The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-09

with each passing seasons to secure
an adequate supply of labor to enable
him to market his crop. With the
Younger negroes, and good many of
the old ones, 1ocking to the cities and
towns, the cotton planter finds 1t alb
solutely impossible to cultivate more
than a comparatively small percentage
of his lands. The acreage of cotton
could be, and ought to be greatly in
creased: the land is mere ana the own
er is anxious to see 1t properly cul-
tivated. but without the necessary Ia
Dor he is helpless.
If is not necessary to enumerate the
causes which have contributed 10 the
apparent worthlessness of so large a
proportion of the negro populauon-
the result Of these causes is that with
which the practical men of the South
have to deal. 1t is, of course, highly
unfortunate that SO many negroes re-
fuse to take advantage OF the oppor-
tunities offered them to make an non
est living; when the golden eggs are
all gone they will mourn the day they
killed the goose that LAID them. put
it will then be too late. For as surely
as the present trend continues. just
so surely will the day come when the
negro will awake to find that his oc-
cupation has passed Into the hands or
a more willing and more rellaDle
class of workers.
The old theory that none but the
negro is capable of holding up against
the heat and the labor of cotton pick
ing has long since been dlSDelled.
Each year shows a greater percentage
of the crop picked by white hands.
In Texas the percentage is very large.
For this kind of work the immi-
grants from sunny Italy are peculiarly
well qualified. The people who come
from the little farms of northern Italy
are not only thoroughly equipped for
labor in these Southern States, but
they are the best kind of immigrants
peaceful, industrious, thrifty. they
are capable of being made into excel
lent American citizens. The planters
of the South will welcome their COM
ing, and they, in turn. will be glad
they came.
What corner of the earth can offer
them such inducements? Here are
brcezes as mild and inVigorating as
any they have known; here the sky is
as blue and nature is as bountiful as
in sunny Italy itself. Here is a land
of the free; no effete monarchy to be
supported, no compulsory service in
the army, no slavery to support a
landed aristocracy. Here can the
Italian farmer find immediate and
lucrative employment for himself and
the members of his family; here can
he secure a farm OF his own at a low
price and on easy terms. becoming his
own landed proprietor; here can he
find free schools in which TO give his
children the education that is their
right, while he himself rises high
above the conditions of practical serf-
dom from which he has fled. And
here he will certainly find welcome
The South needs him and his kind.
and will show its hearty appreciation
of any movement calculated to bring
him here. But IT is the newcomer,
even EA,re than the cotton planter,
who will have most reason to return
thanks to the man or the men who
bring to his attention this opportunity
for finding a home in the South. For
while his coming vii! mean much to
the planter, to him it will mean
everything.