The news & observer., 1905-11-05

tensive and diversified farming, and
who can depend on his own eXertlonS,
manage his own business. market ms
own products, and save money AS
the large plantations are cut up into
small farms, thrifty tenants, not
ignorant and pauper laborers. are
needed. THE newer farms through
out the South have been purchased
very largely by farmers from the West
and Northwest, either native Amerl-
cans who have sold their own farms to
recent immigrants, or foreigners who
have lived in the country for good
many predigested' immigrants,
as one correspondent called them.
OF late there has been an advocacy
in the South looking toward letting
down the bars so we could get cheap
Chinese labor. God forbid! We wish
no labor and no immigrants of that
type. The letting down the bars as to
Chinese would open a Pandora's box
of evils. Slavery was a commercial
curse to the South, but Chinese labor
would even more retard Southern de-
velopment. The worst thing that could
happen to the South today would be
the influx to the South today would be
that is dumped down in New York.
Great as is the need of the right sort
of immigrants, it is far better to go
on without them than to open our
doors to the class of immigrants
from Southern Europe that does not
come to make homes and that is not
and will not become Americanized.
Railroads have helped in Texas to
get the right sort of immigrants. most
of them being brought from Iowa and
other Northwestern States. Lands are
so high in Iowa that the farmer can
not make money on the investment,
they are selling their land, and going
to Texas where they can buy cheaper
lands. The railroads that traverse
North Carolina can help in the same
direction. The Atlantic Coast Line did
cooperate in bringing the desirable
class of Northwestern farmers that
settled in the Chadbourn section, and
it is to be hoped all roads will help
along the same line. But we prefer
not to have an additional immigrant
in North Carolina than to have the
bulk of the sort of labor that is ladled
out at Castle Garden. If the railroads
will help to bring the right sort, they
will help the South and help them
selves, but if in order to get long hauls,
class, they are then inJuring the
South. No railroad has so afflicted
North Carolina. but here is a state
ment by Prof. Ward showing a scheme
of some roads to dump down undesir-
able immigrants:
'In order TO increase the immigra-
ton of Italians into the South, the
Southern railroads recently provided
the Italian Ambassador with an eX-
tended tour through the South, from
which journey that gentleman return
ed full of enthusiasm for the courte-
sizes which were shOWered upon MN,
and determined to do all in his power
to encourage the immigration of his
countrymen into the Southern States.
AT a recent conference on immigra-
ton held i'm one of the Southern cities,
the influence of the railroads was so
strong that a paper urging some rea-
sonable restriction of immigration was
not allowed a public reading. and was
not given to the press That whole
sale distribution of immigrants by
transportation companies is not SO
likely to be controlled by desire to
do what is best for the community as
by purely selfish interests, is fact
which has not escaped the attention
of observant persons in the South,
some of whom have not been afraid
to express their views very plainly on
the subject"
The Norfolk Landmark. which is
sound on the immigration question,
quotes the above statement from Prof.
Ward and makes this happy comment:
"The reckless game which many of
the great moneyed interests of the
country play in the furtherance of
their schemes for profit is the worst
feature of our national life today, be-
cause it is the least excusable. The
men that play this game know just
what they are doing. The rich and
respectable" men who loot insur-
ance companies are constantly in
Weighing against the peril of socialism,
and yet they are the chief breeders
disgusting is the conduct of railroad
and steamship companies which
eagerly sacrifice the interests of the
country to the profit of carrying herds
of immigrants. And employers Oike
the Coal Barons'O who import labor
by the wholesale from Europe are in
the same piratical boat
This nation needs the Panama Ca
nal. but it needs a great deal more
than the canal a strong law restrict
ing immigration. Until it gets that
law, the South must protect herself"
DON'T BREAK THE MARKET.