The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-30
BLACK MAN THE BURDEN
 OF THE SOUTHERN SECTION
The Negro the Old Man of the Sea to the Sinbad South--Darkey Sits in the Sun to Be
 Tranpled on by Fate.

people he was unexpectedly impressed with them and came to believe that they were better than he thought. And he was more impressed with the actual results which have been achieved in the big county.
 But marking back to the negro ques- lion. The men who are engaged in the private enterprise of selling lands and bringing in immigrants are ready to confirm the expressed opinion of the Governor that the negro is the great est deterrent to immigration that Ala bama has. They have no hesitancy in saying that the first thing they have to do Is to convince the possible set tier. the probable land buyers, that there are but very few negroes and practically none at all in the Southern portion of Baldwin county. When the prospective land buyer is convinced of this he is ready to talk business in earnest
 Such Is the statement made by Henry Bartling. the Chicago business man who is Secretary and Treasurer of the Baldwin County Land and Develop ment Company This is the big compa- ny which owns 53.000 acres of the Bald win county ls'ids near the terminus of the Bay Mlnette and Fort Morgan Railroad. This is the company which has founded the promising colony of Elborta, five miles east of the railroad terminus in the Southeastern portion of the county
 Questions of Settlers.
 MT Bartling is devoting his entire time to bringing in settlers and to sell ing the lands of his company. He Is a big man with a confident, not to say aggressive air He is brought direct ly into close contact with all the pro- bable settlers. all the men who are in- ,lof Ia ezfl and who are contemplating making q home in the delightful climate of the Gulf coast The company puts out its1 money lavishly in advertising in the north.
 In folder advertisements and in the newspapers 1t spends no little amount. It employs agen,s, too. who go about and find out people, with some money, who will be interested in the proposi tion of buying a Gulf coast farm and establishing q new home. With these people the company conducts an exten- sive correspondence. This correspon dence is under the supervision of MT. Bartling, and he is thoroughly familiar with the misapprehensions which have to be removed from tho minds of the enquirers.
 The Three Difficulties.
 There are three difficulties which nave 10 pc met, Sdlu MI. DdINllti%- There are three issues that these in- uuirers raise and which we have to meet. You probably know the sort of class of people that we are bringing in. They are people from the West and Northwest, from Chicago. from Minnesota. from Michigan. and States of that section. Most of them are ei- ther Germans or of German descent They have experience, intelligence and some money
 Now when they get interested there are three things they want to know about. They want to know, first. if the country is filled with negroes. They want to know, second, if the country is not swampy and unhealthy. They want to know, third. if the country is filled with snakes. They arc especially uneasy about the negroes. The Ger mans do not want to come in a country inhabited by negroes. The habits of the German farmer and the habits of the negro are so different that the German does not care to enter fin any sort of competition with the black man. Of course we can truthfully as- sure them that there are very few ne- groes In Baldwin county and that they are no sort of q factor in the life of the county.
 About the Swamps.
 Then some of them have the strange idea that Alabama is country of swamps, where malaria abounds and where the Northern man will be strick- en with fever Do you know that the old Union soldiers are largely respon- sible for this belief? These old sol diers were down South during the war, when they lived In unsanltary condi- tions and with an insufficient food sup ply. As a natural result many of them l were sick, for men, as matter of course fall sick in camp life. Under | the most favorable conditions men | grow sick in military camps and the 1 camp life the Union soldiers had to l lead were by no means under favor able conditions. So these old soldiers | advise prospective settlers not to come | to live in the South where there are | so many swamps and where there is so much fever, such being the eXperi- ence they had in the war,
 This impression we have to remove. We have to prove to them, as We can easily do, that Baldwin County is quite