, 1869-04-23
MIGRATION TO THE SOUTH.

MIGRATION TO TIE SOUTH.
Our correspondent, writing from New
Orleans, has given the readers Of TnE
TRIBUNE some graphic and interesting de-
sciphons Of the vast fields Of enterprise
nov lying idle in that country waiting the
hand Of industry to reap from them har-
vests Of wealth. What he says of Louis
iana, is true, in o measure, Of most Of the
Southern States. Agricultural pursuits
have been virtually abandoned since the
war commenced, and all other industries
have shared the general desoladon. Before
the war, the lands were held in large
mnsses by the owners, aud worked very
improyidently. More land and more slnrel
was the universal policy, and the result Was
ha1r-worked lands, wasteful system Of
lahor, extrayagnnt living, and but little In
crease of wealth, save in slaves. The war
destroyed the slave property. In the frantic
effort to save it lands we're mortgnged to
raise money to support the rebellion, and,
at last, every plantation Was swept Of its
live stock and its equipments The collapse
Of the rebellion found these once proud
| uabpbs stepped to the lips in poverty. No
nv. ~sa,r 1aone,- Z. 4.>,s~.-1 as Land 10
redeem it from the mortgage or the execu-
ton. Labor was in abundance, but there
WIS no means to pny for it. Andrew John
son inflicted cruel injury upon these peo-
| pie when he inspired them with hope Of q
renewal Of the rebellion and restoration Of
slavery. He postponed for four years all
efforts for the recuperntion of the material
interests of these people. In the election
of Grant these debt-ridden Southern people
recognize the pcr1uanency Of the Union and
the necessity for an immediate return to in
dustry. They offer to the Northern people
their lands, their cotton and sugar planta-
tons, their rice and tobacco fields. They
will sell cheap, and on liberal terms. Their
only hope Of rescuing portion Of their en-
numbered and useless patrimony is to sell
| the rest to men Of mems, who will recon-
1nence the work Of industry, who will re-
stock the land with horses, mules and oxen,
who will bring back the herds Of swine and
cattle, who will introduce machinery, and
generally relieve the country from its pov-
erty-stricken condition.
Tint these fertile plains of the South cnn
be made productive, and great wealth gath
cred from them by Northern settlers, is un-
qucstionnbly true, but migration from the
North to the South must be necessarily
confined to very small class. In the first
place labor is not wanted. There is IN
abundance Of labor there already, skilled
in the production Of Southern crops,
and which, being now FREQ and compensat-
ed, will double its productive capacity.
White men will not better their prospects
by leaving agricultural labor at the North
to 80 South and work on plantations In
competition with tho negroes. Men Of
small means, who, at the North, can work 6
farm Of from one hundred to three hundred
acres, will not better their condition by 60
| ing South TO purchase small plantation
| mud by their own md hired labor engage
in the production Of the heav,
crops Of that region. The onl,
men to whom the South offer
inducements Of large profits upon invest
mcnts nre capitalists-men who, with si1t,
to one hundred thousand dollars cash, cal
! EO tUtTG. bt1CEk CAO1Cc lAAtASs pNAEAlAsc Alu
chinery, stock their farms, hire their hands
and 60 into the business Of cultivatin
sugar or cotton on large scale. To thes
men, who aro not generally of the ngricul
tural class Of the Northern States, thes
plantations ut the South offer inducemeut
Of the most tempting charncte
But to the great multitudcs Of ou
Northern people they nre nt
even tempting. Tho cultivation Of a ama
crop Of sugar or cotton will not yield ma
that profit which is to be gained mt IL
North from the same amount Of lat,nr an
: capital Tho fact is that the time las II
!. set come, and Will not tor many year
when the white lnl,or OF the North will /
needed at the South. The line If marc
for that labor must continue westward ur
til, having filled the North from ocean I
ocean, it finds its way,to the South, the,
to 1nake that region also the home and til
rewnr,l of the men who cultivate as well d
own the soil they live npon