A NEW PROBLEM 
 
 NATIONAL LIBERAL IMMIGRATION LEAGUE 
 
 For the Proper Regulation and Better Distribution of Immigration 
 
 o 
 
 150 Nassau Street 
 New York 
 
 42—FEB. 26. MO 
 
EDITORIALS 
 
 3 
 
 A NEW PROBLEM 
 
 Among the many problems which 
 confront the American people, few 
 have thought of placing emigration. 
 Yet, as will be noted from an article 
 in another part of the Review, pre¬ 
 pared at our request by a writer who 
 has made a study of the subject, scores 
 of thousands of citizens, who cOuld 
 hardly be described as lacking in this 
 world’s goods, are migrating across 
 the northern border. It may well be 
 said of them that they are taking with 
 them the fat of the land. Agricultur¬ 
 ists who, apparently, have succeeded 
 in the United States, they are carry¬ 
 ing over into the land of the “Lady of 
 the Snows,” an average of $1,000 in 
 money and settler’s effects for each 
 man, woman and child. It may be 
 argued, “Why be alarmed over a loss 
 of $60,000,000 or $80,000,000 a year? 
 This is a mere bagatelle in compari¬ 
 son with the annual increase in the 
 wealth of the country.” While it may 
 be true, relatively, that this is a small 
 sum for this country to lose, there are 
 other reasons, also, why the United 
 States should prefer to have these emi¬ 
 grants remain here. A successful ag¬ 
 riculturist is an important asset to a 
 country, especially to a land in which 
 the prices of food are rising and the 
 difference between domestic produc¬ 
 tion and domestic consumption ap¬ 
 pears to be a dwindling surplus. 
 Moreover, men of the stamp of these 
 American emigrants are a political as¬ 
 set. No democracy can afford to lose 
 citizens of the type of those who are 
 going over into Canada. While one 
 may not blame Canada for encourag¬ 
 ing the immigration of these people, 
 nor the emigrants themselves for de¬ 
 siring to better their economical con¬ 
 dition, yet one may reasonably ask that 
 some effort be made to retain them in 
 the United States. Is there no region 
 which requires their energies and cap¬ 
 ital that could offer them counter in¬ 
 ducements ? 
 
 It has seemed to us that possibly the 
 South would welcome men of the 
 character of these men. With this in 
 
 mind we invited Mr. Hugh MacRae, 
 a banker of North Carolina and New 
 York, who has given the subject of the 
 development of the South a great deal 
 of study, to write an article regarding 
 the opportunities offered in this sec¬ 
 tion of our country. This article, 
 which is printed in another part of the 
 magazine, is a revelation. His state¬ 
 ment of the resources and natural ad¬ 
 vantages of the South will astonish 
 many persons. It may be added that, 
 already, there is a movement from the 
 high priced lands of Iowa, Minnesota 
 and the Dakotas into portions of Vir¬ 
 ginia where land is still low priced. 
 This movement is made up of men 
 who have sold their holdings in the 
 West at the good prices prevailing 
 with the idea of investing in lower 
 priced lands elsewhere. They are 
 coming to Virginia for the same rea¬ 
 son that many more of their neighbors 
 are going to Canada. It is the desire 
 of the Review to obtain definite sug¬ 
 gestions as to the best means of turn¬ 
 ing this northbound stream toward the 
 South. What practical inducements 
 will the South make? 
 
lV, IH .1^ 
 
 ’ Z.1 "3 
 
 \n( OA 
 
 OUR HUMAN CONTRIBUTION 
 TO CANADA 
 
 A REPORT 
 
 BY HERBERT FRANCIS SHERWOOD 
 
 ECENTLY an American weekly 
 whose mission is the entertain¬ 
 ment and instruction of Eng¬ 
 lish speaking people through clever 
 and witty comments on contemporary 
 life, published the following: 
 
 Good Work in a New Line. 
 
 We certainly are smart people in this 
 country, and we do well many things that 
 we undertake, even when they are novelties. 
 
 For example: Since civilization first in¬ 
 truded here we have, until very lately, done 
 hardly anything at all in the line of emi¬ 
 gration. But three or four years ago some 
 of our people began slipping over the north¬ 
 western border into Canada. And last year 
 we passed over to that country 59,832 citi¬ 
 zens who took with them SIXTY MILL¬ 
 ION DOLLARS! 
 
 That was in 1908. Last year we 
 “passed over” more than 90,000. 
 
