The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-10-08
Special correspondence of The
Clarion
CRY HOTEL, New ORLEANs,l
naAa1or 1914

| CITY HOTEL, NEW ORLEAEs,t
October 8, 1874.
Upon the face of almost everything here,
| depression is written. Business is uncom-
monty dull for the season. The cause is
attributed to the short crop of cotton; the
impoverishment and debt OF the country
tributary to New Orleans and the transit
ton from a credit to a rigid cash system
This rule il applied through all the ramifi-
cations of business, from the highest to the
lowest, would do more than anything else
in affording permanent relief. The
POLITICAL TROUBLES
have also had a depressing effect on the
business of the city. capital, tn most timid
of all things, shrinks from revolution aud
chaotic government; and multitudes who
would otherwise come for purposes of trade
or pleasure, will instinctively turn their
| eyes and bend their steps in other directions.
What impresses one most painfully are
the innumerable and ominous notices ITO
Let, ""To Rent or "For Sale," which bangle
/ before almost every other door you pass
even in the business centres. Necessarily
nm all-consuming taxation which eats up
profits, and hangs like an avenging cloud
over the city, has had great deal to do
with this stagnation. But other causes
which are not to be overlooked, and which
men of sagacity, interested in the prosperi-
| ty of this city sitting like dethroned queen
| in her weeds, on the wreck of her former
glory, cannot ignore. The superior energy
and overshadowing capital of other cities
have diverted to themselves IRON New Or
leans important lines of trade which she
once controlled and enjoyed exclusively.
ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO,
with some minor places like Louisville and
Memphis) in the West, and New York and
Boston in the North aud East, have flour
ished on the commerce which New Orleans
has lost.
Taxation has done its share in bringing
this once prosperous emporium to its pre-
sent low and still declining estate. Bad
government has done great deal Abor-
tive attempts to throw off burdens by revo-
lutionary process, are partly responsible
But in tracing the causes, the one above re-
ferred to, the diversion of trade by the open
ing up OF new lines, can not be overlooked.
The distractions to navigation at the
mouths OF the Mississippi river causing de-
lay and increased cost of transportation, are
fearful incubus upon the commerce of
New Orleans. The
PORT ST. PHILIP CANAL
is believed by the ablest engineers to be the
only feasible plan of removing it. This is
the fixed opinion of the intelligence, and
the business men, OF the city. They believe
furthermore that the rival project OF Eads
has been gotten up simply to delay and de-
feat the Canal plan, with no expectation of
its ever being undertaken, or of succeeding
if carried out, but it serves the purpose of
delay and that is all that is wanted by its
authors and hackers. A shrewd mem Der OF
Congress gives it as his opinion that many
millions have been invested in this rival
project of Eads, with no other motive ex-
cept to prevent the removal of the imped-
ments to navigation which lie in the very
pathway of New Orleans, and which have
forced business naturally belonging there,
to other points. The amazing part of the
matter, is the want Of energy and public
spirit displayed by
THE PROPERTY HOLDERS
of the city. They rage furiously, aud not
without cause at the high taxes and plum
dering officials; they mourn over their
tenantless houses which do not yield suffi- |
cient income to pay the taxes; and they |
bewail the obstacles which force commerce
away from their city and inevitably drive |
business to other places; but they persist |
in appealing to Congress as the wagner |
prayed Hercules to lift him out of the mud, |
instead of putting their own shoulders to
the wheel. A man who owns two houses
al,
and are destined to the Sheriff's hammer
unless something turns up, can better afford /
to appropriate one of them so as to make
the other a profitable investment than to
lose both.
THE COMING ELECTION.
The conference between the two parties
here has inspired confidence in fair elec-
ton. The Advisory Registration Board
containing two Democrats, two Republic
cans and an umpire mutually agreed upon,
is progressing with its work satisfactorily.
A numbe OF changes have been made in
election managers and regulations by the
advice of this Board; and there now seems
to be no obstacle to q peaceable and fair
election. Yonr readers have been advised
of compromise between the whites and
blacks, and capital and labor in Terrebonre
parish, by which both classes and interests
are to be represented Much concern is felt
about the result. as it will be cited as test
OF the merits OF such an arrangement. The
parish has large eololed population.
THE NEW ORLEANS, ST. L. AND CHICAGO r. r.
under the plan of consolidation recently
adopted, is working admirably. The mas
terly genius Of Col. Frost, the General Man.
ager. presides over this great line, with its
varied complicated interests, and every de-
partment is operated and moved with the
precision OF clock work. The road is being
from Pass Manchac to New
Orleans, at immense cost so AZ to place it
above overflow. This work lie under the
immediate direction or Maj. Ben. Green, the
engineer. 1t Is credItable to ,
the management OF the road that it has !
been undertaken. For the want Of funds. :
capacity, or enterprise the Levee Company. {
{ Is now understood, viii do nothing to- +
wards closing Bonnet Carre crevase through {
which the deluge Of waters poured upon
he road-bed and rendered It impossible
asst spring.
cannot refrain from personal mention \
which may interest some OF the readers OIL
cHH CLARHoM. The attention Of the writer Q