THE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORUt, OPTNIOfS OV THB LEADING JOURNALS
vroa ccbekni topics oompilkd Evkui
DAT FOB THJt EVENINQ TKLEOBAPH.
The Labor Ctlili,
from the Nation,
What with strikes, trades unions, and the
eight-hour agitations, the labor market is un
settled to a degree never before known; and
not in this country only, but in France and
England. The English artisans have not only
brought their own organisations to great per
fection, but they have succeeded in effecting
a union with those of France and Belgium,
so as to prevent the masters resorting, as
they frequently have done, to either of those
countries for labor during strikes at home.
The bronze-workers and tailors, who are now
on a strike in l'aris, are actually assisted in
holding out by contributions from the English
trades unions; and the control of these trado3
unions over their own members offers one of the
best illustrations yet witnessed of the force of
democratic government, of the completeness
of the obedience which men will render to
authority of their own creation, even when it
has no physical force at its back. It is quite
true that these organizations do exact, on all
questions affecting the relations between em
ployer and employed, a complete sacrifloe of
individual tastes, opinions, and interests, and
do iuiliot on anybody who disobeys their
orders that most terrible of punishments, the
reprobation of his own class; and this appa
rent tyranny has called down on them the un
sparing denunciation both of English and
French economists. But then it must be re
membered that nothing ehort of this kind
of discipline will effect the object in view.
Nothing but perfect union amongst the work
men can give them their way as against the
capitalists, and no penalties less severe than
those now enforced would ensure this union.
To abuse the trades' unions, therefore, for
tyranny, is to abuse them for existing at all,
and this, of course, leaves the main question
untouched.
The extension of the English organization to
the Continent is perhaps the most striking
result of the wonderful power of combination
developed of late years amongst the working
classes. It is partly the result of a congress
held a year ago at Geneva, which was mainly
managed by Englishmen, but which contained
delegates from most of the Continental coun
tries. The congress, however, was but a
meeting ot an association founded three or
four years before, and called the "Interna
tional Association of Workingmen," which
now numbers over 150,000 members in Eng
land, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and
Italy. Capital, wages, hours of labor, the
condition of women, and various other
subjects interesting to workingmen, were
freely discussed at it ; an enormous
amount of nonsense being talked, a3
might have been expected, the French and
Italian workmen contributing the greater por
tion of it. But although they came to some
very well-defined conclusions on a variety of
topics, the only practical result of the meeting
was the establishment of unity of action as
well as of sentiment between the English and
Continental workingmen, so that the Eng
lish can strike now with a tolerable eertainfy
that they will not be broken down by importa
tions from France and Belgium.
The great strikes in England hitherto have
been amongst the ironworkers, carpenters, and
masons. Within the last mouth, the engine
drivers have struck on some of the principal
lines of railroad, causing such inconvenience
to the public in the neighborhood of London as
almost to throw the whole machinery of busi
ness out of gear. They struck for higher
wages, for equal wages for all capacities, and
for promotion by seniority and not by merit.
The rise of wages they carried, and compro
mised on the other points a man passed over
by the traflio manager having the right of ap
peal to the board of directors in case he thinks
he has been unjustly treated. But they re
vealed in the course of the strike an
amount of ability, good sense, modera
tion in statement, and power of combina
tion which has astonished all England and
alarmed a considerable portion of it. They
published a paper, too, called The Train,
which presented their case with remarkable
cogency, and yet with great self-restraint.
The result was that they were met and
reasoned with, both by the daily and weekly
press, with an amount of respect and conside
ration such as, we believe, no body of strikers
has ever before received. In fact, the art of
combination is being brought to such perfec
tion in all the trades, that there will very soon
,u i-.ijgiauci wnicii will not
be able to make its terms with employers as
one man, while backed up by the resources of
hundreds of thousands.
In America the trades unions are almost as
powerful, and strikes are as general if not as
effective, as in England. But the American
workmen wield one weapon which is not within
the reach of their European brethren, and that
is political power, and this they are now using
very ireely to secure what no strike would
ever induce capitalists to agree to, and that i
the withdrawal from employers and employed
of the power of iixing their relations by con
tract. 1 he eight-hour movement, when it was
nrst started two or three years ago, was
laughed at by most men of intelligence out
side the class who have appropriated to
their exclusive use the title of "working
men." For a little while it was little mora
than mentioned n the press, aud was pooh
poohed by employers as something utterly
wild and chimerical, which was hardly worth
serious opposition. But it has, nevertheless
grown steadily, and is iu most States either
producing legislation or in a fair way to pro
duce it. By holding aloof from the two great
political parties, and using their votes solely
with reference to the eight-hour scheme the
"working-men" have brought the political
leaders to their feet, and now no convention
ever draws up a platform without inserting in
it a small parcel oi twaddle on the "riehts of
lauor, auvucauug legislative mieriorence with
contracts. In every canvass, too. desDrat
efforts are made to fasten on each candidate
the charge of hostility to this delusion, and
the candidate makes herculean efforts to repu-
1 A.. - - 1 .-A i l 1A i ! i . ....
uiaie viimi is iu reainy a iriuuie to Ms intelli
gence. The thing has, as might be expected,
a wouueriui Hibernation ior some philanthro
pists and reformers who conlound sympathy
wiiu me wuritnig-ciasses with participa
tion in their errors and fallacies, and people
who insist that the working-man will be
injured by the forcible curtailment of his
hours ot labor are denounced either as sel-
llsn " aristocrats or coiu-hearted mon
sters. At first we were informed that the
object of the eight-hour restriction was to give
the work'ncr-nian more time for "self-culture."
