The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1911-01-04
BACK HOME MOVEMENT.
What the c. c. e. d. Railroad Is Doing
to Bring Our Young Men Back to
ha Gnuth

tie SOuU1.
w. ID. Roberts, Johnson City, Tenn,
assistant industrial agents Carolina
Clinchfield & Ohio Railway, writes TO
the Manufacturers Record:
"The Carolina, Clinchfield G. Ohio
Railway Cos. back home plan of i'm
migration is an effort to induce some
Of the thousands who have gone into
the North west and Canada to return
to their former homes in the Southern
States. This has also led us to en-
ploy all possible means to discourage
further outgo of people from our
territory. While our participation iii
the revenues derived by the railroads
from the travel of people going West
is comparatively small, it is something.
and If we were successful in stopping
the movement entirely 1--WE hope to
do this), the direct loss would be
considerable in the course of year
but from the standpoint of freight
tonnage we consider the loss of these
people as producers is many times
greater than their passenger fares to
| the West amount to on any Southern
railroad.
Looking at it from the standpoint
of our people, we take the position
that the combination of cheap and
productive lands, favorable climate
and nearness to popu:ous cities and
industrial districts now open to them
makes opportunities which cannot be
| found anywhere in the West or Can
ada. Therefore, both for those who
should come back home and for vic
tins of the Western fever we are
convinced that the South today is the
very best possible country for them
to live in. Many who have gone West
are writing us to this effect, and 9TH
ers who have already come back home
confirm this conviction. The primary
essential to profitable farming is a
| good market and a quick delivery of
products. In the West the cities and
industrial districts are very distant
from the cheap farming lands, which
fact consumes the profits by freight
charges. But even in farming coun-
try comparatively close to the cities
and to the mining and numbering sec
tions in the West the mass of land is
so extensive that these markets are
quickly oversupplied and the farmer
is compelled to find an outlet for his
| surplus at distant points or lose his
labor entirely. And when he sends
his products to these points the pro-
railroads and commission men. Here
all is different. Cities and towns are
close together, and an immense con-
suming population is in the mining
districts of the Virginias and Eastern
Kentucky, in the cotton mills of the
Carolinas, in the numbering regions,
and the great cities Of the Atlantic
States Baltimore, Philadelphia New
York and Boston, with their teeming
millions, are within a few hours haul.
In the matter OF distance alone the
fruits and livestock producer on our
cheap mountain lands has as great an
advantage over the Westerner as an
absolutely prohibitive tariff wall could
give him. He can take and hold these
Southern and Eastern markets If ev-
cry acre in the Northwest were given
to settlers free of charge and irriga-
tion thrown in.
Railway managements in the South
have been dividing their efforts in this
matter of immigration. Through their
industrial departments they have
spent a great deal of money to induce
settlers to take up lands and supply
the nearby markets, but their passen-
ger departments have been just as
alert to aid the Western railroads in
drawing our native stock of people
away from us Certainly they cannot
refuse to carry people who want to-
go West, but it would be better for
them and the country they serve to
use all possible methods in persuad-
ing young men TO stay in the South
and use the opportunities now at hand.
"Not only the railroads, but boards
of trade, newspapers, schools and col
lcgcs, manufacturers and merchants
mine operators and, in fact, all the
people and interests i'm the South are
vitally concerned i'm this movement to
keep and bring back home our own.
Let it be made clear that they are
wanted in the development of the