The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-03-18
IMMIGRATION
TO THE SOUTH
From the New York Sun:

From the New York Sun:
The great railroads of the South are
now actively engaged In a department of
enterprise with which the states OF that
region are not disposed to Interfere ana
upon which no attempt at legislative re-
striction is made. 1t is the stimulation
Of immigration to the South, and In II
they are assisted by state bureaus estab-
lished for the same purpose, rather than
nampered.
The agencies which have been most
powerful in promoting immigration to the
Western states were and are still the
railroads of that country, supplemented
by the steamship lines which bring over
the foreigners. These steamship compa-
nies maintain agencies in the emigration
centers of Europe, at which they sell
tickets not only for the ocean Transporter
ton, but also from New York and other
ports of entry here to any place to which
the immigrants may desire to go. Conse-
Quently, practically the whole OF the i'm
migration has gone to territory through
which these Northern trunk lines run.
except that great part Of 1t which now
more than ever remains in cities of the
East
Since abou. 1900 the Southern railroads
have begun to compete for a share Of this
emigrant traffic in order to build up pop
ulation and industries in the territory
through which they run. With this end
in view, they are now seeking to divert
transatlantic immigration In a consider
able measure to Southern ports, New Or
leans and Galveston, for example, so that
thence 1t may be distributed directly and
easily throughout the South by their rail-
road systems. Nor Is this combined and
organized effort resisted at the North,
where the trade unions were especially,
are up in arms against the further In
crease Of the labor supply by foreign i'm
migration. At the South, however, this
immigration is wanted by land owners.
by planters. by railroads. and by the
manufacturing Industries.
In 1900. all except less than three per
cent Of the foreign born in the Union
were in the states of the North. The
Southern railroads think that now at last
has come their opportunity to change this
distribution of immigra ton, for there is a
marked decline in the rush for new lands
in the West, and they are pushing ahead
vigorously to improve 1t. AS the land and
industrial agent of one Of the great
Southern railway systems has remarked,
the South at present comes nearer 10
being a new country than any other Sec
ton Of the United sta tes, for a large
part of It's area is still virgin soil. "Mill-
ions of acres Of fertile land in the Central
South" 1t is pointed out by similar
agent Of another Southern system, "are
now to be purchased at prices from IS
to $25 an acre."
The prediction Of these railway
agents that 1.-The South is at the very
threshold of an enormous immigration"
seems therefore to be reasonable. The
social and political consequences which
will come from this expected and rap
id accession to the population of the
South must be revolutionary. The
whole tone of the region will be chang
ed and for the better The South will
cease to be a. part of the Union distinc-
lively American in blood. and the more
composite race which will be developed.
as our experience at the North has
demonstrated, will be Of an improved
tyne.