sheriff and probate judge, +as the following testimony he gave before the Blair committee on +"Education and Labor," (Vol II, p. 173), in the city of New York, +September 13, 1883, will show: + + "Q. (the Chairman) What do you think of his [the black + man's] intellectual and moral qualities and his capacity for + development? A. (Mr. Calhoun, John C.) ... The probate judge + of my county is a Negro and one of my tenants, and I am here + now in New York attending to important business for my + county as an appointee of that man. He has upon him the + responsibilities of all estates in the county; he is probate + judge. + + "Q. Is he a capable man? A. A very capable man, and an + excellent, good man, and a very just one." + +Again (_Ibid_ p. 137), Mr. Calhoun testified: + + The sheriff of my county is from Ohio, _and a Negro_, and he + is a man whom _we all support in his office_, because he is + capable of administering his office. + +When the grandson of John C. Calhoun can make such admissions, +creditable alike to his head and his heart, may not the great-grandson +of Wade Hampton rise up to chase the Bourbonism of his +great-grandfather into the tomb of disgruntlement? I have not the +least doubt of such probability. Again, I say, I am not seriously +concerned about the future political status of the black man of the +South. He has talent; he has ambition; he possesses a rare fund of +eloquence, of wit and of humor, and these will carry him into the +executive chambers of States, the halls of legislation and on to the +bench of the judiciary. You can't bar him out; you can't repress him: +he will make his way. God has planted in his very nature those +elements which constitute the stock-in-trade of the American +politician--ready eloquence, rich humor, quick perception--and you may +rest assured he will use all of them to the very best advantage. + +I know of municipalities in the South to-day, where capable colored +men are regularly voted into responsible positions by the best white +men of their cities. And why not? Do not colored men vote white men +into office? And, pray, is the white man less magnanimous than the +black man? Perish the thought! No; the politics of the South will +readily adjust themselves to the best interest of the people; be very +sure of this. And the future rulers of the South will not all be +white, nor will they be all black: they will be a happy commingling of +the two peoples. + +And thus with the so-called "war of races:" it will pass away and +leave not a trace behind. It is based upon condition and +color-prejudice--two things which cannot perpetuate themselves. When +the lowly condition of the black man has passed away; when he becomes +a capable president of banks, of railroads and of steamboats; when he +becomes a large land-holder, operating bonanza farms which enrich him +and pauperize black and white labor; when he is not only a prisoner at +the bar but a judge on the bench; when he sits in the halls of +legislation the advocate of the people, or (more profit if less honor) +the advocate of vast corporations and monopolies; when he has +successfully metamorphosed the condition which attaches to him as a +badge of slavery and degradation, and made a reputation for himself as +a financier, statesman, advocate, land-holder, and money-shark +generally, his color will be swallowed up in his reputation, his +bank-account and his important money interests. + +Is this a fancy picture? Is there no substantial truth seen in this +picture of what will, must and shall be, as the logical outgrowth of +the Divine affirmation that of one blood he created all men to dwell +upon the earth, and of the Declaration of Independence that "we hold +these truths to be self-evident:--That all men are created equal; that +they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; +that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? + +Let us see. + +A few months ago I sat in the banking office of Mr. William E. Mathews +and ex-Congressman Joseph H. Rainey (of South Carolina), in +Washington. As I sat there, a stream of patrons came and went. The +whites were largely in the majority. They all wanted to negotiate a +loan, or to meet a note just matured. Among the men were contractors, +merchants, department clerks, etc. They all spoke with the utmost +deference to the colored gentleman who had money to loan upon good +security and good interest. + +A few months ago I dined with ex-Senator B.K. Bruce (of Mississippi), +now Register of the United States Treasury. The ex-Senator has a +handsome house, and a delightful family. In running my eyes over his +card tray, I saw the names of some of the foremost men and women of +the nation who had called upon Register and Mrs. Bruce. In passing +through the Register's department with the Senator, sight-seeing, I +was not surprised at the marks of respect shown to Mr. Bruce by the +white ladies and gentlemen in his department. Why? Because Mr. Bruce +is a gentleman by instinct, a diplomat by nature, and a scholar who +has "burned the midnight oil." Such a person does not have to ask men +and women to respect him; they do so instinctively. + +I walked down F street and called at the office of Prof. Richard T. +Greener, a ripe scholar and a gentleman. The professor not only has a +paying law practice, but is president of a new insurance company. He +has all that he can do, and his patrons are both black and white. + +All this and more came under my observation in the course of an hour's +leisure at the capital of the nation. And the black man has not yet +aroused himself to a full sense of his responsibilities or of his +opportunities. + +In Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston we have colored men +of large wealth, who conduct extensive business operations and enjoy +the confidence and esteem of their fellow citizens without regard to +caste. + +Speaking upon the progress of the colored race, in the course of an +address on the "Civil Rights Law," at Washington, October 20, 1883, +the Hon. John Mercer Langston, United States Minister and Consul +General to Hayti, and one of the most remarkable, scholarly, and +diplomatic men the colored race in America has produced, drew the +following pen-picture: + + Do you desire to witness moral wonders? Start at Chicago; + travel to St. Louis; travel to Louisville; travel to + Nashville; travel to Chattanooga; travel on to New Orleans, + and in every State and city you will meet vast audiences, + immense concourses of men and women with their children, + boys and girls, who, degraded and in ignorance because of + their slavery formerly, are to-day far advanced in general + social improvement. + + It would be remarkable now for you to go into the home of + one of our families, and find even our daughters incompetent + to discourse with you upon any subject of general interest + with perfect ease and understanding. Excuse me, if I refer + to the fact that some two weeks ago I visited St. Louis for + two reasons; first to see my son and daughter, and secondly + and mainly to attend the seventy-second anniversary of the + birth of perhaps the richest colored man in the State of + Missouri. I went to his house, and I was surprised as I + entered his doors and looked about his sitting-room and + parlors, furnished in the most approved modern style, in the + richest manner; but I was more surprised when I saw one + hundred guests come into the home of this venerable man, to + celebrate the seventy-second anniversary of his birth, all + beautifully attired; and when he told me, indirectly, how + much money he had made, since the war, and what he was worth + on the night of this celebration, I was more surprised than + ever. I am surprised at the matchless progress the colored + people of this country have made since their emancipation. I + have traveled in the West Indies; I have seen the + emancipated English, Spanish and French Negro; but I have + seen no emancipated Negro anywhere who has made the progress + at all comparable with the colored people of the United + States of America. + +I desire it to be distinctly understood, that I am not at all anxious +about the mental and material development of the colored people of the +United States. They are naturally shrewd, calculating and agreeable, +possessing in a peculiar degree the art of pleasing; and these +qualities will give them creditable positions in the business +interests of the country in a few years. But they must have time to +collect their wits, to sharpen their intelligence, to train their +moral sense and the feeling of social responsibility, to fully +comprehend all that the change from chattel slavery to absolute +freedom implies. Men cannot awaken from a Rip Van Winkle slumber of a +hundred years and grasp at once the altered conditions which flash +upon them. The awakening is terrific, appalling, staggering. + +When a man has been confined for long years in a dark dungeon he has +not trouble in discerning objects about him which, when he first +entered his dungeon, were indistinct or invisible to him. So when he +is brought suddenly to the strong light of the sun the effulgence +overmasters him, and he is blind as a bat. But slowly and painfully he +becomes accustomed to the transition from absolute darkness to +absolute light, and then nature wears to his vision her naturally gay +and winsome appearance. So with the slave. His grasp of the conditions +of freedom is slow and uncertain. But give him time, lend him a +helping hand, and he will completely master the situation. + +In one of the most remarkable pamphlets of the time, written by C.K. +Marshall, D.D., of Vicksburg, Miss., entitled _The Colored Race +Weighed in the Balance_, being a reply to a most malicious speech by +J.L. Tucker, D.D., of Jackson, Miss., I find many truths that the +American people should know. Both Dr. Marshall and Dr. Tucker are +white ministers of the South, and both should be intimately acquainted +with the characteristics, capacity and progress of the colored people. +But Dr. Tucker appears to be as ignorant of the colored race as if he +had spent his days in the Sandwich Islands instead of the sunny land +of the South. + +Dr. Marshall says (p. 55): + + I think I know nearly all that can be said against a Negro. + In one form or another, the complaints have been a thousand + times reiterated; but has he not been, and is he not now + what the white man and society have made him? He is + naturally peace-loving, docile, and imitative. If kindly and + justly treated, with due allowance for the _peculiar + elements_ that make up his life, he will render back, in + kind at least, equally with the brother in white in _like + surroundings_. Everybody knows some reliable, trustworthy + Negro man and woman; and John Randolph said that of two of + the politest men he ever saw one was a Negro. _Gentleness_ + is a wonderful agency in managing a Negro: I know it tells + powerfully upon white folks. The psalmist, addressing his + Maker, says, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." It is a + mighty lever; it moves the world; it moved it before + Archimedes; it moves it still; but peevishness, + fault-finding, scolding, cursing, premature censure, haughty + and assuming ways, sullenness, ill-temper, whether in the + field, the kitchen, the nursery, or parlor, will + legitimately result in thriftlessness, revolt, departure, + and contempt for white people! Many of the young generation + have not yet found their places in the new order of things; + and their silly parents work themselves nearly to death to + keep their sons from the plow and to make ladies of their + daughters, just like white folks; but time, gentleness, + bread, and neat homes will, with religion and culture, bring + great changes. And I say it to the credit of their former + owners, and their own instincts and capabilities, that _they + constitute to-day the best peasantry, holding similar + relations to the ruling classes on the face of the earth_. + Their vices are no greater; their respect for law about the + same; and their care for their children little inferior. + Besides, they speak the language of their country better, + are less cringing and craven, freer from begging; more + manly, more polite, less priest-ridden, less obsequious; + have a higher estimate of human rights and obligations; + understand farming, cooking, house-work, and manual labor, + in which they have been trained, better, I insist, than any + similarly conditioned race or people. They are less + profane--very much less--than white people; less bitter, + vindictive, and bloodthirsty; less intemperate, and far, far + less revengeful; and less selfish than what they + contemptuously snub as "poor white trash." But he is a + sinner! I believe the old stale rhyme tells some truth in a + modified sense, "In Adam's fall we sinned all;" but I do not + believe the serpent's tooth struck a more deadly and + depraving virus into the Negro's share of the apple of Eden, + dooming him as a sinner to a lower plane of wickedness than + others. He commits not all, but many, of the sins, crimes, + and misdemeanors, and indulges many of the vices of polished + humanity--cultured Caucasian humanity. They have had but + moderate experience in the sole management of their own + affairs. + +Again (p. 66): + + The Negro is neither a beggar, nor a pauper, nor a tramp; + and if honestly dealt with, he can make his own way. Where + they are idle and profligate, execute the law vigorously + against them, and they will approve and aid in the work. We + can lift them up, or cast them down. For one, I think we owe + them a debt of gratitude and impartial justice for their + faithful conduct during the war; and when disposed to + criticise and reproach them for not coming in all things up + to your sentimental notions, just put yourself in their + place. Then you will, if your scales are true and your + weights just, settle the question with little difficulty. I + cannot serve my readers better, perhaps, than by quoting the + words of the Rev. Dr. Callaway, lately Professor in Emory + College, Oxford, Ga., and new President of Paine Institute, + Augusta, Ga., a native of that State, and to the manor born. + In a late address, he says: "We have spoken of the Negro as + related to the conduct of the war, but it remains to be said + that, in his relation to us as a friend during that period, + and to our wives and children as guardian, the testimony of + his fidelity is on the lips of every surviving soldier. It + is easy to conjecture how, with a race less loyal to home + and patron, the testimony in the case might have been a + narrative of lawlessness and license. What he refrained + from, therefore, is to his credit. But in the four years of + darkness and demoralization, when, besides those of military + age, every boy whose muscles were equal to the support of a + musket, and every old man with vigor enough to mark time, + was called to the front, the Negro, commanding as a + patriarch and reverent as a priest, kept sacred vigil at our + homes. Besides this, with a foresight not developed for + himself or his family, but evoked by virtue of his office, + and the piteous destitution of our loved ones, he provided + for their wants. 'They were a-hungered, and he fed them.' + What he did is to his honor. What we refrain from in our + place of power as the superior race, shall be to our credit; + what we do in return shall be in proof of our appreciation. + The conduct of the Negro during the war proves him kindly, + temperate, trustworthy; his conduct since the war reveals in + him considerateness, purpose, capacity, an order of growing + good qualities. During the war his inferior courage, it may + be assumed, inured to his superior serviceableness, his + fears giving counsel to his courtesy and care. So set it + down, if you will, though the logic is as lame as the charge + is ungrateful." + +This testimony upon the character, temper and adaptability of colored +people is all the more valuable because Dr. Marshall not only treats +the question from a Christian standpoint, but because his intimate +acquaintance with the subject adds weight and authority to his +opinion. + +In the same strain, Dr. Atticus G. Haygood, President of Emory +College, in Georgia, a man of the largest culture, Christian +intelligence and progressive ideas, says, in his masterful work, _Our +Brother in Black, His Freedom and His Future_ (p. 194): + + If white people and black people wish to know how to treat + each other in all the relations of life, let them study the + Bible. Take for example the business relations of life, the + old question of capital and labor, of service and wages. For + the settlement of all questions that grow out of these + relations the laws laid down and the principles taught in + the Bible, are worth all the "political economies" in the + world. They apply to all races and conditions of men, in all + countries and in all times. They are as needful and useful + in New England factories as on Southern plantations. Free + Negroes are not the only underlings in the world, Negro + servants are not the only hirelings. There are thousands of + factory operatives, day laborers, domestic servants, + mechanics, sewing women, clerks, apprentices, and such like, + whose cry for justice against oppression goes up to heaven + by day and by night. "For which things' sake," in all lands, + "the wrath of God is come upon the children of + disobedience." Let us here recall some of these + half-forgotten laws; they must do us all good. I know they + are needed in the South; I am persuaded that they are needed + wherever there are masters and servants. + +Having heard a great deal about the condition of the colored people in +Louisiana, I decided that it would not be uninteresting to have an +authentic statement of that condition by some person fully capable of +furnishing the desired information. I therefore addressed a letter to +the Hon. Theophile T. Allain, a colored member of the Louisiana +Legislature for Sweet Iberville parish, and a large sugar planter. +From Mr. Allain's letter I condense the following statement, which +will be found to be interesting for many reasons: + +"First," says Mr. Allain, "I speak as a man of the South, who pays +taxes on thirty-five thousand dollars worth of property, and without +owing to any man one dollar. I claim to be well informed as to the +condition of the colored people of the South, the people who bear the +heat and burden of the day. + +"In the cotton section of the South the Negroes are kept in +subjugation, and are not permitted to exercise the right of suffrage +guaranteed to them by the provisions of the Federal constitution. In +the sugar-growing districts of Louisiana the colored and white people +live upon terms of friendship and cordiality. In these districts there +are thousands of colored men, who before the war were slaves, who now +pay taxes upon property, assessed in their own names, ranging in value +from five hundred to fifty thousand dollars. They produce principally +rice and sugar. It is a self-evident fact that the labor of the +colored men produces two-thirds of all the cotton raised in the South, +four-fifths of the sugar, and nine-tenths of all the rice. + +"In the cotton sections of Louisiana the colored men work mostly on +shares, and here and there some of them have accumulated a little +money; but, as a rule, they make fortunes for the landlords and die in +poverty because of no fault of their own. Rent here, as everywhere +else, pulls the laborer down, and keeps him down. What remains to him +after the landlord has taken his _share_, goes to the Jew shopkeepers +and other middle men at crossroads, who will not be satisfied with any +profit less than one hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent. + +"But the sugar districts of Louisiana are like oases in the desert. +Vacuum pans, steam cars, fine machinery and smiling faces are to be +met on every hand. Colored laborers find employment very readily in +the sugar districts from October to February; and during +cultivation-time, in many places, the colored laborers receive _as +high as one dollar and twenty cents per day_, and during the grinding +season, which is the harvest time, laborers receive from one dollar +and twenty-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents per day in the +field and seventy-five cents for one half of the night. At this +season we run the sugar machinery night and day. I should not omit to +state that colored men are, in the majority of cases, employed as +engineers at our sugar mills, and receive from two to two and a half +dollars per day: + +"You will be surprised when I tell you that the most of the +bricklaying and plastering work, and the blacksmithing and +carpentering work is done in the sugar districts by colored men, who +average three dollars per day for their work. + +"There are fifty-eight parishes in Louisiana, twenty-four of them +being sugar districts. To illustrate the degree of toleration which +obtains in the cotton and sugar growing districts, take the following +statement: In the Louisiana House of Representatives there are +thirteen colored members--all from the sugar districts; in the Senate +there are four colored members--all from the sugar districts. This +condition of things is readily accounted for by the fact that the +colored people in the sugar districts are more generally tax payers +than they are in the cotton districts, and, having mutual interests, +both white and black are more tolerant and better informed. The +Bulldozer and White Liner can find but little room to ply their +nefarious work where everybody finds plenty of work that pays well, +and where material prosperity is the first and political bickering the +secondary consideration. Because of the mutual interests at stake, +colored men in the sugar districts are often protected by their +bitterest political opponents. + +"The State of Louisiana is assessed at $200,000,000, of which her +colored population pay taxes upon more than $30,000,000.--Two thirds +of this is owned by colored men in the sugar districts." + +I could multiply quotations, but they would serve only to confirm my +view, that the colored man merely requires time to fully comprehend +his freedom and his opportunities, to enjoy the ample immunities of +the first and to improve to the utmost the advantages of the second. +All over the country the colored man is coming to understand that if +he is ever to have and enjoy a status in this country at all +commensurate with that of his white fellow-citizens, he must get his +grip upon the elements of success which they employ with such effect, +and boldly enter the lists, a competitor who must make a way for +himself. Dr. Marshall says truly: "The Negro is neither a beggar, nor +a pauper, nor a tramp." He is, essentially, a man of the largest +wealth, God having given him, under tropical conditions, a powerful +physique, with ample muscle and constitution to extract out of the +repositories of nature her buried wealth. He only needs intelligence +to use the wealth he creates. When he has intelligence, he will no +longer labor to enrich men more designing and unscrupulous than he is; +he will labor to enrich himself and his children. Indeed, in his +powerful muscle and enduring physical constitution, directed by +intelligence, the black man of the South, who alone has demonstrated +his capacity to labor with success in the rice swamps, the cotton, and +the cornfields of the South, will ultimately turn the tables upon the +unscrupulous harpies who have robbed him for more than two hundred +years; and from having been the slave of these men, he, in turn, will +enslave them. From having been the slave, he will become the master; +from having labored to enrich others, he will force others to labor to +enrich him. The laws of nature are inexorable, and this is one of +them. The white men of the South may turn pale with rage at this +aspect of the case, but it is written on the wall. Already I have seen +in the South the black and white farm laborer, working side by side +for a black landlord; already I have seen in the South a black and a +white brick-mason (and carpenters as well) working upon a building +side by side, under a colored contractor. And we are not yet two +decades from the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the manumission of the +black slave. + +I have no disposition to infuriate any white man of the South, by +placing a red flag before him; we simply desire to accustom him to +look upon a picture which his grand-children will not, because of the +frequency of the occurrence, regard with anything more heart-rending +than complacent indifference. The world moves forward; and the white +man of the South could not stand still, if he so desired. Like the +black man, he must work, or perish; like the black man, he must submit +to the sharpest competition, and rise or fall, as the case may be. And +so it should be. