Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1875-12-14

I come before you as one who has looked
at this immigration question from several
points-as Englishman and an American
Granger, landowner and interested in inn
migration.
There is no need to discuss the dosirabili,y
of immigration; Of that zee are GNcomviuced
as one Of our CHIEF needs The question is
how to get it?
Lot US look first at our position. As re-
CARDS the United States in general, immigra.
tion affairs have taken turn Tho tide of
prosperity aud influx which flowed during and
after the war has entirely y ceased. Nay, moro
than That, an ebb tide has set in, and tens of
thousands of strong European immigrants
have left our shores within tho last FEY years,
persuaded that they can do better where they
came from.
Besides that, there is fierce competition
for the immigrant. The North, the West, the
South ; Canada; South America the Cape
Colony Australia-All want him, all do the
best that they know how to do, to get him.
They print statements and Information (not
by any means always true), they offer induce.
nsnts, they send agents to persuade him to
come to them right to his very home.
What arc we of West Virginia doing p
We are sitting at bUme, with our hands in
our pockets, our fields half stocked and our
souls burdeued with debt-sighing-an
wishing-and beseecbing the empty air
"Oh, how wish he would come"
Come now-lct us look into this matter to
the bottom. And frst-arc there any reasons
besides that Of our own inertness, why we
have as yot failed to get our share of immi,
gration
I soy distinctly, yes-thas there arc grave
reasons (I do not say invincible or even really
very difficult draWbacks) why our State is like
horse very heavily weighted in the race for
immigration. Let US look at them
We hAyo State of billy and ofton noun
famous land-and the average Immigrant
will not stop to consider the quality Of soil,
cheapnssa of material for fencing and build
ing, climate aud other advantages. he sees
that the land is rough, and he passes on
Besides, with the exception of tho Valley
r. R., every large thoroughfare which passes
through our State, carrying the prospoctor
and the immigrant, carries him clean out of
sight of the best farming country, and gen>
orally down in the very bowels of the earth
from whence he can get about as good an idea
of the lie OF the land, as party conducted
through the famous sewers of Paris can get
of the architecture of that SPLENDID city
When tell my fellow passengers on the c. &
o. R. R, that away on the top of those steep
scarps of mountain there are great stretches
of level farms and fertile land, they say,
Indeed 7" politely. but without believing
one word I say to them. So it is with the
Ohio river, and great part Of the B. i o.
R.R
Our people don't believe enough in their
own land. If they did, they would farm bet
ter, and thus speed it. The prospector does
not reason very closely, seldom puts a spade
into the ground to examine the subsoil. is
easily prejudiced. And, when he sees weedy
fields, grown up fence corners, rotten barn
logs, seedy houses, untidy aud often ragged
owners-he is very apt to conclude that these
things are so not because the people choose to
let them be SO, but because tho land is poor,
and therefore they must be so.
There are too many unauthorized, false, aud
ignorant statements made about our resources.
We have a noble State, rich in capabilities
but it is not fit for every conceivable class of
persons, nor every imaginable business. In
tending immigrants get very shy of country
whore they find that they cannot believe what
they are told. If farmer haa a spare farm
to sell, the best evidence be can give of its
capacity, is to farm his own home place 20
we'll that emigrants will see at once what the
neighboring land will do.
Our previous isolation. The G. & ORR.
is the first thoroughfars which has come right
through oar State. Before that, we were only
skirted. We had no COMMUNICATIONS there.
fore We got neither new books, new men. or
new ideas; and with Pennsylvania on the
North, and Ohio on the East, we were lef.
alone, unkuown, unexplored. The march Of
civilization has gone on its tremendous course
without US; leaving US, like lame horse, in
the wilderness, to catch up with it if We can
or care to.
Such are our especial drawbacks to sgricul
tural immigration into West Virginia. The
next question is-ean We offer to immigrants