USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 7
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Miles from New Orleans. New York.
Miles from Miles from New Orleans. New York.
Memphis
394
1,158
Kansas City
878
1,335
Cairo
517
1,132
Chicago
912
912
Nashville
595
998
Dubuque
988
1,079
St. Louis
700
1,058
Cedar Rapids
1,019
1,131
Decatur
755
1,065
Omaha
1,070
1,402
Champaign
787
940
Sioux City
1,177
1,409
Bloomington
799
1,037
Denver
1,356
1,932
Peoria
875
1,072
St. Paul.
1,268
1,322
Louisville
746
857
Miles from
New York is 350 miles, or fifty per cent. further froin St. Louis than New Orleans, and the freight rate ought to be half as great again. Even Louisville is 121 miles nearer the "Crescent City." West of the Mississippi the differences reach tremendous proportions. Kansas City is 457 miles nearer the Gulf port. Omaha, far in the North, is 332 miles nearer the Gulf than the Atlantic; and Denver is 576 miles nearer. If a division of the trade of the country were based on distances, New Orleans would be entitled to all the business south and west of Chicago and Cincinnati, as compared with New York and other Atlantic ports.
In the foreign trade, New Orleans has similar advantages, as far as that of Latin-America and the Pacific is concerned. If an Omaha dealer wants to send his pork or flour to Guatemala, he will find the New Orleans route 1,012 miles shorter than the New York one; while from Denver to Vera Cruz the ad-
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
vantage in favor of New Orleans is 1,834 miles. The following table gives the relative distances from Latin-American ports to New York and New Orleans :
Miles from New Orleans.
Miles from New York.
Tampico, Mexico
705
1,986
Tuxpan, Mexico.
744
2,017
Vera Cruz, Mexico
788
2,046
Tabasco, Mexico.
745
2,020
Carmen, Mexico
738
2,032
Campeche, Yucatan
655
1,764
Havana, Cuba
597
1,227
Cienfuegos, Cuba
851
1,342
Port Royal, Jamaica
1,112
1,452
Port au Prince, Hayti
1,215
1,320
Cape Haytien, Hayti.
1,189
1,333
Belize, British Honduras
882
1,482
Greytown, Nicaragua, entrance of the
Nicaraguan Canal .
1,259
1,970
Colon, Colombia
1,380
1,981
Cartagena, Colombia
1,462
1,970
Curaçao
1,702
1,820
New Orleans controls the bulk of the Central American trade and handles a large business with the West Indies and Colombia, but it has as yet little traffic with the rest of South America. In the event of the construction of the Nica- raguan Canal, it will have an advantage over New York of 711 miles in distance to all points on the Pacific,-a difference equal to two days in time. By the Colon-Panama route its advantages over New York is 601 miles.
In the earlier days of New Orleans, its principal commercial dependence was upon the Mississippi River and its tributaries. It neglected the railroads ; and it is only of recent years that it has enjoyed any railroad business of im- portance. Now the bulk of its business is done by rail, and the railroad com- panies are deeply interested in its trade and development, and are doing all in their power to stimulate it.
New Orleans is the terminus of six of the largest railroad systems in the United States, so that what it lacks in the number of its lines it makes up for in mileage. These roads are the Southern Pacific, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Texas & Pacific, Southern and the Queen & Crescent routes, the latter
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66
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
two roads entering the city over the New Orleans & Northeastern. The mileage of the several roads is as follows, extending into all parts of the country :
Miles.
Southern Pacific 7,372
Illinois Central. 3,130
Louisville & Nashville 5,027
Texas & Pacific, including the Missouri Pacific. 5,324
Southern 4,827
Queen & Crescent.
1,201
Total mileage of New Orleans trunk lines 26,881
This is one-sixth the total railroad mileage of the United States, and the railroads here mentioned are among the greatest in the country, besides having other important connections. Its railroads place New Orleans in direct and immediate communication with every part of the Union, as its steamship lines do with all foreign ports.
