Town and country.
The interests of the
Southern cities and agricultural districts are indissolubly united.
The trade of the cities depends upon the productions of the country.
It is their interest that the country should produce vigorously and profitably; for upon this the prosperity of both town and country depends.
But this production cannot be accomplished without adequate labor; and the merchants of the cities are as vitally concerned in promoting an efficient system of agricultural labor as the farmers themselves.
The
Charleston Carolinian justly observes that this question underlies the whole secret of our future, and every mind capable of comprehending cause and effect must see that the first step to the regeneration of a city, the reconstruction of society, the re-peopling of a whole State, and the proper provision of a support for all, must rest wholly in those pillars of strength that have been indicated.
It is the primary necessity.
If labor is not supplied to the fields, the farmers make no crops; if no crops is made, no produce reaches the city; and then trade expires.
Every effort, every scheme by which to secure regular labor to the farmer, and to bring mechanical and manufacturing motors into the country, for the development of the arts and raw materials together, should be as eagerly sought after by the cities as the rural districts, assured that the interests of all parts hang together by a mutuality of necessity which is the whole secret of vitality and prosperity alike in town and country.
Although
Virginia is not suffering to the same extent as
South Carolina for a deficiency of agricultural laborers, there is still great complaint of an inadequate supply, and it becomes the commercial men of
Richmond, and all who are interested in the common welfare, to lead the way in efforts of the most strenuous and hearty character to introduce labor from abroad wherever it is needed.
