The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-17
BIDDING FOR IMMIGRANTS.
The Board Of Trade Inaugurates a Move
ment That Will Benefit the State.
Good Reasons Why Eastern Farmers Should
scttls In Indiana in Preference to the
States andTerritories Further West.

hoods, in every county, and can furnish
homes at az low a rate to immigrants who can
purchase improved lands as any of the States
9urnfe1, thousands of acres Of land at lower
figure than her Western neighbors, who are
much farther from market and the centers of
civilization. The restless men Of the East
ought to know what splendid opportunities this
State can afford for frst-class homes ut small
prices The improved lands Of the States, and
even of the Territories, of the West are higher
10 price than ours, because the tide OF immigra-
ton has been continually pouring in there,
while It has not been SO with us. Our land has
not been in demand, and so the price is low.
Plenty of land can be had from So to ego an acre.
Would it not be q good scheme for our railroad
men to get up excursions to Indiana from the
Atlantic States so as to exhibit our unequalled
advantages of soil. timber, stone, coal. gravel,
clay, water and all the varied products Of the
rich soil-our grains, grapes, fruits, vegetables
and live stock9 We have room for two millions
more Of farming and gardening population. Let
MS invite them in. They will in turn build up
our mechanics, merchants and manufacturers
-our towns and cities. Why shall we let these
thrifty farmers of the East, who can get 5000 an
acre for their land. go by US and pay more for
land In Missouri, Kansas, Texas. Nebraska,
Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota than for better land
in our own STATED Every county. ought to publish
her statistics as to the prices of land. to bring
this class Of people into our midst
The local Board of Trade has taken steps to
have excursions Of the character referred to run
into Indiana, and to that end is now cooperating
with State Statistican Peele. in the gathering of
information concerning the price Of lands, quail
lty of the soil, character Of the products, ETC.,
which is to be disseminated in the East through
proper channels. It is hoped that much prac
teal benefit will accrue from the movement.
Attention is invited to the following extract
from the letter.
'"The absolute return Of the Southern State
governments to their own people has not been
were so many suitors for office, and the grade of
living has been SO advancing In the South, under
the influence of the North, that notwithstand-
ing the increase Of manufactures there, the sense
of poverty, IL not the fact, is more manifest
than ever. The enormous movement OF immi-
grafton into the former free States has some
what extended to the Southern populations.
During the present week was at Hagerstown,
IN Maryland, which is only some fifteen miles
from the State of Virginia, and there saw
very remarkable scene to me- There were hang
ing up in the hotel large colored bills, saying
that the Pennsylvania railroad would run from
Hagerstown and places north Of it q train every
Tuesday to Chicago and St Louis. and send
lands, to give the passengers all information
they desired about proceeding to Kansas Ne
bpaska Minnesota, Dakota, or points further
West. This seemed to me to be peculiar kind
81 Ohio train found it also crowded with pas
ssneers, and asked the conductor what had
happened. r,,. 49, 800, -,
sien to the Northwestern States from Pennsyl-
vania aud Maryland, in these old Dutch counties >
'sSaid I: rs this the only excursion Of the
kindP
4Oh, no; ii has been going on for ten years.
In that time thousands Of persons from the Cum
berland valley have been transplanted to the
West, and the business has got to be SO large
every spring that the general passenger agents
reach out for it.
What proportion of these people settle out
Westp
at the West, and return again. But these are
apt to go off the next spring and make second
excursion, and perhaps. settle there Others
go out TO settle at the outset, and through this
country you will 6nd, in March and April, hand
bills in every direction, where the farmers are
exposing for sale their stock, implements, ETC.
'Said /: Are not the farmers doing well in
these old limestone valleysP
"'They are not doing as we'll, they think, as
those who 60 West Here the farmers have
large families, and their sons are unable to get
farms Land has risen in value until it can no
longer be proftably farmed at the price 1t brings
So these farmers go out West, where they can
buy land for $50 an acre, and even cheaper than
that, whereas the best lands in the East will
bring as high as 5000 an acra When the West
ern fever sets in it seldom leaves family till it
has taken some of the members. In short. said
the conductor. our old regions here lack enter
throughout the South. They have not learned
how TO let Immigrants alone when they settle,
but poster them with preposterous advice and
hospitality, and so these old farmers and their
sons like to join the big channel which runs
northwestward."
''sDo not some of these immigrants from Ma
rylsnd and Virginia go to Texas"
Not as many as went q few years ago. They
are all striking for the country now beyond the
Missouri river
seems to show that either the lands in that
region are superior or that when men make mn
their minds to change their homesteads they
want 10 get among purely practical people, with
varied employment and large and growing
towns. In 1860 there was but one large city in
the South--New Orleans. and that does not at
tract people as it did, The large towns Of the
South in our time are Atlanta, in Georgia. which
is the most Northern of all the Southern cities
in its character and basis and others beyond the
Mississippi, like Kansas City, which is two
thirds Northern city, and little Rock, and
Texas towns like Austin, Houston, Dallas and
San Antonio. But think that none Of these
cities which have named, except New Orleans,
is the equal Of Denver in population, a
place which, just before the war, was
called the Rocky mountain gold field.
Omaha, suppose, is city as large as Atlanta,
in Georgia. The towns which emanated from
the Northern States in the West, are well sup
Piled with manufactures, and they arc thickly
planted, growing so fast that the public hardly
knows the name Of place before it has received
ave thousand to seven thousand inhabitants
observe that the freight from the West to the
East. Of mercantile nature, are SO remarkably
cheap that they give the intimation of being
either very numerous or very few. / saw a
windmill, sent from near the border of Indiana
when was at Hagerstown, which had been de-
posted eighteen miles south Of that place. had
been trans-shipped. and the entire freight was
only So 80 To send three chairs from New York
TO the same point costs just that amount of mon
ey, whereas New York is only 300 miles distant
and the other place TOO miles remote
0rdaraS In Guhmft the Records