The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-19


let's on real estate, as q sort of desperate ant
unwe1oome shift 1t Is, therefore, very nat
ural that the cry of capitalists should be bonds
and stocks, just as the leech necessarily CALI
for blood blood until 1t is gorged to death
But Is this healthy condition Tor any com
monwealth
Our financial status may be condensed int
this synopsis prodcated upon the policy in
augurated by the capitalists, which Is, no in
vestments in or loans on real estate II it cal
be avoided, because real estate is a burden III
incubus, q crushing elephant; and rush
after all sorts of bonds and stocks. because
| They are safer, more productive, more avail
able not taxable, and if taxable more easily
to DO protected against assessments and the
tax collectors grip, although it Is hard to
conceive the actual or durable value Of bonds
and stocks based on valuelcss real estate. IT
may do very well for the temporary purpose ot
reckless gambling between bulls and bears,
but more than one bond. when thus circuat-
| ing, reminds one oil a certain play among
children, in which lighted taper is passed
rapidlyfro hand to hand until 1t is suddenly
| extinguished, amidst juvenile laughter, in the
possession of some lucklcss wight 1t must
be stated, however, In defense of the capital
lists, who must be treated with impartial JUS
tice, that they have very good reasons for dis
trusting Investments in real estate For in
STANCE. piece OF property in New Orleans
assessed at 10000 would probably not sell at
auction or at private sale for more than $4,000,
and although sold only for $4,000 the assess
ment would obstnately remain fixed
at $4,000 SO that, Notwithstanding taxa
the purchaser would in reality be taxed at the
rate OF per cent, without counting insur-
| anCc wear and tear, the chances Of not rent
ing. or of not being paid, # renting, besides
the probability of further depreciation TAX
ing rs a criterion the rate Mt which property
has been selling in New Orleans for the last
six months during the business season, the
people might al last come to the conc lson
thai, to be just, tho assessment for the whole
city should not be more than One-thrd of
what it Is now, that tho present one rests on
o fictitious or imaginary basis, not warranted
by the market value and therefore giving
rise to a rate al taxation which is intolerably
oppressive, and to which no people on earth
not impossible, therefore, that Now Orleans
might be forced into bankruptcy. like the city
Of Florence, in Italy, and the State com
PEELED, for it's protection, TO abolish its char
ter OF incorporation and put it in commits
sion. 1t SO. what would, in a case of neces-
sary and honest liquidation, become Of the
bondholders and of the much coveted bonds
stocks coupons etc.
AS TO the country people, whose property Is
looked upon by capitalists and hondholders
ing no available value at all, they are getting
poorer and poorer, whilst tho moneyed mon
are becoming richer and richer. Witness the
parish OF Tangipahoa, where, according to the
declaration made to me by its Representa-
tive in the Legislature and by the Tax Col
lector, seven hundred farms were sold last
year and bought by the State 50 that. If
these proceedings are TO be extended to other
parishes, as they will be, more or less, the
state would become the sole proprietor, and
its inhabitants tenants at will. IT the North
etn States, where the bulk of our bonds and
stock is held should, according to the policy
lately sought to be inaugurated, as reported.
by the State of New York, sue the Southern
Eat, l,,,l,. r 49,.
creditors of those States If the Supreme
Court of tho United States should entertain
jurisdiction and render Judgment in favor of
the petitioners, and should the Federal army
be called upon to enforce it. what would be-
como Of us, dwellers in the city of New Or
leans or in the country parishes who have
been so imprudently prodigal in issuing
certificates of Indebtedness ? What would
become of our Southern capitalists
and bondholders, who treat real estate
may cut his own throat and not be
missed by the community to which he be-
longs. people cannot commit suicide in
the face of God and the world. 1t must save
be recreant to the very laws which governed
it's creation. Has it not, then, become n
pressing necessity for all of us, bondholders
and real estate holders, laborers with the
hands or with the brains poor and rich, to
abjurc all improper feelings; to make in com
mon the necessary sacrifices, and with intel
ligent patriotism to join together ip SUI
preme effort, without dangerous delays. to
save the sinking ship in which we are all
embarked.
AS to the political situation. under what as
poet does it present itself throughout the
United States? A war increasing in bitter
ness and magnitude between capital and la
Dor; the lower classes organizing themselves
against the upper ones, and forming them
selves into open or secret societies for more
action; operatives drilling like regi-
ments for offense or defense; large bodies of
strikers having recourse to violence and dis
persed by grapeshOt and not at the command
of the law, and the Commune, with its black
or red flag in hand, preaching doctrines des-
truCtive OF morality, religion, society and
On one side millions of hewers
OF wood and drawers of water in the intcllec-
tllal as well as In the physical sense. suffering
lack of employment, and on the other side,
comparatively handful Of capitalists, either
as individuals or as corporations, investing
al their pecuniary means in national and
State bonds, and every sort of sound or I'M
sound stocks, instead of employing or en-
couraging by offered facilities that labor
which, in the market-place bends in vain to
them its crooked knees, because all available
currency has a tendency to precipitate itself
into that vast ocean OF bonds and stocks,
reservoir What then? The existing pauper
ism among about forty five millions OF Amer |
leans is statistically estimated at 10 per cent
the majority OF the working men are without
wages, or suificicncy thereof; the gangrene
of universal Generalization is Selling upon
the whole social body, and more than one
modern Crassus is suspected of having too |
much influence with Congress, with State
and even with the judiciary
Weavers starvc in their garrets, men and
women pant over The pillow from debility
sometimes to q deficiency of
food, whilst such lucky stock jobbers as Van |
derbilt, Jay Gould and Scott acquire in a few
years their thirty, forty and fifty millions in
divdually, and, like gigantic mushrooms,
tower portentously over the whitening hui
man grass which they overshadow This is a
fIightful tableau, but. if painted with vivid
colors, it is true in Its representation of facts
Forty years ago, and even at later epoch,
there were hardly any national. State or city
bonds, and yet these United States were a
paradise on earth. No mortal strife between
labor and capital, but universal good will and
comfort: no want OF wages, and the smile of
plenty and contentmcnt beamng over the
whole country from Maine to Florida. Well