The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-01-09

The annual meeting of the State Farm
ers' Association will take place on Wednes-
day. the 18th instant, in Pythian Hall,
North Gay street, Baltimore, and will con-
tinue two days. Ex-Gov. Hamilton Is
President. Indications point to large
assemblage, as every local organization OF
farmers in the state is entitled to send one
delegate, whilst every county will send sew
eral representatives. At the Convention
o. % ....st year, which resolved itself into this
more permanent body, committees were
amounted to take into consideration the
dairy interests of the state, and to propose
legal enactments for their benefit; and to
consider the subject of immigration and
submit to the legislature the draft of law
looking to promoting foreign immigration
to the agricultural districts of the state
Both committees will probably report at
this meeting.
Measures to promote immigration from
foreign countries we should regard as I'M
wise. Immigration is active enough al
ready, without any attempt to stimulate 1t
to additional activity. immigration is val
liable to newly-settled countries, but this
country is now nearly three hundred years
old, since the period of its first settlement,
and contains population of 6O,0OO,Ooo.
By the close of the present century, or nj
teen years hence, it will be 100000 600.
Then we shall begin to feel, that, vast as
our territory is, it is somewhat crowded.
Land will be enhanced in value and will be
harder to obtain. Our young men, as they
come of age, will have to remain hirelings.
instead of becoming owners of the soil,
Cheap land, like cheap bread, is one of the
greatest blessings any country can ENJOY,
and it is our cheap land that has built up
our country so rapidly. A dense and
crowded population raises the price of every
necessary of life and makes living dear and
difficult, "a hand-to-mouth struggle for ex-
istence, at least to the toiling classes This
state of things is not desirable. Fit come,
as come it will in the lapse of time, let us
not hasten it by unwise legislation. Look
at the results of all the immigration schemes
for the increase of agricultural labor, in
this country for half a century past. After
a brief period, the immigrant has invested
his earnings in small parcel of land, and
set up for himself, instead of cultivating
the lands of others. These results will be
repeated, until every nook and corner OF
our territory has been appropriated, and
there is no cheap land left for our young
men, who must be content to remain hew-
ers of wood and drawers of water for others,
instead of possessing the land themselves
and enjoying the right of proprietorship OF
the soil, as their fathers did before them.
They must relinquish citizenship here, and
become immigrants themselves in some new
and distant country whose territory is not
overcrowded. in order that they may enjoy
the advantages of proprietors of the soil,
which is the laudable ambition Of all who
follow agriculture as means of earning
their daily bread. Population, beyond
certain degree of density, is not desirable
or promotive of the greatest amount Of hui
man happiness. Nay, it is an evil, as the
worlds history proves; and it will not be
long before that evil overtakes us, if we
seek to encourage foreign immigration, in
addition to the natural increase of our own
population, in order the more speedily to
fill up our country to state OF density
everyday undesirable. 1t may crafty, for
a time, the cupidity Of its advocates, chiefly
large landed proprietors, but increased I'M
migration is not promotive of the future
happiness of our people
That we have not estimated our popula-
ton at too high figure, at the close of the
present century, will be seen from care
fully prepared report before us, of the num-
Der of immigrants which have arrived at
the port of New York alone, to say nothing
of the influx of foreign population in other
cities of the country, in the ten years be-
tween 1875 and 1885. That number was
2,412,954. The arrivals at other ports
will swell the number to more than three
millions. The highest number in any
one year was in 1882, when it amounted
to 476,086. A glance at our immigrant
tables will readily show that there is no
need of Legislation to encourage immigra-
ton. That the natural increase, in an ever
enlarging ratio, will swell our population,
we think, beyond even the figures above
named, at the end of the present century.
Certainly it would be mistaken policy to
stimulate immigration beyond its present
ratio of increase.