Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-29

nenc6 the ra1lr0aUS una 1t Impossible TO
locate immigrants here, no matter how
anxious they may be to do so. If differ
ent county organizations through
out the state would send into some CEN
trail organization the number of acres of
land for sale in the various counties, the
character and location of the land, and
the price at which it could be purchased :,
then the chances are that something
could be done by the railroads in the line
of settling up the state. As long as the
individual owners of land, however, are
themselves in the nature of spectators
expecting to put up the price of their
lands as the immigrants come into the
state to settle upon them, then nothing
much will be accom- plished. Cheap lands
will attract immigrants, and the railroads
will have no difficulty in selling
cheap lands in Texas apd other Southern
states. But these lands must be placed
at cheap valuation before they are put
upon the market and held there, other
wise the end in view will be defeated 1t
is not high priced but cheap lands that
intending immigrants are after, and be-
fore immigration can be made to flow
briskly into the Southern states some sys-
tenn will have to be devised by which the
individual owners of spare lands in these
states will place their property upon the
market i'll large bodies at a fixed value to
actual settlers. When this is done the
railroads may reasonably be expected to
do the rest -
And the following editorial from the
Montgomery Gala. } Advertiser, is a true
solution to the immigration question of
placing all vacant lands on markets
where they will attract attention:
"The Southern interstate immigration
convention was success. The attend
ance was large and the representation
first-class. Business men left their
homes and journeyed long distances in
order to lend the weight of their influ-
ence and names to the great project,
which, if realized, will revOlutionize the
situation now existing in many
parts of the South by Introducing set
tiers who will help build up the
neglected and waste places. Just
think of our own Alabama and of
| the fact that not over One-third of its
80 200 900 acres are improved and Guilt
waited. Yet in the last twenty years
thousands of our people have gone West
seeking fresher land, when there were
20 900 900 of acres in their own state
awaiting the woodman's AK and the
farmers pillow. Those forests should be
felled and that land put to the use for
which it was intended.
The members of the convention were in
dead earnest and had but one object in
| view, and that was to devise a plan by
| which desirable immigrants from the
| North and West and from Europe can be
| turned in this direction instead of going
to the bleak and inhOspitable regions
around the great lakes and at the foot of
the Rocky mountains. The plan agreed
upon is plain and practical one, i'll the
carrying out of which every Southern
state has a representative, and if the
people, and they are the land owners
most vitality interested, will join hands
with the general manager of the bureau
! of immigration it will not be long before
! the good effects of this convention will be
visibly felt
The writers of the above editorials have
a clear and correct conception of the
| positive necessity of the situation. In
my own state work, [ have had some
| severe and bitter experiences on account
of want of facilities for closing definite
contracts and permanently settling whole
colonies of emigrants. l have exhausted
every resource at my command and even
had them booked for Texas, and yet an
agent from Kansas, Minnesota or Dakota
swOOped down upon them, dis
played his wares, sold them land,
took them in charge and pi-
lOted them to their new location.
This, too, in the face of the fact that any
state in the South could have furnished
them more inducements and better land
at half cost, and it is well demonstrated
fact that this order of things would con-
tinue were we to be content with a news
paper and letter bombardment at long
range. Capitalists, investors and immi-
grants cannot be reached through fairy
tales, and thus it is that the best class of
advertising matter sent by mail or
through disinterested channels is like
seed s0wn at random and left to grow and
produce itself.
Therefore, it is the determination of
this bureau TO have built n real estate or
land car specially adapted to the purpose.
This car, like the advertising car, will
have emblaZOned on both its sides:
''SOuthern Interstate Immigration
Bureau. Special Land Car for Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New
Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, Virginia - In this |
car there shall be, as near as possible |
to obtain from every available source, a
acre of vacant land, for sale at Il fixed |
price, in every state and territory in the |
South. This car and the entire land de- |
partment shall be under the management |
of the very best talent we can procure, |
and the car VIII be provided with the very |
best species of information, including
maps, charts, land laws, abstracts, stat
utes, etc. of each state, and shall be
provided with competent speakers, who
can enlighten the public and influence the
Interested. This car, with its eutire par
phernalia of information, will follow i'm
mediately after the advertising car, and
continually work in the interest of every
state, county and individual who will
contribute advertising matter, furnish
reliable lists of lands with descriptions of
same at Il fixed price to hold good for at
least the space of one year, and who will
divide commissions with the bureau for
finding a purchaser of the same. This
plan will not only place all the unoccu-
pied lands of the South in all the markets
of the Union and Europe, and bring the
merits of each locality directly before the
investor and immigrant, but it
will actually sell the lands and ticket the
immigrant directly to them. The division
of commissions will be used TO help main
tain this branch of the bureau, and the