and that if this involved diminution of wages,
why, he was ready to submit to it as the less
of two evilri. But we now hear from the West
that this stage of the agitation has been
passed, and that in Chicago, for instance, it is
THK DATLT
demanded that the fame wages shall be paid
for eight hours' work as for ten, or. in other
words, that while production is dinilnishod by
one-fifth, the laborer's shard in the product
shall be raised by one-fifth. What is more
extraordinary is that there is a whole army
of orators and writers all over the country
who persist in believing or affecting to believe
that if every laborer in the country works less
than lie ever did before, he can still have Just
as many comforts as he now enjoys. In
reality, we might as well attempt by legisla
tion to prevent people from being hurt when
they fall, as to make the amount of comfort
they enjoy independent of the amount of work
they do; but, from present appearances, thero
is no way of convincing working-men of this
short of actual experiment.
We confess that, in spito of the demonstra
tions of the folly of strikes which political
economists offer every day, and the homilies
which the press so frequently delivers upon
them, we believe they form as good a means
as can at present be devised of fixing the rate
of wages and the nature of all other relations
between employers and employed. Inmost
of the dissertations we listen to on the "iden
tity of interest" which exists between labor
and capital, it is assumod not only that the
laborer's share of the product of labor will
reach him through the natural working of
economical laws, but that it will reach him at
once. The fact is it does not. All the
economical laws work surely, no doubt, but
they work slowly, which is tantamount to
saying that for awhile they do not
work at all. When labor is scarce
and capital plenty and profits high,
laborers ought immediately to receive higher
wages, but they do not. Employers do not go
to them and say, "We can afford to pay you
so much, here it is." They go into the mar
ket and give as little as they can. The work
men are poor, often ignorant, know but little
of the state of the markets, and live from hand
to mouth. They have not any of the means
which the employer has of ascertaining what
profits are likely to be or what labor is worth,
lie gives them no access to his books, and
they have no time to watch and listen and
figure and calculate as he does. All they know
of what profits are, or wages ought to be, is
what he pleases to tell them. If they were to
go to him singly and tell him they thought
the Btate of the market entitled them to an
advance, he could dismiss them, and dismis
sal to a man acting alone might mean
ruin or great inconvenience. So that the
only way they have of ascertaining what their
wages ought to be is by "striking;" that is,
abstaining from work in concert by the pres
sure of opinion on their fellows. If their wages
areas high as is fair, employers will not eiva
in; if they are not as high as profits will war-
rani, employers win give In, and the laborer
gets his due. Such a mode of settling a dis
pute about an economical fact for such it
really is is no doubt rough, and even bar
barous, but it is the only one we have at pre
sent. The interests of labor and capital are,
no doubt, identical; but neither employer or
employed believes them to be so, and act
as though they were sure they were not.
Each mistrusts the other, not altogether,
through ignorance of political economy, but
because both are human.
We, therefore, confess that we think strikes
and trades unions are the best, and until the
co-operative system is generally adopted, and
workmen are treated as partners, their wages
made dependent on profits and not on the
extent to which the employers can conceal the
amount of their profits, and are allowed access
to the books will continue to be the only
mode by which contracts between laborers
and capitalists can be based on justice. The
abuse of them at present is due to the igno
rance and want of culture, moral as well as
mental, of the people who strike. But a
whole trade abstaining from work by concert,
and aiding the members to hold out by savings
previously accumulated for this express pur
pose, is, we think, not only a gratifying spec
tacle, but the only means by which the con
tract between the laborer and capitalist, as
laborers and capitalists now are, can be made
really free, and by which the laborer can be
enabled to treat on equal terms. There is
still in the relations of labor and capital a
large amount of feudalism. The laborer is
still in Europe, and to a certain extent here,
in the position of a feudal servant, aud has
not yet reached the dignity which political
economists assign him (on paper) of a party
to a contract. The growth of manufactures,
too, in all countries, has thus far tended to
perpetuate, in a modified form, it is true, and
on a d:"erent sphere, the relations of lord and
serf. Vhe mode in which all the great manu
factures are carried on in England, France,
Belgium, and here, by a few great capi
talists employing small armies of ope
ratives of all ages and both sexes,
who live by fixed daily wages and are
dependent for their bread on the employers'
pleasure, and on the ups and downs ot the
money market, and who cannot, by any fore
thought or vigilance or influence they can
exert, give any certainty or stability to the
business in which they are engaged, is one
which, we do not hesitate to say, is hostile to
free government, and which will, if nothing
better can be substituted for it, prove disas
trous in the end. No community is in a
sound or healthy condition iu which any
large portion of the community is forced to
commit its fortunes to the caprice or the
ability of a few individuals, and in which the
principal result of great production is the
multiplication at the same time of very large
iortunes and oi day laborers.
