The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-23
Aporr rw,eIcRArror.

The hicumOnQ NeWH-keaueT, alluQ- ing to the Immigration Conference to assemble in Chattanooga in November, argues that the best immigration should be encouraged and directed where It is most needed. if. indeed, 1t is needed more in one place than an. other in the South. There is not a Southern State that does not need, for pushing its development, a good class of immigrants. whether from abroad or the North and West, and every ef- fort should be made and every induce ment should be offered to secure as many of such class as possible. We hope the conference will address itself earnestly and systematically to the work of turning the tide of the better immigration in this direction. but 1t is also to be hoped that it will set it's face against an indiscriminate influx, especially from abroad. such as has come through New York to the mining regions of Pennsyivania and some of the other States. The conference could not do the South worse turn than stimulate indiscriminate immigration to this section. It would be better to go slower in our material development than introduce an element calculated to demoralize social conditions, desir- able as material development is.
 Our contemporary is correct, espe- cially in the closing portion of its re- marks That the South needs imni- grants is too plain to require much ar- gument. but there are classes that are not needed or wanted. In almost every large city in the North. as we'll as in many rural communities. the curse of the indiscriminate admission of the worthless and vicious who are not wanted at home is apparent. Tn many eases they are encouraged to leave their own country. if not actually driven from it. They leave their coun- try for their country's good, and are dumped upon our shores where they too often become a burden and a menace.
 There is hardly a country in Europe, if there is one at all. from which we may not get ust full and desirable citi- gems, nor is there one from which we may not get those who are not wanted and who would be a serious burden to any Southern community. Just how it can be made possible to get the kind of immigrants that we need and avoid the other kind, is a serious problem, but certainly we do not want the South made dumping ground for the refuse of European countries.
 The New York Times, discussing this subject. says that there is a need for increased population of the right sort in the South. That section has very large and varied undeveloped resources; neither in agriculture and manufac- turing nor in the trades connected herewith are the capabilities of the South worked more than superficially. The immense progress it has made in the last thirty years is very striking and valuable. but 1t is the merest frac- tion of which surely awaits develop ment, and the prime condition of de- velopment is active human labor. Frankly, we do not think that the best interests of the South will be served nearly as much by greater restriction of general immigration as by some ra- tionai system for the encouragement recting 1t where it is most needed. As the call for the conference especially designates as delegates Commissioners of Agriculture and the General Immi- grafton Agents of the railroads. to- gether with a representative of each university in the South. this view of the problem ought to receive intelli- gent attention.
 That there is great and increasing need for more. and more reliable labor in the South needs no argument, for the proofs stand out in every State and community. It is not merely farm labor, though that Is where the great est scarcity exists, but the same want Is felt in all the industries of this re- zion. For some reason. or for several reasons, colored labor is not to be re- lied on in the factories and mills of the South. and the available white la bor cannot supply the great and in- creasing demand. All these industries need workers and must have them or curtail their business, and the need cannot be supplied from the ranks of the colored race. In the machine shops. the woodworking establish ments and among the builders. there Is the same cry of insufficient or inefficient help. How the need is to be supplied except from immigration is not appa- rent.
 They the going to get out a new map of Atlanta. and The Fort Gaines Recorder wants to know which ward they will put Georgia in. They can bunch 1t in under the head of "subur- ban Atlanta"
 
 A MISTAKE.