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23 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Many friends have invited me to deliver addresses at various points upon the Labour Question . Being unable to attend all the appointments, I have concluded to reach them through the following pages. The Labour Question is one of vast importance to all good citizens, and continues to increase in magnitude with the growth of population. I claim no superior foresight or wisdom, and ask only a careful reading and that appreciation which the following remarks merit. W. H. COUNCILL. Huntsville, Ala.
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I. THE LABORER.
I. THE LABORER.
1. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.— Gen. iii -19. 2. Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it.— Gen i -28. 3. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.— Gen. xi -7. Nothing in the Holy Scriptures is more prominently set forth and persistently impressed than the duty of man to labor. In the quotations above made, it is clearly seen, 1. That labor is ordained by God, and therefore dignified. Th
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II. What is Labor.
II. What is Labor.
Let us define Labor, that we may have a clear conception of the import of the word, which is so often used and so little understood. It means 1. Muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, mining, &c., &c. 2. Intellectual exertion, mental effort, aimed to develop and elevate the human race in mind, morals and religion. You will observe that there are two general classes of laborers, viz: Manual laborers, or those who eat bread in the sweat of their
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III. The Proportion of the Two Classes.
III. The Proportion of the Two Classes.
The United States census of 1880 gives 265 occupations, engaged in by 17,392,099 persons 10 years of age and upward. Of the 265 occupations there are only six which I consider purely professional, to-wit: This is about 2½ per cent. of the persons employed in the various occupations; or to put it more plainly, about 5 in every 200. The per cent. of persons of the colored race who are engaged in the professions is five times smaller. It is about ½ of one per cent. or one person in every 200. It wi
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IV. The Morals of Labor.
IV. The Morals of Labor.
You often hear lawyers and doctors speak about the ethics of their professions. This means nothing more than those rules which should govern the lawyers and doctors in their relation to each other and to their clients and patients. Now, every occupation has its ethics. The workmen are bound by moral obligations to have regard for the interests of one another; i. e. they are morally bound to give one another equal chance in the great race for bread. Then they must observe all the rules for the go
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V. Labor, Capital and Wealth.
V. Labor, Capital and Wealth.
1. Labor has been defined. 2. Capital is that which is employed to produce wealth. 3. Wealth is accumulated capital at rest. Society can no more be in a healthful state without the harmonious working of these three elements, governed by ethics, than the human body could without the united action of heart, arteries and veins influenced by the lungs. Let me go a step further and say that labor is capital, or labor and capital are one. Labor is power. That power produces wealth. That wealth in acti
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VI. Agrarianism.
VI. Agrarianism.
This form of ownership originated in bloody Rome. It was tried among the early christians. Wherever it has been introduced failure and crime followed. The population of the United States and Territories is 50,155,783; the value of real estate and personal property is $16,902,993,443. Divide this according to agrarianism and each person would get $337, which by trade and speculation would soon again be in the hands of a few. And thus with each day we should have to re-collect and re-distribute. O
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VII. Strikes
VII. Strikes
are not the means by which these wrongs may be set right. The appeal to strikes is an appeal from reason to error, from justice to injustice, from order to disorder, from law to riot, from morality to immorality, from virtue to sin, from innocence to murder. The strike is a foe to the infant at the mother's breast; it is an enemy to the happiness of home; it is the howling wolf at the door of the humble cottage; it is hostile to personal liberty; it is an enemy to religion, it is the embodiment
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VIII. Labor Organizations.
VIII. Labor Organizations.
I do not deny labor the right of organization for the advancement of its interests. This is legitimate and highly proper so long as the general interests of society are protected. There is, perhaps, no country upon the globe which extends greater liberties and protection to labor than the United States of America. In Alabama and many other states of the union, the mechanic's lien enables him to compel the employer to fulfill his obligations, but the employer has no remedy against the mechanic ex
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IX. The Negro and the Labor Question.
IX. The Negro and the Labor Question.
Competency is a prerequisite to all occupations. I have alluded to this above, but I desire to treat it more at length here, and especially in its relation to the Negro of the South. In consequence of former conditions, incompetency has been the normal standard of both employer and employe. The conditions being changed, and new relations existing between these two classes in the South, the standard must be changed—must be raised. I shall put aside sentimentalism, and view the subject in its true
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X. The Laborer's Education and Home.
X. The Laborer's Education and Home.
1. Education. —An old Spartan King was asked by an anxious father what he should teach his son. The king replied: "Teach him those things which he will practice when he becomes a man." This is the correct principle of education. A father should study the abilities and capacities of his children, and encourage them to follow the inclinations of their talents. A boy who has a mind for mechanics, or mathematics, or agriculture, cannot be made a doctor. Money spent on his medical education is money
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XI. Buy a Home.
XI. Buy a Home.
There are in the United States 9,945,916 families, of 5.04 persons to the family. There are only 8,955,812 dwellings, with 5.06 persons to the dwelling. It will be seen that there are 990,104 families, or five million people, without dwellings, either owned or rented—no where to rest their heads. Is this the result of over population? It is not. It will be centuries before our country will reach that stage. It is the result of shiftlessness and the inertia of population. If lands are high in the
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XII. The Newspapers and the Negro.
