Work of Southern Railroads in Promoting Immigration.
In the general and very proper demand for railroad aid to the cause of Southern immigration, it should not be forgotten that many of the Southern roads have been for years giving conspicuous and liberal attention to this work. Through the efforts of such roads, for example, as the Mobile & Ohio, the Illinois Central, the Baltimore & Ohio, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the St. Louis Southwestern and others, hundreds of thousands of substantial farmers, artisans and business men have been induced to move to the South, and all of those roads are constantly enlarging their immigration work. A notable instance of broad and progressive management in furtherance of immigration is furnished by the Georgia Southern & Florida road, whose methods were made the subject of an article published in the January number of the Southern States.
Other Southern roads are becoming roused on this subject. The Seaboard Air Line system, which has a management as progressive and liberal as any road in the country, is preparing to inaugurate a comprehensive immigration policy, and the Richmond & Danville road is also adopting measures to induce Northern farmers to settle along its lines. The Louisville & Nashville and the Central Railroad of Georgia systems are also taking advanced steps in the same direction.
The introduction of artesian water in some of the Southern towns, notably Albany and Brunswick, Ga., has revolutionized the health of those places; the two localities named, which were formerly noted for the prevalence of malarial and other disorders, being now equally noted as health resorts. The last Georgia town to enter the artesian well procession is Quitman, Ga. The April number of the Southern States will contain an exhaustive article by Mr. James R. Randall, on drinking water. Mr. Randall has for many years been making investigations on this subject, and his article will be a revelation, not only to the general public, but to most physicians and hygienists as well.
The Augusta Chronicle, quoting the sage remark of a man who had amassed much wealth, who when asked how he had made his money, said that he always bought when everybody wanted to sell, and sold when everybody wanted to buy, urges that the present is the time for people with money to make investments. Prices of every sort have reached a minimum, and in view of the assured early reaction and the inevitable rebound to very high prices that will follow the long term of depression, this would seem to be as the Chronicle suggests, the time to buy things.
No sooner is Atlanta well under way with its great International Exposition project for 1895 than Macon comes to the front with an exposition enterprise of its own. A movement has been started to hold an exposition in the fall of 1894. These Georgia towns are great hustlers.
In Mr. Clark Bell’s article, published elsewhere, there is this statement:
“Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers, transports free over his railways every pound of material an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would advocate free transportation of the household goods of every actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.”
This is commended to the attention of Southern railroad managers.
The Legislature of Virginia seems to have some spite against real estate agents. Not satisfied with the present burdensome and wholly unjust tax imposed upon real estate dealers in the State, it is proposed now to make the real estate agents bear the expense of a State immigration commission.
Mr. John T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., secretary of the Southern Bureau of Information, deserves much commendation for his enterprise and public spirit in having arranged for an excursion through the South of the editors of a number of leading Northern medical journals. This undertaking of Mr. Patrick’s is in furtherance of an effort to correct the impression that still exists in the minds of a great many Northern people that the South is an unhealthful section.
At the last meeting of the Commercial & Industrial association, of Montgomery, Ala., the president said in his monthly report: “The association should advertise the city and hold forth its advantages in every way possible which will attract capital and cause enterprising citizens to locate here. A new era of growth and enterprise will come apace and Montgomery should be prepared to reap the rewards that flow from it.” This admonishment may be heeded with profit by every community in the South.
Mr. Clark Bell, the writer of the article on the fruit growing possibilities of the South Atlantic seaboard, is a New York lawyer, and editor of the Medico-Legal journal of New York. He has had a quite extensive practical experience in fruit growing, and his judgment as to the capabilities of the South for this branch of agriculture is that of a competent expert. Mr. Bell was one of the party of editors of medical journals who recently made a tour of the South Atlantic States under the auspices of the Southern Bureau of Information, located at Southern Pines, N. C.
It seems incomprehensible to a Southern man that there should be any doubt in the minds of Northern people as to whether Northern settlers will be well received in the South or not. Mr. Clark Bell, in an article in this number, says: “Northern settlers would, strange as it may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects,” and he thinks it necessary to quote the assurances on this point that he had from distinguished Southern gentlemen. Not only will Northern farmers and business men be well received in the South, but they will find awaiting them a most eager welcome. The newspaper utterances all over the South, the statements of public men, the personal letters to the newspapers from farmers and merchants, the actions of commercial bodies, indicate not only a welcome to the Northern settler, but a keen appreciation of the value to the South of immigration from the North, and a most eager desire for this immigration. No Northern man, who is respectable enough to have standing in his own community at home, need have any fear but that he will find in the South the utmost consideration and good will.
The superior train service on the Chesapeake & Ohio is well known to all patrons of that system. During the month of January train No. 1 made the run between Washington, D. C., and Cincinnati, twenty-nine days, exactly on time, and on the other two days lost but twenty minutes. Train No. 2 made every trip between the cities on time, and the “Fast Flying Virginian,” one of the finest express trains in the country, reached Cincinnati thirty out of thirty-one trips on time, although it was an hour late out of Washington on seven trips, caused by waiting for connections. This is a month’s record that the operating department can be proud of.