Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1879-05-09
inducements offered by

rs setting forth
- inducements offered by
Texas the immigratiorwa i'm
mense. Statistics, NV that
from 1873 to 1877 me popuia-
ton and taxable property of
Texas had doubled itself; now
no immigrants are coming and
the state is at a stand still or
worse. There has been, as re-
ported by the comptroller, a
shrinkage of sI7,ooo,ooo in the
taxable value Of the state since
1877, or rather the assessment
for 1873 is that much smaller
than the year previous. This
in a great measure has been
brought about because immi-
grafton had ceased to come.
The reason it has ceased is pa
tent; the new constitution of
1876 abolished the state board
of immigration, thereby virtu-
ally saying to the world we
don't want any more immigrants
we have population enough;
those who are here will grow
up with the country. The fact
is no inducements are now Of
fered to immigrants and no eff
forts are being made to obtain
them. In addition to this Gov
ernor Roberts as one of his
first official acts revoked all
offers afterwards for the capture
of criminals and even refused to
send for two notorious murder
ers who had been captured in
another state. In addition to
this he vetoes the school appro-
priation and the appropriation
for the payment of the interest
on the public debt. 1t is Of
course heralded abroad by the
agents of other states seeking
immigrants that Texas is oppos-
ed to the public school system
and also repudiates the pay
ment of the interest on her pub
lie debt and refuses to bring
back her criminals.
Now let US see how Kansas
fares. She began seeking i'm
migration where Texas left off
in 1876. Gen. Robertson fur
nishes us the following facts and
figures: The first move of Kan
sas was an expenditure of S4o,-
900 by the state for an exhibi-
ton of her products at the
Centennial exposition. Texas,
officially, made no exhibit, in
dividuals and corporations did
something, but lacking the
authority of the state the exhib-
it lost its proper effect. The
state of Kansas has recently
published a book. for gratuitous
distribution at a cost of $4,000
for a single edition; the book
gives sectional maps of each
county separately. giving full
statistics of the crops raised in
each county, cost ofland, cost of
production, quantity produced
and the increase from year to
year. The information given is
official and is certified by the
proper officers and as stated is
sued by the state. In looking
over the maps we were aston
ished at the number of school
houses; the location of every
one in the townships is shown;
one small township in an inter-
ior county showed no less than
nine school houses. The con-
sequence is that Kansas will get
100000 immigrants this year
exclusive of southern negroes,
whom the state is not trying to
get and whom the people them
selves do not want. Lands
throughout the state have adj
vanced on an average about one
hundred per cent. during the |
past two years in spite of re-
sumption. hard times and ev-
erything else and what is more, !
lands are still selling to actual
settlers and spectators. We |
are assured the picture is by no |
means overdrawn and are free |
to confess the comparison is
very unfavorable to Texas, |
which has far superior advant- |
ages to Kansas both in soil and |
climate; Kansas has more than
twice as many miles of railroad |
as we have.
Texas needs more immigrants
and can get them if the proper
effort is made, but IN order to
do SO it must be done systemat-
ically. If we want settlers the
advantages of the country must
be shown. The question to be
determined is, how and who is
going to do it?