Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-02-20

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! they ship and pay less for having their bust
ness attended to, than any other article OF
nroduce landed in that city! Now we nav
;ns p very good idea Of the manner IN Wnich
things and matters are transacted III We"
| Orleans, beg leave to difer--and widely too
with Mr.. Hale, and will undertake to say
in defence OF the sugar planters OF this stale,
that they afford The New Orleans. factor 'ne
most valuable business Of any other produce
Datronizing that city, aud the best evidence OF
oor assertion il, that Of al! the failures occtr-
ring in New Orleans, fewer failures III pro-
norton to the number engaged in business
are to be found among the sugar factors than
in any other ! Indeed such a thing as 4 sugar
merchants falling is d great rarity III we"
! Orleans. They all get rich, and many OF
| them become owners Of large sugar estates
How was it in the month Of December and
| January, and up to the present tune, when
the sugar factors unable to obtain the usual
bank accommodations, appealed TO their cus-
LDttlGIS, AiAh ltf tt| S'~
shipped down thei, crops and permitted them
to be sacrificed during The darkest hours OF tie
! panic to protect and sustain the credit OF
their merchants? How many sugar fac
tors were compelled TO suspend during that
period, we ask OF Mr.. Hall? No comnunl-
:y Of producers ever stood mp more nob'y to
their merchants than the sugar planters:
| and not,e more than the sugar planter, pay
dearer for the accommodations they receive,
| and il is unkind, to say the least Of if. for
Mr.. HAIL to intimate otherwise. No other
agricultural interest in the wide wide world
| could sustain itself and pay the same interest
on money employed by them in the ordinary
/ operations OF their extensive bust. ess, and it
seems to be the policy Of the New Orleans
m~erchants-Iike the government of Great
BIitain-to keep the sugar planters bound
down 10 them by obligations OF debt; and
we observe that some Of the commercial wri-
ters III the city papers are fond Of abiding TO
the fact that planters are indebted to their
merchants, &c, for liberal adranrcs made
Mr.. HALL. aud the writers upon change must
know that country people are fully aware as
to how these liberal ARRANGEMENTS are made
an explanation of which will 60 a long
way towards showing why it is that county
members of the Legislature. are. to use his
own language, "waging war against New Or
~leans!"
The system Of Advances by the merchants
to the planters long since inaugtuatcd-and
adhered TO now more rigiGiy than ever, is
thus performed:
The planter goes 10 his merchant ard says,
II want ten, twenty or thirty thousand dol
lars on my crop" The reply is generally,
Yes, you can have it." The merchant turns
to his book-keeper and says, " Mr.. A., draw
snndry notes or drafts in amounts maturing
according to the coming in Of the ~crop--make
them payable 10 the order Of Mr.. D. THE
planter asking the aivance.1 They are
drawn - the pIanter signs and endorses
them. and they are handed over to the nler-
chant, and the planter is credited with the
amount OF nso1ley these drafts Or notes are
worth, with the Eame Of Lis merchant on
them, II. the streets, AMI is charged up with
two and a-halt PER cent. commissions on the !
focs o! the notes Or dlait>, and this is called
an adrancs. Thus a merchan: having a re-
spectacle capital OF his own, say from fifty
thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars can make advances on fifty or more
crops 10 be made, and perhaps amounting to a
nniIion q ~doAa's! giving with the commits |
slons OH sals Of the crops and for purchasing |
supplies, an enormous revenue to the factor.
In a few years We find him rich. and yet We
are told by Mr.. HALL tina. sugar planters con-
tribute less to New Orleans and her lner-
chants IN proportion to Whit they ship, than
perhaps any other class Of producers!
Thus the hard toiling sugar planter while !
IN the enjoyment OF a tneayre Iiving-paying
his we}l~won earnings in making New
Orleans merchants rich, is told by MIR. HALL
that he is giving aid and comfort 10 the enc
mics OF the South We hope Mr.. HALL vii,
not suffer his pen to remain idle in defending
the New Orleans merchants-it would be a
great calamity from which they might never
recover. The sugar planters are perfectly
willing that Mr.. HALL should ~"repeat the
dose" often, il rot a great deal ~oftener. We
will have something to say in our next issue
for the special benefit OF the "'Change" wri-
ter of the Crescent.
Williamson, the refractory witness: who re-
fused to testify before the Congressional
Committee to investigate the frauds for the
uodiGcatinn of the tariff lat ucintar haS