The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-09-30
The Need of the South.
I From the New York Tri

IF'rom the New York Tribune.
Having been surveyed, all the
lands that the owners did not
wish to retain should be brought
in market. That is impossible
under the present no-system.
Owners are anxious to sell; they
would gladly accept very low
prices, but there are no buyers.
He who has thousand or even
| five hundred acres to sell cannot
afford to advertise rs his land
should be advertised; the cost
would be ruinous, and probably
his advertising would sell ten
other estates and not sell his af-
ter all. An inquirer who started
southward expressly to look at
his place would encounter so
many would-be sellers OH his way
that he might never reach that
place at all.
Now. there should be very cN-
tcnsivc advertising Of Southern
lands; not merely at the North,
but in Great Britain and Germa-
ny; yet it cannot bc done in an
isolated way. But let all those
who have lands to sell in Virgin
ia put them in the hands of one
agent or company, and let that
agent advertise them so as to
reach every tiresidc in the North
and half those Of Great Britain
and Germany-Iet him advertise
SO many acres in this, so many
in that county, with capacity
and prices-Iet him make ar
ranGements with steamboats, and
railroads for the cheap transport
tation of those intending to pur-
chase, and advertise where and
how excursion tickets may be OBJ
tanned, and there would be no
difficulty in selling ten millions
of acres per annum. The agent
or company should pay all OK
pcnscs, take all risks, and bc al
lowed Il liberal commission, such
as would warrant and incitc the
most extensive advertising, and,
unless cxorbitant prices were
asked, there could be no failure.
We are confident that one hum
drcd thousand tenant farmers,
or sons of farmers, could be drawn
from the British isles alone to
Virginia within the next two
years, if adequate efforts were
made to cnlightcn them with re-
gard not merely to the cheapncss
and value of tho lands, timber,
etc, but to the means and cost
Of reaching those lands, the en-
hancement of their value by rail
ways, already built Or in process
OF construction, and the ease
wherewith their owner could be
recalled to Europe by telegraph,
and set down at his fathers or
brothers door, within two weeks
from the dispatch of the telc-
gram.
The masses in Europe know
just as much Of this country as
we do of Australia, and are gen
orally in doubt whether Virginia
is in Boston or Il little north of
Chicago. Show them that it is
within Il days ride of Now York,
with ample and excellent har-
bors, bays, rivers, etc, supple
mentcd by canals and by rail-
roads, and they will much prefer
it to the rcmOtcr regions and
harshcr climate of the Northwest.
The fact that Indians no longer
stray within hundreds of miles of
its borders and that it has Episco-
pal churches, roads two hundred
years old, an established social
order, etc, will prejudice multi
tudes i'll its favor.
The South needs more people,
greater diversity of pursuits, more
Skill, more energy and thrift
more mills, more shops, more
factories. more i'lrnaccs-she
does not need more capital than
will incI itably flow in upon her
if she can but utilize what she
already has. We submit these
suggestions to her leading minds,
in the hope that they may SOW
some seeds Of future thrift and
progress.
The Houston and Texas Cen
trail Railroad Company, which is
steadily pushing its track to-
wards Dallas and Red River, is
also building Il branch road west
n II