The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-12
New Population the Need Of the
South.

We have shown by statistics from the
census of 1900 that the Southern States
contain white population which is far
more distnctively American in its stock
than the population of any other part OF
the Union. In all the eleven States of
the old Southern Confederacy there We're
in that year less than one-half as many
foreign born as there were in the city Of
New York alone, and of the number more
than one-half were in the single State Of
Texas, and even there the foreign-born
population was not per cent. of the
whole.
Our publication of these facts pro-
voked from many Southern papers ex-
pressions of pride because of the distnc-
ton Of the South as peculiarly the seat OF
an American population. But is there
reason for this glorifcation? Fifty years
ago, in the days of the old Know Nothing
agitation, the most gloomy predictions Of
the consequences to this republic of the
great flood OF immigration which began
heard on all sides; and it is noteworthy
that the last traces of Know Nothingism
as political force remained in the border
States of the South. To that part OF the
Union however, very little of that immi-
grafton had turned, and the statistics to
which we have referred prove that of the
millions of immigrants who have come
over since that period almost none have
gone to the South.
Instead of the South's gaining by this
diversion Of the stream from it, there has
been loss to it of population which has
been of inestimable value to the develop
ment of the resources of the Eastern and
Western States and in broadening and
enlightening their civilization. In every
way, materially, politically and socially,
these States have profited by the
addition of the millions of foreigners, and
the South is to-day suffering because its
population has not been recruited in the
same way. Of course, while slavery
continued this foreign labor avoided the
South but under the conditions of free
dom in the South at present there ought
not longer to be any such bar TO foreign
immigration.
Enterprising and public-spirited men
in the Southern States are now recog-
nizing the advantage to that part of the
Union which would come from the ex-
tensive diversion of the stream of immi-
grafton from the North to the South. An
immigration league, representative of
more than fifty trade associations In the
sippi and Texas, has been formed for the
purpose of stmulat ng immigration to
the South, foreign and domestic. 1t
hopes to draw thither one million immi-
grants during the next few years, and
the great railroads of the South are
assisting the scheme by sending out
freely information Of the advantages the
South offers to such immigrants.
The Southern Railway, for example,
publishes a monthly paper, called the
Southern Field, for gratuitous circula-
ton, which is devoted exclusively to the
celebration of the Southern States gener-
| ally, and particularly the regions through
which its system passes, as peculiarly at
| tractive to immigration. 1t undertakes to
| demonstrate that even in districts lying in
the neighborhood of 'arge and growing
| towns the prices at which land is obtain
able are, to use its own expression, "phe-
| IL, ~ Ia
it says, has not equalled the supply OF
opportunities, and the many offers of
such land it publishes seem to justify
the assertion.
OF the immigration of nearly million
| to the United States for the fiscal year
ended with June, about one-quarter
was from Italy alone, from southern
Italy almost exclusively. A great part
of these ITALIAN immigrants are peas
ants, and nowhere else in Europe is there
closer farming than in Italy. They
would seem to be adapted especially
TO Southern agricultural conditions. II
is true that almost universally they are
poor and consequently unable to pur-
chase land, even at the ptssnomenally
low" prices of the South hut as agri-
| cultural laborers they would seem to be
| desirable, Here in New York these
Italians are getting ahead rapidly. They
are peculiarly thrifty, and few years
after their arrival they have put by
money, almost universally. A large
part of the tenement houses in the Italian
districts are passing into Italian owner
ship,
The Southern Field acknow edges the
unquestionable fact that many Southern
people are hostile to the introduction
of large foreigne cment, on the ground
that the marked American characteris-
tics which dominate everywhere in the
South" ought to be preserved, first of
ALL But ''rv are 'h0rt-'iRht'd. The