The Southern Pacific, through its railroad and steamship lines, place New Orleans in close connection with New York on the one hand, and the Pacific coast and the Orient on the other. It is one of the great routes of commerce around the globe, and carries freight between Europe on the one side and Aus- tralia, India, China and Japan on the other. But two changes are necessary in transporting goods from New York to Hong Kong-at New Orleans and San Francisco-and the route is the shortest in time between our Atlantic coast and the Orient. There pass over this line the products of Alaska, of the whale and seal fisheries of the Northern Pacific; teas, matting and silks from China and Japan and Indian goods of all kinds. With its line of steamers to New York and other points, the Southern Pacific has secured the business of distributing the various manufactured products of the Eastern States, as well as large quan- tities of European imported goods through Texas, California, the Northwest and ports of the Mississippi Valley. The Southern Pacific is the finest coast- wise steamship line in the world, and owns a number of vessels of from 4,000 to 5,000 tons, which leave New Orleans three or four times a week with cargoes of over half a million dollars each.
The terminal facilities of the several railroad trunk lines terminating at New Orleans are given elsewhere. The Illinois Central has no less than seven depots or yards within the city limits of New Orleans, covering an area of 240 acres ;
67
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
and its yards at Southport and Harahau, both above the city, will increase its property for the storage of freight and cars to 982 acres. On this it has no less than five grain elevators and some twenty odd warehouses.
What is true of the Illinois Central is largely true of the other railroads, particularly of the Southern Pacific, Texas & Pacifie and New Orleans & North- eastern lines, all of which have large and perfect terminal facilities.
New Orleans, therefore, which a few years ago had the very poorest railroad facilities, is now one of the very best provided cities in the Union in this respect. Its railroad traffie is entirely the ereation of the last quarter of a century. In 1876 it railroads handled in the city only 731,514 tons of freight, against 5,262,- 825 tons in 1899, having increased their business sevenfold during that period.
Such are the commercial advantages that New Orleans offers to-day. Even greater improvements are proposed and more or less under way, as follows :
1. Absolute free wharfage, with no charge whatever on vessels landing at New Orleans.
2. The improvement of Southwest Pass, so as to offer an alternative route to the gulf.
3. A bridge across the Mississippi river at Avondale, just above New Or- leans, which will better facilitate the interchange of freight between the Texas lines and the railroads on the east of the Mississippi.
4. A deep canal across the Florida isthmus, which will shorten the trip from New Orleans to all Atlantic ports 600 to 700 miles.
Such, in brief, are the commercial advantages that New Orleans enjoys in terminal facilities, in its river traffic and in ocean vessels and railroads, and in its position for trade, both the interior and with foreign countries. No other city in the world has similar advantages. There is, for instance, no other river like the Mississippi, with as many miles of navigable stream, with as fertile a valley depending on it or containing so large a population and turning out such valuable products. There is no city on the gulf having so deep a harbor, and therefore admitting such large vessels to its wharves ; and only two or three cities with such important railroad connections. With these three transportation routes-river, rail and ocean-united, New Orleans has. better opportunities to collect and distribute products in the region tributary to it than any other city on the continent.
Again, in the matter of markets, New Orleans is, as Jefferson pointed out, specially favored, having the Mississippi Valley at its back and Latin America
68
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
fronting it, and being therefore the port for the interchange of the products and commodities of North and South America, as well as for their shipment to Eu- rope, Asia and the rest of the world. If, then, it should accomplish all that has been predicted for it by the great economists of the world, it will not do more than its facilities and advantages cntitle it to.
But it is not in commerce alone that New Orleans offers such extraordinary advantages, for it is equally well situated and has equal advantages to make it a great city.
New Orleans has become an important manufacturing city in the past quarter of a century. During that period, from 1875 to 1900, the output of its factories has increased sixfold, while the increase in commerce was only thirty or forty per cent. It is growing much faster as a manufacturing than as a com- mercial city, but not as fast as its advantages should make it grow. In regard to manufactures, it is probably the best-situated city in the United States, having the following specified advantages, some of which are enjoyed by other citics, but no other town has all of them, or to the same degrce or extent as New Or- leans : First, climate; second, raw materials; third, labor; fourth, markets ; fifth, cheap transportation of materials and manufactured products ; and, sixth, cheap living.
