Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/192

158 from you, and if there is anybody who does not desire you to have it, he will naturally find it the best policy to leave things just as they are. But what we wish is not to leave things just as they are.

I am somewhat surprised at your suggestion that the Evening Post would show more friendship for the South if, instead of drawing your attention to certain disturbing influences by way of criticism, it spoke of the “great resources” of the South, of its “wonderful recuperation from the waste of war,” etc. That is what the Evening  Post has lost no proper occasion for doing. No man can more sincerely rejoice at the return of prosperity to the South than I do, and it is for that very reason that I deplore the circumstances which prevent your recovery and progress from being more rapid and general. Heartily wishing that you should have that immigration of men and means, which for the development of your resources is so eminently desirable, we ask for the privilege—and it may be claimed as a privilege of friendship—to inquire into the reasons why those advantages are turned away in so great a measure from your fertile soil and your great opportunities. It is not for our benefit, but for yours, that this inquiry is made, for its results may be much more valuable to the Southern people than to anybody else. I know that friendly services of this character are not always graciously received, but this consideration should not deter those who mean well and whose duty it is to discuss matters of public interest.

No observing and candid man will deny that one of the reasons why immigration shuns the South, in spite of its genial climate, its fertile acres and its variety of tempting advantages, consists in a social distemper, which finds its expression in the frequency of certain kinds of homicide. I say “certain kinds of homicide,” for I do not deny that there are classes of crime which occur more frequently in