The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-10
MRS. QUACKENBOS
 HAS NOVEL PLAN Would Settle Labor Problems
 In the South PE0NAGE INVESTIGATIONS
Special Assistant To Attorney General Would Organize Employers in Movement To Bring Foreigners
 To the South Direct.

Mrs. Mary Grace Quackenbos. special assistant to the Attorney General. has been engaged for a year and a half under the direction of the department or Justice in preparing the peonage cases in the southren states. She was or course, acting under the instructions of the Attorney General. but in work ing up the evidence in these cases. she has been put In the position by many southern people of attempting to de- stroy the white labor suply of that section of the country. It is possibly true. also, that the prosecution of these peonage cases has retarded the flow Of European labor to the south. at least temporarily. For that reason Mrs. Quackenbos has been put in the position of being an enemy of the de- Velopment of the south and a resolu- ton Is now pending in the House of Representatives calling for an investi- gation of the whole peonage question as developed by her reports to the Attorney General.
 It will be great surprise to many people, and particularly to those in the south who have been denouncing these peonage prosecutions, to learn that Mrs. Quackenbos has originated a scheme for the settlement of the labor question in the south which seems to be as practical as it is novel. Her plan is entirely independent of the government and is of course not based upon any action by the department of justice. On the other hand she pro poses voluntary association of the southern planters and manufacturers. the railroad and steamship companies. the foreign consuls general and the immigrants themselves, the sole object being to divert the stream of for eign labor from the congested districts of the East Side in New York to the cotton fields, the mills, the lumber camps, and the mines of the south. Coming from such a source this propo- sition will unquestionably attract at tention in the south and in Congress, because it's objects is to supply the south with white labor and at the same time to protect the immigrant laborer by assuring him a good home fair treatment and an honest contract. Mrs. Quackenbos is intimately acquainted with conditions in the tenement district of New York and for a year or more she has been studying the white labor problem in the south, so that she is probably the best authority in this country now on the relations between the north and south as applied to the immigration problem.
 Mrs. Quackenbos Talks.
 My connection with the peonage prosecutions" said Mrs Quackenbos, 'is entirely official It would not be proper to speak upon that phase of the subject now because many of these cases are still pending. What I am personally interested in is to apply a remedy for conditions which would never have existed if all the persons interested had fully understood each other. The south needs labor. That is evident to everybody. The colored peo- pie cannot supply enough labor to se- cure the best development of that sec ton of the country. The planters, the mill owners, the lumbermen, and the miners must have labor in addition to what is alre.dy on the ground. Practi-
 
 induce the immigrants from Europe to settle in the south. That is the condi- tion, briefly stated, in the south to- day.
 There is also the condition in the north to be understood. Hundreds of thousands of European immigrants are coming to this country every year. The great mass, as everyone knows, drift at once to the tenement districts of New York and Boston, or to the mills the mines, and the railroad camps of the North Atlantic slope. The Euro pean laborer is not going to the place where he is most needed and where he can do the best for himself While the south is crying for help, the immigrants are packing into the tenement dis tricts of New York where there is all ready an over supply. The agricui- tural laborers of southern and south eastern Europe instead of being di- rected toward the out door healthful life of the southern plantations, are packing into the congested districts of great cities. There ought to be some way of relieving both of these situa- tions If the stream of immigration from Italy and from Austria Hungary could be diverted toward the southern states it would be better for the inn migrants, it would be better for the south. and it would help at least to diminish the horrors of the congested tenement districts in our northern cities, It does not need any argument to show that the average immigrant is a great deal better off in the coun- trv than in the city. Under proper conditions he ought to be better taken care of in a cotton mill in South Caro- lima than in a sweat shop in New York. The chances are that he will become better citizen and learn American ideas ina shorter time if he and his family begin life in plantation cabin in Louisiana rather than In an un- healthy tenement in New York. There
 will he A great deal better chance for him to grow up with the country If he gets away from the cities or the North Atlantic seaboard. At the same tune 1t will be better for those citles' pe cause it will relieve the strain irofH the tenement districts and of course if will be better for the south because if will give to that section the white labor suplpy which is now indispensa- = ble to further progress.
 That is all true anough, l suggested, but how do you propose to enect the change in the stream of immigration SD as to divert it from the north to the south. from the Atlantic coast to the interior?'
 Must Convince immigrant.
 First of all, you must convince the inn migrant that it is to his interest to go to one place rather than another. You cannot effect any permanent change by persuading few hundred families to go 10 a particular section, even if you pay all their expenses. It is indispensable that they should be well treated after they