The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-27
THE DRAINAGE QUESTION.

One of our contemporaries suggests mon
ster indignation meeting on account of the
remissness of the authorities having charge
of the drainage of the second drainage dis
trict. 1t is true that an attempt is made to
cast the blame upon the Ship Island Canal
Company, and thus to excite popular antago-
nism against that organization and the enter
prise to which it is devoted, but this is so
manifestly inconsistent with the facts of the
case that no intelligent person will be de-
ceived by it. The true state of the affair is
simply this: A short time ago some citizens
applied for an injunction against the drainage
commissioners to prohibit those officers from
turning over the funds collected by them to
Major Bloomfield, the new commissioner of
drainage appointed under recent act of the
Legislature. Major Bloomfield then asked
for an injunction restraining the ex-oficers
from performing any official act. Suisse
quently the attorney general came into court
demanding that Major Bloomfield should
be placed in the position to which
he had been appointed under the law.
As soon as the injunction asked for by
Major Bloomfield was granted, it had the
effect of stopping such drainage work as the
commissioners had in charge, or, rather it
would have had that effect, had Lotice of
the Injunction been served. This was not
done, however but nevertheless the commits
sioners for the second district ceased working
the new machine on Fourteenth street, in the
city of Carrollton, under the pretence that
they were restrained from continuing opera
tons. In order to obviate this difficulty, the
counsel for Major Bloomfield at once consent
ed that the injunction should be dissolved as
far as it effected the second district The
commissioners, however, still refused to go
on with the work, alleging that they had no
money to carry it on, and that they were re-
strained from collecting funds. 1t must
be remembered that the Fourteenth street
machine is the only one worked by the
commissioners, all the rest being operated
by the city of New Orleans, the expense
being betrayed out of the city treasury. The
commissioners have always, hitherto, limited
their expenditures to the construction of ma
chimes, cutting canals, digging bitches, laying
out plats, etc., leaving the city to bear the
current expense of active drainage. The
Fourteenth street machine has been finished
only short time, and we do not know that it
has ever been effectively in operation. At all
events, the refusal of the commissioners to
work it now is based on an unfounded pre-
tence. They have not turned over any money
to the new commissioner, and they must GER
tainly have enough on hand to keep that ma
chine in operation for some time. If the re-
cent storm occasioned damage by overflow,
the old commissioners are clearly responsible,
because they declined to obey the law which |
required them to turn over the machine to the |
city of Carrollton, and they subsequently de- |
clined TO avail themselves of the removal of |
any legal obstacles which the injunction
might have placed in their way. There |
was no reason not to operate that |
machine except determination on the part I
Of the commissioners to delude the public |
INTO the belief that the Canal Company had,
n some way, prevented the prosecution of
drainage at critical moment. But
he Canal Company has done no such thing.
The company is not party to the litigation,
and Major Bloomfield, as we have already
stated, at once placed the commissioners, as
ar as the Fourteenth street machine was con-
that is the only machine worked
~ the commissioners-in precisely the posi-
ion that they occupied before the litigation
1t is very natural for people to
eel indignant at being overlooked when the
liffculty might be obviated, but their indig-
iation should be directed against those who,
Whilst they assert themselves to be legal
Ulcers empowered to do the work, refuse to
mploy the means at their command and the
covers which they claim.