New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-11-25
HOW We nAF.IrPRovE oUR FoaTUHiIss.

| The Tines, journal that has grown
fat upon the people BY habitually mis-
leading them in every matter Of public
policy, sheds copious tears over the
wrecked fortunes of a ruined people.
Blu. it by no means proves its premises or
establishes the soundness of its deduc-
tlo0s. a.gs "a. ssE gessr ,-.,.-assFrs
The usual evidences Of distress in q
State are want Of employment for the
laboring classes and consequent low
wages; capital unemployed, and no de-
mand for the leading articles OF domestic
manufacture and production. Have We
such evidences among US? Can city
that supports five or six first class places
OF amusement, an average of ball day
for six months in the year, three race
courses, three thousand whisky shops
and billiard saloons, innumerable cigar
shops, and newspaper like the Times,
successfully plead grinding poverty:
1t seems to US that tie first step Ii tie
right direction would he to dispense with
many of these useless Injuries, beginning
very properly with the last named. An
establishment which costs tie people half
a million year and gives nothing but
very bad advice in return, ought to be
dispensed with and tie money put to
a better use.
We attribute much Of tie poverty Of
New Orleans to want Of thrift and in
dustry OF the people themselves. We
have too many young men among US who
are afraid of work. They have inherited
gentlemanly notions, witLou. the fortunes
or the intellectual ability to sustain their
pretensions While we are urgently call
ing for immigrants to supply the demand
for labor, thousands Of able-bodied, idle
men throng our cofeehouses, billiard
saloons and street corners, all helping to
consume the revenue derived from the
limited capital upon which their support
ers have entered business circles as COM
petitors. tits capable Of demonstration
that an ordinarily intelligent and indus
dustrious man can not only earn a good
living, but lay up some store of money
beside, if he will cultivate the soil in
Louisiana; and it is fact that land can
be had for next to nothing. and yet there
are hundreds, aye, thousands, of men
hanging about the towns Of the State who
will not engage in this business of farm
ng, which is the highest and most neces-
'ary calling that man may follow.
The laborer in England, France, Ger
many or New England can not do this
hing, for the land is not to be had, and
where it can be had it i, POOR and desc
ate Besides, the demand for labor is |
never hushed in Louisiana, and the rate Of
wages exceeds that paid in any of the
'ther countries. Then, again, money is
% scarce that il readily commands fifteen
,er ceIt, which is tie surest sign that
apital has 10 right to Complain about
lard times.
What the people produce sell, at profit
nd commands the attention Of tie world.
n some parts Of the country where there
5 not SO much talk about the distress of
be times, the farmers, instead Of selling
oeir produce, consume or leave it to rot
D the ground. How much corn and how
lany bushels Of potatoes has Illinois sold
Or fuel, or left ungathered because she
ad no market for them: How many
ounds of sugar, cotton, corn, rice, to-
acco, or potatoes has the State Of Lou
llama lost for want Of purchasers? Not
re. In fact, she has been able to gather
i that the bounty oftLe land afforded, or
lat the demand called for. And yet the
ines sets up its whine that We are mis-
able pepole, and that there IS 10 lot as
try as ours is.
Ii all the people Of Louisiana worked
half Of them do this would lie the
lppiest, healthiest and wealtL;est cour-
y in the world. Every man would be
with an abundance of all that
as wanted. The surplus over what we
'eded for our own support would leave
rich as a community, and we should
We all our personal production as clear
oft. 1t is fact borne out 10y what has
CURED for years, that if tie idle popu- :
ion of this community put its hands to
blow as the laboring people do they
'uld raise enough over and above what
produced now to support the State as
is supported at present, which would =
.ually give Us all that We raise at
esent, and more, too, as surplus E
r if the community caU and does live
Of the productions of halt Of its men, !.
IS wLo do all the labor at present, it is =
tainly safe to say that it could live off Il
the productions of tie other half that =
vagrant now if it would only 90 to -
rk ID
Sot while the community is supporting +;
S immense mass Of idleress, ard keep ~
1t in luxury and vice, can We reasona-
admit that our condition is half as ~
as that community where people who II
much worse, and complain a great h.
less When the laboring people fail AZ
'ttain work and turn away from the e
thrifty portals Of the drinking shop; ex
"a capital remains drug on the II,
'ket, and what the people produce rots it,
n their hands for want OF a pur- g.