 Speaking literally, this was and is 
 no joke. James J. Hill recently con¬ 
 gratulated the Canadians upon the 
 quality of the immigration they are 
 receiving from the United States. 
 The quality of these emigrants, drawn 
 by the opportunities offered on the 
 northern side of the line, is such that 
 the question is being asked, “Cannot 
 some section of the United States of¬ 
 fer inducements which will counteract 
 the tendency of desirable citizens to 
 remove beyond the borders?” 
 
 Canada’s immigration somewhat re¬ 
 sembles the earlier immigration of the 
 United States in its racial composition, 
 consisting largely of natives of the 
 British Isles and the United States. 
 While the Dominion has had a steadily 
 increasing flow of immigration rang¬ 
 ing from 21,716 in 1897 to 262,469 in 
 
 the fiscal year of 1907-08, the conti¬ 
 nental immigration has exceeded in 
 only one year, more than a third of 
 the total. In 1897, the percentage was 
 36.4. It has usually been below 30 
 per cent. British immigration has not 
 fallen below 37 per cent, in any of the 
 years referred to and averages nearly 
 one-half of the total. 
 
 The Canadian immigration from the 
 United States in 1897 was 2,412, or 
 11 per cent, of the whole. In the 
 course of the fiscal year of 1905-06, 
 the number of migrants from the 
 United States over the Canadian line 
 was 57,919, or 30.6 per cent, of the 
 stream. In 1908 the number who con¬ 
 cluded to transfer their homes to the 
 Dominion numbered 59,832* They 
 constituted almost exactly two-fifths 
 of the total Canadian immigration for 
 that year. Between January 1, 1897, 
 and March 31, 1909, out of a total of 
 1,366,651 immigrants, 425,470 were 
 from the United States. Of this num¬ 
 ber 299,603 entered Canada within the 
 last six years. This is at the rate of 
 approximately 50,000 a year. 
 
 In the year 1907-08 the American 
 immigrants carried into Canada $52,- 
 000,000 in cash and settlers’ effects. 
 This was a trifle less than a thousand 
 dollars a head, including women and 
 children. In the last fiscal year it 
 equalled almost exactly this amount 
 per capita. These were no ordinary 
 immigrants! 
 
 What was the character of this 
 American immigration as indicated by 
 their occupations? In the course of 
 the period beginning with the fiscal 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 An Attraction, for American Immigrants 
 Battery of Harvesting Machines on a Canadian Wheat Field 
 
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION TO CANADA 
 
 7 
 
 year 1903-04 and concluding with the 
 last fiscal year, 299,603 persons, as I 
 have said, emigrated from this coun¬ 
 try to Canada. Of this number, 198,- 
 240 were farmers and farm laborers, 
 19,476 were general laborers, 12,058 
 mechanics, 7,326 clerks, traders, etc., 
 3,360 miners and 401 domestics. 
 
 Canada has been selective to a 
 greater degree in her immigration 
 than has the United States. The Do¬ 
 minion authorities, aggressive in so 
 many directions, have not hesitated to 
 take active steps to obtain the char¬ 
 acter of immigrants desired, and to 
 discourage the embarkation of those 
 who would not fit into the economic 
 requirements of the country. Doubt¬ 
 less, she has been assisted in her se¬ 
 lective efforts by competition with the 
 labor market of the United States. 
 She has laid emphasis upon the oppor¬ 
 tunities for the man who desires to 
 work upon the land. Canada pays 
 bonuses for the kind of immigrants 
 she desires and the railroad companies 
 advertise these opportunities. The ef¬ 
 fectiveness of her methods is demon¬ 
 strated in the fact that within the last 
 twelve years, 30 per cent, of the immi¬ 
 grants from Continental countries, 21 
 per cent, of those from England and 
 Wales, 22 per cent, from Scotland, 24 
 per cent, from Ireland, and 43 per 
 cent, from the United States made 
 homestead entries in the Western 
 provinces of the Dominion. An im¬ 
 pression of the proportion of the im¬ 
 migration thus disposed of may be 
 gained from a knowledge of the fact 
 that the average number of persons 
 for each entry is 2.5. This does not 
 take into account the many thousands 
 from European countries who have 
 settled in other parts of the Dominion 
 as farmers, farm laborers and do¬ 
 mestics. 
 
