The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-12-26
ALL LOSE PEOPLE
KANSAS NOT ALONE IN THE TX0-
DUS OF inhabitants.

|
Craze to Get into the South Where the
| Climate is Mild-Kansas Loses Mostly to
| Oklahoma While Illinois Loses Mostly
| to KansAs-Change In Population has
| Been Noted by the Railroads-SeveraI
| Colony Schemes Being Doomed.
| Chicago, Dec. 25,-The Times-Herald
| publishes the following, with dispatch
| es from several localities, claiming that
| a great immigration has set in from
western states TO southernstates:
Several western states are alarmed
by shrinking population. The tide of
emigration is changing, and they feel
the drain. In some sections people and
press are in arms TO stay the move
ment The drain on Iowa, South Da-
! kota, Nebraska, Kansas and Wiscon-
| sin has become serious enough for the
railroads of those states to give it at
! tention, and it threatens to grow. a
| strong tide of emigra ton has set in
| from those states to the south Even
Illinois feels the current, although not
| seriously. Curiously enough, Illinois
| people prefer to move westward into
| the very regions which are being de-
| serted by their early settlers.
For year past railroads having
| large tracts of land in the south have
been at work among the farmers of the
| northwest with enticing pictures of life
below Mason and Dixon's line, and they
| are now beginning to reap the fruit Of
| their labor. They have agents scatter
| ed over several states, who are gather
| ing the Drawn of western prairies and
sending it south to fell forests and till
| farms. A feature of the work is the or
ganization of a number of colonies,
which will give the northwern people
the society of neighbors and others who
| have ideas and tastes in common.
| These settlements are TO be conducted
| somewhat on the plan of the farm viii
lagos of Germany. The colonists will
live in a central village, and they will
go to and from work on their farms ly-
ing outside
An incidental feature of this migra-
ton is the fact that most of the emil
grants are Republicans. While politics
does not figure in the plans of the rail-
roads. the movement has attracted the
attention of politicians, who, in some
cases, notably in Nebraska, have tried
to prevent the emigration by declaring
that life in the south has many serious
assert there will be constant friction
with southern people on account of pol
itics. They find fault with the climate
and raise malaria as bugaboo. They
point to the negro population as men
ace, a nuisance and drag on all pro-
gress.
But neither press, nor railroads, nor
politicians have been able to stem the
tide, and the farmer, filled with the
pleasant prospect of working the year
round in his shirt sleeves. turns a deaf
ear to their walls. The emigration
agent tells him he cannot afford to raise
corn for the Chicago market on land
wonth $40 to 500 an acre, when he can
buy land in the south for IS to SIS an
acre. The agent talks of balmy breezes
all winter, of magnolia blossoms for
Christmas and of a soil that only needs
to be tickled to yield milk and honey.
or their equivalents. He even talks of
two and three corps year. and prom
iseS low freight rates to reach markets |
RAILROADS AT WORK.
These considerations have led hun
dreds of sturdy farmers in the north |
west to sell their high-priced land TO |
emigrate south, and that is why there |
is such a crusade in several states |
against certain southern railroads. The |
principal railroads concerned in this !
movement are the Illinois Central, the |
Queen and Crescent, the Louisville and |
Nashville and the Georgia Southern. |
Mississippi seems to be getting larger |
share of the new migration than other |
southern states, but Louisiana, Arkan-
kansas, Missouri. Alabama and Tenn |
essee are all getting a share OF ii. The |
emigration TO Mississippi is largely due |
m he nT hn
which commands special confidence in /
Iowa because 1t has line in thar state |
and is managed by northern men. |
When it bought the Louisville, New |
Orleans and Texas railroad In 1892 II |
acquired between 100000 and 100000 !
acres of land in the Yazoo country. |
This lies along the Mississippi between !
Memphis and Vicksburg. 1t is rolling /
and timbered-
The Illinois Central closed contract |
Saturday with the Catholic COLOMBIA
ton company for a TOWNSHIP of 100 arces
at Merigold, Miss At the head Of the |
company is Father T. F. eastman of /
St Jarlaiths church. of this and the en-
terprise is said to have the approval Of /
Archbishops Feehan and Ireland. The |
plan is to establish a colony OF Catho-
lies from the north, and the material !
for newspaper office will be forward
ed this week. Merigold is half way be- /
tween Memphis and Vicksburg. and is /
named for Frank Merigold. a cousin of |
W. \. Merigold, Chicago real estate |
man.
COLONIES ON FOOT.
on the opposite side of the railroad, |
and two miles east of Merigold. there is
to be a. Lutheran colony composed |
mostly of Norwegian farmers from the |
neighborhood of Story City. Iowa. A .
third colony has been started al Boyles |
with Germans and Hollanders from the /
neighborhoOd OF Cedar Rapids. Iowa
Foutytwo Of them were sent down last |
week, and one Cedar Rapids firm has |
sold 5000 acres of Mississippi land 70 To-
vans going south. Louis Auer & Sons /
of Milwaukee, are planting colony of 1
Germans and Poles from Wisconsin at !
Gainesville.
These are indications Of the move
mert 70 the south, but do not shows its i
magnitude. for hundreds Of northern |
farmers are acting as individuals in the |
migration southwark. This is better
indicated by the fact that the Illinois /
Central alone has twelve 10 fifteen |
agents at work in Iowa. eight in South 4
Dakota, Two in Wisconsin. two in Ne