The morning call., 1891-06-11
THE IMMIGRATI0N CONVENTION.

The meeting which was held on Tuesday
evening appointed committee to call a
State Convention TO devise a plan to pro-
mote Eastern immigration to this State. In
due course, the committee will probably
designate a time and place for the c0nven-
ton, and those who are interested will have
an opportunity of expressing their views.
It will be easier TO point out what should
not be done than what should be done. Mr.
Is. Marks, who IS familiar with the subject,
having devoted considerable time and stten-
ton to the promotion of immigration into
Fresno, probably told the truth when he
said that California on Wheels which
cost so much, brought no people into the
State" Whether it was unwisely managed,
or the mere exhibition of California prod
ucts did not lure Eastern farmers into pull
ing up stakes and moving here, the expert
ment seems TO have been a failure. 1t ap-
pears to follow that other operations on the
same lines would not hold out much promise
of success. Some other plan must be tried
If We are to get our influx of farmers from
outside.
Promoters of immigration have lots of ex-
amples to guide them. Within the past
forty years quite number of States have
swelled their population at an extraordi-
nary rate by inducing immigration from the
East and from Europe. For instance,
Kansas increased her people from 100000 to
100000 between 1860 and 1880: Nebraska
did nearly as well between 1870 and 1890 I;
Minnesota did even better during the last
two decades, and the Dakotas filled up in a
single decade. All these States drew off the
surplus population from the East, and like
wise imported thousands upon thousands of
new people from Europe. How did they do
it? Would the plan which answered in
their case also answer in ours?
There is another example nearer home-in
the new State of Washington. That State was
a wilderness ten years ago. 1t is now ahead
of Oregon, with two large cities. The State
filled up almost without effort Every tray-
eler who visited the Territory Of Washing
ton came back with the same story-that it
was the most wonderfully watered region in
the world, and that on the borders of its wa
tercOurses stood millions OF the finest trees
and outcrops Of coal at short distances from
each other. Timber and coal are things that
everybody understands, and when people in
the East learned that land on which they
stood was to be bought for a song, and that
there was ample water transportation for
both to the vast markets of the Pacific. they
had no hesitation in moving their homes
across the continent 1t does not appear
that any special efforts were made by land
companies or immigration syndicates or
railroads. Eastern people heard of the new
country from friends who were there, or
had been there, and they came in droves. 1t
costs more to reach Seattle from the Mis-
souri, Valley than it costs TO reach San Fran
cisco from the same point. But the expense
Of the journey does not seem to have retard-
ed the migration.
The average Eastern farmer is not as IA
miliar with the fruit industry and the wine
Industry as he is with the lumber or coal
business. There is to him n strangeness in
the new callings which he is invited 10 en-
brace In this State. Throughout the East
there still fingers a dread of California
droughts. Books otherwise correct inform
the reader that California farmer expects
&c lose one crop in three from the
want Of rain; the fact that our wheat crop
is more uniform than the wheat crop of
Kansas or Minnesota is unknown. These
obstacles to immigration to this State must
be overcome. They will disappear of them
selves in time. But those who are concerned
about the filling up of our empty places
should assist time in tue work.
The main task. however, which these per-
sons must set before them is to devise meas
ures TO uproot any barriers which may i'm