 The following paragraph regarding 
 Canada’s immigration policy is taken 
 from the year book for 1907 published 
 by the authority of the Canadian gov¬ 
 ernment : 
 
 In the report of the Deputy Minister of 
 the Department of the Interior, dated July 
 
 15, 1907, this satisfactory annual increase 
 in the number of immigrants is attributed 
 directly to the policy, first applied to the 
 United States in 1897, of thoroughly adver¬ 
 tising the resources of the Dominion in 
 agricultural districts by newspapers and by 
 the personal visits of Canadian delegates. 
 In 1896 there was no immigration into the 
 western provinces from the United States; 
 but in the fiscal year 1897-8 there were over 
 9,000 immigrants from that country, and the 
 number of new arrivals has increased an¬ 
 nually ever since. Similar methods were 
 applied to England in 1901 and were fol¬ 
 lowed by similar results. Previously the 
 number of immigrants from the United 
 Kingdom had been for some years about 
 11,000 annually. In 1901-2 the number of 
 British arrivals had increased to over 17,- 
 000, and succeeding years showed a pro¬ 
 gressive increase until reaching the present 
 figure of 132,060 in 1907. 
 
 Here are the introduction and some 
 of the paragraphs of an advertisement 
 which I clipped from a recent issue 
 of a leading American agricultural 
 i ournal: 
 
 Let the Crops Pay For Your Home in the 
 Famous Bow River Valley of 
 SUNNY SOUTHERN ALBERTA 
 
 Own a 40 to 160-Acre Rich Farm on Our 
 
 New, Guaranteed-Crop-Payment Plan. 
 
 Only $1.80 to $3 Per Acre Down—The 
 
 Balance to Be Paid for Out of Your 
 
 Crops by Agreement of “No Crops—No 
 
 Pay”—We Will Put in First Crop—You 
 
 Harvest the Profits. . . . 
 
 Hundreds have paid fully for their homes 
 here out of the first one or two crops, and 
 made a splendid living besides. You don’t 
 even have to move here the first year. Se¬ 
 lect your 40 or 80 acres, or quarter section, 
 and let us start the first crop for you if 
 you wish, or come now—as soon as con¬ 
 venient for you to settle here. . . . 
 
 Climate ideal for homes—splendid trans¬ 
 portation facilities—good roads—quick cash 
 markets—good schools, churches and neigh¬ 
 bors. Good crops a certainty. Under 
 agreement, pay out of crops for your land 
 —“No Crops—No Pay”—and more easily 
 and quickly own a clear title to a farm 
 which will earn you more money for life 
 than in any place on this Continent and make 
 you independent. Send your name to me 
 and say which book you want. 
 
 WRITE for All Facts and FIVE 
 BOOKS FREE. 
 
 J. S. Dennis, Assistant to 2nd Vice-Presi¬ 
 dent, 
 
 CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
8 
 
 THE IMMIGRATION REVIEW 
 
 These quotations illustrate a strik¬ 
 ing difference between the immigra¬ 
 tion policy of Canada and the United 
 States. Under our laws no transpor¬ 
 tation company may in any way stimu¬ 
 late immigration. In its advertising 
 it is limited in subject matter to prices 
 of its tickets, the character of the ac¬ 
 commodations of its transportation 
 service and the schedules of its sail¬ 
 ings. 
 
 Another selective method which the 
 Canadian government employs is indi¬ 
 cated by this quotation from a pam¬ 
 phlet entitled “Immigration Facts and 
 Figures/’ issued by direction of the 
 Minister of the Interior: 
 
 The Canadian Government does not en¬ 
 courage in any way the immigration of 
 skilled labourers, mechanics, or artisans of 
 any sort, and no effort is made to find em¬ 
 ployment for such on their arrival. 
 
 The following notice appears in Immi¬ 
 gration pamphlets issued by the authority 
 of the Minister of the Interior: 
 
 “Farmers, farm labourers and female do¬ 
 mestic servants are the only people the Can¬ 
 adian Immigration Department advises to 
 come to Canada. All others should have 
 definite assurance of employment in Can¬ 
 ada before leaving home and have money 
 
 enough to support them for a time in case 
 of disappointment.” 
 
 A bonus of £i on persons 18 years of 
 age and over and ios. between i and 18 
 years, is paid to selected Steamship Book¬ 
 ing Agents in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 and in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, 
 Norway, Sweden and Finland, on certain 
 classes of unskilled workers in these coun¬ 
 tries who come to Canada to engage in farm 
 work or domestic service and declare their 
 intention of so engaging before the Domin¬ 
 ion Immigration Agent at ocean port of 
 arri val. 
 