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_Classes in the South_ + + +Since the war the people of the South are, from a Northern standpoint, +very poor. There are very few millionaires among them. A man who has a +bank account of fifty thousand dollars is regarded as very rich. I am +reminded of an incident which shows that the Southern people fall down +and worship a golden calf the same as their deluded brothers of the +North and West. + +A few years ago I was a resident of Jacksonville, the metropolis of +Florida. Florida is a great Winter resort. The wealthy people of the +country go there for a few months or weeks in the Winter. It is +fashionable to do so. A great many wealthy northern men have acquired +valuable landed interests in Jacksonville, among them the Astors of +New York, who have a knack for pinning their interests in the soil. +The people of Jacksonville were very proud to have as a resident and +property holder, Mr. Wm. B. Astor. And Mr. Astor appeared to enjoy +immensely the worship bestowed upon his money. He built one or two +very fine buildings there, which must net him a handsome return for +his investment by this time. Mr. Astor had with him a very shrewd "Man +Friday," and this Man Friday got it into his head that he would like +to be Mayor of Jacksonville, and he sought and obtained the support of +his very powerful patron. It leaked out that Mr. Astor favored his Man +Friday for Mayor. The "business interests" of the city took the matter +"under advisement." After much "consultation" and preliminary +skirmishing, it was decided that it would be unwise to antagonize Mr. +Astor's Man Friday; and so he was placed in nomination as the +"Citizens' Candidate." He was elected by a handsome majority. I +believe it is a disputed question to-day, whether Mr. Astor's Man +Friday was, or was not, a citizen of the place at the time he was +elected Mayor. Be that as it may, it showed beyond question that the +people knew how to go down upon their knees to the golden calf. + +A condition of slavery or of serfdom produces two grievous evils, +around which cluster many others of less importance, viz: the creation +of vast landed estates, and the pauperization and debasement of labor. +Pliny declared that to the creation of vast _latifundia_ (aggregated +estates) Italy owed its downfall. The same is true of the downfall of +the South and its pet institution, since they produced a powerful and +arrogant class which was not content to lord it on their vast demesnes +and over their pauper labor, but must needs carry their high-flown +notions into the councils of the nation, flaunting their gentle birth +and undulating acres in the faces of horny-handed statesmen like +Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wilson, and others. + +The operations of the vast landed estates of the South produced all +the industrial disjointments which have afflicted the South since the +war. The white man was taught to look upon labor as the natural +portion of the black slave; and nothing could induce a white man to +put his hand to the plow, but the gaunt visage of starvation at his +door. He even preferred ignominious starvation to honest work; and, in +his desperate struggle to avoid the horror of the one and the disgrace +of the other, he would sink himself lower in the scale of moral infamy +than the black slave he despised. He would make of himself a monster +of cruelty or of abject servility to avoid starvation or honest work. +It was from this class of vermin that the planters secured their +"Nigger drivers" or overseers, and a more pliable, servile, cruel, +heartless set of men never existed. They were commonly known as "_poor +white trash_," or "crackers." They were most heartily and righteously +detested by the slave population. As the poor whites of the South were +fifty years ago, so they are to-day--a careless, ignorant, lazy, but +withal, arrogant set, who add nothing to the productive wealth of the +community because they are too lazy to work, and who take nothing from +that wealth because they are too poor to purchase. They have graded +human wants to a point below which man could not go without starving. +They live upon the poorest land in the South, the "piney woods," and +raise a few potatoes and corn, and a few pigs, which never grow to be +hogs, so sterile is the land upon which they are turned to "root, or +die." These characteristic pigs are derisively called "shotes" by +those who have seen their lean, lank and hungry development. They are +awful counterparts of their pauper owners. It may be taken as an index +of the quality of the soil and the condition of the people, to observe +the condition of their live stock. Strange as it may appear, the +faithful dog is the only animal which appears to thrive on "piney +woods" land. The "piney woods" gopher, which may be not +inappropriately termed a "highland turtle," is a great desideratum in +the food supply of the pauper denizens of these portions of the South. +There is nothing enticing about the appearance of the gopher. But his +flesh, properly cooked, is passably palatable. + +The poor white population of the South who live in the piney woods are +sunk in the lowest ignorance, and practice vices too heinous to be +breathed. They have no schools, and their mental condition hardly +warrants the charitable inference that they would profit much if they +were supplied with them. Still, I would like to see the experiment +tried. Their horrible poverty, their appalling illiteracy, their +deplorable moral enervation, deserve the pity of mankind and the +assistance of philanthropic men and a thoughtful government. Though +sunk to the lowest moral scale, _they are men_, and nothing should be +omitted to improve their condition and make them more useful members +of the communities in which they are now more than an incubus. + +It may not be out of place here to state that the Kuklux Klan, the +White Liners League, the Knights of the White Camelia, and other +lawless gangs which have in the past fifteen years made Southern +chivalry a by-word and reproach among the nations of the earth, were +largely recruited from this idle, vicious, ignorant class of +Southerners. They needed no preparation for the bloody work +perpetrated by those lawless organizations, those more cruel than +Italian brigands. They instinctively hate the black man; because the +condition of the black, his superior capacity for labor and +receptivity of useful knowledge, place him a few pegs higher than +themselves in the social scale. So these degraded white men, the very +substratum of Southern population, were ready tools in the hands of +the organized chivalrous brigands (as they had been of the slave +oligarch), whose superior intelligence made them blush at the +lawlessness they inspired, and who, therefore, gladly transferred to +other hands the execution of those deeds of blood and death which make +men shudder even now to think of them. It was long a common saying +among the black population of the South that "I'd rudder be a niggah +den a po' w'ite man!" and they were wise in their preference. + +It is safe to say, that the peasantry of no country claiming to be +civilized stands more in need of the labors of the schoolmaster and +the preacher, than do the so-called "poor white trash" of the South. +On their account, if no other, I am an advocate of a compulsory system +of education, a National Board of Education, and a very large National +appropriation for common school and industrial education. + +I name this class first because it is the very lowest. + +Next to this class is the great labor force of the South, the class +upon whose ample shoulders have fallen the weight of Southern labor +and inhumanity for lo! two hundred years--_the black man_. Time was, +yesterday, it appears to me, when this great class were all of _one_ +condition, driven from the rising to the setting of the sun to enrich +men who were created out of the same sod, and in the construction of +whose mysterious mechanism, mental and physical, the great God +expended no more time or ingenuity. Up to the close of the Rebellion, +of that gigantic conflict which shook the pillars of republican +government to their center, the great black population were truly the +"mudsills" of Southern society, upon which rested all the industrial +burdens of that section; truly, "the hewers of wood and the drawers of +water;" a people who, in the mysterious providence of God, were torn +root and branch from their savage homes in that land which has now +become to them a dream "more insubstantial than a pageant faded," to +"dwell in a strange land, among strangers," to endure, like the +children of Israel, a season of cruel probation, and then to begin +life in earnest; to put their shoulders to the wheel and assist in +making this vast continent, this asylum of the oppressed of the world, +the grandest abode of mingled happiness and woe, and wealth and +pauperization ever reared by the genius and governed by the +selfishness and cupidity of man. And to-day, as in the dark days of +the past, this people are the bone and sinew of the South, the great +producers and partial consumers of her wealth; the despised, yet +indispensable, "mudsills" of her industrial interests. + +A Senator of the United States from the South, whose hands have been +dyed in the blood of his fellow citizens, and who holds his high +office by fraud and usurpation, not long since declared that his State +could very well dispense with her black population. That population +outnumbers the white three to one; and by the toil by which that State +has been enriched, by the blood and the sweat of two hundred years +which the soil of that State has absorbed, by the present production +and consumption of wealth by that black population, we are amazed at +the ignorance of the great man who has been placed in a "little brief +authority." The black population cannot and will not be dispensed +with; because it is so deeply rooted in the soil that it is a part of +it--the most valuable part. And the time will come when it will hold +its title to the land, by right of purchase, for a laborer is worthy +of his hire, and is now free to invest that hire as it pleases him +best. Already some of the very best soil of that State is held by the +people this great magnus in the Nation's councils would supersede in +their divine rights. + +When the war closed, as I said, the great black population of the +South was distinctively a laboring class. It owned no lands, houses, +banks, stores, or live stock, or other wealth. Not only was it the +distinctively laboring class but the distinctively pauper class. It +had neither money, intelligence nor morals with which to begin the +hard struggle of life. It was absolutely at the bottom of the social +ladder. It possessed nothing but health and muscle. + +I have frequently contemplated with profound amazement the momentous +mass of subjected human force, a force which had been educated by the +lash and the bloodhound to despise labor, which was thrown upon itself +by the wording of the Emancipation Proclamation and the surrender of +Robert E. Lee. Nothing in the history of mankind is at all comparable, +an exact counterpart, in all particulars, to that great event. A +slavery of two hundred years had dwarfed the intelligence and morality +of this people, and made them to look upon labor as the most baneful +of all the curses a just God can inflict upon humankind; and they were +turned loose upon the land, without a dollar in their hands, and, like +the great Christ and the fowls of the air, without a place to lay +their head. + +And yet to-day, this people, who, only a few years ago, were bankrupts +in morality, in intelligence, and in wealth, have leaped forward in +the battle of progress like _veterans_; have built magnificent +churches, with a membership of over two million souls; have preachers, +learned and eloquent; have professors in colleges by the hundreds and +schoolmasters by the thousands; have accumulated large landed +interests in country, town and city; have established banking houses +and railroads; manage large coal, grocery and merchant tailoring +businesses; conduct with ability and success large and influential +newspaper enterprises; in short, have come, and that very rapidly, +into sharp competition with white men (who have the prestige of a +thousand years of civilization and opportunity) in all the industrial +interests which make a people great, respected and feared. The +metamorphosis has been rapid, marvelous, astounding. Their home life +has been largely transformed into the quality of purity and refinement +which should characterize the home; they have now successful farmers, +merchants, ministers, lawyers, editors, educators, physicians, +legislators--in short, they have entered every avenue of industry and +thought. Their efforts yet crude and their grasp uncertain, but they +are in the field of competition, and will remain there and acquit +themselves manfully. + +Of course I speak in general terms of the progress the colored people +have made. Individual effort and success are the indicators of the +vitality and genius of a people. When individuals rise out of the +indistinguishable mass and make their mark, we may rest assured that +the mass is rich and capable of unlimited production. The great mass +of every government, of every people, while adding to and creating +greatness, go down in history unmentioned. But their glory, their +genius, success and happiness, are expended and survive in the few +great spirits their fortunate condition produced. The governments of +antiquity were great and glorious, because their proletarians were +intelligent, thrifty and brave, but the proletarians fade into +vagueness, and are great only in the few great names which have been +handed down to us. It has been said that a nation expends a hundred +years of its vitality in the production of a great man of genius like +Socrates, or Bacon, or Toussaint l'Overture, or Fulton. And this may +be true. There can now be no question that the African race in the +United States possess every element of vitality and genius possessed +by their fellow citizens of other races, and any calculation of race +possibilities in this country which assumes that they will remain +indefinitely the "mudsills" only of society will prove more brittle +than ropes of sand. + +At this time the colored people of the South are largely the +industrial class; that is, they are the producing class. They are +principally the agriculturists of the South; consequently, being +wedded to the soil by life-long association and interest, and being +principally the laboring class, they will naturally invest their +surplus earnings in the purchase of the soil. Herein lies the great +hope of the future. For the man who owns the soil largely owns and +dictates to the men who are compelled to live upon it and derive +their subsistence from it. The colored people of the South recognize +this fact. And if there is any one idiosyncrasy more marked than +another among them, it is their mania for buying land. They all live +and labor in the cheerful anticipation of some day owning a home, a +farm of their own. As the race grows in intelligence this mania for +land owning becomes more and more pronounced. At first their +impecuniosity will compel them to purchase poor hill-lands, but they +will eventually get their grip upon the rich alluvial lands. + +The class next to the great black class is the _small white farmers_. +This class is composed of some of the "best families" of the South who +were thrown upon their resources of brain and muscle by the results of +the war, and of some of the worst families drawn from the more thrifty +poor white class. Southern political economists labor hard to make it +appear that the vastly increased production of wealth in the South +since the war is to be traced largely to the phenomenally increased +percentum of small white farmers, but the assumption is too +transparent to impose upon any save those most ignorant of the +industrial conditions of the South, and the marvelous adaptability to +the new conditions shown by colored men. I grant that these small +white farmers, who were almost too inconsiderable in numbers to be +taken into account before the war, have added largely to the +development of the country and the production of wealth; but that the +tremendous gains of free labor as against slave labor are to be placed +principally to their intelligence and industry is too absurd to be +seriously debated. The Charleston (S.C.) _News and Courier_, a +pronounced anti-negro newspaper, recently made such a charge in all +seriousness. The struggle for supremacy will largely come between the +small white and black farmer; because each recurring year will augment +the number of each class of small holders. A condition of freedom and +open competition makes the fight equal, in many respects. Which will +prove the more successful small holder, the black or the white? + +The fourth class is composed of the _hereditary land-lords_ of the +South; the gentlemen with flowing locks, gentle blood and irascible +tempers, who appeal to the code of honor (in times past) to settle +small differences with their equals and shoot down their inferiors +without premeditation or compunction, and who drown their sorrows, as +well as their joviality in rye or Bourbon whiskey; the gentlemen who +claim consanguinity with Europe's titled sharks, and vaunt their +chivalry in contrast to the peasant or yeoman blood of all other +Americans; the gentlemen who got their broad acres (however they came +by their peculiar blood) by robbing black men, women and children of +the produce of their toil under the system of slavery, and who +maintain themselves in their reduced condition by driving hard +bargains with white and black labor either as planters or +shop-keepers, often as both, the dual occupations more effectually +enabling them to make unreasonable contracts and exactions of those +they live to victimize. They are the gentlemen who constantly declare +that "this is a white man's government," and that "the Negro must be +made to keep his place." They are the gentlemen who have their grip +upon the throat of Southern labor; who hold vast areas of land, the +product of robbery, for a rise in values; who run the stores and +torture the small farmer to death by usurious charges for necessaries; +these are the gentlemen who are opposed to the new conditions +resultant from the war which their Hotspur impetuosity and Shylock +greed made possible. In short, these gentlemen comprise the moneyed +class. They are the gentlemen who are hastening the conflict of labor +and capital in the South. And, when the black laborer and the white +laborer come to their senses, join issues with the common enemy and +pitch the tent of battle, then will come the tug of war. + +But the large land-owners and tradesmen of the South will not in the +future belong exclusively to the class of persons I have described. On +the contrary this class of hereditary land-owners will be sensibly +diminished and their places be taken by successful recruits from the +ranks of small white and black farmers. Indeed, I confess, I strongly +incline to the belief that the black man of the South will eventually +become the large land-holding class, and, therefore, the future +tyrants of labor in that section. All the indications strongly point +to such a possibility. It is estimated that, already, the colored +people own, in the cotton growing states, 2,680,800 acres, the result +of seventeen years of thrift, economy, and judicious management; while +in the State of Georgia alone they own, it is reliably estimated, +680,000 acres of land, and pay taxes on $9,000,000 worth of property. +Dr. Alexander Crummell, a most learned African, in a very interesting +pamphlet drawn out by the malicious misstatements of Dr. Tucker, +before referred to by me, makes the following deductions and +statements, to wit: + + Let me suggest here another estimate of this landed property + of the Negro, acquired _since_ emancipation. Taking the old + slave States in the general, there has been a large + acquisition of land in each and all of them. In the State of + Georgia, as we have just seen, it was 680,000 acres. Let us + put the figure as low as 400,000 for each State--for the + purchase of farm lands has been everywhere a passion with + the freedman--this 400,000 acres multiplied into 14, _i.e._ + the number of the chief Southern States, shows an aggregate + of 5,600,000 acres of land, the acquisition of the black + race in less than twenty years. + + But Dr. Tucker will observe a further fact of magnitude in + this connection: It is the increased PRODUCTION which has + been developed on the part of the freedman since + emancipation. I present but _one_ staple, and for the reason + that it is almost exclusively the result of $1. + + I will take the five years immediately preceding the late + civil war and compare them with the five years preceeding + the last year's census-taking; and the contrast in the + number of cotton-bales produced will show the industry and + thrift of the black race as a consequent on the gift of + freedom: + + _Years_ _Bales_ + 1857 2,939,519 + 1858 3,113,962 + 1859 3,851,481 + 1860 4,669,770 + 1861 3,656,006 + ---------- + Total 18,230,738 + + _Years_ _Bales_ + 1878 4,811,265 + 1879 5,073,531 + 1880 5,757,397 + 1881 6,589,329 + 1882 5,435,845 + ----------- + The five years' work of _freedom_ 27,667,367 + The five years' work of _slavery_ 18,230,738 + ---------- + Balance in favor of freedom 9,436,629 + + Now this item of production is a positive disproof of Dr. + Tucker's statement, "that the average level in material + prosperity is but little higher than it was before the war." + Here is the fact that the Freedman has produced one-third + more in five years than he did in the same time when a + slave! + + Another view of this matter is still more striking. The + excess of yield in cotton in seven years [_i.e._, from 1875 + to 1882] over the seven years [_i.e._, from 1854 to 1861] + is 17,091,000 bales, being $1. If Dr. Tucker will glance at + the great increase of the cotton, tobacco, and sugar crops + South, as shown in Agricultural Reports from 1865 to 1882, + and reflect that NEGROES have been the producers of these + crops, he will understand their indignation at his + outrageous charges of "laziness and vagabondage:" and + perhaps he will listen to their demand that he shall take + back the unjust and injurious imputations which, without + knowledge and discrimination, he makes against a whole race + of people. + + This impulse to thrift on the part of the Freedmen was no + tardy and reluctant disposition. It was the _immediate_ + offspring of freedom. + +It is not possible even to approximate the landed acquisitions of the +colored people, but that they have been large purchasers of small +holdings will readily be admitted by all candid persons who are +acquainted with the intense pastoral nature of the people, their +constant thrift, and their deepseated determination to own their own +homes. If we assume, with Dr. Crummell, that in the past seventeen +years, the hardest, most disadvantageous years they will ever again be +compelled to go through, they have come into possession of 5,600,000 +acres, the gain in the next seventeen years must be vastly greater. At +any rate, we are free to place the holdings in the next fifty years at +not less than 35,000,000 acres, and the probability is that it will be +vastly more. + +In the _Popular Science Monthly_ for October 1881, Mr. J. Stahl +Patterson, in an article on the "Movement of the Colored Population," +says: "It would seem that in the industrial aspects of the case the +white and colored men may be, under certain circumstances, the +complement of each other." Again: "There are two distinct classes of +colored economists. One is satisfied with dependence on others for +employment, the other affects independent homes, and struggles to +secure them, however humble. Some even acquire wealth." + +In the same monthly for February, 1883, Prof. E.W. Gilliam has a long +article on the "African in the United States," in which he does all he +can to make wider the breach between the blacks and the whites. He has +very little good to say of the black man. But he was forced to make +the following admissions, viz: + +"The blacks are an improving race, and the throb of aspiration is +quickening. * * * Advancement in mental training and in economic +science must needs be slow but there _is_ advancement." + +The learned professor makes the interesting calculation that the +blacks in the Southern States will increase from 6,000,000 in 1880, to +192,000,000, in 1980; while the whites in the South, in 1880, +12,000,000, will number only 96,000,000, in 1980. The learned +professor infers that this vast army will be "doomed to remain where +they have been, and be hewers of wood and drawers of water," because +they form a "distinct alien race." I think, if the professor will wait +until 1980, he will find that this "alien race," which profligate +white men have done and are doing so much to amalgamate with their own +race, will not only increase approximately as he has figured it out, +in numbers, but in wealth as well. + +The future landlord and capitalist of the South are no longer confined +to the white race: the black man has become a factor, and he must be +counted. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_The Land Problem_ + + +The ownership of land in the South is the same pernicious thing it has +come to be in every civilized country in the world. Instead of being, +as it was intended to be, a blessing to the people, it is the crying +curse which takes precedence of all other evils that afflict mankind. +And the cause is not far to seek. Land is, in its very nature, the +common property of the people. Like air and water, it is one of the +natural elements which inhere in man as a common right, and without +which life could in no wise be sustained. A man must have air, or he +will suffocate; he must have water, or he will perish of thirst; he +must have access to the soil, for upon it grow those things which +nature intended for the sustentation of the physical man, and without +which he cannot live. Deprive me of pure fresh air, and I die; deprive +me of pure fresh water, and I die; deprive me of free opportunity to +earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, by sowing in the sowing time +and reaping in the reaping time, and I die. There is no escape from +this aspect of the case: there is no logic that can reduce these +truisms to sophistries. They are founded in the omnipotent laws of +God, and are as universal as the earth. They apply with as much truth +to life in the United States as in Dahomey; they operate in like +nature upon the savage as upon man in the civilized state. Individual +ownership in the land is a transgression of the common right of man, +and a usurpation which produces nearly, if not all, the evils which +result upon our civilization; the inequalities which produce +pauperism, vice, crime, and wide-spread demoralization among all the +so-called "lower classes;" which produce, side by side, the +millionaire and the tramp, the brownstone front and the hut of the +squatter, the wide extending acres of the bonanza farm and the small +holding, the lord of the manor and the cringing serf, peasant and +slave. + +I maintain, with other writers upon this land question, that land is +common property, the property of the whole people, and that it cannot +be alienated from the people without producing the most fearful +consequences. No man is free who is debarred in his right, to so much +of the soil of his country as is necessary to support him in his right +to life, for without the inherent right to unrestrained access to the +soil he cannot support life, except in primitive society where land is +plentiful, population sparse, and industry undiversified. As +population becomes denser and land becomes scarcer from having been +monopolized by the more far seeing, or more fortunate, and industry +becomes more diversified, mankind begins to feel the pressure of +population described by Malthus, and the scarcity of subsistence; +caused, not by this pressure of population, as Malthus maintains, but +by the restricted production of subsistence caused by the monopoly and +concentration of the soil, which inhibits the producing agency from +the production of the increased subsistence necessary to the increased +number of mouths to be fed. There can be no such thing as +overproduction when there are hundreds and thousands who perish for +food; there can be no pressure upon population when there are hundreds +and thousands of acres of arable land locked up in a deed purchase, or +entail, or primogeniture, upon which alone beasts are allowed to +trespass. The idea is preposterous. And yet men who are regarded as +standard authority upon economic questions impose this sophistry of +overproduction and pressure of population upon mankind, and are +applauded for their ignorance, or the cupidity which makes them to +pervert the truth. + +Monopoly of land is the curse of the race in every modern government. +Being the one great source from which all wealth must and does spring, +its concentration in the hands of a few men not only impoverishes the +people, but seriously cripples the operations of government (the one +and the other being substantially identical) by curtailing the +productive energies of the people and diverting into the coffers of +individuals rental which should flow into the common treasury as +taxes, thus lifting from the shoulders of the people the enormous +burden of the maintenance of government which falls upon them. + +Monopoly of land was the prime element which hastened the decay of +Roman greatness and strength, because when the people no longer had +homes to fight for they ceased to be patriots, ceased to be virtuous, +and became mercenaries, or slaves or tyrants; left to those who had +monopolized the soil, the defense of their property: and these, being +few in numbers, parsimonious after the nature of their class, and +effeminate from luxurious living and habits of indolence, fell easy +victims to the rapacity and iron nerve of Goth and Vandal. The great +French Revolution would have never occurred but for the monopoly of +land, which, after long ages, became centered in a few hands, who by +reason of this were a privileged class and in the refinement of +language had been designated as the "nobility." The nobility, as was +natural, having been created by the State, not only ground the +proletariat to powder but dictated to the State. When it was no longer +possible to purchase land, because those whose nobility rested upon it +would not alienate it, and when the proletariat had been reduced to a +state of vassalage, more vile and grinding than slavery itself, the +proletariat rose up in its might and crushed at one tremendous blow +the hydra-headed monstrosity. Marat, Danton and Robespiere +concentrated in their intense natures the venom, the hate, and the +desperation of the people--a more terrible triumvirate than the +celebrated one which