Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-22
THOUGHTFUL VIEW OF THE CON-
DITIoN OF ONE SOUTHERN STATE.

An English settler in Virginia" has
written to a New York paper a very
thoughtful letter. 1t evidences GOODNESS
and non partisanship. What the writer
says therefore, is worthy of consideration.
Virginia has been bidding for immigration,
offering as inducements cheap lands, near
ness to market and an equable climate,
while the foreign born population is shown
t. be less than l per cent. These things
attracted the English settler, and he went
in to enjoy the advantages and blessings of
the region. He has been ten years in the
State, and now renders his verdict.
Whether wholly sound or not, it is one
which must strike fire. The proximity to
markets he found TO be an overestimated
advantage the railroads are building up
the West, he thinks, at the expense of the
East To enjoy full market advantages
the settler must live on tide-water margins.
The climate is desirable, labor has been
low, and the colored citizens have had the
a
force that excludes foreign cheap labor.
But a change is coming about. The
laborers are going upon the railroads, and
the girls who went out to service are flock.
ing to the North. The complaint OF
scarcity OF labor is already being made.
lie concludes, therefore, that Virginia is
no longer to be the country for the poor
white man, and that there should be no
immigration thither except from among
men of some means. Labor would be
plenty enough if the people could afford to
pay fair wages, and this, he AYERS, they
cannot do. 1t follows that manu-
featuring industries must be built
up, if at all, by men with
money to buy lands and fix the plant.
The land in Virginia is cheap because it is
poor, but with patience and outlay it can
he restored to fair yielding state of fer
tility. But land is worth less to-day than
ten or fifteen years ago, and no settler de-
sires to invest where the prospect to in
crease in values is so small. The emigrant
who goes West takes with him the pro-
gressive syirt OF the North takes with
him the common. school system, and i'm.
proves it, and is free and untrammeled,
and finds every inducement to expand,
and hence he builds up progressive and
expanding communities. But how is it
in Virginia He finds there a virtuous,
well,disposed people, but hedged in, as
with a wall OF fire, by the traditions of
slavery. and living in an atmosphere of
prejudices and strong opinions of their own
merits, and having little sympathy with or
relation to the outside world. As they
are strong in belief of their own worth,
so are they strong in their belief as to the
demerit of the Yankee. People come to
the State from the North and settle, and
struggle on, and some succeed but some
howl he has noticed, they never advise
others to follow their example. For In
stance, the farmers who come from the
North are generally Republicans. At
home they have about them men of their
own political faith. Here in Virginia,
however, they are alone. For instance,
says this settler, there is not man
within twenty miles of my home with
whom can discuss national politics in an
intelligent manner" The Democrats and
the Readjusters divide the State between
them, and quarrel over a debt neither one
intends to pay. Political isolation is the
fate of the Republican in Virginia The
Northern farmer would be astonished to
learn from the principal papers, as he will
if he goes to Virginia, how much his party
and himself are prosecuting the South.
For instance, the tobacco tax, the lightest
and least hurttul of all the taxes, is de-
nounced as one of the instruments of North.
ern hate and oppression, and the Planter