The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-03
THE WRONG VIEW.
ATLANTA Constitutional

The position taken in regard to the
prospects of immigration by the News
and Observer, of Raleigh, n. o., ana
the News, of Savanna, Ga, while based
ON q certain amount of fact, is mlslead-
ing. and does not indicate what the fu-
ture has in store for the Southern States.
The articles in our two esteemed con-
temporaries, to which we refer, are based
upon a dispatch of recent date:
The Kruetz Zeitung warns German
farmers against the invitations of emil
grant agents to settle in the Southern
States of America and calls upon the
government to issue n strict prohibiuye
decree against such immigration, since
German farmers are too good to compete
with black labor in the cotton and rice
fields.
The News and Observer, paying undue
attention to the importance of the dis
patch quoted, credits it as being genu-
inc objection to the South on the part of
German pubicists, when in fact it is
nothing more than Il clever piece of
strategic work performed by certain
Western railroads for the purpose of
keeping up the stream of German emf
grafton in that direction. The KreutZ
Zeitung is Just as amenable to the APP
proaches of a clever advertising agent
as is any of its contemporaries on this
side of the water. Therefore the article
is of but temporary effect, and does not
indicate a fixed condition of things as
it appears to the News and Observer.
The objections which Western railroads
set up against emigration to the South
should be met by the railroad companies
whose interests are wrapped up in South
ern progress. With superior argument
they can easily beat down the men of
straw which the great Western railroad
companies set up to lead the phlegmatic
German away. But enough on this
point.
We fear that in the article of the
News and Observer too much has been
granted as to the interference of the
negro with immigration. What the
News and Observer says was all correct
as applied to the situation before the
war, but with emancipation different
condition has been developed. Negro
labor is no longer the rule as it once
was. In large areas Of the South 1t will
be found that labor of all kinds is per-
formed by white men, and that it is
largely passing into their hands. The
South is an agricultural country almost
wholly, and as consequence agricultur-
al labor is the measure by which this
argument has to be considered. Ii the
South as an agricultural country was al
ready fully settled and lands were scarce
and dear, so that there was established
a laboring class who had no hope of ever
owning the land, some Of what the News
and Observer says might still be true,
but what are the facts! There is not a
county in the entire South in which lands
are not for sale in abundance at prices
so low that any sober white man can
own his own farm within a few years.
He does not even have to work as the
Iaborer to earn the money to buy it,
but he can get immediate possession of
it. and working as his own master, can
develop his own fortune. An example
Of this kind can be pointed out in the
colony of Fitzgerald in this State, where
Northern white men have settled, doing
their own work, making their own COM
pany and not in the least troubled by
the presence of the negro. This being
the case, there is no reason in the argu-
ment that white man has to fear negro
social influences. AS a rule, when for
eigners come to this country they come
for the purpose of owning the land upon
which they work. Generations must yet
elapse before the labor market in the
South can become so congested that we
will have what is known in other coun-
tries as an exclusively labor population.
In a country where every man may own
his own home. where the acres are fer
tile, where he can get more return for
a given amount of work than anywhere
else in the world, there is certainly Of
fe-ed to the German or GEy other iIo-
migrant the best field N which to work
out his fortune and TO make home for
him family.
The negro is not in the way in the
South, though interested emigration
agents may try to make it appear so.
The Savannah News is also unfortunate
in having attached too much Importance
to the presence of the negro, who re-
tires as the white man advances. =