The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-10-01
SEN. LATIMER ON IMMIGRATION
kc on :5u5js1:: at Gree: lie Wal.
cesday Nie,i1. Declared he was
not Opposed to Immigrants
Who Came From North
of Europe.

Court House here last night by re-
quest Of the Farmers Union On the
subject Of immigration. He said in
part:
''The editor of the News and Cour-
ier in an editorial Of the 20th inst
states: The kuestion Of state aid to
immigration should have no place in
the campaign for United States Sen
ator in South Carolina next year,
What the South carolina General As
sembly may do for or against the sup
port Of the department Of immigra-
tion and agriculture, Of which Col E.
J. Watson is the head, is too small a
matter upon which to hang the elec-
tion Of SENATOR
II have no criticism to make Of the
statement made by the editor Of the
News and Courier as quoted above
except that have a right to my views
upon this question, and having stated
those views, if they are not antagon-
lied by the newspapers or by my op-
ponents in the campaign for re-elec-
ton I see no necessity for hanging
the election of a senator upon that
issue.
"The editor Of the News and Cour-
ier further states that in the short in
terview gave out to the Greenville
News I failed to discuss the most i'm
portant feature involved in the i'm
migration question, viz, its bearing
upon the question Of white supre-
macy in South Carolina.
"In the first place the policy of
bringing immigrants, and the class Of
immigrants that I object to, in my
Judgment, will in no way add to the
citizenship Of our state or promote
the attainment of those conditions
which We hope to produce through
immigration. I have stated before
and reiterate it now that immigrants
will not stay in South Carolina until
we have made their conditions,
which involve wages paid and social
surroundings, equal to these they can
obtain elsewhere in United States.
In the past and at the present time
We are paying lower wages in the
south than in any other part Of the
United States, and until this condition
Is changed so that labor will receive
as good wages here as elsewhere it is
impractical to hope That the laborer
will remain with us. This, of course,
has nothing to do with the immi-
grants who come here to rent lands
Or purchase homes, and to that class
I nave never raised the slightest OBJ
lection.
ga furtherNpolicy that T object to
IS that of paying their transportation.
This involves tax on our people and
imposes no responsibility or expense
upon the immigrants brought here,
and as soon as he is landed and finds
that he can do better elsewhere ne i'm
medlately leaves the state and we
have borne the cost Of his transpor-
tatlon and the disappointment in
cident to losing his services. During
the construction Of the water power
near Bolton some rs or 100 foreigners
were brought nere from the north to
construct the dam. They had their
transportation paid, and, am reliab-
" informed, the next morning after
they landed at the dam nine or ten
failed to report for duty, having left
during the night, and in short per-.
iod practically all of t1em had gone
and the parties paying their trans
portation had to lose it. This effort
on the part of our people to get i'm
migrants has been tried over and over
again, and in every instance that I
have heard Of has proven failure
and a loss to those who put up the
money to pay their transportation.
II would like to know from the
editor of the News and Courier what
number of white citizens have been
added to out state from the 500 or
600 immigrants that were brought ov-
er on the Wittekind, and if it is not
true that the more than $4,000 put
up to. pay their transportation was
practically a total loss?
II am in favor of, and so stated in
the interview I gave to the Greenville
News, a good class Of immigrants
Domino IN Sonth Torol;no on1 rooL