Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-12
The South and Immigration.

expressions by two such papers as the
New York Sun and the Atlanta Con-
stitGtion are of special moment in a
matter of such importance, voicing as
thy do opinions, which, perhaps, are
not Shared by all the friends of each,
but still the opinion of some parts of
the Northern and Southern sections and
of men of wide experience and great
observation. The Sun opened the sub
ject i'll a recent article on an immigra-
ton movement that has been started in
Louisiana, remarking that the enter
prise affords an illustration of the
newly aroused spirit of business prog
ress in the South. The Constitution
began its answer or rather statement
about the movement by saying:
/ Our contemporary, however. is in
clineG to view the project through pes
siinistic spectacles. The movement
| which is said to have been organized
III Louisiana is for the purpose of pro-
| i'othiS lile Immigration VI iIoi lHti IL
farmers to the undeveloped lands which
| the immigration league has for sale,
| and the Sun is inclined to doubt It's
| success, the reason being that the
difference i'll agricultural methods and
| social conditions at the South are
| usually Il serious bar to any consider
| able immigration from the North
Then, says the same paper, the Sun,
| having settled this matter to it's own
satisfaction. proceeds to discuss the
general question of southern iTmigra
ton, pointing out that immigration is
up to high figure and largely Of u
nature adapted to the Southern farm
ing conditions but that the immigrants
are very carefully avoiding the South
| giving as its reasons:
First, the immigrants come to this
country with the American standard of
wages in their minds as it is fixed at
the North, and with knowledge of it
obtained from the reports of their
| countrymen already here. The wage
standard at the South, as fixed for the
negroes, does not satisfy their demands.
Again, the necessity of competing with
| gro labor is repulsivc to them
Would not a like feeling deter immigra-
tion to the south of farmers of the
west. for example, who are accustomed
to working with their own hands,"
After that statement the constitution
took the floor and holds it to date. 1t
claims that the Sun is not friend to
the South and does not help by word or
decd
1t intinIatcs that New York is not
any too well posted on the matter OF
| immigration, wages i'll the South or
| even the negro question and that if it
| had said less on the subject it would
nov be in better standing.
AS to Southern wages the Constitu-
| ton says.
1T is hardly necessary to thrcsh out
| old straw. The whole question was
discussed very fully in these columns
at the time and the only conclusion
that could be drawn was that although
the mill operatives at the North were
paid higher wages than southern op-
cratircs received, the latter were in IL
position to save more money. Nothing
h.,y IL,
/ that existed when our staff cor
respondent wrote his letter, and we are
justified in saying that though the
standard of wages is higher at the
North, the wages paid at the South
owing to climatic and economic condi-
tions. have Il greater purchasing power
What is true Of one industry is
! mcasurably true of all. The climate of
the South gives it such an advantage
even the prciudiccd immigrants from
the OLD world will find it out for them
selves after awhile"
The Constitution claims that thou
sands of northern and western
farmers have located i'll the South: the
climatic conditions enable the tillcr of
| tn soil in the South to raise two crop;
where the others secure one, and that.
AS to the social conditions. they are
different only in the minds of those
who know nothing about them. They
| in no wise differ from the social Condi-
tons that prevail in the West and
Northwest. SO far as the negro is con-
Ccrned, the northcrners who settle here
have little to do with him-the
Fitzgerald colony started business by
keeping him rigidly out of the COM
| munity--but he continues to be q very
useful and a very necessary factor
among those who know him well. In
short, we think that the South,
economically and socially. has gained
mere than it has ever lost by being
outside the stream of Italian and
Slavic immigration
| Tl,,c c~;a n;aS