The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-14
A Dying CAty.


Senator Morton is reported as saying to the
reporter OF Western newspaper that New
Orleans is dead city that it has lost its
opportunity; that st. Louis, Galveston and
even Chicago have reached out and robbed il
of its former trade privileges, and that no
amount of good government can restore it.
We have had many stories of this kind from
the Crescent City, and we confess that moth
ing since the war has distressed US moro than
the blight that seems to have fallen upon New
Orleans. 1t is one Of the most interesting of
our cities. 1t has o continental quality that
none of the others possess. Its roots extend
into other soils Than the Cavalier or the Puri-
tan. New Orleans, French in its origin,
and at one time under the control of the
Spaniard, has always shown the influence of
France and of Spain. There is something of
Paris in the sprightliness and taste of the
people in the chivalry, which does not even
now disdain the duelo; in the merriment,
which makes Sunday feast day and not
day of fasting; in the Carnival and Mardi
Gras. Every street in the old city recalls the
| glory of the Bourbon or the ambition of the
Bonaparte. Before the war it was prodigal,
luxurious metropolis. The planters looked
upon winter visit to New Orleans as a re-
compense for a hard seasons work in the
cotton field and sugar house. The Missis-
sippi poured its treasures into its lap.
1t was the entrepot of Mexico and
Cuba and Texas. There was no city to
challenge its dominion but Mobile, for Gal
weston was a little seacoast town that was
scarcely known in the family of cities. Alone,
therefore, far distant from the other ruling
cities, mistress of the Gulf of Mexico and the
Mississippi New Orleans rapidly strobe along,
and before the war mad perhaps as much
wealth for her population as any city in the
Republic.
Even now New Orleans is ninth in the list
of cities, if we may take the figures of the
census of 1870. 1t then reported 191, 900
more than San Francisco and less than Gin
| cinnati. The latest authority as to its COM
MERGE, Edward King, in his valuable and in
teresting work on 'The Great South, shows
still many signs of prosperity. The last re-
ported cotton crop, 1928, was hundred
thousand bales larger than the year before the
war. The total value of the imports in New
Orleans Tor the same year was more than one
hundred millions and the exports over six
hundred millions. More than one-third of
the cotton passed through New Orleans. This
| is q source of enormous wealth alone. 1t is
hard to think that city should be dead, or
in any apprehensions of death, that sends out
from its ports more than six hundred millions
Of dollars year.
| There are, of course, many reasons that
affect the growth of seaboard town. The
railroads have diverted much of the Missis-
sippi trade The sugar crop in Louisiana has
fallen away. The Western produce, that in
past times was foated down to New Orleans
in rude hatboats, now seeks New York and
Baltimore. Texas has been growing since the
war into imperial prominence. and naturally
seeks port at Galveston. The railroad has
shown its supremacy over the river. In the
olden times the river was the line of military
defence, the channel of trade. But now the
railroad has usurped that function. We de-
lend our railroads in war and depend upon
them as the arteries of commercial life in
peace. Therefore the growth Of the great
railway systems of tue West and partly OF the
South have injured New Orleans. The fed
eral government, by the subsidies it granted
| to the Pacific railways and other lines in the
| Northwest, has thrown its influence against
the South and largely against New Orleans
SO far as the account OF the general govern
ment with the South is concerned, it has not
only taken millions from the Southern States
in the process of war, but given millions to
The Western States IN the way Of railway en-
| dowments. Is it any wonder, then, that with
all these causes in operation, an indulgent gov
eminent strengthening the West and neglect
ing, nay trampling the South, there shoald
be signs of paralysis in the great metropolis
| of the Southwest?
Senator Morton is an.eminent statesman Of
the republican party. He has been the
apostle Of repression and revenge. he has
championed every infamy or usurpation in
The South that called itself a government
| Therefore, when he pronounces New Orleans
dead city he speaks his own condemnation
and that of his party. Dying New Orleans
represents the ignorance, The cupidity, the
folly and the crimes of Mr.. Mortons party.
But we are confident that he has passed too
harsh a Judgment. New Orleans may suffer q
| temporary depression, q syncope from war
/ and reconstruction, but there are elements
| of strength and glory about the old town
which even the war and republicanism can
not destroy.
Dead at Last.