Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-10-24

Some weeks ago one Of our daily pa
pers printed an editorial concerning the
tide of immigration which constantly
runs to the West, while no such tide
runs Southwark. The writer said it was
a mystery 'unfathomable", although he
more than limited that a partial explana-
ton of it was to be found in the failure
Of the railways of the South to advertise
our section as the railways of the West
advertised that section.
He said:
A group of leading western rail-
roads announce that, lin anticipation
of very heavy colonist movement
to the Pacific coast" preparations
have been made to accommodate the
fall traffic upon a scale never yet
projected.
Last spring, one western railroad
alone, handled 20,05S colonist passen-
gers
Why is it that no such announce
ments, none remotely approximating
them, are ever made regarding col
onists to the southern states?
The answer must be found in the
list of those things that are simply
unfathomable.
We have unoccupied lands in great
er volume than those of the west;
more fertile; in the midst of the IA
cilities of civilization; at infinitely
lower prices; producing an incompar-
ably greater variety of resources.
The south has all the argument on
its side. Yet we never hear whisper
of these mammoth colonizing move
ments in this direction. The western
roads are doing all that is possible
to take our people away from the
south, but when il comes to adopt
ing similar methods to bring new
settlers here-nothing doing!
The west cannot accommodate it's
own population. Annually 100000 seek
the cheaper and more virgin lands of
Canada, while the superior acres of
the south cry for settlers.
What is the answer?
We confess the whole matter baf-
fies our understanding. With the
eyes of the nation directed toward
the south as never before, the west
ern railroads are doing more in day
to attract the attention of prospec-
tive settlers than our southern rail-
roads are doing in a month
If this is not so why is it that we
do not hear of some of these colonist
specials being turned in this direc-
ton?
Doubtless there is some ground for the
complaint made against the railways of
the South, although it should not be for
gotten that many railways in the West
were granted government lands for their
building, and that they are advertising
their own property in much of the ad-
vertising of the West which they put
forth. Southern roads have little or no
land to sell, having received no land
grants from the government to encour-
age their construction. Moreover the
owners of some Western roads exert
a controlling influence over certain popu-
lar magazines, if indeed they do not
own controlling interest in these peri
odicals. 1t is to their interest that these
magazines cry up the West, and it Is
possible that for the same reason their
publications have some times decried the
South, publishing sensational accounts of
its race conflicts, detailing how disease
infected are the Southern people, and
proclaiming that our section is far be-
hind other sections in the matter of edu-
cation. A little investigation might dis
close some surprising things at this
point
There is no doubt that the presence
of the Negro population in the south,
and the supposed race problem which
some never tire of discussing, deters a
certain class of European immigrants
from the South. When 1 was in Europe
was amazed at the exaggerated notions
held about this matter by even intelli-
gent people over there. The riot in at
lanta in 1906 was in the minds of some
whom l met, more terrible
than the Boer war. Southern papers are
little read in Europe, and such informa-
ton as the people get about current con-
ditions in the South is derived from I'M
friendly Northern periodicals or from
biased press dispatches. A Southern man
of intelligence knows far more about the
Northern States of our own country ane
European states than do the people of
the North and of Europe know about
the South. Many of our people read
Northern and European papers; but our
papers are little read, or even seen, by
Northern people and Europeans. pro-
fessor in one of the most conspicuous
institutions of learning in England asked
me If Atlanta, Georgia, was not very
near Atlantic city. A we'll taught school
boy in the South knows more about the
of England than did the pro-
fessor about the Southern States. On
another occasion l heard a distinguished
gentleman giving an account in a pub
lie address of, his visit to the United
States, and he gave his audience to
that he had seen all the lead
ing cities of our country, although he
stated he had been in no more than
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Washington, Cleveland and Buffalo. It
is easy to mislead men so utterly ig-
norant of the South, and when a local
disturbance in our section is published
among them they imagine it to be a
vastly greater affair than it really is.
By such means our race problem" so
called, is ever before them. When l told
some of our kin beyond the sea that for
my part 1 was unwilling to live in any
land where there were no Negroes, and
that 1 preferred our colored people to
certain classes of European immigrants,
they seemed surprised beyond measure,
not to say incredulous. Their miscon-
ceptions about the race problem" of the