colored the Tiber with the patrician blood of +Rome. The Nihilism of Russia is the outgrowth of monopoly in land and +the consequent enslavement of the people by the aristocracy, beginning +with the autocrat upon his throne. England has reached a transition +period. The pressure of her population has become so intense, that the +great producing classes can no longer stand the tension and live. The +land has been filched from the people to enrich the brainless +favorites and the courtesans of kings, and entailed upon their progeny +generation after generation. The land of Great Britain is held by the +nobility and the princely cormorants of trade, who exact rental which +cannot be paid from the produce of the soil, so usurious is it, or who +turn the rich acres into pleasure grounds and pasturages. As Nero +fiddled while Rome was one vast blaze of conflagration and horror, so +the nobility of Great Britain dance and make merry while the people +starve or seek in other lands that opportunity to live which their +country denies to them. For the past five years the government of +Great Britain has been engaged in a most desperate struggle with the +people of one of her constituent islands, the agitation assuming, like +the chameleon, different colors or names as the exigencies of the +contending forces determined. But the one great question at the root +of the agitation is the monopoly of the land by the "nobility" and the +successful cormorants of trade, and the consequent pressure of +population upon the enforced circumscription of production. The best +lands have been alienated from the people, while the inferior lands +upon which they are allowed to live will not yield the exorbitant +rental demanded and the necessary subsistence for those who work them. +Hence, Ireland is in a state so explosive that it can only be +appropriately described by the term "dynamitic." In the interest of a +few landlords the whole Irish nation has been demoralized and +impoverished, so that the government of Great Britain finds it +necessary to "_assist_" able-bodied men to reach America, or any other +portion of the world they desire to go to, in order to make a living. + +If monopoly in land produces such results as these is it not to be +condemned as subversive of correct social adjustments and the +perpetuity of government? The question admits of but one answer. If +monopoly in land compels a government to "assist" its able-bodied men, +its laborers, its producers of wealth, its soldiery, to go to other +lands, is it not to be condemned as parasitical, destroying the very +bone and sinew of government? The answer is self-evident. If monopoly +in land produces such results as these, would it not be wise +statesmanship and sound governmental policy to confiscate to the +people the millions of acres which avarice, cunning, favoritism and +robbery have turned into parks, pasturages and game preserves--making +the few thousands who constitute the land monopolists, the idlers and +the harpies, go honestly to work to make a living, and giving at the +same time the same opportunity to the great laboring classes, who +earnestly desire to make a living but to whom the opportunity is +cruelly and maliciously denied? + +I am opposed to aristocracies and so-called privileged classes, +because they are opposed to the masses. They make inequalities, out of +which grow all the miseries of society, because there is no limit to +their avarice, parsimony and cruelty. So _they_ thrive, _all the rest_ +of humanity may go to the dogs; so they revel in luxury and +debauchery, all the rest of humanity may revel in poverty, vice and +crime; so they enjoy all the blessings of organized society, all the +rest of humanity may bear its curses. Man is essentially a selfish +animal. Self-preservation is the very first law which he learns to +observe and to practice. That he may get on top of the social ladder +and remain there, he will sacrifice family, common humanity and +patriotism. Naturally, Moloch-self is the god he serves. To enjoy a +little brief authority, he would enslave universal mankind, and +declare, as Solomon did, after exhausting the catalogue of tyranny and +libertinism, "all is vanity"--emptiness! Thus, it is dangerous to +confide in the humanity of man. To place in his hands a weapon so +all-powerful as land, is to place him upon a pinnacle from whose vast +altitude he can, will, and does crush his unfortunate fellowman. + +Like the small stream which gathers volume and momentum in its +wanderings from the small lake to the gulf, into which it debouches as +a mighty river like the "Father of Waters," so the first encroachments +of the land shark are small, and hardly felt; but give him time, let +him grow from the Norman soldier of fortune into the English nobility +of to-day, and you have a monster whose proportions and rapacity +stagger the imagination to fully apprehend. What the common soldier of +fortune received as reward for his valor eight hundred years ago, and +which he held subject to confiscation to his prince if he failed to +render him service in person and with retainers, has developed into a +huge monopoly which appropriates in rental more than the tenant can +pay, with the added necessary subsistence required to sustain him. +There are also the imposition of direct taxes by the government and +indirect taxes upon all implements and other articles of manufacture, +occasioned by the division of labor, which he must use; all of which +taxes the land monopolists have managed to shift upon the tenant and +wage-laborer. Time augments the evil. So that, to-day, in Great +Britain, a man cannot purchase land, except in rare cases, and then +the purchaser must pay a fortune for the privilege. The poor farmer, +the wage-laborer, the common man, has not and cannot have any grip +upon the soil, but must come into the world a slave, and go down to +his grave after a life of toil and self-denial, a slave, with the +tormenting consciousness that as he was, so must the unfortunate +offspring of his loins be! + +If this be the tendency of organized society--if the tendency be to +enslave mankind, place a premium upon human woe and crime--then +organized society is organized robbery, and the savage state is +preferable. There is no appeal from this deduction. What avail the +triumphs of art, science and commerce, if the majority of mankind are +ground to powder to make those triumphs possible! + +It is not the law of God, but the law of man, that produces these +herculean evils which constantly threaten the peace and safety of +society. + +But the British land-owner, having enslaved the people of his own +island, has shackled the people of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, doomed +them and their posterity to be perpetual aliens in their native lands; +he has, upon the plea of conquest, the argument of the base assassin +and robber, reduced the people of India to a state worse than death; +and his iron grip has been placed upon the uncounted millions of +African soil; the Islands of the sea squirm in his grasp; the West +India Islands are his prostrate prey; while a portion of the vast +continent of America owns his sway and groans under his exactions. + +But this is not all. In our own country the British land shark has +made his appearance. His vile clutch, which our forefathers unwrenched +in the strength of their Colonial greatness, has again been fastened +upon our throat. The following table will show the extent to which the +parasite has insinuated himself into our vital parts. Let the good +people of this country--who should know that monopoly in land is the +death note of free institutions; that large estates are the parasites +of republics and the death of small freeholders--let the people read +the following table with the closeness which its gravity should +inspire. The San Francisco _Daily Examiner_, a leading paper on the +Pacific coast says: + + Besides the millions of acres belonging to railroad and + other corporations, the amount of land that is being + acquired by foreign capitalists and landlords is fairly + amazing. Ireland is to-day groaning beneath the yoke of + oppression, and not many years will roll around before the + American tenant, upon his knees, will also look up into the + scowling face of his master and acknowledge his obedience. + Following are a few of America's foreign landlords, and the + amount of their holdings expressed in acres:-- + + An English Syndicate, No. 3, in Texas 3,000,000 + The Holland Land Company, New Mexico 4,500,000 + Sir Edward Reid, and a syndicate in Florida 2,000,000 + English Syndicate, in Mississippi 1,800,000 + Marquis of Tweedale 1,750,000 + Philips, Marshal & Co., London 1,300,000 + German Syndicate 1,100,000 + Anglo-American Syndicate, Mr. Rogers President, London 750,000 + Byron H. Evans, of London, in Mississippi 700,000 + Duke of Sutherland 425,000 + British Land Company, in Kansas 320,000 + William Whallay, M.P., Peterboro, England 310,000 + Missouri Land Company, Edinburgh, Scotland 300,000 + Robert Tennant, of London 230,000 + Dundee Land Company, Scotland 247,000 + Lord Dunmore 120,000 + Benjamin Newgas, Liverpool 100,000 + Lord Houghton, in Florida 60,000 + Lord Dunraven, in Colorado 60,000 + English Land Company, in Florida 50,000 + English Land Company, in Arkansas 50,000 + Albert Peel, M.P., Leicestershire, England 10,000 + Sir J.L. Kay, Yorkshire, England 5,000 + Alexander Grant, of London, in Kansas 35,000 + English Syndicate (represented by Closs Bros.) Wisconsin 110,000 + M. Ellerhauser, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in West Virginia 600,000 + A Scotch Syndicate, in Florida 500,000 + A. Boysen, Danish Consul, in Milwaukee 50,000 + Missouri Land Company, of Edinburgh, Scotland 165,000 + + Total 20,747,000 + +Commenting upon these startling figures, the _New York (Daily) World_, +one of the best informed papers of the time says: + + The land grabber is not a fungus of nineteenth century + growth. He first came among English-speaking peoples over + eight centuries ago. Wherever his foot has found a + standing-place pauperism and its sequence, crime, have + followed. In the British Isles he is known as an Acreocrat. + Since he has extended his operations from his native country + to our own free soil the land-grabber should be examined + under the microscope of history analytically, impartially, + and truthfully. + + The unnaturalized foreigner threatens us with other dangers + than those which would be created by our indigenous American + land-grabber. The British acreocrat who owns real estate in + this country believes in the cancer of English monarchy with + its hideous annals of nearly a thousand years. He accepts + the tradition of an hereditary House of Lords, a body + composed of the effete and played out descendants of the + most tyrannical and profligate rascals which Europe ever + produced, and he will remain an English blueblood in every + thought and action, which cannot fail to bring about in free + America and on his own acres here the same poverty-stricken + class of peasants as now curse Great Britain and Ireland. + + English "upper-tendom" is represented in recent purchases + of American soil by one duke, one marquis, two earls, a + baron, two baronets and two members of Parliament. The + British duke owns 425,000 acres; the marquis, 1,750,000 + acres; the two earls, 160,000 acres; the baron, 60,000 + acres; the brace of baronets, 2,000,500 acres; and the pair + of Parliamentary politicians, 860,000 acres. In the rest of + the land purchased by our brand-new imported lords of the + soil, England's governing acreocrats, are largely + represented in their 20,941,666 acres. + + Much ignorance is affected in American society respecting + the manner in which the British landocrats came by their + property. It is enough that "my lud" has a handle to his + name, and Murray Hill shoddyocracy will wine and dine and + toady him, and perhaps for his title marry him to some + sweet, pure and good American girl, whose life hereafter + will be a purgatory to herself and a mutual misery to both. + +But the land held by the foreigner in the United States is a mere +bagatelle. He is odious not because he is a foreigner, but only +because he is the representative, on the one hand, of the odious land +system of the Old World, and on the other of those monarchical ideas +which have made the great body of the European people unwilling +slaves, reducing them to the very verge of desperation and starvation. +Archimedes explained, as illustrating the vast power of the fulcrum, +that if he had a place to stand he could move the world. The British +land-shark, having got his hold upon the soil, possesses the place to +stand for which the Greek sighed in vain, and no man will say he does +not move the world; and he will continue to move _it_ until such time +as the world shall move _him._ + +The foreign land-shark is still in his infancy. We have an indigenous +land-shark whose maw is so capacious that the rapacity of his appetite +in no wise keeps pace with its lightning-like digestion. Congressman +William Steel Holman, of Indiana, one of the purest statesmen of these +corrupt times, and one of the most thoroughly informed men of the +country upon the question of eminent domain, and the bestowal of that +domain upon corporations and syndicates, recently said, on the floor +of the House of Representatives, in the course of a discussion on the +Post-office Appropriation bill: + + Is it just and proper to require the landgrant railroads to + transport your mails at 50 per cent of the rates you pay to + corporations whose railroads were built by private capital? + I think it is. I think it liberal and more than liberal when + the cost in public wealth is considered in the building of + these land-grant railroads. I submit tables of the railroads + built under the land-grant system, compiled from official + reports, and they show an aggregate of 218,386,199 acres, + 192,081,155 acres of which were granted between June 30, + 1862, and March 4, 1875, the aggregate length of railroads + for which the grants were made being 20,803 miles, 13,071 + miles independent of the 7,732 mileage of the Pacific roads; + and the reports of the Post-office Department show that last + year the Government paid, on 11,588,56 miles of land-grant + railroad, independent of the Union Pacific system and the + great body of lapsed grants, $1,144,323.91 for postal + service. The startling fact appears that in the gradual + development of these grants, great as they are, they still + swell in their proportions. I pointed out on a former + occasion the startling discrepancies that appear in the + official statements of these grants, and can only say now, + as I did then, that in such enormous grants a few million + acres either way is considered of no moment. + +Again: + + There are other grants which I have not included in either + of the foregoing tables where not a spadeful of earth has + been dug in the construction of a railroad, yet the lands + are withdrawn from settlement and claimed by the + corporation, although the grants were long since forfeited. + The forfeiture of these grants will, of course, be declared. + Of all of these grants over 109,000,000 acres, including + over 16,000,000 this House has already declared forfeited, + are beyond any reasonable question forfeited, and the + declaration of that forfeiture by Congress is demanded by + the highest consideration of public policy, common honesty, + and justice to the people. Even to the extent these + land-grant railroads enumerated in the first table were + completed, you paid them, as I have shown, last year + $1,144,323.91 for transporting your mails. This bill would, + as to these roads, to the extent they are entitled to the + lands granted and including the Pacific systems, save to the + Treasury annually, I think, near a million dollars, perhaps + more. + +Deducing from the foregoing statement of land-grants to corporations, +Mr. Holman draws the following picture of what the people may do when +they are fully informed and aroused to the enormous extent to which +they have been despoiled by their unfaithful servants in congress: + + The wealth that builds palaces, undermines the foundations + of free Government, and wrings from the heart of labor the + cry of despair! With the public lands exhausted, with + remnants of the Indian-tribes despoiled of their + reservations, and the lands seized upon by capitalists and + merciless speculators (except so far as you have pledged + them in advance to the railroad corporations), and lands + everywhere advanced in price beyond the reach of laboring + men, with the hope of better fortune and of independent + homes dying out of the heart of labor, with men fully + conscious of the wrong you have done them by your + legislation, can the peaceful order of society be hoped for + as of old? I am not astonished that gentlemen deem this + early hour an opportune moment to urge the policy of a great + navy; it will come, if it does come, in the natural order + before a great army. Capital is timid and full of + suggestions; the Navy is the most remote, but I am not + surprised that here and there comes also the intimation that + your Army is too small. These, too, may be some of the + bitter fruits of your imperial grants. I fear that it will + be seen soon enough that when you have destroyed the very + foundations of security and hope upon which labor has rested + so long, the old-time repose and peaceful order will be no + more. Gentlemen should not forget that the wrong that has + been done to laboring men and their children by giving over + their natural inheritance to an accursed monopoly will in + due time be considered by the most intelligent body of + laboring men who ever debated a public wrong--men fully + aware of their rights and capable of asserting them. + +But the foreign land-shark, and the corporate land-shark, dwindle into +insignificance by the side of the individual land-shark. Every hamlet, +town, city, and state in the Union is in the grasp of the individual +land holder. Starting with his fellows as a pioneer two hundred and +fifty years ago, with his pickaxe on his shoulder, he has steadily +grown in size and importance, so that today he holds in his hands the +destinies of the Republic and the life of his fellow citizens. His +bulk has become mastodonian in proportions and his influence has +shrivelled up the energies of the people. More absolute than the Iron +Prince of Germany, he pays no taxes; he limits production, not to the +requirements of the population but to the demand of the market, at +such figures as he can extort from the crying necessities of the +people through the operations of "corners;" he regulates the wheels of +government, State and Federal, and dictates to the people by making +them hungry and naked. + +We stand only upon the threshold of governmental existence; the +nation, in comparison to the hoary-handed commonwealths of Europe, was +born but yesterday; but, having adopted at the beginning the system +which hastened the downfall of Rome after she had spread her authority +over the known world, we are already weak and exhausted. Monopoly has +stunted the people, and they stagger to the grave, starved to death by +a system of robbery almost too transparent to require minute +elucidation at the hand of the conscientious writer upon economic +questions. The suppressed groans of the toiling masses are echoed and +reechoed from every corner of the land, and burst forth in mobocratic +fury that the entire police authority finds it almost impossible to +stay. The newspapers are a daily chronicle of the desperate condition +to which the country has been brought by the rapacity and ignorance of +legislators and the parasitical manipulations of the gang which has +rooted itself in the soil of the country. + +The fires of revolution are incorporated into the _Magna Charta_ of +our liberties, and no human power can avert the awful eruption which +will eventually burst upon us as Mount Vesuvius burst forth upon +Herculaneum and Pompeii. It is too late for America to be wise in +time. "_The die is cast._" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_Conclusion_ + + +I know it is not fashionable for writers on economic questions to tell +the truth, but the truth should be told, though it kill. When the wail +of distress encircles the world, the man who is linked by "the touch +of nature" which "makes the whole world kin" to the common destiny of +the race universal; who hates injustice wherever it lifts up its head; +who sympathizes with the distressed, the weak, and the friendless in +every corner of the globe, such a man is morally bound to tell the +truth as he conceives it to be the truth. + +In these times, when the law-making and enforcing authority is leagued +against the people; when great periodicals--monthly, weekly and +daily--echo the mandates or anticipate the wishes of the powerful men +who produce our social demoralization, it becomes necessary for the +few men who do not agree to the arguments advanced or the interests +sought to be bolstered up, to "cry aloud and spare not." The man who +with the truth in his possession flatters with lies, that "thrift may +follow fawning" is too vile to merit the contempt of honest men. + +The government of the United States confiscated as "contraband of war" +the slave population of the South, but it left to the portion of the +unrepentant rebel a far more valuable species of property. The slave, +the perishable wealth, was confiscated to the government and then +manumitted; but property in land, the wealth which perishes not nor +can fly away, and which had made the institution of slavery possible, +was left as the heritage of the robber who had not hesitated to lift +his iconoclastic hand against the liberties of his country. The baron +of feudal Europe would have been paralyzed with astonishment at the +leniency of the conquering invader who should take from him his slave, +subject to mutation, and leave him his landed possessions which are as +fixed as the Universe of Nature. He would ask no more advantageous +concession. But the United States took the slave and left the thing +which gave birth to _chattel slavery_ and which is now fast giving +birth to _industrial slavery_; a slavery more excruciating in its +exactions, more irresponsible in its machinations than that other +slavery, which I once endured. The chattel slave-holder must, to +preserve the value of his property, feed, clothe and house his +property, and give it proper medical attention when disease or +accident threatened its life. But industrial slavery requires no such +care. The new slave-holder is only solicitous of obtaining the maximum +of labor for the minimum of cost. He does not regard the man as of any +consequence when he can no longer produce. Having worked him to death, +or ruined his constitution and robbed him of his labor, he turns him +out upon the world to live upon the charity of mankind or to die of +inattention and starvation. He knows that it profits him nothing to +waste time and money upon a disabled industrial slave. The multitude +of laborers from which he can recruit his necessary laboring force is +so enormous that solicitude on his part for one that falls by the +wayside would be a gratuitous expenditure of humanity and charity +which the world is too intensely selfish and materialistic to expect +him. Here he forges wealth and death at one and the same time. He +could not do this if our social system did not confer upon him a +monopoly of the soil from which subsistence must be derived, because +the industrial slave, given an equal opportunity to produce for +himself, would not produce for another. On the other hand the large +industrial operations, with the multitude of laborers from which Adam +Smith declares employers grow rich, as far as this applies to the +soil, would not be possible, since the vast volume of increased +production brought about by the industry of the multitude of co-equal +small farmers would so reduce the cost price of food products as to +destroy the incentive to speculation in them, and at the same time +utterly destroy the necessity or the possibility of famines, such as +those which have from time to time come upon the Irish people. There +could be no famine, in the natural course of things, where all had an +opportunity to cultivate as much land as they could wherever they +found any not already under cultivation by some one else. It needs no +stretch of the imagination to see what a startling tendency the +announcement that all vacant land was free to settlement upon +condition of cultivation would have to the depopulation of +over-crowded cities like New York, Baltimore and Savannah, where the +so-called pressure of population upon subsistence has produced a +hand-to-hand fight for existence by the wage-workers in every avenue +of industry. + +This is no fancy picture. It is a plain, logical deduction of what +would result from the restoration to the people of that equal chance +in the race of life which every man has a right to expect, to demand, +and to exact as a condition of his membership of organized society. + +The wag who started the "forty acres and a mule" idea among the black +people of the South was a wise fool; wise in that he enunciated a +principle which every argument of sound policy should have dictated, +_upon the condition that the forty acres could in no wise be +alienated_, and that it could be regarded _only_ as _property_ as +_long as it was cultivated_; and a fool because he designed simply to +impose upon the credulity and ignorance of his victims. But the +justness of the "forty acre" donation cannot be controverted. In the +first place, the slave had earned this miserable stipend from the +government by two hundred years of unrequited toil; and, secondly, as +a free man, he was inherently entitled to so much of the soil of his +country as would suffice to maintain him in the freedom thrust upon +him. To tell him he was a free man, and at the same time shut him off +from free access to the soil upon which he had been reared, without a +penny in his pocket, and with an army of children at his +coat-tail--some of his reputed wife's children being the illegitimate +offspring of a former inhuman master--was to add insult to injury, to +mix syrup and hyssop, to aggravate into curses the pretended +conferrence of blessings. + +When I think of the absolutely destitute condition of the colored +people of the South at the close of the Rebellion; when I remember the +moral and intellectual enervation which slavery had produced in them; +when I remember that not only were they thus bankrupt, but that they +were absolutely and unconditionally cut off from the soil, with +absolutely no right or title in it, I am surprised,--not that they +have already got a respectable slice of landed interests; not that +they have taken hold eagerly of the advantages of moral and +intellectual opportunities of development placed in their reach by the +charitable philanthropy of good men and women; not that they have +bought homes and supplied them with articles of convenience and +comfort, often of luxury--but I am surprised that the race did not +turn robbers and highwaymen, and, in turn, terrorize and rob society +as society had for so long terrorized and robbed them. The thing is +strange, marvelous, phenomenal in the extreme. Instead of becoming +outlaws, as the critical condition would seem to have indicated, the +black men of the South _went manfully to work_ to better their own +condition and the crippled condition of the country which had been +produced by the ravages of internecine rebellion; _while the white men +of the South, the capitalists, the land-sharks, the poor white trash, +and the nondescripts, with a thousand years of Christian civilization +and culture behind them, with "the boast of chivalry, the pomp of +power," these white scamps, who had imposed upon the world the idea +that they were paragons of virtue and the heaven-sent vicegerents of +civil power, organized themselves into a band of outlaws, whose +concatenative chain of auxiliaries ran through the entire South, and +deliberately proceeded to murder innocent men and women for POLITICAL +REASONS and to systematically rob them of their honest labor because +they were too accursedly lazy to labor themselves._ + +But this highly abnormal, unnatural condition of things is fast +passing away. The white man having asserted his superiority in the +matters of assassination and robbery, has settled down upon a barrel +of dynamite, as he did in the days of slavery, and will await the +explosion with the same fatuity and self-satisfaction true of him in +other days. But as convulsions from within are more violent and +destructive than convulsions from without, being more deepseated and +therefore more difficult to reach, the next explosion will be more +disastrous, more far-reaching in its havoc than the one which +metamorphosed social conditions in the South, and from the dreadful +reactions of which we are just now recovering. + +As I have said elsewhere, the future struggle in the South will be, +not between white men and black men, but between capital and labor, +landlord and tenant. Already the cohorts are marshalling to the fray; +already the forces are mustering to the field at the sound of the +slogan. + +The same battle will be fought upon Southern soil that is in +preparation in other states where the conditions are older in +development but no more deep-seated, no more pernicious, no more +blighting upon the industries of the country and the growth of the +people. + +It is not my purpose here to enter into an extended analysis of the +foundations upon which our land system rests, nor to give my views as +to how matters might be remedied. I may take up the question at some +future time. It is sufficient for my purpose to have indicated that +the social problems in the South, as they exfoliate more and more as +resultant upon the war, will be found to be the same as those found in +every other section of our country; and to have pointed out that the +questions of "race," "condition" "politics," etc., will all properly +adjust themselves with the advancement of the people in wealth, +education, and forgetfulness of the unhappy past. + +The hour is approaching when the laboring classes of our country, +North, East, West and South, will recognize that they have a _common +cause_, a _common humanity_ and a _common enemy_; and that, therefore, +if they would triumph over wrong and place the laurel wreath upon +triumphant justice, without distinction of race or of previous +condition _they must unite_! And unite they will, for "a fellow +feeling makes us wond'rous kind." When the issue is properly joined, +the rich, be they black or be they white, will be found upon the same +side; and the poor, be they black or be they white, will be found on +the same side. + +_Necessity knows no law and discriminates in favor of no man or race._ + + + + +APPENDIX + + +I append to this volume a portion of the testimony of Mr. John +Caldwell Calhoun because of the uniform fairness with which he treated +the race and labor problem in the section of country where he is an +extensive landowner and employer of labor. + +Mr. Calhoun's testimony was given before the Blair Senate Committee on +Education and Labor and will be found in the Committee's Report as to +_The Relations between Labor and Capital_. (Vol. II, pp. 157). + + NEW YORK, _Thursday, September 13, 1883_ + + LABOR IN THE SOUTHWEST + + JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN sworn and examined + + By the CHAIRMAN: + + Question. Where do you reside?