Southern Reconstruction the Buttle-
Oiouud of Political Parties Issues lu
the Future.
From the Herald.
A lively contest has already commenced
among political parties and politicians for the
Southern vote and the balance of power whieli
that is expected to give. It will increase in
intensity as the process of reconstruction goes
on, and we may expect to become pretty firm
by the time the Southern States shall be de
clared ready and prepared for readmission to
Congress. This contest, in all its phases, is
exceedingly interesting, particularly to the
statesman who Btudies the present for the pur
pose of divining the future.
Old parties, w hich wore thought to be dead
and buried, and existing parties, which are
decaying and on the eve of expiring, raise
their heads with the hope of a prolonged ex
istence through the new political elements and
ew state of things. At present the negro
teems destined to hold the balance of political
power, or rather the party that may be able
to control the negro vote. The Democrats and
the Republicans, im.i ...,, i, .i
the few remaiuiiiu Knui! , n,.?.ant
u'lili KnmliA . ...
- ri HvvvuuiuuinLn. uin uuu uniiiiii
, nu maKing the greatest etlortt
to get las ballot. Tl.a f ,;Mia nr
d making the greatest efforts
If it 'IU. .
pie who three or four years ago were slaves,
and who hardly know their right hands from
their left, have become all at once a great
Power in this mighty and proud republic.
What a revolution There is nothing like it
in the history of nations. While in Great
Britain the mass of the white raceof that
EVENING TELEGRAPH PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY,
great Anglo-Saxon race which has shown so
much intellect and capacity for self-governmentare
not deemed lit to have the suffrage,
we have given it to the negroes just set free
from slavery. This has not been done out of
love for the negro, nor because he is deemed
intelligent enough to have the suffrage, but
because the politicians want to use him.
The Northurn Democrats hope their ancient
allies ot the South, who constituted the majo
rity in former times, may be able to bring over
the negroes to them. The old Southern Whigs
are eaineetly at work, and are really making
some headway in Borne of the States, to get the
black vote with a view to supremacy in the
South, and probably with a view to support
the moderate Republicans against the radi
cals. The Republicans of both the conserva
tive and radical stamp have earnestly begun a
sort of missionary campaign to convert the
new-bom American citizens of African de
scent to their party and views. This is all for
political power the offices and spoils in the
future.
In this struggle it is not very easy to foreseo
the result; for, as we said, the circumstances
are novel and unprecedented. Still, looking
at all the movements referred to and at the
signs of the times, the radicals appear to have
the best chance of succeeding. Wendell Phil
lips, the great apostle and pioneer of radical
ism, has proclaimed his political gospel, aud,
doubtless, the lesser lights and less advanced
of his party will follow him as they have fol
lowed heretofore. Revolutions, it is said, never
go backward; certainly, they rarely stop until
they culminate in the most extreme measures.
The Military bill of Congress, for the recon
struction of tho South, is declared by Wendell
Phillips as "one step only," and that "the ele
ment that was coming next (that is, iu the
progress of radical measures) would say to
the South that the negro should not only have
the ballot, but forty acres of land under his
feet." He holds, too, that the South is not in
a condition to be reconstructed yet that it
should be held "by the police power of the
nation (the military) for five or seven years,
until the seeds of Republicanism are planted
beyond the possibility of harm." Te this,
he says, "the spirit of the people is already
compelling Congress" to come.
Here we see, then, the programme of this
bold leader &i Republican radicalism the
South to be kept out until the radicals secure
a long lease of power, aud a large portion of
the lands of that section to be given to the
negroes. He does not urge confiscation in
direct terms; but lie must mean that. How
could forty acres of land be given to each
negro without? Will the Republican party,
or the majority of that party iu Congress, fol
low the lead of Wendell Phillips ? That is
the important question. Heretofore they have
followed him, though more or less tardily, and
though he has be-en a little in advance of
them. Will Phillips' radicalism make such
progress by the time say next winter the
Southern States shall be ready under the Re
construction acts of Congress to be restored,
to shut the door against them for five or seven
years ? Will "the spirit of the people,"
under radical instruction and inlluence, com
pel Congress to this course? Mr. Phillips
believes so. We shall see. Next winter we
shall know whether the radicals can triumph
ou the Phillips platform, or the conservative
Republicans have the courage and power to
deleat them.
Such are the issues looming up prominently
just now, to change, modify, or consolidate
parties. Reconstruction is the great question
of the day, and on that the fight will be made.
But there are other great quustions that will
come up shortly to overshadow old ones.
Whether this one of reconstruction be dis
posed of or not by the restoration or pro
longed exclusion of the South, the new issues
cannot be kept long in the background.
