The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-10
THE MAYOR AND THE CITY CURRENCY.
The proclamation of Mayor Health on the

slang of a partisan diatribe We refer esr yeci-
ally to the passage in which he says 'The
causes of the present depreciation Of the city
currency are not diiicnlt to determine. 1t is
well known to me that a class of designing
men, who have been disappointed in their
political aspirations have sought to injure the
city credit, and thereby bring the present city
government into disrepute, and who are re-
solved to ruin the city if they cannot rule it. F"
The charge here made, though somewhat
| indefinite, has sufficient breadth Of statement
to include every body in the city who has
| cherished political hopes which have not
| prospered under the present organization of
| the city government We are not aware of
any offense which the disappointed men
vaguely designated in the proclamation have
| given to Mayor Heath, supposing him to
mean comparatively few political aspirants
unless it be their undisguised opposition to
| the political sentiments and schemes of the
party to which he owes his position. We are
not aware that in relation to injury of the
city credit and to disrepute of the present
city government, their attitude has been other
| than that Of citizens who were convinced of
the unfitness, with few exceptions, of the
present municipal functionaries and who have
had grave apprehensions Of consequent mis-
management, corruption and disaster in the
financial affairs Of the city. But in holding
such an attitude they occupy by no means an
exceptional position. They can hardly
be regarded, on that score, as con-
stituting q class Of the community,
inasmuch as their sentiments in respect to the
existing municipal administration have been
entertained by them in common with the
great majority of the community. Hence,
when Mayor Heath accuses political oppo-
nents OF designing to injure city credit, and,
in fact, to ruin the city, his accusation, apply
ing as it does to the bulk of our population,
is equally absurd and unjust. 1t is unjust,
because it is wholly unfounded in fact 1t is
absurd, because, in the nature of things, it is
impossible to be true. The credit of the city
is the credit of the people of the city. The
money of the city in circulation is the money
of the people of the city. And so, according
to Mayor Heath, the people are bent on de-
preciating their own money and destroying
their own credit; nay, more, they are deter
mined to ruin the city that they may crafty
revenge upon municipal functionaries whose
politics they detest and whose administration
they distrust. In other words, the city, so
Mayor Heath proclains in effect, is resolved
to commit suicide out of sheer political spite.
The disposition which he ascribes to this
community eclipses the story of the man who
burned down his barn to get rid of the rats
which infested it. He might with equal rea-
son, assert that the citizens of New Orleans,
in order to free their habitations from vermin
and their precincts from filth and putridity,
designed TO apply the torch to their houses
and perish along with their families in one
universal confagration. The patience of our
people is sorely tried, indeed, with verminal
invasion and depreciation, but they have no
notion of resorting to SO absurd and suicidal
means of deliyerance. In other words, they
have no thought of depreciating the city cur
rency, but wish, for the sake of their own OBJ
vious interests, to enhance that currency and
to promote the general credit and prosperity
of the city.
Mayor Heath would put himself much
clearer in his high Office, if he would only alb
stain from partisan recrimination. An ex-
cellent way for him to rise above, and to live
down such partisan opposition as may tend
to hurt the financial prosperity of the city, is
to divest himself of partisanship in his official
capacity, to think only of his official duties
uncomplicated with political schemes, and
thus to commend himself to general respect
and confidence as the faithful executive chief
of great city.
The fault of Mayor Heaths explanation of
the financial difficulty, supposing it to be
true, is that it is in the nature of one of those
half truths which are calculated to patch up
an entire falsehood. An impartial and faith
full exposition of the case would never have
charged the depreciation of city money to
desperate partisanship out of the city govern
ment, and omitted to mention the deprecia-
ting effects produced by the desperate parti-
sanship which is SO largely represented in
the city government Let him visibly pro-
tect the city against harm from the latter
source, and, he may depend upon it, the pub
lie reassurance resulting from his so doing
will neutralize the injurious tendency of any
outside partisan designs.
The fault Of Mayor Heath's enumeration of
causes of the financial difficulty which are
non-political, is that most of them are not
causes, but only signs. Brokers who trade on
the fluctuations in the city currency, and cor
porations and firms that collect, when posi-
BILE, in national currency, and pay their en-
ployes, if possible, in city notes bought at
large discount simply obey the instincts of
trade in making the most of the situation as
they find it. There is no heart, or conscience,
or public spirit in the matter, it may be. But |
these things have nothing to do with CON-
mercial calculations and transactions strictly |
as such, any more than they have to do with |
a sum in arithmetic or a problem in geome-
try. Trading classes who take advantage of |
the financial difficulty, in the ways indicated |
by Mayor Heath, may be compared to
wrecksrs who take profit from the disasters
of storm. Their operations are the signs,
not the causes of calamity.
We rnr7ct axpoot tlo