The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-05
rHAr coLoNrzArIoN scHEME.

THAT COLONIZATION SCHEME. Another great colonization scheme is now under discussion. the object, like most others, being to make raid on the negro population of the United States. This time, although an American. Mfr. Leigh Hunt, of Iowa, is the chief pro- moter, the object Is really to further British interests by making that nation l independent of the cotton crop of Ameri- ca.
 Mir. Hunts scheme is to transform the great African country. Sudan, or Sou- ran, into one vast cotton field, to be cul- tivated by negro labor. That is not to be attempted all at once. of course. but if Mir. Hunts optimistic views mature all of that region that is cultivated is to be eventually turned over to cotton eul- tivation.
 Without looking at the map there are | few who have any idea of the extent of the country in question. In its broadest meaning the Sudan extends almost entire ! ly across the African continent from East I to West, but the Sudan proper extends | from the Atlantic Ocean to Abyssinia, distance of almost 5000 miles. and con- tains an area estimated at 100000 square miles. or almost two-thirds as much as the United States, and a population .esti- mated at eighty or ninety millions. | Although this population is varied, it is mostly of the negro or negroid races, with intermixtures of Arabs and other I It is an immense country, and though much of it is mountain or desert there are many millions of acres which can be cultivated, and which are of almost un- surpassed fertility.
 This is the country which MT. Hunt ex- poets will prove a formidable rival Of the United States, the South especially, in the production of our great staple. The great obstacle to the speedy develop ment of the country is labor, he states, and to his mind it must be negro labor. He sees no difficulty about getting negroes from the United States, and says:
 The willingness of the negro 10 migrate to the Sudan is not question that gives gives a chance to settle in the Sudan they are not asked to experiment in govern matchmaking nor to follow the fortunes Of an upstart of an empire builder. nor to subject themselves to the vilainy or Liberian and Nicara guan meth ds of gov ernment. Here, with all due respect to our flag, they would enjoy the blessings of as good government as civilization af- lords. namely a combination of the best features of British military and civil forms of administrations.
 Should a community of few indus- trious negro families locate here and have wise direction until they become successful planters and owners of farms, then, as in other times and places, the natural laws affecting all races of men in their migrations would do the rest. No amount of argument could convince me that industrious, hard-working negroes would be averse to improving their condition. Understand me. the poll ticaI negro, the crap plHyer and the cake walker are not the individuals l shoulq seek 10 influence.
 We are not so sure of the "willingness" of which he speaks with such assurance The negroes of this region have been so often bitten by these migration schemes that he may find some difficulty when he sets about getting them. He doesn't want "the political negro, the crap-player or the cake walker" he tells us in which we do mot blame him, but those are the kinds he will be most likely to get, and they are just the class that we of the South would prefer that he should have. Every town and city of the South has an overplus of idle and vicious negroes who could be we'll spared, but they would be of little use in Mir. Hunts business. No doubt he can get plenty of this kind, if he will offer sufficient inducements, but the class of negroes who would be needed to develop his plan will not be overly eager'to try the experiment.
 But there is another feature of this
 question that is not satisfactorily eX-
 plained, and that is the matter of climate. This Sudan country lies just north of the equator, and like other tropical regions it has but two seasons a wet and a dry one. During the wet season the rainfall is excessive, buI } throughout the remainder of the year the weather is very dry and hot. Whether any of our varieties of cotton can be SC accimatized as to succeed there is the important question, and if this cannot be done can any of the native varieties , which are now cultivated ever be Iln- proved so as to compete with the Ameri- , can staple? Both these questions, it
 seems to us, are only to be decided by
 actual and perhaps lengthy experiments.
 But if this project, fostered by British enterprise and capital, shall prove 10 be
 thoroughly successful 1t will nave an inn
 portant and enduring influence on the
 United States as well as on Great tSrl-
 tain. The latter county is continually
 threatened with q cotton famine. The growth of cotton manufacturing indus
 tries in the United States outstrIps the increase in cotton production, and thus it Is that England each year feels more and more the disastrous effects of a scarcity of raw material. If this new scheme should be successful England may
 be able to not only supply all her home demands, but may supply all of Europe
 at prices to successfully cut out all ex- ports from the United States. In that case We would have to Manufacture all of our own crop, and export little or none. Whether that would be a blessing or } otherwise remains to be seen. However this or any like scheme may terminate. Q cotton is the central figure, and bids fair | to still be king.
 g SELECTING THE VICE PREsI-