CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IMMIGRATION AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. G. GUNBY JORDAN, Prssfdent Georgia Immigration Association, at the Convention of the GEORGIA BANKERS' ASSOCIATION AT Macon, Georgia, June 6th, 1907. Gilbert Pbinting Co., Colvhbtjs, Ga. 1907. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031511029 IMMIGRATION. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: To the large and ever increasing majority of us who have not received the second blessing, there is probably nothing in Holy Writ that has so mystified and has given us so much concern as regards a proper interpretation, as that injunction which bids us love our enemies. This to your speaker has always seemed an inexplicable paradox, until having read some of the writings of Leo Tolstoi, the great Russian philosopher, who by precept and example has made a mark second only to the ' 'Man of Sorrows' ' in the history of this world, and who says that the correct interpretation of this phrase is, ' 'Despise not foreigners. ' ' Despise Not Foreigners. That makes it easier for us to understand, for it is known and recognized that there is a peculiar psychological self-conceit upon the part of most men- who imagine that they are better than others, and that their own race and their own nation is the best in the \yorld. It is to talk about this and to discuss this seeming misanthropy, that I have the honor of addressing you to-day upon the subject of "Immigration." Let us try not to despise foreigners. Centuries Prove the Assertion. To me there has always been a peculiar charm about figures. Figures did not fall under the ban of the charge of the Psalmist when he spoke of "all men;" and, although he admitted that he spoke in haste, as he failed to except himself and make the remark consistent, and failed to spare present company for politeness' sake, yet we can admit, after years of experience that he sized up humanity fairly well in that celebrated remark as to the veracity of the human kind. But figures, when they are conscientiously handled, tell the truth, and for that reason there is something very attractive about them. And we can therefore believe, at least substantially, the statement made by the Treasury Department on the first of this month that there are 86,000,000 people in the United States. People Create Values. We know these are doing twice as well as when there were only half the number. We also know that since the war period, each decade has shown an increase averaging about 22 per cent; and therefore, mathematically speaking, it is true that within the lives of men now born, there will be in these United States 170,000,000 people. When this time comes, we will be richer, wiser and happier than now. Georgia: Much Land — Few Folks. We know that the State of Georgia is the largest in area of any state east of the Mississippi River; that it has 59,475 square miles of territory; and that in this wonderful domain there were in 1900 only 2,216,000 people, of which nearly one- half (or to be accurate 1,035,000) were negroes. We also know that good authorities have recently estimated that of these blacks, there are 62 per cent in cities and towns. These figures, to those who grasp mathematics easily, tell a most wonderful story. To put it differently, let us consider for one moment this fact; that with 20 per cent more territory than England possesses, this State has only one-fourteenth of her population; that with 60 per cent more territory than Portugal, we have only one-half her population; and with five times the territory that Belgium has, she has three times our population. That Georgia should grow, that Georgia should have more people and that those people should be white people, I do not think admits of a doubt. Georgia was one of the original thirteen colonies, and therefore this statement becomes the more emphatic when we think of the age our State has. a If climate, if location, are to be considered, we know that a portion of the State is hilly and undulating; that we have an altitude as high as 5046 feet, and that the main part of the State is beautiful, level, with navigable streams, fertile valleys, salubrious climate, and everything within our borders that man may reasonably expect or desire. Harvest is Ripe, but Workers Few. This State has everything needed for agriculture, truck-farm- ing, lumbering and every other occupation that the white man who has the best interests and hopes of his own State at heart, may wish or desire to engage in. Her water-falls are abundant and powerful enough to cover the State with a network of electric railroads which would place all markets at our doors and quadruple the values of our lands; and in this mighty increase in potentiality which I have just outlined throughout the United States — in population, industrial development and agricultural perfection — we must take oiir place and do our part; and if we are to do that, what we need is to start to-day to bring in people, if they do not come in of their own accord. We should reason together and see if this question of immigra- tion is best for the