The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-14
WHITE IMMIGRANTS TO BE
 URGED TO COME TO SOUTz

white people in the Gulf Stats 7s tn, l largest anywhere in the W d. MT Williams recommended the stablish' ment of a mounted rural police aftel the Capt Colony and Canadian sys' tenn.
 The political phase of the negro problem we have pretty well worked out to an approximately satisfactory fssue.'' he went on ro say, and recon mended a iimitatiin of the franchise to the white race. He prophested that similar action would be taken a gen eration hence In Illinois, Indiana anc Ohio He also favored the rigid en' forcement of vagrancy laws and saic that if the peEro would not work he must get out of the field. The impor- tation of desirable white immigrants not only from foreign countries, but from the North was also suggested in the letter.
 Favor Good Roads.
 The report of the good roads com mittee favored the adoption of the Latimer- BrownIow bill. now pending in Congress, asking for national aid in the construction of good roads, and that the States use every effort to im- prove the highways.
 The government aid feature of the report precipitated q debate whicn covered nearly two hours and in which about fifteen delegates were heard. This portion of the report was finally stricken out and adjournment taken until ?. m.
 At the afternoon session N. F Thompson of Chattanooga advocated the strictest enforcement of the va- grancy laws with suspension of sen- tence in case .he negro would go to the Panama canal. and In going into the race problem, said:
 T would have the world know that this race problem has its most fertil :. source of perpetuity in the efforts of politicians who find it 8 .ost efficient hobby on which to ride into place an6 power. When there are no elections in the South, we hear very little about this race matter, uut when a political campaign is on, 1t is dug up to do double duty and 1t goes out to the world that we have in this question a problem of tremendous importance, beside which all others are as noth- ing in comparison, Is 1t any wonder that there Is an apprehension in the minds of others outside the South in regard to this matter?
 Negro Not the Worst
 Have you ever considered that there does not exist in the South amy problem that begins to compare in seriousness to that which, coming from the slunls in New York, the an- archists in Chicago, the race prejudice ia San Francisco and the mob spirit found practically In all the labor cen- ters of the North and East? You may take all the crimes committed by ne- groes In the South, all of the evils that spring from their idle classes in our towns and cities, and I would not minimize them, and yet, all com bined, do not form such 8 menace t. government and civilization as exists ia the sources to which have re- ferPed.
 Now tho idle negro is in our way. We have borne with hiEi long eriougn. Tn justice to ourselves nj to tho large class of deserving negroes who are Identified with the south, we should force him to work
 'sTlle enforcement of the vagrancv laws uniformly all over the South will tend largely to the elimination of the idle negro. This brings me to a sng- gestion that l made to President Roog- evelt recently and which appears to have been generally misunderstood. In order to aid both races in the Soutn to get clear of these idle negroes and aid in the speedy completion of an enterprise in which the South is deep- ly interested, I told him that I be- lieved that a plan could be adopted that would take these classes largely out of the South and send them to dig the Panama canal
 Should be Sent to Pannna.
 T told him this could be accom- plished without the violation of any law, State or national, and at his re- quest, I went over the matter with Chairman Shonts of the Committee, and Secretary Taft. The plan involves the placing of the limit on all va grants, and then suspend.ng judgment If they would voluntarily go to Pan- anna. The daily plan of police tudgst in sentencing some one md then tellA ing him l will suspend this if you leave here and promise never to re- turn only shifts the criminal from one community to another"
 W. J. Oliver of Knoxville. Tenn, told of the troubles of contractors in keeping negroes at work on public works, but still he preferred the negro to the Italian or the Chinaman. The chief dificulty MT. Oliver found in bringing negroes from the city to the country was the prevalence of the CO., caine habit He considered that the drug was doing more harm than any of the many evils which today beset the negro. He favored the strict enforce ment of the vagrancy law, whether the magistrate gets anything out of 1t or not"
 Dr. Stephen N. Neuman of Wash ington, D. C., representing the Lib- eral Immigration League. delivered a scholarly address. dealing with immi- grafton from the time of Abraham to the present day. Any conference that seeks to deal with immigration, he said, Is not taking up an experiment, but Is dealing with the solution. not only of the race problem. but of all other problems. He paid tribute to the class of immigrants which is arriving in America. and said there was no truth in the statement that we were being overrun by a horde of undesir- able foreigners, He made a plea for better home life for children as pro- ductive of better citizenship.
 Robert l.. Burch of Nashville made a strong appeal for the establishment of State bureaus of immigration as the best means of securing white labor for the South. Other addresses were made by L.. J. Ellis of New York, Robert Gates of Nashville. and Rev Dr. Re- decker of Maryland. the latter bearing a word of greeting from Governor War field.
 THEY SAW NAPOLEON.