New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-03-14
THE DIVERSION OF DUB TRADE.

list Of unpaid taxes: State, 1871, S1S2 Is
city, 1870, 1884; 1870, s157 70; 1872
1924. This aggregate of something les
; than one thousand dollars could no
have sent that merchant into bank
ruptcy; first, because it would have beef
) distributed through SO many years; ant
secondly, because he never paid it. 1t ma.
be that his customers did pay their taxes
and so ruined themselves and their mer
chants. To this theory, as MI. Jefferson
said of his ancestral pedigree, "let each
accord the merit that he chooses.
It is to our mind plain that taxes. how
ever onerous and exorbitant, have no!
been the sole cause Of our commercial
embarrassment. This is not said TO ex'
onerate ourselves or our party, because
the arrest and reduction of taxes by an
exclusively Republican Legislature and
executive proves that We neither make an
excuse for the abuse, nor acknowledge any
exclusive responsibility for il.
We consider this habit of regarding the
taxes as the sole cause OF commercial stag.
nation mote in the popular eye that has
greatly obscuved the distinct perception
of the true reason. Employing a negative
argument it may be remembered that
other States and cities have suffered the
same or even greater abuses and yet have
gained in wealth and population in spite
of them. We refef especially 70 Pepnsy!-
| vania and New York.
We do not choose On this occasion to
quarrel with the professional politicians
| who have seized Oh the commercial de-
cline concommitant with tax abuses, as
reason for changing the administration
of government. The State government Of
Louisiana is in the hands of Republicans.
but the city government is under exclu.
sive control by the complainants. We can
perceive no more prosperity under the one
than the other. Let then, the sole cause
of commercial decline be held in suspense
a moment, while We examine some other
causes, WHICH affect New Orleans in
common with other great commercial
cities. If it can be shown that these other
causes are applicable in the one case as in
others, our object will have been attained.
We shall have shown that the one cause
assigned is not adequate to produce the
effect asserted, and that othe, commercial
communities have suffered decline from
causes common TO ourselves also.
The great cause which disturbs the
commercial progress Of cities has always
been the change in the channels Of trade
itself. The discovery Of Vasco de Cana
broke up the caravan cities and seaports
of the East. The Suez canal and Trans
Alpine railroads have replaced Venice and
Genoa on the pathway Of commerce. and
they revive again.
Scarcely any of these changes in the line
OF human intercourse has produced q
greater change than the substitution of rail
for river movement. The principal cities
of America have been founded where the
rivers meet the sea. and all interior ways
have been made tributary to this outlet.
The adoption Of right line commerce
now builds cities where there is no nayi-
gable river, but the ability 10 radiate rail-
roads into an area which could before have
but employed the imperfect development
OF navigable river gives y far greater
power to collect and distribute commerce
to the railroad cities.
We cite Chicago and Baltimore rs two
prominent examples Of commercial pros.
perity. based on the railway alone. Nat
urally this new system must have injured
the growth Of those cities which had
otherwise enjoyed q monopoly Of water. |
borne commerce. |
we now make q particular application |
of these observations. Mayor Eavemeyef.
in a late message. enters upon the causes |
which threaten to arrest the import and |
export trade of New York. The State
Controller has shown that when the st. I
Lawrence canal improvements, now under I
contract, shall have been completed, the !!
cost of carrying n ton Of wheat from !
1oLo N;cb;oor "a ,bo mort nc Mo,+.eo,
vii, bo hrt g IN Tho cos+ &c ,orrr;nr
q ton Of wheat over the Erie canal alone
:. 60 80
IN A., -,. ~, =,
90 ,o sr >.
~ ~.
.ono. o,5 .ar,,;,. oo,,ao;.,, 80 ~. G.
7 ~ =. -