The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-04-11
STATES GREAT NEED.
1t Wants Thrifty Foreigners TO Make
Their Homes Here.

industrious foreigners come TO our STATE
and make it their home. In the present
article, l hope to be able TO show some
| inducements to those outside our State
and to suggest to our people a plan tC
get these inducements before the world
Surely we have abundant reason to go
before the world of hOme-seekers in full
confidence. The trouble is, so few of our
own people know what we have in re-
sources; and those who know, are appar-
emily too modest to say much about it
Now, if we ever amount 10 much as a
commonwealth, we must talk more and
talk louder. do not mean that we should
indulge in highly colored extrava-
gancies, but we must give cold facts to
the world, and give them all.
North Carolina embraces a land area
of thirty millions OF acres. OF this,
three and half millions are devoted to
cereals, (mostly to corn one million acres
are devoted to cotton, and about one mil
lion acres are devoted to tobacco, truck,
vineyards, &c. This leaves us, at least,
twenty-five millions OF acres of unculti-
waited lands. One-half OF this, or twelve
and a half million acres, could be as sue
cessfully cultivated as the million acres
now in cultivation. In other words, we
could easily furnish homes for an agricul-
tural population three times as great as
now live in the State And when we
consider the fact that nearly all our
farmers adhere to the old "skinning" sys-
ten, we could easily multiply our present
population by six, if the modern inten-
siye methods were adopted.
Our lands. when properly cultivated
yield handsome returns to the energetic
hands of the skillful husbandman, and
what we need most, just now, is an in
fiux OF husbandmen to occupy our lands
We have been in the habit of deploring
our great deficiency in manufacturing en-
terprise. That is all very well, but | in
sist that we need, first and most, men
to till the soil. While a single factory
will bring more capital into the State
than will single farmer, it must be re-
membered that it is much easier to obtain
score OF farmers than one manufactur-
er. if we go at it right.
How shall we induce these people to
come to our State? In answering this
question l wish TO say first, that the So
called immigration Associations that have
been ostensibly engaged in securing set
tiers for our State, are not, in my Opin-
ion, the best mediums through which to
reach desirable result. had some very
unsatisfactory experience with one Of
these associations, and l may be preju-
diced, but | just mention this in pass
ing.
This matter should be mana ged by the
Satte. Let there be an appropriat ton for
the Agricultural Department, of q suf-
ficient sum to pay an extra clerk of good
business sense to take immediate control
of this work. Let him have at his dis
posal sufficient money to literally adver-
tiSe farming lands in the Northern States
and in foreign countries, especially in
Great Britain and Germany. There are
thousands of farmers in the North and
Northwest who are anxious to find a
more genial climate, and they would
come TO our State if they knew what we
have TO offer them. In Europe there are
annually, tens Of thousands of thrifty,
honest farmers who come to America,
and we could get large share of these
if they knew, before they left the Old
Country, that we could give them such
soil and climate as we have.
We must deal honorably with these
people, and give unvarnished facts if we
wish to hold them when they come. Pri-
vate land companies and immigration
bureaus are in the business for the money
there is in it, and little do they care what
sort of q customer they have, or what
becomes of him after they get him here.
They misrepresent what they have, and
charge exorbitant prices for their lands
We never will get the class of people we
desire by such methods.
| know there is always objection to
spending the States money for anything,
and l confess that what has been spent
in this direction, by our State, has not
realized very we'll; but the main reason
is, that we did not spend enough, we
quit too soon. If the State would wise
ly spend ten thousand dollars a year for
the next five years, to advertise our re-
sources, the most sanguine friends OF
immigration would be astonished at the
good results.
At the session OF every Legislature,
some one introduces bill to exempt
new manufacturing industries from tax
alton. How much more sensible and
profita BILE it would be to spend some
money in inducing somebody to come
to the State who would help us pay taxes.
/ venture to assert that not single man
ufacturer will ever move to our State,
or to any other State, ON account Of ex-
emption from taxation. Taxes form
a small part Of the expense account OF
manufactures, and men who see only
such an inducement as that, will turn
their faces in another direction. Let
us get out of the foolish idea that few
dollars exemption from taxes will bring
us desirable population.
The railroads OF the State could do
very much TO assist in this great work,
and no doubt they would gladly do 90
They have always contributed their
share, and often more, to the building
up Of the State. in fact, we owe most Of
the good that has come to us from other
sections, to the railroads.
The newspapers are willing to do all
they can, but the number of State pa
pers which are read outside of the State
is so small that they cannot accomplish
much outside of educating and stimu-
lating our people to their duty. This is
great deal, and is the first work to be