First will come questions relating to our
national finances, the currency, banks, the
publio debt, and how to pay it, and a sound,
equal, and economical system of taxation.
Alter that, territorial expansion and political
control of the whole of the North American
continent. The negro will soon have fulfilled
his mission as the all-absorbing element iu
political warfare. Parties will be formed upon
the new issues named. There will be a
demand from the people for a reduction of the
buidcn of taxation and of the expenditures of
the .Government. They have borne heavy
burdens during the war, and under that transi
tion state of circumstances resulting from the
war which we are passing through; bat they
will not consent to bear these in times of
peace. Any party that may attempt to keep
ns in that condition will be ignored. Any
party that takes lor its platform a reduction
of taxation and an economical administration
of the government, will secure the favor of
the people. The New England policy of a
high tariff for the benefit of capital and few
manufacturers, which has governed the coun
try for some time, will certainly be repudiated.
The great and growing agricultural States of
the West and South will never consent to be
the hewers of wood and drawers of water for
these local and selfish interests, aud they will
be powerful enough to dictate a broader and
more liberal policy of their own. The infa
mous system of national banks, which takes
from the producing classes the profits of their
industry, and twenty milliomi a year from the
Treasury, cannot be tolerated long. It is clear
from the proceedings in Congress during last
winter and this spring, aud from the tone of
the press, that public opinion against this sys
tem is growing mightily. Nor will the capital
ists of the Eastern and Atlantio States be able
to resist the views of the West and the people
generally with regard to the currency. The
clamor ior forcing specie payments, whereby
the bondholders and the few rich may increase
their wealth, and all the rest of the community
be plunged into bankruptcy and ruin, will
certainly be resisted. Such are the issues
which will divide and reorganize political par
ties in the future. Sectional and local interests
must yield to those of the people generally;
and upon this question the popular voice will
be irresistible. We agree with Wendell
Phillips that "the millions of voters and the
great journals are more the Government thau
the machine at Washington," and, we will
add, than any party of a sectional or mere
political character. The highly interesting
problem is, then, what party hereafter will
gain and hold the popular vote on the great
and new issues that are looming up. Will it
be the Republican -party, reorganized and
purged of its New England sectionalism and
radicalism, or some new one ? There is a lease
of fifty years' power for any party formed on
the right basis and upon the questions to
which we have referred.
The Republican Party and the Vote of
the southern States.
i'Vom the 2'imet.
The Committee appointed by the Republi
cans of Congress to supersede the regular
National Republican Committee iu the gene
ral supervision and conduct of party affairs, is
entering upon its work with spirit and zeal.
It does not confine itBelf to the distribution of
documents, the usual work of the Congres
sional Committee, but takes the whole politi
cal canvass into its hands. It is organizing
extensive subordinate agencies throughout
the country, providing for publio meetings,
and sending missionaries to propagate the"
faith into the regions where they are needed
most.
We are glad to see that the Southern States
are selected as the special field of their labors.
Ibis indicates in the first place, a belief on
their part that those States will be promptly
readmitted to the Union, and will take part
in the next Presidential election. Fears have
been felt that Congress might repudiate the
implied pledges of the Reconstruction bill, aud
refuse to admit the Southern States, in spite
of their acceptance of its terms. Language
used by prominent members gave color of rea
son to those fears. The action of the Con
gressional Committee tends to disixd them
Unless they expected the Southern States to
participate in the Presidential election, and to
resume their scats in Congress, they would
not thus concentrate their party efforts on
their conversion.
This result alone will be of immense import
ance. Since the war closed indeed, from the
moment it broke out we have regarded the
restoration of the Union as the paramount
the supreme necessity of the country. Our
strength, abroad and at home, our aelf-respect
the preservation of our liberties, the main
tenance of our Constitution, the perpetuation
of those great maxims and doctrines of civil
liberty which give worth and value to our
national existenoe, depend npou the restored
integrity of our National Union. When that
shall have been accomplished we shall resume
the regular, natural course of our national
development and growth.
The extension of Republican principles and
measures of government to the South is a legi
tiwate object of party effort, and essential
to the publio welfare. If Republican princi
ples h;,d taken root in the South when they
did in the North, we should have had no re
bellion. Sectional parties must always be the
curse of the nation. The best of all guaran
tees against a renewal of sectional strife is the
annihilation of sectionalism in party action.
The public safety demands that, while thore
is a powerful Republican party in the North,
there shoiild be one in the South also.
Whether it shall be dominant there or not is
a secondary consideration; but the ideas
feelings, prejudices, organization of any party
which may control one section of tho country
must have root, friends, and strength in the
other also. The party which has possession
of the Government must have allies and adhe
rents in every part of the Union, else dis
union becomes natural and inevitable.
