Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-02-27
IMMIGRATION.
A Letter from Commodore Maury--'Immi-
grafton and Direct Trade.
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, I


which the commercial bearings ofim-
migration, especially European immi-
grafton, are very striking and very i'm
pOrtant to the South.
Viewed from one of these stand
points the European emigrant, when
he settles among US, is seen to annul
the ordinances of commerce, which
require producers to send forth in
search of market; he brings it with
him from abroad and sets it down
here. Before he came among US, in all
probability, we never supplied sin
gle want Of himself or family beyond,
perhaps, pipe of tobacco; but now he
fetcheS his wants with him and be-
comes in his person market OF the
best sort, so far as it goes.
To illustrate this point of view:
Fancy a German farmer with his
wife and child coming to settle in your
neighbOrhOOd; he wants a cow and
cali, sow and pigs, horse, and per
haps a yoke Of oxen, with a few geese,
turkeys, ducks and fowls; he wants
household furniture, kitchen utensils
and farming implements, prOvender
for his cattle, food and raiment for
himself and family, and seed for his
lands-making a total expenditure
beside the cost Of his land, in money,
or labor the equivalent OF money, of
$3.50 or two hundred and fifty a
person.
Now observe the value of this
market. Ii is not as though these
articles had To be exported, but it IS
rather like the farmer who returns
everything to his land again and is
dOubly enriched. Everything that is
sold to the immigrant is consumed in
the neighbOrhoOd; ne brings the
market TO The producer. In this busi-
ness there are no midGlemen; no
transportation, freight, insurance,
commissions, storage, and all the ct
ceteTos which usually attend the sale
OF produce. NO system Of trade is
more wholesome or profitable than
that which the immigrants bring with
| them.
What is true Of one immigant is
true Of thousands. Let US, therefore,
expand this view so rs to include all.
The total number Of immigrants an
nually coming into the country,
amounts, let us assume, to 400, GOO
All Of these with their wants go West,
and fetch their markets, and thus ere
ate an unOstentatiOus commerce there
Of something like SlGJ, 200, 900; ali of
which goes directly into the hands of
producers, not cent TO middlemen or
to freight, Insurance, storage and the
like.
This commerce is, l think, more
profitable to the farmers of the West
than the cotton crop is to planters Of
the South; for, though it sells for the
larger sum, yet profits are eaten up by
commissions, tranSpOrtatiOns, etc,
whereas the farmers of the West net
their 100000, 900 from the immigrants
without any drawback.
You observe in this estimate that
the immigrant is supposed not to
want TO buy anything OF his neigh
bors after the first year.
1t is mainly owing to this commerce
that the West, with the general de-
cline Of the commerce of the country,
maintains its prosperity.
If the immigration from Europe to
the West were from any cause to
| cease, there would be a distress there
/ from the loss Of this commerce such as
has never been known; and then the
! farmers there would realize what
| boon to them the free-tOll ship canal
from the Ohio to the Chesapeake
would be.
have said there are two stand
points from which the commercial
aspects Of immigration loom up with
special importance to the South. l
have alluded to one. The other is in
connection with direct trade.
The South has been clamOring for
/ direct trade for the last forty years.
Within that time numerous at
! tempts have been made to establish it,
! first from one point and then from
another, but none have succeeded.
| Why? Simply because there was no
| return cargo, and no ability on the
part of Southern seapOrtS TO dispose Of
| return caTgOes had they come. So it
is now as it was forty years ago
Southern staples that 90 direct to for
eign ports have TO pay freight both
ways.
Unless the merchants of our seaport
| towns can induce the merchants OF the
/ inland cities OF the west to import di-
| rectly through Southern ports, l, for
one, can see no prospect Of direct trade
save only through a strong tide OF
! European immigration this way.
That will give us inward cargOe5.
! Human freight is the most profitable
! to carry; it embarks Itself, stores it.
self, and is landed without expense.
Let us take Norfolk to illustrate our
position that direct trade is Well-nigh
hopeless without immigration to
help,
Norfolk, by means of her railways,
has become the port of a large area OF
country extending back into Tennes-
see, Mississippi and Alabama. But,
though the farmers from those regions
send their produce to Norfolk in con-
| siderable quantities to be embarked
in seagOing vessels, what do their
mechanics do? Do any of them i'm
port through Norfolk l should think
not; for the total of impOrtatiOns both
tor Norfolk and Portsmouth last
wear, only amounted to about S205, Zoo;
and until Norfolk is in condition to
distribute among the inland cities that
may be tributary to her large quanti-
/ ties Of assorted merchandise, see no
chance of direct trade except through
immigration; and it has been the alb
sence of foreign immigration into the
South that has barred our way to di-
rect trade.
/ The post-coIonial Southern States, as
Kentucky, Tennessee, and the rest,
were settled up, not by foreign immi-
grafton, but by emigrants from Vir-
ginia, the CarOlinaS, and Georgia, as
it is now proposed by many to fill up
our waste places from the North; con.
! seouently, the emigrant settling in
those States did not, rs the immigrant
from abroad would have done, enrich
the South; he merely took from one
pocket and put into the other.
Nor did the settlement by domestic
emigration help to build up commerce
and foster direct trade as Immigration
into the Northern ports did. If tht
Southern States had been settled up by
foreign immigration, there is no doub
but that the South would have had Z
large and flourishing direct trade.
So far as immigration is considered
from the standpoint from which W.
+ are now considering it, it is inmate
rial whether the immigrants WhC
land at Norfolk rebound for Virginia
North Carolina, Tennessee, tht
Northwest, or elsewhere. . They
! would encourage direct trade as mucl
in one case as the other.
The more 1 study the subject of i'm
migration, the more / am satisfied
; that il cannot be had without money
> and if our people want it they mus
make up their minds to pay for 1t un
til the pioneers become sufficiently
well established to take that burdel