The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-30
RAILROADS AND STEAMSHIP INTERESTS.

Nothing is more suicidal on the part of
commercial community situated as that of
| New Orleans than to habitually foster particu-
lar modes of travel and conveyance and
habitualIy discourage others 1t has been
well said that to form habits is failure; for
habits presume stereotyped world, and the
world can no more be stereotyped than the
eternal principle of motion and mutation can
be petriied and cut into cubes like blocks of
granite. Habits, it is not to be disputed,
may be useful enough when held in subjec-
lon to reason. But it is certainly true that
the force of habit, in the sense of inveterate
adhesion to existing usages, is blind guide
conducting to ultimate confusion and disas-
ter. New Orleans, in respect to many of the
circumstances and conditions of its COM
merce, has been for years in the rut and
under the dominion of such force of
habit, and, consequently, on the high road of
failure. Nothing but the pernicious strength
OF Anticipated systems, cherished for the ex-
elusive benefit of special interests has caused
the city to be amongst the costliest ports in
America, when it so easily admits of being
depot OF the jackson railroad, for example, is
at point which would seem chosen expressly
to make the transit of its freights through the
city as costly as possible and to suffocate one
half the trade that might reasonably be ex-
pected to flow through that channel. The
expenses to which ships coming to this city
are subjected for pilotage, towage, wharfage
and otherport charges, are positively frightful.
Then we have those fragments of road, con-
structed, apparently, to go nowhere; one
stopping in the shallow water of Lake Pont-
chartrain, the other at one of the lagoons of
the Gulf of Mexico. There is no complete
ness about either. The utility of both
depends upon steamship supplements, and
single steamship company has controlled
the trade of both these fragmentary lines.
Now we do not question that this company is
as considerate and liberal as it is possible,
from the nature of such institutions, to be.
But the system is essentially anomalous and
mischievous, adding to the influences which
have so greatly hampered the commercial pro-
gress of the city, and made its commercial
situation, in many aspects, scandalous ana
chronism. Hence it is gratifying to hear the
assurance that Mr.. Charles Morgan, the head
of the steamship interest referred to, is sim
cerely DESTROYS of the extension, without de-
lay, of the Opelousas railroad from Berwick's
Bay, where it now connects with his Texas
steamers, to the Texas line, where it may con-
meet with the railroad line extending through
the interior of that State to the Rio Grande.
He is now in this city, and it is
understood that the object of his visit is to
mite with Messrs. Chouteau and Price in an
effort to effect the desired extension. 1t is
not for us to discuss the motives of Mr.. Nor
gan, while congratulating the community on
the early attainment of railroad communica-
ton with Texas which seems to be promised
by his cooperation in this work. Yet it
would be absurd to suppose that wealthy
steamship proprietor would engage in any
enterprise of this nature which should not
accord with his particular interests. The fact
is that it was only necessary for Mr.. Morgan
to take comprehensive and far-seeing view
of his interests to perceive that, as steamship
proprietor, he had much more to gain than
lose by an intimate railroad connection
between New Orleans and the in
terror of Texas. A contamination
that would so greatly conduce to develop the
vast commercial resources of Texas and to
increase the commercial prosperity of New
Orleans, could not fail to augment the bust
ness of steamships employed in the trade Of
that State or of this city. There are no enter
prises on land calculated to swell the general
trade, wealth and population that must not
also stimulate and reward those enterprises
whose tracks are on the sea- When the hoped
for era shall come, Mr.. Morgan will find for
his ships occupation infinitely more worthy
and profitable than the supplementing of the
homeopathic trade of two paltry scraps OF
railroad.