Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/138

118 the European mechanic and laborer to the South, which has thus far tried in vain to attract immigrants, and this for the reason that most of the immigrants look out first for the place where they are sure of employment. It is in vain to tell them that, many tracts of land are to be had cheap or even for nothing. Work is more attractive for them than land, at least at first. For this reason, and in consequence of the large settlements of Europeans there, the immigrant is attracted to the West and especially the Northwest, where the fertile soil enables farmers to give ready employment to all the laborers that may present themselves.

This is the whole explanation of the continual flow of emigrant laborers into those regions. There is work there. It is to be found everywhere, work which they understand, work which they can perform, work sufficiently remunerative to warrant the expectation of a happy future. This advantage they are sure of finding only in the West and North-west. Once employed, they easily arrive at independence. By saving their monthly wages, they secure the means of attaining it, and when the proper moment comes they have learned by experience where to settle and what they must do to succeed. The matter is simple, and requires on the part of the Western States no exertion of thought or money. On examining the conditions offered by the South, we can easily detect the causes which put that section at a disadvantage as regards the supply of labor. A class of farmers ready to receive the laborers who may offer themselves is almost everywhere wanting, and nowhere more so than in the extreme Southern districts, where there are only great planters, whose modes of cultivation have no attractions for the immigrants. The European immigrant detests the work in gangs as much as the negroes like it. His individuality is overlooked, his self-respect impaired, and he is viewed as a mere unit in the mass. He seeks not the planter, but the farmer.

The great land-owners who hold large tracts of land wish to cultivate them as before without loss of time. To attain their object, they must always keep a sound stock of freed slaves, which daily becomes more difficult for them, as the number of laboring hands is continually decreasing.

What will happen under these circumstances may be inferred