State, best for agriculture, best for trade; or, what is better, if it is patriotic or at least tends towards the better upbuilding of our commonwealth. Constructive Patriotism. Primarily, therefore, we should investigate this movement and see that the men at the head of it are actuated by a desire as patriotic and far-reaching as the purposes which move those same men when engaged in other matters of supreme value to the State. To see what was conceived at the Port of Savannah a few months ago — a port that shows by its Chamber of Commerce Reports, exported more merchandise than Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Tampa, Fernandina and Jacksonville combined; this movement that found its completion and fruition in th^ City of Macon in, I believe, the most enthusiastic and most helpful convention that ever convened in the State of Georgia. Examine, if you please, my friends, the personnel of the Directors'of that Association. We have embraced nearly every industry in this State, for it takes in every form of agriculture, every form of vine-growing, or fruit culture, of lumbering and of manufacturing. In other words, this potent and influential Board of Directors are men who have conscientiously gone into this movement — not for self-aggrandizement, self-gain or advertisement, but because they believe it is patriotic and proper. Leading Georgians at Work. Look, if you please, my friends, at the Executive Committee •of that Association, which was organized only last February. Its Chairman, who has actively canvassed this whole State (notwithstanding it has only been in existence since last J'ebruary), has in his files applications to-day for over 7,000 immigrants, to be located in all the different interests that are within the State of Georgia. When you have contemplated this, does it not look to you like the time had come when we needed something of this kind ? And more than that, it was found that some of the officers of that Association were willing, with the Governor-elect, not to take only an academic view of the situation, but to go to Europe and spend their money in the cause, and study the question first-hand of turning and bringing brain, brawn and muscle to our own ports, and to direct their efforts in this direc- tion sensibly and wisely, so that every industry in the State might become the beneficiary thereof. Building a Nation. The easiest and most effective way to get foreign trade is to domesticate the foreigner. That you may see how this move- ment is continually growing, I wish to state just a few figures: Sipce the census of 1900, as shown by the reports of the Com- niissioner General of Immigration (indisputable figures), 4,933,811 men, women and children — healthy and strong enough to pass the quarantine inspection and to pass the scru- tinizing medical examination of Ellis Island — have reached thjs country. If we estimate the number for the fiscal year ending the 30th of this month, there will be 1,250,000 added to that numiber, making 6,183,811 pepple that have since 1900 become American citizens; that have come here for the purpose of showing us that they are willing to work; to show us that they love to own a piece of land on which they can place their own home and grow their own "vine and fig tree.'' Six Years — A Marvelous Record. Or, let us put this in such shape that everybody can grasp it: Within the last six years, there have been brought to the shores of America 1,000,000 more people than the Kingdom of of The Netherlands contains and nearly the population of Belgium. We have received here more than double the popu- lation that Switzerland claims; two and one-quarter times all there are in Denmark; and three times all there are in Norway, or say the combined population of Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Florida. Let us see how this movement is growing and continuing right on : In the month of April, this year, there were enough people landed in the ports of America from foreign shores to equal, according to the census of 1900, the entire population of Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, Athens and Griffin, Georgia, all combined. Everybody Benefited. Think of what all this means for trade in this country! Think of what all this means for the farmers in this country ! Think of what it means in increased demand for cotton that is raised and spun in Georgia 1 Think of what this means for us as a Nation, as we grow and spread and take our place among the first nations of the world ! Something out of the normal must have assisted us to make the record which is now truly written of the United States. One hundred and twenty-five billions or real values here — increasing at the rate of about ten millions of dollars of wealth per day, while all Great Britain is increasing only about seven millions per week. This immense influx of aliens to our shores, and the wealth that the producers and consumers gave, can only account for much of this phenomenal prosperity. Heart of the South Destroyed! Or, let us reverse this proposition: That this thing may be brought home to each and every one of us, suppose that during this