The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-02
THE TIMES AND THE PUBLIC.
From the Evening Times of Monday las,

1t would be well for the taxpayers of this
city to remember that by some strange hocus
pocus of parties they are saddled with the
support of two official journals-the CRESCENT
and the Republican. 1t is clear that only one
of these papers is entitled to the patronage in
question, and the publication of the proceed
ings of the council in the other is afraud upon
the public. The question then occurs, why
is this fraud permitted? If the CRESCENT
is under contract to publish these proceed
ipgs at 40 cents per square, how is it that they
are sent to the Republican, without protest
ON the part of the council, the mayor or
any other city official, where the charge is
one dollar per square? 1t is true that
the Legislature passed law to transfer
the patronage of the city from the CREs-
CENT, or whatever other paper might be
entitled to it, to the Republican, but the
Legislature, powerful as it claims to be, can
not pass valid law impairing the obligation
of a contract. II the CRESCENT be the official
journal of the city, the oppressed taxpayers
should be obliged to pay for their official pub
lications only in that paper; if it be not, and
the Republican is really the official journal,
then the publications should be made in 1t
only. There must be sad racreancy or COM
| plicity somewhere, or those intrusted with
the protection of the city's financial interests
| would not thus permit the corporation to be
hear curious ,chispers Of arrangements bet'oeen
Radical and Democratic DdrttSans toftch require
explanation.
The italics of the last sentence are our
own. To whom does the Times refer? We
ask the question and request an answer. We
submit that as the CRESCENT is somewhat
interested in full understanding of this
matter before the community, the CRESCENT
has right to an explicit answer CRESCENT,
Tuesday morning.
The Evening Times Of yesterday not hay-
ing answered our query we repeat it.-[CREs-
| CENT. Wednesday morning.
| THOSE WHISPERS We are glad TO perceive
| that an exposure of the scheme, by which one
dollar and forty cents per square are claimed
from the city for the publication of the pro-
ceedipgs of the council and other official adj
vertisements of the corporation, is attracting
attention in the proper quarters. Even our
contemporary of the CRESCENT seems anxious
| for information on the subject. Not content
with the proofs which we submitted, that the
CRESCENT had an exclusive right to the official
iournalship of the city, it is anxious to know
what whispers are abroad concerning arrange
ments between Radical and Democratic parti-
sans, to the prejudice of taxpayers.
An official journal, and one especially so
| well informed as the CRESCENT, should not be
! ignorant of whispers which circulate through
the entire community. and affect the integrity
of both Radical and Democratic partisans,
though why it volunteers its inquiries to us in
the premises we can scarcely understand. In
| a spirit of neighborly comfy we will, how
| ever, give the desired information.
When the Ubiquitous printing bill was first
| introduced into the Legislature, it transferred
to the State printer, (the Republican, all those
publications usually made by the city in its
official journal. Afterward a proviso was
| introduced which authorized the ADVERTISE
,nents of the city to be published in one or
more additional papers whenever, in the
opinion of the Common Council, the public
naion The ji sx such ADDITIONAL publ
continue to whisper now concerning the
secret history of that proviso, as well as of
| that other provision of the law which author
ICES the governor, lieutenant governor and
speaker of the House of Representatives "to
contract with other papers in the parish of
| Orleans to publish the laws of the State,
the journals of the General Assembly, or
| both They whisper also of the recreancy of
the Democratic officials of the city in their
failure to maintain the rights of their legally
elected official journal, and of their ready
compliance with an illegal statute, which not
only impairs the obligation of contract but
| takes by plundering hand from the pockets
of the people one dollar and forty cents per
square for printing, which, by contract,
made by their municipal representatives,
should cost only forty cents per square.
The taxpayers also express surprise at the
extraordinary reticence of their official jour-
nal in relation to this gross and unwarrant-
able imposition. From an official journal they
expect vindication of their prerogatives and
| an assertion of their rights, especially when
in their poverty new impositions are imposed
upon them ; and if, under the circumstances,
they should do something more than whisper,
it would not be matter of surprise.
On various other acts, not only of the mu-
nicipal but State Legislature the taxpayers
whisper of the completely of Radical and
Democratic partisans-the few of both parties
who wish to live on the hard earnings of the
many.
We cannot think the CRESCENT is prepared
to champion outrages on our people of so
gross character by making itself the ex-
ponent of rumors SO general and so dam
aging nor that it is prepared, in common
with the press of New Orleans, to forego the
right to discuss public questions in public
manner, according to the lights before it, be
they ever so obtrusive or ever so vague.
The last article above quoted is from the
Times. of Wednesday evening. 1t is only an
amplifcation Of the original paragraph which
elected from the CRESCENT the demand for
an explanation. 1t is not a satisfactory an
swer-indeed it is not an answer at all but
rather a studisd evasion of the CREscENr's
question. The affectatlon OF the Times
that it cannot understand why the CRESCENT
addresses its inquiries to that paper presents
remarkable contrast with the dimly yelled
limitations in which it INDUCES. We re-
produce what has already been said, with the
full conviction that the public, who are SO
deeply interested in the subject, will clearly
perceive both the right and the duty of the
CRESCENT to demand from the Times an un-
equivocal statement of its meaning. We
therefore again ask-does the Times refer To