New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-19
ALLIGATOR CITY.

ALLIGATOR CITY.
One Of our city snpess which assumes
entire impartiality about the outlet i'm
provement has furnished two documents
useful for Incorporating the work chosen
by the merchants of New Orleans. The
first was an interview with "the practical
pilots" The other is copy from the land
Office of the entry ofvacant lands on each
side of the canal location made in August,
1873. This the Democrat asserts to account
for the zeal displayed on behalf Of the
canal by the Legislature, the Chamber Of
Commerce, the insurance companies and
shippers and property holders Of this city
for forty years past. Two thousand dol
lars invested in land which has laid vacant
ever since it was made will so reward
the press and people of New Orleans
as to account for their advocacy of a
public work, and produce a transfer of
the business from New Orleans tc those
mud flats. We almost envy the Democrat
such class of readers. 4 city is induced
to commit itself to work-to spend ten
times as much as my pilot town could be
worth years and years before the specula-
ton upon which its advocacy of the work
is based. Such future speculations may
do for future city," but will not ex-
plain why New Orleans advocated canal
for forty years because some spectators
were going to enter couple of thousand
dollars worth of mud fats and make the
city rich. This metaphysical explanation
of motive, inspired by an act not yet con-
summated, would find an example in the
man who accepted an invitation to drink
because his "wife was going to have fish
for dinner, and fish always made him
thirsty" Such would have been the re-
ply of any advocate Of this canal twenty
years ago. 1t would have accounted for
present zeal on the ground of prospective
speculation.
Of course there are Spectators who
follow every enterprise as the prairie wolf
may follow the buffalo hunters for the
garbage and offal. We know and We
despise this miserable incident of all that
is useful There are few pablo enter
prises that this class of sharps does not
watch only to see if there be 'any money
in it, If such promises to be the case,
they ring themselves into the offices and
contracts, they absorb and waste the fund,
they infect the enterprise and pervert the
purpose Of the public spirit which devised
it. Louisiana has suffered more from the
arts Of these spectators than any other
State in the Union. From the McDonogh
fund to the latest corporation to which
the State has contributed all the money,
and the managers have wasted all the re-
ceipts, the practice has been deplorable
So, while these men had perfect right to
enter the vacant mud flats, this they did
for their own interest. We have looked at
the names Of these Spectators and do
not recognize one of them as having
manifested any interest in the enter
prise. Like others Of their class, they
have taken the chance and relied
upon the interests and abilities Of other
men to get them gain. AS we do not
think the buffalo hunter should be
held responsible for the motive of the
wolf or the cayote which follows in his
wake-as the geologist who predicts de- |
post Of coal, iron or gold should. not be |
reproached or discredited because some
sharp fellow has patented the prediction,
50 Congress will regard the comparative
merits OF the plans proposed. 1t will not |
discard the canal because the outside |
sharps may have got title to the adjacent
ands, nor will it decline to consider the |
claims of the jetty because gentleman
rom Jetland may thereby feather his own
1est at the expense Of the national liber-
.lity.
We can not pass from the subject with
tut the note that the Eads ring has aban-
loned these objections to the canal based
N the alleged want of foundation. Ground
which bears two great forts, and upon
which it is intended to build a city so
ich as to supersede New Orleans and buy
lp all Of the merchants and property
folders can lot be said to be SO rotten
hat duck could not walk safely over
Without putting on "a life-preserver.
hank you, Messrs. Of the Ring, for with
rawing an absurd charge and substituting
mother even more ridiculous.
Since the New Orleans REPUBLICAN ap-
ealed to Congress not to drown out
ur planters, by damming up the outlet,
nd not to fill the Southwest Pass with
stands Of concrete and RATS Of drift
ogs, Congress has paused, and will not
ssume the responsibility of a regular
nnual appropriation for the relief of
louisiana sufferers by overflow. We
hall now expect Congress to order a
cientific inquiry:
l. Will wingdams back water at the
louth of the Mississippi as elsewhere
nd if not, why not?
2. If there be built two streets of forty
Dot concrete, under water, will the river
ut under these streets, and tumble in the
locks, to the prejudice Of navigation?