The Ouachita telegraph., 1872-02-10
The Financial Prosperity of North
Louisiana.

Louisiana. -.
At the commencement Of tn,
year, when every one is demanding
the payment of their debts, if not set
Ting them themselves, and otherwis,
preparing for the coming crop, a com
parison of the advantages possessed
by us with other sections is one of the
most profitable that can be made. The
a great many, and the frequent camp
fire and white-topped wagon on the
road to Texas, tells how it has been an.
swered. But for those of us who arc
| interested in the country, and living
and dying here, the subject presents it.
self in a different way.
We want to know if we are getting
poorer instead of richer-it our lands
are increasing instead of decreasing in
value-if the cost of getting our freight
to and from the market is decreasing
or ever will; lastly whether any means
can be devised for cutting down such
costs.
The question thus far has not been
properly discussed except in connec-
ton witr"rail.
The farming and mercantile interest,
in the first place, have now to pay $25-
900 a year, unnecessarily for transport
tation, because the roads are in a hor-
rible condition, and because the judges
or proper parties have not been merci-
less in intiicting fines. If the proper
pressure We're brought to bear on the
road overseers and hands from here to
Trenton, the cost would be reduced
nearly one half. Wagoners state this
as a reason for high rates, and in the
~ if,,rn <o
haul it altogether.
transportation company Of some sort,
similar to what is now supplying
North Texas at Sherman with goods
from st. .Louis-similar to the caravans
used on the plains, and with which the
world has been familiar from it's COM
mencement. What we ought to do is
to organize 4 company which shall
make it a science and q study to reduce
its cost, which could be easily done to
one-third of what it is now. Certain,
speedy, and cheap transportation. once
introduced by combination between
our people and Trenton or st. Louis,
would give them the control Of the
trade over any rival towns, and would
make Homer SO incontestabIy Il cheap
market as to become a depot for cotton
and supplies for no inconsiderable
breadthOf country around. Our retail
merchants would become Wholcsale; the
orders now sent abroad would be fl lied
here, because the trade of the town
could supply the demand more cheap
ly. The section of country now inde-
pendent Of us and adjacent points hav-
ing no such saving in transportation,
would either have to get their supplies
here or be undersold.
AS the matter now stands, the enor-
nous cost of transportation is running
the country-is consuming all the
money made from raising cotton, and
will leave the country poorer than it
now is at the end of the next twenty
years.
Our cultivators must either do with
out a great many luXurieS which even
the very poor have elsewhere, Or else
buy them at ruinous figures. No trav-
eler ever passed through for the first
time who does not hear with surprise
Of the enormous cost of everything.
Not that our dealers exact more for
their wares than elsewhere; but that
we have poorer roads, and no system
of transportation whatever.
An enterprise of this kind where the
wagons, mules and supplies We're pur-
chased at prime cost-where the wa
goncrs lost nothing from hauling their
own supplies, overturning, hunting UP
work, would make Homer in short
time contain ten times its present pop
ulatiOn.-C Claiborne AdrOcotc.