Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-02-02
BRING SOME OF THEM SOUTH.

United States, according to Lagos
Steiner, of the New York department
of agriculture. This, he says, repre-
sents a tremendous strain on the
cOuntry's resources and a strain
which would be unnecessary if thew
only knew how much cheaper they
could buy farm lands here than in
Europe
Mr.. Steiner advocates the establish
ment of a bureau in the department
of agriculture, which shall keep a
lookout for good farm land which is
on the market, and endeavor to in
duce foreign labOreTs to purchase.
Three hundred millions sent from
this country to buy farm lands in
Europe. 1t seems almost incredible
But suppose it is exaggerated. Suppose
we reduce it one-half, or down to one
hundred and fifty millions a year
Think what that enormous sum would
do in the purchase and equipment O.
lands in the South. At $40 am acre
that would mean seven and a hall
millions of acres of land bought in
one year Or, if we allow $40 for the
land and $40 per acre for improve
ments, it would mean nearly four mil
lions of acres converted into magnf-
ficent farms every year.
Georgia would not welcome any
thrush of foreigners. Yet there Is
not county in which a few families
Of sturdy foreigners could not be ac-
commodated, provided with excellent
farms, and speedily assimmiIated into
the body of the people. The children
of these new Corners are generally ia
tensely patriotic Americans. Even in
the cities, where there is so much to
lead to a continuance of their old
ideas, customs, the perpetuation OF
old methods of thought, the first gen
Grafton born on American soil is not
ed for it's different view point from
that of parents, for its eagerness to be
American in every sense of the word.
How much more so would it be with
the families that were reared in the
country, away from the demoralizing
influences that arise from the con-
centration of many thousands of
them in the crowded, squalid tene-
ment house section of the cities.
The Department of Agriculture
would do a great work if it could
stop the drain upon the country indf-
Gated in the expenditure Of enormous
sums abroad for lands The South
alone could yearly accommodate
many thousands OF families of sturdy,
honest, respectable foreigners with
out any danger to itself. What would
the presence of a dozen or more fam
lilies of this type do that would be
harmful to the best interests of Sum
ter county, for instance? And how
much good they might do, and their
children and grandchildren after
them, in the development of the
county.
The South viii never welcome, we
believe, any wholesale immigration of
foreigners. But a judicious distribl-
ton of farming families from among
them of an honest, Industrious type.
would certainly not be opposed. We
have such an enormous area Of land.
there are such vast sections of it
that welcome hand
might well be extended to those who
would assist in its development and
become, as they assuredIy would.
patriotic American citizens
Of the future. And the man who out
Of his meagre earnings is laying aside
a few dollars every month with the
of getting home back in
Europe, where the conditions of life
bear SO hard upon agricuIturists Of
he small type, is undoubtedly a man
who has the stuff in him to make p
first class citizen.