118 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



have the advantage of those children of toil 

 who live by the cultivation of the earth. But 

 the great cause of the impositions and injus- 

 tice to which they are subjected, is the want of 

 concert among them. Combination is easy and 

 common among other professions, and in other 

 departments of labour ; among farmers it has 

 never taken place for similar purposes. There 

 are Trades Unions, Medical Societies, Unions 

 of Lawyers, Mercantile Associations, — and in- 

 deed all other bodies of men have contrived in 

 some way, by some concert, to protect them- 

 selves and enhance their profits. The farmers 

 alone have remained heretofore disunited, with 

 no common understanding on any subject, and 

 they have consequently been, more or less, the 

 victims of all. Tradesmen have, their "strikes, " 

 meet together, and advance their prices ; phy- 

 sicians gather, and determine on the value of 

 their services, and agree on a scale of charges ; 

 lawyers unite and propose a minimum stand- 

 ard of fees, below which the humblest limb of 

 the law cannot descend on pain of Coventry: 

 but leaving full liberty to mount upward to 

 any maximum that patrons will endure ; the 

 merchants agree on their average of per cents 

 and charges for services rendered ; yet the 

 formers, who are the principal subjects on whom 

 all these unions are to operate, remain without 

 concert, without union, and are often fleeced as 

 sheep by the shearer. 



12. It is a fact worthy of consideration in 

 this connection, and it has been noticed by po- 

 litical economists that the masses of men collect- 

 ed in cities are better paid for their labours 

 and find life easier than those of the country. 

 As a general rule, they are better fed, better 

 clothed, more comfortably housed, and enjoy a 

 higher standard of comfort. This is all the 

 consequence of receiving higher wages. One 

 dollar will command more labour of the same 

 quality in the country than two in the cities. 

 And the larger the city, it is believed, as a 

 general truth, the less labour it will command. 

 This will be found to be true on examination 

 in all the departments of labour. The lawyer, 

 the physician, the clergyman, the merchant, 

 the mechanic, all are better paid. They will 

 all explain it by saying it is a necessity, as 

 their expenses are higher. Admitted ; but 

 why are these expenses greater than those of 

 men in the same position in the country? For 

 an obvious reason — the standard of comfort is 

 higher. They live higher, enjoy greater lux- 

 ury ; and this mode of living being usual, is 

 deemed a necessity. The country lawyer who 

 has an income of $1000 a year from his pro- 

 fession, is doing well ; the city lawyer of the same 

 grade considers himself as doing a poor business 

 unless he makes three or four thousand. The 

 clergyman lives and is contented on five or six 

 hundred a year ; in the city he must have from 

 $1,500 to $3,000. The journeyman mechanic 

 is doing well on from $200 to $300 ; in the city 

 he requires $500 or $600. A commission mer- 



chant who is in a good business, has probably 

 an income of $15,000 or $20,000; a man of 

 the same capacity, whose skill and acquire- 

 ments should entitle him to an equal reward, 

 would have an income from $2,000 to $3,000. 

 The same difference, but not in degree, may be 

 traced through all the ramifications of the pro- 

 fessions, and in the various .species of labour. 

 There is a wider variation in all those classes 

 who live by their wits ; less Avhen you reach 

 the day labourer. The slave is almost an ex- 

 ception, for he is either hired from the coun- 

 try or comes in competition with those who are. 

 But even he receives higher wages. It is a 

 curious 'fact that similar labour, intellectual 

 and physical, should receive such different com- 

 pensation in the one and in the other. There 

 is no doubt that it is to be attributed in a great 

 degree to concert and- combination, &c. Each 

 new influx of labourers, professional and man- 

 ual, enters the precincts of the city, they ad- 

 vance their claims for compensation, and de- 

 mand the same as those around tbem. The 

 dollar declines in value in its relation to la- 

 bour, and the latter of course rises in the same 

 ratio. Each addition gives new strength to the 

 combination — is an accretion of force. Com- 

 petion will not bring down the standard of 

 prices to that of the country, because the stand- 

 ard of comfort is higher. Men will live like 

 their neighbours of the same class, and conse- 

 quently must have the same wages. We have 

 occasionally seen, in times of scarcity, when 

 population was pressing hard on the means of 

 subsistence, violence resorted to by the opera- 

 tives to prevent a reduction. And a moral 

 force is always exerted to counteract the natu- 

 ral tendency of competition to reduce the price 

 of labour, and approximate it more nearly to 

 that of the country. 



I would not wish to excite prejudice against 

 the towns, and I should deprecate it. I have 

 no sympathy with the sentiment of Mr. Jef- 

 ferson, that " they are sores on the body poli- 

 tic." But I would have the denizens of the 

 country imitate the cities in concert, if it be 

 possible, — raise their standard of comfort, and 

 struggle for their due share of the wages of 

 labour. They work hard, are more exposed, 

 are subjected to toil that is much more disa- 

 greeable, have fewer of the pleasures of soci- 

 ety, and receive in return less compensation. 

 I wish prosperity to the cities and to the coun- 

 try, hand in hand, and not one at the expense 

 of the other. 



My friend of the Planter seems to have been 

 in an eccentric mood when he did me 'the 

 honor to review my projet. There is a temp- 

 tation sometimes to sustain, paradoxies in the 

 field that is opened for ingenuity, and the start- 

 ling effect of extraordinary sentiments. I 

 would not suspect him of being lured into this 

 arena by such motives. But others may. I 

 do not doubt he will excuse me for giving ut- 

 terance to the general sentiment, that he 