last six years by some fatality, we had lost from our shores more people by a million than the Kingdom of The Netherlands has ! Suppose we had lost from our shores nearly the popula- tion of Belgium; or double the population that Switzerland contains; or two and one-quarter times the population of Den- mark; or three times the population of Norway, or say that in six years North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Florida were depopulated ! Suppose that this number of people had left us forever. What a cataclysm of woe ! What a terrible disaster it would be that had befallen us ! San Francisco with its horror would be insignificant compared with such a catastrophe ! Europe Anxious to Keep People. Then we can readily understand that the immigration prob- lem is a serious one, and a very serious one for the people of Europe. Occasionally some narrow-minded Americans get excited over the situation, and tell us about the woes to come to us from immigration. To such I would like to-day to point out the attitude of the nations of Europe as it is being outlined to-day, and show how disturbed those people are about this movement. Germany, the first to see it, began with many a measure to shut it out and to invite other people in to take the places of those who left; and by her wonderful trade activity and her vitality "per se, she is bringing people fi-om other countries. Last year she gained from the movement 420,000 people more than she lost, Spain, who has had a great many of her strong young men to leave, has commenced to put a heavy hand on immigration, and her clergy and the papers are doing all they can to prevent immigrants from leaving there. Greece and Austria-Hungary have gotten to the place where any man who solicits immigration there in person, finds a prison cell as his reward. Italy, upon losing 185,000 people from one section in th^^e years, is ready to do everything she can to stop the movement from her shores. No Ch«ap Labor. It is amusing to read the resolutions of some of our politicians as to foreigners' being cheap labor. Simultaneously with one of these resolutions lately printed in the Georgia papers, appeared a telegram from Hartford, saying that 5,000 employees of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad— all foreigners and all day laborers— were dissatisfied with the $1.50 spot cash per day, and were holding an indignation meeting asking for $1.65 per diem. It really appears that an immigrant comes over here for higher wages, and is likely to obtain them if there is any way to do it. Personally, after trying without avail to obtain native experts for the purpose desired, I employed during the past year several foreigners lately arrived; and as they demanded and received from $4.50 to $5.60 for a working day of ten hours, I am quite persuaded that there is nothing very cheap about foreign labor on my own pay roll. Enterprising, Active People. Immigrants as a rule, my friends, are an enterprising people. They are people who think and plan; they are people who will toil; they are people who are willing to go away from home, to sever ties that have grown around them and move to a foreign shore. First, that they might better their own financial condi- tion; second, that they might breathe the free air of Heaven and know what liberty is; and, third, that they might own their own home, and with it obtain and retain all the magic influ- ences and comforts which that name ever signifies. If the nervous activity of this Nation is phenomenal, we owe much of it to the spirit of enterprise and to the brain and nervous activity of the people that Europe has sent to us in the past; for in the wise discrimination of the law of our land, we keep the desirable immigrants, and send those back to their own shores who would spread disease or otherwise infect our people. The law forbids their entering and the law is powerful, and the law is doing that to-day as it has in the past. 8 Every Worker Creates Wealth. Every immigrant who arrives adds to the wealth of this land. We have untold acres of arable land yet untouched; but as Georgia is the State we are now directing our attention to, I would call your serious attention to the fact that we have only 40.2 per cent, of our arable land yet suitable for tilling. This is true of the South as a section even in a more marked degree. If necessity required that all the people in the United States should live in the State of Texas, it could be easily done — even with our crude forms of agriculture to-day — and there would be room for millions more. The truth is, if Georgia were populated as Saxony is now, we would have 46,000,000 people in Georgia; and as the Saxons seem to be living, thriving and doing well, I presume they are not crowded to such an extent as to make it entirely disagreeable there. We Are Robbing Europe. This country is lucky in having the enterprise, the courage and the mankind of the old world to draw upon. This country too, my friends, in drawing immigrants from Europe, is not drawing paupers by a great deal. The people of Europe who come, desire to better their own condition; and statistics show