The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-05-01
Light Ahead.
+TTT 49,
From the Cnnshaffn Times March I

$40 tNS RZ&H
Hard times is the cry of almost
citizen, and the hard times are all
uted to the government, enormous
es, etc. This is PLAUSIBLE to thOse%
do not look beyond the surface.
have never yet, whilst editing d jourf
expressed our real views as to goveiY
ment. Whilst q boy, we pOndered OY
| the different views of Hamilton q
Jefferson, and always leaned toward
what was termed federalism, or to the
Hamilton plan. In other words, we
have been fora stronger. government,
| going beyond the plan of any politician.
Yet, we do not attribute the hard times
to the gOvernment-mOre especially, here
in the Southern country. Here we have
gone through q revolution which has
upheaved the very foundations of So
Ciety, and disOrganiZed Il compulsory
system of labor, the most efficient per-
haps that the world even contained
turning lose the slave to while away his
/ time without 2 misunderstanding the mas
ter and Overseer ON broad acres with no
means to run the plantation-whilst he
| who was never raised to work seeks an
avocation where the SUMS rays may not
scOrch him-Or lounges around grocer
les, playing cards and drinking whisky,
consuming everything, producing moth
ing-cursing others because they do not
| work, with no idea that work is ihcum-
bent on himself.
Though the cotton crop is as large as
ever, there is nothing else to pay for the
vast amount of goods we have imported
in Louisiana. Think of what a vast sum
of money annually goes for nails, axe
handles, grindstOnes, iron wedges, horse
shoes, hats, shoes, clothes, whisky, to-
bacco, etc, etc. Everything You can
name we buy out of the store. Wepro-
duce nothing, nothing, but cotton to pay
for corn and meat and all the articles
Then think Of twenty-five thousand
,Louisianians living in Paris, annually
drawing off the rents from their real es-
tate in Louisiana. Every man almost
who pays q dollar in New Orleans for
furnished rooms, sends his money off to
Paris. Now, it is clearly visible to the
most casual reflection what goes with
our money, and the country must be
drained constantly while we make no
tobacco, no whisky, and nothing to eat
here, and buy everything we consume,
and produce nothing.
If to-day we had not paid a dollar for
taxation, we would have been just as
poor as now. There must be reform
reform in cultivatiOn-refOrm in spend
ing-reform in every man, who expects
to live, going to work and not depend
ing on others. Then, and not till then,
will that millennium, which people think
a change of government will produce,
and not to politics. Nothing but the
agricultural interest, and agricul-
tural industry, can restore this country
to it's former splendOr and thrift. We
must produce everything for home con-
sumption, establish manufactures, and
live within ourselves. Then we may
look for Louisiana-which is naturally
the finest country on earth, with more
internally navigation than any country
of the same size-to be what she never
was in the past. She is naturally the
richest State in the union, and ought to
have more real wealth in her borders
than any other State.
There is light ahead. The country
people, though destitute of provisions,
are working harder than ever known
before. 1t is the salvation of this coun-
try, that every man makes hisown living,
and that he does not send his money
away from home.
to put a curse on the people of this coun~ |
try, so as to punish them the worst in
his power, then he should decree that
they raise cotton to meet all other de-
mands; to do just as they have done in
the past. We need immigration; we
need thirty men to work in the place of
one. There is room for that many here,
and then not crowd the country. Then
let the people take steps to bring in a
working population here, who have
means to buy and run the soil, and soon
again we will be prosperous.
No change of government will fill
mems pockets with money, or fill his
and c0rn-crih with meat and
corn, Hard work and nothing else will.
want also hereafter honest and ca
pable men in Office, who will lift from
the shoulders of the people the burden
of taxation under which they groan.