The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1891-01-15
WHY NOT COME SOUTH,

while only hundreds accept the sun
ny welcome which the South ex-
tends to all Is it because the IA
nous legend over Leutze's painting
in the national capitol or Greeley's
we'll worn precept has cast spell
over the people +? Or is it because
there is some mysterious law Of ma
ture that impels the earth's popula-
ton to move westward, and which
will one day cause the hordes of
China to be spread over Europe in
fulfilment OF Lord Wolseley's pre-
diction Be the cause what it
may, it does not work to the advan-
tage eff the South, and it is qucs-
tionable if it works to the advan-
tage of the average emigrant.
Since the region which was form
erly known rs "the great plains"
has come to be settled the country
is narrowed Every year with &C
counts of the yufferings of the in
habitants from billiards in winter,
drought in summer, and partial fam
inc almost every year. Last fall
and winter there was a disastrous
failure of crops in Dakota, and the
legislature of the States came near
being bribed by the Louisiana com
pany to grant it a charter in'return
for supply of seed wheat for the
impoverished farmers. The State
was spared that disgrace and its
people received sufficient aid from
other sources to enable them last
spring to renew the struggle against
the adverse natural conditions that
are continually blighting their eff
forts.
Of farming on the western plains
it is eminently true that ''man pro-
poses, but God disposes." The
farmers put seed into the ground
with mingled hope and doubt, but
when the harvest time came their
task was light. The droughts have
been more disastrous this year than
last, being more wide spread. The
farmers of the two Dakotas, of Ne
braska, and of Oklahoma, find them
selves in the midst of q year of
greater hardship and privation than
ever before. The spectre of famine
sits by their fresides while the pitt
less blizzard bowls without. In
western Nebraska 10000 families
are destitute of means of subsistence.
! The legislature, as in many pre-
vious years, will have to adopt
measures for their relief, and there
will be appeals for outside aid.
The naked truth of the matter is
that farming in the western por-
tons of Kansas, Nebraska and the
DakotAs is a failure. The records
of rainfall demonstrate that it must
be SO, and the experience proves
that it is so. And still farther west,
between those states and the Rocky
Mountains, the climatic conditions
are even worse. One year in three
there may be abundant rain and
good crops. Then this region is
advertised again as land CT plenty
and another wave of immigration
rolls into it again. Then comes two
years CT drought, and wall goes up
louder than ever because OF the
greater number of threats and of
hungry stomachs. The people be.
come pauperized in measure, they
have to mortgage their lands if
they can, and a vast amount of mis-.
cry is the result.
1t is lamentable to witness so
much misdirected effort. When the
South offers such combination Of
superior attractions it seems that it
must be blind intatuation that
leads people to seek their fortunes
on the arid plains OF the far west.
No one bears of famine in the South
or disastrous drought, except occas-
ionally in g few counties. Crops
are almost invariably good. The
climate is unrivaled. The cost of
living is less than liz other sections.
Lands are cheap. And yet it seems
ten thousands of honest, hard work