The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-21
An Unfounded Complaint.

! In the north there seems to be an i'm
preston that home seekers are not kindly
welcomed in the south. The Morning News
has received a number of letters from Mr..
| \. +. Thompson, secretary of the Board of
/ Trade of Johnstown, Pa, relative to send
| ing settlers to the south, particularly far
mers. He appears TO be very much in
! earnest in his efforts to get people Of small
means, who are anxious to better their
material condition, to emigrate to the
south. in a letter received from him on
Friday, he said he had written 20 the gov
errors Of all the southern states. asking
them if in their respective states there
We're wanting any evidences of good will
TO northern immigrants. Thus far, he
says, he has received a reply from only
one of them, Gov. Johnston of Alabama,
who wrote that any fair means for the de-
velopment of the resources of that state
would have his Endorsement and that of
the people of his state.
The point to which Mr. Thompson calls
particular attention, however, is the al
legged lack of good will in the south to-
wards new corners from the north, and he
incloses an article from the Philadelphia
Press in which the statement is made that
the farming population in the south is
full of talk of our way warn strangers
not to NEEDLE in politics and run them
out of the country if they do"
The statement that strangers are run
out of the country" in the south If they
NEEDLE in politics has no foundation in
fact There are thousands of northern
men here in Georgia, and they talk poll
tics as freely as they please and vote as
they want to. If there were any interfer-
ence with them the fact would get Into the
newspapers of the state and be comment
ed on. Within hundred miles of Savan-
nah is a community of 1000 northern and
western people, and they take a very live
ly part in politics. At Triton, there are
many northern farmers-in fact, northern
farmers are scattered pretty well over the
state, and they are coming to Georgia and
Florida by the thousands every year. We
know they are kindly received and the
southern farmers give them a hearty well
come. If the Philadelphia Press thinks
they are not received with good will why
I
that effect from some of them now living
in Georgia or some one of the other south
ern states? 1t cannot get them from fair
minded men.
There was hostility to northern repubh-
cans in the rural districts in the carpet
bag period, and it is the recollection of that
hostility which is the foundation of the
talk and the newspaper articles to which
Mr., Thompson refers. There is no such
hostility now. None of the southern states
is in danger of negro rule.
1t is not improbable that if northern
man should settle in a country district
quite remote from any town, and should
make himself disagreeable by boasting of
the success Of the north in the war of Sc
cession, he might not find his neighbors
very friendly, but would southern man
who constantly sneered at the yankees
find residence in country district in New
England congenal? We hardly think So
No, the south is not repelling northern
home seekers. 1t extends to them
hearty welcome. The tens of thousands
of northern people who are living in the
south will bear witness that such is the
fact.