that in the year 1900, only 45 per cent, of the farms in this State owned by native people were free of incumbrance, but that 55 per cent, of those owned by immigrants were free of incumbrance. Of the Germans in Georgia, 50 per cent, of the farms are free of incumbrance; of Austro-Hungarians, 70 per cent.; Italians, 56 per cent.; Scandinavians, 56 per cent., and Russians, 80 per cent. In cities, 27 per cent, of the homes owned by foreigners are free of debt, while those of native population, only 21 per cent. It would certainly be a scruti- nizing statistician who would say which of these nationalities it would be to the Nation's advantage to exclude from our borders. Most all of our foreigners ' 'make good' ' when they come here. There are exceptions — many exceptions — no doubt, just as it is with our native people; but as a rule when a for- eigner makes up his mind to leave his country and put 3,500 miles of water between him and his native land, he comes with the intention of doing better, and he does it. 9 Foreigners Compare Favorably. If we take the question of illiteracy and analyze it, we find that there are only 6^ per cent, of the average of our country- men illiterate, while in this particular State illiteracy reaches 30 per cent. I know that it is true that the negroes make that remarkable showing; one that is a disgrace to us, and one which I hope will be changed in the near future; but that we may not felicitate, ourselves too much on that, let us remember that New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who receive most of the immigrants and last year received 68 per cent, of them, show only 9.9 per cent of illiteracy, even with all this lot of foreigners, while our native Georgia white population shows 11.9 per cent. Let us come directly home and take the white people, native and foreign in our own State, and we find that of the native white people 11.9 per cent are illiterate, while of the foreigners it is only 7 per cent. So it would not seem that we are, or are likely to be, overwhelmed with illiterate foreigners, but rather that the school teacher is most needed among our own, and that our people have much to learn. No Paupers! No Invalids! Let us see what Mr. Robert Watchorn, Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island, has to say as to the possibility of the immigrant's poverty and helplessness: "Immigrants are not, as most people imagine, a lot of poverty-stricken, worthless people. The majority of them come here on tickets bought on the other side by relatives who are able to take care of themselves. A trip from Russia to some of the destinations in America, I believe, will cost a family of five at least $1,000.00." Let us see in the last few days what the papers have to say on this subject: "Two brides reached New York a few days since in the steerage as immigrants, both brought over by men who had come to this country originally with nothing but their brains and energy. But they have become good American citizens, one residing in Texas and the other in the North. These brides both brought with them, as wedding gifts, jewelry estimated by the Inspector as worth $4,000.00; but as no custom law had been violated, no procedure wasjtaken against them." 10 Law Abiding and Religious. And this further extract from the New York Herald, if there should be in this audience or within this State one single man or one Avoman who is narrow enough to question an immi- grant's religion: "Many Italians are joining the Protestant Episcopal Church in this city. Twenty-four men and eleven wo- men were last Friday confirmed in St. Ambrose Chapel by Bishop Potter. Forty young Italians have joined clubs connected with Grace Church very recently." It is a blessed thought, however, for us to know that under the Constitution of the United States, a man can associate him- self with any church he sees fit, and embrace any religion that appeals to him most. We know that some of the bravest words ever said were spoken by Universalists; we know that the most hopeful and helpful sentiments ever expressed were spoken by Unitarians; we know that the brotherhood of man, the founda- tion of all true religion, is the faith of the Theosophists; and that the Holy Catholic Church ever has lovingly helped mill- ions of her children through the centuries; while the Orthodox Protestant Churches, each and all, have stood like a beacon of light to guide the sin-tossed soul to better and safer things. I mention this matter because recently an immigrant had landed in our town and a man asked me, ' 'What is his reli- gion?" I looked at him and said: "Really his arm is strong, his intellect is keen and I believe his morals are correct. I failed to inquire into those things sacred to his person, and I don't know whom he married, why he married her or what his politics or religion are." Mexico, so long thought asleep, is surely waking up on the question of Immigration, and the result is that during the past fiscal year, her exports of precious metals alone increased by fifty millions of dollars. Her wonderful mineral advantages are being thoroughly exploited. South America's Experience. I