Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-01-14
WHERE TO LOOK FOR IMMIGRATION.

opay all damages
WHERE TO LOOK FOR IMMIGRATION.
commodore Maury has lately given the
subject of emigration considerable atten-
tentiop. fIe has suggested through the
press that convention of those persons
interested in the subject in the Southern
States be held soon, to consider what
means can be adopted to inaugurate active
efforts to bring into the South labor and
capital. The suggestion is good one ana
we are glad to see that it meets with favor
in most every section of the South.
We beg, however, to make some sugges-
tions upon which the Commodore, as we
think, is mistaken. He says the remark"
able growth of the Northern States in
wealth and population, comes from Its
European immigration. The excess OF
emigration to the North over that TO the
South, in his Judgment, is the secret of its
excess in wealth and prosperity
His plan of action, therefore, is to
look to Europe for the population
we need. We do not know that any one
has higher appreciation of the great inn
petus given to the remarkable growth and
prosperity of the West, by foreigners, than
we have, and yet we are very far from
willing to concede the truth of Mr.. Maury's
assertion. The foundation for the rapid
growth of the West, its railroads, its canals,
its lakes and its rivers, its liberal progress
i've legislation, its system of popular edu-
cation, and its immense industrial enter
prises have been to a very great extent the
product of American enterprise and capi-
tai. This element had the advantage over
the foreign element, in being the most
numerous, the most wealthy and the best
suited to project the vast enterprises we
have enumerated. The honesty, the in
dusty and the intelligent support of the
foreign population assured the complete
success achieved, but even without that
the West and East would still, by the very
organization and constitution of its forces,
have taken the lead of the South.
But all such considerations aside, the
policy proposed by Commodore Maury is
not the wsest for the South to pursue. She
is not in situation TO compete with the
West for foreign emigration. The best
section for the South to work in for more
population and capital is the Northern
States. The population coming to Ameri-
ca from Europe as class, comes without
much capital 1t drifts naturally and inc
vitality to localities where land is cheap
and labor in great demand. Emigrants
want very fertile and cheap lands such as
they find in the far West, or they want
constant and immediate employment such
as they find in the large cities and manu-
featuring districts of the North. Until the
South can offer them these inducements,
the stream of emigration that can be di-
verified here will be the result of diligent
effort and only in such force as to supply
immediate demands. But it may be said
Goes not the South need labor and have
we not idle land enough for thousands oil
them? We certainly have, but we are not
vet in condition to supply their wants
for our lands and labor are not such as
they seek. Our lands are too high for the
great mass of emigrants to buy and our la.
Dor not in the quantity or kind offered
North.
The class OF population We most need
now is the kind that can bring some CAPT
tai either to take our lands and till then 81
toad in developing our industries. We cal
tind this class to some extent in our foreign
emigration and we should seek it earnestly
there, but our main hope we believe is IL
the large and growing class in the North
who want to come here with capital anC
energy, for the sake of our climate, or fol
the special inducements we afford in Other
r particulars. When this class come anG
buy part of our large idle farms, give u:
two or three cultivated farms where we
now have one; aid MS in increasing oul
products; building up cur manufactures
and make demand for labor, then we will
naturally draw a share of foreign emigra
O. ton.
To secure the class we are wanting
we ought not to look alone to Europe a.
Commodore Maury contemplates, bu
more particularly to the East and West
where abundant surplus capital and Ell
terprise are to be found. The class Their
that is interested in the South and loOkin.
i'm this direction for homes, is far large
than many seem willing to believe. Tha
they will come here in time, we do no
doubt. There are causes to make them de
lay-causes that time will renove-bu
that they will come, and in numbers, w
confidently believe, and we offer on
suggestions for what they are worth
to Commodore Maury and his associates