The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-05-24
A Few Plain Words.


From the Crescent CITY,
1t is complained that there is a lack of
prosperity in this city, and to a certain
extent the complaint Is well founded.
The attempt to ascribe this to the par
tisan issues in the State is simply a by
pocritical dodge of the politicians, who
are ready to ring the changes on any
thing calculated to advance their hopes
of office. We have yet to see the man
who can show the least connection be-
tween. our commercial adversities and
the political administration. As for the
public debt, if the commercial situation
was favorable, it would be nothing for
Our people to carry it and provide for its
rapid discharge. That the trade of this
city is not as profitable to those engaged
ia it as it was in days past, can not be
denied, and it is fOrthat reason only that
the debt ef the State, large as it is, and
COrrnptly contracted as it has been, has
become a burden hard for the people to
bear. But why is our trade and com
merce not as profitable as in former
years? Not because politicians have
wasted the revenues and involved the
State credit, for those things are not the
fundamental conditions of commercial
prosperity. They, indeed, increase the
amount of taxes which the citizen must
pay, but the nature, extent and p~rOfita-
bic character of the businesses the indi-
ditiOns entirely foreign to politics. We
complain Of the election laws, but what
have they to do with the navigation of
our rivers Orthe construction of Ourrail-
roads? We complain of the police and
militia laws, but what figure do they cut
in the counting rOOns Of our wholesale
merchants ard manufacturers
We are agreed that the political situa-
tiOnis badand must be speedily bettered,
but we should be ca~refulnot to be misled
as to the true causes of whatever de-
preston exists in the trade and commerce
of the Stase. In ante-bel1um days the
proceeds Of our vast crops of cotton, ST.
gar and rice were spent by the planters
in this city, regardless of the fact that
those same planters might have purch-
ased their supplies cheaper elsewhere.
A vast majority of the planters were
carried by the city factors in cOnsidera-
ton Of the supplies to be furnished them.
All articles of prime necessity on the
plan5atiOn-bacOn, beef, groceries and
Orleans, paid primarily by the factors
and ultimately by the planters out of
their crops. In such a trade there was
no competition except hatwhich sprung
up between the local merchants in their
dealings with the factors. The supply
trade of the parishes was thus cOnCen-
trated in the city, prices ruled high and
profits were large.
All this is changed now. The negroes
cultivating the soil either on shares or
rented tracts, purchase their own sup
plies. They a not come to the city to
do this, and therefore, buy of tile
try stOrekeeper. Formerly the planter
contracted for supplies for all the hands
on the plantation, and he could afford to
come to the city for that purpose; but
these same hands now buy, eachf for him
self, and must of necessity buy at the
nearest cross roads store. But where do
these country stores buy their stocks? 70
them the whole field of competition is
open, and many of them are new men
who, in their localities, wereaccustomed
to make their purchases in Louisville,
st, Louis, Cincinnati and New York.
In this way q large proportion of the
trade Of the city has been lost, and now
as if to cap the climax of our commercial
m%isfor5u1es, st. Louis has stretched out
and clutched with it's iron arm the trade
of Texas. Whereas in former days there
cOIld be no competition in the trade be-
tween the city merchant and the factors
or planters, IN consequences OF the prac-
tieally mOr5gaged condition Ofthe plant
er to his factor, now III merchants are
compelled to enter the field in competi-
ton not only amongst themselves but
with the merchants and dealers of other
cites, and oftentimes with the very mer-
chants and manufacturers of whom their
| own stocks have been purchased.
We think we have reached the bottom
of thisquestion ofcommercial prosperity,
and of the conditions that are funda-
mental to it. The remedy is matter
too important and too intricate to be dis
cussed in this article. 1t is plain, how
ever, that the vantage ground lost
can only be recovered bythee encourage
ment of domestic manufactures, and the
construction of lines of communication,
until from our focal centre they shall
reach out like fingers from the.palms of
our hands. Rapid and cheap transit to
the country, and the profitable employ
ment of our home population in the pro-
duction of manufactured articles, would
solve the question Of. commercial pros
perity, and go far towards solving many
other interests connected with the 20
litical administration of the State. .~