Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-20
WHOLE NUMBER 1898.
BAJKWARDNESs OF THE
SOUTH.
ION ID Now York Tlmes.

| From the New York Times.
President Hayes, in his speech at
the soldiers reunion at Columbus.
dwelt upon the significant fact that
the tide Of immigration to this coun.
try very generally keeps clear Of the
Southern States and spreads chiefly
over the undeveloped sections Of
the West. This be attributes
largely to the lack Of means of
popular education in the South,
and suggests that they might prop.
erly be supplemented by the Ma.
tiOnal Government for the sake of
the benefit to accrue to the whole
country. Lack of educational fa-
cilities in that section has undoubt-
edly something TO do with the destin.
alton OF immigrants who come 10
our shores, and with a general spread
of population, but il is not the only
cause, and probably not the chief
one, that direct the existing tenden.
cy. Men who are seeking new
homes for their families or new fields
for their labor or their capital are
governed by general conditions, of
which the opportunities for educa-
tlon are part only. They are seek
ing for peace and comfort and that
freedom of opinion and action with.
out which these are not to be had.
In the unoccupied or sparsely settled
regions Of the West they at once
become part of a society that NAV
be primative and lacking in many Of
the appliances Of an older civiliza-
ton, but they can easily acquire good
lands, they can use their labor to the
best advantage that natural condi-
tions admit, and they can cooperate
on equal terms with those whom
they find there in building up schools
or whatever institutions their cir
cumstances require. They can be
speedily admitted to citizenship and
freely enjoy its privileges and bene.
fits. They know, too, that capital
and population will continue to flow
In about them and build up a con-
stantly improving society Of which
they will form a part, and in which
they will share the benfts equally
with them. If they do not choose to
seek the frontiers, but settle down in
well developed communities. thew
find a ready welcome, and the oD-
portunities not only of education.
but OF all the social and political ad-
vantages that surround them. They
will be free in their opinions and in
their actions, and can employ their
efforts in a peaceable and orderly
state of society for the promotion of
their own well-being.
SuPposing, on the other hand,
they were to 60 to the South. In
many parts of that section lands are
cheap, labor and capital are needed,
and under favorable conditions there
would be a chance for prosperity
equal to that to be hoped for in any
section of the country. But thew
would find there an old society vi.
tiated by the spirit of caste which is
the product of generations of slav-
cry. They would find a system of
labor which is free only in name.
They could not settle down and be-
come part of homogeneous society,
animated by purposes and objects
similar to their own. They would
find a ruling aristocracy which look.
ed upon them as an inferior class.
They would be liable to be inter
fered with by disorderly and lawless
persons to whose preiudices they
might not see fit to conform. I'm
less they submitted to the intolerant
mandates of the ruling class they
would not be free in their political
opinions or their political action,
and might find the privileges of
citizenship practically denied them.
They would be subject to social
ostracism and the CALLING affronts of
the caste spirit. Moreover, they
would not be in a section which was
attaching to itself the energy and
capital necessary for the progress
and improvement in which they are
anxious to share. These make their
way there slowly and in spite of re-
buffs, and not with that alacrity
which they would display if they
were received in a better spirit.
Capital and enterprise go where
public faith is to be relied on, where
law and order prevail, aud where
society puts their possessor at ease.
Unfortunately, this is not the case
in thelSouth. Hence, the South does
not receive its share of immigration,
it does not absorb capital and energy
from the North, and it remains poor
as we'll as proud as the result of its
own perversity.