The gold leaf., 1906-06-21
A Warning to the South.
Charlotte Observer.

thdrOtte observer.
The Washington Post, one of it's
best friends without, sounds a warn
ing to the South relative to encour-
aging Italian immigration to this
section and cites the part Italian i'm
migrants are playing in various strike
centers, and generally in labor trOu-
bles throughout the country. 1t is
suggested further that the Southern
people consider the recent manifesto
tions of the ''Black Hand Society"
in New York. New Jersey, Pennsylva-
MIA, etc, and the recrudescence of the
! Malta in New Orleans within the past
few days. The Post says it's know
ledge of Southern character, senti-
ment and aspirations persuades it
that the intelligent people of this sec
ton do not really want an infusion
OF this kind, and it is "inclined to
think that they are at present rather
thoughtlessly lending themselves to
the schemes OF transportation COM
panies which expect to profit by the
movement" The paper quoted goes
on to say:
''There is no better agricultural
laboring class in the world than the
real Latin peasantry of Italy and
Spain, but they are not greatly given
to emigratio and we see very few of
them in the United States. The great
bulk OF the so-called Italians who
come over here to cut thrOats, throw
dynamite, and conduct labor riots
n
nothing more than the degenerate
progeny OF the Asiatic hordes which,
long centuries ago, Overran the
shores of the Mediterranean and were
the pirates, the spectators, and the
mercenaries of those bloody ages.
They have taken the language of the
countries upon whose seaboards they
swarm, but they are as different in
nature, in principles, in ideals--in all
essential qualities-from the real peo-
pie, as black is from white, or as
wickedness is from virtue. Here and
there, in certain localities, one finds
a colony of genuine Italians, and is
impressed with their industry, their
thrift, their law-abiding tendencies,
and their amiable disposition. They,
however, constitute but q drop in the
stream OF the immi grafton we receive
i'll the name of Italy. They are a
class not prone to leave their homes.
Nine-tenths of the riffraff army that
descends upon these shores are the
spawn OF the Phenician curse, eXpe-
dlted fervently by our great and good
friends OF the Quirinal, who are only
too anxious to be rid of them"
The Post adds that it sis not es-
pecially concerned in the troubles of
the great Northern corporations that
deliberately encourage this sinister
and vicious immigration merely in
order to speed their fight against or
gained labor" but from the South,
i'll whose welfare it is profoundly in
terested. it would, if possible, avert
this blight. at is not only that we
know the negro to be the best, the
most faithful and desirable laborer
for the South" continues the Post,
ut is also that we would keep the
section free from the turmoil, the an
archy, and the social disaster which
will surely follow huge accumulations
OF the human garbage shipped from
Southern Europe and dumped in that
as yet imprisoned air. The South is
the appointed stronghold of the free
institutions for which our fOrefathers
shed their blood. Let us nurse and
shield it against the hour of tribula-
ton"
This is handsomely said and there
is no doubt of the genuineness of the
good feeling which prompts it, and it
would be we'll for us to pause and
consider the warning All genuine
Southerners will agree with what is
here said of the negro as a laborer.
He is all that and more, but he is
leaving the farm-he can't be had in
sufficient number to operate the
farms as they should be operated.
That is the reason Southern farmers
are looking for labor to take his
place. Let them be careful that they
do not get the wrong class or their
last state will be worse than the first.