--Answer. In Chicot County, + Arkansas. + + Q. State to the committee, if you please, where you were + born, of what family connection you are, and what have been + your opportunities for becoming acquainted with the past and + the present condition of agricultural labor in the Southern + States. + --A. I was born in Marengo County, Alabama. My father was a + planter there before the war. + + Q. He was a son of John C. Calhoun, the statesman?--A. He + was a son of Mr. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. + + Q. You are his grandson, then? + --A. Yes, sir; I am his grandson. My father was Col. Andrew + P. Calhoun. I was reared in South Carolina. In 1854 my father + removed his residence from his plantations in Alabama to Fort + Hill, South Carolina, near Pendleton, where I was raised. I + have been identified with the agricultural interest of the + South from my earliest recollections, and have been a + practical cotton planter myself since the war, giving my own + personal attention to my interests since 1869. + + Q. When did you remove from South Carolina? + --A. I removed from South Carolina to Chicot County, + Arkansas, in 1869. + + Q. Until 1869 you had been a resident of South Carolina? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. And of course very familiar with the condition of things + on the Atlantic coast. Since that time you have been in the + Mississippi Valley? + --A. Yes, sir; my experience as a cotton planter and with + the laborers of the South is confirmed, I may say, almost + entirely to the Mississippi Valley, for I left South + Carolina so soon after the war that things had hardly shaped + themselves there so that I could form an accurate estimate + of the labor or the condition of affairs in South Carolina + or on the Atlantic coast. + + The CHAIRMAN. Not having had a personal acquaintance with + Mr. Calhoun, and learning of his rare opportunities to give + valuable information to the committee, and of his presence + in the city, I addressed him a letter, calling attention to + the subject-matter upon which we should like information, + and which I had reason to think he could give us better than + almost any one else, indicating certain questions which I + would like to have him prepared to answer, and receiving a + courteous reply, expressing a willingness to oblige the + committee, I have called him before the committee, and will + now read the questions:-- + + 1st. What is the condition of the laborers in your + section? + + 2d. Under what system are the laborers in your section + employed? + + 3d. When hired for wages what is paid? + + 4th. What division is made between labor and capital of + their joint production when you work on shares? + + 5th. When you rent what division is made? + + 6th. How many hours do the laborers work? + + 7th. Under what system do you work? + + 8th. What is the relation existing between the planters and + their employees? + + 9th. What danger is there of strikes? + + 10th. How can the interest of the laborers of your section + be best subserved? + + If you have prepared answers to these questions, and can + give your answers consecutively, I would like you to do so. + The WITNESS. I have prepared replies in order that I might + save the committee time as well as condense my ideas. + + Q. 1. What is the condition of the laborers in your + section? + --A. The laborers in the Mississippi Valley are + agricultural. But few whites are employed; they soon become + landowners or tenants. Your question, therefore, reduces + itself to, What is the condition of the negroes? I should + say good, as compared with a few years ago, and improving. + You must recollect that it has only been 18 years since the + negroes emerged from slavery without a dollar and with no + education, and that for generations they had been taught to + rely entirely upon others for guidance and support. They + became, therefore, at once the easy prey of unscrupulous + men, who used them for their personal aggrandizement, were + subjected to every evil influence, and did not discover for + years the impositions practiced upon them. They were + indolent and extravagant, and eager to buy on a credit + everything the planter or merchant would sell them. The + planter had nothing except the land, which, with the crop to + be grown, was mortgaged generally for advances. If he + refused to indulge his laborers in extravagant habits during + the year, by crediting them for articles not absolutely + necessary, his action was regarded as good grounds for them + to quit work, and there were those present who were always + ready to use this as an argument to array the negroes + against the proprietors. This, of course, demoralized the + country to a very great extent, and it has only been in the + past few years the negro laborers have realized their true + condition and gone to work with a view of making a support + for themselves and families. There is yet much room for + improvement, but they will improve just as they gain + experience and become self-reliant. + + Considering their condition after emancipation and the evil + influences to which they have been subjected, even the small + advancement they have made seems surprising. + + Q. 2. Under what systems are the laborers in your section + employed? + --A. There are three methods: we hire for wages, for a part + of the crop, or we rent. + + Q. 3. When hired for wages what is paid? + --A. When hired by the month we pay unskilled field hands + from $10 to $20 per month and board. When hired by the day, + for unskilled laborers, from 75 cents to $1. Teamsters, $1 a + day and board. Artisans, from $2 to $5. In addition to their + wages and board, the laborers are furnished, free of cost, a + house, fuel, and a garden spot varying from half to one + acre; also the use of wagon and team with which to haul + their fuel and supplies, and pasturage, where they have + cattle and hogs, which they are encouraged to raise. + + Q. 4. What division is made between labor and capital of + their joint production when you work on shares? + --A. I doubt if there is greater liberality shown to + laborers in any portion of the world than is done under this + system. The proprietor furnishes the land and houses, + including dwelling, stables, and outhouses, pays the taxes, + makes all necessary improvements, keeps up repairs and + insurance, gives free of cost a garden spot, fuel, pasturage + for the stock owned by the laborer, and allows the use of + his teams for hauling fuel and family supplies, provides + mules or horses, wagons, gears, implements, feed for teams, + the necessary machinery for ginning, or, in short, every + expense of making the crop and preparing it for market, and + then divides equally the whole gross proceeds with the + laborers. In addition to all this, the proprietor frequently + mortgages his real estate to obtain means to advance to the + laborers supplies on their portion of the crop yet to be + grown, thus mortgaging what he actually possesses, and + taking a security not yet in existence, and which depends + not only upon the vicissitudes of the seasons, but the + faithfulness of the laborers themselves. Under this system + thrifty, industrious laborers ought soon to become + landowners. But, owing to indolence, the negroes, except + where they are very judiciously managed and encouraged, fail + to take advantage of the opportunities offered them to raise + the necessaries of life. They idle away all the time not + actually necessary to make and gather their corn and cotton, + and improvidently spend what balance may remain after paying + for the advances made to them. + + Q. 5. When you rent, what division is made? + --A. Where the laborer owns his own teams, gears, and + implements necessary for making a crop, he gets two-thirds + or three-fourths of the crop, according to the quality and + location of the land. + + Under the rental system proper, where a laborer is + responsible and owns his team, &c., first-class land is + rented to him for $8 or $10 per acre. With the land go + certain privileges, such as those heretofore enumerated. + + Q. 6. How many hours do the laborers work? + --A. This is an extremely difficult question to answer. + Under the wages system, from sunrise to sunset, with a rest + for dinner of from one and one-half to three hours, + according to the season of the year. + + Under the share or rental system there is much time lost; + for instance, they seldom work on Saturday at all, and as + the land is fertile, and a living can be made on a much + smaller acreage than a hand can cultivate, they generally + choose one-third less than they should, and it is safe to + say that one third of the time which could and would be + utilized by an industrious laborer is wasted in fishing, and + hunting, and idleness. + + Q. 7. Under what system do you work? + --A. We are forced to adopt all systems heretofore stated. + We prefer, however, the tenant system. We wish to make small + farmers our laborers, and bring them up as nearly as + possible to the standard of the small white farmers. But + this can only be done gradually, because the larger portion + of the negroes are without any personal property. We could + not afford to sell the mules, implements, &c., where a + laborer has nothing. Therefore the first year we contract to + work with him on the half-share system, and require him to + plant a portion of the land he cultivates in corn, hay, + potatoes, &c. For this portion we charge him a reasonable + rent, to be paid out of his part of the cotton raised on the + remainder. In this way all of the supplies raised belong to + him, and at the end of the first year he will, if + industrious, find himself possessed of enough supplies to + support and feed a mule. We then sell him a mule and + implements, preserving, of course, liens until paid. At the + end of the second year, if he should be unfortunate, and not + quite pay out, we carry the balance over to the next year, + and in this way we gradually make a tenant of him. We + encourage him in every way in our power to be economical, + industrious, and prudent, to surround his home with + comforts, to plant an orchard and garden, and to raise his + own meat, and to keep his own cows, for which he has free + pasturage. Our object is to attach him as much as possible + to his home. Under whatever system we work, we require the + laborer to plant a part of his land in food crops and the + balance in cotton with which to pay his rent and give him + ready money. We consider this system as best calculated to + advance him. Recognizing him as a citizen, we think we + should do all in our power to fit him for the duties of + citizenship. We think there is no better method of doing + this than by interesting him in the production of the soil, + surrounding him with home comforts, and imposing upon him + the responsibilities of his business. Who will make the best + citizen or laborer, he who goes to a home with a week's + rations, wages spent, wife and children hired out, or he who + returns to a home surrounded with the ordinary comforts, and + wife and children helping him to enjoy the products of their + joint labor? We recognize that no country can be prosperous + unless the farmers are prosperous. Under our system, we seek + to have our property cultivated by a reliable set of + tenants, who will be able to always pay their rent and have + a surplus left. + + Again, a large portion of the cotton crop of the country is + made by small white farmers. These to a great extent are + raising their own supplies, and making cotton a surplus + crop. The number who do this will increase year by year. It + must be apparent that the large planters cannot afford to + hire labor and compete with those whose cotton costs nothing + except the expenditure of their own muscle and energy. The + natural consequence resulting from this condition of things + is that the negro, if he is to prosper, must gradually + become a small farmer, either as a tenant or the owner of + the soil, and look himself upon cotton as a surplus crop. + + Q. 8. What is the relation existing between the planters + and their employers? + --A. Friendly and harmonious. The planter feel an interest + in the welfare of his laborers, and the latter in turn look + to him for advice and assistance. + + Q. 9. What danger is there of strikes? + --A. Very little. As a rule the laborers are interested in + the production of the soil, and a strike would be as + disastrous to them as it would be to the proprietors. There + is really very little conflict between labor and capital. + The conflict in my section, if any should come in future, + will not assume the form of labor against capital, but of + race against race. + + Q. 10. How can the interest of the laborers of your section + be best subserved? + --A. By the establishment by the States of industrial + schools, by the total elimination from Federal politics of + the so-called negro question, and by leaving the solution to + time, and a reduction of taxation, both indirect and + incidental. It is a noteworthy fact that the improvement of + my section has kept pace, _pari passu_, with the cessation + of the agitation of race issues. The laborers share equally + with the landowners the advantages of the improvement, and + there is every reason to expect increasing and permanent + prosperity if all questions between the landowners and their + laborers in our section are left to the natural adjustment + of the demand for labor. For many years the negroes regarded + themselves as the wards of the Federal Government, and it + were well for them to understand that they have nothing more + to expect from the Federal Government, than the white man, + and that, like him, their future depends upon their own + energy, industry, and economy. This can work no hardship. + The constant demand for labor affords them the amplest + protection. Nothing, probably, would contribute so + immediately to their prosperity as the reduction of the + tariff. They are the producers of no protected articles. The + onerous burdens of the tariff naturally fall heaviest upon + those who are large consumers of protected articles and + produce only the great staples, grain and cotton, which form + the basis of our export trade, and which can, from their + very nature in this country, receive no protection from a + tariff. + + Q. In your own State, Arkansas, what portion of the land + cultivated and what proportion of the acreage of the land + cultivated is in the form of large plantations? + --A. That lying along the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. + It would be hard for me to estimate the proportions. I do + not know that I have ever considered it, but the portions + which are cultivated in large plantations lie directly on + the Mississippi River in front of the State of Arkansas and + on the Arkansas River. The rest of the State is cultivated + very much by small white farmers. + + Q. And are the productions of the small holdings and large + holdings similar; I inquire as to cotton particularly? + --A. No, sir. In the interior of the State cotton is made a + surplus crop entirely. + + Q. What are the principal crops there? + --A. Our people are raising their own supplies, fruits and + vegetables. For instance, it was stated by the land agent of + the Iron Mountain Railroad at a public meeting in Little + Rock some weeks ago that that road had carried out from the + State of Arkansas in one week 800,000 pounds of green peas + and strawberries. + + Q. To what market? + --A. To Saint Louis, going to different markets. The section + of the State lying between Little Rock and Fort Smith is + peculiarly adapted for growing fruit, and there is a very + large fruit trade. + + Q. What kinds of fruit? + --A. I might say almost all kinds, but particularly apples; + that section of country is noted for its apples. + + Q. Are peaches raised there also? + --A. Very fine, indeed. + + Q. Plums? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. Are oranges raised there? + --A. No, sir; we do not raise any of the tropical fruits, + such as oranges, bananas, and lemons. + + Q. How in regard to oats, rye, corn, wheat, potatoes, and + crops of that description? + --A. If our exhibit, which is now being made at the + Louisville Exposition, can be seen it will compare + favorably with that of any other portion of the United + States. + + Q. Even with the Northwest? + --A. Even with the Northwest. + + Q. Would you judge that one-half the cultivated surface of + Arkansas is made up of the larger plantations? + --A. No, sir; I should not say more than a third, as a + rough estimate. + + Q. Upon these plantations is there any crop raised for + consumption anywhere but upon the plantations, save the + cotton? + --A. Only in a very limited way. We raise Irish potatoes + for the northern markets, and it is an extremely profitable + and productive crop with us. + + Q. What is the home market price? + --A. We do not sell these potatoes at home at all. We get + them to Saint Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati before the + ground is really thawed out up there. We get from $5 to $10 + a barrel for them. + + Q. A barrel of about 3 bushels? + --A. A barrel of about 3 bushels. That of course is a fancy + price, and only lasts until the product comes in from other + sources. + + Q. That is an advantage no farmer has elsewhere in the + United States than in Arkansas? + --A. In Arkansas and Louisiana, on the Mississippi River. + + Q. Are potatoes raised largely in Louisiana? + --A. Yes, sir; in parts. The cultivation of the alluvial + lands in Louisiana is very similar to what I am speaking of + in Arkansas. + + Q. Is the potato of good quality raised on those rich + lands? + --A. Of very fine quality. + + Q. Can you give the average crop of potatoes per acre? + --A. I cannot, as I have never raised any myself for market. + We leave it almost entirely to our small farmers to do that + sort of thing. + + Q. About 300 bushels per acre, Senator Pugh says. This is + the Irish potato you speak of, not the sweet? + --A. The Irish potato. We raise also the sweet potato there. + I have raised sweet potatoes that weighed five pounds. + + Q. And of good quality? + --A. Of fine quality. + + Q. The size does not depreciate the quality, then? + --A. Not at all. + + Q. They, I suppose are raised for exportation from the + State? + --A. No, sir; they are raised almost entirely for home + consumption by our farmers. + + Q. Do your people at home prefer the sweet to the Irish + potato for their own use? + --A. I cannot say they do. I think they raise both in equal + proportions. + + Q. Which, on the whole, is the most profitable crop to + raise of potatoes? + --A. The Irish potatoes because we export and sell them. The + sweet potato does not mature until the fall of the year. + + Q. Upon your plantations you encourage the raising of the + variety of crops you have spoken of for consumption, by the + laborers, and for the use of the planter, I suppose, but not + for exportation and sale? + --A. Not for sale. We merely raise them for home consumption + in case of a disaster to our cotton crops. The cotton crop + is subjected to very many vicissitudes, and we want to have + all our supplies at home, so that in case of a failure of + the cotton crop we have our living made at least. + + Q. Are the planters and those who labor upon the + plantations substantially independent of the small farmers + surrounding them, or do they constitute consumers for the + smaller farmers in the interior? + --A. We have our own gardens, and generally raise our own + supplies, but every planter interests himself to find a + market for all the products of his laborers. For instance, + we encourage them to raise poultry to a great extent. If + they have a surplus of potatoes, or eggs, or chickens, we + will buy it and create a market for it, and ship the + articles off in order that if they have any surplus they may + realize on it. On the Mississippi River we have nearly all + the markets. Boats are passing there every day going + directly by the banks of the river. We have the markets of + New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Saint Louis, Chicago, and + we have, you may say, the whole country open before us where + we can create a market. We make the best market we can for + the products of our small farmers. + + Q. Do you know something of the prices in the North for the + various crops you have mentioned, and if so, how do they + compare with the price realized by your laborers at home? + --A. Our laborers realize the prices of the Northwest. We + ship the articles for them. For instance, a negro has + several barrels of potatoes; I consign them to my merchants + in Saint Louis, and have them sold for his account. + + Q. There are no middlemen, really; you transact this + business for them? + --A. I transact this business for them direct. + + Q. Charging them simply the cost of transportation? + --A. You are asking me the relationship between the + proprietor and the negro. There are a great many stores on + the Mississippi River, and negroes sometimes go and trade + directly. There are a great many properties in the + Mississippi Valley owned by non-residents. There are some + plantations rented out to negroes that there is not a white + man on at all. The proprietor comes and collects his rent at + the end of the year when the crop is made; or it may be his + negro tenant consigns the cotton to a factor in New Orleans. + + Q. Where is the proprietor himself usually resident? + --A. In different States. We have people who are proprietors + of real estate who live out in Orange, New Jersey; some live + in South Carolina; some live in Georgia, in the various + States, but they own property with us, and this property is + rented directly to the negroes. Generally, though, there is + a responsible manager in charge of this property, but there + are instances where there is not even a white man on the + place at all. + + Q. In those instances, how do matters work? Do the negroes + conduct affairs with reasonable prudence, and consult the + interest of the owners? + --A. No, sir; in these instances the property generally goes + to decay gradually; the negro will not make an improvement + on real estate at all. + + Q. In these cases do the negroes work together and carry on + the plantation as a whole, or is the plantation cut up into + small holdings and rented out to negroes? + --A. It is cut into small portions and rented according to + the size of the family. Some men work two mules; some four. + It is regulated better by the number of animals he works. + For instance, a mule can cultivate in that country with ease + about fifteen acres. A man with two mules would work thirty + acres; a man with four, sixty, and so on. I know some + negroes who work eight and ten mules that they have paid + for; but I will say this right here, and it shows the + necessity of the education of the negro and of fitting him + for the condition of being able to take care of himself and + make his own contracts and sign his own name to a contract: + I have known of numerous instances where negroes, working + under the management of a proprietor of a plantation, have + made enough money to buy a home; such a one will go back out + in the hills, that section of country lying back of the + alluvial lands, and buy a home. In three or four years he + will move back to the river again, having lost all his + property, mortgaged it to some storekeeper, become + extravagant, and that storekeeper in a short time--three or + four years probably--will have absorbed all he had earned + under the management of a planter. + + Q. About that store system; how extensive is it, and how + great an evil does it constitute? + --A. It constitutes a very considerable evil, but you + cannot blame the storekeeper for it, for this reason, or he + can only be blamed partially: Capital in that country is + very limited. When you consider the fact that New Orleans, + which handles the cotton crop of that country, has a smaller + banking capital than any one of your little towns in + Massachusetts or New Hampshire, it shows at once that there + is not enough capital to be advanced to the country people + at reasonable enough rates of interest for those people to + conduct a strictly legitimate business. I have known capital + to cost in New Orleans, counting the commissions, 15 or 20 + per cent, for money loaned. The storekeeper who borrows + money