New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-17
QUE UNEMPLOYED MECHANICS.

UUk UN64E1UxEU 0ECHANlCS.
II Yesterday the unemployed people o
+ New Orleans, having each ticket in tina
greatest of gift enterprises, city cleo
) ton, devoted themselves to the drawing
The number Of blanks was, as usual, ia
} in excess of the prizes, and for every on
who has even o hope of holding the luck.
numbers, there must be thousand wht
relapse into the sullen despair of the de
ceptive schedule. Among those who shall
, ultimately enter in the joy of city sal
airy, at the usual discount, there must b.
many disappointed, and by the time they
shall have had an opportunity of feeling
the evil of temporary employment with
> an indefinite discharge, it will have be.
come apparent even to the successful appli.
cants that the most fortunate candidates
were those defeated.
1t is very apparent that with all our me-
chanical supplies derived from abroad,
and with state of stagnation that dis
coursges building, the mechanics of New
Orleans have been reduced to idleness, or
to be mere cobblers for repairing the
manufactures produced elsewhere.
The employment of these men upon
new work could only be based upon open.
ing railroads into Texas and foreign
trade with nations adjacent to us. The
wool of Texas or Chill could be as we'll
woven here as elsewhere. The dry hides
Of Spanish America as well converted into
leather and worked up into shoes in New
Orleans as in New Haven. The furniture
woods of Balize and Colo Dolce could be
changed into chairs and tables on Com
mon street as in Cincinnati or Philadel-
phia. The manu- facture Of cotton yarn
and cloths. SO successfully conducted by
Messrs. Lehman, Abraham & Co., demon
strates that all the conditions exist in our
city for the employment of large numbers
of our people in similar industry. Our
shipping interest has declined until we
have little intercourse with the ports
south Of us. The chandlery business with
oil that industry which depends upon
commerce has suffered in consequence.
The city administration has been OPEN
ly charged by the mechanics of New Or
leans with having given them assurances
OF employment before the last election
which have not been verified. How could /
that administration have hoped that .
mere change in the city government. from
one batch of Democrats to another would |
stimulate the industries Of the people? It |
must have been known that without more
trade there could not be more industrial
employment. Has the city administration
applied for additional facilities of COM
merce with foreign ports? Has it labored
to open railroad intercourse with adjacent
OF distant countries2 On the contrary, it
has interposed impediments to allowing
the mechanics to vote upon a city SUBJ
scription to the construction Of railroad
to Texas
When the mechanics of New Orleans
then come forward to ask why there is no
work or wages for them-why the city is
in an evident decline of population and
business-one Adm illustrator will reply,
ut is Kellogg" another will suggest it is
because of Grant. The mechanics of the
city are intelligent men. They can not be
put off with such an unsatisfactory expla-
nation. It can not be understood how
the agriculture of the State should in
crease its production Of sugar, cotton and
rice under Governor Kellogg, while the
;ity Of New Orleans, under the same ad-
should have fallen into
decline. It is inexplicable that Chi
,ago and St. Louis should have in
creased in population and commerce
under the administration of President
Grant, while New Orleans has suf-
fered loss both of people and bust
ness. 1t seems to have been regarded as
! capital stroke Of humor, when black
smiths, carpenters, shoemakers and cabi-
act makers, have been turned away with
,ut relief, that they would be told to go
% work on the street bitches or wharves,
or offered transportation to labor on a
railroad. This would be, in effect, hiring
these constituents out to other employers,
and thus evading the direct obligation to
give them occupation in their several
trades. We suppose a mechanic who
works at an indoor trade. He may be
q plasterer, tailor, or a
cabinet maker. He may never have
touched mattock, spade or barrow
in his life. These men approach an Ad-
with request for some work
in their several trades.
They are told, if you leave your homes
and families in the city and carry cross
lies, or dig in the mud up to your knees
sixty miles away from the city, you can
nave employment. If you do not accept
his, it must be because you arc impostors,
who beg and would not work if you had
he chance. This would be, we think, I'M
ust to the applicants for work and wages.
It is no redemption of a pledge to so adj
minister the affairs of the city as that
mechanical industry will be rewarded.
We will not say that it is an insult to these
mechanics to send them to risk their limbs
among the heavy wharf timbers or their
health in the mud and sun of the river or
railroad. We will say, however, that when