Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-15
BUILDING The WEST
How the Railways Are Draining
the East.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE.
Statement by Representative Of the
Great Northern.
HAS STUDIED ALL THE STATES
Profits Of the Road in Attracting Set
tiers to Adjacent Lands-Presi-
dent Hills Policy.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE.
HAS STUDIED ALL THE STATES

While there is so much talk of foreign
immigration to this country and while there
are such strenuous efforts being made to
get the newly arrived foreigners out of the
cities and on the land in the country, there
are few persons who realize what tide Of
internal immigration Is always setting
from the east to the west inside our own
borders. There has been for many years
distinct movement of the native eastern
population westward and this has been so
pronounced that some Of the western rail-
roads have special bureaus devoted to this
class of work and some of the eastern
states have passed laws against the hold
ing of public meetings to encourage emf
grafton. These laws, Of course, are uncon-
stitutional and would be held so If a case
were ever fought to the Supreme Court.
But the fight would be expensive and the
railroads interested prefer to- nominally
comply with the law and get their emf
grants by advertisement and personal in
tervieW.
The Great Northern railroad has been
engaged in this sort of emigration work
ever since. it has been built and James j.
Hill, the president of the road. has made
hobby Of emigration. One of his lieuten-
ants who has devoted decade to the same
line Of work was in Washington yesterday
and talked over the subject with Star
reporter He was A. G. Harvey. the dis
trict passenger agent Of the road, who has
made study of. almost all the states in
the union in pursuit of his especial line of
work.
Draining the East.
CAS- a matter of fact" said he, "the emf
grafton business has been on the down
grade for some years simply because we
have drained the eastern states Of avail
abe material, and we will have to wait for
the next generation to grow up and crowd
the eastern farms again before we can
take them off, But in the course of the
past eight years, 1 should say that our
road alone has carried between $4,000 and
10000 native immigrants to the land of
Minnesota and North Dakota, where they
have settled and almost without exception
become independent. We have naturally
kept an eye on them, and not over per
cent Of the whole number have ever come
back east. But they were usually the brand
OF men who would have made a failure any
where. Not all of them stayed where they
were originally put by any means. Some
of them who settled in Minnesota bought
and paid for their places. improved them
and sold them to move farther west, some
clear to the Pacific coast. But the ma
jority made good, and nearly all of them
are infinitely Better off than they were be-
fore.
Now all of this may sound like great
jolly for the road, but 1t is not. 1t merely
shows one phase Of the movement of pepu-
lation that most people know nothing
about, and 1t shows line of business that
scarcelybany people know exists. One curl
Gus thing is that many of our best emf
grants come from Virginia and North Caro-
lima. When I first went into that field
some years ago the highest officials of the
road thought I was making mistake.
They said that what we wanted was New
Englanders But the results were surpris-
ing. Virginia and North Carolina not only
furnished us some of the best settlers that
we have, but they stuck and brought others
after them.
Accomplished by Advertising.
''How do the railroads do it? Well, it
Is done mostly by advertising for starter.
The road will get out hundreds of thou
sands of circulars pointing out where there
either is cheap land or government free
land. There are shoals of letters of in
quiry, and then the prospective settlers are
given our literature, descriptive of the
country, and finally they are put into d.
rect communication with some of the peo-
pie that have gone into the same region
before them and given a chance TO cOrre-
spond direct with them.
How does it pay the road? 1t pays in
this way. We figure that every man,
woman and child. even to babies in the
arms, who settles on the line of the road
is worth 800 year to the line. You take
a man who has been farming on lease
In some of the eastern states and who has
been barely making a living. He goes out to
eastern states, and who has been barely
making living out of it. He goes out to
the new country, and for the first year, as
he wants quick return, he usually puts
in wheat. Say he has a 16O-acre farm
He gets on the average 1880 bushels Of
wheat Oft of that. Wheat has been run
ming in the past few years from IS to 30
cents a bushel. There is money for him
as starter for payment on his farm, If
he has not already paid for 1t, and for I'M
provements and buying more land. The
next year he usually has 800 acres, and the
railroad gets s cents bushel for carrying
that wheat to market. The next year he
wants an improved place and a better
house, and there are the family groceries
and other necessities, all of which have
to be hauled to him. Every additional menu
Der of his family is good for $1OO a year
to US. That Is why say 1t pays. I think
our president would rather carry four i'm
migrants over the road who were going to
settle along the line than to take hum
dred tourists who were simply going and
coming back.
Opposition in the Old States.
''Of course, the older states and the east
ern roads do not like having the population
taken out Of their territory. North Caro-
lima has a law against holding public meet
ings to preach emigration. The authorities
in Virginia do not like 1t either But the
tide of emigration was strong in both of
those states till the eastern seaboard was
almost drained of available population.
1T is interesting work, and work that
will be done over and over again all
through the east as the population moves
westward But it is. a special line ABOUT
which most people know nothing at ALL
Recent Deaths in the Army.