New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-31
TOO PROFOUND OR IRRELEVANT.

supporting and supported classes Of popu-
lation. 1t was derived from the report Of
President Buchanan's Secretary of the
Interior, and is assumed to be correct. 1t
was deemed an important fact, in view OF
the question, how can New Orleans best
subsist her population? That present in
dustries are insufficient is shown by the
amount of Indulgence and restitution
which exist. 1t is immaterial to inquire
whether this Indulgence and restitution are
greater or less here than elsewhere. 1t is
no reply to private or public charity,
called on to support one pauper, that
there are two paupers to be supported
elsewhere.
There is another reason why this ques-
ton is of especial consequence in Louisi-
ana. No sooner is the field crop severed
and secured than its proceeds are required
to pay for imported provisions and manu-
features The first may be provided in
great part at home by division of labor
between staple and subsistence crops.
There is no doubt but more hay, rice,
corn, poultry and vegetables would dimin-
ish the imports of -four, bacon and corn,
while raising mules would save the cost OF
that stock at least in part. For this item
of teams alone Georgia pays d million Of
dollars annually.
The greater part, however, of the crop
money of Louisiana is paid out for manu-
features, which may be to some extent
made at home. The expectation OF cotton
and sugar without the preparation for use
which adds so much to the market price
of each is subject of much import. 1t
may be added that emancipation has SO
raised the necessities and the ability of
the laborers that they are now consumers
of class of goods which they did not
formerly demand, and thus far larger
proportion of the cotton and sugar money
goes to the manufacturer than formerly.
This change in the quantity and quality
Of manufactures will perhaps for the first
time furnish home market sufficient to
justify home manufacture. The estab-
lisment of rate of tariff which, whether
for revenue or for protection, will rest
without reduction, affords bounty to the
manufacturer which can be as well re-
ceived by Southern as by Northern or
Western manufacturer.
The New Orleans Times questions the
value of human aggregations in cities,
and says
Adding to the surplus population does
not improve matters any more than the
country would improve were the agricul-
tural districts desert, and our 100000
OF people occupants OF the town.
Cowper said long time ago, "God made
the country, and man made the town."
and all poetry has been filled with Arcadian
pictures Of virtuous shepherds and philo-
sophie clowns; but cities are indispensa-
BILE to all countries, and no State would
be at all independent without them. There
must be mart and port, and the legiti-
mate charge for the service, transfer and
supply had much better be realized and
received among the taxpayers of the State
than to accumulate in the hands of nom
residents. Perhaps the melancholy Mr..
Cowper did not think of this as part of
Gods work. He made the port as we'll as
the country, and intended that man shall
be useful everywhere to his fellows. The
people who dwell in towns are in great
part mechanics, who contribute to the SER
vice Of the farmer by paying him in useful
fabrics for his small or large crops. We
agree with the Times that "a surplus pop
ulation" is Objectionable, whether it con-
sists of the tramps in the country or the
paupers Of the town. 1t is to that
question that we have addressed
ourselves. Taking any normal pro-
portion between industStl and nom
industrial members, all WHO do not pro-.
duce the means for supplying themselves,
and those below or beyond the ages of
self support, are "surplus, and..no others
are. We have published tables to show
that there is smaller proportion of the
industrial or mechanical class in New Or
leans than elsewhere. That the popula-
lation is not self-supporting is proven by
the existence of restitution, more or less.
There is also an undisputed decline in
business in the city, while the country is
pouring out its crop money for the pur-
chase of fabrics made elsewhere. It is in
this congestion Of necessities that the effort
to employ the unemployed and reduce
the surplus population" by converting
them into the active population be-
comes important. We may thus cap
italize and keep at home the earnings
Of agriculture by exchanging them
against the fabrics and services which
domestic labor, otherwise unemployed
and surplus, can furnish. '.Great cities
are great sores" They are great stores
also. They hold capital, credit, ships,
arms and skill The "great sore' Of
New York furnished or negotiated all the
capital employed by the national govern
ment during the civil war. The great
capital and commercial cities of the
world have done similar service for
their respective States in every military
We are not now writing in
defense of cities, but upon the PROPOSE