Movement in North Carolina [pp. 478-480]

DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND LABOR.
479
people to come South at all; it was the desire to own land for the sake of
their families.
It is true that in the overpopulated countries of Europe, farm-hands can
be obtained to stay on land and work it for so much a month, because there
population presses on subsistence, and there is no difficulty in obtaining what
labor is wanted. Here the case is widely different, and the laborer works
not for his mere monthly wages, but to save enough to make himself independent. If we do not present these inducements to him, he will go to the
North-west, where he can in a few years' service amass enough to purchase
a snug farm at government prices; and if we wish to get cultivators for our
lands, we must outbid the government. Especially is this necessary in our
case; for the tide of emigration has so long set to the North-west, that we
must present strong reasons to the Northern man, or emigrant, to cause him
to diverge from the beaten track to the Mississippi valley.
It is true that possibly the gentleman from Tyrrell might have secured the
temporary service of an inferior class of laborers at enormous rates per
month; but they would have been unreliable, and would have quit his farm
whenever it suited them. Indeed, we doubt whether he could have obtained
hands at all; for to employ them would have required ready money to an
enormous amount, and this is a commodity with which the South is not just
now overburdened.
We are fully convinced that the only way to obtain good. labor in the
South is to make it the interest of men of character, with families, to come
and settle among us, and that the only means to do this is to offer them the
power of owning land and settling permanently among us. If there is any
other way to accomplish this, we should be much obliged to any one who
would give us the information.
We have stated the fact that the North Carolinian raised large crops by
this most excellent arrangement, and that it cost him no more to purchase
the labor by the means he adopted than it would have cost him by any other. This, however, only shows the benefits of the system with regard to
himself individually, and for the present time. Its future advantages to
him and to society are, however, beyond calculation.
Let us suppose that these laborers have worked out the value of their
small properties, and are settled on what was formerly a part of a large estate, which the owner never could have cultivated himself It should be remembered that many of these men would be after that willing to work for
him at wages; for their little properties would probably not require all their
time, and whatever they could get for working for him would be so much
clear gain. They would be reliable laborers, too, both from their original
character and because there would be no inducement for them to migrate
after having planted their stakes firmly in the neighborhood. Their tamilies also would want employment, for their boys would be glad to hire themselves out as farm-hands, and their daughters could easily find situations in
the country around.
In addition to all this, every new settler increases the value of the lands
in his neighborhood, and we have no doubt that the fact alone of these ten
men having made that portion of the country their home, has already increased the value of the remainder of the original farm to such a degree
that it would now sell for more than the whole was worth before the little
colony was planted.
It is probable, too, that these settlers will induce others to come and acquire farms on the same terms, and if emigration occurs to any considerable
extent, it will not be long before the lands of that county will be worth
many times what they were before.
It is to be hoped that our owners of lands, who can raise nothing on them
now, and never can do so until they get population to flow in upon them,
will follow the example of this enlightened gentleman of Tyrrell County.
So far as we can see, it is the only plan by which emigration can be directed
to Virginia and North Carolina, and The only means in our power by which
we can restore our fallen fortunes.