New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-07-18
THE WANT OF RAILROADS IN LOUISIANA.

suaR Jul pOVPhS 0lS I'VE lAhAuS az luot W ap-
preciate the wonderful agricultural re-
sources of the State and the equally won
derful commercial advantages of New Or
leans. This is also true Of the strangers
who come within our gates and the citizens
of our sister States. The eyes of the whole
country are now being directed to Louisi-
ana,i and the first corners with capital and
enterprise will reap rich rewards.
Situated near the mouth of the great
Mississippi, which furnishes nearly fifteen
thousand miles of inland navigation and
drains one-third of our national domain,
New Orleans is justly entitled to the com
meree Of this vast valley. We base
the claim upon the simple prop
osition that it is much easier and
is cheaper to float the heavy and bulky
products of the West and the Southwest
down stream to market than it is to trans
port them seaward up hill by rail. Our
citizens are beginning to see that by vir-
tue of her incompatible position and the
enterprise that will utilize the gifts of ma
ture, New Orleans has an important desti-
ny before her, and that the great river
which floats so grandly past her portals is
destined soon to become such moving
and liquid highway to the millions dwell
ing on its banks as no other people under
the sun ever possessed. .--
At the same time we begin to compre-
bend that the mere possession of natural
advantages does not suffice. Our incom-
parable facilities, regarded with indiffer-
ence and burdened with the exactions of
grinding monopolists, are no match for the
West with her few natural facilities but her
stupendous energy and industry. See how
Chicago has stretched out her iron arms
and grasped the sceptre of trade over one
third Of the Union She has had not only
to create her commerce, but also to create
the facilities whereby such commerce be-
came possible.
But with proper appreciation of our
natural advantages there is also coming an
appreciation of the burdens which weigh
down our commerce, of the causes which
stand in the way of our prosperity, which
prevent u3 from becoming what we are
Justly entitled to be. Our people are no
longer inert, apathetic, Indifferent. Neither
are they willing longer to sustain the
gigantic monopolies which have grown up
in Louisiana, as in all Latin communities,
where few enterprising and powerful men
control in business or in politics, and the
mass quietly submit to the exactions i'm
posed upon them.
The crying evil Of Louisiana is the
want of railroad communication. 1t is this
that condemns three-fourtbs of our fertile
State to poverty, to wildness, to
ignorance, to violence, to semi-barbar-
ism, to all the evils that belong to
sparsely settled regions and the borders
of civilization. The wonderful network
of rivers and bayous in the delta of the
Mississippi furnish facilities for communica-
ton at certain seasons of the year in Dor
ton of the State, but when the floods sub
side the people are cut off from the outside
world
Compare the railroads of Louisiana with
those of almost every other State in the
Union. The Pontehartrain, five miles long:
a line Of about hundred miles to the State
Of Mississippi, and about the same length
on the Opelousas road, are all that are
worthy of mention. We should have two
thousand miles instead of two hundred.
Who does not know that if the New Or
leans, Mobile, and Chattanooga road were
built the gulf coast from Pearl river to
Pascagoula would become almost one con-
tinuous VILLAGE? Who can compute the
travel, the trsfsc, shc wealth that would be
poured into New Orleans by the compile
ton of The road to Texas?
We need more railroads in Louisiana.
50 as to be able to grasp the trade of remote
points just as Chicago has done. Other
wise we will lose it. We have competitors
who are active, rieh,and powerful who will
bear away the prizes, unless i've are up |
and doing. But we want railroads for
still other and better reasons. Where the
locomotive whistles, there comes popula,
ton with increased population comes
more wealth and greater security to life
and property. AZ railroads are extended
into the interior, poverty, Ignorance, vic,
lence,disappear. Aspopulation multiplies,
the value Of land increases; labor demands |
better wages capital enjoys safer returns
more time is spared from the hard combat
with nature for mere subsistence for men
tai improvement, morals improve in like |
and the standard Of living be- |
comes higher. In this way railroads have |
become, especially in this country, prime |
agents in civilization.
It is the duty Of our Legislature to foster
every public enterprise of this kind in the
State. Letu encourage capital from the |
North for this purpose. A-.A e
This Is common ground upon which
FsderaIs and conisdsratss can unite. |
While we grow enthusiastic over great |
canals and rAIlrosds and schemes Of ma |
terial progress, old hatreds and prsiudices
win be forgotten, and partisan strife lose
is bitterness.
An old citizen Who arrived home vester-
days alter heightened trip through fha /