New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-11
Tue Southwest Floods and Famine.

We are ashamed, as citizens of New York,
to do what it is nevertheless our duty as
civilized men not to leave undOne. That
now, after six weeks, during which the
subject has IN one form or another been
steadily kept before the public mind, it
should be necessary to appeal to New York
in behalf of the sufferers by the floods and
the famine in the Southwest is simply
disgrace to TIE metropolis. For this dis
grace, it is true, the sOulles, and brainless
cid BOBBY who was fOisted upon the city as
its chief magistrate by combination of
political greenhorns With political swindlers,
under the preteXt of reform" is directly
responsible. When the question is Of tax
ing the city or the city's servants to get up
public funerals for prohigate officials.
Mayor Havemeyer is all attention and
subserviency. But when the executive of
the first commercial city of the South
west eptreats him officially to rouse New
York to the appalling fact that 10000
human beings are ready to perish
for absolute lack OF the necessaries OF
life in that valley of the Mississippi which
has yielded hundreds of millions in value
Of the fruits of the earth to build up the
greatness OF the United States and Of this
mighty emporium OF the commerce of the
United States, this wretched Old Ounce
mutters that he ''wili wait for particulars
by the mails buttons up his pockets, and
goes to inventing sinecures for his sOnsin-
law and his dependents of ali sorts in one
or another department of the public ser
vice. A mayor of New York who had pos
sessed, We will not say the instincts OF a
statesman, because it would be ridiculous
to talk of such things in connection with
our actual city government, but the ia
stincts even of politician, combined with
the common senslbilitles of decent citi-
zen, could not possibly let the sun go down
on such an appeal as those which Mayor
Havemeyer has received from the South
west without responding to them. The
response of such a mayor would have
rallied instantly the best citizens of
New York to their duty. AS it is,
while a few private persons here and
there in this city have been quietly collect
ing and forwarding TO the scene Of suffer
ing few thousand dollars, other cities,
certainly less opulent but by no means
certainly more liberal than New York, have
come forward with an organized and sys-
tematic generosity most worthy of praise
to the help of the afflicted people of Louis
lana Boston in particular has done herself
lasting credit, and the cause of honest and
genuine national reconstruction an impor
tant service. by the judicious and sustained
efforts which, as community, she has
made in this emergency. We use perfect
plainness of speech about the obstruction
lst blOckhead who has stlf1od the sympa
thetic impulses OF New York, because it
concerns the good name of the city that
the truth about him should be known. But
this once having been accomplished, it must
be distinctly understood that we can not
shelter ourselves as citizens completely in
the dorsal shadow Of this dogger built Dog
berry.
The duty which it was always idle to ex-
pect that Mayor Havemeyer would see per-
formed still remains to be done. II it can
not be done without the machinery of pub
lie meetings let us have public meeting
called by some recognized body of New
York merchants and men of substance. If
the Chamber of Commerce is what its name
portends, and can ever be of any serious
use, it should be at such time as this.
But let something be done and let that
something be done quickly, or it will go
near TO be thought. and to be justly
thought, that Mayor Havemeyer is precise
ly the sort of mayor that New York de-
serves to have.-Neeo York World.