The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-01-02
HOW TO KEEP OUR
PEOPLE At HOME
Why They Have Emigrated to
the Southwest.
u
cnunOl G IAERE REFER
SCHOOLS THERE BETTER
And the Opportunities For Making
Money Are Superior.
BUT IT is ONLY THAT THEY WORK HARDER
One Must Hustle There or be Regarded as I
Loaftr. With the Same Conditions
Here This Region is Superior
10 the Southwest
to the Southwest.
(By DIR. Charles w. Dabney.)

(By DR.. Charles w. Dabney.)
President of University Tennessee.
1t is well known that the Central
and the South Atlantic States have
been for hundred years the training
ground for an enormous population,
who have moved West and Southwest,
To- settle the country as fast as the
young people grew up. This was a
natural movement at first, and is one
that never can and never ought to en-
tirely stop.
The people who originally settled
the hills and valleys of the South APP
palachian country have been particu-
larly productive of emigrants. Their
sons and daughters have been stream
ing out into the West, and more re-
Gently TO Texas and the Southwest,
in steady current throughout the
century. They were a sturdy stock of
Scotch-Irish Americans, and it is we'll
for our country and its institutions
that they did leave their homes and
go into the western country in such
large numbers. They have made the
West what it is-the home of noble
and brave people and the conservators
of American institutions.
Since the West is now well settled,
is it not time to say something for
the old country which has been so long
drained of It's best young blood? 1T
seems to the writer that the time has
come when it is a doubtful policy,
both for the young people and for the
railroad, land and other corporations
who promote this traffic. The popula-
ton in North Carolina, Eastern Ten
nessee and parts of Northern Georgia
and Alabama has been kept depleted
for many years to point at which
it was impossible for the people to
maintain their institutions in the
proper manner. They will never have
good schools, good churches and good
roads in this country until they have
more population. The attractions OF
the Southwest have drawn upon his
territory so strongly that it never had
the opportunity to develop as it should
have done, with the result that it is
still quite sparsely settled, and its re-
sources are very imperfectly devel-
oped.
The uncles and brothers who have
gone to the Southwest use their infiu-
ence to draw each succeeding genera
ton away from the mother States
into the new lands. The question is,
is it to the real interest of these young
people of the country that this should
go on forever? Are the States of North
Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and
Georgia such poor places to live in
that the rising generation must emf
CRATE in erdcr to prosper as they de-
serve to do? Are there not here still
fertile fields to be cultivated and mines
and forests to be developed? Are
the soil and climate of the Southwest
so much better than ours? A visit
to Texas gives me some information
upon this question which / beg per-
mission 70 report at this time.
My visit extended throughout north
ern Texas and as far south ais Austin,
Victoria and San Antonio. 1t is indeed
a great State, and one of which all
Americans ire proud. The infuen-
tial population is made up almost en-
tirely of the people from the territory
described, with the result that it is
the most thoroughly American people
now found upon the continent 1t
was gratifying to find these. genuine
Old-fashioned Southern people and
of this great State.
Nothing impressed me more than
the vast numbers of men of middle
age who hal moved soon after the
war from those portions of North
Carolina and Tennessee with which /
am acquainted. Standing one day
upon the corner of the street in Nc
Kinney, Collins county, talking to a
.x,-r,1,Y1 rNf 7'onnocco aJ
see, it occurred to me to ask those
there gathered where they had come
from OF the thirteen men present,
eleven had come from Tennessee or
were of Tennessee parentage; the
Carolina and the other from Alabama.
The people are settled in this way in
groups. Some neighborhoods are fill
ed with the people from one section
and some from another but nearly
all are from these States.
asked these men why they went
from Tennessee, and why they thought
Texas a better place to live in, and l
wish to report here some of their an
swers. The men with families usually
answered that the best thing in Texas
was the good schools; the young men
generally said that Texas was better
place to make money. / knew some
thing about the fine school system in
Texas, and was not surprised at that
answer, but i asked the, young men
why Texas was asbetter place to make
money. The. answer was: 81 don't
know, unless it is that men work
harder out here. When fellow comes
here he has either to go to work or
be branded as a loafer.'
Becoming much interested in these
answers, l put the same question to
almost every man | met. A few would
say Texas offered better lands at a
lower price. Mem of political turn
would say that they had fewer trusts
or more competing railroads. But
eight times out of ten the family man
would refer to the good schools and
the young man would emphasize the
superior opportunities for work. Meet
ing young Virginian from my old