to conduct his business with has to buy his goods from + some merchant at some point who must make his profit. He + cannot go directly to the producer, because he has got to + have somebody to help him out if his capital falls short. + Therefore, before the goods get down to him, they cost him + perhaps 30, 40, or 50 percent more than the first price. + Therefore he has to tack on an enormous profit to bring + himself out whole and pay his expenses in order to meet his + obligations with the factor in New Orleans. There is, + however, among a certain class, as there would be in all + sections of the country, as exists right here in New York, + or anywhere else, a set of people who will always prey upon + ignorance. The best protection that can be afforded to the + laborer of that country is education; fit him for his + condition of life, that he may protect himself. + + Q. Do you mean to be understood that these traders do + business upon borrowed capital? + --A. Almost entirely. + + Q. Their capital is hired in New Orleans? + --A. Or any points they may go for it; I merely mention New + Orleans as one point. A number of our people borrow money in + Memphis, and some borrow money in Vicksburg. + + Q. Do you know whether those people to any extent borrow + capital of Northern capitalists in New York and other + portions of the North + --A. That class of people do not. In the last few years--I + might say almost within the last two years--Northern capital + has begun to seek investment in our section of the country, + but only upon mortgages on real estate. The class of + storekeepers I allude to generally have no real estate at + all; they only have their stores. + + Q. Your system by which the planter makes a market for the + surplus productions of the laborers upon his plantation + dispenses with a middleman, and enables the laborer to make + a saving, whereas, if he goes to the hills he makes a loss? + --A. Yes, sir. I will put it more definitely: As long as he + is under the guidance and care of the proprietor of the + plantation he prospers, the planter, as we express it in + that country, "loaning him our aid"; we make it very + expressive to the negro, we loan him our aid, that is, he + must follow our advice, and he has learned to do that, and + by doing that he accumulates; but when thrown upon his own + resources--there are individual exceptions, of course, where + a good many negroes prosper themselves when thrown upon + their own resources in Arkansas--but as a general fact, + where he leaves the guidance and care of the proprietor of a + plantation and subjects himself just as any one else does to + the common trading with storekeepers, in a very few years he + loses what he has accumulated. + + Q. Under these favorable circumstances which surround the + laborer on the plantation one would think he ought to + accumulate; but I understand you that as a rule he is rather + improvident and fails to accumulate. To what do you + attribute that improvidence on the part of the negro + laborer? + --A. It is simply from the want of a proper appreciation of + the opportunities of advancement from his condition. The + negroes are just beginning, as I expressed it, to realize + the responsibilities of life, and just as they begin to + realize the responsibilities of life here, they begin to + prosper. The prosperity of the South has only begun in the + last few years, and it has begun to increase just as the + race issue has ceased. I will demonstrate that to you by a + little paragraph I cut out of the _New York Herald_ last + night, taken from the New Orleans _Times-Democrat_. If you + take the assessed valuation of real estate in Alabama, in + 1879 it was at $117,486,581; in 1883 it is assessed at + $152,920,115. There has been that increase in four years + from $117,000,000 to $152,000,000. Now let us take the State + of Arkansas: in 1879 our real estate was valued at + $86,892,541; in 1883 it is valued at $136,000,000. It goes + on just in that same proportion. For instance, this shows + that in eight of the Southern and Southwestern States there + has been an increase of nearly half a billion dollars--that + is, $494,836,686--in value of taxable property during the + short period of four years. + + I happened to pick up this book last night. If I had an + opportunity I could have gotten some statistics to show you + the increased production in these different States, and how + completely it has taken place, as the laborer has begun to + rely on himself and been thrown on his resources. + + Q. Have you observed the origin of these statistics? + --A. They come from the New Orleans _Times-Democrat_. I will + read this in order that they may be known. This is from the + _Herald_ of yesterday: + + SOUTHERN PROGRESS + + The New Orleans TIMES-DEMOCRAT has gathered from + trustworthy sources and given to the public valuable + statistics showing the industrial progress made in the + Southern States during the past four years. This covers the + period since 1879, the year to which the figures of the + latest national census apply. The census returns show a + marvelous material growth in the South during the preceding + ten years. But, according to the reports published by our + New Orleans contemporary, the progress of the past four + years is greater and more wonderful than that achieved + during the decade between the census years. + + Taking the important item of assessed value of property, a + comparison between the years 1879 and 1883 gives the + following remarkable results: + + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + Assessment Tax Assessment Tax + States 1883 rate 1879 rate + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + Alabama $152,920,115 6-1/2 $117,486,581 7 + Arkansas 136,000,000 7 86,892,541 6-1/2 + Florida 56,000,000 5 29,471,648 7 + Georgia 300,000,000 2-1/2 135,659,530 5 + Louisiana 200,000,000 6 209,361,402 6 + Mississippi 116,288,810 2-1/2 129,308,345 3-1/2 + Tennessee 252,289,873 2 223,211,345 1 + Texas 500,000,000 3 304,470,736 5 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + Total 1,710,498,798 4-1/2 1,215,662,128 5 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + + This shows that in eight Southern and Southwestern States + there has been an increase of nearly half a billion + dollars--$494,836,668--in the value of taxable property + during the short period of four years, while the rate of + taxation has been actually reduced. At the same time liberal + appropriations have been made for schools, public + improvements, and other useful purposes. "Nor is this + marvelous advance in valuation," says the _Times-Democrat_, + "the result of any inflation in value, but the natural + sequence of grand crops, new industries developed, new + manufactories, mines, and lumber mills established." + + The extension of railroads has been hardly less + astonishing. In the eight States above enumerated there were + in 1879 11,604 miles of railroad. There are now 17,891 + miles, showing an increase in four years of 6,287 miles. The + agricultural progress made is shown by the fact that the + value of raw products raised in these States, including all + crops, lumber, cattle, and wool, has advanced from + $398,000,000 in 1879 to $567,000,000 in 1883, or an increase + of $169,000,000. During this period the mineral output of + Alabama alone has increased from $4,000,000 to $19,000,000, + and the lumber product of Arkansas from $1,790,000 to + $8,000,000. + + The trade of New Orleans is a barometer of Southern + industry and commerce. The value of domestic produce in that + city in 1881-82 was $159,000,000; in 1882-83 it was + $200,000,000. The value of exports of domestic produce to + foreign countries in the former year amounted to + $68,000,000; in the latter it reached $95,000,000. + + These figures tell a remarkable story of recent progress in + the Southern States. Always rich in natural resources, the + South has long been poor through lack of development. It has + at last entered upon a new era of industrial activity, and + is now making rapid strides toward a stage of material + prosperity commensurate with its great natural wealth.--_New + York Herald_, September 12,1883. + + Now, here is quite a remarkable fact to which I wish to + call your attention, to show you the opportunities for labor + existing in the South and what is the condition of certain + counties in the South. I hold in my hand a book that is + compiled for the benefit of the Georgia Pacific Railroad, + but I happened to find it in my room and thought these + matters would be interesting. + + Q. The data you consider reliable? + --A. What I read I think comes from the census report; I + think this is reliable: + + In this connection let us glance at Montgomery + County, Alabama, which, although not in the belt + we are studying, is on the same prairie formation + crossed by the Georgia Pacific Railway, on the + edge of Mississippi. Compare it with Butler + County, Ohio, which "shows the best record of any + county in the West." In live stock Montgomery has + $1,748,273; Butler, $1,333,592. + + That is the largest producing county in Ohio as compared + with Montgomery County, Alabama, before the war. + + Montgomery had 63,134 hogs; Butler, 51,640. + Animals slaughtered: Montgomery, $336,915; + Butler, $318,274. In grain Butler was + considerably ahead, but in roots Montgomery led. + Montgomery doubled Butler in the production of + wool, and had its cotton crop to show besides. + The total value of the crops of Montgomery County + was $3,264,170; those of Butler only $1,671,132. + + There is Montgomery County, Alabama, compared with the + leading producing county in Ohio. + + Q. Do you know as to the relative size of the two counties? + --A. I think it was given here: + + A handsome triumph for the Alabama county! And + yet Montgomery is not up to the average of the + prairie counties of Alabama. + + I do not know the relative size. Here is a fact to which I + wish to call particular attention: + + We have examined the mortality tables of the + United States census for 1880, and find that as + regards health, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi + make a better showing than some of the oldest and + most densely populated Northern States. + + There is generally an idea prevailing that the Southern + States are very unhealthy. It is a point that bears directly + on our labor question, and for that reason I wish to call + special attention to this table, which is taken directly + from the census: + + ANNUAL DEATH RATE FOR EACH THOUSAND OF POPULATION + + New York 17.38 + Pennsylvania 14.92 + Virginia 16.32 + Massachusetts 18.59 + Kentucky 14.39 + Georgia 13.97 + Alabama 14.20 + Mississippi 12.89 + + Mississippi has the smallest average death rate of any of + that number of States which I have enumerated. + + Q. I suppose the circumstance that the average death rate + is larger in cities ought to be taken into account, the + Southern population being mostly rural, is it not? + --A. The Southern population is to a very great extent + rural--Still there are cities in Georgia which I suppose in + proportion to our rural population would not make the latter + in excess of what it is here. If you take your rural + population here and in New Jersey, where you are densely + populated, we are no more densely populated in the + proportion of our city population to the country than you + are here, I think. + + Q. Of the population, which is, as a rule, the more healthy + in the South, the colored or the white population? + + By Mr. PUGH: + + Q. There must be some qualification of that difference + between the death rate between such States as Massachusetts, + for instance, and Georgia, on account of the fact--which I + suppose must be conceded--that in these new States + population is younger and more vigorous than in the older + States. The emigration to these States has been of the + younger and more vigorous population, not so liable to die + as those who remain behind and are older? + --A. There has been but very little emigration into these + States up to this census. + + MR. PUGH. That is the fact to some extent, I suppose, + anyway. + + The CHAIRMAN. In that same connection, I suppose, should be + borne in mind the fact that the population of these Eastern + States is largely re-enforced by immigration from Europe, + and that is of the younger and more vigorous European + population, and I do not know but what the people in + Massachusetts will insist upon it that they are as young and + as vigorous as anybody. + + Mr. PUGH. I have no doubt. I saw a great many very old + people there. + + The WITNESS. I merely mentioned this because I wanted to do + away with the impression which generally exists that the + Southern States are very unhealthy. + + Mr. PUGH. I have no doubt that what you state is true as a + general fact. + + The WITNESS. Now, to bear out the assertion which I made + that the prosperity of the negroes began to increase with + the cessation of race issues in the South, which has been so + apparent to me that I can almost mark the time that it + began, look at the cotton crop that is being made to a great + extent by small farmers; look at the increase of the cotton + crop in the different States in the last few years. For + instance, take Georgia: in 1870 she made 473,934 bales of + cotton; in 1880 she made 814,441, an increase of 75 per + cent. Alabama in 1870 produced 429,482 bales; and in 1880 + 699,654, an increase of 62 per cent. Mississippi in 1870 + produced 564,938 bales; in 1880 she produced 955,808 bales, + an increase of 69 per cent. + + Here is a very significant fact also with regard to the + condition of our laborers in the South, and it shows one of + the disadvantages we have had to labor under. During the + war, and from the results of the war, nearly all of our + live stock was destroyed, a great portion of it was + destroyed, which left us after the war without the means of + raising our own meat and such supplies at home, and took + away from the South a great portion of our wealth, for we + know that cattle, hogs &c., increase in arithmetical + progress. If you have a hog, this year she bears so many + pigs, and in a couple of years those pigs bear so many, and + so on. But we were left without live stock. I have here a + table which shows, even under those difficulties, the + increase in that respect in the Southern States of live + stock. These are very significant figures. It is entirely an + accident that I happened to get hold of them last night. The + live stock of New York in 1870 was 5,286,421; in 1880, + 5,422,238, an increase of 2 per cent. In Pennsylvania it was + 4,484,748 in 1870; in 1880, 5,255,204, an increase of 17 per + cent. In Georgia, in 1870, it was 2,275,137; in 1880, + 3,139,101, an increase of 38 per cent. In Alabama it was + 1,606,299 in 1870, and in 1880, 2,586,221, an increase of 61 + per cent, and in Mississippi, in 1870, it was 1,724,295, and + in 1880, 2,398,334, an increase of 38 per cent. This shows + that with all the disadvantages the South had to contend + with of their stock cattle being destroyed, the natural + advantages of climate and pasturage, to which I attribute + it, existing in the South have enabled them to increase more + rapidly their live stock than any other of the States of the + Union. That shows clearly the advantages which that country + offers for immigration and labor. This is an advantage to + labor. As I stated in my written reply to your submitted + questions, we work but few white laborers in my section of + the country. Why? Because they soon become land-owners with + the opportunities which present themselves to them. The + white men will not be there more than two or three years + before he has bought and paid for his land in almost every + instance. + + By the CHAIRMAN: + + Q. And he becomes an employer himself? + --A. He becomes an employer himself. + + Q. Does he usually locate upon the plantation lands along + the rivers? + --A. No, sir; he cannot buy this land, because the planter + would not divide a large plantation into tracts; he would + not sell off a portion of his land without selling the + whole. + + Q. In how large tracts are the plantations held? Just + mention the acreage of some of them that you are acquainted + with. + --A. I would say variously from 500 to 2,500 acres in + cultivation. + + Q. How valuable are these plantations per acre? + --A. That is a question which cannot be answered definitely + except in this way: where a planter owns the land, and he is + out of debt, the land is not for sale, because he cannot + invest his money in anything that is so profitable; but + where a planter's property is mortgaged, and the mortgagee + wants to foreclose and will foreclose, and there is not in + that country the money which the planter can borrow to + relieve himself of his indebtedness, he will probably sell + his land at a small excess of his debt in order to save + something. You see there is a want of capital in that + country, and if a planter is involved, as many planters are + and have been ever since the war, he must do the best he + can. There are many planters in that country who are nothing + but agents of the factors, from the fact that the interest + and commissions they pay upon the debt amount to more than + the rent for the property, and they hold on to it as a home. + Therefore, a planter in that condition will sell at a + nominal price, whereas a plantation owned and paid for is + not for sale. + + By Mr. PUGH: + + Q. There is really no established market price? + --A. None at all, owing to the necessity of the one to sell + and the desire of another to buy. + + By the CHAIRMAN: + + Q. At what rates per acre have you known the title to + change in some instances? + --A. I have known lands to be bought there, including + woodlands and cleared lands, at from $20 to $25 an acre, + which would be, say, $40 or $50 an acre for the cleared + land, and I have known other planters to refuse $80 an acre, + cash. + + Q. Do you think that $80 or $100 per acre would be a + reasonable price for these plantation lands? + --A. They sold before the war for $120 an acre. + + By Mr. CALL: + + Q. You are speaking now of the alluvial lands? + --A. I am speaking of the alluvial lands on the Mississippi + River, cleared, ready for cultivation, with the improvements + existing upon them. + + By the CHAIRMAN: + + Q. Improved plantations? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. Upon what price per acre do you think those lands would + pay, one year with another, an interest of 6 per cent? + --A. I will best answer that question by the figures of + rents which I have given. The rent, without any + responsibility attached to the proprietor at all, is from $8 + to $10 an acre. + + Q. In money? + --A. In money. I will say further that I have been living in + that country since 1869, and I have never yet known a year + when there has not been a sufficient crop made to pay the + rent, without a single exception. + + By Mr. CALL: + + Q. What is left to the tenant after he pays this $10 an + acre? + --A. That land produces on an average 400 pounds of lint + cotton to the acre, which at 10 cents a pound is $40. + + By the CHAIRMAN: + + Q. To what extent is Northern capital availing itself of + opportunity to invest in these plantations? + --A. I might say it is limited. + + Q. From what fact does that arise? + --A. From the fact that the safety of investments there is + just becoming apparent to capitalists. Capitalists up to + this time have been afraid to go to the South, owing to the + disturbed condition of affairs politically and this very + race-issue question. A man does not want to carry his money + down there and put it into a country that might be involved + in riots and disturbances. Those questions are now just + beginning to settle themselves, and capital is beginning to + find its way. + + Q. Do you anticipate in the near or remote future any + further difficulty from the race question? + --A. Not at all, and if we are left to ourselves things will + very soon equalize themselves. + + Q. You are left to yourselves now, are you not? + --A. We are now. + + Q. All you ask is to continue to be let alone? + --A. Just to be let alone. The South, with her natural + resources and advantages of climate and soil, feels that she + is perfectly able to take care of herself and her affairs, + and all she wants is that the legislation of the country, + both Federal and State, should be that which will mete out + justice to all her citizens, colored as well as white. + + Q. Does the South feel as though all she had got to do was + to take care of herself, or does she feel a little + responsibility for the other section of the country? + --A. She feels, more immediately now, responsibility for + that section, for this reason, that the negro population of + the South, compared with the white population of the South, + might be a dangerous element, but the negro population, + compared with the whole white population of the United + States as an integral body, sinks into insignificance. + Therefore, the forces which are at work in the South today + make us strongly Union. They are directly contrary to what + were existing before the war, and there are no people in + this Government today who have the same interest in the + Federal Union that the people of the Southern States have, + and they appreciate it. + + Q. You feel that it is to your advantage that the negro + population should be dealt with by the forty or fifty + millions of whites, that the races should be balanced in + that proportion rather than in the proportion that exists + between them and the white population of the South alone? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. The central idea of the South is a national idea, then? + --A. The central idea of the South is more a national idea + now than it has been in this respect. + + Q. I would use the word "leading" rather than "central" + there--the leading idea? + --A. We, of course, claim that we want to manage the + internal affairs of our States just as much as New York, or + New Hampshire, or Massachusetts would want to manage theirs, + but that it is necessary for us to have the guidance and + protection of the Government: we want it just as much as + either of those States. + + Q. Have you traveled considerably through the North? + --A. I have. + + Q. What portions of the North have you visited within the + last few years? + --A. I have visited Philadelphia, New York, Boston, + Hartford, and I might say a number of other points in the + States of which they are the chief cities. + + Q. While we are speaking of this matter of reciprocal + feeling between the sections of country, as you have + mentioned the attitude of the South, I should like to know + from you, from your personal observation and knowledge, what + you find to be that of the North toward the South? + --A. I think it is of the kindliest character. I have never + in my life been treated with more consideration than I have + been by gentlemen in the East who were most opposed to the + South during the war. + + Q. I do not refer simply to personal courtesy, but I mean + the expression of feeling as between the sections, the + general tendency and drift of Northern feeling towards the + Southern portions of the country, to the people of the + South? + --A. I think, so far as I have been able to observe, that + the feeling in the East towards the South is a general + anxiety for her prosperity. I would go so far as to speak of + it as anxiety for her prosperity. + + Q. You think the war of sections is pretty much over? + --A. I think it is obliterated, and for that reason I go + back to this point, that our prosperity in the South has + begun. + + Q. You have described with some minuteness the condition of + things among the planters and those who work upon the + plantations. I should like to ask this question further, + whether any of the negroes along the alluvial bottoms are + obtaining ownership of lands in fee-simple? + --A. In very few instances in the alluvial lands. When they + make enough money to buy a home they generally go to the + hill country, where land can be bought at a much more + reasonable price. + + Q. With what amount of accumulation will a negro get up and + go to the hills? + --A. There are negroes right in my section of the country + who have an accumulation clear of all expenses of from a + thousand to $3,500 a year. + + Q. Do they remain or do they go and buy homesteads for + themselves? + --A. They probably remain until they accumulate a few + thousand dollars, and then go and buy a home. We encourage + it, from the fact that we want the others behind to be + stimulated to do the same thing. I will say in that + connection that the future of the negro of the South is the + alluvial lands. + + Q. These plantations? + --A. Not only these plantations particularly. What I mean by + alluvial lands are the alluvial lands on the coast and the + alluvial lands of the Mississippi Valley, the rich lands + where the negro relies on his own energy and exertion rather + than on his brains. There is an immigration coming into the + older States now. + + Q. The older Southern States? + --A. The older Southern States. As they come in the negroes + gradually give way and go to the richer lands. For instance, + one railroad last year brought into the Mississippi Valley + over 10,000 negro immigrants. + + Q. From what States? + --A. From the Atlantic and Gulf States. + + Q. What became of them? + --A. They were scattered along the alluvial lands of the + Mississippi Valley. As the negroes of the Mississippi Valley + either immigrate from that valley and go in different + directions and buy land, the planters of the Mississippi + Valley send out to the older States and replace them with + labor from those States. A negro in the older States, + probably, to make his support would have to cultivate 15 or + 20 acres of land, whereas a negro in the Mississippi Valley + can make his support on 8 or 10 acres of land. + + Q. Will this result in the ownership of the alluvial lands + being transferred to the negro? + --A. No, sir; because as he makes money he goes off. + + Q. He is a Chinese immigrant?--A. I mean by "goes off" he + does not go out of the State, but he goes to the hills. + + Q. And to smaller ownerships?--A. To smaller ownerships. + + Q. And the aim of the Southern planter is to accommodate + this tendency of things to smaller rentings? