The Chickasaw messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1880-1900, 1889-03-14
IMsIIGRATIoN

The progrcssionists with a big =. /
in Alabama seems Go have had things
their own way for some time past aud
they have been .pen9G fine chance
Of the people. moucs&in immigration
schemes Of various kinds and of ques-
tionable propriety Amongthe latter
we class Commissioner kobh', palace
ear excursion. all over the North and
West. which like tin story Of the bull
pup and the old man. is jolly for the
boys. engaged IN the junketing. but
pretty hard on the taxpayers. So
long as the people entered no protest,
this craze would likely have kept mp
and increased in volume and eXpendi-
ture, but finally the Farmers Alliance
of Tuscaloosa county came TO the
front with a memorial to the Alabama
Legislature asking that the eNtraya-
giant folly be discontinued aud they
present such cogent reasons for the
faith that is in them, the intelligent
reader will actually wonder why the
protest was so long delayed. Il reads
as follows
Whereas, The Alabama Agricul-
tural Society, at meeting held last
July in Huntsville, adopted a resolu-
ton requesting the Legislature Of this
State to expend twenty thousand dol
lars towards inducing farmers from
abroad to move into Alabama; and,
Whereas, The Southern Interstate
immigration Convention, which met
at Montgomery in December last,
adopted measures looking to a call
upon the Legislatures Of nearly all the
Southern States for assistance in or
ganizing and promoting immigration
into the South from other sections and
continents; therefore,
Resolved, BY the Farmers Alliance
of Tuscaloosa County. /, In Ala
bama there are two classes Of persons
who own lands outside the cities. In
one those may be included, who.
though living in or near the towns,
own large tracts of land in the coun-
Try. which they either rent out or al
low to remain idle. These find no
pleasure in their lands and are simply
waiting for a good opportunity to sell
out. Planting, cultiyating and har-
vesting are things which engage their
attention but little. Their tenants
may be farmers, but they are not.
The other class is composed Of farm
crs, properly so called. These watch
the weather, risk their labor or their
money in tilling the soil, note the
birth and growth of stock, and take a
lively interest in market prices. To
which of these two classes of land.
owners belong a majority of the mem
bers of the Agricultural Society, and
OF the Interstate Convention, we are
not aware. But those who seemed tC
have the most interest and influence
in those bodies at the times referred
to, were men who are more prominent
in politics and in professional and
booming circles than in actual agri.
culture. The Farmers Alliance, on
the other hand, is composed mainly
Of men who live in the country, raise
stock, cultivate crops, and feel direct
interest in the profits and losses oil
farming.
,. In considering the subject Of i'm.
migratioH in should be borne in mind
that there may be vast difference
between the development Of mani
mate land in Alabama-mere fields
woods and mountains-and the devel
opment of the people by whom til,
land is now owned While it is Ger
tain that during late years there hai
been great development in the ter
ritory known as birmingham, and il
the territory round about, it is never
theless very doubtful whether tina
development has proportionately, i
at all, increased the wealth and pros
perity of the people who owned thos'
mountains of coal and iron twenty
years ago. The United States wa
once vast uudeveloped domain, oc
cupied only by Indians. With O
without their consent, immigrant
came over and developed the countr!
to its present condition. But Will,
they were developing the land, the!
drove to the Pacific ocean the aborigi
nal inhabitants. These illustrations
are mentioned simply to show tina
immigrants may develop territor!
without producing corresponding
development in the people by whom
immigration was brought about