The climate in New Orleans is probably the best in the Union for manufac- turing, and there is no loss of time from any interruption from the elements. The winter is never cold enough to stop work, as in New England, and there is no snow fall to prevent employes from getting to the factories where they work. The mills are not tied up by freezes, as in the central Southern States. On the other hand, the hot spells which occur so frequently in the larger cities of the North because Nature has been outraged, the shubbery destroyed and there is nothing left but brick and stone and iron to store up and accumulate the heat, are unknown in New Orleans. Sunstrokes and heat prostrations are very rare here, and no factories, not even the sugar refineries, have had to close on account of heat of summer, as has occurred more than once in New York and other Northern cities. The summer in New Orleans, while long, is not hot, and is the busiest season of the year for manufactories. A cool breeze blows from the gulf, and the nights are always cool and not hot like the summer nights of the Atlantic Coast, which wear out the people by depriving them of sleep and render them pronc to sunstroke the next day. New Orleans covers a large arca, and there is ample room for gardens and shrubbery of all kinds, which serve to
69
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
mitigate the summer heat, and the flushing of gutters tends to the same result.
Again, the clinate possesses that moisture which is so necessary in textile manufactures. In the Southern mills outside of New Orleans the dryness of the climate has a bad effect on the yarns, and it is necessary to employ machinery in the mills in order to produce that moisture which is essential to the successful working of them. In New Orleans, however, this is wholly unnecessary.
But the greatest boon that New Orleans enjoys is in the abundance and cheapness of the raw materials employed, not in one but in all lines of manu- factures, and its prosperity to-day is based upon its wealth and resources in this matter. It is the port of export for these materials, and they can therefore be ob- tained there on the most favorable terms, in the best condition and of the highest quality ; and this is true not of one but of a dozen articles-cotton, wool, hemp, cypress, pine and lumber of all kinds, iron, copper, lead, hides, leather, tobacco and a hundred other necessary articles, including such essentials to manufactur- ing as cheap and abundant fuel.
Take cotton, for instance. New Orleans is the best cotton port and the best cotton-purchasing center in America. It is the market for the South and Southwest, and exports the bulk of the cotton used in Europe and New England. Cotton can be bought in New Orleans for from $3 to $5 a bale cheaper than in Boston ; and it is in better condition for spinning, for it has not suffered from a long voyage and the misusage it gets on a voyage, nor has it been so pressed and repressed that the fibre has been affected. Then again, in the matter of quality, New Orleans offers the purchaser opportunities he can find nowhere else. It monopolizes the handling of long-fibre cotton of the Tensas and Yazoo bottoms, which has from that very fact been named "Orleans" cotton. With this advan- tage, and the other advantage already noted in the matter of the moisture of the climate, it can readily be seen how favorably it is situated for the manufacture of cotton goods.
It is equally well situated for woolen and mixed goods. The wool crops of California and Texas, the largest in the Union, are shipped through New Or- leans, reaching that city over the Southern Pacific. These shipments run as high as 20,000,000 pounds a year, and the wool is naturally cheaper by the dif- ference in freight, insurance and handling than in Boston or Philadelphia, to which the bulk of it goes. The advantages the city offers for the manufacture of woolen and mixed goods have only recently been appreciated by the erection here of several woolen mills manufacturing hosiery, underwear and similar ar- ticles. These mills have been most successful, and their products are shipped
70
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
to all parts of the country and sell readily in New York and Chicago in com- petition with the output of the Eastern mills. Only a small portion of the wool which passes through New Orleans is retained here for manufacturing purposes ; and the possibilities of this city in textile goods, both cotton and wool, are as yet not fully developed.
In the matter of hemp, and the manufacture of ropes, cordage, baggage, etc., New Orleans has great opportunities, for it handles the Kentucky product as well as imports-most of the istle or Mexican hemp. It has always done some business in the manufacture of ropes and bagging-even in ante-bellum times ; but has never fully utilized its chances.
