Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-02-06
SOUTHWARK TREND
OF POPULATION.

The predictions which from
time to time have been made in
the Baltimore Manufacturers
| Record as to the southwark trend
of population are being verified
in a way that is amazing to those
who thought 5hey would never be
realized. Within the last few
months the movement of people
from the North and Northwest
to the South has become one OF
the most noticeable features OF
the business interests of the day.
This is resulting in large pur-
chases of land for colonization
purposes, and the starting of en-
terprises which must have a
wide-reaching effect upon the
whole country. When it was an
nounced in the Manufacturers s.
Record last fall that colonizas
ton enterprise under the au-
spices of some Grand Army peo-
pie Of the West had been unders
taken, with a view to settling
40, 900 or 50, 900 people on a 100, :
0O0-acre tract of Georgia land,
the project was regarded with a
great deal Of skepticism. The
public scarcely believed that it
could succeed, and dire predics
tions Of failure were heard. A
dispatch from Fitzgerald, Ga, ),
shows, however, what has al>
ready been done. and indicates
something of this remarkable en-
| terprise, now commanding the
attention of the entire country.
Since last September some 5000
or 5000 Western people, many
of then well-to do financially,
have settled On this property,
and 100 or more are daily arriv-
ing. The movement is now as
suming national importance. It
is estimated by Mr.. Fitzgerald,
the organizer Of this colony, that
$4,000 or 10000 people will be
settled in that district within the
next twelve months. The infu>
ence of such d great immigration
as this, drawing population from
every State in the Union and
from Canada also, must neces-
sarily be of a far-reaching char
acter. 1t means many changes,
many improvements, the COM
mingling Of the people of all sec
tions and the union of energy and
capital in the upbuilding Of
this section. What is being done
at this point in Georgia is, how
ever, being repeated, but on a
smaller scale, at many other
places throughout the South. AS
announced in the last issue Of the
Manufacturers Record, a sale OF
II, 900 acres Of land near South
ern Pines. N. c., was closed last
week to New York people, who
expect to settle 1900 families on
the property within twelve
months. Another sale of nearly
$4,000 acres in Mississippi has
just been made to Western peo-
pie, who expect to colonize it
with Iowa farmers. There is
scarcely a State in the entire
South in which a number of en-
terprises of this kind are not be-
ing undertaken, and the aggre-
gate value of land sold and the
aggregate of population already
coming this way already far sur
passes the highest expectations
of those who for the last few
years have been predicting a
great wave of immigration
sweeping from the North and
Northwest Southwark.
It is difficult to fully measure
or state the influence of such a
change as this. With the incom-
ing of these thousands, giving
assurance that within the next
few years the South will be re-
ceiving from 100000 to 100000
new people a year, there will
come an upbuilding of agricul-
tural interests, an advancement
of manufacturing, a creation of
wealth greater than was seen in
the days when the mighty West
ward movement of population
opened up that region and
brought into existence such
thriving cities as Milwaukee,
St. Paul, Minneapolis, Denver
and other places.
Added to what the South it
self is doing, the won
derful effect which this move
ment of population will have, we
can see before this section a pc
riod of activity promising greater
results than have ever been
achieved in any part of this coun-
try.