The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-22
WHO Is TO BLAME?

In their issue of yesterday, our friends of Il
Bee published some very timely and TRUTH
: comments on Merrilrs sensational report tn
five hundred coored families, representing
least twenty-five hundred citizens OF Africa
descent, have been dismissed by their forme
" employers in North Louisiana
: 1t is indeed a serious matter, as the %
:, well remarks, for any organized commumt
= to see five hundred families wandering
throughout the State without being able t
find employment, or even shelter or food
This constitutes serious danger and calls TO
anxious thought
But Gen. Sheridan has omitted to say ant
should have said, to the Secretary Of War, il
transmitting to him Merrills report, that
the number of homeless Migrants in Louisi
ana will increase from day to day, until the
twenty-five hundred will most probably be-
come twenty five thousand, if not more.
He should have added that in the city OF
New Orleans, where one-fourth of the houses
are untenanted, there are five or six hundred
people who resort every night to the various
police stations for sleeping quarters, and who
are fed by the aims Of an impoverished
people.
He should have said that among the fami-
lies who are still lucky enough to live under
roof, there are at least two thousand in this
city who are unable to pay their rent, and
| who would be turned into the street but for
| the humanity of their landlords
through sheer ignorance, is that in both town
and country the number of persons discharged
by those who can no longer afford to give
them employment is constantly and fearfully
increasing
1t is useless to discuss the insane doctrine
favored by the Radical leaders here, whereby
Il painter or merchant would not have the
right to select the laborers whose services he
may require; but, leaving aside this prepos-
ferrous communistic theory, it is we'll known
fact that the recent Intervention Of the Fed
eral bayonets into our domestic affairs has
completely paralyzed every branch of bust
ness, and that as most Of our merchants can
no longer make necessary advances to their
have been compelled to contract their agricul-
tural operations and to discharge the field
hands they can no longer supply with money
or food
Many factors who had held out to their
clients the hope that they would supply them
with the means Of raising this years crop,
have declared to them, since the invasion of
our Legislature by the troops now under
Sheridans orders, that it was altogether out
Of their power to do so, confidence and credit
having been entirely destroyed by this brutal
md anti-American performance.
planter, having neither money nor credit,
discharges his laborers. Sheridan and Mer- ,
i'll insist that he has no right to do SO. Now
he question arises, should both these emil
tent shoulder-stlapped statesmen and politi- !;
al economists actually forbid the penni- i
ess planter to discharge his laborers, I
tho is going to furnish the rations and the 5
honey to support them. !
The Bee very sensibly suggests that the u
Conservative Committee ought to call the at 6
,ntion of the Congressional Committee who U
re now on their way to the real cause of the !;
mentable state Of things so dramatically de- o
ribbed by Major Merrill. o
1t will give them ample food for refec- 4
on, although we hardly think the result "
such an investigation will help the Kellogg is
gime or increase the respect of the CON- al
ittee for the miscellaneous crowd Of rascally u
,liticians of all shades and colors who have g;
ought our unhappy State to such deplor- in
lie condition. a,