_The System of Wages, Credit, etc._ There is very general complaint of the credit system which prevails in most Southern communities. The most grievous shape this takes is the payment of wages in supplies, whereby an oppressive interest is exacted, and by the nature of the system generally made necessary. By such a system the thrifty are taxed to make up for the thriftlessness of the rest. It is at this point, in fact, that the industrial servitude which yet lingers as a relic of slavery obtrudes itself most oppressively. The abolition of this system is necessary for the material advancement of the South––of both races alike; necessary for the elevation of the laborer and for the promotion of his efficiency; necessary as a corollary to the Emancipation Proclamation; and necessary as a means of freeing the whole system of Southern labor (the employer as well as the employee) from inefficiency. No conceivable amount of extraneous capital invested in the South would so add to material prosperity as the abolition of the credit and supply system. The labor problem there is to effect this emancipation. As for wages, they are low, but their lowness is not itself a cause of distress. It is the system which keeps them low and keeps labor inefficient and taxes thrift and skill, and puts a premium on thriftlessness and untrustworthiness, that does the damage. The gist of the whole problem is here. _The Races and the Laws._––The statutes of the Southern States are not a matter of complaint, except the bastardy and marriage laws; but there is a very general opinion that in the execution of the law, race prejudice appears. One correspondent lays great stress on a fact which several others mention, that many ignorant blacks often fancy that they are the victims of injustice when they are not. The opinion of the colored practitioners of law is practically unanimous that a Negro tried for certain crimes is more likely to be convicted than a white man for the same crimes, and likely to pay a heavier penalty where the penalty is discretionary with the court or jury. The marriage and bastardy laws of several Southern States at least concentrate the pressure to crime at the weakest social point, and do not give the Negro woman a fair chance, nor the same protection or reparation that the white woman has.