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. Do you think a plantation is more productive where, + under a general supervision by the planter or the owner, it + is let out in small sections to the negroes to cultivate, or + is it better to cultivate the plantation as a whole? + --A. It is better to let it out, as I stated in my written + answers. The cotton crop of this country is being raised to + such an extent by the small white farmers that the large + planter can no longer afford to hire and compete with that + class of labor who only expend their own energy; + consequently the tendency is to make farmers of the negroes. + + Q. What chance is there of the planter securing white + labor to carry on these plantations? + --A. There is such a small proportion of white labor in the + South that it would be difficult for him to find them, and + the tide of foreign immigration is just beginning to be + turned in that direction. There has been a prejudice against + white emigrants going to the South, on account of going + among the negroes. + + Q. Do you think that is diminishing? + --A. Diminishing yearly. + + Q. You mean that immigration from Europe is being employed + on the plantations? + --A. Not exactly upon the large cotton plantations, but the + smaller plantations are now being converted into farms. For + instance, there has been a large immigration of European + emigrants into that section of the country between Little + Rock and Fort Smith. + + Q. Do they, upon these farm or small plantations being + converted into farms, work in companionship with the negro + laborer? + --A. No; they generally buy the land and work it themselves; + they may hire a negro and work with him; they are laborers + themselves. + + Q. Is there any tendency among the white and colored + laborers of any class to work in companionship, or to + fraternize at all in labor? + --A. I cannot say that there is. A white man would not take + a negro in as a partner to work with him in the field. + + Q. And will a white man find any difficulty in hiring + another white man and negro to work together side by side in + the field? + --A. No, sir; I have them myself working side by side. + + Q. There is no prejudice of that kind? + --A. None at all. + + Q. No white man inquires whether he can work by himself or + is to work in company with a negro? Do they exhibit any + reluctance to work in company with the negro? + --A. The class of white people that work in our country for + wages comes from Ohio, and Missouri, and Indiana, and that + section of country, and I find there is some prejudice among + that class of people sometimes, but still there are + instances--as I say, I have men from Indiana now myself + hired working right in a gang with negroes. + + Q. There is no strong tendency in that way, I suppose? + --A. No strong tendency in that way. There are no white + laborers from the South proper; at least the number we can + hire for wages is so small that it is not sufficient to call + it a class. + + Q. In the Southern States proper about two thirds of the + population is white, is it not? + --A. I do not recollect. According to the census returns I + think there are about seven millions of negroes. The census + would give the exact statement. + + Q. Not far from two thirds of the population, I think, is + white. In the Gulf States proper at least one half the + population must be white. In what way is the white laboring + population of the South employed? + --A. They are employed as small farmers nearly almost + entirely. + + Q. Not to as great extent as mechanics and artisans? + --A. I suppose there is a liberal proportion of them to the + population; we have to have our artisans and mechanics; but + as a rule the white population of the South are small + farmers, either owners of the land themselves or tenants. + + Q. How as to their material prosperity and thrift and + saving? + --A. It varies very much. For instance, take the State of + Georgia--and I believe it is admitted that Georgia is one of + the most thrifty and prosperous of all the Southern + States--I think the small farmers are generally + self-sustaining; they raise their own supplies. + + Q. Do these small white farmers employ negro help to any + extent? + --A. To a certain extent. If a man has more land than his + family can work he will hire a negro laborer. There is no + prejudice against his doing so either on the part of the + farmer hiring him or the negro hired. + + Q. He may hire some white and other colored laborers, I + suppose? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. Do they work together? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. How in regard to the value of the hill lands you have + spoken of in the State of Arkansas; as compared with the + alluvial, what is the difference in value? + --A. It is very great. There are farms in Arkansas that can + be bought, partially cleared up, and with some improvements + upon them, for from $5 to $20 an acre, less than the rent of + fair lands on the river. There is no finer section of + country in the world--I say that unhesitatingly--for a + foreign immigrant, or the immigrant from the East, or from + anywhere, than is afforded to-day in Arkansas and Texas. + + Q. And political disturbances are at an end? + --A. We apprehend nothing at all; there is no reason why we + should. + + Q. You were speaking of the necessity of the education of + the laborer of the South, the negro especially. Will you not + describe to us the actual condition of the masses of the + colored people in the matter of education, to what extent it + has progressed, and what facilities and opportunities exist, + and what additional are required? + --A. It varies in different sections. For instance, Georgia, + and Tennessee are probably ahead of any of the Southern + States in point of educating the colored people; they have + more facilities; they have negro primary schools and + colleges where a man is educated. The education that I was + speaking of, more particularly for the negro, is a plain + English education, sufficient to enable him to read and + write. + + Q. What we call up North a common school education? + --A. A common school education. I will illustrate that. + Suppose a negro comes to me to make a contract that I have + written for him, and he cannot read or write. I offer that + contract to him, and I read it to him. He touches a pen and + signs his mark to it; there is no obligation attached at + all. He says at once, "That man is an educated man; he has + the advantage of me; he shows me that contract; I do not + know what is in it; I cannot even read it." Therefore a + contract made with a negro in that way is almost a nullity; + but if he could read that contract himself and sign his own + name to it, it would be a very different thing. I never + allow a negro to sign a written contract with me before he + has taken it home with him and had some friend to read it + over and consult with him about it, because I want some + obligation attached to my contracts. + + Q. It is necessary for you as well as the negro? + --A. Necessary for my protection as well as his. + + Q. How many of the negroes on the plantations can + comprehend a written contract by reading it, because a man + may be somewhat educated and not be able to decipher a + contract? + --A. I cannot give you an exact proportion, for it varies to + a great extent. I can only say that that number is + increasing rapidly. + + Q. From what circumstances comes this increase? + --A. From their desire to gain knowledge. + + Q. Do you find that desire strong among the colored people? + --A. Very strong indeed; and there are two ideas which a + negro possesses that give me great hopes for his future. If + I did not believe the negro was capable of sufficient + development to make him a responsible small farmer, I should + not want to remain in the business that I am any longer, + because I believe that the development of my business is + necessarily based upon the development of the negro and the + cultivation of my lands. The negro possesses two remarkable + qualifications: one is that he is imitative, and the other + is that he has got pride; he wants to dress well; he wants + to do as well as anybody else does when you get him aroused, + and with these two qualifications I have very great hopes + for him in the future. + + Q. What do you think of his intellectual and moral + qualities and his capacity for development? + --A. There are individual instances I know of where negroes + have received and taken a good education. As a class, it + would probably be several generations, at any rate, before + they would be able to compete with the Caucasian. I believe + that the negro is capable of receiving an ordinary English + education, and there are instances where they enter + professions and become good lawyers. For instance, I know in + the town of Greenville, Miss., right across the river from + me, a negro attorney, who is a very intelligent man, and I + heard one of the leading attorneys in Greenville say he + would almost have anybody on the opposite side of a case + rather than he would that negro. The sheriff of my county is + from Ohio, and a negro, he is a man whom we all support in + his office. We are anxious that the negroes should have a + fair representation. For instance, you ask for the feeling + existing between the proprietor and the negroes. The probate + judge of my county is a negro and one of my tenants, and I + am here now in New York attending to important business for + my county as an appointee of that man. He has upon him the + responsibilities of all estates in the county; he is probate + judge. + + Q. Is he a capable man? + --A. A very capable man, and an excellent, good man, and a + very just one. + + Q. Do you see any reason why, with fair opportunities + assured to himself and to his children, he may not become a + useful and competent, American citizen? + --A. We already consider him so. + + Q. The question is settled? + --A. I thought you were speaking personally of the man I + referred to. + + Q. No; I was speaking of the negro generally--the negro + race. + --A. Let me understand your question exactly. + + Q. Do you see any reason why the negroes, as a component + part of the American population, may not, with a fair + chance, come to be useful, industrious, and competent to the + discharge of the duties of citizenship? + --A. I think they may as a class, but it will take probably + generations for them to arrive at that standard. + + Q. It has taken us generations to arrive at the standard, + has it not? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. There is some talk about our ancestors having been + pirates, I believe. Now, will you state to us what the + existing facilities for education are among the negroes? + --A. I can only speak as regards Arkansas. Of course I do + not know much of the other States. In Arkansas we have in + each county a school board. These boards examine and employ + teachers. We are taxed for a school fund, from which these + teachers are paid. + + Q. What proportion of the colored children attend school, + do you think? + --A. On my own property there are five schools, and I think + the larger portion, I might say nearly all that are capable + of going to school, do go to school. + + Q. How many children are there on your own property? + --A. I could scarcely form an idea. + + Q. There are five schools? + --A. There are five schools, and I should suppose from 300 + to 500 children. + + Q. Those are educated in public schools? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. I understand you to say that nearly all of them attend? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. For how long a time each year is school kept open? + --A. The schools extend all the year except vacation, I + think, which is about three months; but a number of the + negroes will withdraw their children from school during + cotton-picking season, to help them pick the crop. + + Q. Between what ages do they actually attend school? + --A. From 6 to 19. I know a great many of them who are going + to school who are 17, 18, and 19, who can just begin to read + and write a little. + + Q. Do you find any inclination among the older negroes who + are past school age to endeavor to read and write? + --A. Not very much, but they are anxious their children + should, and appeal to them. In almost every instance where a + man has a child who can read and write, he will bring him + along with him when he makes a contract. They are very proud + of their children being able to read and write. + + Q. Are they satisfied, as a rule, with their simply + becoming able to read and write, or do they like to have + them make a little further progress in mathematics, + geography, &c.? + --A. As a class they look to them simply to read and write. + They think when they have got that far they know everything; + but then there are certain ones who have ambition, just as + it is with our own race. There are some men who have tastes + for literature, and receive a better education than others + do, but it is not the same proportion of the negro race of + course that it is with our own. There are instances where + negroes are also anxious to obtain a collegiate education, + and become school teachers. + + Q. I do not know that you are able to state to what extent + they actually attend school in the hill districts? + --A. I am not. + + Q. You speak both of your own plantation and of other + plantations as well as your own in that regard? + --A. I am speaking of the alluvial lands along the + Mississippi River. + + Q. In Arkansas? + --A. Not only in Arkansas, but in Louisiana and Mississippi; + I will say the alluvial lands on the Mississippi River + between Memphis and Vicksburg. + + Q. Are the negroes on those lands generally having the same + opportunities for education that they do on your plantation? + --A. Oh, yes, sir; there is a common school system. + + Q. And it is as prevalent in Louisiana and Mississippi as + in Arkansas? + --A. I think it is. + + Q. What is the nativity of those teachers, as a rule? + --A. They are generally colored people from either the East + or the Northwest. There are some white teachers, but very + few. + + Q. Are any of the white teachers Southern in birth? + --A. There is not a white teacher on my own property; they + are all colored teachers on my own property. The proportion + of white teachers is very small. + + Q. How much do these colored teachers themselves know? + --A. Some of them are remarkably well educated. + + Q. And generally earnestly devoted to their work? + --A. Perfectly so. + + Q. Or is it simply to get their money? + --A. No; I think some of them really have a desire to see + their scholars advance. + + Q. Some pride in their race, to have them get on, I + suppose? + --A. I think there is a certain pride in that respect; and, + again, they want to gain a reputation as teachers. + + Q. What compensation does a teacher get? + --A. I think about from $50 to $100 a month. + + Q. Do they pay their own expenses, board and shelter? + --A. Yes, sir; but board is cheap, merely nominal. + + Q. About what amount? + --A. I should say these teachers can get board for $10 a + month. + + Q. Is the cost of clothing in your part of the country + about the same as here? + --A. This is our market. + + Q. You buy the ready-made clothing largely for the + population in general, I suppose? + --A. We buy both ready-made clothing and cloth to make up. + + Q. I suppose the colored population hardly buy custom + goods? + --A. A great many of them buy the cloth, and some of their + women are as good tailoresses as you would find anywhere. + They buy the cloth and make it up themselves. + + Q. That must bring a suit of clothes pretty cheap in a + colored family; they really expend nothing but buy the cloth + themselves? + --A. They sell very good jeans cloth there at 35 or 40 cents + a yard; they generally wear jeans. + + Q. All seasons of the year? + --A. Generally in all seasons of the year. In the summer + time a laboring man hardly ever wears a coat at all. + + Q. What do you think an average colored Southern laborer + expends per annum for his clothing, say the head of the + family, the man--what does it cost him for clothing a year? + --A. I cannot give you a definite answer. I will only say + that we who are the producers of cotton are very glad to see + them get in a prosperous condition in order that there may + be more consumption, and when a man is prosperous he will + buy two suits of clothes, where if he is not prosperous he + will make one do. + + Q. We have had a good deal of testimony as to what it + actually costs a Northern laborer a year for clothing. I + have no desire to show that any laborers dress cheaply or + poorly; I merely want to get an idea of the relative cost of + the laboring man living North or South, in the item of + clothing? + --A. I can sell and do sell a man a pair of jeans pants and + a coat from $7 to $12 per suit. + + Q. How many suits will he want in a year? + --A. That will depend on his condition and his ability to + pay me. If he is a prosperous man and beginning to + accumulate he will make one do. Whenever a negro begins to + accumulate he goes to extremes; he does not want to buy + anything; he wants to accumulate rapidly. Where a man is not + doing so well, and there is little doubt of his ability to + pay, he would probably want several suits; but I would + confine him to one or two. + + Q. The same is true, I suppose, of his wife and children? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. But you look on the matter of clothing as a much less + expensive item in the laborer's account in your country than + here in the North where the climate is colder, I suppose? + --A. Yes, sir. What absorbs the profit of the laborers with + us is their want of providence; that is, if they get surplus + money they throw it away for useless articles. + + Q. It has been suggested that a postal savings bank might + be a good thing as a place of deposit of the savings of the + colored population of the South; they might feel some + confidence in an institution of that kind, and that it would + be a beneficial thing to them. What is your own judgment? + --A. I advocate it and approve it, and indeed propose to + start a savings bank in our own neighborhood. In this + connection I will mention another important feature. In the + Mississippi Valley--and when I speak of the Mississippi + Valley I mean both sides of the river, Arkansas and + Louisiana on one side and Mississippi on the other--there + are numbers of negroes who have considerable accumulations + and use their surplus to advance to other negroes. For + instance, there are negroes right on our property who have + accumulated enough to help out certain others, as they + express it, and they use their money as an investment in + that way. For instance one negro who has got something will + advance it to another negro and take a mortgage on his crop. + Consequently there are numbers of them who are getting + advances from their co-laborers, and I always give them that + opportunity when they want it. My idea of the adjustment in + the Mississippi Valley, seeing what I can make from the + mercantile portion of my business, is that it is simply my + revenue that I get from the rent of my land as an investment + on my capital; and whenever a negro can get his own merchant + in New Orleans--a number of them have very good factors in + New Orleans and ship their cotton direct--I encourage it. + When one negro wants to help out another, I give him the + privilege of doing it and encourage it. There are several + negroes, a great many, not a few in Chicot County to-day who + have their own factors in New Orleans, ship their own goods, + and receive their own accounts of sales. + + Q. They are not owners of alluvial lands? + --A. They are not owners at all; they are tenants. + + Q. I suppose some time they will be liable to make some + accumulations, and they will now and then own a plantation? + --A. I do know of one instance on the river below Vicksburg + where the old property of Mr. Davis was bought by a former + slave of his. + + Q. Is that the only instance? + --A. The only instance I know of. + + Q. One question we have been accustomed to put is as to the + actual personal feeling that exists between the laborers and + capitalists of different parts of the country. What is the + feeling between the laborers, colored and white, and the + owners of the land and of capital at the South? + --A. I confine my replies to my own section, because I am + not familiar with the others. I have answered that question + in the written answers. The feeling is harmonious and good, + as I have expressed it there. The negro naturally looks to + the planter for advice and for assistance, and the planter + looks to his laborers for the development of his property. + Consequently their interests are identical and their + feelings good. + + Q. You have alluded once or twice to the pressure of + outside, and I suppose Northern, opinion; I assume that you + mean political opinion in the past and the desirability that + it should cease. What is the fact as to a progressive + disintegration of the solid Republican or solid negro vote + of the South? What are the chances of its dividing, and of + the white vote dividing? We hear now of a "solid South," + colored on the one side and white on the other. What + prospect is there of a division in that regard; to what + extent does it exist, or is it going on? + --A. The negroes of the South are already divided in their + votes. There are a great many who vote with the proprietors + of the properties. There are instances where they vote with + what they call their Republican friends. A few years ago in + the South any man who was an escaped convict from one of + your penitentiaries here who would come down to that country + and tell the negroes that he was one of General Grant's + soldiers, and fought to free him, would vote the last one + out; but any of those negroes would come to me at that very + time with his money and get me to save it for him, and take + care of it for him. He would put all his confidence in me so + far as his money was concerned, but when it would come to + politics he would vote with this man, who probably did not + own the coat he had on his back. Those kind of inferences + were what did do us in the South very material damage. Let + me illustrate that by a riot in my own county. In Chicot + County, in 1872, there was a proposition to impose upon the + county a railroad tax of $250,000 for the purpose of + building a railroad. + + Q. What proportion of the taxable property of the county + would that have been? + --A. Our whole assessed valuation was about $1,500,000 at + that time. This was brought out by a promise that if the + appropriation was made, the levees on our river should be + built and this road would run on the levees. At that time + the whole of the local government in Chicot County was in + the hands of men who did not own any property in the county, + and had just come down there and been elected by the + negroes, who have a very large majority in that county. This + tax was a very great imposition upon us. At that time there + was a negro attorney at Lake Village, who was one of the + prime movers in this thing. The planters knew that this was + only intended as a speculation upon the county, for the vote + was afterwards taken, the appropriation was made, and not + one foot of levee was put up, and not one foot of that + railroad was built in Chicot County. Still we are mandamused + now for the interest on that debt that was put on us by that + kind of influence. One of our planters was remonstrating + with this negro attorney about this debt and told him it was + an imposition on the property owners, and that the thing + ought not to be done, when the man became violent and + insolent, and it resulted in a difficulty between this + planter and the negro. The planter had a little pen-knife in + his pocket, the blade not longer than my little finger; he + struck the negro with it and it happened accidentally to hit + him on a vital point and killed him. The sheriff of the + county was a negro. The planter, with two innocent parties + in whose house this occurrence took place at the + county-seat, in Lake Village, was arrested and lodged in + jail. A few days afterwards--probably not more than two or + three--nearly every negro in the county was summoned to + Lake Village, and they rose like so many locusts, coming in + from every direction, took those three men out of jail shot + them to pieces, murdered them. It was such an outrage that + the people from Memphis and Vicksburg and from the hill + countries, commenced to come in there with companies, + started down with companies. On investigation we found out + that the sheriff of the county had exercised his authority + to send out to the ignorant negroes of the county and summon + them to the village, and these fellows went because they + were afraid not to obey the mandate of the sheriff. At that + time feeling was running very high, and these people were + anxious to come in and quell this riot, but a few of us who + were more prudent, a few of the leading planters of the + county, got together, sent these different companies word + not to come there, that we did not want them in the county; + some of the companies were already on their way to Chicot + County, thinking the people there were going to be + massacred. A great many of our people had to run away from + their homes for several days; but we took the ground that we + would let the thing take its natural course. As soon as + things quieted down, which they did so partially in three or + four days, some of our gentlemen who had gone off with their + families returned, and it resulted in our arresting a few of + the ringleaders in the county. The courts and the + administration were all at that time in the hands of persons + not identified with the interests of the county, and it was + impossible for us to get justice meted out. We saved a + massacre of the negroes of the county, but we never could + bring those men to any kind of punishment before the courts, + and finally we came to a compromise with them, that if they + would leave the county we would withdraw the suit against + them, and that was the way the thing was ended. Now, I do + not believe you could get up a riot in Chicot County because + I think there are many intelligent negroes there who would + not permit it. Those are the kind of race issues that I + referred to. Relieve us of that sort of thing, and leave our + government to ourselves and our people, and give to the + negro the same protection the white man has, but do not give + him any more. Do not let him feel that he has the United + States Government standing behind him, and that he is the + child of the United States Government to be taken care of, + but that he must rely on his own resources and energy for + his living, and time will solve the question, and the demand + for his labor will protect him. + + Q. Do you find that the feeling among the negroes which + resulted in the exodus of a few years ago has been allayed + and perhaps has disappeared? + --A. I will tell you something that is rather amusing about + that. The first that I heard of a negro exodus in my section + of the country--it was to Kansas--was my manager coming into + my room one morning and saying that the negroes were going + out to the river to go to Kansas. I said, "It is several + miles to the river; how are they going?" Said he, "They are + toting their things out on their heads." Said I, "Go right + at once there and offer them the wagons on the plantation to + haul the things. What is the matter?" Said he, "I don't + know; I went out this morning and summoned the hands to the + field, but they say they are all going to Kansas." I got on + my horse and rode out and met a negro who had been my + engineer. I said to him, "What is the matter, where are you + all going?" He stopped right on the road and said, "Mr. + Calhoun, you never have deceived me, and I am going to tell + you what is the matter. There were two men came through here + last week, one night, and said 'You see this picture?' There + is a picture of a farm in Kansas for me that General Grant + has bought out there for me. That is so because my name is + on the back of it, and here is my ticket; that carries me to + Kansas." Said I, "Let me see it." He showed me a piece of + pasteboard that had printed on it "Good for one trip to + Kansas." Said I, "What did you pay him for this?" He said, + "We paid him $2 a piece." "How many of you are in this + thing?" "Over eighty of us are in this thing." Said I, "That + man then swindled you out of $160; he is an imposter; there + is no farm bought for you in Kansas." I saw that the time + for me to remonstrate with them was not then; they were on + their way to the Mississippi River, and I let them all go. + After they got out there I went and expostulated with them; + told them of the difference in climate, soil, and everything + else that they were accustomed to, and that if they went + there many of them would lose their families and children. + They would not listen to me. They went on to the river bank, + and those negroes who went out there owed me over $109,000. + + Q. How many of them were there? Eighty I think you said? + --A. There were 80, I think. Once, I suppose, there were 150 + negroes, perhaps more, on the bank of the river. They were + not at a regular landing. They went out to the intermediate + points where a boat would not be compelled to land. We + notified all the boats coming up the