Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-01
WHOLE NO. 2,3lS.
The slumberIpg south.

1t is sad to contemplate the want
! of enterprise and energy In the
south. We have all the facilities
for making the most prosperous
people on earth, bat we are not
equal to our opportunities. Outside
of Georgia, the south Is doing but
little or nothing toward inanufac-
turing their own cotton, and other
sections grow rich on the profits
i which should be reaped by our Owp
/ people. The tide of immigration is
pouring into the United States, but
the south makes no effort to receive
its proportionates share. We have a
genial climate, rich soil, cheap and
fertile lands; but our people make
no effort to secure the useful and i'm
telligent population which has con-
! tributed TO the wealth and prosper
| ity or the western states. Louisiana
and Texas have established immi-
grafton bureaus abroad, and Mis-
souri, a few days since held state
convention to the same end; but
most of the southern states do not
seem to appreciate the importance
of holding out such inducements as
will secure a prOportionate share of
this foreign population which is
flooding the western states. The
value of foreign accession to our
population as productive power is
not to be measured by numbers.
They help to create new citizens,
new communities, new railroads,
and the extension of all the great
industries of the country. The
commissioner on emigration in New
York state that the average amount
of cash brought by emigrants during
the present year is at least sixty
dollars per head, and, taking the
total of four hundred thousand en-
igrants this year, it will thus be
seen that there is at once an addi-
ton of twenty-five million dollars
to the ready cash of this country.
This twenty-five million dollars of
ready hard cash brought into the
country is of course but a very small
proportion of the actual and imme-
diate addition of our production and
wealth which the pleasant food
tide of emigration supplies, for he
estimates that nearly one half of the
total, or about two hundred thous-
and of the emigrants this year, win
be male adults who viii sustain
themselves by their own labor, and
directly add to the productions and
monied capital of the country, An
other gratifying feature is the large
number of skilled artisans who of
late have been coming to these
shores, such as silk-weavers, glass
blowers aud makers, English cut
lers, French glOve-makers, and all
other skilled artisans, who will en-
able the country to excel in indus
tries i'm which hitherto America has
been unable to cope with Europe.
Hon. Edward Young, chief of the
United States bureau of statistics,
also estimates that the value per
capita of every einigrant who ar
rives on our shores is at least fifteen
hundred dollars, to say nothing of
the addition to Vir population of
their muscle, skill, steady habits,
and inventive gehins. Whenever
the south manufactures the cotton
which it produces-brings the looms
to the cotton instead Of transporting
the cotton to the mills OF Europe
and the northern states, and sue
ceeds in turning the tide of emigra-
tion to the south, we viii become
the most prosperous people on the
globe.