New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-11-19

terese TIT b1o6GoG6 hhSe The coz
poFeion spend III The money Il can ~
it, hands upon. Contractors and negig
emit citizens always ind something T.
soothe and encourage them in the Plea
yune and Bulletin In the matter of init
nations that certain improvements should
be made, or certain streets should bt
kept clean; both Of which are suggestive
Of extravagance at the very time when
our 'tawkwardly anxious" brethren are
advising the administrators to reduce ex.
penses and be more economical. This
latter .: peal, which is usually Of very
general character. puts the P;cayune and
Bulletin in sympathy with the reform
party, and gives them q right to be con-
sidered as the friends of cheaper order
Of Affairs It is only the public officers
who can tell the most about this incon-
sistency which has demanded expenditure
in one breath, and set up clamor about
economy in the next. ----..-.'--
We have no doubt that the administra-
tors can show applications to-day from
respectable and intelligent citizens for
work to be done in specified localities that
would consume three times the revenue
Of New Orleans to perform it. Our own
experience is to this effect, that the peo-
pie demand from the city what they ought
to do themselves, and what they will find
fault about when the cost of the work is
added in the tax bill For instance, the
public asks Of the street commissioner to
cut down the weeds on the banquettes and
in the bitches, when the true economy of
the matter would be for each man to pay
some laborer dollar to clean out the gut
ters and cut down the grass that cumbers
his sidewalk. It is the duty Of the prop
erty owner to keep his banquette clean,
and he can do it much cheaper by employ
ing the laborer himself, than he can if he
hires an administrator to hire commits
3oner to hire . handy man to hire two
laborers to do the same job. s,..
The Picavune and Bulletin are the
mouthpieces of these incipient appeals
to the city authorities for little jobs here
and there in the interest of this or that
citizen who unreAectingly calls upon the
to do for himself and his
neighbors what they should do for them
selves. And then when the budget is
made out and their thousands of items
are charged up, the very parties who
asked the city to spend their money for
them are indignant at the cost of the
work which they ordered to be done.
1t thus appears that the evil against
which everybody is complaining is an
Evil that everybody is committing. The
,itizen with his thirty foot front in some
nut Of the way street, in common with the
'ristocrat with his ninety feet front on St.
Charles street, asks the city to do that for
nm which he ought to do for himself He
s to that extent an unjust and dishonest
consumer Of the taxes, and the smallness
# his booty is probably the worst feature
bout his dishonesty.
If all good men will help the corpora
ion, and desist from imposing upon it
heir own business, then the administra-
ors may be able to give better account
+ their income and outgo. But while
hey are badgered to go into unnecessary
1penses here and there, as they are, on
by the Bulletin and P;cayeae, it !
} certainly unfair to berate them for 80
ding afterward.