 A commission of $3.00 on a man, $2.00 on 
 a woman, and $1.00 on a child is paid to 
 certain sub-agents in the United States on 
 bona fide settlers induced by them to settle 
 in Western Canada. 
 
 In this pamphlet it is indicated that 
 from July 1, 1904, to March 31, 1909, 
 bonuses were paid on 16.47 P er cent, 
 of the British immigrants, 10.39 P er 
 cent, of the immigrants from the con¬ 
 tinent and 5.60 per cent, of those com¬ 
 ing from the United States. In other 
 words, practically only one-twentieth 
 of the immigration from the United 
 States was stimulated by agents. It 
 is evident that the chief stimuli were 
 repots, printed, epistolary and oral, of 
 the favorable lj;ad cc Editions existing 
 in Western Canada., ajd the favorable 
 ter jj of settlement. .As the total num- 
 
 FamiLy of Immigrants Camping in the Open Near Winnipeg, Man., Canada 
 
THE POTENTIAL SOUTH 
 
 9 
 
 ber of immigrants of all nationalities 
 who have made homestead entries in 
 Western Canada is greater than the 
 number of those upon whom bonuses 
 were paid, it may be accepted that the 
 Government of Canada feels that the 
 policy of paying bonuses has been a 
 satisfactory one. 
 
 The settlement of immigrants upon 
 the land is further facilitated by the 
 railroads which offer a special rate to 
 immigrants in connection with their 
 steamship tickets, or immediately upon 
 their arrival in the country, or to bona 
 fide settlers from the United States 
 when moving into Canada. This rate, 
 which is approximately a cent a mile, 
 is not granted for subsequent travel 
 in the Dominion. This eliminates dis¬ 
 criminating internal rates. 
 
 No fault can be found with Canada 
 for desiring settlers who shall build 
 up the country and develop her re¬ 
 sources. Nor can one complain of 
 those who endeavor to obtain greater 
 prosperity by taking advantage of 
 what seem to be more favorable op¬ 
 portunities. From all reports the im¬ 
 migrants from the United States are 
 of superior character, fitted in every 
 
 way to occupy a high level in the life 
 of their new home. We of the United 
 States are frankly glad, or should be, 
 if the character of our contribution to 
 the citizenship of the land of “Our 
 Lady of the Snows” is such that it is 
 making it easier for her to solve her 
 problems and gain new levels in 
 growth. Nevertheless, there is an¬ 
 other phase of the subject worthy of 
 our consideration. The political value 
 of the agriculturist as a balance wheel 
 in a democracy, such as 'the United 
 States, must not be forgotten. More¬ 
 over, Mr. Hill has pointed out, and the 
 increasing prices of farm products 
 lend some color to his assertion, that 
 agriculture should be more generally 
 and intensively developed in this coun¬ 
 try if we are to continue to feed our¬ 
 selves from our own products. In¬ 
 deed, while one out of every 98.5 
 American farmers, taking the some¬ 
 what antiquated figures of the last cen¬ 
 sus as a basis of calculation, is taking 
 up Canadian land, colonies of Dutch 
 and Northern Italians are seeking in 
 this country to improve their condition 
 by intensive methods of cultivation 
 and showing us how to do it. 
 
 THE POTENTIAL SOUTH 
 
 ITS YOUTH AND ITS CALL TO YOUTH 
 BY HUGH MACRAE 
 
 HY go South? 
 
 Advice on this subject to be 
 effective must be supported 
 by reason and facts. 
 
 The offer of the South,—-the South 
 of to-day and to-morrow—^intensely 
 interesting. By it thousands are being 
 attracted. 
 
 When years ago Horace Greely told 
 the young man to go West and “grow 
 up with the country,” he spoke with 
 prophetic vision. One’s voice does not 
 carry far in the teeth of a gale, but the 
 
 right word spoken at the right time 
 may as easily go around the world as 
 a wireless message. 
 
 The West was young and the man 
 was young. A great West meant, by 
 reflex action, a greater East. The 
 West being now well grown, both East 
 and West from experience know that 
 a greater South means a greater 
 country. 
 
 While the South in its present stage 
 of development compares favorably 
 
10 
 
 THE IMMIGRATION REVIEW 
 
 with the entire United States of forty 
 years ago, and while it has made great 
 strides since the impoverishment in¬ 
 cident to the Civil War, it still has 
 the advantage and merit (for youth is 
 merit) of being relatively a full gen¬ 
 eration younger than the rest of the 
 country. 
 
