The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-01-31
SOUTH AND WEST.
ANATIONAL OPPORTUNITY PRE-
SENTED.

OEN lEU.
VIII the Southern States Improve the
Chance They Have to Increase Their
Population by Recruiting it With a
Desirable Class of People From the
Northwest?-A Timely Suggestion
by the Southern States Magazine.
Baltimore Southern States Magazine.I
The sending of food supplies from
the South to the impoverished farmers
of the Northwest is proper and COM
mendable act, but it should be supple
mented by measures more lasting in
effect. In dispensing charity it is not
enough that the immediate wants of
Of the needy be supplied. Some
means Of self help should be provided,
SO that the present object of charity
might be enabled to lift himself above
the need of charity. In the case OF
the Nebraska and Dakota sufferers the
pressing and predominant need is for
food and fuel, but something beyond
this temporary relief is imperative.
Here are thousands of unfortunate pco-
pie shut up within limits of region
wholly incapable of supporting them.
More en,erprising and adventurous
than their fellows, they have gone
out to these desolate plains in search
OF ampler opportunities and greater
prosperity than seemed open to them
in their former homes. In the contest
with the hard conditions of life found
there they have exhausted what means
any of them may have carried with
them, and are unable to escape from
the country, though if they must perish
from hunger or cold, or drag out a
miserable and despairing life of inces-
SAINT toll and harshest privation and
want The short summers in that
region are fiercely hot. The winters
are long and intensely cold. No great
diversity OF crops is possible few
staples alone can be produced and
all farming operations must be con-
Quoted during a brief and burning
summer. During the comparatively
short time that that region has been
populated its inhabitants have waged a
brave but Intellectual warfare against
Billiards, droughts, low prices OF
staples and constantly recurring crop
failures. TO remain there means a
perpetuation of their sufferings there
can be no possible hopes Of any great
or permanent improvement.
The situation offers an unparalleled
opportunity for work that shall com
bne philanthrophy and business. l,
is not through any fault OF their own
that these people are dependent upon
charity. They are industrious, ener-
getic and thrifty, but the elements are
against them. In any region where
they might have half a chance they
would be successful and prosperous.
In the South, with its mild and equable
climate, rendering work possible every
week in the year with its wide diver.
sity of crops, relieving the farmer OF
dependence upon any single product,
and enabling him moreover to have
something to sell almost every month
in the year with its lower cost OF
living, and with its wide range OF
fruits and vegetables and its abundant
supplies of game and fish that would
enable the farmer to live almost within
himself, these people of the Northwest
would rapidly build up comfortable
and prosperous homes. To transport
them from their present environment
to some part of the South would not
only be an act Of permanent charity
but could at the same time be made a
profitable business.
Let company be organized with
adequate capital to buy land in large
areas in different parts of the South,
divide it up into small farms, build on
them cheap but comfortable homes,
, and colonize on them in large mum
bers these Dakota and Nebraska
farmers.
1t would be necessary, of course, to
pay the cost of their transportation, to
supply them with farming implements,
seed and stock, and to furnish them
the means Of subsistence for such time
as would elapse before they could have
matured crops to furnish them food
and to be sold.
Lands should be acquired in different
parts of the South and adapted to all
agricultural pursuits, SO that the tastes
and propenslties of all might be &C.
commodated. A fair profit should be
added TO the cost Of the land and
improvements, and to that also of the
farm machinery and general supple:
! bought at wholesale) and the whole
together with the outlay for transporta
ton and other advances, should be
made payable in ins,almen,s through
period of years, the debt bearing
interest at a reasonable rate. Of any
single body Of land acquired only 2
part, say not more than half, should
be settled in this way, the remainder
being left 10 ge, the benefit of in
creased values. Besides the source o
profit in farms sold to these colonists
and of the future greater profit in tn.
remaining tracts to be sold at higher
prices to later voluntary settlers, there
would necessarily grow up gradual,
wherever colony should be settled, ;
centre OF stores and shops and small
factories, and in such centres lane
would have town lot values enormousl,
out Of proportion to the acre price
originally paid for it. Every colony
I, would become a nucleus of develop
ment and progress.
| OF course an operation of this sor
would require large capital,-not les