The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-01-04
IMMIGRATION.

The following from the editorial columns
of the Chicago Tribune, shows how We
look to the outside world. The hit at some
of our old fogies is rather palpable.
The Tribune understands the value OF
immigration. land how to get it into State,
and its criticisms are worth reading:
VENERABLE VIRGINIA.
There was a convention held in the city
of Richmond, Virginia, on the 18th inst.
to adopt measures to promote immigration
to that State, and to read the proceedings is
like reading the accounts of similar meet
ings in that State in the ante-revolutionary
period. The convention was made up of
the notables of Virginia. A committee,
consisting of two Majors, two Colonies, and
one Judge, reported a list of officers, con-
sisting of three Honorablcs," three Gem
erals, five Colonies, five Majors, and one
Esquire" The committee Of resolutions
was made up of three Colonies, three Ma
Jors, one Governor, and one doctor. The
principal orators were clergymen. The
speeches, if made anywhere else, would be
amusing. All wanted immigrants, but
nobody wanted Northern men. One of the
orators wanted no other immigrants than
Evangelical Protestants. The main cry,
however, was for small capitalists who
would come to the State and lend their
money to the landowners. Mere laborers
were not desired particularly, though they
would be tolerated. They wanted a large
number Of men who would come there
with small capital either to lend
money or to lease and improve the lands.
The old theory of a landed aristocracy, as
distinct from the laborers, still holds its
own in Virginia. White labor would be
preferred to negro labor, if it would keep
in its proper place. There is the rub.
These venerable gentlemen in Virginia in
sist upon retaining the ownership of the
soil in the hands OF the old families. They
do not or will not comprehend that the
man in Europe who leaves for America
with his family does so to better his condi-
ton. He can get wages enough as farm
hand at home to support himself, but there
is no outlook for the future; if he stays
there, his children will work their lives out
as he does. He comes to America that he
may own the soil he cultivates; and
that his children after him may
own the land they cultivate. For this
purpose he takes land under the Home
stead law, or he works for wages, those
wages being applied to the payment of part
OF the farm on which he works, which is to
be his own. Lla
If these gentlemen in Virginia will have
their land surveyed into sections, with
their halves and quarters, and will offer
them at low prices to actual residents, and |
offer the men work at wages in the mean !
time, they will eventually get an immigrant
population such as has peopled the West.
Men from New England, and the North |
generally, will take the now untitled lands
OF Virginia, and make them productive by
their own labor. No State can prosper
whose lands are cultivated by one class and
owned by another. The foremost work.
man on farm must be the man who owns
it. When these colonies, judges, majors,
and generals offer to the outside world
the lands of Virginia to be the
property of the men who are to work
them, and when they consent to resign po-
iitlcal power to the producers of the State,
then the "small capitalistsn- men who
produce annually all they consume, and
something more, may turn their steps to
the ancient Commonwealth. If, however,
.he state does not want this class of popu-
iaton, It Will have to continue as it is. with
one-fltth oil the population it could support.
and with mines Of coal and iron. richer than
gold, unworked, inaccessible. and almost
unknown. Possessing everything needed
10 invite population, and to become the
greatest Commonwealth in the Union, Vir-
gina Lays IN the race because of tho Bour-
Donic habits, ideas, and speech of her ven
cradle statesmen.