Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-09-06
GAINESVILLE. :::: SEPT. 6, 1873.
IMMIGRATION.

We read, with care, everything we
see on the subject Of immigration,
hoping to find some plausible solution
Of problem so intimately connected
with the future of the South. Most
writers on this question, it sooms TO
us. lose sight of the future IN their
anxiety for the present. Asmuch as pro-
ductive population may be needed for
the development of southern resources,
II seems premature to call for foreign
aid whilst SO much brain and muscle OF
native growth are wasted because pride,
prejudice and Incidence prevent their
active employment in mechanical and
agricultural pursuits Inc young
men of the eo-ntry, spurnlng the avo-
oo,;.a of their fathers and ignoring
the demands of their country upon the
proper employment of their physical
energies, seek in towns and cities, soft
places, under the mistaken idea that
money can be made without labor and
distinction won without honorable am
bition. or earnest work. In the mean
time, the fields they have abandoned
are worn out by tenant culture, or
growing up in briars and bushes, and
they, on reaching the towns, find the
clerkships filled, and dozens Of expec-
tants loafing around hoping for va
cancy. The idle seekers of soft places,
too lazy for physiciallabor, and without
manly self-respect, of honest for want
employment, fall into vicious habits,
gamble and drink and 60 to the devil
by the shortest down-grade. With
moderate estimate of the number Of
young men in the South, who are spend
ing the flower of their youth in idle
ness and dissipation it would seem that
immigration is less needed than some
noble incentive that may divert this
waste of brain and muscle into the
channel of active utility.
If the rising generation of whites
could be trained ON farms and in work
shops, and taught at the same time-to
know that there are no vacations more
honorable than those of the honest
and intelligent farmers and mechanics,
the cry for immigrants would, in a
great measure, be hushed under the
conviction that il is wiser to look for
ward to an increase of homogeneous
population for the South-thOugh that
increase be slow-than to fill it with
the discOrdant nationalities which
make Babel and a Bedlam of the
North. We want immigration, but let
it come in gradually, that it may be-
come Americanized, in nationality, and
Southernized in sympathy. In the
meantime, let us utilize the brain and
muscle we have and strive to make the
rising generation honest, intelligent
and industrious.
1t happens fortunately, or unfortu
nately as the case may be, that necessi-
ty, rather than choice, is shaping the d.
rection and controlling the speed of the
tide ofimmigration, so far as the South
is concerned. There are immigration
rings in the northern cities, with agents
abroad. These rings, with all the APP
plicances which capital can command,
concentrate the emigrant hordes Of
Europe at New York mainly, where
they first pay tribute to the immigra
ton ring, and are handed over to the
Railroad rings to be settled on the
land, wrested from the people by COM
bined rings, in order that those lands |
and those immigrants may increase
the over grown wealth and arrogant
power of railroad monOpolies. This |
is the game which has diverted immi- |
grafton from the South and which will |
continue to do so until the northwest is
filled to repletion, and what runs over |
may find its way to the southwest. The |
object ofthis ring policy, from the be-
ginning, has been, first, to make money |
for monopolies, second, to swell, nu-
merically, the strength of the North,
and, third and last, to cripple as much |
as possible the hated South.
Can we hope to resist this huge |
northern combination, with the slight
est chance for success? Then, from
necessity, we are forced to fall back
upon our resources, and, to make these
available, we must educate our youth,
indoctrinate themwith the noblest SEN
timents of true patriotism and stimu
late them to the highest efforts Oftrue
manhood in behalf of the oppressed |
South. and what now seems an evil,
may become a blessing.