In respect to lumber, New Orleans stands first among American cities, in variety, quality and price. It has been an exporter of lumber for nearly two centuries, supplying the West Indies and Mexico and Central America with such wood as they needed. At the same time it is the importer of most of the mahogany, Spanish cedar and other tropical woods used in the West and South- west, and its mills supply the factories with the timber used in the manufacture of furniture, cigar boxes, etc. New Orleans is the center of the cypress region, which covers the lower delta of the Mississippi, and of the Southern yellow pine district, and is able, therefore, to handle both of these woods to advantage. It is also the exporting point for the shipment of oak staves, and supplies nearly all the staves used in Europe for marketing the wine crop of that continent. Its cypress is especially adapted for the manufacture of shingles, cistern tanks, etc., and twenty-seven States are supplied with these articles, as well as nearly all the coast of the gulf of Mexico and Caribbean seas. Its pine is sent to all points of the world, and is shipped to Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
Much of the lumber comes to New Orleans in a manufactured state and the city merely exports it; but the New Orleans sawmills and other factories do a large manufacturing business themselves. For this they have great facilities. The mills are situated either on the river front, getting such timber as they need from the Mississippi itself, as it can be floated down to them from that river or any of its tributaries, or on the New or Old Basin, while they can receive timber from Lake Ponchartrain or the Mississippi gulf coast. The logs are brought direct to the mill, while the finished product can be similarly shipped directly. Besides the timber brought by the waterways, New Orleans receives a consider- able amount by its railroads, especially the New Orleans & Northeastern, Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley lines. Timber being a bulky article
7I
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
and being brought to the city almost without cost-that is, floated down during high water-it is from forty to fifty per cent. cheaper than in the Eastern cities, and the industries which utilize wood or are of the chief material in their lines of manufactures, are therefore at a great advantage over those in most other cities.
The development of the iron industry of Alabama of recent years has given the New Orleans foundries and machine-shops an advantage which they did not previously enjoy. These shops did a big business even when they had to get their iron from as far distant a point as Pittsburg. To-day they are getting iron at much cheaper figures from the Birmingham district. Indeed, New Orleans is so favorably situated as far as Birmingham is concerned that a large part of the Alabama iron shipped abroad is sent via the "Crescent City." It is believed that still more favorable conditions can be arranged by the improvement of the Alabama streams so as to give the furnace men a chance to ship their products to seaboard by an all-water route and thence through Mississippi Sound to New Orleans. This would give the city factories iron at practically cost price.
It may be mentioned, in regard to the foundry, machine and iron business in New Orleans, that it is nearly three-quarters of a century old, and that it has in consequence a large amount of skilled labor at hand.
At one time New Orleans handled the entire lead product of the country. It has lost the bulk of the business of late; but enough lead passes through the city to give employment to many paint and other factories. It still ships an immense amount of copper ore, coming from the copper mines of New Mexico and Arizona ; but nothing has been done towards utilizing the possibilities this supply offers.
New Orleans ships cach year from four to five million dollars' worth of hides. and with possibly one exception is the largest handler of hides in the United States. It receives the immense output from the millions of cattle of Texas, as well as the bulk of the product from the ranches of the plains, Mexico, Central America and other countries of the Gulf and Caribbean. Only a small portion of these hides, however, are treated in New Orleans or converted into leather here; the greater portion are shipped North and tanned in that section ; and such leather as New Orleans needs for its boot and shoe, trunk, harness and saddlery and other factories is generally bought in the North and brought back here. In spite of this extravagant policy, instead of manufacturing the hides into leather, New Orleans does a large business in shoes and nearly all other classes of goods into which leather enters as a principal constituent. In this, as in other matters, it has not fully utilized the opportunities it enjoys.
72
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
It is the same story in regard to tobacco. New Orleans stands at the meet- ing point of the two great tobacco crops. It is the nearest American city to Havana, and, as a consequence, is the importer of most of the Havana tobacco crop sold in this market. It is the point of export of the tobacco crops of Ken- tucky and Ohio. At one time it was the largest tobacco market in the world, and while it has lost this superiority, it still handles an immense amount of American tobacco; and the German, French and Spanish buyers make most of their purchases in the "Crescent City." It was only a quarter of a century ago that these advantages were first utilized, and the city ventured into the manu- facture of cigars and tobacco. In the matter of cigars it uses mainly Havana tobacco, and largely Cuban labor, thus turning out a Havana cigar in every re- spect except that it is manufactured in the United States. Its cigars have at- tained a world-wide reputation and it possesses, in the Hernsheim Factory, the third largest cigar factory in the United States. Its tobacco business has not been quite as successful, but it fills an important position in the country as a manufacturer of tobacco.
This enumeration of the raw materials which can be obtained in New Or- leans in greater quantities, at cheaper prices or of better quality than in other American cities will give some idea of its opportunities for manufacturing. Equally important is that other element which plays so important a part in manufacturing, coal.