The Congressional Committee is opening a
political campaign for the purpose of making
the Southern States Republican or at least
of organizing and building up the Republican
party in the Southern States. Whether they
succeed or not, and whether their success is
desirable or not, depend on the scope of their
purpose and the means they adopt to carry it
out. It looks a little as if their determina
tion was to convert the contest into a struggle
of races to array the blacks and whites
against each other to convince the blacks
that the whites are their foes, and that they
must not act with them politically. The
character and antecedents of the missionaries
they have selected the tone of the speeches
they have thus far made, and the general
temper in which the subject is disoussed by
their leading organs, suggest suspicions of
this kind.. We can tell better when the can
vass is more advanced. If the Committee
prompt or countenance, through their ageuts,
the preaching of confiscation as a Republican
principle in the Southern States, their final
purpose will be no longer open to doubt. It
will then be clear enough that not only hos
tility, but a war of races, falls within the scope
of their endeavors.
We confess our expectations of Republican
success in this canvass are not high. The
time has gone by when the Republican
party can hope for aid and support in the
South. A wise and generous policy, charac
terized by confidence rather than hatred, and
relying on interest rather than force, adopted
two years ago, would have made one-half the
Southern States as thoroughly and reliably
Republican as New York or Indiana. The
adoption of such a policy is no longer possible,
nor if it were would it have the same effect.
The Republicans now rely for this result on
separating the blacks from the whites and car
rj ing the elections by the negro vote. We do
not see any great chance of their succeed
ing. Missionaries from outside, tracts,
speeches, exhortations, and kindred influ
ences, however zealous and strong, will always
be weak and impotedt as against the
daily contact, the mutual depeudence, and the
constant pressure of business and of social
activity. This always has been the case, and
it always will be. It is so in the North, in
spite of the intelligence and independence
w hich characterize our people. The laborers
in the mines of Pennsylvania vote in the
main with their employers. The mass of the
workers in Lowell and in Lawrence, and
everywhere else, vote with those who give
them work, not from compulsion or from
fear, but from conviction, or at least from
preference. They naturally act with those
on whose capital they live. Their first and
strongest feeling is that their interests are the
same that they must stand or fall, prosper
or pine together. And no amount of politi
cal propagandisin ab extra succeeds in putting
them apart.
There is every reason to supposethat the same
thing will prove true in the Southern States.
The blacks and whites in the main will go
together. There may be temporary and local
separations, but as a general thing, and in the
long run, the whites will plan the campaign,
mark out the programme, nominate the can
didates, and the blacks will help elect them.
And probably one of the most important of
the results achieved by Congress, iu the en
franchisement of the negroes, will be the
increase of political power which it thus con
ferred on the Southern States.
What I Conservatism 1
From the Tribune.
In nothing is the beneficence of the Military
Reconstruction more strikingly evinced thau
in the changed tone of the journals that, in its
day, were the oracles of the Slaveholders' Re
bellion. True, they do not profess a "change
of heart," nor had we a right to expect any.
Their feelings, their impulses, are little bet
tered; but the situation is utterly changed,
aud they fully realize the fact. Read and won
der at such sensible, moderate inculcations as
the following, clipped from a leading editorial
in the Richmond Examiner:
"KAKT1RS IN THE SOUTH.
"The Charleston Mercury, lu a recent issue,
somewhat cluborntely arRued oguliiMt the for
mal ion of parties In the boutheru blates. If by
this Is nieuut to deprecate the revival of old
ijurly names, issues or differences, there cun be
no doubt of the wisdom of the advice, and of
the wickedness ol neglecting" It. Hut If our
contemporary means tooouusel a happy-rurally
banishment of all political organizations what
ever, he will find out, before the mi miner sol
stice, that no protest will avail to that eud.
The white and black people ot every Bouth
ern Hlste will divine themselves, as the whim
people of every North rn Htaie, aud the bluoks
Id the lew Northern States, where tliey have
political rights, Into two partita, ou the Issues
ArEIL 29, 18C7.
most materlnt to'tliem the Hadlcal and Con
servative parties. i
'Tattles are the Inevitable growth of srov
erninents. They elsl in all.-but oousph-n-ouidy
In those, in which a huge IxxJy of the
people participate In the choice of leaders. We
may protest as earnestly as we ploaso against
parties in the Bouth, but parties are not made
or uDniHde by protests; they are made by no
UiIhr; they grow. ..... . ,
"Nor Is there anythlnn in the prospect of
fisnlesln UieHouth which should occasion the
lonest conservative people any alarm. If the
radical party, or the Republican Union party,
or the Jacobins In short, by whatever name
they are called cannot be beaten on their
rtoord lu every Southern Htate, It will arise
simply from one of two onuses the Ignorance
of the blacks, or the Indifference and folly of
the whites. . - .
"It Is undeniably true that conservative
people of Virginia may lose power, now and
iorever,ln Virginia, by resisting the Inevitable,
by sullen inaction, or by a haughty and un
generous Course towards the disfranchised.
6 lit It Is equally true that with an honest oxe
cutlm ol the late acts of Connross. however
cunulntily devised to destroy us, with a frank
aud fair treatment ol the colored people, such
ris a Virginia gontlenaan was proud to accord
them when they were slaves, aud with frleudly
explanations and advice, such as It becomes us
to extend them, any respectable white and
colored man in Virginia can be satisfied that as
an American citizen he should labor for the
dectrucllon of the radical party.
