Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-13
THE POLICY WE NEED.


The most practical way in which th'
State Legislature can aid the immigra
tion cause. to the benefit of Tennessee
il 10 make liberal provisions for adver
Using 10 the outside world the State
natural resources, in minerals, wooc
and agricultural products. We are glad
10 see so many of our contemporaries
alive TO the Importance Of this fact.-
Nashville Banner, lin.
If the press of the State will follow W
and reiterate the occasional suggestions
made on the subject, and recently elab
GRATED in the LEDGER, we believe the
Legislature would clothe our Board Of
Immigration with something more than
an empty name, and provide the means
10 advertise our resources as they de-
serve to be. We only want school sys-
TEN adequate to the age in which we
live to make Tennessee one OF the
most attractive States for immigrants
and small capitalists in the Union.
Taxation is heavy on large property
owners, but falls lightly on the small
farmer who owns his fifty acres and cul-
tivates forty. Manufactures are entirely
exempt from State, county and munich
pal taxation, a fact which is not under
stood by the outside world. Good, pro-
ductive, improved land, not Immediately
on railroad, can be bought in almost
any county at from eight to ten dollars
per acre, which is cheaper than the wild
lands of the West at two dollars, besides
the superior advantages Of timber, wa
ter, climate and accessibility to market.
Tennessee Is misunderstood abroad and,
will be until proper representations are
made in an official form and sent by the
thousand to those crowded communities
in the East and in the old
world, from which we expect
immigrants to assist us in cultivating
our broad, fenceless acres, and in devel-
oping our varied resources. Other
States with inferior advantages have the
ear of the outside world and will keep
1t to our detriment, until we make an
effort to do ourselves justice. These
States have cast their bread upon the
waters, as it we're; they have printed car
loads of pamphlets inviting people to
settle among them, and they have sent
live, working agents to Europe to put
these documents into the hands of those
who are likely to be interested in the
subject. Hence, the streams of immi-
grants flowing Westward every year;
hence, we read of thriving towns spring
ing up on the prairie in single year,
and prosperous communities of agricul-
turalists and manufacturers existing
where lately the bleak winds swept over
an unbroken wilderness. We learn that
member of the Board of immigration in
our city has prepared, without any hope
of compensation, full statement of the
resources of Tennessee, agricultural,
mineral and artificial, giving amount Of
land in cultivation and lying idle, char
acter of soil and climate, water power
transportation facilities and public and
private schools, opportunities for invest
ment and general features, social, moral
and typographical Of the State. Such
facts published in book form would
bring thousands Of capital and of good,
producing citizens to Tennessee, but
no appropriation was ever made for the
purpose, and the Commissioners,
although enlisted heart and hand in the
good cause, is unable to go at so great
an expense On his own account. Why,
the merchants of Memphis, without
waiting to ask State aid, could well afford
to publish such book or pamphlet as
this would be under the auspices of the
Chamber of Commerce, or otherwise, and
they would find tia splendid investment.
1t should be remembered that all cities
or states that are prosperous, IN broad
sense, have become so by united effort,
stimulated by something of that spirit
of public pride known in armies as the
esprit de corps. Without cooperation
and an improved system efficiently. sd.
ministered our State will lag behind her
more enterprising neighbors for some
time to come. Much depends upon the
Legislature and State-more upon the
people themselves.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN PENNSYLVANIA.