The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-09-12
NEW ORLEANS AS A MANUFACTURE
ING CITY,

NEW ORLEANS AS A MANUFACTURE
ING CITY.
The least advantageous system OF trade In
which a community can engage ID that in
which the raw products OF It's own soil are ex-
ported to other communities In exchange for
their manufactured articles. This proposition
Is SO clear that it is unnecessary to argue it.
1t is important, however, to observe that, 1t
Is this system OF trade which New Orleans
and her tributary country have carried on for
q century, and to which they still cling with
q blind and unreasoning tenacity. We receive
upon our wharves annually fully 100000
bales OF cotton, grown in our own and neigh
boring States, and when the roads now
rapidly stretching into Texas are COM
pleted these receipts will be largely
increased. The whole civilized and part
of the semi-civilized world are the consumers
OF the goods wrought out OF this invaluable
and now indispensable staple. It is gathered
In our fields, rudely baled, sent here, COM
pressed and shipped to Europe and the East,
where it Is manufactured into all descriptions
Of cotton goods. giving employment to mill
lions OF operatives, dffusing wealth and
creating a trade that enriches States and
transforms villages into great cities.
A glance at the great and progressive
cities of Europe and the Eastern States,
which are manufacturing our cotton, shows
the value OF this industry far more clearly
than could any elaborated argument.
But what contrast does New Orleans pre-
sent to those busy and thrifty manufacturing
centres She is seated, as it were, In the
very midst Of the cotton fields Of the South
west. A storm that sweeps over these fields
may scatter the snow white locks through her
streets. And yet her people content them
selves with collecting one and a half or two
millions of bales and shipping them by rail and
sea thousands OF miles distant to be converted
into yarn aud cloth to enrich other commune
ties and give employment to their thrifty
working people.
| Nothing in the way Of folly, we may say
stupidity, can exceed this. There is perhaps
no city in the world more advantageously
located for cotton manufacturing than New
Orleans. A glance at the map published In
the DEMOCRAT on the first of the present
month will show this fact. Indeed, the adj
vantages OF our city are manifold aud obvious
and her merchants supply vast majority OF
It's producers.
2. Her railroad lines completed and In pro-
cess Of rapid construction, with her mighty
river traversng one of the greatest and rich
est sections OF the world, enable her to reach
| every portion of the United States, while her
situation renders her the natural factor of
Mexico, Central America and the West Indies,
where the demand for cotton manufactured
goods Is rapidly Increasing.
8. Her climate is SO mild and salubrious,
and the cost of living may be made so low
that operatives can live here more comfort
able and cheaply than In the inhospitable
East.
These are only few Of the advantages OF
New Orleans rs a cotton manufacturing city
hastily thrown together and it Is astonishing
that they have been SO long unobserved or neg
lected. The only reason that we can see for
it is, that vast capital has been invested In
manufacturing enterprises in the East, and
holds an unnatural power and control over
the natural advantages Of this section yet
unsupported or undeveloped by enterprise or
competing capital.
But this artificial condition cannot be pro-
longed. The sagacity of capital, slow and
cautious. but sure, must perceive that New
Orleans can successfully compete with the
East in the manufacture Of cotton goods, and
the world will revolt at the needless addition
to the cost Of universal necessity by manu-
featuring In England and the East instead of
here. The raw cotton Is compressed here,
shipped many hundreds and even thousands Of
miles to the great manufacturing centres Of
America and Europe; there it is spun into
yarn and cloth, and sold at a profit to the
merchant; it is perhaps again sold at a
second profit, and then shipped back to New
Orleans. Thus the consumers pay need
lessly the cost OF transportation to the
East or to Europe, the profits Of at least
one middle man and the cost of transportation
back to the South. We say the consumers pay
this needlessly, because IL the raw material
were manufactured In New Orleans, as it
can and ought to be, these costs would be
saved, and they amount certainly to a tax Of
millions Of dollars upon the consumers of cot
ton, and all for the benefit Of the Eastern and
European manufacturers. The producers OF
the cotton receive not one cent of it, and New
Orleans gathers but beggarly sum for
handling and COMPRISING the bales for ship
ment.
| Thus by the want Of enterprise, or by the
poverty of our people, the manufacturers
of the East and Of Europe are
permitted to grow rich out OF in
dustries that ought to be ours, and hum
dreds OF thousands Of operatives in Northern
cities obtain employment at our hands. while
our own working people are left without en-
ployment.
But, as we have said. this condition OF
things cannot we'll be prolonged. The Eng