No. 13.
Mr. Hanna
to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Buenos
Ayres, July 26, 1888. (Received October
1.)
No. 167.]
Sir: Referring to my last dispatch, I now furnish
some details of certain reported schemes of colonization, attracting public
attention and discussion by the prints of this capital.
A report has been widely circulated that a large secret organization of
colored people of the United States has funds in readiness, has sent agents
to Brazil and the Argentine Republic, and perhaps some other South American
States, to negotiate terms of settlement for an extended exodus of negro
families from the United States in search of new homes.
The manager of an English land syndicate called at the legation today, asking
what I knew about such contemplated exodus from my country, stating he could
place an entire township at their disposal, on such easy terms of purchase
that there could be no cause for hesitation, if they wanted to come and
engage in cattle, sheep, or agricultural farming. I had no information on
the subject, and so informed this enterprising landed proprietor. On
inquiring what he knew of such a project, I was told he “had positive
information there was such a scheme on foot, and that it must very soon take
on the form of development.”
This rumor has been circulating about some time, but I have never before
thought it serious enough to make a note of. Now as the inquiry comes so
direct and from such a respectable source, I give the information as it has
come to me.
It is unquestionably true, a vast movement is on foot in Germany and
Alsace-Lorraine to send settlements here. I send herewith, as an inclosure,
what the Daily Standard of this city has to say about it this morning. These
coming people, it is said, are to engage in small farming, as in the United
States, in grape culture, and the production of wheat and corn. The
Department will be kept fully advised of developments, if such expected
results are realized.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 167.]
Comments of the Buenos Ayres Standard—200,000
Alsatians.
Nothing points so forcibly to the progress of this country, in the
estimation of the world, as the increasing avidity displayed to know
more about it in Europe and North America. Every mail brings us dozens
of applications and letters eagerly asking for information, and the sale
of our “Hand-book of the River Plate” has been so brisk for the last six
months that the new edition is on the point of being exhausted. We
[Page 15]
are not reluctant to admit that
the so-called propaganda bureaus are entitled to some part of the credit
for this fresh boom abroad in favor of the Plate; and, although some of
them manifestly devote themselves to “painting the lily,” still their
patriotic efforts, we think, are becoming grease to the wheels of the
Republic’s progress.
Some days ago we announced that a scheme was rumored on foot to bring to
these shores 10,000 Germans, to relieve the misery caused by the
terrible inundations of last spring in that Empire, and yesterday
brought the news that 200,000 Alsatians, who refuse to be Germans, are
ready to come here when the ground is prepared for them. To this end a
special commissioner of the French Patriotic League, an institution that
has for mission to prevent as many Alsatians and Lorrainers as possible
accepting German nationality, has just arrived here, and if we had our
way we would accord him a ten times warmer welcome than that given to
our recent editorial guests, who brought us the flowers of rhetoric,
while the agent of the French Patriotic League promises us the flower of
Rhineland peasantry.
The incalculable benefit that must accrue to the country if this vast
immigration scheme be brought to a successful conclusion, as we trust it
may, is not to be solely measured by the increased population,
production, and consumption it involves.
The preponderance of Italian immigration for many years now has hitherto
borne nothing but good fruit, but it is obvious that the time has come
when grafts from other stocks will make that fruit all the better, both
from the statesman’s and physiologist’s points of view. The future
Argentine will have the freshest blood in the world in his veins if the
center and north of Europe now may be called in to redress the too
rapidly increasing balance of the south in the Republic’s
population.
In presence of this promise of 200,000 French peasants, the old question
arises, Is the National Government in a position to receive and settle
such a host? Where is land to be found for them? Where are they to go?
We unhesitatingly say, southward! ho! The tropical Chaco, the half
tropical interior, would never suit these new-comers. Their promised
land is the valley of the Rio Negro, where climate and soil are alike
suited for them.
The National Government has frequently avowed its determination to make
efforts to attract emigration from Northern. Europe. The arrival of the
French Patriotic League agent is a golden opportunity for initiating
this sound policy. Our land immigration, colonies, and other too
numerous and conflicting laws and regulations are in such a miserable,
Lord Dundreary state of hodge-podge that the French agent could never
see his way safely through them; indeed, we doubt if the whole cabinet,
with the versatile and brilliant premier at their head, could perform
the feat. The occasion is a special one and calls for special measures,
and we hope the Government will not hesitate to adopt them.
The successful settling of these 200,000 French peasants in the fertile
valley of the Rio Negro would indeed be anew departure in the
immigration line, and would most certainly attract a million more hands
from Northern Europe in a few years. They can not all come out at once,
no doubt; but the fact that they are within our reach is of the very
first importance and of far greater moment to the future welfare of the
nation than conversion of debt, launching of new loans, or any other
purely administrative act whatever, however profitable. Now is the time
to prove to the peasantry of North Europe that there is a place, work,
and future competence for ail who make this favored country their
adopted home.
