The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-12
YORK FOB THOSE WHO WANT IT.

1n6re Is III new Orlean5 b very iaie
mount of unemployed, undeveloped wealt
'hich must be called out and utilized betor
ur city can become thoroughly prosperous
his wealth is like that which lies in min
hat is not worked, or in field of rich lam
yhich is not TILED. We refer to the hand
hat are now unemployed, which would gladl
eek and find work if it could be found. On
Z our population of 100000 there are full
$4,000 of the working age. Of these pei
APPS $4,000 are now engaged in business o
q labor connected with the commerce of tn
ity or the few manufacturing establish
nents.
There may be about 10000 more employed
3 servants, nurses, housekeepers, and il
ther like capacities If we assume thai
5000 more are relieved from the necessity
4 work and would not seek employment if il
ould be found, there will still be residue OF
5000 men, women and nearly grown boys
md girls in the city of New Orleans who do
lot earn a subsistence and are necessarily a
lead weight upon the community, but who
you'd, for the most part, willingly engage in
my respectable occupation that would afford
hem comfortable support
There is corresponding class in every
hrge city, but they are employed in shops,
mills and factories, making their own living
ind contributing to the wealth of the cities in
which they dwell.
Philadelphia, which has a population of
300, 900, nearly one-third foreign born, is one
Of the larges. manufacturing cities in the
world and probably the largest. 1t is hive
Of working men, women, girls and boys One
may stand upon the roof of Girard College
and count the smoke-stacks of hundred
factories, while the suburbs swarm with the
shops of artisans. Skilled labor is attracted
there from all quarters, and especially from
Europe. The busy, thriving people grow in
wealth and numbers. Each new mill or shop
adds to the work of those before in operation.
The merchants are agents of manufacturers,
and sell their wares at the cost of production.
A great amount of wool, cotton, wood, silk,
leather, iron, steel, tin and other raw materials
Ire required, and these as well as the coal,
firing and provisions of the inhabitants,
bought at lowest producers rates, are paid for
n fabrics made in Philadelphia, and large
urplus Of manufactures is annually capital |
zed or put into improvements or new shops |
md mills. The wealth of the city is founded |
IN work, and its commerce on the products of
york. If its shops, mills and working people
Vere taken away it would languish in COM
aerce, dwindle in population, degenerate in
influence and decrease in wealth until its
ank among American cities would be the
enth or thelfth instead of the second as it
ow is.
If we 60 to smaller city, San Francisco,
70 shall not find an idle population, nor one
, which third or fourth of the inhabit-
nts are engaged in buying and selling. By
II the major portion of the citizens of that
itylearn their subsistence by the labor of their
ands.
As q general proposition, forty-two out the
fly largest cities in the Union have in the
lie aggregate from thirty to sixty per cent of
leir inhabitants employed in shops and fac I
ries, in producing articles for sale, or in (
ork for those thus engaged. Twenty of these
ties have population of more than 100, 900 /,
oh, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Jersey City, Mil I
aukee, Detroit, and Providence having been I
ded to the list by the census of 1875. These +
tier owe their increase in size and wealth to !.
o work done in mills and shops quite as much a
to filling the functions Of market towns. v
profitable part of the commerce of these and &
other Northern and Western cities is the =
ling of their own fabrics.
Is there any insuperable reason why New r
leans should be an exception, doomed to 5
pport her idle thousands out of the profits =,
a variable and precarious commerce alone a
ust the forty thousand pairs of hands now il
10 remain SOP There are regiments of young y
ople in this city who would gladly work in T
stories, and become self-supporting, if they n
d chance. Thousands of girls who can "
d nothing to do except sewing, nursing or '
usework in msnial way would be glad to a
N even scanty wages in q we'll conducted
II. "
Thousands of boys who can now only be :,
lvers of vehicles, errand boys servants or D
paid apprentices would be glad to earn a t.
7 dollars each week in a manufacturing u
We have thousands of men e.
women suffering in poverty for want of II
ployment 1t would not only contribute d
the wealth and growth of the city to put a.
tories in operation, but it would be the q q
hest, most efficient and most judicious v
arity to an army of poor citizens 6
II
is