"What we want especially In Virginia Is a
framework on which to begin building a con
servative party. Houth Carolina, Florida,
Loulxiana, aud Tennessee, have alrexdy moved
lti this matter, and with the happiest effect.
The best ol the colored people in those States
will vote with those hy whose side they work,
in whose neighborhood they were born, and
near whom tliey will lie in death. Hut here
nothing has beeu done to counteract the wiles
of those who, for selfllsh ends, are urging the
colored people to a position of hostility to the
whites.'
The above are not our views, certainly;
but, as the Examiner's, do they not evince a
gratifying progress 1 What that journal pro
poses is, that those whom it distinguishes as
the whites of the South, by argument and by
general deportment, convince the blacks that
they ought to vote as those whites do that
is, against the Republicans. Who can object
to this effort ?
Lot us' suppose now the editor of the
Examiner before an assemblage of blacks, en
deavoring to persuade them to vote for his
ticket; and one or another of the negroes shall
see fit to propound to him these questions:
"You say, sir, that we ought to vote to
gether: admit it. Now, then, why assume that
the requisite accord is to be attained only by
our voting with you t Why shouldn't you,
rather, vote with us ?"
"You call yours the conservative ticket, and
urge its support on that ground. Very well;
we are conservatives; we have recently beeH
blessed with freedom and equal rights, and we
are anxious to conserve, to secure, to perpe
tuate them. v ill you show us how and wh
voting as you wish will achieve our end ? If
it will do it
now, would it have done it two
If not, what has produced the
years ago?
change ?"
"You indicate hostility to the radicals a3
the basis of your political action. Tlease state
irankly whether we do not, under (iod, owe
our opportunity to vote at all to radicals ani
radicalism ? But for them, should we ever
have been honored with the address you are
about to make us ? In short, do you not
detest the radicals mainly because they have
made us free and constrained you to seek our
votes?"
Wouldn't the editor be somewhat bothered
to give plain, straightforward answers to these
.questions ?
The Selma Daily Times even iiore ration
ally and practically accepts the situation, as
follows:
"in entering upon theworkof reconstruction,
let us not impede it at the outset by that old
lii.uibon error of learning nothing aud forget
ting nothing. Ho far as Is possible, we mast
discard the bitter feelings and memories or the
pst, and act rationally and philosophically.
True, we are not permitted to devise Mid
scbeiuh of reconstruction; that has been de
vised by Congress, and to us Is left the mere
mechanical work. Our work, when consum
mated, will embody a design conceived aud
mapped by an architect who consulted more
Lis caprices aad prejudices than the harmonies
of the architecture or the convenience of the
builders; but while our work will be unplea
sant and purely mechanical, we should execute
It well and thoroughly. Not only is the design,
but the materials for the structure are fur-nit-bed
us. These materials are not the Parian
marble, nor are they such as we would have
selecteu; but such as they are we have to use
them.
"We are now, as It were, out of doors, without
a roof to shelter us and our families. Let us so
constiuct the building we are to dwell iu as to
renuer it as eomtortable as circumstances will
allow. We are much mistaken If such be not
the course dictated by prudence, common sense,
and patriotism."
All this is wise and commendable; but in
what sense does it tally with conservatism ?
What is it that "the South" labors to con
serve? and what is her present conception of
conservatism ? We know what it was in
1854, in 1800, in 1861, in 1865; but what is it
in 1867 ? and what does it promise to be
in 1868?
The Coming Crops.
From the World.
The attention given this year to cultivating
grain, particularly wheat, is very significant.
It will be seen from the extracts which we
print elsewhere that accounts from all sections
of the country represent that an unusual
quantity of wheat has been sown this spring,
and unless the weather should prove unfavor
able the crop will be exceedingly large. "The
high price of flour has given an impetus to
wheat raising again in New England," says
the Springfield (Mass.) Ilepublican, while, ac
cording to the Milwaukee (Wis.) Sentinel,
"the number of acres sown (with wheat) in
Wisconsin this year will be at least thirty per
cent, greater than last year." Similar reports
reach us from the Southern States, though in
these a very large quantity of com has been
sown as well. As regards these latter States,
it is plain that the people of the South have
determined to provide against the dearth of
food fcfroni which they suffered last winter,
and are still suffering. Last year they devoted
their energies to raising cotton, stimulated
thereto by the then hih price of that staple,
and calculating to purchase their grain from
the Western States. The result we all know.
Should the grain crop of the South this year
equal or even approach the expectations
founded upon the number of acres sown
w ith corn and wheat, there will be no scarcity
of food in that section after harvest time.
The particular inducement to the Northern
and Western farmers to plant wheat is the
high price which it commands, awing to its
scai city, as we showed in a recent article.
