New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-11-29
THE NEW HEALTH ORDINANCE

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THE NEW HEALTH ORDINANCE
| As the Board Of Assistant Aldermen meet to-
night, we think the occasion fit one to resume
our remarks in regard to the new Health 0rdi-
| nance, only slightly touched upon few days
ago.
The printed ordinance is one of the most re-
| markable documents that has ever issued from
| that remarkable body which gave it birth. The
Board of Assistant Aldermen has heretofore
been singularly conspicuous for many vagaries,
but in this instance they have excelled them
selves. In framing this ordinance they have
succeeded in producing one of those strange med
lies that has the popularity of possessing not a
single feature that will bear commentator
We will mention some of the provisions of this
peculiar ordinance.
| 1t provides that there shall be Health Off
Ger with salary of six thousand dollars year,
an Assistant Health Officer with salary Of
two thousand dollars, and a Clerk at twelve
hundred dollars. The entire sum paid these
fungi of the Council is to be nine thousand two
hundred dollars year. Other employees are
to be appointed whose pay shall be such as the
Health officer shall fix. subject to the approval
Of the Council. The amount paid them may
reach in the aggregate to whatever sum the city
may be enabled to pay.
| The Health Officer is to be appointed by the
Common Council, and the Assistant Clerk and
employees by the Health Officer. He is to be
the creature of the Council, subject to its dis
missal. and the employees the creatures of the
| 90 I>a xoJ
missed by him. A salary greater than that of
any officer under the State Government, except
that of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and
equal to that of the functionary named, is to be
given to the Health Officer, as we'll as patron
age exceeding that of the Governor himself
An officer of such transcendent power is un-
known to the State Government.
But this is not all. He has the entire Police
force at his command, and he may by an order
in writing, directed to the Chief of Police, re-
| quire the attendance and services of Police
| force in number to be fixed by him, and the
Chief of Police is required to place at his dis
posal the force required, and the officer in
charge must obey all his orders and commands
This makes the Health Officer the Autocrat of the
Police, and it is clear that with entire command
over such force, he may exercise an influence
in the highest degree detrimental to the public
| interest.
At general elections, the Health Officer will
| be all-powerful. He will have at his command
| and subject to his will body of police muster
ing some five or six hundred men If they will
not vote to suit him he can issue an order to the
Chief, and detail them on special duty-to do
scavengers work at any remote locality Be-
sides, he will have all the night-scavengers and
their understrappers, numbering several hun
bred more, and host of street-cleaners and
keepers of nuisance boats and nuisance tugs and
superintendent of nuisance wharves, all of
whom will number near a thousand men, and
constitute the special body guard of this prince
of scavengers, the Health Officer As they are
all subject to be dismissed by him at pleasure
they will of course be obedient to his commands
doing all the dirty work, political or of other
kind, that may be marked out for them
The Health Officer supercedes the Street Com
missioner in all his most important duties, so
that under its operation the city will have two
individuals drawingIsalaries for performing the
same duties.
The 9th article of the ordinance prohibits
any occupant of dwelling house from removing
nuisance from back yard, except on the
license of the Health Officer. This functionary
is to be the sole judge of whether nuisance in
the yard of dwelling house has arrived at
| state of putrefaction sufficient to demand its
| removal. His official nose is constituted a pub
lie barometer of smells, and what does not Of
fend his nostrils, common people have no right
to turn up their noses at. The principal bust.
ness of the Health Officer is to inspect back
yards, and indeed it would be wonderful if in
the course of time he did not become so accus
toned to poisonous fumes as to lose the sense
| of smell altogether, and thus become incompe-
tent to perform the duties of his office
Article 10 provides that the Health Officer
| shall, from time to time, report to the Common
Council call yards, alleys Sinks" etc, which
require cleansing-thus compelling the City
Fathers to turn their attention from ordinance
framing to Scavangerie-a business blythe by
in which some of them would be much better
calculated to shine than in that of making laws
for great commercial city.
By article IL, whenever the Health Officer
shall think it necessary to destroy any old or
dilapidated building which he may think iniu-
rious to the public health, he 'shall summons
the Mayor, the four Recorders and the Surveyor
who, together with the Health Officer" shall
constitute commission, or jury of inquest,
to sit on the rotten frames of all such tenaments
and to decide whether or not they shall be de.
molished. This s'a duty made incumbent on the
Recorders which is certainly as little consonant
with their usual routine of business as well
could be- Recorder may be a very good judge
of the laws respecting vagrancy or breach of the
peace, but he may have very little knowledge of
building.
Putting the Mayor under the orders of the
Health Officers is novelty, and feature of
the ordinance which ought certainly to ensure
its being vetoed by our worthy Chief Magistrate
That the Common Council, which is the creature
of the people, should presume to institute an of
fee which is superior to that of the Mayor, and
to place the incumbent of subordinate office
over him who is the acknowledged head of the
City Government, is surely a stretch of pre-
sumption which none but our present "City
Fathers" would dare to attempt
Article l3 provides that the Health Officer
shall from time to time cause bau9biys 10 be-