New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-04
WHAT SHALL BE DONE FOB DUB UNEk-
PLOYED7

S. thousand unemployed men in our city
. These men represent many more thou'
- ands of women and children. There ar
many more women and children who, a
single women and orphans, have no me
% to represent them. There may be there
9. fore estimated fifteen thousand destitut
who must be housed, clad and fed unit
" something shall occur to enable them t
procure their own subsistence.
IS These unemployed men can be provided
with employment in two principal modes
a 1. BY repairing the streets and leyees.
As wood cutters and farm laborers in til,
- country.
Almost any man can trail spade on {
public work even if his hands be blisteret
: or his back as good as broke, he can han6
in his tin cup for rations and sign legibly
I the pay roll. To work off these unem
ployed men upon the planter is more diff.
cult. They have been sailors, carriage
drivers, walters, rough workmen at va
rious trades. They are not so we'll quail
fled as the average man of color to under
stand the culture of our staples or to
comprehend and cope with the mule
They have been accustomed to some
thing better than shanty cabin,
with picked pork and corn bread;
nor are they content, however fatigued
with the weeks work, to look at the river
or the forest all day Sunday, without mug
OF beer, newspaper, or talk with
people of their own way of thinking 1t
is hard to say what can be done with this
surplus population. 1t will be undoubt-
| eddy better if they can do better else
where, to undertake with boats, railroads
| and ships to remove them wheresoever
they may wish to 60. The migration of
labor in search of food goes on always.
We have neither food nor wages at present,
and when those who may migrate else
where shall hear that we have either, they
Or others like them will come again to our
city. 1t is delicate subject even to refer
to; but an unixed and migratory class
should Railways be placed where there is
abundant food. Every hungry man is a |
communist to the extent that he can not |
be expected to starve while others have
more flour and bacon on hand than they |
can eat.
If men are told that they should disre-
gard the law and fight the authorities for
their political rights, they may themselves
perceive and apply the corollary that
they should take their own bread and
meat in their own hands also, for mere
abstract political right without victuals is
a very shadowy franchise indeed. Then
we should keep any possible Communism
IN as good humor as possible. We should
persuade it to leave its muskets and cart
ridges behind the door by giving labor on
the levee, or in the swamp, or on the
plantation, or in particular cases we
should coax Communism out of town
where the waving grain fields and full {
cribs and stored provisions of Ohio and
illinois quiet the politics of the stomach.
For the stomach is an imperious master,
md will command the brain and arm to :,
provide it with aliment without any re- t
gard whatever to the metaphysical cob
webs which have been woven around
what men call property. The very '
ragile partition between meum and tenn I
an not resist moment the impulse of an G
appetite t
we recur, however, to the more feeble h
nd helpless destitute. There are thou v
ands who wear old clothes, eat cold and 0
canty food and tearfully expostuiate with
andlords as needy as themselves. They c
ave no revenue, no resources, and their p
lture is seen through the reverse end of a
nat field glass with which hope usually Il
cans the horizon. What shall we do for Ia
lem They can not WELD the pick or 81
lie spade; they can not dig the earth nor al
IL trees; they can not quit the city ex- p
'pt to perish in the change of associa- o.
ons and occupations which deportation b.
ould cause them. So far as these help tt
SIS people have friends, resources or lii
nployments elsewhere they may be aided Ii,
go and spend shorter or longer time w
road. 1t may be that other commune es
IS may accept some of our surplus I'M re
nployed ana destitute. We must cor ae
spond with distant communities and of
tain money or provisions, or they may
ke some of our destitute and adopt D.
EN-. Many of these communities in tn
xas and elsewhere have the means tn
subsistence and employment for of
r unemployed surplus, and would pa
IDLY receive them. But the support of m
! thousands who will remain, or who
not go away, will still Cypress us. me
member, it is but the last month of wi
ing Our business season is nearly
er. We will be compelled to carry all IL
'se destitute thousands until next frost. ex
my of our most able and liberal people He
away for the summer. There NAV be wo
epidemic to complicate starvation with ev,
ease. Would it not be WELL then, for He
Se charged with the care of the desti- gel
e to provide simple mechanical en- the
yment for these feeble and suffering fro
pile? We have cotton factory and hir
neries idle. We have the materials of sal
til and leather in abundance Why be
lease the factory, induce some COM wit
'sion merchant in New York to accept he
and sell all the yarns and cloths that fra,
make: all the shoes or ready-made