presume that all of us see that the Latin Republics of South America are following in Mexico's lead. That both Chili and Argentina, that wonderful land whose capital is 11 second only to Paris in the Latin speaking population, gained last year 450,000 in population on account of immigration brought from Europe. It is a little mortifying to us when we remember that Georgia, who obtained her charter about one hundred and seventy-five years ago, has now only about as many white people within her borders as the capital of Argentina, which Republic did not obtain a constitution until 1853. In other words, the city of Buenos Aires has about 1,000,000 population, and is growing more rapidly than any city in America save New York and Chicago, while the State of Georgia had only 1,181,000 white people in it in 1900. Canada Pays Settlers to Come. Canada is offering to the English-speaking immigrants of Europe an actual bonus, and she is drawing from the United States many of our strongest and best farmers and placing them within her borders. Already 300,000 American farmers have become Canadians. As her population has increased in the past five years 534,000, so her grain crop has increased 157,000,000 of bushels. From 1897 to 1906, 900,000 immi- grants have come to Canada, and the consumption of manufac- tured goods has increased in direct proportion. Other States Active. Let us see, my friends, what other States are doing in this regard. Recognizing the fact that a good Immigration Bureau is the best thing to build up the waste places and make a State rich, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota and other Northwestern States, all have regularly organ- ized Immigration Departments; some of them having appropri- ations of as much as $20,000.00, besides all salaries connected with the Departments to carry on the work. In the Southern States, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Mary- land, South Carolina, Florida and West Virginia all have regularly recognized Immigration Departments and are fairly liberal, one of them appropriating $23,500.00 annually. Other States are contemplating the establishment of similar depart- ments. 12 Texas in the Lead. Not less than two new lines of immigrant steamers have begun operations direct to Galveston, Texas. The same thing applies to New Orleans; and the Austro- American line will put on regular steamships to that port beginning with the autumn this year. Other parts of the South are waking up to their opportunities and Georgia must follow. Georgia, with two such ports as Savannah and Brunswick: Georgia, with 60,000 square miles of territory: Georgia, with its manifold industries, its magnificent climate: Georgia, with its mines and its fertile fields adapted to all forms of agriculture, should, my friends, have something equal to what our sister States have in this regard; and I, for one, think the Legislature, seeing its duty, will perform it. Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Texas, Arkansas, Southeastern Kansas and Southern Missouri combined received an invest- ment of about $31,000,000 in farm property last year from new settlers. These new settlers numbered about a quarter of a million, and they took up about 2,000,000 acres of land. The Scuppernong and the Foreigner. In the last few days, the Southern Pacific has taken 163 expert Portugese immigrants to Southern California to establish a colony for the purpose of growing a particular vine and mak- ing a particular kind of wine there. When I saw this, it appealed to me stronger than it ever has before and brought the question home: "Why don't we bring over from Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Germany and Italy, direct to Georgia, these immigrants, and make our red hills blossom and bloom as they never did before?" Suppose that we should acquaint these people with the possibilities of the scuppernong vine alone — that grape which is unknown in Europe, which has no enemies and requires very little fertilization or culture, which is almost sure in its yield; and more than that, the wine that comes from it is in demand, it is a money-maker — and that is what the vine-growing man wants to know. We have slept, friends over some of our opportunities, and the scuppernong, I think, is one of them. 13 Labor is Scarce. We have always been a people engaged in diversity of pur- suits; and when you combine the product of our manufacturing, our transportation, our agriculture, our mines, our lumbering interests, all presenting a solid front, it makes towards a sub- stantial prosperity with a certainty that can admit of no doubt. Building cotton mills and oil mills and other industries creates a demand for cotton and all other supplies; and in creating this demand they are a factor in the upbuilding of the communities in which they are located, because the people so employed buy and use nearly every product that springs from the soil; and every movement looking to the immigration of good, strong, healthy, intelligent white European labor to our State should be heralded as one of the many signs of the times, that Georgia will continue her