The morning call., 1893-06-01
COAXlNG IMMIGRATION.

A few days ago meeting of fifteen Gov
errors of Southern States took place at
Richmond. Va, to discuss plans to induce
Immigrants 10 flow into their respective
commonwealth. 1t does not appear that
they hit upon scheme which commanded
general favor, for the result of their deib-
erations has not transpired. But the need
of immigration and the openings for imm-
grants are so obvious that the subject is
likely to be kept before the public. The
disproportion between the arabic area of
the old slave States and their population
has long been matter of general surprise.
Before the war the anomaly was ascribed
to the existence OF slavery; since then 1t
has not been so easily explained. but the
cheap labor of former slaves has to be
considered The fact remains that in the
past forty years the grain States of the
central valleys have gained more popula-
tion by immigration than the cotton States
contain altogether. Yet there is as pro-
ductive land in Alabama, Mississippi and
Georgia as there is in Iowa, Minnesota or
Wisconsin.
1t is one of the most difficult things in
the world TO force immigration. Great
Britain and Canada have spent enormous
sums to transfer starving Englishmen and
Scotchmen to Manitoba. The country
they were invited 10 occupy was fertile !;
it will grow thirty-five bushels of wheat TO
the acre. Its institutions were liberal ;
the terms on which land was offered were
generous; but it has proved impossible 10
induce Englishmen to settle in large num-
berS, and at the present time the outgo OF
population is about as large as the income.
By offering bOunties. free land and loans
on improved farms. the Argentine Repub-
lie succeeded in attracting in the last ten
years about 100000 people from Europe.
chiefly Spanards and Italians. The
amount spent on the enterprise is between
100000 and S6,O00.0O When the col
lapse in Argentine finances took place in
1891 the bounties and loans were with
drawn, and at the present time as many
foreigners are leaving Buenos Ayres as are
arriving. Italian and Spanish peasants
are starving at home; but they do not
seem inclined to transfer their homes to
the pampas, where they could live in
plenty.
The explanation is that men are attached
to the place of their birth, and will not
accept exile If they can help it. We OBJ
serve the working of the proposition in
this State. The farmers of the river val
leys and of New England spent life of
unremitting toll for their daily bread; vet
they are slow to shift their tent 10 the other
side of the mountains, where in ten or fiji
teen years they might acquire cOmpe-
tency.
In choosing home, too. men are gov
erned as much by a desire for congenial
compauionship as for material advantages.
An immigrant wants to pitch his tent
among people who think and feel as he
does, and not among people whose ideas
of life are different from his own. In-
habtants of the ex-slave States have their
own theory of life. They inhabit coun-
try which is peopled by two races. The
Northern and the European workingmen
are brought up in way that would make
them feel out of place in the South, ana
they will not sacrifice their feelings for the
sake of doing better in material point of
view.
There appears to be no present proba-
bility that the Southern States will in
crease their population by immigration
either from the Northern States or from
Europe. They will have to rely on the
natural increase. That is keeping pace
with the natural increase in the North,
though it is doubtful whether the negro
population is increasing much. According
to the census of $780, the population of
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South
Carolina increased in the decade as much
in proportion as the western and central
States of the North. They will have to be
content with that The cotton product may
be swelled by superior industry among
both races; even if it is not, it is large
enough now to insure for the South a salts
factory measure of prosperity.