Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1906-04-04
IMMIGRANTS FOR THE SOUTH.
The Right Of the South to Insist Upon Hav
Ing None Save the Best.

Ing None Save the Best.
Robert De c. Ward in the rradesman, JUL
18th, 1905.
Ol the one hand, congestet
slum districts III all the larg'
northern cities, with a population
largely Of foreign birth or paren
tage. and a growing conviction o.
the impossibility even with un
limited resources of men Of
money, of permanently raising
the standards of living of this
slum population as long as it If
crowded together, and as long OF
the stream of newer immigrants
pours in, On the other hand,
vast areas in our western and
southern states where the farmers
tue cotton growers and TIE mine
owners are asking for labor.
Is it any wonder that the weary
charity workers of these northern
cities are saying that if that their
foreign born slum population
could be distributed over the
southern and the western states,
many of the difficulties which are
now met with in educating and
assimilating these aliens could be
disposed of? Is it surprising that
the farmers and cotton growers
and mine owners should on the
whole look forward to this new
movement of population into
their own districts as likely to
solve for them the great problem
of lack of labor? Ard does it
strike any one as strange that our
railroads and the foreign steam
ship companies should favor such
a scheme of distribution, which
clearly means more business for
them?
The people Of the south at pres
ent hold the key to the immigra-
tion problem. If they say: "We
want anybody we can get to work
for us; il we cannot have an
honest, strong, intelligent, skilled
laborer we will take of low
vitality, poor physique, mentally
deficient, unused to outdoor
work; dishonest" then the char
ity workers of our northern cities,
and our railroad companies, will
send all sorts of aliens who are
generally regarded as "undesira-
ble'' into the southern states.
If, on the other hand, the peo-
pie of the south clearly recognize
the fact that our present lmmigra-
tion laws make it possible for
thousands of aliens to land here
every year who are not likely to
benefit but an injury; who are
weak and sickly; who have come
because they were inveigled into
buying passage ticket by steam
ship agent, or were given the
ticket by a charitable society, in
order that they might become a
charge upon the United States
rather than the home country; if
the people of the south regard the
welfare Of their own country in
stead of considering only their
own financial gain, then they will
insist on having none but honest,
Industrious, healthy and fit i'm.
migrants. Such aliens there are
in abundance in the large cities,
who would be far better off in the
country. These are the ones
whom the south wants. Dis
honest, shiftless, sickly aud unfit
immigrants there are also in
abundance in our large northern
cities. These the south does not
want. Neither do the northern
cities want them, Yet they con-
tinue to pour in on us because
congress has not properly damned
the food. To send out from the
large cities of the country dis
tricts, simply because charitable
agencies think they can thus re-.
llove themselves of an unpleasant
burden, is much like throwing
ones weeds over ones neighbours
fence into his garden.