The Immigrant and Our Economic Progress
The greatest wealth of any nation is its people.—Allen H. Eaton.
To paint an adequate picture of the part which the immigrant has played in the economic progress of the United States, it would be necessary, as Rudyard Kipling says, “to splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet’s hair.” The industrial and agricultural greatness of the United States has been made possible by the brawn and brain of the immigrants and their children.
Cotton
The important part played by the Negro in the agricultural life of the South is nowhere more vividly portrayed than by the story of King Cotton. Cotton production, which amounted to 85,000,000 lb. in 1810, doubled every ten years for the following three decades. By 1840, two-thirds of the world’s cotton supply was produced in the South and, by 1850, cotton valued at $98,000,000 was raised. In 1937-1938, the United States produced four times as much cotton as the rest of the world.
| U.S.A. | 18,946,000 BALES |
| BRAZIL | 2,107,839 BALES |
Much of the credit for this amazing achievement goes to the Negro whose labor has been the foundation of our Cotton Kingdom.