unparalleled prosperity and be in truth the "Empire State of the South." Immigrants Bring in Millions of Money. Mr. Mulhall, statistician, estimates that the average produc- tive value to the country of each and every immigrant is $1,250.00. If this be true, the foreigners and their children represented in 1900, one-third of the entire wealth and one-third of the productive power of these United States. But let us get to concrete figures: The last annual report of the Commissioner General of Immigration shows that $25,109,413 in actual cash was brought over by immigrants during the past fiscal year. In just one year, mind you. Georgia Does Not Lead. It is one of the pleasing myths that Georgia is the ' 'Empire State of the South." The truth is, that we are lagging behind in the onward march. Last autumn I was in Southern Texas. What I saw amazed me. Only a few years ago I was there, and saw desert wastes, the habitat of the rattlesnake and of the Mexican laborer and of the old Texas long-horn. Land was nominal only in value. Go there now, and you see land selling for $10.00 to $100.00 per acre. You see herds of improved Herefords and Durhams. You see solid through 14 trains carrying garden products to the large cities of the Union. And what did this? People; people from the North, people from the South, people from the East, people from the West, people from beyond the seas — people from the four corners of the earth. And if you took away those people, the rattler and the Mexican would again claim their own. But if more people go there, land will be still more valuable and the soil produce still princelier fortunes. Governor Smith Inspected Immigrants. I cannot hope to tax your patience much longer, and I wish to take up only a little more of your time. What other states and other sections are doing, we can do if we only try. To that end, Governor-elect Hoke Smith, Mr. W. W. Williamson, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Savannah, and my- self recently took a short trip to Europe. We went to Bremen and to Hamburg; from there to Berlin, and from Berlin to Vienna; and from there our party divided — one part going to Great Britain, another to Switzerland and France and another to Austria-Hungary and Northern Italy, so that we could see for ourselves if these people were the kind of people we would like to invite to this country, and to see if we could get them if we wanted to. Qeorgia Misunderstood. It would be well to disabuse our minds of the impression that immigrants in Europe are standing ready to deluge the State of Georgia with their incoming. That is not true. Unfortunately, the South is very little known in Europe. They have an idea that our climate is so warm that it is impos- sible to live here the year round. They have an idea that the negro is put on an absolute equality with every immigrant that comes, and he must work side by side with him. The facts are these: We have the finest all the year chmate in America, where neither the cold nor the heat is extreme, and the United States census figures show that the death rate of the white people in the South is exceedingly low,. Par from wishing immigrants to associate with negroes, the white people of the 15 South discourage equality of any kind between white and colored people! That is true all over the South, from Maryland to Texas. We Need a Steamship Line. More than that, the Steamship Companies do not care to put on a steamship line to the State of Georgia without a guarantee that they will have a certain number of passengers to come each voyage, and if fewer come,then the Immigration Association to pay the deficit. That is what our visit was for: To correct some of these erroneous ideas and to put ourselves in close contact with the officers of these steamship lines and to distribute liter- ature as best we could in the future, so as to straighten out many of these mistaken ideas. I wish to say that our trip was eminently successful, and I would not be at all surprised (if the people really want them) to see this year immigrants landing at our own ports of such a character that no man can gainsay the fact that it will be the opening wedge for marvelous industrial, commercial and agricultural development in the State of Georgia. We Need One Anotlier. We are mutually inter-dependent upon one another. Agriculture, commerce, finance, manufacturing, lean one upon the other. Diversity of industry makes farming profitable. Building cotton mills creates a demand for cotton, for food and other supplies. The merchant, the banker, the railroad, are as useful to the farmer as is the manufacturer. Good policy and true justice require that all these varying agencies should be protected, not only by just laws, but by any movement which would go towards bettering the condition of any one; for what helps the one, makes each of the others the gainer. Such a movement, in my opinion, is Immigration, You Are an Immigrant's Son. Attorney-General Bonaparte, in a speech in Baltimore on St. Patrick's Day, said: "Without Immigration there would have been no sons of St. Patrick in Baltimore, no Baltimore to contain sons or daughters, no