There are no coalfields near New Orleans, but it gets its fuel for domestic and factory use as cheaply as though it was in the coal districts of Pennsylvania. It owes this to the Mississippi River, down which the coal is shipped in barges, at a minimum cost, from the mines of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Ken- tucky and Tennessee. This water transportation is so cheap that New Orleans, although 1,000 miles further from the coalfields than New England, gets its coal from 20 to 30 per cent. cheaper; and as coal forms so important an element in the cost of manufacturing, the expense is very considerably reduced in the "Crescent City." The railroads also bring coal into New Orleans, but the water route still remains the cheapest.
New Orleans has another advantage as a manufacturing city. Most of the factories in the city being immediately on the river bank or close to it, the coal can be delivered to them direct.
The labor supply of New Orleans is abundant and orderly, and strikes are few. In consequence of the utilization of more economic methods in handling
73
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
the commerce of the city, a much smaller force is required than of old, for the transportation is done mainly by railroads, and much of the unloading and load- ing by machinery. This leaves some 40,000 to 50,000 persons available for factory work. The proportion of skilled labor is not very large save in one or two branches ; but it is increasing as fast as the needs of the city require, with the experience gained in the factories as well as the instruction given in the technical and other schools.
A very considerable proportion of the labor is female, especially in the cot- ton, tobacco and clothing factories and knitting-mills. A far larger proportion of the work is done at home, by pieces, than in other cities. This is specially the case with clothing and pant factories, nearly three-fourths of the output be- ing made by the operatives in their own homes instead of in the overcrowded sweatshops which are a feature of the industry in New York and other Northern cities. It is needless to say that this results to the great comfort and advantage of the working people, who have plenty of fresh air, their own hours and such conveniences as they can afford. The other operatives have other advantages in a climate where the weather is never too hot or too cold for work, and where the cost of living for the poorer classes is exceptionally low. The cost of fuel, in an average household in New Orleans, is hardly one-fourth what it is in the North ; and there is a corresponding reduction in the cost of overcoats, cloaks and other winter apparel. The rent is lower for a small cottage than for a room in a New York tenement house, and being nearer the center of production the cost of foed, if they live after the New Orleans style, is less. It is possible, therefore, for a mill operative in New Orleans to live for 20 to 30 per cent. less than in a similar style in the Eastern States. This is practically demonstrated by the many thousands of skilled laborers who have settled in New Orleans of late from the North and West, brought here by the progress of its industries.
While there have been several large strikes in New Orleans, nearly all of them have been in the commercial lines, due to the shrinkage in commercial profit and an attempt to rearrange wages. In the manufacturing lines proper, strikes of all kinds have been few, as the government reports show, and the in- terruption and injury to factory work have been insignificant.
In the matter of markets all that applies to the commerce of New Orleans equally applies to its manufactures. It is a case where manufactures follow the ship. Wherever New Orleans has lines of steamers running, it is able to furnish all kinds of goods at an advantage over competing cities.
74
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
Thus, the extension of its trade in bananas, cocoanuts and tropical fruits generally, has been followed by a great extension of its manufactures and their shipment to the tropical countries of Central and South America. New Or- leans furnishes the bulk of the manufactured goods to those countries, a large proportion of them manufactured in the city itself. Nine-tenths of the articles used on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua come from New Orleans. Practically all the cisterns, tanks, etc., used in Central America, Mexico and Colombia are made in or around the "Crescent City." The same is true of the lumber used in Mexico. The New Orleans breweries furnish a large part of the West Indian trade. In the matter of cigars, New Orleans supplies Texas and the Southwest generally. Its canned goods go over the world, for many of them are manufactured nowhere else. Its canned shrimp are sent by the thousands of cases to India. It furnishes two-thirds of the cottonseed oil and cottonseed cake and meal used in Europe, the oil going through Marseilles, Genoa, Naples and other centers of the olive-oil industry. It can thus be seen that it has for its market all quarters of the globe -- Europe, Asia and South America. The fact that it has steamship lines to more than eighty different ports gives it an opportunity to sell its manufactured products in all the countries in which these ports are situated. It cannot, of course, sell in all of them, but it has them all as markets to be utilized in the course of time when its manufac- tures develop. There are very few countries, or states in the Union, into which goods manufactured in New Orleans do not find their way.
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