 It is, to-day, the South which has 
 the greatest natural wealth and po¬ 
 tential vigor, which has the “growing 
 up” to do. 
 
 By going southward, the young man 
 can combine the growth of two gener¬ 
 ations in one lifetime. 
 
 The South has always abounded in 
 opportunity. To bring it abreast of 
 the more fully developed sections, its 
 need is men. The coming of young 
 men to avail themselves of the natural 
 wealth will create added opportunities, 
 until quickly the level is brought to 
 that of the North and West. This is 
 a consequence as natural as the phe¬ 
 nomenon of “water seeking its own 
 level.” 
 
 When we look clearly at the facts, 
 we find in the “older sections” that 
 making a living is becoming difficult 
 and, under certain recurring economic 
 conditions, is at times even precarious. 
 The effort of the average man is suf¬ 
 ficient only to insure the necessaries 
 of life. If he is a mechanic, he must, 
 during the past two years, have given 
 much thought to the dangers of the 
 industrial situation; if he is a farmer, 
 he finds it necessary to work “like a 
 beaver” during the short summers in 
 order to provide subsistence and fuel 
 for long and frigid winters. The man 
 who advances beyond the average can¬ 
 not relax. If, through sustained ef¬ 
 fort, he acquires a living, we may con¬ 
 clude that to gain comfort and wealth, 
 he must in some way get the benefit of 
 the “unearned increment.” 
 
 A great Englishman has defined 
 “luck” as “being prepared to take ad¬ 
 vantage of an opportunity,” It fol¬ 
 lows that one must be in the track of 
 opportunity. 
 
 It is not important to exploit mate¬ 
 rial progress, to show what man has 
 done, except in so far as it indicates 
 what may fairly be expected. For 
 the purpose of getting a starting point, 
 a base from which we can correctly 
 forecast the future, it will be advan¬ 
 tageous to consider some comparative 
 statistics showing the South’s almost 
 magical recuperative power. 
 
 Old fallacies as to the South' are 
 gradually disappearing. Thirty years 
 ago, a great authority on cotton spin¬ 
 ning said that cotton could not be suc¬ 
 cessfully manufactured in the South. 
 Since then, note the progress: In 
 i8qo the South’s spindles had in¬ 
 creased to 1,712,930, about one-third 
 of those of Massachusetts. In 1907 
 tne South had 10,650,000 spindles, 
 having passed Massachusetts; and the 
 States of South Carolina and North 
 Carolina stood second and third re¬ 
 st) ctively in the list of cotton manu¬ 
 facturing States, Massachusetts being 
 first and Rhode Island fourth. 
 
 Through the courtesy of the Manu¬ 
 facturers' Record, the highest author¬ 
 ity on matters relating to Southern de¬ 
 velopment, the following statistics are 
 published. The table shows the gain 
 made during the twenty-nine years 
 from 1890 to 1909: 
 
 Population, from 16,369,960 in 1880 to 27,- 
 437>8o9 in 1909; aggregate length of rail¬ 
 roads, 20,612 miles in 1880 to 67,866 in 1909; 
 capital in cotton mills, $21,000,000 in 1880 to 
 $281,375,000 in 1909; cotton used by South¬ 
 ern mills, 108,694,989 lbs. in 1880 to 1,236,- 
 011,000 in 1909; capital in manufacturing, 
 $257,244,5644 in 1880 to $2,110,000,000 in 
 1909; products of manufacturing, $457,454,- 
 777 in 1880 to $2,675,000,000 in 1909; pig 
 iron produced, 397,301 tons in 1880 to 3,- 
 445,221 in 1907; coke made, 372,436 tons in 
 1880 to 9,289,471 in 1907; coal, 6,037,003 
 tons in 1880 to 82,822,851 in 1909; value of 
 lumber products, $39,000,000 in 1880 to 
 $380,000,000 in 1909; petroleum produced, 
 179,000 bbls. in 1880 to 28,292,537 in 1909; 
 phosphates marketed, 190,763 long tons in 
 1880 to 2,373,028 in 1909; exports of merch¬ 
 andise from Southern ports, $264,905,753 in 
 1880 to $619,278,874 in 1909; value of farm 
 products, $660,000,000 in 1880 to $2,550,- 
 000,000 in 1909; value of property, $ 7 , 505 ,- 
 000,000 in 1880 to $21,211,179,600 in 1909. 
 