While, however, the supply for the coming
season promises to be very large, a new ele
ment in the problem is the prospect of a war
in Europe. Should this occur, there will be a
large foreign demand for American grain,
which will have a material influence in keep
ing up prices. It is probable that there will
not be such a scarcity of wheat during the
coming crop year as there has been during
the present one, provided, of course, that the
weather does not prove unfavorable; and, iu
reference to this latter point, it may be men
tioned that the recent fall of snow in portions
of Wisconsin has caused considerable appre
hension concerning the wheat crop in that
State, which has given rise to no little specu
lation in this market.
To the community at large the yield of the
next wheat crop is a matter of serious interest.
Among the causes for the demand throughout
the country for higher wages is the high price
of flour. This cause removed, there will lie
one less obstacle in the way of returning U
lower prices in other things. Thore U, there
fore, every reason for hoping that the unusu
ally large quantity of wheat planted this
spring will yield a crop adequate to the wants
of the country.
A Few SlgutAcaat Figures,
From the World.
Mr. Gladstone's recent eneomium upon
"the courage and forethought of the Ameri
can people," in bearing a burden of taxation
which, "both in amount and kind, makes
their conduct a marvel," is undeubtedly just,
so far as 'bearing the burden" is . con
cerned; but when the ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer dilates upon the rapid reduotion
of our national debt, his remrrks are not so
well worthy of indorsement. To be sure,
the purpose of his laudation was to improve
nia political prospects rather than to say a
kind word for the United States; but his
words have received an interpretation on
this side of the water which is not war
ranted by the facts in the case. The debt
0 Le, V,lited Slalea August 31, 1805,
r.?V? ?30UW and on April 1, 1837,
AO0J,()()O,OHO, showing an apparent reduc
tion of 1183,000,000 in nineteen months. Bat
of what did the debt consist at each of these
dates ? In round numbers, on the 31st of
August, 1867, the debt in coin was
11,0(10,000,000, and that in currency was
i,S40,0UU,000; while on the 1st of April, 1867
the coin debt was $1,500,000,000, and the
currency debt $1,163,000,000. The main por
tion of the national debt was contracted when
our currency was worth less thau 74 cents on
the dollar (the equivalent of gold at 135 ); but
assuming this valuation as a basis of calcula
tion, a comparison of the amount in coin of
the debt at the two periods mentioned results
as follows:
August Si. 1813.
Debt Id coin... tl.uou.ooc.OOO,
April 1, 1M7.
Debt in coin... H.SuO.OOO.OOfl
Debt lu cur
raney at74a, 1
an above..... 860,000,000
jjviji iu cur
rency at 74c,
as above l.SW.Oiu.ooo1
Total..... fcUw.ooo.OiXi
Total , (2.360,1100,000
This shows a reduction of but $6,000,000 in
nineteen months, and those months very
favorable for the collection of a large amount
of revenue. The inference is obvious. The
national debt is not going to melt away like
mist before the rising sun. Its pressure has
not begun to be felt as it will be, and as the
signs of the times indicate that it is to be ere
long. And so long as Congress appropriates
millions to the Freedmen'a Bureau, and in
creases the salaries of its members by 60i per
cent., and expends money with a lavishnesa
that would be reprehensible even if the na
tional treasury were full to overflowing. thr
is no likelihood that the national debt will be
so much reduced as that taxation will be ma
terially lessened, Mr. Gladstone to the con-'
trarynotwithstanding.
SPECIAL NOTICES.
K" NOTICK.-TI1E STOCKHOLDERS OP
the IVfeHYLVANIA KAlLdtOAL) COM
"APY (pursuant to udjouruuieat had al their annual
meeting; will meet ui Concert Hall, No. 121V CH1&S
JXUTblreet, In the City ot jPlilladBlphia. ou TUiiM
1A , tue SUth day of April, A. D. 167, at 10 o'clock
A. M.. and notice iu hereby given that at mild meeting
the Act of Assembly, approved March 22d, lt7, en
tilled "Ao Act to repeal an act entitled 'A further
supplement to the acl incorporating tbe Pennsylvania
Km I road Company, authorizing au inoreaae of capital
stock and to borrow money." approved the twenty
lirst day of March. A. 1. one thousand night hundred
aiid Blxtyitx: and ulo to authorize the Pennylvania
liullroad Company by this act to Increase its capital
Block, to Issue boncla and secure tue same by mort
gage:" approved the twenty-second day of March,
A. I). I(i7; a proposed increase thereunder ot the
capital slock or this Company by 8uo,UK) shares, and
tne Issue of the buiiic trom time to time by the Board
ot Directors, aud the proposed exercise by the said
Hoard of Directors of ih9 powers granted by the said
act of issuing bonds aud securing the same by mort
gages for the purposes in the suld act mentioned aud
wlihin the limits therein prescribed, will be submitted
to the Stockholders lor their uclion lu the premises.
Hy order 01 the .board id Dlreclois.
46tf
JOiMUND SMITH,
Secretary.
ff MERCANTILE LIBRARY COMPANY.
, , tuiLAiijcLeuiA. April 16. 1S87.
