The Commerce and Trade Congress of the South has called a conference in the nation's capital. Federal officers, representatives of the press, of big business, of the railroads, and of the banks, are to participate in order to discuss ways and means of inducing the many thousands of unemployed aliens in the United States, and the great masses of immigrants to be expected after the war, to settle in the South. The argument about immigration is an old one. Its origin goes back many decades and has always existed for the keen observer.

The Americans, meaning those European immigrants who had a foothold in the country before the late newcomers arrived, have always been, to a great extent, against any further immigration. Their reasons were obvious. First, there was the fear that wages might decline, fear of the European influence, but above all there was that ingrained condescending attitude of the "real" 2American toward the "hyphenated" American, which found its peak of expression in "Knownothingism". The seed of hatred which those deluded "patriots" had disseminated throughout the land, have horrible fruit. In many places violent street fighting ensued between the newcomers and the "old time" Americans whose families had lived in the New World for two or three generations and for this reason looked with contempt upon the "greenhorns," although the latter often enough were their intellectual superiors. "Bloody Monday" is still in the memory of all Germans living in the capital of Kentucky, although a lot of water has flowed down the Ohio River and decades have passed since.

Of course conditions today are not as bad as they used to be. Immigrants are not given bloody heads any more, at least not in the larger cities, although it is said that in some small mining towns a lot of roughhousing is still going on now and then. But for a large part of the immigrants, conditions are still bad enough. At home, hopes about the new country ran high. But often enough their expectations turned to bitter disappointment once they had landed. And all this not through any fault of their own but as a consequence3of an obvious negligence on the part of certain officials, whose duty it should be to smooth the paths of the future citizens of our Republic while they are trying to get a footing in their new surroundings. The Federal Government takes care, or is supposed to, that no undesirable elements enter the country. It should also be its duty to arrange for a sensible distribution over the entire country of all immigrants arriving in our Eastern seaports and it should be the duty of the individual states to co-operate with the Federal Government in this respect. Attempts in this direction have frequently been made but have always failed, usually because the state authorities were lukewarm about the matter or because the offices of the immigrantion commissioners [officials] were nothing but sinecures for political parasites whose crackpot ideas were not encumbered by experience.

The charge or such carelessness must be primarily directed against those Southern states which are complaining today that the tidal wave of immigrants passes by their labor-hungry territories. This negligence has caused great damage to the South. The Civil war was not the only thing which put Dixie far behind the North as far as commerce and industry are concerned. The 4unequalled progress of the Union states after the bloody Civil War can be attributed above all else to a generous immigration from Europe. Where would the American steel industry, the greatest in the world, be today if it wasn't for the masses of hard working European immigrants? What would New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and other states be like today if it wasn't for the Germans who had come over from the Old Country? While large cities were growing in the North, the South was standing by, sulking like a child, spitefully suffering the growing poverty, like that stubborn young fellow who was walking down the street without gloves during a severe cold wave and when people felt sorry for him, told them that it was serving his father right if he, the son, froze his hands, as his father had not bought him any mittens.

During the last few years it has finally dawned on the people south of the Mason-Dixon Line that they would have to do something in order to share in the general prosperity of the country. That is the reason for the conference in Washington. There isn't any doubt that with a little good will on the part 5of those interested, a better and more practical distribution of the immigrants landed upon our shores could be easily effected. Above all, it would be necessary to see that these newcomers did not get settled in the large cities of the East and the Middle West as they have been thus far, but that they get settled on the land, since most of them were recruited from Europe's rural population anyway. The American metropolitan centers would thereby be relieved of a tremendous burden while at the same time American agriculture would derive the greatest benefit from this arrangement. There is still space left for many millions in our Southern states and hard working hands could step up agricultural production many times. Germans and Northern Europeans, it must be admitted, would not thrive any too well doing physical labor in those latitudes. Summers are long and the sun is merciless. Then, too, there is that unfortunate Negro question which is still an unsolved problem. Just the same, there are already today a number of prosperous German rural communities, whose successful growth is eloquent testimony to the industry of the German farmer. Germans and other immigrants from Central and Northern Europe will be able to make a living in the South providing they can 6remain independent and own their land. They are not suited to work as hired laborers on farms not their own. Southern Europeans and immigrants from Asiatic Turkey and South Russia, elements which are now crowding the tenement quarters of New York, Chicago, and other large cities, are better adapted for that purpose. If this conference should succeed in adopting a practical plan for the diversion of future immigrants into sections where their labor is urgently needed, they would not only earn the gratitude of the Southern states, but would contribute to the relief of Northern metropolitan centers from over population.