The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-29
WHY THE SOUTH GETS so FEW IMMI
GRANTS.

The Associated Press special Berlin
cable letter, published on Sunday morn
ing, closed with paragraph of deep
significance to the South. We quote:
"The Kreutz Zeitung warns Ger
man farmers against the invitations
of enigrant agents to settle in the
Southern States of America and
calls upon the government to issue a
strict prohibitive decree against such
emigration since German farmers
are too good to compete with black
labor in the cotton and rice fields.
We have recently had much discussion
in North Carolina, set in motion by Mr..
Pages trenchant and able speech at
Greensboro, to discover the reason why
so many more North Carolinians seek
their homes in other States than citi-
zens of other States and countries emil
crate to North Carolina. Mr.. Page gave
strong reasons for believing that 1t was
because of the short terms of our weak
schools, and there is no doubt that this
has been one of the great propelling
causes that have driven 293, 900 Caro-
6nians to seek homes elsewhere and has
had even a stronger influence to check
emigration, giving us only $1,000
emigrants born in other States to take
aleir places, loss of 241, 900 citizens.
While agreeing with Mr.. Page in his
views upon our false semi-aristocratical
educational policy, we have not chosen
to debate matters of opinion about which
we may differ with him or with other
gentlemen who are combating his argu-
ments. There is no end to a discussion
upon matters of opinion. We print else
where in to-day's paper a synopsis of an
argument by Maj. Hale giving his epin-
ION and his reasons for reaching conclu-
sions differing from those reached by
Mr.. Page. 1t is we'll for the people,
having read in these columns the full
text Of Mr.. Pages address to read the
substance of the first public reply in a
speech before a gathering OF men and
women deeply concerned with regard to
the matter of education.
1t is not our purpose to enter the dis
cussion, except to say that it is our ma
ture judgment that the chief cause that
has sent immigrants past our inviting
fields to the far West is contained in the
argument made by the Kreutz Zeitung.
1t is no new thing in Germany and other
foreign countries, as well in the crowded
Northern States, for the people to feel
that they "are too good to compete with
black labor in the cotton and rice
fields" And it is because white men,
looking for homes to rear their children,
have been unwilling to come in contact
with the negro that fertile land in
North Carolina and other Southern
States goes untitled. The presence of
the negro has been from the first the
prime cause why North Carolina, one of
the large States upon the formation of the
Constitution, has seen other smaller and
wealth and population. Mr.. Woodrow
Wilson, who has lived in the South and
learned the truth, understood the true
reason why it has not advanced more
rapidly when he wrote in the current
Atlantic Monthly that the South "has
On its peculiar labor problem a hindrance
to progress at once unique and ominous.'
A "hindrance" it has been from the day
the first slave landed on our shores, and
it is to-day as in the past "ominous" te
every thoughtful citizen who earnestly
longs for the quicker development of the
South.
1t not only keeps away the thrifty and
industrious German farmers, whose lead
ars are so anxious that they shall not
compete with black labor" as to advo
cate ga strict prohibitive decree" a
gainst their immigration to the South
II is not only that the presence of the
negro repels such immigration, and the
development of our resources which woult
follow their settlement. We could, will
some degree of equanimity, witness thu
failure to get foreign immigration
desirable as the best class is-if the
same cause that repels them did not alst