Speech #470162931

I think not. The true issue is one that can not be evaded. It is not merely whether the American laborer shall be degraded to the level ofthe pauper labor -of Europe. but. in this instance.it is also whether the free negro laborer .of the South shall be sacrificed to swell the profits of the Cuban slaveholder and the eastern sugar refiner. characters that I amn told are sometimes blended ii the same firm. if not in the same individual. The principal element of cost in the production of sugar is human labor. of your American crop 70 per cent. is paid out for the labor of black men. His condition is comfortable and is improving.