THE POTENTIAL SOUTH 
 
 U 
 
 The recuperation of the South dur¬ 
 ing fifty years can be illustrated by the 
 fact that it now has seventy-two mil¬ 
 lion dollars more capital in cotton 
 mills, twice as much capital invested 
 in general manufacturing, and five 
 thousand million dollars more wealth 
 than the entire United States had in 
 i860. 
 
 Taking shorter periods, we find the 
 progress equally striking. In the ten 
 years just passed, the bank deposits 
 have increased from $519,377,452 to 
 $1,386,600,000. 
 
 The value of farm products, not in¬ 
 cluding the animal industry, for the 
 past year, 1909, was one hundred mil¬ 
 lion dollars more than the value of 
 farm products of the whole country 
 twenty years ago, in 1890. With the 
 same rate of growth for another pe¬ 
 riod of twenty years the agricultural 
 products of the South will rise to a 
 yearly value of nine billion five hun¬ 
 dred million dollars, or about seven 
 hundred and forty million dollars more 
 than the past year’s production of the 
 entire country. 
 
 There are now two hundred and 
 sixty-two different kinds of manufac¬ 
 turing carried on in the South, among 
 them many industries worthy of ex¬ 
 tended comment. In this connection 
 we must not overlook the fact that the 
 success of Southern industries, as well 
 as of its agriculture, is in large meas¬ 
 ure due to favorable climatic condi¬ 
 tions. A manufacturer who has more 
 hours of daylight in which to work, 
 who can save fuel for heating his fac¬ 
 tory, and who can employ labor which 
 for equal comforts has a lower cost of 
 living, has an advantage bearing on 
 his success. 
 
 It is difficult to form a conception of 
 the South’s natural wealth in timber, 
 in oil, phosphate, iron ores and coal 
 stored up and in reserve for the bene¬ 
 fit of the present and future genera¬ 
 tions. We may say briefly that two- 
 thirds of the country’s remaining tim¬ 
 ber supply is in the South; there are 
 known reserves of four hundred and 
 
 ninety-four thousand million tons of 
 coal, or more than twice as much as 
 the supply of Europe and ten thou¬ 
 sand million tons or iron ore among 
 what we may call the visible assets; 
 and at the present rate of consumption 
 by the United States, it is estimated 
 that the explored coal supply would 
 last more than one thousand years. 
 
 Geological conditions have been 
 beneficial in another way less com¬ 
 monly recognized but perhaps of 
 greater importance. During the Gla¬ 
 cial Epoch, when all of the northern 
 half of North America was incased in 
 ice, the glaciers extended southward 
 only as far as Maryland or the north¬ 
 ern part of Virginia. The South es¬ 
 caped their denuding effect; the grind¬ 
 ing of the soils from the surface and 
 their washing away by the rush of 
 water from melting glaciers. It is 
 due to this fact that the South has 
 in place, even to the mountain tops, 
 deep and rich loamy soils in great va¬ 
 riety. It is these undisturbed soils 
 which permit of rapid reforestation, 
 and also offer the immense possibili¬ 
 ties for expansion of profitable agri¬ 
 culture. 
 
 It is necessary to consider also water 
 powers as a great factor in the future 
 production of wealth. Here is an¬ 
 other debt to Nature; the sun taking 
 water from the ocean and producing 
 the warmth and consequent atmos¬ 
 pheric conditions which cause the 
 moisture laden air of the South At¬ 
 lantic to travel westward towards the 
 Appalachian Mountains and north¬ 
 ward from the Gulf of Mexico. Dur¬ 
 ing this journey the moisture is precip¬ 
 itated, and after being retared for a 
 time by the forest growth, takes its 
 course through innumerable streams 
 down the slopes of the Blue Ridge 
 back to sea level. The Secretary of 
 Agriculture estimates that this natural 
 process represents a utilizable power, 
 on streams flowing from the Southern 
 Appalachian Mountains, of five mil¬ 
 lion horse-power, and this can be 
 doubled by utilizing the storage which 
 will be incident to the erection of 
 
12 
 
 THE IMMIGRATION REVIEW 
 
 dams for the development of electri¬ 
 cal power plants. More than this, 
 every city, town, village and farm in 
 the South can have this power deliv¬ 
 ered to it in any desired quantity. At 
 the present time it is practical to de¬ 
 liver power by electrical transmission 
 a distance of two hundred miles from 
 the point of generation, and engineers 
 are considering the question of mak¬ 
 ing deliveries at a distance of as much 
 as five hundred miles. Practically 
 every important point in the South, 
 including every seaport from Norfolk 
 to Jacksonville, is within a radius of 
 one hundred and fifty miles of one or 
 another of the great power sites. 
 
