The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-27
STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN
TO SUPPLY THEIR PLACES WITH
PERMANENT SETTLERS.
SOME INDUSTRIAL SUGGESTIONS
For the Consideration Of the Next Legislature,
The State Should lake up Vacant
Lands and Sell them to
Home builders OnIy,
Home builders Only.
Washington. Nov. %, 1895

Washington, Nov. 70, 1850.
To the Editor: Cuba is to become a
dependency of the United States. Not
colony, or a possession, probably never u
State; but still dependency to be pro-
tected against the encroachments OF the
great powers of the earth. Our inter-
course with the island will be intimate.
Our trade with it on the reciprocity basis.
Cuba is about as large rs North caro-
lima. Its soil is immensely fertile, and,
has the monopoly of producing the finest
tobacco in the world. of which cigars are
made. 1T is also almost unriyaled III tne
production of sugar and coffee, ana al
tropical fruits. 1t will give employment
to ten millions of slaborers i'll the eultlVa'
ton of the soil. 1t is not now so popn-
lous as North Carolina. Despotism and
incessant war kept it}down. American
capital will be drawn to it. and will
draw after it American laborers, by the
ten thousand. This will begin early next
wear. The bankrupt Spaniards and Gu
bans will be glad to sell their estates,
which they are no longer able to culti-
yate.
IydDuE W III Ut III Sitttt bthhfius HAiN
wages vii be high. 1t is not so far from
North Carolina to Cuba, as to Texas,
and the expense attending emigration is
far less. We must then look out for an
exodus of the colored population far
greater than that which took place few
years ago. Recent circumstances will
precipitate it. The machinery employed
in sugar-planting is necessarily conducted
OH great scale The investment must
belarge, and the profits are great. The
planters are princess in wealth. Our
Northern capitalists will be drawn to it
like those of Spain We're centuries ago.
Thousands of laborers may go from the
Gulf States, which lie nearer to Cuba
than we do, but that will create a va
CUM to be filled, again, by the older
States, so that the exodus of our colored
population, whether to Cuba, or to the
Gulf States, is bound to come. And
what then?
North Carolina must look to an immi-
grafton of Northesa men and European.
The low rate of wages in North Carolina
will not call so much for laborers, to
work on the farms, for hire, as for set
tiers, with the means of buying homes.
But there are millions of men, such
as North Carolina needs, who are look
ing South for homes. They like the
idea of more congenial climate.
The old methods of inducing irnmigra-
ton by advertising lands for sale by in
dividuals, or by companies. is dead
failure; and has always failed; for the
reason, that as soon as immigrants be-
gin to come in. the land owners or deal
ers, raise the prices. Such is human ma
ture.
But there is way, if the people-the
State will take hold of it. We have
seen how the great States of the North
west have grown up. like Jonah's gourd,
as it were, while the Eastern States have
been dragging along-sometimes falling
backward. 1t was because the whole ter
ritory was owned by the General Gov
eminent, and sold out the lands, at Il
fixed price, which was not raised or low
cred from year to year on account of
the increasing demand for it. After there
grew up compact communities III any
State, or territory, even large towns, the
lands would be worth ten or twenty
times the Government price. No matter
The Government went on selling at the
same price. and immigrants continue to
flock in, and the new State or territory
continued to grow in wealth and popula-
tion.
The great cities of the world rank
now. in this order London, New York,
Paris, Chicago Philadelphia, Berlin,
Vienna. And yet | was q stout school
boy when Chicago was marked upon the
maps as Fort Dearborn, at the mouth
of the Chicago river, with United
States military company of sixty soldiers.
and d suttler. This is what uniform
prices in the sale of land has done for
Illinois.
The Legislature meets in January
They have it in their power, without
running any pecuniary risk, to put the
same system in force in North Carolina,
while at the same time saving thousands
of the people from the worst conse-
quences of their pecuniary embarrass-
ments. There is in every part of the
State more or less land advertised fir
sale under execution; some times, in the
case of absentees, TO pay taxes. In such
cases the rule is for the sheriff to sell
the land for what it will bring. There
will be few persons at the sale with ready
money to pay down the cash for the land:
and it is apt to go off to the creditor for
whatever amount he may choose to enter
as a credit on his judgment. Now, |
know of no clause of the Constitution
which would stand in the way of legis-
lative enactment authorizing the sheriff,
or county collector or county commission
ers to step in and put in bid, never be-
LOW the assessed value; and III cases
where the rule has been to assess real
estate far below its saleable value, | see
no reason why the commissioners should
not put in bid equal to the true value.
The State is able to do this; and can do
It without loss; while it would seem TO be
demanded as a necessary measure Tor
saving the unfortunate class from the
crushing weight of the flaws. Such law
would still fall far short of the beneyo-
lent provision made by the Mosaic code,
for the protection of the debtor class.
Lands thus purchased by the State
should be sold only to actual settlers, ana
in this it would be a great deal better
than the laws of the United States which
allow individuals and corporations Il