The National tribune., 1902-03-27
MIGRATION NORTH AND SOUTH.

OF course it is very desirable in every
way that there should be an increasing
intermixture of our people North ana
South, so as TO increase our homogeneity.
The strongest tendency has hitherto been,
as il has been of our race since the be-
ginning of its history, to move directly
westward, each individual keeping close
to the parallel of latitude upon which he
was born. This has not been solely on
account of the new lands to the westward.
We find it continuing after the new lands
have been filled up, probably fuller than
the lands from which the migration goes.
This has been the case in Europe for CEN
turies. which accounts for the nearnesS TO
each other in blood, language and institu-
tions of all the people in Northwestern
Europe The only admixture to the'south-
ward has been that of the strong, hardy
Teutonic peoples flowing over the Alps
as invaders, and dominating the Southern
peoples In this country we are virtually
all of the same blood, and there should
develop no such difference in ideas, char
actcr and institutions between those set
tied along the Great Lakes and those on
the borders of the Gulf of Mexico, as eX-
lists in Europe between those on the shores
of the Baltic and those ON the Medter-
ranean.
Without going so far into the future,
it Is very desirable that Northern people
should 20 to the South, and develop there
the things that have made that section so
great, and that the Southern people should
move North, and bring there many ideas
which their felIow-countrymen can study
with profit. Therefore, the following bnl-
letin from the Census Bureau IS of special
interest:
"The migration northWard of Southern
whites, while increasing in absolute
amount, has relatively declined. The mi
grafton nOrthward Of colored persons has
Increased rapidly. The nOrthward miGra-
ton of Southern whites, however, is still
nearly three times as great in absolute
amount, and nearly one and a half times
as great relative TO the population from
which il comes as the northward migra-
ton of the colored, a difference probably
due in part to the better economic posi-
ton Of the Southern whites and in part
to the fact that the center Of population
Of that class is nearer the border"
1t is to be regretted that the colorcd
movement northward has not been greater.
g'he greatest danger to the development
Of the negroes has been in stagnation. 1t
was once greatly feared that when free
they would drift to the sections along the
Gulf and there stagnate into n hopeless
moraSs of ignorance and semi-barbarism.
The strong drift Of the negroes toward
the low-lying lands of the Mississippi has
this danger. The more negroes that come
North and mix in with the strenuous, ac.
tive life there, the better it will be for the
race.
The bulletin goes on to give n more
hopeful view of the leayening effect of the
Northcrners upon the South. 1t says:
I'm 1900 there were 1.022, 7T6 persons
living in the South who had been born in
the North, an increase of 81 per cent.
since 1890. This current OF migration is
greater in absolute amount than that OF
Southern whites Or Southern negroes moy-
! ing North, but over quarter of a million