 Now let us consider the great forces 
 of Nature that work for the South. It 
 is usual to ascribe too much to man’s 
 efficiency and wit and too little to 
 Nature. The fundamental and over¬ 
 whelming things are the natural condi¬ 
 tions,—sunlight, warmth, fertile soil, 
 abundant rainfall. These are basic. 
 They are infinite forces which make 
 their influence felt for all time. 
 
 We have already referred to the fact 
 that longer hours of daylight add to 
 the productive capacity of every indus¬ 
 try. The beneficial influence of sun¬ 
 light upon plant life is too well known 
 to need comment; so it is necessary to 
 devote especial attention only to the 
 important parts played by warmth, 
 rainfall and fertile soil. These are 
 what the South, the great temperate 
 zone, offers to the prospective settler 
 in a measure greater than they are 
 offered in any other part of the world 
 to-day. 
 
 Human affairs are influenced bene¬ 
 ficially, and to a remarkable extent, 
 bv heat units, and for practical pur¬ 
 poses we may consider that the sun, 
 directly or indirectly, is the source of 
 heat utilized. 
 
 Provided we remain within the tem¬ 
 perate zone, we may admit a beneficial 
 effect from every additional degree of 
 heat. For the farmer, longer seasons 
 mean a greater number of crops per 
 
 year; warm winters require the use of 
 Ess fuel and reduce the cost of the 
 necessaries of life. These are ques¬ 
 tions which to-day are interesting a 
 vast number of people. 
 
 As to moisture. Take a Govern¬ 
 ment rainfall map; start in Virginia, 
 at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay; trace 
 a line westward until you reach Ken¬ 
 tucky ; thence in a southeasterly direc¬ 
 tion, crossing Tennessee to the north¬ 
 ern part of Alabama; thence west 
 through Son-hern Arkansas and south 
 through Eastern Texas to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and you will find to the east 
 and south of this line, that there is the 
 greatest and most evenly distributed 
 rainfall to be found in the United 
 States. 
 
 To be more specific: On looking to 
 the West and Northwest, we find that 
 in Nevada and Arizona the rainfall is 
 from zero to io inches per annum; in 
 Wvoming, Montana, Dakota, Ne¬ 
 braska and New Mexico, there are 
 from io to 20 inches; in Minnesota, 
 Kansas, Oklahoma and Western 
 Texas, from 20 to 30 inches; in Mis¬ 
 souri, Illinois, Ohio and the western 
 part of the New England States, from 
 30 to 40 inches; in Kentucky and the 
 western part of Tennessee, Pennsyl¬ 
 vania and Maryland, it is 40 to 50 
 inches; while in the States to the south 
 and east of the line described, it is 
 50 to 60 inches, and reaches a max¬ 
 imum of from 60 to 70 inches near 
 the Gulf coast of Louisiana and Ala- 
 bame and at a point where the Gulf 
 stream impinges on the east coast of 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Let us digress for a moment to see 
 what similar conditions have actually 
 done elsewhere. In the State of 
 Washington, between the high moun¬ 
 tains and the Pacific Ocean, there is 
 a small area having exceptionally 
 heavy precipitation and, through some 
 peculiar influence of the warm cur¬ 
 rents of the Pacific Ocean, it has a 
 temperate climate. Notwithstanding 
 the fact that the rainfall comes all at 
 one time of the year, and notwith- 
 
THE POTENTIAL SOUTH 
 
 13 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 standing the fact that this region is 
 distant from the great centers of popu¬ 
 lation of the United States, and there¬ 
 fore from the most desirable markets 
 for its products, land values have risen 
 rapidly, and in this favored spot one 
 thousand dollars per acre is a fre¬ 
 quently quoted price for land. This has 
 been made possible from the fact that 
 the wave of immigration first took its 
 course West, and there on the shores 
 of the Pacific was forced to stop. 
 Then, the three great factors,— 
 warmth, fertile soil and abundance of 
 moisture, in conjunction with the ris¬ 
 ing tide of population, have worked 
 this magic. This illustrates most 
 strikingly the idea of “unearned in¬ 
 crement.” Values have risen because 
 of this flow of brains and muscle to 
 take advantage of these favorable con¬ 
 ditions. 
 
