The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-29
NORTH CAROLIEA: "a NURSERY TO
GROW UP In"

of The Progressive Farmer. published
i'm the Charlotte Observer of Sunday,
goth inst, brings out some facts not
nearly so well known as they should
be, and we hope that no apology is
needed for its republication here:
Ihave this. sentence well fixed in my
mind; [ do not know who said it or
whether n one has ever said it be-
fore-at any rate, it is a big and indis-
putable fact:
Emigration has been the bane of
North Carolina"
This has always been true, and 1
should not be surprised to hear that
the sentence is found in some address
much older than the writer. Nearly
fifty years ago-in 1856, to be exact
DR.. Calvin H. Wiley, then Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, had this
to say as to the matter:
efforts to promote the love of
home in the plastic nature of child
hood are peculiarly becoming in North
Carolina, a State where the want of
this attachment and it's ruinous effects
are ~eloquentIy recorded in deserted
farms, in wide wastes of guttered
sedge fields, in neglected resources, in
the absence of Improvements and in
the hardships, sacrifices and SORROWS
of constant emigration. Our State
has long been regarded by it's citizens
as a mere nursery to grow up in"
At another time DR.. Wiley said that
it was no exaggeration to say that
"the State was a great encampment
while the inhabitants looked on them
selves as tented only for a season."
He continued: owe have neglected
our resources and instead of making
a thorough examination of the advan-
tages and capabilities of that part of
Gods creation on which we have been
planted, with fostering skies above us,
with a healthful climate and enticing
scenery around us, we have been
straining our eyes to far distant
lands, and teaching our children that
North Carolina was not their home,
but a nursery from which they were
to be transplanted to other regions"
And down to this day North Caro-
lima is regarded by many of her
bravest and brainiest as ga mere nur-
sery to grow up in" This is not an
idle assertion, but a fact to which
census statistics bear indisputable tes-
timony. They indicate hat every
year for a hundred years North Caro-
lima has sent more sons and daughters
to other States than the other States
have sent to her.
In 1890 when the first census was
taken, North Carolina had a larger
population han New York. We
ranked third in population, New York
fifth. From 1900 to 1920 we held
fourth place; in 1880, fifth; in 1910,
seventh; in 1850 tenth-and so on
down to 1900 when we ranked if
teenth. Get it be said, however, that
this indicated some progress as we
were sixteenth in 1900
Nowhere have I seen the harmful
effect of emigration on the State more
correctly or forcibly set forth than in
DR.. Walter H Pages address on "The
Forgotten Man" delivered at Green's
boro in 1897. Taking up the fact that,
according to the census of 1890, North
Carolina had sent out 293, OOO-about
one-eighth-of her children then liv-
ing, while only $4,000 persons had
come to her from other States, he
said: eff a slave brought $1,000 in old
times, it ought to be safe to assume
that every emigrant from the State
has an economic value of $1,000. This
emigration therefore had up to 1890
cost us 1898, OOO, OOO-a fact that goes
far to explain why we are poor. To
take the place of these 293, 900 emf
grants after twenty years of advertise
ing and organized effort to secure i'm
migration, $4,000 persons born in other
States had come here, a large proper
ton of whom, of course, had come for
health. But counting the sick and
dying at $1,000 each, we had still lost
$241, 0OO, 1000 by the transaction. This
calculation gives a slight hint of the
cost of ignorance and the ~extrava-
gance of keeping taxes too low"
Let me add, parenthetically, that
when DR.. Page a the emigration
chad up to 1890 cost us 1923, 900, OOO,"