New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-04
FAILURE OF PROMISE AND ABUSE OF
AUTHORITY,

l
lican officers In the words OF tn
amiable Bulletin, it Twas taught that
Carpet-baggers and ignorant negroes lore
it over us and revel in perfect carnival O.
crime and corruption.
Such was the slogan with which the
misguided mechanics and clerks, on the
fifteenth of September, marched on thu
State House. They were told that if q
Republican administration was expelled
or slain, there would be new era-ar
era of work and wages, period of hon
est, indulgent and progressive administra'
ton of the State and city. Some Of those
young men have left helpless people de-
pendent on the net results Of a dance OF
song or play. These net results are,
we regret to say, insufficient to meet the
daily and prolonged necessities OF the de-
pendent women and little ones bequeathed
to partisan charity.
We saw mutilated soldier returning
his thanks for the individual bounty of
persons who had led him to lose limb.
We have seen a picture in which the
prominent leaders occupy the foreground
and the dim faces from the little photo
| graphs OF their dead soldiers are seen in
the background. We have seen one
parent who had lost son in this assault
trying to sell these pictures to aid in the
misery occasioned by the event which
made the picture memento.
The working people Of New Orleans
were told that the Democratic city gov
eminent would be miracle of economy,
of moderation and Of sympathy. 1t was
true that those whom they displaced were
equally Democratic. It was true that
they are to-day accused by the press which
advocated their election, of having per-
mitted a ring in their Office of assess
ments, of having applied the wharf re-
ceipts to other purposes than wharf re-
paration. 1t is true that the members of
that administration have passed into the
obscurity from which they emerged, and it
is equally true that the notes gilded for
the moment by the rays of a transient
notoriety will also subside into the same
stratum of dusky oblivion with their
Democratic predecessors. But facts re-
main which the people have noted. The
taxes upon property and the license to
labor continue to fall like, the rain. upon
the white and the colored. These taxes
go to the credit of the Democratic city
administration as they have done to that
of its Democratic predecessors. Have
those who administer the city government
abated these taxes? Can the tenant pay
the tax included in his rent with more
ease this year than last? Can the me-
chanic who hides his industry in garnet |
escape the city tax-gatherer who climbs
the stairs and arrests the uplifted hammer |
or the machine whose noise has betrayed |
the fugitive son Of toll? No. The man
who works is still pursued to pay the !
wages Of the man who does not work, but |
subsists, perhaps, upon the salary Of some
sinecure. Look at the columned sacri-
fees of real estate, for 'cash on the spot"
sold by the memorable city administra-
tion-see them put keeper on places of |
popular recreation-regard them pocket
ing the cash which results from our
wharf rates, laying the dilapi-
dated condition of the wharves upon their
Democratic predecessors, and then pawn
ing those to monopolists and assign
ing their future revenues as indem-
nifty. And, lastly, see the crowd of unem-
ployed men, estimated at three thousand,
with whom the Administrator of Improve
ments is vainly attempting to repeat the
miracle of feeding the multitude with the
i've loaves and two small fishes. 1t is in
vain that he breaks up hundred and
fifty days work among three thousand
men. 1t is wholly absurd that they
should be convinced by his oratory that
his morsel will be magni6ed and baskets
'ull of the fragments left. These three
thousand represent four times as many
women and children. They are, We infer,
'nly the Democratic unemployed, for no
Republican or colored man need apply.
The mechanics turn with disgust from
hese fragrant and fraudulent violations
# the promised blessings of Democratic
ule. They have declared themselves the
of "the rights and interests of
aboring men, They say ''too often men
ave been advanced to positions of place
nd power who have administered the
laces to which they were chosen as if
UGH places were made for them and their
peclal benefit" To whom can this
eneral truth especially apply? To the
cry men whom these mechanics have
ided to place in power. The mechanics
emand ''the abolition Of all direct taxes
n labor in the nature of business.
Has the Democratic city administration
sked any such repeal from the Legisla-
Ire? On the contrary, they are now
larching under the red flag and appraised
ammer. selling out every workshop and {
which has not been ransomed
ON the keeper and from the sheriff.
The people Of New Orleans have be-
,me satisfied that there is small differ !,
ice in the nature of the officeholder. e
e will enforce the law for the collection !
his own salary. Promise what he may .
efore the election, he is never to be seen 8
,cept by deputy afterwards. The injustice
rought by the White Leaguers has been v
saying that the ruin OF New Orleans u