 The wealth of a country is based 
 largely upon its agriculture. It is be¬ 
 cause of this fact that we can realize 
 how a favorable climate becomes a 
 continuous and irresistible force mak¬ 
 ing for prosperity. The expert farmer 
 immediately recognizes the value of 
 “open winters” which allow him to 
 produce all the year around instead of 
 finding it necessary to consume dur¬ 
 ing the winter the surplus product of 
 his summer’s work. 
 
 From an agricultural standpoint, 
 the South is a region of vast wealth; 
 even single States may be classed as 
 empires. The warm fertile soils pro¬ 
 duce with good profit endless varie¬ 
 ties of valuable crops, having a range 
 of from what are considered Northern 
 crops,—buckwheat and cranberries, 
 through the entire list to cotton, sugar 
 cane and pineapples. With few, if 
 any, exceptions, the whole range of 
 products known to American agri¬ 
 culture can be raised in the South by 
 the intelligent farmer. 
 
 A study of the value per acre of 
 crops in the South and in the West, 
 taken in connection with the invest¬ 
 ment per acre in land, is most interest¬ 
 ing. It has been shown that the farm¬ 
 
 ers in other sections can sell their lands 
 and with the proceeds purchase in the 
 South much larger tracts from which 
 it is possible to get greater annual 
 revenue. Or even better, to purchase 
 smaller tracts and use the surplus 
 capital to great advantage in adopting 
 intensive methods of farming for 
 which the warm Southern soils are 
 particularly suited. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest advantage will 
 come from the extensive planting of 
 forage crops, especially vetch, crim¬ 
 son clover, field peas and alfalfa. 
 These crops, peculiarly suited to the 
 soil and climate, not only bring fer¬ 
 tility to the land by adding nitrogen, 
 but will benefit all agriculture by ex¬ 
 tending the animal industry and con¬ 
 verting the South into a dairying and 
 cattle raising country. 
 
 When we consider that the cotton 
 crop alone this year, including the seed 
 and by-products, will bring to the 
 farmers about one thousand million 
 dollars and that this vast sum is pro¬ 
 duced from a crop averaging less than 
 one-half bale to the acre, the possibili¬ 
 ties can be imagined, even on the land 
 at present under cultivation, when it 
 is realized that by deep plowing, open 
 cultivation, proper fertilization and 
 careful seed selection, four bales of 
 cotton can be grown to the acre. This 
 gain which is possible for cotton,—a 
 crop which has been cultivated for 
 more than one hundred years, is typi¬ 
 cal of the outlook for improving all 
 other agricultural production. 
 
 A most interesting and gratifying 
 success was attained a few years ago 
 by Iowa wheat growers who adapted 
 their wheat growing methods to rice 
 culture in the South. 
 
 It is extremely important that the 
 magnitude of the cotton crop be not 
 allowed to overshadow the possibilities 
 in other directions. Along the coastal 
 plain from Virginia southward to 
 Florida and westward along the Gulf 
 coast are millions of acres of the finest 
 soils known to experts, which will yield 
 
14 
 
 THE IMMIGRATION REVIEW 
 
 wonderful results to the skilled farmer. 
 Development of this land, strangely 
 enough, has been held back by a factor 
 which will prove one of its greatest 
 advantages,—the abundance of rain¬ 
 fall. The country is so level that not 
 until the farmer has properly ditched 
 his land does he get the most bounti¬ 
 ful harvests. 
 
 All present economic conditions are 
 tending to make it attractive to men 
 to return to the land in order to be 
 assured of an independent living. 
 There are hundreds of thousands of 
 such; men who want to work and 
 want to get results. It is now the un¬ 
 discovered South which holds the fu¬ 
 ture for these men,—the men who un¬ 
 derstand the potential factors of 
 wealth and how to utilize them. 
 
 During the next few years when the 
 stream of population, which has al¬ 
 ready started to the extent of from 
 two hundred thousand to three hun¬ 
 dred thousand per annum, toward the 
 Southwest, turns with a great swing 
 southward in its quest for favorable 
 natural conditions (the natural condi¬ 
 tions underlying opportunity), there 
 will come a revelation of wealth pro¬ 
 duction which has never been equalled 
 in the world’s history. 
 
 It is worth while to investigate with 
 open eyes the facts in regard to the 
 South and then to act in accordance 
 with the findings. If the investigator 
 sees the wealth, he may be sure that it 
 is no mirage. If he does not see it, 
 it will be the opportunity for the other 
 man to build the empire. 
 
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