The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-04-08
A MANUFACTURING CITY.

| The time has arrived when sHgaCious clti
zens OF New Orleans those who are deeply
Interested In the prosperity and welfare o
the city, should be exerting every effort TO
wards the development Of her manufacturing
as well as of her commercial interests. Ths
| Inhabitants of this city cannot thrive upoi
her com merce alone, and 1t IT, therefore. abso
luteIy essential that other avenues should bs
opened whereby our surplus population may
find rem lucrative employment The capitalist
| Ia u short-slghted and poor political economist
who locks UP his money In stocks and bonds
and refuses TO embark In enterprises which
tend to give employment to honest labor anC
at the Same time to enhance his own andtht
public welfare. Capital and labor are natura
allies and must work together harmonlously
| In order TO achieve the best possible results
to mankind. IT one remains locked UP IL
vaults or In bonds. and the other is unrea son
able In Its demands, the consequences ars
necessarily disastrous to ell.
We desire to impress these facts upon out
merchants and wealthy classes generally
and to indu co them II possible not to indulge
longer the del usion that the best and safest
investment for their money are government
per cents, but rather those manufacturing
enterprises which will add SO largely to the
material welfare of New Orleans and bring
comfort and happiness to thousands of our
people
Under present conditions portion of our
population may thrive and prosper upon com
merce. but what Is to become of the fifty thou
sand men, women and children of New Orleans
who are able and willing to work. but who
cannot look forward from one month TO an
other with any degree of certainty 10 having
the employment necessary to provide them
selves with the bare neoessarles Of life-food
raiment and shelter 1t is Idle TO tell these
people. reared as they have been In the city.
and ignorant rs they naturally are of agri-
cultural pursuits, TO go into the country and
the soil They know not how to dig.
have nothing to dig with. and while the men
are learning how to become farmers or even
farm laborers their families would probably
die of starvation. There are many manufac-
turing pursuits, however, In which the labor
Of these men, women and children could be
utilized. and for which, by their
Intelligence and quickness, they are peeu-
liarly fitted.
These people. though poor. have hearts and
perhaps they remember the
haloyon days ante bellum, before the country
was grldironed by railroads and New Orleans
1ispoied of her royal tributary possessions
when commerce fed them all and bountifully. |
Perhaps the wounds over the graves of
heir precious dead lie near the grand monu-
nents and costly mansoleums In our silent |
titles, and they too. love to scatter flowers
'ver the resting places of their lost loved
mes, perhaps they have heard from year TO |
ear the bright promises of prosperity which
ave been lavishly uttered by our merchants
nd the press. and have found that these
right dreams but keep the word of pro
nise to our ear, and break 1t to our hope"
They. too. love the Crescent City, and II
earned travellers and savants from Europe
epart from our city with emotions of re-
ret, and even the silent man from over the
"a tears himself reluctantly away from as
pciatlons which .have made 50 agreeable an
IMPRESSION. Is 1t strange that the poor. ex-
ectsnt willing citizen. who has nobly done
Is share In the work of bringing order out
chaos, and in giving capital the protection
law, order and economical government.
hould now look forward to reward--the re-
ard of honest labor In bis own homer
They have borne the heat and burden OF the
ay. believing that with redemption would
,me prosperity for them as we'll as for the
Merchant and capitalist; and the great mass
these people simply ask an opportunity
n honest industry. The time has arrived
hen this class should have the thoughtful
ttentlon OF our Statesmen and our capital
IT, Millions of dollars are seeking invest
lent In stocks, bonds and securities. that
Ield nominal revenue and New Orleans
oes on buying abroad a thousand articles
hich should be manufactured here Facto-
es are sprineing up In our sister cities of
le South, and the spinning wheel and the
om are bringing work to the poor and
eaith to the rich: but New Orleans, with :
ar great river, her magnificent railroad con-
sctions and vast unemployed population.
mains a laggard.
1t will require ten years of commercial :
'owth to give employment to tho surplus
'pulation of this city. and something must l
done to solve this problem. Work must :
found for the fifty thousand, and It Is the 9
lty, as 1t will be to the profit, of men who
I've wealth and who sincerely desire to sec L
CIV Orleans prosperous city, to give this =
hject thoughtful attention. 1
The amount donated In charity, or dis
nsed to needy relatives and friends, by the
rtunate ones of this city, would, IL invested d
manufacturing Industrious, soon make :
wv Orleans grandly prosperous and her .
lole population happy and contented