The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-08-04
EMIGRATION.
THE UNPRECEDENTEDs SALES OFF WHLEs
LAMBS lin THE FAR WESTERN
STATES.
The Unemployed Mechanics ana artisans
OF the East Moving West and
Esaenm5uw FARMERS.

The Unemployed Mechanics and Artisans
OF the East Moving West and
Becoming Farmers.
Especial Correspondence Of the DemocratJ .
NEW YORK, July 30, 1878.
It may be pertinent for me to begin this let
| ter with an apology to the edltor-or more
generally speaking, to tho intellectual depart
ment of the DEMOCRAT as whole; for that
am going to treat Of subject which could be
better as we'll as more intelligently treated in
the editorial rooms. and which therefore has
no occasion to be written as correspondence
and transmitted by mail. The other day /
picked up pamphlet issued by some Vest
ern railroad land company, IN which appeared
| formidable columns Of figures showing
! THE AMOUNT OF LAND SOLD TO ACTUAL
SETTLERS,
| both by the government and by railroad COM
panes during the year ending April l, 1873
The figures were compiled from the returns
of the General Land Office for the government
| land Sold and from the land agencies OF the
various railroad companies, for the railroad
land, and were authentic Their story is in
structive and affords the most encouraging
in fact the only encouraging sign of the times
1t appears that during no single year since
1856 has so much Western wild land been sold
to actual settlers as during the year just
closed.
THE GREAT SALES OF THE YEAR 1856
we're caused by the rush Of emigration from
| New York, New England and Ohio to the then
comparatively new States of Iowa, WisCon-
sin and Minnesota, together with the tide OF
Southern emigration from the slaveholding
States OF the seaboard to Missouri, Arkansas
and FpyaG That, memorabilia wear Witnessed
the last furry Of the decade Of flush times
which had set In with the Mexican war, and
which went out in the catastrophe OF 1857.
From 1857 to 1861 the country got along in Il
slavery agitation was in the veins OF the pe0-
pie and the gloomy shadow of the 'i1npend'
ing Crisis' OF that era Overhung the land
From 1861 to 1865 emigration Of the substan'
tial, permanent kind was nearly suspended
and the pamphlet, which is the text of this
, letter, does not give any separate figures fo1
each OF those years, but Jumps them in @ tota
, for the four, which falls short of the sales fol
, the first half Of the year 1877-78l
1t Is only necessary to add, by way Of sta
} tistics, that the bulk Of the land sales for The
past year were in the States of
KANSAS, TEXAS AND COLORADO,
in the order named, Minnesota coming fourth
! on the list and Nebraska fifth. The govern
ment sales slightly exceeded those of the rail
roads, except in Kansas and Minnesota
where the railroad sales exceeded those O
> the General Land Office nearly three to one
But when we look to the statistics Of
= FOREIGN IMMIGRATION
to our shores for d solution of this sudden &C
: tvity in the agricultural line, we do not dis
cover any increase at all in proportion to TIN
5 On the contrary, the registered destination
t of foreign immigrants show O. decrease as Ia
as those States are concerned which | hay
! named as chiefly affected by the prevailing
5 revival. There is then but one conclusion
t derivable and that is that
: THE NEW MOVEMENT IS MAINLY AMONG oU1
I OWN PEOPLE.
This means that the vast multitude of me
. chanics, artisans and tradesmen who hav
y been gradually thrown out of their forme
,, employments by the shutting down Of on
a manufacturing Industries since the panic o
q 1873 have been forced to turn their attention
= to the soil, and their hands to the plow. Il
: other words, society is readjusting it
: equilibrium, disturbed by the war and tn
subsequent period OF national fever
q | have been at some pains to follow up tn
= line of inquiry suggested by these facts 81
far as practicable In this particular locality
I, and find that nearly all the men who hav
! been thrown out OF manufacturing employ
] mnnt during the past five years have gone Of
= West one by one and that the great majorit,
u of them have taken up land and commences
, farming.
= 1t Is perfectly safe to assume that my loca
u researches may tfH EeIlIN5u hS Ol general hE
!, pIication in their results, and so, out of tn
Z two hundred thousand men who have gOn
:, West during the last three years, and priuci
+ pally during the past eighteen. months, a
- least eighty per cent are new farmers VIII
', have have hitherto been employed in som
q one or another of the lover productive" me
r chanical industries.
j This is really
u AN ENCOURAGING SIGN.
There can be no doubt that the various MANI
s featuring industries Of the country have beef
d wildly overdone OF late years, and that th
"hard times from which we have all suffere
have been due not less to the top-heavy stat
of society than to the baneful polity of the I'll
ing party. Perhaps it would be more accu
% rate to describe the situation as combine
ton Of Industrial extravaganza with polltlct
mismanagement each being partly caus
and partly an effect OF the other. But at las
. the pressure has begun to operate beneficial.
and irrespective of the quack remedies OF on
10 politicians human nature is working out II
own cure. Whatever may be the condition {
T. the times or the state of the markets, the ma
who has crops and livestock growing abou
q him, no matter on how humble scale {
10 farming, need not fear starvation
h. PEELED to deny himself and famil
: all the little luxuries of town life which the
used to enjoy when the mills and the III
= naces were running on full time and wage
e were high: but after all it is not so bad q
;; DtlDS Out VI luDISY w uuy hnNtto th1A ~ GOV
- and not so desolate as to sit with folded hant
70 In enforced idleness under o roof OF which tx
@ rent Is in arrears. But did not set out
write q homily. My design was to note o fe
u facts of great Significance as tending to sho
IL that our
|. HARD TIMES
II are ut last at an end and that nature Is worl
=, ing out her own remedy in her own way.
- A. G. B..
3r W