The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-10-07
SETTLERS FOR THE south.
The Southwark Wave Of White !nni-
grafton.
Splendid Work Being Done by Some of the
Great Railroad Systems Which Connect
the North aad Northwest with the
South and Southwest.

baIGlmOIS, Iuu., O0pt' AV' 1HOoC
who have been witnessing the settling
up of the West, the Northwest, the
far North, and latterly Oklahoma and
Indian Territories, are now directing
their attention to the advance guard
of the greatest immigration movement
in years. This refers 30 the influx of
Northern and Western people into the
South and Southwest. To the close
observer it would seem thaG the forces
that builded up the West and NJ ''-
west, peopling those vast dom; IS
with the best blood and Drawn OF She
overcrowded East and Central West,
are now uniting for greater work i'll
the Southwest.
ssThe claim that it is impossible to
attract white immigration to the
South is contradicted by the expert
ence of every man who has kept in
touch with Southern development, is
refuted by every authoritative state
ment of statistics, including the find
ings of the Federal census, and so OBJ
viously untenable as a proposition that
it should excite amusement rather
than apprehension, [ was identified
with immigration work in the West
twenty years ago. The foundation work
was laid twenty years ago. So it is
in the South. W. expect the next
zen years will bring Us due reward
ior our work. -
These statements are made by men
acquainted througn personal expert
ence with successful immigration work
in the past for the West, and who now
are applying well-testeG, practical
methods to the peopling of the South
with thrifty farmers and other settlers.
The field of the one is west of the
Mississippi; the field of the other is
east of that river. Their utterances
reflect the spirit of a score Of letters
published in the October number of
the Southern Farm Magazine, cf this
city, from officials of Southern and
Southwestern railroads engaged in the
task of finding suitable homes in the
South for thousands of men from the
North and West and elsewhere, who
have begun to realize the wonderful
opportunities for them in the South.
Nearly two years ago analysis OF the
population figures of the census show
ed that there was greater movement
Of whites to the South than from it,
and at the same time that the negro
population was diffusing itself so
rapidly that nearly 1000, 600 Of the s.
$40, 600 negroes in the country then
lived ouside the South. Since the CEN
sus was taken this movement OF whites
to the South and negroes from it has
been accelerated, and the reasons for
it, as far as the whites are concerned,
appear in the letters from the indus
trial and immigration agents of the
Southern railroads.
They give definite facts. They tell
Of more than 5000 Northern and Wes-
tern farmers settled during the past
ten years between New Orleans, La,
and Corpus Christi, Texas, with 4, 600, :
600 acres of farm land, 800. 000of them ir-
rigated for rice. brought under up-to-
date agricultural methods; Of l,200
farmers from outside, who, during the
past year, purchased and settled upon
lands on the lines of one railroad
south of the Potomac and east Of the
Mississippi; of it being possible to
draw an approximately straight line
100 miles long through three Virginia
counties in the so-called black belt
without probably crossing an acre of
land owned by negro, and of large
percentage of the Farms thus crossed
being found in the hands of farmers
from the North and West; aud of an
old field in Georgia transformed with
in a twelvemonth into a fourishing
settlement Of 400 people, with another
colony of 200 persons from Indiana
and Ohio not far away, and Of the
in coming to various points of indi-
vidual farmers, merchants and mill
men. In Halifax County, Virginia,
there are more than 200 families of
well-to-do people from the West, while
many men of foreign descent or of
foreign birth are to be found around
Petersburg and Farmville and in the
Norfolk truck section.
The applica.ion of wheat harvesting
machinery to the rice fields, which
has revolutionized methods there, hag
been very potent not only in attractins
immigrants upon that particular bent,
but also in helping to demoaish the
theory long held, especially as to cot
ton, of the essential Importance Of the
negro in Southern agriculture. Thou
sands of whites unaccustomed pre-
viously to Southern conditions are
actually reinforcing other thousands
of Southern whites in demonstrating
the falseness Of the theory. These in
coming whites are not confning their
labors to such Southern staples as cot
ton, tobacco, sugar and rice, but are
attending the area Of trucking. frnit-