The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-10-17

alton and raising false issues to sta
the onward march of the country.
new seaboard HAS been created b
the system of establishing the inlanI
ports OF entry and a new great net
work Of lines of transportation dis
putes and rivals the power Of tn
great father Of waters. To NEE
these changes of which the energetic
people Of the great West take advan
tage, if even they are not creations O
their zeal and enterprise. New Or
leans must change her mode of doin.
business or her prestige is lost for
ever. AS q necessary consequence o
this revolution in commerce, New
Orleans, finds, too, her great cotton
trade passing away into other hands
Men of capital and energy in Boston
New York, st. Louis, Cincinnati anC
other cities, are now competing fol
precedence in handling the great
staple. King cotton that had its
court in New Orleans now finds its
dominion extended all oyer the
Union. Telegraphie cyphers conduct
its mandates for various rival cities
to European marts, and tlotilla OF
ships move by electric commands is
sued after lightning con sultation be-
tween Hamburg and New York, Bos-
ton and Liverpool. Thus New Or
leans sinks practically into mere
commission agency or brokers' office,
with correspondents obedient alone
to Il mystic but potent cable message.
1t is useless to ignore the fact that the
Orleans than in New York. Resident
correspondents for their principals
buy it, load it OH ships or cars owned
and managed by Eastern capital,
which, receives all the profit inlme-
diately after 1t leaves tide water, or
is steamed away to reach the spin
ners' looms in six OF seven days.
1t is i'll vain to charge these changes
i'll commerce to the reconstruction
acts of Congress OF to political COM
plications the trade that was the
bone and sinew of New Orleans pros
perity is i'll a transition state, and no
amount of argument will arrest the
change. No ostrich policy will pre-
vail; the emergency must be met
logically, as all emergencies should
be. No matter who is Governor of
Louisiana commerce will obey it's own
laws. Seeing that, in d measure,
trade is leaving the water courses,
other cities that mainly depended on
river trade promptly met the issue.
Cincinnati tweed bridgcd the Ohio
and is now contemplating third
span to connect it with their great
projected Southern railroad and give
an outlet to the steel highways that
converge i'll her vicinity. st. Louis
has just completed one OF the great
est structures of the world, spanning
the Mississippi with work the very
contemplation OF which was thought
but the idle dream If visionary.
Louisville invites trade to her doors
by building causeway over the Falls
OF Ohio, IN fact every thing points to
the fact that the water courses of the
great West are in the future to be but
adjuncts of transportation. Thus
trade is diverted from cities that alone
depend on their commerce toated to
their wharves. Under such circum-
stances even IL Venice has decayed.
and under this state OF affairs of
course New Orleans finds Il natural
Of real estate. What
has been only briefly set forth is the
primary and underlying real cause Of
the distress OF her merchants, and no
one knows it better than they do
themselves. In part, probably, it is
true, political troubles may contrib
ute to this condition or aggravate it,
but such influence is but temporary
and would in time cure itself; the
citizen merchants of New Orleans see
with dismay cotton exchanges es-
tablShed i'll New York, Boston,
Cincinnati, Saint Louis and
other cities selling the staple
to them over steam
highways, and ungenerously charge
his as the result of unfriendly legis-
alton, without rejecting that the
evolutionary elements existing in
heir midst have i'll a measure caused
he creation of these marts, so they
AVE largely contributed to kill the
goose that laid tn IN golden eggs. To
complain Of municipal, State, or fed
raj mismanagement in the premises
$ to raise &; false issue and will not
mend matters. Let politicians man
lipulate as they please, commercial
nen should leave demagogues to plan
nd execute their own Vaccinations
hey should be let severely alone.
BUSINESS men should regulate their
wn affairs according to the times, :
nd as required by the changed as ..
ect consequent Oh inevitable i'm $
i
If every railroad communication {
18th the Mississippi were cut off, if :.
II the Geographic wires were sew 8
red, and all the interior custom
ouses were abolished, then, in spite
bad laws or good laws, New Or
ans would flourish as in the good
ID times, but until all this is done
le will have to succumb to her blind
lhereuce to the ancient regime, or
nst keep step to the march of i'm
y