The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-23
Secretary Bruner Dis
courages the Agitation.
JAPS ARE IN DEMAND
Manager of State immigration Does
Not Think Yellow Skins Are Sol
ulion of the Southern Labor Prob
lem. Has Received Only Nine
Requests For Negroes.

Requests For Negroes.
The North Carolina Department OF
Agriculture will hardly lend an en-
couraeing word to the agitation now
general throughout the South of the
question of Chinese Immigration as
solution to the labor problem, and the
Department will not encourage the m
flow of yellow skins. Mr.. I. *.
Bruner. secretary to the State Board
of Agriculture. who has in charge
the immigration movement in TINS
state, said yesterday that ne hau re-
ceived several letters asking Iof Jap
anese and Chinese families for set
tiers and farm Iaborers, but he had
given them scant attention, as he ala
not propose to encourage the influx
of Chinese labor. Out of the nun
dreds of letters Secretary Bruner mas
received from people throughout every
section of the State asking for help
on the farms and among the lndus-
tries only nine of these communlca-
tons desired negro labor, ana there
was one that asked for french
family.
IT is well known that because of the
exchIsion laws the Orientals have
threatened to boycott American cot
ten, and as the manufacturers want 10
hold the Chinese trade, which Is
heavy purchaser of made goods, tney
began the agitation of the question
regarding the Chinaman as a ldDofer'
and the possibility of his solving the
Southern labor problem. and being ad-
mitted to the States to work IN the
mills and on the farms of the South.
The Department 1of State is averse TO
the further agitation of the matter,
and Acting Secretary LOOMS is
quoted as saying that he believes the
entire matter will adjust itself, ana
he regarded it unwise for southern
mill men to make plans forYrellef pc
fore they are hurt, The Department
of state realizes that the threatened
boycott is of deep concern to the\mlll
industry of the South, but takes the
stand that the government VIII dlS-
ccuntenance continued agitation IN
China i'm favor of a boycott and that
this Will settle. thinga for awhile or
until China sees that it is the lnten-
ton of the United States to follow
rigidly the strict exclusion that is now
i'm force. 1t is not believed that
China will persevere in commercial
retaliation in revenge for the eXclu-
sion of it's race from America.
Secretary Bruner. while discussing
the matter yesterday said: stand
firmly with the California, people rela-
tive to the Chinese labor question.
They know the men of the Orient
better than we, and their knowledge
is direct and practical, while ours Is
purely theoretical, and should we en-
courage the agitation against exclu-
sion, the result of a failure from Such
an experiment might be disastrous III
more ways than one. Without the
positive testimony of the Californians
giving us accurate information OF TINS
race, on a labor basis would be In
favor of admitting them to the coun-
try and inducing them to come South
ward But l believe in permitting
the Californians to settle the Chinese
question just as ] believe in allowing
the South, unmolested, to settle its
own, the negro. problem. | have re-
ceived two requests for Japanese
families in numbers for farm laborers,
but | did not consider these seriously.
as the Kind of immigrants North Car.
cIina wants are white men, not blacks
or yellow skins, men who may some
time become worthy citizens and in
er-marry with our own people,
What Washington Thinks.
A special dispatch from Washington
SAYS
state Department officials private
" do not blame the South for urging
fairer immigrat ton laws for the China
man. inasmuch as the Souths cotton
business abroad for many years must
be i'm China and the Far East Then,
too. there are suggestions that the
Chinaman would be the best immi-
grant the South could get to take the
place of the disappearing negro. On
the Pacific coast the experience has
been that the Chinaman is an excel
lent and faithf-! worker on the farm.
He is also intelligent. The argu-
ment is advanced that he would
make the best farm hand the South
could get. far better than the negro.
and he would work for as little money.
The only objection he might make,
and that would be serious, would be
to the Southern system of working a
farm on shares. They would expect
weekly wages. however small, and
would be content with this. If the
Chinaman. therefore. should be al
lowed - go South as a farm laborer,
he would do much to change the ex-
listing system of farming there"
Alabama Wants Laborers.
Mr. Bruner has received numerous
letters from Southern States in regard
to his plans for inducing labor to North
Carolina, and almost invariably these
letters say that the States from which