The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-01-12
SENATOR BUFFERS EMIGRATION
BILL.

BILL.
Now that tho bitter and heated race
feeling engendered by tho recent cleo
tons has in a large measure subsidized,
The public mind ia in q condition to con-
slider with calmness any remedy tend
ing in the future to secure rs against a
recurrence to political conditions which
all must deplore. 1t is essential to
Democratic self government and the
cause of order that elections should |
turn on measures Of public policy.
and not be life and death struggles
AGAINST barbarsm AID robbery.
1t is with this view that we express
the earnest hope that Senator Butler
bill, appropriating S5,eOO,OOO for the
emigration Of negroes, and practically
for their diffusion throughout the
country, may meet with the favorable
action Of both houses Of Congress.
Such a result would, in time, eradicate
all sectional feeling, would leave
no causes Of sdissension outside
Of purely political issues, and
the terms North, South and West
would have no significance, save for
geographical designation. But is the
object contemplated in Senator Butler =
bill practicable. and would it lead to
practical results? We need only to re.
fer TO the voluntary emigration Of
necroes estimated at $4,000 few years
ago from Louisiana, Mississippi and
Arkansas to Kansas, and to tho move
ment which is now going Oh in other
directions.
There is now a large emigration OF
negroes from North Carolina TO the
South, and the large landowners in the
alluvial bottoms Of the Mississippi, now
redeemed from overflow by ioyees, are
settling them on their estates on the
share system. Nor is this surprising,
when we remember that no other la
borer can have immunity from the
fevers and miasmatic diseases which
spring from the stagnant bayous and the
luxuriant vegetation Of the country,
but it is hardly possible that the move
ment will extend to the poor hill coun-
try Of any ono of the cotton States,
where his labor would be unremuner-
alive.
But with a sufficient appropriation by
Congress, there will inevitably be a
large emigration movement of negroes
TO the new States and Territories of the
West, where rich land is abundant, the
compensation of labor Is high, and the
laborer is in constant demand for enter
prises Of every description.
Now the question arises, if Senator
Buffers bill should pass, and secure
free transportation for the negro to
whatever destination he may think best
for his own prosperity and happiness
can we in Virginia afford to part with
him ? However great political nui-
sance he may be, the valueof the negro
in many industries in the cities will be
unquestionable until he can be effec
lively replaced, for he works in foun-
dries. in machine shops, in tobacco fac
tories, and is unsurpassed in domestic
service. But it is in the domain Of az
riculture-the pursuit Of an immense
majority Of our people-that he has
ceased to be a source of profit, and
wherever his race most abounds there
the country is most unprosperous and
Gesolate.
The reason Of the former is obvious
when we remember that steel rails
have brought the productions Of the
bouudless and inexhaustable prairies Of
the West to our very doors at a cost as
cheap ne our local rates, and with our
poorer soil aud with hired labor COM
petition with that fertile region has
become impossible. Even the produc-
ton Of shipping tobacco as an industry
bids fair to become as extinct as the
dodo, aud the West leaves us no hope
save the cultivation Of the finer grades.
The result Of this state Of things has
been that large portion of Virginia. as
pis alter. has been given up to negro
tenants, who have reduced agriculture
TO broad farce, but with rather tragi-
cal results to the land owner. We have
now reached point in the disposition
of agriculture. when land owner
must work with his own hands and pay
out nothing for labor, or so to the wall,
and as a general rule, farmer in Vir-
ginia, not cultiyating fertile land or
making yellow tobacco, who hires ne
gro for farm work, only illustrates his
own folly and the triumph of hope over
experience.
The negro then can well be spared
from agriculture in Virginia, and his
departure would only stimulate the
energies of the whites and open
the country to the immigration
of small farmers who will work
with their own hands but will not
settle among hordes of blacks. As
political element in our State. the ne
gro has proved himself either costly
voter OF unmanageable and mcorrigible
and without conception Of his own in
tcrest or the importance Of good gov
ernment. AID connecting his political
deficiencies with the hopelessness of
his advancing our agricultural int
rests. we may well rejoice if we can see
him seeking his fortune elsew here.