The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-10-25
Communication.

Gnu Ouk tASoip VAIN III III"
we have reached point beyond which
all is conjectured.
It remains OF us to say whether we
shall profit by the sad lessons of adver-
sity and by moral courage, industry
and anton endeavor at least to better
cur condition or wait in dull apathy
till it is too late and others have come
to profit by our ruin.
Deplorable as our condition is there
is no cause for the utter indifference
which seems to have fallen upon our
people, and whilst there are individuals
who may not be able to Withstand the
accumulation of debts and taxes hang
ing over them, the country itself must
and acit prosper, and even those who
are forced to make what they may now
deem sacrifices of their property in
whole or in part, can hope to derive an
indirect benefit therefrom far greater
than they can possibly expect from our
present. system of agriculture, and in
difference to other sources of pr6speri-
ty than the two great staples of cotton
and sugar.
repeat that we have been steadily
going down hill since the war, and the
few years OF apparent prosperity have
only seemed to create false hopes, to
give us a temporary credit, to be used
only to our cost, and so long as the
welfare of a whole community depends
exclusively upon the production of on
ly two staple articles, under preca-
rious system of labor, so long will they
be subjected to such lessons as are
taught US by the failure of '67 and the
present year.
We have borne it so long that we
scarcely realize our condition in COM
parison with the rest of the country
Our lands are rich and under the infiu-
cnce of a genial climate give us agri
cultural resources more varied than
even we ourselves seem willing to be-
lieve. Among us there is as much in
telligence and education as in any
community in the country, and yet to-
day We are the most forlorn people on
the continent-without railroads, with
out telegraphs, without banks and
without manufactures and why p
Because we are too poor! We are
waiting for Northern capitalists
"IFhat can ace do ?" / would peril
nently ask how we expect others to do
for us what we seem entirely unwilling
to assist even in doing for themselves.
We are not too poor, and if our peo-
pie will cordially set to work and do
what they can, they will be surprised
to see how much may be accomplished
by small means and how the develop
ment of our industry gives rise to 9TH
ers growing naturally out of it.
Individually we are too poor; so
We're individual laborers too poor to
resist the expressions of capital, and
yet to-day see what power exists in
the land, felt in every corner of the
active world, and welded by men
barely able to meet the wants of the
day, men, however, who felt that their
property (their labor) was in danger
and that anton, cooperation was neces-
sary to save them.
And by cooperation ace can accom-
plish something, and however little
that something may be it will be be-
ginning, from which greater things
may come.
That in such country as this we are
to have railroads in place of a semi
monthly packet from the ouly large
city in 800 miles of us, no one can
doubt, and that telegraphs will take
the place of "a late paper only one
week DID," we may hazard hope, and
that one of these days some enterpris-
| ing "Northern capitalists" (1imeo Do
aaos ct doaa .fereatesj may find out
what fine opening there is for Bank
here to furnish us with money to move
our crops or hold them under circum-
stances similar to the present, when it
may be to our interest to pay for money
than send cotton to New Orleans at So
per bale freight, and sell itat $40 per
bale less than our Judgment tells us it
will be worth when it is known how ex-
tensive the failure has been.
There are many other things we may
find out (when for some it will be too
late) which shall allude to at some
other time, but above all we may know
too late that we, poor as we are, could
have had in our town a large, busy
CoTToN AND WooLEN FAcToRY-an
ornament and pride-giving employ
ment to hundreds of our young people,
willing, anxious to work and growing
up in idleness for want of suitable oc-
cupation giving to the small farmer a
higher price for his bale of cotton than
lie gets by waiting for his account sales
from New Orleans, and giving him in
return his cotton goods without the
numerous SLAVES he submits to from
the moment his cotton leaves his wa
gon until the simple piece of domestics
is strapped to his saddle to take home
| q natn OF o. To Lin, Too mara tL, z,