The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-04-16
For the anderson Mteligencer.
Immigration.

AulitlSl oliou.
Mr.. EDITOR: It was with much regret that
we witnessed the scant attendance of our pee-
pie at the public meeting, which was called
here last Saleday, to consider the deeply impor-
tant subject of immigration. We fear the
little interest evinced in regard to the matter
on that occasion too clearly proves that the
large majority of our people do not yet even
begin to comprehend, much less to appreciate,
subj It. If they, in any just degree, realized
their true interests in the matter, they would
surely have crowded the Court House to hear
and to exchange views in regard to it. Why,
sir, in human point of view, the future ad-
vancement and material prosperity of this
Southern country is now more Immediately de-
pendent on the influx of population from
abroad than on any other, than on every other
projected enterprise and existing resources
combined. With the South, it is now OBJ
viously ant popuIus, aut nulIus-people, or
nothing. And, in truth, it is population-full,
abundant peopling-or next thing to nothing
with every country. Little does it amount to,
that country is rich in the fertility CT its
soil, its mineral wealth, its water-power, its
temperate and salubricus climate, or in all and
every possible natural advantage, if it lack
sufficient population to develop such latent
powers and dormant resources. 1t is, to all
practical purposes, the same thing as if it did
not possess such natural blessings. Without
sufficient brain and muscular power combined
the resources of no country can be adequately
developed.
Massachusetts has population of some
thing like 1l5 to the square mile; South Caro-
lima has but about Is to the square mile. That
simple fact fully accounts for the great and
striking disparity in the respective aggregate
wealth and power of the two States. The one,
by nature, was comparatively bleak, barren,
sterile. Upon the other, nature bestowed
temperate, genial climate, fertile soil, vast
mineral wealth, magnificent water-power, and
superb forests of live-oak and yellow-pine tim
Der, besides very many other advantages too
numerous to mention here. But the poor State.
is rich, and the rich State is poorl The origi-
nal cause of this striking difference in the
present condition of these two States is, that
the one had sufficient population to turn to ac-
count and to make the most of all its natural
resources, and the other had not. Population
itself is wealth, because its presence enhances
the value of all properties in the State. A
farmer in Massachusetts who owns 100 acres
of land there is richer than the man who owns
1000 acres here. An article in the market is
only worth what it will sell for. The 100 acres
acres here. Why so2 Simply because there
are more people, and, therefore, more demand
for land there than here. Double the popula-
tion of this State, and you double the money
value of its land. Nay, more than that if every
landowner in South Carolina were to give one
half of his land 70 an actual settler coming in
from without the State, the remaining half re-
tained by the donors would very soon be worth
more in money than the whole is now. There
is no question of the fact, paradoxical as it
may seem at first view to those who have not
been accustomed to consider the matter, we
would actually grow rich by giving away half
the land we own to actual settlers coming in
upon the territory of our State from abroad
Labor would be diversified, the vast capabili-
ties and natural resources of the State would
be speedily developed into fruitfulness and be
utilized, the various arts and multifarious
comforts and advantages of civilization would
|. IN in do
These things come only from the eDgendering
powers of crowded communities. Man abso-
futely needs the sharp spur of necessity and
the whip of competition to move him up to
his mettle Not only is this needful moral
force generated in the classification of popula-
ton, but in actual physical labor; and in the
production of material effects and artistic re-
suits man helps his fellow-man most when he
is nearest at hand. In more ways than one
near neighbors assist each other in grinding
their axes and in rolling their logs.
Alexander Selkirk, on the island of Juan
Fernandes, "was monarch of all he surveyed -
and yet, being there alone, be was, so far from
being rich only a poor, miserable man, perish
ing in the plethora of his exclusive wealth.
Just SO in degree, graduated by the surroundings
and peculiar circumstances of his case, is every
very large land-holder who lives, isolated from
society, on MS OWN Droau acres. why arc
town lots and farms in the vicinity of popu
lous towns and cities more valuable than even
more fertile and productive lands far off in
sparsely settled neighborhoods? Simply be-
cause the presence of more people creates more
demand, not only for the land, but for all pro-
ducts that land and labor conjoined may pro-
duce, and the article is worth what it will
bring.
Why did the wealthy people of our middle
and lower country of this State have, for three
or four generation past, to send their children
to this upper country to get them educated? ?
Simply because the large land-holders below
lived too far apart, were too sparsely settled
down there to have good schools in their midst
They had, consequently, either to support the
whole charge of private school in their own
individual family, which few were able to do,
or to send their children off from home, board