Russian Hebrews, north and south Italians, Syrians, Turks, and other people from southeast Europe who are emigrating to better their economic condition.
These people are largely unskilled laborers from the industries and small farms of Europe, where the highest wage is small compared with the lowest industrial wage paid in the United States. Nearly 75 per cent are males, while 83 per cent are between the ages of 14 and 45 years, being producers rather than dependents. They bring little money into the country, but send or take a considerable part of their earnings out. Upon entering the United States they turn to the mills, factories, and mines to take advantage of the high wages offered, although the majority of them have been reared as tillers of the soil.
The recent immigrants are primarily agriculturists. They labor and save under the most discouraging conditions and make the utmost sacrifices in order that they may some day return to the land. Among the Slavs this desire for land ownership dominates their daily life and gives them inspiration to stand the fierce competitive struggle in the industrial centers.
The Federal Bureau of Immigration reports that thousands of the recent immigrants return to Europe each year after a residence in this country of from about 5 to 20 years, with, in some cases, large savings to invest in Europe. These people are returning abroad to invest their American-made money in the agricultural lands of Europe, for which they have to pay from $200 to $500 per acre, without any real knowledge of the agricultural opportunities in the South. A proper effort, however, would turn many thousands of these people who are seeking agricultural homes toward the South to be used in our agricultural and industrial development.
SLAVS AS FARMERS.
In doing this we would not be inviting economic ruin and social degradation, as certain chronic pessimists and political demagogues would have us believe, for the success of the immigrant agricultural colonies already established in the South show that under proper conditions and encouragement the recent immigrants, especially the Slavs, make very desirable citizens. The truthfulness of this is evidenced by the Bohemian, Serb, Polish, and Slovak colonists found in Texas, by the Slovaks in Arkansas, by the Bohemian and Slovak farmers in the south-side Virginia counties, and by the Slavish farmers in Oklahoma, Missouri, Maryland, Alabama, Louisiana, and in the other Southern States.
Slavs are now engaged in agriculture in each of the 16 Southern States. Only a very few are found in some, it is true, but wherever they are found they enjoy the confidence and the good will of their neighbors. Not only is this true, but it is also shown by the recent census of the United States that there is not a State in the Union that does not include among its people some Slavish farmers.
Considering the United States as a whole, they are found chiefly in the States of North Dakota, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Washington, Colorado, Ohio, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois. In the South the largest
