New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-11-01
REASONS FoR THE DULL TINES.

hands attest the idleness that prevails il
the small stores, as we'll as in the grea
wholesale houses; and the prospect doe!
not look much more inviting for the win
ter than it has been for the last month
There is great complaint, and much tall
of economy on account Of this dearth O
commercial activity; and our people arr
turning over in their minds various plan.
and enterprises whereby to amelio-ate thu
future.
The REPUBLICAN has, from time to time
discussed this subject, and pointed ou
certain defects, in our political and socia,
condition, which were operating against
New Orleans to drive her legitimate trade
away from her doors. We have also
pointed to we'll known enterprises which
were necessary to be carried out in order
to secure certain floating trade to the city.
Unfortunately, our suggestions have not
met with that hearty response from
the people which they deserved, not be-
cause our ideas were impracticable or un-
reasonable, but because prejudice has re-
fused to take counsel with well-meaning
adviser, whose opinions upon abstract po-
litical questions were distasteful to its
narrow-minded ideas. With one-half of
the population of the State the business
interests of New Orleans have kept up a
continued and useless antagonism, which,
to speak in commercial parlance, sis not
! business" With certain railroad enter
prises the community has refused to be
agreeable because they were being pushed
forward by Northern men and Northern
capital, which sis not business" In her
supreme struggle commerce neither re-
CARDS her customers nor the origin of their
capital. She sends beads to the Indians
and sables to the Russian with the same
activity. Her tent is set up in the desert
or by the palace gate, without regard to
the Bedouin or the prince that comes to
buy her merchandise. She is blind to
everything save her percentage.
Has New Orleans done this thing?
We submit this question to our business
men in all earnestness, and We defy them
to answer it directly and without equivo-
cation. A business answer to this bust
ness question will settle serious matter
For years We have been driving away our
best customers. The laboring population
is the chief dependence of all local trade.
Its money is too scant to send away from
home for supplies, and year in and year
out it buys more than the rich, for it must
have the wherewith to live upon and to
wear. The negro trade of Louisiana is in
the hands of class of merchants who
are treated as unwelcome strangers in
Louisiana; and these men, seeing their
and feeling their distaste-
fulness to the mercantile guild of New
Orleans, have carried their trade where
they were not treated as Shylock was
treated upon the Rialto. This is one
reason why so much cotton goes to st.
Louis: that the country merchants who
have bought it from the colored people
send it to the market in which they trade,
and where their credit has been estab-
lished. The rich send to New York or to
Paris for their finery. OF our own knowl- |
edge scores Of Southerners do their shop |
pingin other markets while they are away
in the summer, spending the money |
which they ought to spend at home.
Then, when the Chattanooga company
promised to build one railroad to Texas
and another to Mobile, what was its re.
,eption? A great clamor was raised that
It was an enterprise that would only profit
Northern men, and the st. Charles The
tire was filled with indignant business
men crying aloud against the very project
which promised them relief from the
;tagnation which now prevails. The fact
hat such roads would create untold
wealth was rejected, and the plea of pre-
udice was listened to by men almost in
he agonies of a famine. Does Russia
eject the road to Moscow because an
american is building it? Does Italy offer
o close up the Mont Gents tunnel be-
ause Frenchmen are constructing it? Did
egypt hold fast to her sand hills when
rance offered to remove them from the
pathway to India? Only the South and
1exico are SO stupid that they refuse to
ct strangers do that which they can not
10 themselves.
We have brought disaster upon ourselves
y initiating the very weakness which we
ecry so much in the Mexicans. Across
he Rio Grande if an American offers to
uild railroad the people and their
tupid leaders at once denounce the propo-
ition as fiilibuster scheme. Here,
'hen new enterprise is suggested, or
'Len more liberal scheme of business
elations is proposed, the mob at once
allies to resist it as an emanation from the
and therefore to be defeated.
Without stopping to investigate the neces-
lty or desirability of the proposition,
'ithout considering that its effects are to
e beneficial in thousand ways, the pro- .
aoters of prosperity are put out of the
ouse with the denial that they are ,
Northern men with Northern capital" E,
nd their works are not wanted.
we know that all these solemn truths
viii be set down as scandals and libels
'Pon the South and her people by the :