The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-20
RELATIONS OF BUSINESS TO POLL
TICS.

\ the people nnd IL moIo coASeAASnS W
their legislative business Representatives,
they delegate their law making powers as
they do their executive and Judicial authority
to agents. They avoid by this means the very
great inconvenience which would result from
the more primitive method OF legislatlng IN
committee of the whole people. and OF car
rying on judicial trials by mass meetings.
The theory of representative government is
that it is easy and practicable to manifest the
will of the people by choosing few to stand
in the place of the many, while 1t Is exceed
ipgly difficult in small States, and altogether
impracticable in larger States, to take
the sense of the people by means OF actual as
semblages in mass. If easy in lesser, ana
practicable in larger communities, to legls-
late by the voice of the entire populace
gathered at the same time in one place, the
inconvenience would be so extreme as to re-
suit in very few and very imperfect laws
Citizens who had business of any kind would,
as a rule, submit to any bearable govern
ment, than lose SO much of their time
The representative system makes legislation
and politics the business, the care and the
study of comparatively few men, while the
body of the people are not required to give
more than fraction of their time
and attention to the action of their
representatives. Hence the average citizen,
who is not legislator, nor an officer, nor a
candidate nor an aspirant, is a hundred times
more anxious about his private business, by
which he sustains his family, educates his
children and provides for their future welfare
than he is about the votes, the speeches and
the opinions Of politicians, the drift of popu-
lar sentiment, or the behavior Of the oc-
cupants Of public offices. To small class
politics is the ever-absorbing subject OF
thought, the theme of their medita.ions all
the day long, their business, their passion,
their work, their pastime, their comfort, their
hope. their resource for distinction, and the
basis of their fortunes. But to a class
incomparably more numerous, politics is
only an episode, their attention and care be-
irg absorbed by their own personal affairs
There are hundred mechanics or profession
al mer, laborers, merchants, or farmers,
whose chief thought is directed to their bust
nese, where there is one politician, with or
without office in possession or prospect
Need il be asked, then, why it happens
that public journal. read by the latter class,
patronized by them, devoted to their inter-
ests and having no hope beyond what is to
be gained by their friendship and support,
should elect to give more attention to
matters of earnest every day business than to
the affairs of politicians
Speaking for our own journal we are free
to say that it is our settled purpose to make
| it the organ of the business men of New Or
leans. Our design is to help build up the
fallen fortunes of this metropolis, of Louisia-
No, of the Southwest and Of the Mississippi
Valley. Nothing can give us more pleasure
than to strengthen those who think and toll
for the well-being of our city, State and Sec
lion. To the men of business here, or in
sections connecting with New Orleans. we
tender our services with a settled wish and
intent to give full and fair equivalent for all
business favors. In return for such and
other marks of public confidence we shall
endeavor as far as our abilities and means
permit, to advocate all that promises to be
useful here at home.
/ In our ambition to become the organ, rep
resentative and coadjutor Of men of bust
ness the industrious, professional and COM
mercial classes, there is before us we'll
defined duty to perform relative to public and
political affairs. New Orleans, Louisiana, the
Southwest and the West can not prosper
until the existing political tyranny is removed.
We must have reform here and reform
throughout the South. We must have q
change of local rulers and q change in the
Federal dynasty. The BULLETIN will work
for these changes as it has worked HERETOFORE,
with energy, zeal and entire siDgleness OF pur
pose.
u While we do not wish our journal to be
considered the mere hand-organ OF party OF
! individuals, and while we are resolved to
| guide its course without dictation from any
source we shall strive in every rea
sonable way to unite the honorable, honesl
and worthy classes against the vilest tyranny
and usurpation that people, nominally free
ever before endured. But in view of the
fact that the business masses think hundred
times as much about their personal affairs al
they do about the affairs of the nation o.
politics, we submit that we can not, in justice
to our patrons and to the general public
ignore their tastes and preferences by givint
an excess of political matter to the exclusion
of affairs of general news and interest whicl
affect their daily transactions.
All citizens are directly interested in havin
just government, and in this respect polite
and interest are blended. All. from the hum
blest laborer to the representative OF grea
capital, are benefited by economy in govern
ment and wise administration OF the bus
ness of the city, the State and the Repdbllt
Therefore, a journal published for men
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