XII. The Newspapers and the Negro.
There is general complaint among the colored people that we do not get newspaper notices only of our misdeeds. This is not true. The best papers, North and South, publish whatever information they can get worthy of commendation. We are too sensitive on this point. My experience and observation are that the press is well disposed toward the Negro. It is true there are many papers of small reputation full of prejudice, or surrounded by a narrow-minded constituency, that do not wish the Negro well,
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XIII. A Plain Question for Southern Consideration.
XIII. A Plain Question for Southern Consideration.
One of the great questions which must command the consideration of southern people, in the immediate future, is better care of the servants, and more attention to their moral and industrial training. I am dealing with the servant class of our people, which at present is more than ninety-nine per cent. of the race. The employer can not help having a deep interest in this class, if he would protect his own family. Ninety-five per cent. of the nurses and chamber-maids of the South are colored. Thes
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XIV. "Social Equality."
XIV. "Social Equality."
"Social equality" is a political scare crow, as there is no such thing, in fact . It is to the illiterate class of whites what putting the Negroes back into slavery was to the ignorant class of colored people. Those who talk most about it know the least about it. The cultivated southerner is not disturbed about social equality. There has never been, and there will never be, among the same race, nor between different races, any such thing as social equality. Freedom does not mean "social equality
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XV. The Employer.
XV. The Employer.
I have confined my remarks so far to the duties of the employe. The responsibilities of the employer are even greater and more numerous. I can not speak of them at length now. The employer must have care of the health of the employe, as well as provide for him the necessaries of life while he is performing his work. The employer should ever be mindful of the general welfare of his employe. He is more than a mere medium of exchange of labor for dollars. On account of his superior knowledge, there
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XVI. Be a Good Citizen.
XVI. Be a Good Citizen.
What is the object of life? It is to make society better, and thereby honor and glorify the great Maker. How can you benefit society? By making of yourself a man , as God intends you to be —a good citizen, as the laws require you to be. It is not necessary, in order to be a good citizen, that genealogy shall play a part. It is of little consequence whether the Negro came from Adam, or whether he was evolved by the Darwinian theory. It does not matter whether his ancestors were the pyramid builde
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XVII. Well Done.
XVII. Well Done.
What has been done by the Negro since his emancipation to make himself an industrious, christian citizen? How well is he meeting the expectations of his friends? How successfully has he defeated the prophecies of his enemies? How is he working out his destiny? Go to the farms and the work-shops—go examine the tax-books of the country—go see the million colored boys and girls attending the industrial and other schools of the South—go count the hundreds of magnificent temples, all over the land, e
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XVIII. Conclusion.
XVIII. Conclusion.
When a young man, just arrived at majority, leaps beyond parental control, into the wide world of personal responsibility, it is true that his immunities are greater, but his cares have increased also. So the Negro, being clad in the habiliments of freedom, steps out of the tomb of thralldom into liberty and citizenship. But his responsibilities are in proportion to his new liberties. He has graver cares and more arduous duties than when he rose and retired at the sounding of the overseer's horn
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Negro Vital Statistics.
Negro Vital Statistics.
It is a fact that the death rate among the colored people of the United States is greater since than before the war, and that it is far in excess of the white race, often doubling it. Consumption and pneumonia are the diseases which are mowing down the ranks of our colored population. "In Charleston, S. C., the number of deaths from consumption for 1882-5 were 830 colored to 234 white; Memphis, Tenn., 471 colored to 323 white; Savannah, Ga., 391 colored to 212 white; Nashville, Tenn., 330 colore
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Comment on Negro Vital Statistics.
Comment on Negro Vital Statistics.
The foregoing facts are very startling and should arouse every intelligent Negro and every friend to the race, to devise a way by which this awful wave of death shall be checked. The history of all civilizations presents seeming unaccountable vital statistics. All races passing into civilization have increase in both birth and death rates. But the case of the Negro in the United States is one deserving profound study. It presents many seeming contrarieties, hardly met elsewhere. The question nat
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General Vital Statistics.
General Vital Statistics.
From 53 to 85 per cent. of the population marry under the age of 30 years. The per cent. is lowest among rich, and highest among poor families. Men marry at a later period than women. The average age for men is 27 9-10, for women 25 7-10 years. There is no reason why children should die, except it be found in the violation of the laws of nature, by foreparents. Carpenters and country laborers live longer than any other laborers. The average life, after the commencement of intemperate habits, is
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Sanitary and Medical.
Sanitary and Medical.
All dwellings should be well lighted and ventilated. Never stop up your grate or fire place in summer. In and around all dwellings should be kept clean, and lime should be freely used. Do not crowd people in a room, for lung troubles will surely follow. Each person requires a certain quantity of fresh air per minute, and too many persons in the same room will cut off this necessary supply. Take all of the out door exercise you can get, and stay as much amid the wholesome air of the country as yo
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