A t-peclal Meetlnu ot the (Stockholders will be held
at the Library ou TUESDAY, the aoth lnsu, at 8
o'clock 1J. M in order that tbe Board of Maua.-ers
may submit a report of their action lu the purchase ot
a uew bulldlug, aud lor other purposes.
415Ht
rterording Secretary protein.
JUMiN U. UKANUEB.
I- LIBERTY HALL, L3MBARD STREET,
"ff helow Klghlh. The DELMONIOO COHJiKT
BAND will give a Urnnd Complimentary Farewell
Concert to Mr. A. B11KU1B, on MONDAY 12VKN1NU.
April 2Uth, JSb7. Several fuvorlte vocallBts have kindly
consented to sing for the occasion. Also, Mr. X. J.
IJUNViatS, known us "Mario," ano Mr. IRA D.
CL.!', have kindly voiur.leered their services. 2721
fcT OFFICE OF THE PHILADELPHIA
AND illANKFOltD PASSKNUKH KAlft
WAY COMPANY, No. 2a FRANK OKil ROAD.
.., PiMLADELeiUA, April U, 18(17.
All persons who are subscribers to or holders of the
capital stocn of this Company, and who have not yet
paid the sixth Instalment or Five Dollars per share
thereon, are hereby notified that iiiu -ui.i ui.ii, in
stalment has beeu called, In, aud that they are re
quired to pay the same at the above ollice ou the loth
oay ol May next, 1 mi 7.
Jiy resolution of the Board of Directors.
M m Jacob binder, President.
K&f OFFICE OF THE LEHIGH COAL
AND NAVIUA'JTON COMrANY.
m, , . . . , P-iiLAUKi.eniA, April 20, 1867.
The stated Annual Meeting ol the .stockholders of
this ( ompany will be held at the HOARD OF TRADK
lcOOftls, north side of CHKHN'UT blreet. abova
FIFTH, ou TUKaDA Y MoRNINO, the 7tU day of
May next, at hall-past 10 o'clock, after which au Klec
tiou will be held al the suuie place tor Ollicers of the
Company for the ensuing year. The Election to close
at l P, M. ot the same duv.
2 JAMES 8. COX. President.
Kgf- NATIONAL BANK OFT1IEREPTJBLIC.
. , d'"ii.AiKi,PHrA. March lit, 1HH7.
In accordance with the provisions of the National
(urreuey act.and the Articles of Association of this
Bunk, it has beeu determined to Increase the Capital
block of this Bank to one million dollars (l,0ou,U(O),
butmcriptlons from htuck holders for Uiesliarcw allotted
to them in the proposed Increase will be payable oa -the
second day ol May next, and will be received at
any time prior to thai date. A number of shares will
reuiaiu to be Bold, applications for which will be re
ceived irom persons desirous of becoming -Stockholders.
"
By order of the Board of Directors.
gl8?w JOSEPH P. M UMFORD. Cashier.
135?- WE8T JERSEY RAILROAD COM-'
-I AI1 X .
TRP.ASI'BKB'S Officb,
,. . Camukn, N. J. April a), 181.7. 1
..ouui.ru in jnreciora nave thl day declared a
semi-annual Dividend of FOUR PKR CKN r. on the
capital stock of the Company, clear of national lax,
payiible at the Ollice of ihe Company, In Camden, ou
V,,u."Jr the fourteenth iav of May prox.
4.7 Lit OEouuK J. RciUill.N.s, Treasurer.
fqgp BATCHELOR'3 HAIR DYE. THIS
J-" splendid Hair Dye is the best lu the world.
J he only true ana , fec,t 7j-Harmies8, Reliable, lu
sianiaiieous. No diappoiuiment. No ridlcuous tiula.
Natural Black ir it-....,.. ,n... ., m ,.n. ......
W It I I , V ' 1 1 . AVIIIOUIW HO 111 Ul
FY"'" J"vigoraies the hair, leavim; tt soft and
lil-Tiitr..8 ,'"""'e Is signed WILLIAM A.
Zi , ,1 Ti . i u others are mere Imitations, and
should be avoided. Bold by all Drugglals aud Per
luniers. Factory, No. w BARCLAY (Street, New
t)fk- . 4 6fmwt
fggT HOLLO WAY'S PILLS AND OINT
meut Ulcerated Leg, Numerous individuals.
who were lor many years allllcted with old cancerous
Bores or ulcers on the legs, and had tailed to ix'ocure a
remedy either from private practice or publio hospi
tals, have been speedily cured byahhort ooursa of
these Invaluable medicines. In all disw, - this
nature, the united action of the Pills aud Ointment Is
required. (Sold by all Druggist"; 2 fsiuHt
NEW LOJiDON COPPER MINING
The A i l ii 1 1 ,i i Mu..ilnir of tbe Block holders, fbr
OMPANY.
Flection of Directors, ill be held ou TM UKbDAY,
Way 2, at No. VM U. i'KONT htreei. at I P. M.
4 24 71 bXMUN , (secretary.