river not to land at + this point. I did not want these negroes to go off, being + satisfied that they were going to their ruin if they did; + that they were leaving comfortable homes; many of them had + sold their mules or given them away at a mere sacrifice. One + negro sold a mule worth $150 for $15 to get off. They opened + their potato-houses, they opened their corn-cribs and + scattered the corn, giving it away to everybody that would + offer them five cents a bushel. I had given two of these + people a piece of land, the productions of all of which + they were to have for bringing it into cultivation and + improving it. Knowing the negro nature as I do, and knowing + that he would not want anybody to derive the benefit of + something that he thought he was entitled to, I got two + white men in the county to come and offer me to take this + piece of land and cultivate it on shares with me, giving me + one half its product, whereas with them I was entitled to + nothing. As soon as those two fellows found out that I had + made a good bargain for their land they went back home from + the river bank, and as soon as they went back all the rest + followed. Then I called the whole plantation up and told + them to appoint two representatives and that I would send + them to Kansas at my own expense to examine into this matter + and report to them. These two men went to Kansas, came back, + and reported the true condition of affairs; and now if what + they call in that country "a poor white man"--the negro's + expression--goes through the country and says "Kansas," they + almost want to mob him. That was the result of the Kansas + movement. + + Q. What has become of those who went to Kansas? + --A. Many of them have returned and many have died; numbers + of them have died. Quite a large number went to Washington + County Mississippi, just opposite me. + + Q. From time to time, at Washington, efforts are being made + to secure public lands in the Territories, the Indian + Territory and elsewhere, for the purpose of colonizing such + tracts with negroes. Do you think there is any sort of + occasion for that? + --A. None in the world. If the alluvial lands on the + Mississippi River were protected from overflow and brought + into a condition where they could be cultivated they would + afford all the homes, and of the best character, that the + negroes could possibly want in the South, and the natural + tendency is to come to just such lands. + + Q. And the negroes prefer to be there to anywhere else? + --A. Those that come, I notice, never go back. + + Q. You suggested the improvement of the levees. What is the + necessity, and in what degree is it difficult for those + residing along the river banks to protect themselves? + --A. I am the president of the levee board of Chicot County. + The plan which has been suggested by the Mississippi River + Commission and Mr. Eads, as their chief engineer, is + unquestionably the correct one for the improvement of the + Mississippi River. We know this not only from theory, but + from long experience with the river, those of us who have + lived there. The Mississippi River being, as it is generally + termed, the "Father of Waters," and passing through several + States, it is almost a national system, and it would be + impossible for any system to be adopted by the States which + would be local. Consequently it is imperatively the duty of + the Government of the United States to take care of the + improvement of the Mississippi River. There are certain + sections of the Mississippi River that are naturally above + overflow, made so by cut-offs. The fall of the Mississippi + River is about four inches to the mile. Consequently, when + there is one of those large bends, where the river runs + around where the cut-off is, no increase of water is needed. + The fall being four inches to the mile, the lands just above + the cut-off are made higher and above overflow, whereas just + below, the lands are overflowed or become liable to + overflow. The improvement of the Mississippi River itself + for commercial purposes, as well as the protection of the + lands, is dependent upon the building of the levees, for the + levees of course confine the water within its banks, and + give not only a greater volumn of water, but greater + velocity for scouring purposes, which scours out the sand + bars that are formed continually on the river. Captain + Eads's plan of forming jetties where the banks cave, saves + this deposit, as it were, in the water, which makes the sand + bars. A mattress is put against the caving banks which + prevents the alluvial land caving into the river which forms + the sand bars below. Then the increased volumn and increased + velocity of the water wash out the channel, and improve it + for commercial purposes, answering the object of protecting + the land, and at the same time opening that immense channel + for commerce. + + Again, there are very important lines of railroad that are + being built up and down either bank of the Mississippi + River, and it is necessary they should be protected for + commercial purposes, as well as that the Mississippi River + should be improved for commercial purposes, and they can + only be protected by the building of levees. We who have + been on the river, and who feel that we are familiar with + it, have closely watched the course of the Commission, and I + can only say, as an expression of the opinion of the people, + that we indorse what the Commission are doing. + + Q. And desire still more of it? + --A. Yes, sir; it is absolutely necessary. What has already + been expended by the Government would be absolutely useless + unless additional appropriations are made to complete the + work. I would like to call your attention to this point. The + Atchafalaya, in Louisiana, is a stream which runs from just + about the mouth of Red River into the Gulf of Mexico. The + fall from the mouth of the Atchafalaya and Red River to the + Gulf of Mexico is very much greater than the fall from the + mouth of Red River to the Gulf by way of New Orleans down + the Mississippi River. A few years ago the Atchafalaya was a + stream which could be waded across, but owing to the current + gradually going through it, it commenced to wash out until + now it has got to be a stream 100 feet deep. + + Q. Is there or not any perceptible increase or diminution + of the column of the Mississippi itself as compared with 25, + or 50, or 100 years ago? + --A. We think that our waters are higher now than they have + ever been before. + + Q. Greater extremes, or is there a uniform flow? + --A. A larger uniform flow, and it is attributed to the + destruction of the forests, though that is mere theory. One + of the arguments, at any rate, is that it is owing to the + destruction of the forests in the Northwest, which causes + more rain storms and gives a larger rainfall. + + Q. I have heard the idea advanced that the destruction of + the woods and timber about the headwaters would, in case of + rain, lead to a more rapid deposit in the stream, it would + not be held back by the swampy nature of the soil, and so + you might have more sudden rises and falls in the river than + formerly without the volume of water or the uniform flow + being increased or lessened? + --A. I think--at least I have heard it so expressed by men + experienced on the river--that the flow of the Mississippi + River is greater now than it was formerly. + + Q. That one year with another, more water runs down the + channel? + --A. We can see a slight increase of the water of the + Mississippi River. I do not know how it may increase in the + future, or if it will at all, but that is the opinion of + people there now. The point I want to call your attention to + specifically is the necessity for the prevention of the + water of the Red River going down through the Atchafalaya, + for if the Atchafalaya washes out it leaves New Orleans, a + large commercial city, upon, as it were, an inland sea. The + waters which overflow from the banks of the Mississippi + River on the front of Arkansas go over into the Red River + and never come back into the Mississippi River any more + until they come out at the mouth of the Red River. Just at + the mouth of Red River, and before Red River reaches the + Mississippi, is the Atchafalaya. So that all of this + overflow water that could be kept in the Mississippi River + by building the levees on the front of Arkansas, now goes + into Red River and helps to wash out the Atchafalaya, which + will ruin the city of New Orleans if that is not prevented. + It is a very strong commercial point, for the commerce of + New Orleans is a matter to be considered in our affairs. + + Q. I suppose there is no doubt that the Atchafalaya + furnishes an outlet, which relieves your plantations very + much? + --A. No, sir; it does not affect where I live at all. + + Q. Below the Red River, in Louisiana, is it not a relief in + case of an overflow? + --A. A partial relief; but in Louisiana, when you get down + that far, they pretty much have their system of levees + built, which protect the sugar district; there are only + probably a few gaps; and the Mississippi River, when it gets + that far down, does not rise in the same proportion that it + does where I live, 500 miles above. The mouth of the + Atchafalaya is 500 miles below where I am. + + Q. Has this increased drainage from the Atchafalaya + resulted in any injury to the navigation of the river as far + north? + --A. Not as yet; but if it is not stopped--the commission + realize the fact I am now telling you--if it is not checked, + the whole Mississippi River will naturally turn through the + Atchafalaya, because the fall is so much greater. + + Q. How do they propose to check it? + --A. That is a matter the commission and scientific + engineers would have to decide. + + Q. Can they block it at the outlet of the Red River? + --A. They propose to check it principally by stopping the + water from the Mississippi River that goes into the Red + River. There would in that way be an enormous quantity of + water kept out of Red River. That would be one method. What + the engineers would consider sufficient or necessary to be + done, of course I would not venture to express an opinion + upon. + + Q. What danger is there to the large mass of capital + invested in these alluvial lands, unless something is done + to prevent the overflows of which you speak? + --A. The lands that are now liable to overflow are almost + entirely abandoned. + + Q. To how large an extent are they now abandoned? + --A. Taking in the whole of Mississippi Valley proper, from + Memphis down. + + Q. Has there been any computation or reasonable estimate + that you know of the value of those lands affected by the + overflow? + --A. I have never heard of it; but I will say that those + lands which are liable to overflow now, if brought into + cultivation, are just as valuable as any we are cultivating; + probably more so, because they have the alluvial deposits + upon them. There is a deposit there from 3 to 4 inches. + + Q. You have no idea of the extent of those lands? + --A. I cannot give you the proportion. I will simply say it + is a very large proportion. + + Q. A third, or a half, or a quarter? + --A. More than a half. I saw it estimated some time ago, at + least I will give it as a statement published in the + _Planters' Journal_, published in Vicksburgh, that there are + thirteen counties on the Mississippi River which, if all + cleared up and put into cultivation, are capable of + producing the entire cotton crop of the United States, and I + have heard the question discussed. + + Q. What prevents their being cleared up and put into + cultivation? + --A. Simply the overflow. + + Q. Have they ever been cleared as yet? + --A. A great portion of them; and now destroyed because the + levee system is not complete. On these lands all the negro + labor which is not found profitable on the poorer lands in + the older States, could be made extremely profitable, not + only to the proprietors of the lands, but to the laborers + themselves. + + Q. Do you think it would be within limit to say that one + half of the alluvial plantation lands, such as you have + described in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, is now + practically destroyed by reason of this overflow occasioned + by the destruction of the levee system? + --A. Yes, sir. + + Q. At least one half? + --A. At least one half of that which has been in + cultivation, and which can be brought into cultivation. + + Q. Of that which is thus useless now, what portion has been + formerly under cultivation? + --A. It would be impossible for any one to form an estimate, + because it is so varied. + + Q. The amount of land that has been improved and which is + now destroyed by reason of the overflow, you cannot state? + --A. I cannot state it accurately; I will state it + approximately; I should say at least one third. + + Q. One third of the entire amount that has been improved is + now destroyed by reason of the overflow, resulting from + imperfections in the levee system? + --A. Yes, sir; that is what I mean to say. + + Q. And of that which has not been improved but might be + improved, how much? + --A. At least half. + + * * * * * + +As I have devoted some space to the general condition of labor in the +whole country, and as some of my statements and conclusions may be +looked upon as extravagant, I deem it very pertinent to add to the +appendix a portion of the testimony of Dr. R. Heber Newton, given +before Senator Blair's Committee on the "_Relations between Capital +and Labor_," in New York City, September 18, 1883 (Vol. II., p. 535). +Dr. Newton is recognized as a clear thinker and a ready writer not +only on theological but on economic questions as well. His testimony +on the points to which I have asked attention was as follows: + + A LABOR QUESTION COMING + + The broad fact that the United States census of 1870 + estimated the average annual income of our wage-workers at a + little over $400 per capita, and that the census of 1880 + estimates it at a little over $300 per capita, is the quite + sufficient evidence that there is a labor question coming + upon us in this country. The average wages of 1870 + indicated, after due allowance for the inclusion of women + and children, a mass of miserably paid labor--that is, of + impoverished and degraded labor. The average wages of 1880 + indicated that this mass of semi-pauperized labor is rapidly + increasing, and that its condition has become 25 per cent + worse in ten years. The shadow of the old-world + _proletariat_ is thus seen to be stealing upon our shores. + It is for specialists in political economy to study this + problem in the light of the large social forces that are + working such an alarming change in our American society. In + the consensus of their ripened judgment we must look for the + authoritative solution of this problem. I am not here to + assume that role. I have no pet hobby to propose, warranted + to solve the whole problem without failure. I do not believe + there is any such specific yet out. * * * + + + I + + THE FAULTS OF LABOR + + Plainly, labor's fault must be found with itself. + + 1. Leaving upon one side the class of skilled labor, a + large proportion of our wage-workers are notoriously + inefficient. In the most common tasks one has to watch the + average workingman in order to prevent his bungling a job. + Hands are worth little without some brains; as in the work + done, so in the pay won. Our labor is quite as largely + uninterested--having no more heart than brains back of the + hands. Work is done mechanically by most workingmen, with + little pride in doing it well, and little ambition to be + continually doing it better. + + 2. There is too commonly as little sense of identity with + the employer's interests, or of concern that any equivalent + in work should be rendered for the pay received. In forms + irritating beyond expression employers are made to feel that + their employees do not in the least mind wasting their + material, injuring their property, and blocking their + business in the most critical moments. Under what possible + system, save in a grievous dearth of laborers, can such + labor be well off, and incompetence and indifference draw + high wages? + + 3. Our labor is for the most part very thriftless. In the + purchase and in the preparation of food--the chief item of + expense in the workingman's family and that wherein economic + habits count for most--men and women are alike improvident. + The art of making money go the farthest in food is + comparatively unknown. Workingmen will turn up their noses + at the fare on which a Carlyle did some of the finest + literary work of our century. I remember some time ago + speaking to one of our butchers, who told me that workingmen + largely ordered some of his best cuts. Now an ample supply + of nutritious food is certainly essential for good work, + whether of the brain or of the brawn. The advance of labor + is rightly gauged, among other ways, by its increasing + consumption of wheat and meat, but the nutritiousness of + meat is not necessarily dependent upon its being from the + finest cut. I should like to see all men eating "French" + chops and porter-house steaks if they could afford it; but + when I know the average wages of our workingmen and the cost + of living on the simplest possible scale, it is discouraging + to learn such a fact as that which I have mentioned, since + all the elements of necessary sustenance can be had in so + much cheaper forms. * * * + + 4. Labor must fault itself further, on the ground of its + lack of power of combination and of its defective methods in + combination. It has been by combination that the middle + class has arisen, and by it that capital has so wonderfully + increased. The story of the Middle Ages, familiar to us all, + is the story of the rise of the industrial class by + combination in guilds. Labor's numbers, now a hindrance, + might thus become a help. In a mob men trample upon each + other; in an army they brace each other to the charge of + victory. + + Trades-unions represent the one effective form of + combination won by American labor. Trades-unions need no + timid apologists. Their vindication is in the historic tale + of the successful advances which they have won for + workingmen. Called into being to defend labor against + legislation in the interests of capital, in the days when to + ask for an advance in wages led to workingmen's being thrown + into prison, they have in England led on to the brilliant + series of reforms which mark our century, as told so well in + the articles by Mr. Howell (_The Nineteenth Century_ for + October, 1882) and by Mr. Harrison (_The Contemporary + Review_ for October, 1883). Doubtless they have committed + plenty of follies, and are still capable of stupid tyrannies + that only succeed in handicapping labor, in alienating + capital, and in checking productivity--that is, in lessening + the sum total of divisible wealth. Such actions are + inevitable in the early stages of combination on the part of + uneducated men, feeling a new sense of power, and striking + blindly out in angry retaliation for real or fancied + injuries. + + Trades-unions are gradually, however, outgrowing their + crude methods. The attempts, such as we have seen lately, + of great corporations to break them up, is a piece of + despotism which ought to receive an indignant rebuke from + the people at large. Labor must combine, just as capital has + combined, in forming these very corporations. Labor's only + way of defending its interests as a class is through + combination. It is the abuse and not the use of + trades-unions against which resistance should be made. + + The chief abuse of our trades-unions has been their + concentration of attention upon the organization of strikes. + + Strikes seem to me in our present stage of the + "free-contract" system entirely justifiable when they are + really necessary. Workingmen have the right to combine in + affixing a price at which they wish to work. The supply of + labor and the demand for goods, in the absence of higher + considerations, will settle the question as to whether they + can get the increase. The trying features of this method of + reaching a result are incidental to our immature industrial + system. Strikes have had their part to play in the + development of that system. We note their failures and + forget their successes; but they have had their signal + success, and have won substantial advantages for labor. + Their chief service, however, has been in teaching + combination, and in showing labor the need of a better + weapon by which to act than the strike itself. + + The strike requires long practice and great skill to wield + it well. Practice in it is more costly than the experiments + at Woolwich. Mr. Dolles, in his new work on political + economy, gives some statistics which abundantly illustrate + the folly of strikes, although he only gives one side of the + case, namely, the losses which fall directly upon the + laborers themselves. If to these were added the losses of + capitalists, the aggregate would become colossal. In 1829 + the Manchester spinners struck, and lost $1,250,000 in wages + before the dispute was at an end. The next year their + brethren at Ashton and Stayleybridge followed their example + in striking and in losing $1,250,000. In 1833 the builders + of Manchester forfeited $360,000 by voluntary idleness. In + 1836 the spinners of Preston threw away $286,000. Eighteen + years afterward their successor, seventeen thousand strong, + slowly starved through thirty-six weeks and paid $1,200,000 + for the privilege. In 1853 the English iron-workers lost + $12,000 by a strike. Such losses marked, too, the strikes of + the London builders in 1860, and tailors in 1868, and the + northern iron-workers in 1865. The strike of the Belfast + linen-weavers, which was ended a few weeks since by the + mediation of the British Association for the Advancement of + Science, cost the operatives $1,000,000. + + The cost of strikes is expressible only in the aggregate of + the savings of labor consumed in idleness, of the loss to + the productivity of the country, of the disturbance of the + whole mechanism of exchange, and of the injury wrought upon + the delicate social organization by the strain thus placed + upon it. The famous Pittsburgh strike is estimated to have + cost the country ten millions of dollars. When so costly a + weapon is found to miss far more often than it hits, it is + altogether too dear. * * * + + Trades-unions in this country seem to me to be gravely at + fault in clinging to such an obsolete weapon. They should + have turned their attention to our modern improvement upon + this bludgeon. + + Arbitration is a far cheaper and more effective instrument + of adjusting differences between capital and labor--a far + more likely means of securing a fair increase of wages. It + places both sides to the controversy in an amicable mood, + and is an appeal to the reason and conscience--not wholly + dead in the most soulless corporation. It costs next to + nothing. It is already becoming a substitute for strikes in + England, where the trades-unions are adopting this new + weapon. * * * + + Trades-unions ought, among us, to emulate the wisdom of + European workingmen, and use their mechanism to organize + forms of association which should look not alone to winning + higher wages but to making the most of existing wages, and + ultimately to leading the wage-system into a higher + development. The provident features of the English + trades-unions are commonly overlooked, and yet it is + precisely in these provident features that their main + development has been reached. Mr. George Howell shows that a + number of societies, which he had specially studied, had + spent in thirty years upward of $19,000,000 through their + various relief-funds, and $1,369,455 only on strikes. Mr. + Harrison speaks of seven societies spending in one year + (1879) upward of $4,000,000 upon their members out of work. + He shows that seven of the great societies spent in 1882 + less than 2 per cent of their income on strikes; and states + that 99 per cent of union funds in England "have been + expended in the beneficent work of supporting workmen in bad + times, in laying by a store for bad times, and saving the + country from a crisis of destitution and strife." + + Trades-unions ought to be doing for our workingmen what + trades-unions have already done in England. * * * It has + been by the power of combination among the workingmen, + developed through the trades-unions, that this long list of + beneficent legislation--factory acts, mines-regulation acts, + education acts, tenant-right acts, employers' liability + acts, acts against "truck," acts against cruelty to animals, + etc.