The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-09

or Idk6 lSsuS Wtth dhy VA AsS oI'@s@-~>'~'
 His letter is we'll worth reading, for he
 speaks from personal knowledge and 'ob-
 servation and knows what he is talking about.
 What Mir. westerlund says of Fruit hurst may aiso be said of Cullman, Thors. by and perhaps ether colonies in Alabama
 They have not only been successful. but
 have added immensely to the material wealth of Alabama. besides being object lessons to our own people. They show on lands which lack a great deal of being among the best agricultural lands of Ala bama. When the county of Cullman was talked of it was argued against 1t that the country was too poor to sustain the popu- lation necessary to form county, yet porous and self-sustaining counties in Alabama. People w:so were familiar with the country where Thorsby is now a
 fiourishing town. know that it was looked on as an exceedingly poor region. The
 same is true of Fruithurst. They are
 prosperous and hourishing communities
 solely because of the industry and intel ligence devoted to them.
 In writing what We did in our former article about the d,fficulty of getting im- migrants to seek individual homes in Central Alabama. we had no thought of impeaching the hospitality of any of our people. In any section of the State in- dustrious and self-sustaining immigrants are received with cordial welcome and will find good neighbors and friends to take them by the hand and help to make them independent and contentcd citizens. In much of the State there will be no lack of white neighbors and congenial sur- roundings, but there are portions of the Black Belt of Alabama where white peo- pie will not choose to settle singly be- cause they will be practically isolated from their kind. In those sections lands must be sold in bodies which will allow a number of families to have contiguous homes The few white men in that DOT ton of the State are among the very best of Alabama's citizens, but they are too badly scattered and a white man from the North or East will not locate his family where at least seven-tenths of his neighbors will be colored.
 And now a few words of comment and approval of what Mir. Westerlund has to say about inducing immigration. It is true that the great railroads leading from the over-populated East to the great West offer liberal inducements to emil grants. The roads grant them the lowest possible rates and do everything in their Eower to get them to patronize their lines. That is one great reason why so many home-seekers travel towards the setting sun instead of coming South. It is made to their interest to travel on those roads. but such Is not the case in ts.e South. Immigrants are not offered the induce ments to come South that they are to go
 West.
 Then we must admit that Alabama has made but little effort to get immigrants. One way to get anything is to go after it. or to send for it. One way to get immi-
 grants is to send for them or to let them
 know why they should come. A wise mer-
 chant knows he can't so out and inter- view all the people but he sends his in- vitations to them in the way of adver- tisements. That is the way the West Is getting all the settlers. A letter like that of MT. Westerlund, if written about a Western location, would be reprinted and circulated in every section of the East, in connection with the editorials on the subject, and the good effect would be be- yond doubt. People who want to change | their location and seek new and better homes would become interested and in- | huenced. and the result would be-West- ward, ho!
 If Alabama wants industrious, self-sus- | taining immigrants, she must mako prop | CT efforts to get them, not spasmodicaily by an occasional pamphlet or circular hut by A systematized and continuous l solicitation. Letters like the one pub | lished today, exhaustive accounts of what has been done at Vinemont, Thorsby | Fruithurst and various other localities | full of descriptions of climate, soil ano | conditions in Alabama, prices of land: | and where they may be had, school facili' ties and taxes, railroad and market ad l vantages, and everything else that would | be likely to attract home-seekers, should
 be set out fully, truthfully and persist ently and distributed wherever there are | people who are disposed to seek other
 homes. Those are the psans to be used They should be used by the railroads, by commercial and industrial bodies. by i'm
 migration societies, and especially by the | State itself, which can. through its of
 fcial agents. speak authoritatively and efficiently. We can divide with the Wes' | if we will, and we ought to do 1t, ano l without delay.
 FEMALE POLITICIANS.