The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-10-01
SEN. LATIMER ON IMMIGRATION
sPoko on Su5jsc: at Gree, ,lle WaI.
nesday Nitfl Declared he was
not Opposed to Immigrants
Who Game From North
Of Europe.


states Senator Latimer spoke in tne
Court House here last night by re-
quest OF the Farmers Union on the
subject Of immigration. He said in
part:
1.-The editor Of the News and Cour-
Ter III an editorial Of the goth inst
states: The kuestion~ Of state aid TO
immigration should have no place in
the campaign for United States Sen
ator i'll South Carolina next year.
what the South ICarolina General AS
sembly may do for or against the SUD-
port of the department of immigra-
hon and agriculture, of which Col f.
y. Watson is the head, is too small
matter upon which to hang the elec-
ton Of a SENATOR
II have no criticism to make Of the
statement made by the editor of the
News and Courier as quoted above
except that I have right to my views
upon this question, and having stated
those views, if they are not antagon-
1zed by the newspapers or by my op
ponents in the campaign for re-elec-
ton | see no necessity for hanging
the election of senator upon that
issue.
"The editor Of the News and Cour-
Ter further states that in the short in
terVlew L gave out to the Greenvillc
News l 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.
I'm the first place the policy of
bringing immigrants, and the class Of
immigrants that I object to- in nv
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,
winch involve wages paid and social
surroundings, equal to these thew can
obtain elsewhere in United States
IN the past and at the present TINA
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 il is
impractical to hope that the laborer
Will remain with It's. This, of course,
has nothing to do with the imm;-
grants who come here to rent lands
Or purchase homes, and to that class
L nave never raised the SLIGHTEST OH
lection.
"A further>policy that object to
IS that OF paying their transportation.
rms involves tax on our people and
imposes no responsibility or expense
upon the immigrants brought here.
ana as soon as he is landed and finds
mat ne can do better elsewhere ne i'm
medlately leaves the state and we
nave borne the cost of his transnor-
tat1on and the disappointment in
cldent to losing his services. During
'he construction Of the water power
near Bolton some rs or 100 foreigners
were brought mere from the north to
construct the dam. They had their
transportation paid, and, I am reliab-
~ informed, the next mornino after
they landed at the dam nine or ten
1alled to report for duty, having left
during the night, and in a short per-.
1od practically all Of them 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 T
have heard Of has proven a failure
and loss to those who put up the
money to pay their transportation.
~ would like to know from tbc
editor Of the News and Courier what
number of white citizens have been
added to out state from the 500 or
ooo immigrants that were brought ov-
er on the Wittckind, and if it is not
true tnat the more than $4,000 put
up to. pay their transportation was
practically total loss7
81 am in favor Of, and so stated in
the interview I gave to the Greenville
News, good class Of immigrants