--has been secured. It has been wrested from reluctant + parliaments by the manifestations of strength on the part of + the laboring classes. * * * + + Our trades unions ought to be the means of securing one of + the great necessities of labor in this country--accurate and + generally diffused information concerning the state of the + labor-market. Were there any thorough combination in + existence on the part of these unions in hard times, there + could be diffused through the great centers of labor in the + East regular reports of the labor-market in the different + local centers of the country, such as would guide workingmen + in their search for opportunities of work. * * * + + Another action that our labor unions might take in the + interest of the workingmen is in the development of + co-operation. The story of European co-operation is one of + the most encouraging tales of our modern industrial world. + Germany, for example, had in 1877 some 2,830 credit + societies; of which 806 reported 431,216 members; advances + for the year, in loans to their members, $375,000,000, with + a loss of one mark to every 416 thalers, or 23-4/5 cents on + every $297--an indication of soundness in their financial + operations that many capitalistic corporations might well + envy. The rapid growth of these societies is bringing the + omnipotence of credit to the aid of the workingmen in + Germany. + + We have within the past decade had a most encouraging + growth of a somewhat similar form of co-operation in the + building and loan associations, which are now estimated to + number probably about 8,000 in the nation, with a membership + of 450,000, and an aggregated capital of $75,000,000. + + The co-operative stores have reached a wonderful + development in England, with most beneficent results. There + were 765 stores reporting to the congress in 1881, which + showed aggregate sales of $65,703,990, with profits of + $435,000; while Scotland reported 226 stores in the same + year, representing sales of $17,423,170, and profits of + $113,665. + + Against this showing our workingmen have comparatively + little to offer. We have, it is true, had a great deal more + of experimenting in co-operative distribution than is + ordinarily supposed. Co-operative stores began among us + between 1830 and 1840. The Workingmen's Protective Union + developed a great many stores at this time, which together + did a business in their best days ranging from $1,000,000 to + $2,000,000 per annum. In the decade 1860-70 there was an + extensive revival of co-operative stores; plans for + wholesale agencies being even discussed. A few of these + earlier stores still live. Two great national orders have + arisen, seeking to build up co-operative stores, among other + aims. + + The Grangers had in 1876 twenty State purchasing agencies, + three of which did a business annually of $200,000, and one + of which did an annual business of $1,000,000. They claimed + to have, about the same time, five steamboat or packet + lines, fifty societies for shipping goods, thirty-two grain + elevators, twenty-two warehouses for storing goods. In 1876 + one hundred and sixty Grange stores were recorded. In he + same year it was officially stated that "local stores are in + successful operation all over the country." + + The Sovereigns of Industry also developed co-operative + distribution largely. In 1877 President Earle reported that + "ninety-four councils, selected from the whole, report a + membership of 7,273, and with an average capital of only + $884 did a business last year of $1,089,372.55. It is safe + to assume that the unreported sales will swell the amount to + at least $3,000,000." + + There have been numerous stores started apart from these + orders. The finest success won is by the Philadelphia + Industrial Co-operative Society. Starting in 1875 with one + store, it has now six stores. Its sales for the quarter + ending February 18, 1882, were $51,413.63. A considerable + increase of interest in such stores marks the opening of our + decade. Stores are starting up in various parts of the + country. The Grangers claim to have now hundreds of + co-operative stores, upon the Rochdale plan, in successful + operation. Texas reports officially (1881) seventy-five + co-operative societies connected with this order. * * * + + We had an epoch of brilliant enthusiasm over co-operative + agriculture in 1840-50, but little has been left from it. + One form of agricultural co-operation, a lower form, has + been astonishingly successful--the cheese-factories and + creameries. It is estimated that there are now 5,000 of them + in the country. In co-operative manufactures we have had + many experiments, but few successes, from 1849 onward. + Massachusetts reported twenty-five co-operative + manufactories in 1875. All of them, however, were small + societies. + + Now, co-operation has its clearly marked limitations. It is + of itself no panacea for all the ills that labor is heir to. + But it can ameliorate some of the worst of those ills. It + can effect great savings for our workingmen, and can secure + them food and other necessaries of the best quality. If + nothing further arises, the spread of co-operation may + simply induce a new form of competition between these big + societies; but no one can study the history of the movement + without becoming persuaded that there is a moral development + carried on which will, in some way as yet not seen to us, + lead up the organization of those societies into some higher + generalization, securing harmony. It is constantly and + rightly said that business can never dispense with that + which makes the secret of capital's success in large + industry and trade, namely, generalship. Co-operation can, + it is admitted, capitalize labor for the small industries, + in which it is capable of making workingmen their own + employers, but it is said it can never, through committees + of management, carry on large industries or trade. I can, + however, see no reason why hereafter it may not enable large + associations to hire superior directing ability at high + salaries, just as paid generals give to republics the + leadership which kings used to supply in monarchies. There + are in the savings-banks of many manufacturing centers in + our country amounts which if capitalized would place the + workingmen of those towns in industrial independence; moneys + which, in some instances, are actually furnishing the + borrowed capital for their own employers. In such towns our + workingmen have saved enough to capitalize their labor, but + for lack of the power of combination, let the advantage of + their own thrift inure to the benefit of men already rich. + They save money and then loan it to rich men to use in + hiring them to work on wages, while the profits go to the + borrowers of labor's savings. + + But the chief value of co-operation, in my estimate, is its + educating power. It opens a training school for labor in the + science and art of association. + + Labor once effectively united could win its dues, whatever + they may be. The difficulties of such association have lain + in the undeveloped mental and moral condition of the rank + and file of the hosts of labor. * * * + + Now, of this effort at co-operation I find scarcely any + trace in the trade organizations of our workingmen. + Trades-unions have until very lately passed the whole + subject by in utter silence. What has been done by + workingmen in this country in the line of co-operation has + been done outside of the great trade associations, which + form the natural instrumentalities for organizing such + combination. They offer the mechanism, the mutual knowledge, + the preliminary training in habits of combination, which + together should form the proper conditions for the + development of co-operation. Is it not a singular thing, + considering the manifold benefits that would come to labor + from such a development, that the attention of these great + and powerful organizations has not heretofore been seriously + called to this matter. * * * + + The story of such attempts as have already been made in + this direction is one of a sad and discouraging nature to + all who feel the gravity of this problem. Again and again + great organizations have risen on our soil, seeking to + combine our trade associations and promising the millennium + to labor, only to find within a few years suspicion, + distrust, and jealousy eating the heart out of the order, + and disintegration following rapidly as a natural + consequence. The time must soon come let us hope, when the + lesson of these experiences will have been learned. + + These are some of the salient faults of labor--faults which + are patent to all dispassionate observers. The first step to + a better state of things lies through the correction of + these faults. Whatever other factors enter into the problem, + this is the factor which it concerns labor to look after if + it would reach the equation of the good time coming. No + reconstruction of society can avail for incompetent, + indifferent, thriftless men who cannot work together. + Self-help must precede all other help. Dreamers may picture + utopias, where all our present laws are suspended, and + demagogues may cover up the disagreeable facts of labor's + own responsibility for its pitiful condition, but sensible + workingmen will remember that, as Renan told his countrymen + after the Franco-Prussian war, "the first duty is to face + the facts of the situation." There are no royal roads to an + honest mastery of fortune, though there seem to be plenty of + by-ways to dishonest success. Nature is a hard + school-mistress. She allows no makeshifts for the discipline + of hard work and of self-denial, for the culture of all the + strengthful qualities. Her American school for workers is + not as yet overcrowded. The rightful order of society is not + as yet submerged on our shores. There are the rewards of + merit for all who will work and wait. No man of average + intelligence needs to suffer in our country if he has clear + grit in him. "The stone that is fit for the wall," as the + Spanish proverb runs, "will not be left in the road." + + + II + + FAULTS OF CAPITAL + + But--for there is a very large "but" in the case--when all + this is said, only the thorough going _doctrinaire_ will + fail to see that merely half the case has been presented. + There is a shallow optimism which, from the heights of + prosperity, throws all the blame of labor's sufferings on + labor's own broad shoulders; steels the heart of society + against it because of these patent faults, and closes the + hand against its help, while it sings the gospel of the + Gradgrinds--"As it was and ever shall be. Amen." + + Labor itself is not wholly responsible for its own faults. + These faults spring largely out of the defective social + conditions amid which the workingman finds himself placed. + Before we proceed to administer to him the whole measure of + the "whopping" due for his low estate, we had better look + back of him, to see why it is that he is as he is. + + The inefficiency of labor is by no means the fault of the + individual laborer alone. Heredity has bankrupted him + before he started on his career. His parents were probably + as inefficient as he is--and most likely _their_ parents + also. One who sees much of the lower grades of labor ceases + to wonder why children turn out worthless, knowing what the + parents were. General Francis A. Walker, in opening the + Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute at Boston lately, + said: + + "There is great virtue in the inherited industrial + aptitudes and instincts of the people. You can no more make + a first-class dyer or a first-class machinist in one + generation than you can in one generation make a Cossack + horseman or a Tartar herdsman. Artisans are born, not made." + + Our incompetents may plead that they were not born + competent. It does not readily appear what we are going to + do about this working of heredity against labor, except as + by the slow and gradual improvement of mankind these low + strata of existences are lifted up to a higher plane. + Meanwhile we must blame less harshly and work a little more + earnestly to better the human stock. + + The environment of labor handicaps still further this + organic deficiency. In most of our great cities the homes of + the workingmen are shockingly unwholesome; unsunned, badly + drained, overcrowded. The tenements of New York are enough + alone to take the life out of labor. City factories often + are not much better. The quality of the food sold in the + poorer sections of our cities--meat, bread, milk, etc.--is + defectively nutritious, even where it is not positively + harmful. The sanitary conditions are thus against labor. + + This could be largely reflected by the State and city + authorities, and ought to be rectified in simple justice to + society at large, which is now so heavily burdened by the + manifold evils bred under such conditions. Government guards + carefully the rights both of land and capital by an immense + amount of legislation and administration. Has not labor a + fair claim to an equal solicitude on the part of the State? + Health is the laborer's source of wealth, but it is by no + means so farefully looked after as are the resources of the + other two factors of production. It is only within the last + three years that in New York we have had a satisfactory + tenement-house law or a fair administration of any law + bearing on this evil. There ought to be the exercise of some + such large wisdom as led the city of Glasgow to spend + $7,000,000 in reconstructing three thousand of the worst + tenements of that city, with a consequent reduction of the + death rate from 54 per thousand to 29 per thousand, and with + a corresponding decrease in pauperism and crime. + + To this end our municipal governments should be taken out + of party politics and made the corporation business that + they are in German cities. + + We have in none of the States of our Union any such + legislation as that of the thorough system of factory laws + in England, and we ought to supply the lack promptly. + Whatever may be said as to interference on the part of + legislation with the rights of capital, the sufficient + answer is that the whole advance of society has been a + constant interference on the part of legislation with the + merely natural action of the law of supply and demand; and + that only thus has England, for example, secured the immense + amelioration in the condition of the problem of labor and + capital which marks her state to-day. + + It can be said also in this connection that if Government + has one business more peculiarly her own than another, it is + to look after the class that most needs looking after; and + that not simply from the interest of the class itself, which + would rarely supply a basis for governmental interference, + but in the interests of society at large--of the State + itself. The State's first concern is to see her citizens + healthful, vigorous, wealth-producing factors; and to this + end bad sanitary conditions, which undermine the + "health-capital" of labor, imperatively demand correction. + + The deeper seated the roots of labor's inefficiency in + heredity and environment, the greater the need for an + education that will develop whatever potencies may lie + latent. Inefficiency will rarely correct itself. Superior + ability must train it into better power. Where is there any + proper provision for such an education? + + State governments and our National Government have for a + number of years been fostering certain branches of + industrial education, chiefly in the line of agriculture. + The late report of the Bureau of Education upon industrial + education presents a very encouraging summary of what is + thus being done under the guidance of the State. It reports + concerning forty-three colleges aided by State grants to + give agricultural and mechanical training, besides a large + number of technical departments in other colleges, + industrial schools, evening classes for such instruction, + etc. Probably the finest example of industrial education + that the country possesses is found in the Hampton schools + in Virginia. Of attempts, however, to combine general and + intellectual education with practical training and + handicrafts we have few examples. The Hampton schools, + already alluded to, present one of the best. Professor + Adler's school in this city is very interesting in this + respect. + + Our common schools have until lately signally passed by the + whole field of practical education. Drawing is at last being + generally introduced, and sewing is also being introduced to + a small extent, I believe, especially in New England. But + the schools which are supposed to be intended for the mass + of the people, and which are supplied at the public cost, + have made next to no provision for the practiced training of + boys and girls to become self-supporting men and + women--wealth-producing citizens; while the whole curriculum + of the school-system tends to a disproportionate + intellectuality, and to an alienation from all manual labor. + * * * + + The necessity of the State's entering the educational field + is disputed by no one; but if it is to educate children at + the public cost it is bound, I think, to so educate its + wards that they shall return to society the taxation imposed + for their education. Its justification in becoming + school-master lies in the necessity of making out of the raw + material of life citizens who shall be productive factors in + the national wealth and conservators of its order. If, + therefore, it is justified in teaching the elementary + branches of education, if it is justified in adding to those + elementary branches departments that may be considered in + the nature of luxuries, how much more is it justified in + training the powers by which self-support shall be won and + wealth shall be added to society! * * * + + That such efforts to encourage industrial education would + pay our Government is best seen in the example of England. + The International Exhibition of 1851 revealed to England its + complete inferiority to several continental countries in + art-industries, and the cause of that inferiority in the + absence of skilled workmen. The Government at once began to + study the problem, and out of this study arose the + Kensington Museum, with its art-schools, and similar + institutions throughout the country, which have already made + quick and gratifying returns in the improvement of the + national art-industries, and in the vast enrichment of the + trade growing therefrom. + + Concerning the uninterestedness of labor and its too common + lack of any identification with capital, we must also look + beyond labor itself to find the full responsibility of this + evil. + + The whole condition of industrial labor has changed in our + century. Contrast the state of such labor a century ago with + what it is now. Then the handicraftsman worked in his own + home, surrounded by his family, upon a task all the + processes of which he had mastered, giving him thus a sense + of interest and pride in the work being well and thoroughly + done. Now he leaves his home early and returns to it late, + working during the day in a huge factory with several + hundred other men. The subdivision of labor gives him now + only a bit of the whole process to do, where the work is + still done by hand, whether it be the making of a shoe or a + piano. He cannot be master of a craft, but only master of a + fragment of the craft. He cannot have the pleasure or pride + of the old-time workman, for he _makes_ nothing. He sees no + complete product of his skill growing into finished shape + in his hands. What zest can there be in this bit of manhood? + Steam machinery is slowly taking out of his hands even this + fragment of intelligent work, and he is set at feeding and + watching the great machine which has been endowed with the + brains that once were in the human toiler. Man is reduced to + being the tender upon a steel automaton which thinks and + plans and combines with marvelous power, leaving him only + the task of supplying it with the raw material, and of + oiling and cleansing it. + + Some few machines require a skill and judgment to guide + them proportioned to their own astonishing capacities, and + for the elect workmen who manage and guide them there is a + new sense of the pleasure of power. + + But, for the most part, mechanism takes the life out of + labor as the handicraft becomes the manufacture--or, more + properly, the _machino_-facture; and the problem of to-day + is, how to keep up the interest of labor in its daily task, + from which the zest has been stolen. + + Manufacturers ought to see this problem and hasten to solve + it. Those who profit most by the present factory system + ought, in all justice, to be held responsible to those who + suffer most from it. They ought to be held morally bound to + make up to them in some way the interest in life that has + gone out with the old handicrafts. They could interest their + hands _out_ of the working hours, and in ways that would + give them a new interest _in_ their working hours. * * * + + Not a few of our manufacturers are already opening their + eyes to the facts of the industrial problem, and, with + far-seeing generosity and human brotherliness that will, + according to the eternal laws, return even the good things + of this world unto them, they are providing their workingmen + with libraries, reading-rooms, and halls for lectures and + entertainments. They are encouraging and stimulating the + formation of literary and debating societies, bands, and + clubs, and such other things as give social fellowship and + mental interest. All this can be done at comparatively small + cost. The men in the employ of a great establishment can be + taught a new interest in their task as they learn to + understand its processes and the relation of these processes + to society at large, which can easily be done by lectures, + etc. Such work as this is a work that demands the + leadership, the organizing power, which the employer can + best furnish. At the last session of the Social Science + Association an interesting paper sketched some of these + efforts. In what wiser way could our wealthy manufacturers + use a portion of the money won for them by the labor which + has exhausted its own interest in its task? + + Such personal interest on the part of employers in their + employees leads up to a clue to that other branch of the + uninterestedness of labor--its lack of identification with + the welfare of capital--its lack of any feeling of loyalty + toward the capitalist. How can anything else be fairly + expected in our present state of things from the _average_ + workingman under the _average_ employer? I emphasize the + "average" because there are employees of exceptional + intelligence and honor, as there are employers of + exceptional conscientiousness, anxious to do fairly by their + men. The received political economy has taught the average + workingman that the relations of capital and labor are those + of hostile interests; that profits and wages are in an + inverse ratio; that the symbol of the factory is a see-saw, + on which capital goes up as labor goes down. As things are, + there is unfortunately too much ground for this notion, as + the workman sees. + + Mr. Carroll D. Wright, in the fourteenth annual report of + the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor (1883), shows that in 1875 + the percentage of wages paid to the value of production, in + over 2,000 establishments, was 24.68; and that in 1880 it + was 20.23. This means that the workingmen's share of the + returns of their own labor, so far from increasing, has + decreased one sixth in five years. + + The workingman is disposed to believe in the light of such + figures that the large wealth accumulated by his employer + represents over and above a fair profit the increased wages + out of which he naturally regards himself as being mulcted. + He may be thick-headed, but he can see that in such a + see-saw of profits _versus_ wages the superior power of + capital has the odds all in its favor. He learns to regard + the whole state of the industrial world as one in which + _might_ makes _right_, and feebleness is the synonym of + fault. + + How, in the name of all that is reasonable, can the average + man take much interest in his employer or identity himself + with that employer under such a state of things as the + economy sanctioned by the employer has taught him? This is + aggravated by the whole character of our modern industrial + system. + + The factory system is a new feudalism, in which a master + rarely deals directly with his hands. Superintendents, + managers, and "bosses" stand between him and them. He does + not know them; they do not know him. The old common feeling + is disappearing. And--this is a significant point that it + behooves workingmen to notice--the intermediaries are + generally workingmen who have risen out of the ranks of + manual labor and have lost all fellow-feeling with their old + comrades, without gaining the larger sympathy with humanity + which often comes from better culture. The hardest men upon + workingmen are ex-workingmen. It is stated, on what seems to + be good authority, that the general superintendent of the + great corporation which lately has shown so hard a feeling + towards its operatives when on a strike was himself only ten + years ago a telegraph-operator. + + A further aggravating feature of this problem is the + increasing tendency of capital to associated action. What + little knowledge of his employees or sympathy with them the + individual manufacturer might have is wholly lost in the + case of the corporation. To the stockholders of a great + joint-stock company, many of whom are never on the spot, the + hundreds of laborers employed by the company are simply + "hands"--as to whose possession of hearts or minds or souls + the by-laws rarely take cognizance. Here there is plainly a + case where capital--the party of brains and wealth--the head + of the industrial association, should lead off in a + systematic effort and renew, as far as may be, the old human + tie, for which no substitute has ever been devised. + + To conciliate the interests of the classes, and identify + labor with capital, individual employers must re-establish + personal relationships between themselves and their men. + What might be done in this way, and how, this being done, + the present alienation of feeling on the part of our + working-men would largely disappear, must be evident to any + one who has watched some of the beautiful exemplifications + of this relationship which have already grown into being on + our shores. I know of one large manufacturer, in a city not + a hundred miles from this, who started to enter the ministry + as a young man, but found to his intense disappointment that + he had no aptitude for the work of a preacher, and turned + his attention, on the insistent advice of those nearest to + him, to active business. He took up the business which his + father had left him at his death and had left largely + involved. His first task was to pay off, dollar for dollar, + all the debts which his father had bequeathed him, although + in most instances they had been compromised by his + creditors. He then threw the energy of his being into + development of the business, and, in the course of a few + years, put it at the forefront of that line in his native + city. Into his business he breathed the spirit of love to + God and man which had moved him originally to take up the + work of the ministry. He felt himself ordained to be what + Carlyle would have called a "captain of industry." From the + start he established personal, human, living relationships + with his men. He taught them by deed rather than by word to + consider him their friend. He was in the habit of calling in + upon their families in a social and respecting way. In all + their troubles and adversities he trained them to counsel + with him, and gave them the advantage of his riper judgment + and larger vision. In cases of exigency his means were at + their service in the way of loans to tide them over the hard + times. His friends have seen, more than once, coming from + his private office some of the hard-fisted men of toil in + his employ, with tears streaming down their faces. He had + called them into the office on hearing of certain bad habits + into which they had fallen, and so impressive had been his + talk with them, that they left his presence with the most + earnest resolves to do better in the future. The result of + all this relationship has been that during some fifteen + years of the management of this large business he has rarely + changed his men, and while strikes have abounded around him + he has never known a strike. + + I hold in my possession a letter from one of our leading + iron-manufacturers in this country, who, in response to an + appeal for participation in a charity of this city, gave + answer that it had been a practice of the firm to invest a + certain portion of their profits in developing the comforts + of their workingmen, and that they were obliged to limit + their desire to give in charity in order that they might be + able to build homes, club-rooms, reading-rooms, and all the + _et ceteras_ of a really civilized community in their + work-village. These are examples, in our own country, of + what might be done. + + One of the most beautiful models that I know of in modern + history is furnished by the town to which reference has + already been made--the town of Mulhouse, where, after some + thirty years, the spirit of brotherliness has so entered + into the relationships of capital and labor that a firm + would be disreputable which there attempted to carry on + business as business is ordinarily done here. All the + manufacturers plan out, organize, and carry on what to most + of us would seem impossible schemes for the amelioration and + uplifting of the condition of their working people. No one + wonders that, as he walks through the town which his large + hearted philanthropy imbued with this fine spirit, the + workingmen salute the originator of these schemes as "Father + Peter." + + In addition to this personal, human relationship, capital + might and should, in all justice and humanity, identify the + pecuniary interests of labor with its own interests. What is + known as industrial partnership is simply a solution of this + branch of the problem. The principle is simply that of + giving labor a pecuniary interest in the profits of the + establishment _pro rata_ with his own wages. A _bonus_ is + set on frugality and industry and conscientiousness of work + by making the hands small partners in the concern. * * * + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Black and White, by Timothy Thomas Fortune + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK AND WHITE *** + +***** This file should be named 16810.txt or 16810.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/1/16810/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer, and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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