State of Maryland in the 16 American Union. The world owes to immigration an immense and immeasurable increase of human happiness; and our country owes to immigration its existence as a great Nation. It is to my mind little less than a crime for one who is an American (because every white American must have had an ancestor who was an immigrant) to seek to shut out any other immigrant who desires to become, or who can become, a true American." Indians the Only Genuine Americans. Mr. Arthur Brisbane, Editor of the New York Evening Journal, as radical as any man in America in his love for the American people, says: "If a man and a woman come to this country with good, honest hands and clean records as regards character and health, we need not ask them to spell difficult words or to prove that they know the Constitution by heart. If they work weU and give to the country any children, the country will take care that those children are not illiterate. This country needs to be developed. It needs millions, tens of millions, more good men and women to develop it. We need not deceive our- selves and think that our own ancestors who came from Europe were descended from any beautiful blood or bones. All of us with few exceptions (and they are not by any means the best American citizens) were descended from poor, working people, who were eager to come over here and get a chance to escape from the hard conditions at home." Population is Power. It is immigration that has given the East its wealth and the West its prominence in the Union. It is lack of immi- gration that has kept the South practically at a standstill; and with Georgia, one of the original thirteen States, never closer than ninth in her population, and now eleventh. It is immigration that has given political power to other sections, which was even only partially and horribly offset by the enfranchisement of the negroes in the South. It is to immigra- tion that we must look if we are to solve the race problem. Georgia should have and must have enough white people to insure just and peaceful control forever to the white man in 17 every county and in every nook and corner of her domain. The negro is so numerous that immigration is the only means of doing this within our life time. When that condition is brought about we shall have a better country to live in, better politics, better schools, better roads and greater security in the remote agricultural districts. This will be best for the negro himself, best for the white man, and best, for Georgia's future. Political Buncombe. Our papers tell us that this is about the time of the year that we generally hear from some of our unthinking speakers, who get off the well-rounded and unctious phrase, "save GEORGIA FOE GEORGIA BOYS AND GIRLS." To the ones really feeling this sentiment, it is well enough to remind them that when Oglethorpe first settled Georgia, his celebrated ''silk worm seal" had this for its motto: "iVbn dbi sed aliis" (not for ourselves, but others). And from that day until this, much of the best blood, progress and wealth of the State has come from descendants of Europeans who came directly here as immigrants. But if we are to reserve Georgia for Georgia boys and girls, we must do so literally. This would have made Georgia a beggar indeed, because she would have been without the eminent services of Governor Joseph E. Brown, whose practical good sense gave him the highest ofiEices that Georgians could bestow in a political way, for he was a South Carolinian. We would have been without the honor of claiming Sam P. Jones, the evangelist, as ours, for he, too, was born in another State. Our present Governor would not have been eligible for the high office that the people have so unanimously bestowed upon him, because he is a North Carolinian. And we would not have known our junior United States Senator, whose great grand- father was a Scotchman and whose grand-father came from Virginia to settle in Georgia. Expel All Not Born in Georgia? More than this, we would have been without Romare and Elsas, of Atlanta; Kinseland Spang, of Columbus; Stevens, the successful manufacturer of Macon; J. K. Orr, who has made 18 such a marked impression on the business interests of this State, and both of whom were originally British subjects. We might mention Pat Walsh, of Augusta; the Myers of Savannah; P. J. Berckmans, also of Augusta, whose fame as an agriculturist and horticulturist, is co-extensive with the world — all of whom were foreign born — and we might continue this roll indefinitely. Let Us Be Broadmindedl The day and the hour has come when we, as true men and good citizens, should break the shell of narrowness; when patriotism and the good of all should be considered more than any narrow and certain aggrandizement of self; when we should look forgthe best in others and give to others the best that we have. This being achieved, success for State, for ourselves and for every man is assured. "Then life will be to each of us an inspiration, and the memory of it will be a benediction." (Prolonged applause). arWg268 Immigration. Cornell University Library 3 1924 031 511 029 olin.anx :;:i