New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-12-08
THE CITY CHARTER.


| The Times still shows itself to be tn
organ of mischief by pretending to tn
people that new charter will give then
a better municipal government TIL
present charter was suggested by tn
Times, and claim to its authorship wa
recently made by one of the editoria
writer's of that paper, in its own columns
Without, however, conceding the correct
ness of this claim Of paternity, we insis
that the charter is the result Of consulta
ton with men of both political parties
and that its provisions are ample to give
the city a proper government if the
people will only assist it as they ought te
do. The fault that arrests the authori
tieSin bringing the corporation up to the
mark of complete efficiency, is the oppo.
sition Of the community to the discharge
of its share in the work Of reform. Taxes
are unpaid; work is demanded from the
street department that property owners
should discharge; damage srits are
brought and judgments rendered against
the city that the courts should not
encourage; information is withheld in
order to burden the officers with the
blame of neglecting their duties; and,
generally speaking, the readers Of the
Times follow its suggestions and consider
themselves the enemies of the govern
ment which they ought to befriead in
every possible way. If break occurs
in the levee, the blame is cast upon the
city; if it is mended, the cost is COM
planned about as a piece Of robbery.
Every act that proposes to embarrass
the authorities is accepted as {. favor,
because it offers an argument 20 be used
in denouncing the Republicans.
If the Times will devote its attention to
teaching the community its own faults; if
it will tell the people that their preju-
dices are the originators of most Of the
evils with which they are afflicted, it will
do better work than it does, when it
charges the charter of the city with faults
that belong elsewhere. What blame at
taches to the charter in the multitudinous
suits that clog the courts against the city?
What has the charter to do with the writs
that are presented against the city in the
fee bill? Would new charter arrest
single spade upon the street? Would it
stop the levee from caving in, carrying
away wharves and streets? Would i. stop
the danger Of an overflow from the rear?
Would it do away with the necessity of
keeping up the drainage that costs so
much? Would it vacate single Office
that might not be vacated under the pres
ent law? Would it stop the ;nteres. upon
the debt? Would it make respectable
Democratic delinquents pay their taxes
more honestly than they do now? Would
the election Of twenty MEN to two bodies
secure to US better officers than We have
now in the seven Administrators that coz
stitute one council? Are we anxious 70
change back to the old system, which left
US most of the burdens that now Cypress
the community?
These changes that are proposed II the
law are mere ''tubs cast to the whale to
cheat the people, or else they are the
of that spirit which is IL
capable of following any fixed system.
All government is imperfect, and this
originates more frequently
in ignorance and wickedness than il does
in the wickedness Of the law tina. created
it. A new charter would no. las. six
months before the same spiri. that de-
handed it would ask for It's repea! or
because it had not accom-
plished the purpose Of its authors And
the caprice that set afoat the change
would be as little pleased with success as
if it was left to complain in defeat. The
Times will never be satisfied with any
charter that is administered by Repub-
leans: and until the Legislature is pre-
pared to surrender the control of the city
it will consult its own happiness by let
ting things alone.